Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

The MPI today notes the urgent need for the Abbott government to release the National Commission of Audit report before the Western Australia Senate election. Members will be aware that, as of yesterday, Western Australians began voting in the biggest by-election in the history of our nation. From Rockingham to Marble Bar, from Esperance to Broome, Western Australians began voting yesterday. The election day is not until 5 April, but Western Australians has already begun voting. But as they vote, they do not know the content of the Commission of Audit report, which is in the hands of the Treasurer and the Prime Minister. They do not know what cuts are in store, what services will be removed or what infrastructure will not be funded. They do not know what the impact of the Commission of Audit report will be on their families, on their communities and on their business, yet they are being asked to vote.

What I find even more curious about that is that yesterday the Western Australian Liberal Party circulated to all Western Australian voters a how to vote card. That how to vote card directed Western Australians to vote for the Liberal Party. The how to vote card was circulated as a simple election campaigning technique and it invites Western Australians to vote for the Liberal Party in box 'R'. Here is the point: when Western Australians do not know the cuts that are in store for them, when Western Australians do not know the services that will be removed, I know that Western Australians will kick the Liberal Party right in the arse. They will do that because Western Australians do not appreciate being taken for granted by this government. Western Australians do not appreciate that they should be asked one more time to turn up at the polling booths, one more time to cast their votes, one more time to cast their votes for a Liberal Party and for a Prime Minister who do not treat Western Australians with the regard that all Australians demand and that all Australians should reasonably expect.

We were told before the election that there would be a Commission of Audit, that that Commission of Audit report would be published and that that Commission of Audit report would be available before the budget in May. What we now discover is that 1¼ million Western Australians will be turning up to vote without knowing the impact of the cuts to education, to health, to pensions, to the ABC or to the SBS. We do not know the impact of those cuts on the tourism industry or on the resources sector. We do not know the impact of those costs in a state with an economy that desperately needs infrastructure. Yet Western Australians from Wyndham to Eucla, from Esperance to Marble Bar, are being asked to turn up to vote—and they should vote. When they vote, they will kick the Liberal Party in the arse. We know that because the Western Australians will not be taken for granted.

It is simply unacceptable that Mr Hockey says that the government hopes to adopt a great majority of the recommendations from the Commission of Audit, while the government keeps the Commission of Audit report and the cuts under wraps. The issue does demand enough time and it deserves the consideration of the Western Australian people. They should be able to understand the cuts that are before them in the Commission of Audit. It seems to me to be reasonable, to be transparent. It seems to me that it is about openness and about certainty. But the only certainty is that the Commission of Audit's draft report has been in the hands of the Prime Minister and of the Treasurer now for many weeks. We are told that it is 900 pages. We are told that it represents a lot of thinking. But we also know it is cloaked in secrecy. We can only then assume that it is hiding wrong priorities and nasty cuts because we have not been told of the contents of this Commission of Audit report before the election.

Western Australians know all too well that Liberals often say one thing before an election and then do quite the opposite afterwards. They have seen Colin Barnett's broken promises on health, on education and on road and rail. They should be rightly worried about what the current Prime Minister's secret Commission of Audit has in store for them in their health and education services. This time last year the Prime Minister said how much he respects the Premier of state of Western Australia. He said how much he has learnt from the Premier of Western Australia. The current Prime Minister also said how much he wished to model himself on Colin Barnett, should he be elected to lead our country. The Prime Minister said that on 17 February last year.

Colin Barnett lost Western Australia's AAA credit rating—actually lost it is not true, he gave it away. He gave it away with wrong spending priorities, with imprudent budgeting manners and with an incompetent approach to budget management which is reminiscent of what we see now in the secrecy that cloaks the Commission of Audit report. An example of the cuts made by Premier Barnett in Western Australia, fully endorsed by the federal Liberal party—by every single federal Liberal in both chambers of parliament—was the $185 million cut from WA schools, including the sacking of 350 teachers and education assistants and the 30 per cent cut in support to school programs for children with learning difficulties and literacy and numeracy programs. All of this came from a Premier who did not tell the people of Western Australia about the cuts that he had in mind.

I remind members of this chamber that the existence of a secret document purporting to make cuts to spending in the state of Western Australia is a serious matter. We know of the Western Australian government's own incompetence, losing their AAA credit rating, and that the Fiona Stanley Hospital is being delivered a year late after mismanagement from the Barnett government. We know that the promised $180 million redevelopment of the Royal Perth Hospital has been shelved. We know that 40 hospital beds and 200 staff will be cut from the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth. These are all major public hospitals in Western Australia. One hundred and eighty-eight million dollars has been cut from hospital upgrades in regional Western Australia, including in Karratha, Tom Price, Newman, Collie, Northam, Katanning, Merredin, Narrogin and Manjimup. These are communities that do not simply contribute to the great wealth of Western Australia; they are communities that contribute to the great wealth of our nation. They are communities that contribute to the wellbeing of our nation. They are being to asked to vote today but have not been told of the content and the nature of the cuts that are in store in the Commission of Audit report that is currently cloaked in secrecy in the Prime Minister's office and in the Treasurer's office.

We have seen this before. Tony Abbott says one thing before the people vote but he plans to do exactly the opposite after the election. The Western Australia Senate election is on 5 April and early voters are out there voting now. Do we, in this place, think it is reasonable that they should cast their votes without knowing the content of the report of the Commission of Audit? Of course we don't. It is a disgrace. It is an outrage. It is actually an embarrassment and an affront to our parliament and to our democratic system that people should be asked to vote without knowing what this government has in store for them. We do know the government has received the report, we know the report is 900 pages long, we know it is cloaked in secrecy and we know it goes to every area of federal government operations—we know it goes to schools; we know it goes to health care; we know it goes to hospitals; we know it goes to roads; we know it goes to grain rail infrastructure in Western Australia. As our farmers are once again seeding their crops in the dry farming wheat belt of Western Australia, they will not know the circumstances that underpin the funding of grain rail infrastructure by this Commonwealth government, because this government will not tell them. Western Australians will be required to turn up to vote, and they should vote. And when they vote, Western Australians will carefully consider that ballot paper. The ballot paper is one metre in length and contains more political candidates than we have ever seen in Western Australia. It provides the perfect opportunity for Western Australians to treat this government with the contempt that they deserve—for Western Australia is to kick this government in the Rs.

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