Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

The hallmark of this government, which is 19 months old tomorrow, is already crystal clear: reward your mates and punish your enemies. There are the Labor mates, the Ipswich car dealer who parties and dines with the Prime Minister. He needs a bit of government assistance and the government is there and ready. Those people who are battling in small business right around the country, when they need assistance, there is nothing on offer. When the car dealer from Ipswich speaks to his local member, the member for Oxley, he contacts the Treasurer who immediately offers to ring up the car dealer, Mr John Grant. This is service of high quality. It is the service that you would expect, perhaps, for the Queen.

The Treasurer did not call any other car dealer, just this one who was a Labor mate and who just so happened to need some assistance. After the government released selected emails, it became all the more clear that this car dealer was singled out for special treatment. The member for Flynn made representations about Longreach Motors. Longreach Motors did not get a special call from the Treasurer. The member for Grey raised concerns about a car dealer in his electorate but that car dealer did not get a special call from the Treasurer. They often talk about the service that was provided to the member for Riverina in response to concerns about one car dealer, but that car dealer did not get a special call from the Treasurer. We heard in reply to this matter of public importance a reference, a few moments ago, to a female car dealer that the government lauds as an example of their quality of service, but that car dealer did not get a call from the Treasurer. Only one car dealer got a call from the Treasurer.

But the red carpet treatment did not end there. Mr Swan then passed details to his senior adviser, who contacted the Treasury official with responsibility for the program in question, OzCar. The official then rang Mr Grant and reported back to a series of people in the Treasurer’s office and his own department. That information was then relayed from the Treasurer’s office to Mr Swan’s Brisbane home via fax. No other car dealer got a progress report for the Treasurer faxed to his home. The car dealer in Longreach did not get a progress report faxed to the Treasurer’s home on the weekend about what was happening in his case. The car dealers in Grey and Riverina did not get a fax to the Treasurer’s home about progress on their cases and neither did the female car dealer referred to just a few moments ago. Her case was not reported to the Treasurer by fax. The reality is that no other car dealer got such close attention and detailed reports back to the Treasurer’s home on Friday on his home fax.

And then, of course, there was a lot more than that. That was not the end of the service. When there was a discussion going on about how car dealers could be assisted, the Treasury officials chose to mention and give the phone number of this car dealer to Ford Credit. The car dealer at Longreach’s phone number was not given to Ford Credit and neither were the phone numbers of the car dealers in Grey and Riverina or the female car dealer referred to a few moments ago. None of that was provided to Ford Credit with the request that they provide some assistance. Just one car dealer was chosen for this kind of special treatment, and that car dealer was a friend of the Prime Minister, a friend of the Treasurer—a car dealer who just happened to provide a vehicle for the Prime Minister, with all expenses paid year-in-year-out to assist him in his electoral duty. This for a Prime Minister who has already got an electorate car, a chauffeur driven limousine in Canberra, access to the whole Comcar fleet and the VIP aircraft to fly him all over the country, but that was not enough.

See this speech in context