Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Competitiveness) Share this | Hansard source

Your coalition frontbench colleague the shadow finance minister said:

The $70 billion is an estimate of the sort of challenge that we will have.

That was on ABC News Radio, 16 August 2011. That was four days after the shadow Treasurer made the same admission. The member for Goldstein said:

The $70 billion is an indicative figure of the challenge that we've got.

Paul Kelly asked him if it was a furphy. Robb said:

No, it's not a furphy. We came out with the figure, right?

That was on Meet the Press, on 4 September 2011. And they have the temerity to stand up here and say that this is a Labor fabrication, that the $70 billion was made up by Labor. In fact, that is exactly what the Leader of the Opposition said on 25 August as they were rolling through and trying to backtrack on the $70 billion:

Well, this $70 billion figure is a fanciful figure. It's plucked from the air by government ministers and I'm surprised you're re-telling it to me.

It came from the mouths of babes: it came from the mouths of the shadow finance minister and the shadow Treasurer. The leader of the opposition thought: 'God! The cat's out of the bag! I'll have to say that Labor made it up.' And then he came in today and said the same thing.

Who has been doctoring your transcripts? That is what I have to ask the Leader of the Opposition. This is not a Labor myth—this is truth. This is an admission of truth by the coalition that it has a $70 billion black hole which just grew by $12 billion today because the Leader of the Opposition, in righteous indignation, got up and said, 'We have never proposed a company tax increase to pay for the paid parental leave scheme.' He reaffirmed that today. The member for Indi told the ABC's Q&A, 'Of course there's a company tax increase.' You cannot hide from a million viewers, and that is what the member for Indi and the shadow industry minister said.

During the discourse across the table, we reiterated that the coalition was the highest-taxing government in Australia's history. Across the table, the shadow Treasurer again said: 'Rubbish! It's not true.' But it is in the budget papers! Do they think that the Treasury is part of a one-world government conspiracy? Do they think that it doctors the figures with the Australian Bureau of Statistics? They are out there at Tidbinbilla in a huddle! They are the people who were involved in faking the moon landing all those years ago! The ABS, the Treasury, Tidbinbilla Tracking Reserve, the radio telescope at Parkes—it's all part of this one-world government conspiracy! 'It ain't true,' they say. 'No, no, it never happened. We weren't the highest taxing government in Australia's history.'

Then the opposition leader went on with this: in criticising the Labor government he said, 'They've done this terrible thing. It includes means testing family tax benefits. It includes means testing the baby bonus.' He said these were really bad things. They forced up the cost of living and made it harder for people. But we just added to the $82 billion. Is that what has happened? Is the Leader of the Opposition, in saying that they do not support the means testing of the family tax benefits or of the baby bonus, saying that they have just gone from $70 billion to $82 billion?

It has been an expensive day at the office, hasn't it—and it's going through the roof! A hundred billion dollars, here we come.

We were talking about one source of cost-of-living increases: electricity prices. We pointed out that the bulk of electricity price increases have come from factors other than putting a price on carbon. The opposition said this was a fabrication by the Prime Minister, an absolute furphy. That was on 9 August. On 20 August, much more recently, the Leader of the Opposition said it is true the carbon price is not the only factor in the dramatic rise in power prices. Well, let me tell you: in New South Wales, over the last four years, there has been an almost 70 per cent increase, less than nine per cent of which was from the carbon price. In Queensland it was a 42 per cent increase—11 per cent from the carbon price. In Western Australia, it was almost a 63 per cent increase—nine per cent from the carbon price.

We are saying there does need to be reform in the electricity sector. The opposition leader said there is no problem; there is no gold plating. He said it was a furphy, something the Prime Minister made up. He has had to admit there is a problem. But we are struggling to get any cooperation from the opposition, because they believe there are two types of electricity price rises: one is associated with a carbon price, for which there is compensation—that is the bad one; and the other is the good one, a much bigger electricity price increase over the last four years from state governments, with no compensation.

They are saying that is all right. If it goes through the roof and there is no compensation, but it is done by a state government, it is fine. If there is an electricity price increase associated with the carbon price for which there is compensation, with the average increase in household bills being $3.30 a week and compensation on average being $10.10, that is a bad one. But the uncompensated ones are good ones. The fact of the matter is the opposition leader will not repeal the carbon price. That is the fact. I know that he has already created for himself an escape clause.

