Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I asked to speak on this today for one very good reason: the question before the House from Richard Marles, the member for Corio, is:

The Government's cuts to schools, health and infrastructure in Victoria.

I can't say that he's lying. You're just not allowed to say in the House, 'He is lying.' What you can say is that the statement may be deceptive, dishonest, disingenuous, duplicitous, exaggeration, a fabrication, a falsehood, a fiction, mendacious, part truth, perfidious, sneaky, tricky, two-faced, underhanded or a straight-out untruth. And I think it's all of them. I think a lot of the Labor members today, in what they have said, have been intentionally misleading.

For every one of my hospitals—Leongatha, Korumburra, Warragul, Morwell on the boundary and even those in the new part of Phillip Island—if you asked them, 'Have you had more money from the federal government than you had last year?' what would the answer be? 'Yes.' Yes, they've had more money. But the Labor Party has been saying, 'No, our proposition is we'll give more; therefore it's a cut,' and that's misleading and untrue. Every school in my electorate—Catholic, non-Catholic, primary, secondary, tertiary, all of them—got more money than they got last year. There are record amounts of money being spent on each child from every household, and that money is coming from the federal government.

Where did the moneys the member for Calwell talked about come from? The money came from the federal government. The money came from this Liberal-National coalition so they can spend it on those schools. Where do you think the increase in money for infrastructure and education is coming from for my private schools and my Catholic schools? It's coming from this federal government in record amounts. I was taken out to Chairo Christian School's Pakenham campus the other day, and they said, 'We brought you out to thank you for the extra money that you put into our school to make this place happen and to support out families and our children.' Record numbers of families in the Pakenham area—which will soon be in Jason Woods's seat—are choosing Chairo's type of education. We've still got very good secondary schools and primary schools like Nar Nar Goon Primary School and St Joseph's Primary School just down the road. Did they receive more money this year than last year? Yes. Who gave them that money? The federal government gave them that money because we want our children to know that they're special, they're important and we want the best facilities we can possibly give them. We want the very best we can possibly give them, and it's right across this nation.

So don't be misled by these signs that I saw on the weekend that said, 'Don't vote Liberal in this state election, because of cuts by the federal government.' It is an untruth. It is unbelievable that politicians in this country can intentionally set out to mislead.

I know Medicare was mentioned before by the member for Murray. That was a straight-out mistruth. It worked. They say, 'But if it works and it's a mistruth, who cares?' I'll tell you: I care. I think integrity in politics is really important. I think the people in each electorate want to know that what their member is telling them is the truth. Sometimes the truth is hard to tell when you go through hard times, but when in fact you've increased your expenditure and your outlays in all these areas of health, education and infrastructure, when you've poured more money into the roads—I've watched what my colleague Darren Chester has done for the seat of Gippsland and the highways through there—I want to acknowledge the truth. I want to be in that place of the truth. I'd like politicians in this House who are true representatives to begin to tell the truth.

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