Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Hansard source

It is a sad day when I am having to rise to actually point out to those on the other side their repeated failure to deliver on their election promises. The list is very long, and I will get to that point. There is also their failure to deliver honest and accountable government. Before the election, we heard the Prime Minister say, 'There will be no surprises and no excuses,' from a coalition government—there will be no nasty surprises and lame excuses from the people that you have trusted with the future. But, unfortunately, day after day we see this Prime Minister come in here and make lame excuses and announce nasty surprises. Of course, it starts with jobs.

There was a promise before the election of one million jobs in five years. But, day after a day, we see this Prime Minister say that it is regrettable there are job losses at Holden; it is regrettable there are job losses at SPC and it is regrettable there are job losses at Alcoa—and the list goes on and on. He does not come in here and actually explain what he is going to do. He does not come in and say what his plan is to create one million jobs. He just comes in here. But it gets worse. He will go on TV or send in one of his cheerleaders to blame the workers: 'They get paid too much at SPC.' 'They get paid too much at Qantas.' 'It is the workers' fault that they are losing their jobs.' Then he will blame the unions: 'It is the unions' fault for standing up for their members and asking for too much money.' Heaven forbid that they should ask for penalty rates in an enterprise agreement! That is outrageous. 'If only they didn't do that, they would not be losing their jobs.' Then from time to time the government blame the companies: 'The companies have not negotiated good, lean, efficient agreements. It is their fault that people are losing their jobs.' Of course, over and over again we hear this Prime Minister make excuses about why there are job losses, but there is never an explanation about how he is going create one million jobs. There is never an explanation for why he is cutting co-investment from places like Holden and Toyota—places that are creating jobs. The exception is if you are a chocolate company. If you are a chocolate company then there is a special deal of co-investment. I think this has really highlighted to the Australian people that, despite the promises before the election of honest and accountable government, the disparity in the government's behaviour. To SPC and Holden, they say, 'We won't give handouts to these companies; they don't deserve it; private companies shouldn't be propped up,' but for Cadburys it is a different issue.

The government have failed to explain how it is different. They have come with—in the Prime Minister's words—lame excuses about how one is a tourism grant and the other is investment in industry, but there is no difference between the two, except one important point—that is, as we have heard today, it is not a junk food lobbyist; it is a chocolate economist. That is the difference between SPC and Qantas and Cadbury. It is appalling that they have not had to go through proper accountability measures. All it took was one person, one lobbyist, to sit down next to the Prime Minister and have a quick word in his ear. We now know that he was given as a reward a promotion to sit in the Assistant Minister for Health's office, to whisper in her ear, to get more deals done.

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