That escape clause is in an opinion piece. Opinion pieces are very considered—they are written down; they are gospel truth. This is what the Leader of the Opposition said in an opinion piece:

Opposition by contrast tends to be a permanent debating society because even the most final decisions can sometimes be revisited in office.

He is saying: 'We'll make a final decision. We'll announce that we're not going to repeal the carbon price; even that can be revisited in office'. It is just like the 'rock-solid', 'iron-clad' promise the Leader of the Opposition made—when he was heath minister before the 2004 election—not to tamper with the Medicare Safety Net. One of the first things the coalition did when they were re-elected was tamper with that Medicare Safety Net.

If a 'rock-solid', 'iron-clad' promise is not actually rock solid and is not iron clad—and is broken—then anything that the Leader of the Opposition says about the future amounts to a hill of beans—if that! Maybe half a hill of beans or a can of beans. That is about it, because this opposition leader said even the most final decisions arrived at in opposition can be revisited in government. And revisit they would if you saw what was going on in Victoria, if you saw what was going on in New South Wales with Liberal governments and if you saw what was going on in Queensland with can-do cuts—he is cutting everything—and he is doing it through an audit commission. These are policies that have been revealed after an election.

They got Peter Costello, the former Treasurer, to go up there in a very, they would say, unbiased way. He had a look at the books and went, 'Oh my God, the cupboard is bare! We'll have to cut the place to pieces.' They are cutting BoysTown; they are cutting support for child protection. For goodness sake! They cut a program that tries to get women out of jail and keep them out of jail. That is expensive stuff, having women—and anyone else—in jail. They cut that program: $70,000 a year. They have some sort of white picnic thing, where they all go and dress up to the nines. It's called a 'posh picnic'. They can afford a posh picnic but they reckon they have to cut these programs and cut tens of thousands of jobs.

When I saw that audit commission announcement by Mr Newman—can-do-cut Newman—I thought, 'I've heard that idea of an audit commission somewhere before.' And there it is. It was not so long ago. It was Friday, 9 March 2012. Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition, said:

Today, I announce a further commitment to reduce the cost and complexity of government through the swift establishment of a commission of audit that will examine the detail of what the Commonwealth government does and whether it could be done better and more cost-effectively.

This is just straight out of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. 'Don't worry about it, we're just going to have this cute little audit commission. It won't be a problem.'

This is the device that Campbell Newman has used to slash services, to attack the most vulnerable people in this country. It is the device that the Leader of the Opposition—if ever he were to become Prime Minister—would use to slash programs and jobs and avoid announcing them before an election. That is exactly what the shadow finance minister told a business group recently. He said, 'We are not going to reveal all the details of our cuts.' He criticised the Hewson Fightback! program, which he said was an 800-page suicide note because it did detail all the cuts. At least it was honest.

We have the shadow finance minister saying: 'We wouldn't do that. What we would have instead is the commission for audit.' You know what? They would be cheered on by the former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett. The Weekend Australian of 4 to 5 August said:

FORMER Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has backed Campbell Newman's cuts to Queensland's public service and taxpayer-funded social services, calling for Tony Abbott to adopt a similar program if he wins the next federal election.

Jeff Kennett said that the cuts should be 'savage'. This is the LNP way.

What we are seeing in Queensland is a dress rehearsal for an Abbott government—a dress rehearsal to cut services and jobs. And they have the temerity to talk about cost-of-living increases! Do you know who they would bring back to help? They would bring back none other than Godwin Grech. Godwin Grech rides again! Godwin Grech is available. Godwin Grech has told the Sydney Morning Herald:

The good news is there is reason to hope that the wounds will be cauterised as the Rudd-Gillard government meets its end at the ballot box within 12 months. If the Coalition is to improve the way we are governed, it must provide solid leadership, a healthy respect for due process and a much more accountable public service.

And you know what he recommends? That they sack the entire senior executive service—that they sack the public servants—put Godwin Grech back in the saddle, Godwin Grech riding through the Treasury, working on the commission of audit, working with other Liberals, who have the audit going, rolling away working out how to slash services for the most vulnerable, how to slash those 12,000 jobs that they have already announced—let alone all those jobs that they have not announced.

So what we have here is a government where, indisputably, the consumer price index, which is a measure of the cost of living, is at its lowest level in 13 years. Nevertheless, there are cost-of-living increases associated with electricity prices—and the coalition ought to get in there and report some of these programs instead of just criticising and cutting. (Time expired)

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