Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

A wonderful program, says the parliamentary secretary. A wonderful program not delivered and with a $1 billion-plus blowout. Building the Education Revolution had a $1.7 billion blowout and waste in every corner of the country. More than $1 billion here and $1.7 billion there; waste all over the country. But these $1 billion and $2 billion figures are just rounding errors to those opposite.

The Assistant Treasurer has only been a minister for a short period of time. But let's give him one thing: he has caught on very quickly to this litany of incompetence. He gave us another speech from the high moral ground—he almost needs an oxygen tank, he is up so high. But it has not taken him long to fit in with the incompetence of this government. We did not hear one thing from the Assistant Treasurer about competent administration. We did not hear one squeak from him to acknowledge failure on behalf of this government. It is that very failure in policy delivery that is making the Australian public so nervous about this government and about economic circumstances in Australia. He was here today on this matter of public importance and he could have addressed one of the issues for which he is responsible. A week ago he woke up to a front page of the Financial Review that showed the luxury car tax is being rorted. Those behind me will remember that the luxury car tax, which has existed for some time, was massively increased by this government from 25 to 33 per cent in 2008. You would think it would be pretty obvious that when you massively increase a tax like that the incentives for would-be rorters to evade it would increase correspondingly. So what steps did the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, take to ensure enforcement was beefed up to deal with what was obviously a heightened risk with the higher tax rate that those opposite brought in? Apparently none. What follow-through was there? Apparently none.

As those behind me will readily agree, the Treasurer's ignorance and incompetence leading to another policy debacle is not really news—situation normal from the Treasurer, Mr Swan. But what about the bloke who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the tax office, the Assistant Treasurer, who was here before during this debate and has now departed from the chamber? It is seven days since this story appeared. Seven days ago the Assistant Treasurer woke up to the front page of the Financial Review and discovered he has a rupture in the luxury car tax the size of the tear in the side of the Titanic. And what has he got to say about it? Absolutely nothing. For seven days he has said nothing. We can only assume he has done absolutely nothing. We do not know what he plans to do about it, but we can assume from the past actions of this government that his first step, in the tradition of this government, will be to do absolutely nothing. He will hope it goes away, just like the Prime Minister hoped the Building the Education Revolution debacles would go away.

The Assistant Treasurer ought to do something no other minister in the Rudd or Gillard governments have done—that is, take responsibility. He should come forward and actually own up to the mess they have created and candidly tell the Australian people how they are going to fix it. But of course whenever there is any criticism of this government those opposite just say it is a scare campaign. It is not a scare campaign; it is a truth campaign. Truth is an issue this government also has a great problem with. A guy at the local football club summed it up pretty well when he said, 'I don't know what frightens me more: when they try and implement a policy and muck it up or the anger it causes me when they break their word. I'm not sure which upsets me more.'

We have talked about the blow-outs and the incompetence. The Australian public are rightly angry about those and they know that this government cannot do better. This government cannot improve; its incomp­etence level is locked into its DNA. But this government is also fundamentally untruthful. We have seen it with the Prime Minister over and over again. Six days before the last election she said, 'There will not be a carbon tax under the government I lead', and a day before the election on the front page of the Australian was the very same commitment. That was not a commitment that came out of the blue. It was considered, it was calculated and she made that commitment knowing it not to be true.

The Treasurer seems to slip through a lot of this, but he said exactly the same thing. On 15 August he told Meet the Press that to suggest the government was moving towards a carbon tax was an 'hysterical allegation'—and that is exactly what they are doing. We have come to expect this from the Treasurer, and the public now know that this Treasurer is both incompetent and untrustworthy. The member for Griffith knows this well. We are coming up to the first anniversary of the member for Griffith's demise as Prime Minister.

Opposition members interjecting—

'Fundamental injustice day', said a colleague behind me. It is fundamental injustice day 2, the sequel, because the member for Griffith named the introduction of the goods and services tax as 'fundamental injustice day'. Three hundred and sixty-five days ago, a couple of days before the coup, the Treasurer was supporting the Prime Minister. The press tell us that the Treasurer still, in all that time, has not had a proper conversation with the foreign minister. It is getting on to the first anniversary. And he was such a loyal Treasurer! We are told by the press gallery in all the accounts of that night that this spineless Treasurer did not even have the courage to tell the then Prime Minister he was bailing on him. The Australian public knows someone like that cannot be trusted with the economy and the decisions— (Time expired)

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