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

It is another broken promise. Labor broke their promise. Don’t you have any honesty at all? These promises seemingly mean nothing to the parliamentary secretary. Labor said they will establish a coastguard. The member for Brisbane said it often. I notice he is in the House and he would recall it. He said that they would have purpose-built vessels and dedicated trained staff. Well, the member for Brisbane’s coastguard promise was abandoned within days of the election. There is no coastguard at all and there have been cutbacks in Customs and Quarantine, so there is less capability for them to do their job to help keep our borders secure.

Labor said, ‘We will create the right incentives for individuals and businesses.’ Right from their first budget cuts they gutted $1 billion from business incentives, including axing the Commercial Ready program, the Small Business Field Officers program, the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, the Global Opportunities Program and many more. They are broken promises. Labor said, ‘We will increase the overall size of the Australian Federal Police by 500 sworn officers.’ The fact is that they are only proposing 100 officers be recruited between 2008 and 2010. On top of that they have slashed the AFP’s budget and wound back the air marshals program. Remember one of the other classic promises, in writing, to the health insurance industry: ‘We will retain the private health insurance rebate.’ It is a quite clear and unequivocal promise. Yet Labor, time and time again, come into the House seeking to reduce the rebates to thousands of Australians.

Let’s remember one of Prime Minister Rudd’s other famous promises, ‘We will end the blame game.’ Did you know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that in the first 500 questions without notice in this parliament following the election of the Labor government Labor ministers blamed the coalition for their problems in 77 per cent of their answers? In 81 per cent of the questions from Labor members, the dorothy dixers, they blamed someone else. The blame game developed new life under this government. It is another set of broken promises.

So that is Labor’s record. Before the election there were many promises and one by one they were broken. There is no honesty, no credibility. Is it any wonder when the Prime Minister makes other commitments—to aged Australians, to people with disadvantage—and gives his carefully drafted and brilliantly crafted speeches that, frankly, no-one listens and no-one believes? You cannot break promise after promise and still expect people to believe you. You cannot make flamboyant comments about your vision of the future for the country when your record is a litany of broken promises: a failure to deliver, a failure to be honest with the Australian people and a failure to take any account whatsoever of the firm commitments that the government made when asking to be elected by the Australian people a little over two years ago.

It has been a record of broken promises, statements made, gullible voters believing and Australian people being let down. They are being let down by a government who have broken perhaps the most fundamental promise of all: the one that the Prime Minister made on election night. I will always remember the Prime Minister’s election night commitment that he would govern for all Australians. He may be governing for all Australians but if you live in the regions, if you pay tax, if you work, if you eat, if you drive, if you go to school, if you use electricity, if you care about the environment or if you are sick, then that promise does not cover you either. You are not one of the Australians whose interests this government has promised to govern for. The government have neglected the Australian people and broken their promises day after day, time after time, and they can never be trusted. (Time expired)

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