Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker. In terms of nation-building funds, in terms of education and health—which is what we are discussing here today—they do not want to hear this. They do not want to hear about the legacy they left behind by not dealing with the areas covered by these nation-building funds, because it hurts. It hurts to hear someone tell you the truth. The truth is always ugly. The truth is always going to be painful. But that is the reality of the legacy they left behind. They have got nothing to hang their hats on now. Where were the nation-building funds? Where were the great nation-building projects? Where were the great education revolutions that the previous government put into place? Where were the reforms in health? Where were the great programs that would deliver us in times of need? It is easy to be a great Treasurer when times are good, when the rivers of golden revenue flow into the coffers in Canberra. More money than you know what to do with: company profits up, stock market at record highs, resources being sold at unprecedented levels with record prices, company receipts back to government at all time highs. Easy. Any buffoon can run an economy like that because you have more money than you know what to do with. You can always run a surplus; that is easy. Just spend less on education, spend less on health and keep more of the money under the bed. But what are you keeping the money for? It is great to have the surpluses: I support them and we will work very hard to continue that.

But when times get tough, when the rubber hits the road, when you as the government are actually required to make tough decisions to deliver for people beyond the political rhetoric, when the whole world is facing a crisis—not just a financial crisis; a jobs crisis, a crisis of confidence—that is when you have to step up to the plate. That is when you are really required to make tough and hard decisions. That is when you have to show what you are made of, and that is what this bill is about—showing what you are made of. It is about ensuring this country actually has a future. And we are going to do it the proper way. We are going to do it through legislation, by providing funds that are properly measured, strategically delivered, and by making sure those funds are not just a great big pork barrel which is geographically based on electoral boundaries. I will not have to go into the detail of that, Mr Deputy Speaker. You would be well aware because, like all other members of this House, you have heard many times before about those great rorts, those great pork barrels that we got from the other side—incredible wastes of money, millions and millions of dollars wasted, and lost opportunities. That is what I call them—lost opportunities.

I will give you just one example. In my electorate, there is the Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway. It is a real community based organisation, not-for-profit. These guys work hard, and every single weekend they run a steam train in and out of the area. They provide services, they hold Christmas carols, they actually maintain old steamers and they do a really good job. For years they have been looking to government to get a bit of funding and a bit of help from the feds. Guess what they got? They got nothing from the previous government. These are people with real steam trains. Take a marginal Liberal seat like Forde, which had an organisation that was thinking about perhaps one day having a train at all if it could get some tracks. It got given $7 million by that mob—an utter waste of money which got completely wasted, by the way. Whoosh! It disappeared into thin air while people in my electorate—and it must have been just because they were in my electorate; what other possible logical conclusion could you come to?—got nothing. This mob should be the ones hanging their heads in shame. They should be the ones coming in here and apologising to Australians, apologising to parents for never delivering on the education outcomes that they should have been providing. After 10 years, what can the other side actually stand up in this place and say they really did? What did they really do? Build more detention centres—detention centres that are being shut down now because they are useless?

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