Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, it will cost significant amounts of money; however, it will be economically efficient to double stack and keep the line flat, rather than go up and down my beautiful Adelaide Hills.

In addition to these local issues, in this term my leader has asked me to take on the additional responsibility of being the coalition spokesperson on scrutiny of government. That is a task I relish and I very much appreciate being given the opportunity. There is much to get into. Only today we saw another Auditor-General’s report on the green loans debacle, which I understand is very interesting reading. I have not yet had the opportunity to get into it, but it seems that there are some interesting comments by the independent Auditor-General—who we all very much respect in this chamber. When he makes reports and findings like this we take them very seriously.

This is a role that I take seriously. I appreciate the opportunity and I acknowledge the work of Senator Barnett, who had this role in the previous parliament. As Senator Barnett did, I will look at the issues arising from this government losing its way in implementing its programs, including the BER program, which was the biggest government waste in the history of the Commonwealth, the pink batts program and, as I mentioned, the green loans program. We will now also have the NBN, at a cost of $5,000 per hook-up, with areas like mine being completely left off the map. At the Forbes rich list conference in Sydney today a very astute observer asked, ‘Why would you spend that much money?’ This issue has got a long way to run. I will be fascinated to see the member for Wentworth pick apart the communications minister this evening on television because I am sure there is much there that I will be able to focus on as the scrutiny of government spokesman.

We are focused on this important issue. It is one of the issues that led to this government, for the first time since the Second World War—since the early 1930s, in fact—losing its majority after just one term. The waste and mismanagement of this government will dog it. It is a bad government and it looks like it will get worse, unfortunately. If I can play my part in exposing its failures then I will be very pleased to do so.

I also acknowledge, as the member for Dobell did, some of the people who helped ensure that I remained in this place and kept the seat of Mayo from the red horde who challenged me on 21 August. Obviously, they include the Mayo FEC and the loyal people—although my FEC president did manage to get out of the country for those three months. That was convenient for young Mr Downer. In his place were Andrew Horwood as my campaign manager, and Marg and Colin Westmore, David Hall and Ross Mitchell, who took a week’s annual leave in the last week to help me out. Without the work and assistance of these people, none of us would be here. These are the kinds of people you always owe a debt of gratitude to.

Obviously, I also acknowledge my staff, who worked as hard as they possibly could in those at times difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, one of those staff who performed very well, Andrew Ockenden, is off now to be an associate of the District Court—for some reason he thinks that is more attractive than working in politics. We wish him well. He is a very bright spark who will do very well in the future, and I suspect that one day we will possibly see him in this place.

Finally, we always need to acknowledge the assistance of our families: my wife, Estee, and my two children, and the additional one we will have February, which we are all excited about. Without their support and help, we would not be able to do this.

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