Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the Leader of the Nationals proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The failure of the Government to keep its election promises to families, small business and pensioners

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If anyone were to go back and read Labor’s policy documents from before the last election, they would wonder if this government had any relationship whatsoever to the people who wrote those policy documents. Remember some of the famous statements before the election? Remember the campaign declaration: ‘This reckless spending must stop’? The government then goes out on an extravaganza of reckless spending not seen since the days of Whitlam, in fact probably even worse than the days of Whitlam. We have unbalanced budgets. We have a debt for future generations to pay that has already run to at least $120 billion.

Remember Labor’s TV ads? Remember the then Leader of the Opposition, now the Prime Minister, looking the camera in the eye and saying, ‘I am an economic conservative. I am committed to balancing the budget.’ Before the election, Kevin Rudd was saying, ‘I am an economic conservative.’ Well, Labor’s first budget has produced a $27.1 billion deficit—double the highest deficit ever previously recorded in Australia. Their 2009-10 budget predicts a record $58 billion deficit. Net public debt is to blow out to $315 billion. This is the government that said that they were economic conservatives and that the reckless spending would end. The promise was broken. That, of course, is not the only promise that was broken.

What was perhaps the flagship election promise of the Labor Party was the promise that they would deliver fibre-to-the-node broadband with speeds of 100 megabits per second to 98 per cent of Australians, beginning by Christmas 2008, at a cost of $4.7 billion. Not one element of that promise has been delivered. We are past Christmas 2009, and not a single home has been connected to Labor’s high-speed broadband. Labor axed the $900 million OPEL contract, which would have been delivering fast broadband speeds to most Australians by now. Now, they have reworked the promise. It is not 98 per cent of people anymore; it is only 90 per cent that will ever get fibre to the home. Two million Australians, mainly in regional areas, have been left out altogether. If you live in a town of under a thousand people, you do not count anymore and you have been excluded from Labor’s promise. And once more, the cost has blown out from $4.7 billion to $43 billion. Not a single house has been connected and there is no plan—no business plan, no idea how it could ever possibly be developed—another broken promise.

Do you remember when Labor said they would give a computer to every secondary school student in years nine to 12? Well, that promise is now that there is only a computer available for every second child—and only then if the state government or the parents pay for the electricity, the programs, the cables, the repairs and the upgrades. It is another promise clearly broken. Remember Labor said they would deliver an education revolution? But literacy and numeracy standards are falling. What about the promise that Labor would provide a trade training centre at all 2,650 secondary schools in Australia? ‘A trade training centre for every school’—that was the promise. But now it is a trade training centre for a cluster of schools, a cluster of towns; not for every high school in the country. It is another broken promise.

Remember how Labor said they were going to establish GroceryWatch to bring down the price of groceries, so people would have to pay less? Now, after spending $13 million on a whole series of failed GroceryWatch reporting schemes, Labor have abandoned it altogether. Today’s newspapers report the litany of increased grocery prices, showing this government has failed again to deliver on one of its election promises. What about Fuelwatch? That was going to help motorists buy the cheapest petrol. Not long after, Labor abandoned that promise as well—another broken promise.

Let us go right back to the very beginning. During the election campaign, the Prime Minister said that the parliament would resume before Christmas and ministers would not be allowed a Christmas holiday break. Well, the ministers all had their Christmas holiday break and parliament did not start until mid-February 2008. It is one of the latest beginnings to parliament ever recorded—another broken promise. Labor said, ‘We will establish an office for children and young people.’ But there is no sign of that office—another broken promise.

Remember Labor promising that they would reduce the costs paid to consultancies by $395 million? What has actually happened? Labor paid $952 million in consultancy contracts in its first two years—more than any other government in history—another broken promise. Labor said that they would provide an extra $15 million for rural research and development corporations affected by the drought. In the end, they provided $10 million, but that was for climate change activities—another broken promise.

Remember their promises about the hospital system? Labor was going to fix the hospitals. They would give the states until mid-2009 to fix the hospitals or the government would have a constitutional referendum to transfer responsibility for health to the Commonwealth. Mid-2009 has come and gone, and all Labor is proposing is a review of the last review. No action—another broken promise. People still wait in the hospital queues to get basic treatment. Bills are not being paid at country hospitals. The butcher will not deliver the meat. The veterinary surgeons have to provide the bandages in some of these places. Labor has taken no action. This is a tragic broken promise for all Australians.

What about their other big flagship program—Labor’s modern award system? No workers or employers would be worse off under this new industrial relations system with the utopian goal of making all workers better off and all employers better off. Well, it has failed dismally. Almost all employers are worse off; and so are many employees. In fact, in Queensland, so many employees are worse off that the state government has delayed for a year introducing the system rather than reduce wages for so many Australians—another clear broken promise.

