Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Amendment Bill 2008 aims to improve accountability and transparency arrangements for Commonwealth authorities and Commonwealth companies, and align the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 with equivalent provisions in the Corporations Act 2001. These changes are based on experience from 10 years of operation of the act, which was introduced by the coalition government in 1996 as part of a package of four bills and associated measures designed to modernise controls on Commonwealth finances and over businesses owned or operated by the Commonwealth. The act brought a greater degree of uniformity and clarity to financial reporting standards applying to Commonwealth authorities and established standards of conduct for those engaged in the management of those entities. These amendments build on the act and are aimed at improving governance and accountability arrangements for bodies within the Australian government.

The coalition supports any move to improve governance and accountability; in fact, the coalition has a proven track record when it comes to improving governance, accountability and transparency across a range of areas. We introduced accrual accounting to provide details of the full cost of service delivery. For the first time we published a balance sheet for the general government sector and the whole of the public sector. When Labor were last in government they had no idea and certainly we had no idea of what the value of the government’s assets were or key liabilities like the unfunded superannuation liability. We introduced for the first time consolidated whole-of-government financial reports audited by the Auditor-General and we introduced the outputs-outcomes framework to place the focus on what was actually being delivered for the money spent.

We introduced legislation to bring 2,800 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations up to date with modern corporate governance and accountability standards. In 2003 it was the coalition that established the Defence Materiel Organisation, the DMO, as a prescribed agency, giving Australia’s largest project management organisation greater responsibility and accountability in providing better procurement to ensure equipment was delivered on time and on budget. The coalition paid attention to making migration settlement programs outcome orientated, accountable and focused on delivering services that ensured migrants, refugees and humanitarian entrants become independent, active participants in Australian society as quickly as possible. Under Labor last time, when they were last in government, settlement grants were distributed on political grounds rather than community need, while poor management and lack of accountability jeopardised settlement program delivery.

Australia is a model in relation to transparency and accountability to countries around the world. The OECD Economic Survey of Australia released in February 2005 said:

In the last decade of the 20th century, Australia became a model for other OECD countries in two respects: first, the tenacity and thoroughness with which deep structural reforms were proposed, discussed, legislated, implemented and followed-up in virtually all markets, creating a deep-seated “competition culture”; and second, the adoption of fiscal and monetary frameworks that emphasised transparency and accountability and established stability-oriented macro policies as a constant largely protected from political debate. Together, these structural and macro policy anchors conferred an enviable degree of resilience and flexibility on the Australian economy. The combination resulted in a prolonged period of good economic performance that shrugged off crises in its main trading partners as well as a devastating drought at home. The short-term outlook is for continuing strong growth of productivity and output, low inflation and budget surpluses accompanied by tax cuts.

The point that needs to be made here is that, unlike the government, the coalition stands for: government remaining transparent and accountable for its decisions; minimising government waste and inefficiency, so the government’s investment in services like health, education, defence, the environment and transport is weighted towards services on the ground rather than administration; and disciplined financial management, so the government lives within its means, without imposing the burden of higher taxes or placing pressure on interest rates with deficits and government debt.

On that point, it is a little bit rich for the Labor Party at the moment to blame inflation on the former coalition government and claim it now needs to cut government spending. The coalition should be remembered as having a proud record in economic and particularly financial management. We inherited a $10 billion deficit when we came to government, which we converted into around $10 billion surpluses. We inherited $96 billion of debt when we came into government in 1996, which we completely eliminated. We inherited a ballooning unfunded superannuation liability, which we addressed by creating the Future Fund, a fund which Labor has now already started to flag as one that it will raid into the future.

The Labor Party are in no position at all to question the coalition on our financial management. It is absurd for Labor now to blame the coalition for inflationary pressures when Mr Swan in opposition actually opposed virtually all our proposals to help contain inflation, including eliminating debt, producing surpluses and liberalising workplace relations. Labor criticised our surpluses as being too large and always demanded extra spending in almost every area of government responsibility. And now Labor are claiming to be economic conservatives.

Labor were paralysed in opposition for 11½ years because they ruined the economy when they were last in power. Families and people in business, small and large, could not forget the interest rates—in some cases over 20 per cent—on overdrafts and bill facilities; unemployment hit 10.9 per cent and the economy was faltering. Quite rightly, the Australian people would not trust Labor with the economy again for a period of almost 12 years; that was until November 24 last year. By that time the political minds of the ALP, including the now Treasurer, had decided they would have to convince, to fool, the Australian people they were economic conservatives just like the coalition. To regain office, they would have to pretend there was not a sliver of difference between the capacity of the coalition to manage the economy and the ability of Wayne Swan and Kevin Rudd to do it. Essentially they needed to be able to argue to the Australian people that they could be trusted to manage a $1.1 trillion economy. Politically—and this is the important point—they could not let the Australian people see their economic incompetence again, or it would be electoral suicide.

When Australians ask themselves why our economic history is being rewritten at the moment by Kevin Rudd, Lindsay Tanner, Wayne Swan and others—

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