Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I stand suitably admonished, but he was shadow minister for communications for a very long time. I had not noticed that he had switched portfolios, such is his lack of impact on the government. In any event, whilst he is credited as one of the opposition’s best thinkers, he is not one of their best doers. They are very short on thinkers, but they are even shorter on doers and achievers. That is the problem with the Labor Party, so it is very hard to take them seriously. We do, of course, because we do not regard government as an entitlement or an inheritance. So we do tend to take the Labor Party seriously, or at least more seriously than the general public does.

The second problem that the Labor Party have is that they were rabid privatisers when they were in government. The Australian people do not believe for a moment that the Labor Party would not privatise Telstra or any other government business that they could possibly get their hands on if they were in government. Indeed, some pollsters have said that, despite the government’s wearing the political pain and cost of arguing for the privatisation of Telstra before each of the last four elections, there were no surprises afterwards that it has not been a vote switcher. According to the pollsters, people believe overwhelmingly that the Labor Party would do the same in government. And why wouldn’t they? They are now led by a former minister for finance himself. The now Leader of the Opposition addressed the Commonwealth seminar on the future direction for the Commonwealth public sector on 14 July 1994. How is this for chest beating and boasting! He said inter alia:

The government today—

the Labor government—

has completed a number of sales, including the Tokyo embassy land, the Defence Service Home Loans Scheme, the Moomba Sydney pipeline system, a large share of the Commonwealth Bank and CSL. Total net proceeds are up to about $5 billion. Sales of Qantas, ANL, AIDC Ltd amongst others are being planned.

We now know that the Labor Party went through with most of those privatisations. There he is, parading his credentials as a privatiser of note and of historical proportions. Soon afterwards, on 1 February 1995, he actually criticised a previous Liberal government for not privatising enough. Why don’t we let the Leader of the Opposition’s words speak for themselves? He said:

We as a government have a considerable rate of success in relation to privatisation.

…            …            …

We have two airlines undergoing privatisation. One is completed and the other is going through. We are getting the airports in place.

You did not; we had to get the airports in place. But let me continue. The now Leader of the Opposition also said:

We have privatised nearly 50 per cent of the Commonwealth Bank.

They went on to privatise 100 per cent soon after.

We have privatised the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories and the bulk of defence industries. When you were in office—

referring to the Liberal Party—

there was one effort and that was with the Belconnen Mall. The total number of privatisation projects under the Fraser-Howard government amounted to the Belconnen Mall, and you did not succeed in delivery on that.

Here he is in the parliament on 1 February 1995, abusing the Liberal-National coalition for not privatising enough. He is accusing the Fraser-Howard government between 1975 and 1983 of being spectacular failures on privatisation. Now, really, does a leopard change its spots?

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