Labor also said that they would have a particular relationship with the unions, and so industrial relations would improve—there would be fewer strikes. Strikes increased sixfold within months of the election of the Labor government. Under their new award scheme, hardly a day passes when there is not news of more industrial action and outrageous demands. A small shipping company just a few days ago had to agree to $50,000 an employee increase in wages just to stop another strike at a vital time.

Labor said that they would maintain and improve the Regional Partnerships program, but they axed it within days of coming to office and replaced it with their own scheme—a Better Regions program—but only promises made by Labor candidates qualify for assistance under this program. No-one else can even apply. There are no application forms for anyone else. All of it is going to fund Labor election promises. They said they were going to have a new era of clean and open government—another broken promise. It is a litany of broken promises. The parliamentary secretary, who now has responsibility for the regional development network, might like to reflect on Labor’s promises to keep the area consultative committees—another broken promise. They have all been abolished.

16:07:04 Let’s move into other areas. Remember Labor’s promise to take legal action to stop Japanese whaling. No legal action has been taken—another election promise broken. What about the promise to establish 35 general practice superclinics to improve local medical care? After two years in office there is only one superclinic in operation. Remember their promise to hold a referendum with the 2010 federal election for four-year terms for members of the House of Representatives and the Senate? The Prime Minister personally abandoned that promise on 28 January this year when he said there would be no referendum.

Also remember Labor’s promises to the Aboriginal people. Labor said they would deliver 750 new homes, rebuild 230 houses and refurbish 2,500 dwellings in the Northern Territory. They have spent $45 million and they have not built a single house. It is another broken Labor promise. What about the promise Mr Rudd made that he would update the House of Representatives on the progress towards closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage on the first sitting day of each parliamentary year? On the first sitting day of each parliamentary year he was going to report on the progress made on Indigenous disadvantage. He did not do it on the first day of parliamentary sittings in 2009 and he has not done it this week either—another broken promise. I guess he had to break that promise because there is nothing to report on this government’s progress in addressing disadvantage for the Aboriginal people. It is another broken promise. The Aboriginal people have been let down like all other Australians.

Let’s also look at Labor’s promise to spend $100 million to re-engineer Menindee Lakes to save 200 billion litres of water a year for the Murray-Darling. It has not been done; it has not happened. It has not even started. The Labor government broke their promise.

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How much water did you put into the Murray?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is another broken promise. Labor broke their promise. Don’t you have any honesty at all? These promises seemingly mean nothing to the parliamentary secretary. Labor said they will establish a coastguard. The member for Brisbane said it often. I notice he is in the House and he would recall it. He said that they would have purpose-built vessels and dedicated trained staff. Well, the member for Brisbane’s coastguard promise was abandoned within days of the election. There is no coastguard at all and there have been cutbacks in Customs and Quarantine, so there is less capability for them to do their job to help keep our borders secure.

Labor said, ‘We will create the right incentives for individuals and businesses.’ Right from their first budget cuts they gutted $1 billion from business incentives, including axing the Commercial Ready program, the Small Business Field Officers program, the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, the Global Opportunities Program and many more. They are broken promises. Labor said, ‘We will increase the overall size of the Australian Federal Police by 500 sworn officers.’ The fact is that they are only proposing 100 officers be recruited between 2008 and 2010. On top of that they have slashed the AFP’s budget and wound back the air marshals program. Remember one of the other classic promises, in writing, to the health insurance industry: ‘We will retain the private health insurance rebate.’ It is a quite clear and unequivocal promise. Yet Labor, time and time again, come into the House seeking to reduce the rebates to thousands of Australians.

Let’s remember one of Prime Minister Rudd’s other famous promises, ‘We will end the blame game.’ Did you know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that in the first 500 questions without notice in this parliament following the election of the Labor government Labor ministers blamed the coalition for their problems in 77 per cent of their answers? In 81 per cent of the questions from Labor members, the dorothy dixers, they blamed someone else. The blame game developed new life under this government. It is another set of broken promises.

So that is Labor’s record. Before the election there were many promises and one by one they were broken. There is no honesty, no credibility. Is it any wonder when the Prime Minister makes other commitments—to aged Australians, to people with disadvantage—and gives his carefully drafted and brilliantly crafted speeches that, frankly, no-one listens and no-one believes? You cannot break promise after promise and still expect people to believe you. You cannot make flamboyant comments about your vision of the future for the country when your record is a litany of broken promises: a failure to deliver, a failure to be honest with the Australian people and a failure to take any account whatsoever of the firm commitments that the government made when asking to be elected by the Australian people a little over two years ago.

