Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for your choice of matters of public importance today. This is a matter of grave importance to Australia. As recently as last November, nine months ago, Australia’s economy was in very good shape. It was strong and vibrant and offered opportunity and prosperity. Our economy was—if I may dare say so—in ruddy good health. I am sorry to report to the House that most Australians now believe that their own personal finances and their country are in ruddy ill health.

We have had a remarkable turnaround in just nine months. Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, said today in question time that he would never say that working families have never been better off. Well, the Prime Minister cannot say that, because it is not true. Families are not better off; they are much worse off since the election of this government. We have a government that allegedly had a new economic approach, but it has been a triumph of vacant symbolism and short-term stunts—an absolute blizzard of process, reviews and heavily promoted but always empty-headed speeches.

How many more revolutions are we going to have? How many more partnerships? How many more grand plans for the Asia-Pacific or intergalactic visions for the stratosphere? How many more five-point plans or 10-point plans? Today we are down to only a three-point plan or a three-pillar approach. These sorts of empty words, empty symbols, do nothing. They achieve nothing, and the Australian people are driven to despair.

You do not have to take my word for it. The Galaxy poll of Sydney families taken last week showed that 80 per cent of them believe that their personal finances have gone backwards since last November—80 per cent are worse off than they were when Labor was elected. That poll also found that 56 per cent of Sydney families are less confident than they were nine months ago. You heard also in question time today that Australians’ decline in confidence is running at double the rate of the rest of the world. This country is going backwards at double the rate of the rest of the world.

While the Prime Minister tours the world, the people at home are struggling. The working families are not working, and the great Australian economy, which was able to withstand the Asian financial crisis, the US recession, September 11, bird flu and a host of other issues, is in serious decline. Thirty thousand jobs have been lost since the last budget; 630 more today. How many more people, how many more families, have to lose their jobs before this government starts to take some notice?

That serious lack of consumer confidence is fed primarily by the inane talking down of the economy by the Treasurer and the growing realisation that the Treasurer and his colleagues do not have the competence to manage our economy. This downward spiral over just nine months demonstrates monumental incompetence. There is an old saying: ‘Give Labor something in good working order and it will soon be broke.’ The record of the state Labor governments around the nation of wrecking successful economies is now being repeated at the national level. Labor have learned from what they have done at the state level and they are delivering the same results federally, inheriting a strong economy and pushing it into decline. Today there was the Sunrise poll, which found that almost 90 per cent of people believe they are worse off since last November. Of course, the Prime Minister himself admitted as much in question time yesterday. The people of Australia have suffered under this government for nine long, long, long, painful months.

Who is to blame for all this trouble? Who is to blame for all the problems that our country is facing? The Prime Minister chooses always to play the blame game. Today in question time he said, as he has said on so many other occasions and said again in his speech to the Press Club today, that there are two factors: the global economic situation and the economy he inherited. Today, after constant pressure, he did acknowledge that he would take responsibility for everything that happens in the economy, particularly the good news, but then he immediately went on in his answer to once again blame the opposition, blame the other side.

There are some very good statistics around for the government that was going to end the blame game. In the first 550 questions without notice that have been directed to the new government since its election, the government ministers have blamed the opposition, the coalition in government, in 77 per cent of their responses. Seventy-seven per cent of the time, in 550 questions, they have blamed the coalition. They have blamed the former government for what is happening. When it comes to their own dorothy dix questions, the ones asked by their own members, which they have had plenty of time to prepare for, the figure goes up to 81 per cent. So, 81 per cent of the time, the party that were going to end the blame game have blamed the previous government for the problems that they are creating today.

The Prime Minister says he is governing for the long term, so we should overlook all of these short-term job losses. We should overlook this plunging consumer confidence and think only of what might be achieved in the longer term. If that is the case, I wonder why he scheduled his urgent National Press Club address today, which was billed this morning by the media as ‘Rudd to reveal Labor’s grand vision for the future of the nation’. This is what the National Press Club speech was about today: the grand vision for the future of the nation. After nine months of failure, at last we were going to get the grand vision. And again he said in his speech, ‘We’re going to end the blame game.’ But question time today was back on the same theme: ‘It’s all the opposition’s fault. It’s all the previous government’s fault.’

The reality is that he built his speech up but there was nothing there—a three-point plan which was an announcement of the previous coalition government’s policies. There was nothing new, like all of the other grand speeches: plenty of spin, plenty of build-up, but no substance. There was nothing there for the families of Australia who are hopeful that there might be some relief for them from the crushing extra costs that have got out of control under this government. There was nothing for the unemployed or the people who are about to lose their jobs because of the economic downturn under this government. There was nothing there for pensioners, who are looking for an increase. There was nothing there for the single pensioners, whose rate has been demonstrated already to be below international figures. Nothing is to be delivered by this government. That is its grand vision.

