"Mr Rudd, despite our wishes to the contrary, will hardly be instrumental in a new chapter of world peace with his new, self declared assault on the world body politic.
"What will happen while he is away, though, is that more working families from the western suburbs will be evicted from their homes as our own mortgage meltdown gathers pace. I, amongst many in politics, have raised this issue numerous times in the past and I don’t think anyone wants to be a Jonah, but we knew it was coming and we need an active policy direction to bring about solutions. This is far more important to people of the western suburbs of the eastern capitals where most of the 15,000 borrowers in arrears of more than 90 days on their home loan repayments and the 25,000 borrowers in arrears between 30 and 90 days reside.
"What will happen while he is away is that the pressure exerted on working families through excessive profits from an overcentralised retail sector will continue with no solution; no solution as to why milk that is 40 cents a litre at the farm gate is costing you approximately $2 litre on the shelf.
"The meeting with the Queen will not bring any solutions to the fact that number plates are being stolen from cars so they can be used on vehicles in "drive off’s" at fuel stations because the price of fuel has hit the tipping point of working family's budgets.
"The Chinese will, in general, only be marginally fascinated by an Australian Prime Minister who can speak the language of about 1.3 billion, but they probably have other things on their mind. Maybe Mr Rudd can bring greater transparency to the media in Tibet; we will see how he goes.
"The Japanese, as a larger trading partner, has a longer connection to the prosperity of our nation but they did not get a guernsey in one day out of seventeen. I am sure they understand?
"Seventeen days away for Mr Rudd, but at home, an under stress mortgage-belt Australia cannot pay their bills since interest rates have sapped the oxygen out of the working family budget. When Mr Rudd gave that wave before he flew off, I believe he was on the set of a completely different movie to the one on at the Australian domestic cinema. The main game in this precarious economic circumstance is the pressures being played out on pay day at the kitchen tables of the mortgage belt across our nation, at home." Senator Joyce said.
Ends