Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Manager of Government Business yesterday accused the opposition of 'standing for nothing', during his reply in the suspension of standing orders. Coming from that side of politics I would say it is a bit rich. The coalition has a whole suite of policies which disprove that mistruth, just one of many offered as fact to the national parliament and the Australian people by this desperate focus-group-driven government.

Essentially the coalition stands for good government, living within our means and ensuring that the best interests of families and farmers are protected, preserved and promoted. Unfortunately, since the Independents gave an unelected Prime Minister an undeserving and unwarranted lift into the Lodge last September, those interests have not exactly been catered for. Families are facing cost-of-living pressures not felt since the 1980s when home loan interest rates, thanks to the Prime Minister we had to have and Mr Keating's recession we had to have, hovered around 18 per cent.

Farmers confront uncertainty as never before each and every day. Families and farmers, who have helped make this country great and who continue, despite adversity, to fight the good fight for the sake of the future and for the need to feed the nation, were the forgotten ones in this recent budget. But they were not the only ones. Small business, miners, the aged and university students were all overlooked or plain ignored by a budget the Treasurer introduced by declaring that it was 'a Labor budget'. He was right about that. It truly was a Labor budget—all spin and precious little win.

Very early in his budget speech the Treasurer referred to the Asian century. It was a term also used by the tourism minister at a recent launch. The Treasurer made the Asian century remark again just yesterday. The Asian century describes the belief held by some that, if certain demographic and economic trends continue, the 21st century will be dominated by Asian politics and culture, as the 20th century is often called 'the American century' and the 19th century is called 'the British century'. I say, 'To hell with that.' I would like to see the 21st century be the Australian century, and it is high time a few people on the other side of the House started thinking the same. There is no reason why Australia cannot be a world leader in so many respects. This government is about making us a world leader in some areas—unwanted areas, I would argue—such as national debt. This government is the first to roll out a fibre national broadband network across a continent of this size, which will cost somewhere in the order of $55 billion and cover about 90 per cent of our 22 million people but will not go to towns with fewer than 1,000 premises. Let me tell you, there are plenty of those towns within the Riverina electorate I represent. This is happening as the United States of America, the mainland of which is larger than ours, is implementing a wireless version which will cost just $18 billion but will cover 98 per cent of its 311 million people.

This government is pushing ahead—or should I say that this government is being led by the nose by the Greens?—to implement a price on carbon when our major trading partners are steering well clear of such a toxic tax. Once a carbon tax is in place at the behest of those unrepresentative and un-Australian Greens, we will become a world leader in exporting jobs offshore. Dare I say it has already started? A carbon tax will do nothing to cool the planet or lower sea levels—not one degree, not one millimetre—but the financial costs will, even as Ross Garnaut indicated in his review update today, be borne ultimately by Australian householders, Australian families.

There is no denying the word 'tough' went hand in hand with this year's budget. In a pre-budget speech the Treasurer said 'tough decisions are required' and 'this will be a tough budget'. The finance minister, in an interview in the lead-up to the budget used the word 'tough' more than 10 times, including four times in one answer. Headlines nationally screamed, 'Federal budget, will be tough,' and, 'That's not a tough budget; this is a tough budget.' Thank you, Labor, Australia got the message. However, what you failed to say is that this is such a tough budget that few will benefit from it. This budget is mostly disappointing because, despite all the pre-budget hype about this being a tough budget, this government has been tough on families—families who are working hard to meet the increasing cost of living. Many are struggling, and this budget seems to have ignored that fact.

We have seen, for the first time in eight years, a budget which has not provided a tax cut for families. For a party which says that they are all about the working family, where was their mention in this year's budget, or is it just tough bikkies? We are seeing support for families reduced at a time when the majority of Australians are facing tremendous cost-of-living pressures. Over the past 18 months we have seen the cost of living for everyday families rise by 4.9 per cent—well above the official increase in headline inflation of 3.3 per cent. For pensioners the increase was 4.1 per cent, for other welfare recipients it was 5.1 per cent and for self-funded retirees it was 3.4 per cent. Since this government came to power in 2007, electricity prices have increased some 51 per cent, grocery prices have gone up 14 per cent and education and health costs have gone up by more than 20 per cent. There have been seven interest rate rises in a row, yet this government continues to borrow money and add more taxes. That is what they are all about: tax, tax and more tax.

We have already seen this government waste billions of dollars on ill-fated, poorly-managed and poorly-thought-out green programs to deal with the deceiving global warming phenomenon. These include failures such as the pink batt insulation scheme and the dreaded Building the Education Revolution plan. And let us not forget Fuelwatch and GroceryWatch.

Ms Rishworth interjecting—

However, once again this ineptitude has been compounded by the Prime Minister's plans to introduce a carbon tax from 1 July 2012. This tax will hit every family, every household, every business and—make no mistake!—every farm in Australia. This government is wasteful and reckless and continues to treat the—

Ms Rishworth interjecting—

See this speech in context