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

He also had to have a Mazda ute to drive around in his electorate, and that came by way of a special treat from a special friend—a person who just happened to live down the street. The Treasurer is asking the parliament to believe that there was nothing unusual about all of this special attention to this car dealer—that it was nothing out of the ordinary. And yet, with all the email traffic that has been released over these days, we cannot find another example where the Treasurer has taken time out, on one of his undoubtedly very busy days, to personally contact an individual car dealer or to have the latest news in relation to his case faxed to his home or to have his case taken up by Treasury officials with Ford Credit.

I know the job of Treasurer is very demanding, and that Friday—20 February—when all of this was happening was probably fairly torrid. A quick check of the records shows that Mr Swan announced on that day the interim chief executive of the Ruddbank—another institution being set up to help the Labor mates, those involved in unit development and property development. It is a bank that is there to help people at the big end of town—there is nothing around to help small business who might have these sorts of problems. But the Treasurer was busy that day trying to set up this new Ruddbank so that there could be assistance provided to people in the big building industry. On that day also the government was providing details on its second cash splash—the big handout. That was all happening. The proposed emissions trading scheme was on his agenda and so, as he said in parliament today, it was a busy day. But, in spite of all that, he could find time to ring up a car dealer to see how he was getting on and how his finances were going. One car dealer got this special treatment even though the Treasurer had weighty things of state on his agenda. I just wish that everybody else could get that level of service.

Treasury officials went to an important meeting with Ford Credit knowing that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer had a special interest in this case. They gave John Grant’s phone number to Ford Credit at the same time as Ford Credit were asking for support for $500 million. I am not suggesting that the Treasury officials were so ham-fisted that they said, ‘If you give this guy a million and a half dollars we’ll give you $500 million.’ I am not suggesting it was like that. I am sure that it was all done with very straight faces and that they talked in very great detail about the importance of the $500 million to protect all of the car dealers of the country. But on the side they would have said, ‘Here’s a phone number. We’d like you to call this guy. The fact that he isn’t a Ford dealer is beside the point. He’s a Kia dealer, but you might like to fix this guy up. Have a bit of a chat to him. Whether he is in New Zealand or wherever he might happen to be, have a bit of a talk to him.’ And this special treatment occurred for this dealer. It did not occur for the dealer at Longreach or for the female dealer we heard about just a few moments ago. It did not happen for the car dealers in Grey or in Wakefield, and yet we are asked to believe that nothing special happened.

I just wish that all ministers were that prompt in responding to issues. I have been waiting for months for replies to letters that I have written to ministers. In fact, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has not replied to a single letter I have written to him since he was appointed minister. That is the normal standard of government response to correspondence, or it is a frequently used standard of response. But here we have a Treasurer, busy at home on a weekend, who can find time to phone up for one of his mates. The reality is that we do not get that kind of treatment when it comes to looking after ordinary Australians. We do not get that kind of treatment when it comes to looking after small business men who are battling. What we have here is something that has clearly happened to support one key person—a person who is a known friend of the Prime Minister, a dining partner who lives up the street and who provided him with a ute. And we are asked to believe that this was just business as usual.

This morning the member for Wakefield parroted the whole line that the government is putting out: ‘All the car dealers were treated the same. It is as simple as that. If there is no email, if the email is a forgery, there is no scandal.’ One email may be a forgery, but there are many others that are not. All of them prove conclusively that the Treasurer gave this car dealer an unparalleled level of attention. There is a scandal all right and the member for Wakefield should know it. There is a long time left for this to run as far as the Treasurer is concerned. Labor resorts, in response, to smear. Right through question time we had answers of smear, raising irrelevant issues that have nothing to do with this, to try and hide the real facts that this government has done a favour for a mate that is not available to ordinary Australians who are doing the tough work themselves.

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