Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm old enough to know how long it takes to get out of recession. I started a business in the recession in the 1990s. I saw family members unemployed. It is hard yards going from recession and transitioning to recovery. And it's not the data that does it; it's the job queues that are the real challenge.

We've seen promises from this government about recycling, the so-called $100 million Recycling Investment Fund, that has not supported a single initiative—not a single dollar has been spent. There's another overpromise, under delivery. The government's announcements on waste and recycling aren't worth the paper they're printed on, and, gee, I hope they were printed on recycled paper.

The national integrity commission: we've heard promises about that but had nothing delivered on it, yet there is all the reason in the world for it to be here now. There is no excuse to be campaigning in Queensland when you can be tackling corruption and integrity issues within your own government.

The COVID-safe app: there were massive promises that this would be the key, and we supported it. We said, 'If you think it's going to work, we're all for making tracing easier.' It's traced 17 unique contacts, which has costed out at $4 million per contact. That's despite seven million people doing what they were asked to do. The app is a total waste of money and another example of overpromising and under-delivering.

On infrastructure, we've had promises of infrastructure spend. They talk about it a lot, but the actual expenditure is much less than promised. The Morrison government on average spend $1.2 billion less on infrastructure than they promise. Last year, it was $1.7 billion less. You can't blame COVID for that. With the Morrison government, there's always the photo opportunity and there's always the big announcement and the headline, but they're never there for the follow-up or the follow-through.

Then there's the manufacturing fund. The Minister for Industry, Science and Technology revealed at the weekend that only $40 million of the $1.5 billion will be spent this financial year. That's too little, too late. It was meant to help us get through the recession. It's half of what was promised in the budget. Within only a couple of weeks of the budget they already knew that they were going to underspend what they promised in the budget. That's just like what they did with the NDIS. They said, 'We're going to spend all of this money,' and they spent significantly less than they promised, and that caused heartache for families struggling just to get a plan to suit their needs.

The HomeBuilder scheme is already too small and is rolling out too slowly. Four months ago we were told it would benefit 27,000 families. I was disappointed that there was no special consideration for bushfire victims. The $25,000 under the HomeBuilder program might have been able to pay for a couple more windows or shutters—all the extra bells and whistles you need in an area hit by fire to rebuild to a higher standard than your original home met because of the newer standards that exist. As it turns out, out of everybody in the whole country who wanted to access this program, just 780 people—that's less than three per cent—have been paid a single cent, and there are only a couple of months to go until applications close. That's another, 'We're going to promise you the world, but we're just going to deliver you a tiny little bit.' It's very disappointing, but it is typical of what we're seeing.

The Emergency Response Fund is another one. We agreed to pass legislation for a $4 billion Emergency Response Fund, taking money away from another important area, because we thought, 'Yes, this stuff absolutely has priority,' but, 18 months on, not a single cent has been spent. That's two bushfire seasons, and no money has been spent. Here we are, and they've done nothing to help protect communities, not just from fires, but from cyclones or floods. In those 18 months, the Morrison government have even failed to call for applications for funding. Yet again, it's just a big promise. They talk the talk, but they don't walk the walk.

The last one I want to mention is arts funding. We learnt this week that the government has admitted that less than $50 million of the $250 million rescue package it promised has been allocated so far. Guy Sebastian is disappointed about that, but not as much as I am. It's an absolute disgrace.

See this speech in context