It reminds you a little bit of The Hollow Men, the new ABC documentary program on the Prime Minister’s office. I am told it is fictitious, but the first edition had the Prime Minister’s staff developing a six-point plan. I think I have heard of six-point plans before. It was all to deal with combating childhood obesity. One by one, they got rid of all the serious issues, and all that was left were the sound bites and the fluff, simply to skate around the issues. It is fictitious but, my word, it seems to have a ring of truth about it.

The issue of concern to ordinary Australians today is their economic future. They took a risk on the Rudd government only nine months ago. They had doubts about Labor’s economic competence, but they were so sure that our economy was strong and resilient and could withstand any tremors that they actually took the risk with a Labor government—and how quickly they have found that their trust was misplaced. Labor’s reforms and proposals for the future have simply not been delivered. There is nothing there. The Prime Minister knows that his economic management is biting hard. It is biting hard on ordinary Australians—the people who trusted this government just nine months ago. Their trust has not been repaid. Nothing has been delivered to improve their lot.

When you think of what has happened in Australia since the Rudd Labor government came to office nine short months ago, it is almost incomprehensible. Back then we had an economy that was widely acclaimed as the envy of the world. The coalition had repaid Labor’s debt of $96 billion and, against vocal opposition from the Labor Party, we were putting money aside in the bank, we were saving to help Australia meet the challenges of the future—in capital preserved funds, not slush funds for Labor to roll out on the eve of the next federal election. Back then, the sixth successive round of tax cuts was in the pipeline. There was record federal government expenditure on health, on education, on infrastructure, on defence, on the environment, on social welfare, on industry and to the states. Unemployment was low, the stock market was booming and business and consumer confidence were high. That was only nine months ago.

Before the election, Labor said they would put downward pressure on petrol prices, but fuel costs have gone up. What action have consumers got from the government in their delivery of an action plan to solve this problem that they said before the election that they would fix? They have got Fuelwatch, an empty scheme that has delivered nothing where it has been put in place. It is a scheme that the ACCC and four government departments acknowledge will not work outside the capital cities—and many people in the capital cities do not believe it will work there either. It is a scheme that eliminates cheap Tuesdays.

Labor said groceries would be cheaper, but they are more expensive. And what have the public got by way of action from this government? We now have GROCERYchoice—this incredible website with information on it that is up to a month old and is not able to account for local, daily or weekly specials or price changes. GROCERYchoice information does not provide any details of specials, surcharges, quality differences or purchase limits. It does not even tell you where the supermarkets are. In regional areas, the supermarket could be 100 kilometres away. The information is completely useless. It does not differentiate between supermarkets of different sizes—a matter of great concern to the independent grocers, who obviously have businesses of different sizes. It is another useless scheme that has delivered nothing.

Labor said interest rates should go down, but they have gone up. They talk about interest rate rises under the previous government, but there have only been increases under this government. They were going to improve housing affordability, but housing affordability has declined, rents are higher and people are hurting and struggling to keep a roof over their heads. The government boast often about what they are going to do with broadband, but they cancelled the OPEL contract, which would have already been delivering fast-speed broadband to Australians—and who knows whether their own scheme will ever be delivered? The speculation in yesterday’s press that it has now degenerated into a duplication scheme for broadband in the cities and will provide nothing to people who live outside the current broadband range is a matter of grave concern.

Labor’s priority was to fight inflation, but inflation is now at the highest level for 17 years. To fight inflation they were going to spend more money on infrastructure, but they have actually cut infrastructure expenditure by $10 billion on what the previous government had committed. They said they would cut taxes, but the revenue went up in their only budget. They said they were the party for the environment, but their new Caring for our Country program spends $1 billion less than the previous government’s Natural Heritage Trust and National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality. They were going to save the whales, but they have wimped out on their promised legal action.

They said they would be open and transparent, but scrutiny of billions of dollars of government expenditure is covered up by the excuse that they were Labor election promises. They said they would support alternative energy, but they have abolished the solar panel rebate for most applicants, they have axed the rural and remote renewable energy program and they have slashed support for the ethanol industry. They said there would be a computer for every student, but now it is only one computer for every second student, and only then if the schools or the P&C pay for the electricity, the computer programs, the air-conditioning and the replacements. There was going to be a trade training centre in every school, but this has degenerated into just refurbishing some existing classrooms and getting a new sign—and even that is going to take 10 years.

They said they were going to protect the workers, but 134,000 more people will be out of work as a result of this budget and strikes are up sixfold. Incredibly, today the minister did not even know how many Labor were predicting to throw out of work; yet their own budget papers say it will be 134,000. The stock market has plummeted, the budget has predicted rising unemployment and we have the worst levels of consumer confidence since the Keating government said we were in a recession that we had to have. We did not have to have this recession. The Rudd government, which promised so much, which were going to deliver big things to the Australian people, have simply failed—and they can no longer blame others; they must take responsibility for their actions. (Time expired)

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