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

This is a very important matter of public importance—the government’s appalling record of broken promises—led by the Leader of the Opposition, a demonstration of its gravity. But where are those on the opposite side who made the decisions to respond to the charges of the Leader of the Opposition? Not one of the kitchen cabinet bothered to turn up to respond to the charges against them of having broken promise after promise of Labor’s election platform. All they could produce was a long forgotten former Deputy Leader of the Opposition, a person whose only capacity to contribute from a firsthand perspective to this debate is as one amongst the many who have broken election promises. She is amongst the many who have wasted taxpayers’ money. She is amongst the many who need to stand to account for their dismal performance and the failure of this government.

Let’s look at one of the government’s fundamental election promises. When in opposition the Labor Party promised to build 750 new houses for the Indigenous community, to refurbish 2½ thousand more and to rebuild 230 others by next year. Well, $180 million later, what have we got? Thirteen houses have been completed—$180 million gone and only 13 houses built. One hundred and fifty-five refurbishments have been undertaken, and none of them has met an acceptable standard. So this minister, the minister who was chosen to respond, is just as culpable as the others, but none of the senior ministers were prepared to even turn up to explain their appalling behaviour. If the Prime Minister and his chief of staff had spent as much time consulting with the mining industry and the community as they do in consulting with their Labor colleagues to save the Prime Minister’s own job, then this government might not be in the mess that it is. What an incredible mess it is.

This government came to power on the back of a campaign promising the Australian people everything from world peace to cheaper grocery prices. It promised trade training centres at every school, computers on every desk, fast broadband to the homes of 98 per cent of Australians—and all that simply has not been delivered. They are all broken promises. The government governs by decree rather than consultation and cooperation. It is a government that promises big, spends big and taxes big—but it is all talk and no action. There is no delivery. ‘Where has all this money gone?’ the people of Australia have every right to ask. For generations they will be paying it back, and what do they have to show for it? This is a scandal of international proportions. There is no government like this one for the way in which it has managed to destroy the birthright, to squander the birthright, and now leave to next generations substantial amounts of debt.

Last year the Prime Minister unveiled his $42 billion cash splash, and he was quite clear at that time that there would be no need for any new taxes to pay for it. He even also made it very clear that it was not a good idea to increase taxes. Let me quote the Prime Minister. He said:

We could try to keep the budget in surplus by raising taxes, but that would shift the burden of the global recession onto Australian businesses and taxpayers.

He was right then. Why isn’t he right now? Why isn’t he doing exactly the same thing now? He should have followed his own advice. Having designed his $13 billion a year Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme tax—which is just asleep on the back counter—what he is waiting for now is another great big new tax, this one on the mining industry, the very industry that has helped Australia through these difficult times. What is the logic of this government in putting a big new tax on the productive sector? The Prime Minister said, when he introduced the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, that that was a tax to encourage us to reduce our CO2 emissions. We had to have a new tax on cigarettes so we would smoke less. We had to have a new tax on alcopops so we would drink less. But, when it comes to a new tax on mining, that is supposed to make us mine more. What is the logic in this government’s explanation? It is simply beyond belief.

Let me convey to the Prime Minister a bit of advice from Sir Winston Churchill, who once said:

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

Can you envisage the kitchen cabinet jumping in the bucket and trying to lift it up by the handle? That is about the logic of the tired and tortured government that we have, trying to extricate itself from problems of its own making. Professor Warwick McKibbin, Reserve Bank of Australia board member and ANU academic, described this tax yesterday as ‘a really badly designed resource tax’. It has been an example of a government out of its depth, completely unable to address the issues of this country. And of course it is another broken promise, because the government said it believed in balancing budgets and it believed in being conservative. He was a fiscal conservative, the Prime Minister told us—but he has not delivered.

Then Professor McKibbin went on to talk about some other things, like the $43 billion National Broadband Network. He said it was ‘a gigantic white elephant waiting to happen’. The government has been trying to criticise the Nationals in particular for being critical of this scheme, saying that we were denying the country people of Australia access to fast-speed broadband. However, the government’s promise excludes two million people from rural Australia. Everyone who lives in a town of under 1,000 people will not even get it. They are second-class citizens. Labor is proposing a scheme for which they have no business plan. They have no idea how it is going to be built, but it is only for those people who live in the densely populated areas. So this government has no right to be critical of those on the other side in relation to the provision of high-speed broadband. It is, sadly, another example of Labor’s spin, deception and broken promises.

When the Prime Minister said in 2007 that he would turn back the boats, did anyone really think that he meant turning back the bulk coal carriers or the LNG tankers? Did anyone think he was going to operate a water taxi service where the asylum seekers arrived close to Australia then rang 131008 and expected the taxi service to come and pick them up? This is the government’s policy. Canada’s mining man of the year is also the people smuggler’s man of the year because he has opened the floodgates and, sadly, people are coming in from all over the world. When Kevin Rudd said he would put a school computer on every desk, did we really think he meant only every third desk? When he said he was an economic conservative, did we think he would deliver the biggest budget deficits in our nation’s history and then spend a whole lot of money on cash splashes that left us with little more than some plasma screens and overpriced school halls? This is the record of this government: consistently broken promises.

Let’s remember a few more, like 2,650 trade training centres in Australian schools. After two years, there was just one completed. Remember GroceryWatch? Thirteen million dollars wasted. Fuelwatch? Twenty-one million dollars wasted, and it has not happened. Let’s never forget their promise to spend $100 million to re-engineer the Menindee Lakes to save 200 billion litres of water a year from the Murray-Darling. Nothing has happened. There were going to be 500 new Australian Federal Police officers. There are only 100. They have also wound back the air marshals program and cut the AFP budget. Two hundred and sixty childcare centres were to be built in schools and TAFE colleges. Only 38 will be built. What about the promise to provide rainwater tanks to all of Australia’s 305 surf lifesaving clubs? Forty-five have been provided, and the program has been axed. What about the promise to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage? The secondary report to parliament showed there was little or no progress. What about the promise to increase X-raying and inspections of containers from overseas ports? They have cut the Customs and the quarantine budgets.

If you want the ultimate example of Labor’s deception and dishonesty when it comes to the Australian people, it is the Prime Minister saying on 17 March 2008: ‘We will honour every promise made to the Australian people.’ That is another promise broken. They made one more promise only a couple of months ago: there will be no cash splash before the next election. Watch this space. That will be another broken promise on top of a litany of broken promises, which will be the legacy of this government to the people of Australia.

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