David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the Governor-General in recalling us for the second session of the 44th Parliament, because it has been very worthwhile. We had the RSRT—the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal—legislation to repeal, and that has now been achieved. That in itself has been worth the trip back to Canberra. As the member for Lingiari alleged, I would like to refute that it was not anything dodgy; it was diabolical. What tribunal has the right to incarcerate someone for six months if they do not turn up to a hearing? What tribunal has the right to fine someone who does an uncommercial enforced haulage rate that sends him out of business, or has the right to charge them $58,000 in fines? It has now been abolished, and that is such a good outcome.

Two hundred-plus trucks came to Canberra with the mum-and-dad operators for a reason. There were many more that came through Canberra over the last couple of days—they honked their horns several times as I was walking to work this morning. But it was diabolical. It was sending mum-and-dad small business people to the wall. Contracts from their prime contractors had been drying up in the preceding months, and bank credit was drying up as well. Fake hearings were being held by the tribunal where people were given 18 hours notice to turn up and threatened with six months jail if they did not come and give a deposition, only to be harangued in the gallery by a bunch of aggressive union members. So that is a good outcome but, now that the ABCC legislation has been rejected yet again, it demonstrates how much the other side is dependent upon and does the bidding of their union masters.

In one of my last opportunities before the budget, which is what we are really focusing on now, I would like to point out that we are back to getting a budget together to direct the economic fortunes of Australia. That is what this government is focusing on and that is what the Treasurer, the finance minister and the Assistant Treasurer, along with PM&C and all of the ministry, are focusing on. Before we go on to question time, I would like to highlight how the Australian government achieves value for money in their procurement processes. The Australian government regularly procures about $40 billion worth of goods and services in any one financial year, but with the biggest infrastructure budget that has ever been rolled out being rolled out in this term of government it is even more important. With our Defence contracts just being let for shipbuilding for the next five to 10 years for a continuous ship build and beyond and with the upcoming submarine contracts, the concept of getting value for money, as well as quality products, for the Australian taxpayer is paramount.

Any time there is a $40 billion spend happening those contracts have massive effects on whatever market they are applying in, but every year the federal government spends about $40 billion—and that is not counting state and local government procurement contracts. I want to point out a critical thing: when the government is doing business with business it is quite a different situation from when a business is doing business with another business, because the government gets a refund when they purchase services from Australian companies. It is like the Coke bottle with no refund and the Pepsi bottle with a $10 refund—if the one with the refund costs you three or four cents more but you get a 10c refund, what are you going to call the better deal? The one with the refund.

Long-term government contracts put a floor under a lot of industries. We cannot let them get a contract by any means just because they are Australian but, when one purchases a product from an Australian manufacturer and you are the Australian government purchasing it, there is a knock-on benefit downstream. Too many of the decisions are made in a silo by departments that are not connected to the Treasury or not connected to Finance or to Social Services, which has to supply unemployment benefits, or to Industry to do retraining programs. What is entirely sensible in business when your business does not run the Treasury or does not have the responsibility for unemployment or for retraining schemes or incentives to build up new industries, is that it is a different mathematical equation.

When a federal, state or local government purchases goods from a genuine domestic based producer, treasuries in state and federal departments will receive a rebate down the track of up to 40c in the dollar. First up they get PAYE tax, then they get Medicare levies, they get company tax and they get GST payments. As well, all the local suppliers do that all over again on a different level—that is, the so-called local economic multiplier. Local governments benefit from Australian producers running their businesses in their local government areas, and there are many knock-on employers. As I mentioned, the Department of Social Services misses out on having to pay unemployment benefits when the government contracts with an Australian producer.

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