It has been a record of broken promises, statements made, gullible voters believing and Australian people being let down. They are being let down by a government who have broken perhaps the most fundamental promise of all: the one that the Prime Minister made on election night. I will always remember the Prime Minister’s election night commitment that he would govern for all Australians. He may be governing for all Australians but if you live in the regions, if you pay tax, if you work, if you eat, if you drive, if you go to school, if you use electricity, if you care about the environment or if you are sick, then that promise does not cover you either. You are not one of the Australians whose interests this government has promised to govern for. The government have neglected the Australian people and broken their promises day after day, time after time, and they can never be trusted. (Time expired)

Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have been sitting here and thinking that I must be in another universe, a very different universe, given this selective shopping list and this supposed litany of failure. We have just heard from the Leader of the Nationals, someone I have enjoyed having some discussions with in the corridors. I just checked and found that he had been a minister for 10 years, with I think some 14 months as transport minister. He must be excruciatingly embarrassed in private moments when he reflects on what was not done for regional Australia, if we just take that point, during the Howard government’s time in office.

I compare that with the record investment in infrastructure projects right across the country and the $1 billion in community infrastructure, and this is money that is going directly from the Commonwealth to every council right across Australia—565 councils—for projects identified not by any of us sitting here in Canberra but by shire presidents, mayors and deputy mayors across the country. I know the Leader of the Nationals will be aware of these projects because he will have heard firsthand of the enthusiasm and the thanks and the gratitude coming from local government in his area and across the country. I know he would know that because he is indeed a leader who is in touch with his constituency. He would also know about the enthusiasm that comes from many on his own side of politics.

There is a conservative National Party leader who has been prepared to be absolutely upfront about the unique collaborative arrangement and the partnership that has now been forged with the federal government. I am talking about Brendon Grylls, my colleague in Western Australia. I say to the Leader of the Nationals, as it is very interesting, that I was in Perth last week for meetings with the new Regional Development Australia network. We had an induction session for the new chairs and deputy chairs, and my Western Australian colleague Brendon Grylls was there. Was there any complaint about the ACCs that have been wound up? Not a murmur. There was an embracing of the new system that has been set up, Regional Development Australia, because, I say to the Leader of the Nationals, your colleague in Western Australia is acutely aware of the record investment that is going into Western Australia at every level—investment in roads, rails and ports, in regional centres, in helping that state develop the next wave of spectacular prosperity. I have to say that the very good group of chairs and deputy chairs that gathered in Perth last week is absolutely on board in wanting to work with us on regional road maps and to bring that information to Canberra. In fact, a regional network forum will be held here in March this year, and I do hope the Leader of the Nationals will be attending that—

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hope you’ll invite me.

Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You will most certainly be invited. I look forward to your contribution and I know that you are going to hear that people certainly feel that there is a different level of engagement and they are looking forward to identifying the Commonwealth programs that will help them with both the economic and the social prosperity in their regions.

To go to the specific content of this matter of public importance, I do think it takes a bit of front to suggest that this government has not been supportive of families, of small business operators and indeed of pensioners. We have, importantly, kept the economy strong and supported Australian jobs, small businesses and working families through the global recession. As a result we have national unemployment at 5.5 per cent. This is an astonishing achievement. I see the member for Berowra in the chamber today. He would know that in our area of northern Sydney the figure is even lower than that—about four per cent, 4.2 per cent. It has everything to do with our management of the economy over the past year and everything to do with the money that went into the stimulus, and that has kept Australians working.

I am very glad that the Leader of the Nationals has seen fit to put this forward. When I think of failure to deliver for families, for small business people and for pensioners, my thoughts also go to a matter that would concern him a great deal, particularly in relation to small business people and pensioners travelling on the section of the Bruce Highway between Cooroy and Curra in his own electorate of Wide Bay. We know well the words of the Leader of the Nationals when it comes to this particular stretch of the road. The Leader of the Nationals has been quoted several times as saying he travels the highway regularly, with his heart in his mouth. He says:

I’m always pleased when I turn off … you never feel completely safe on that road.

He has also called it a ‘dreadfully accident-prone section, rated the worst piece of the highway in Australia’. Yet, for all his expressed concern, what did the member for Wide Bay deliver for his electorate during his 12 years in office? By the way, this was during the boom years, the years of plenty. The member for Wide Bay spent 10 years as a minister and 14 months as transport minister, and I am very pleased to say that the Rudd Labor government is a very different government to the one that the member for Wide Bay was part of.

Work started on the Cooroy to Curra section of the Bruce Highway in September last year. We were committed to getting works underway quickly and to provide certainty for those families and the small business operators and pensioners that you have talked about. The upgrade will not only improve safety on this stretch of road; it will create—this is what the opposition does not want to listen to—some 650 direct jobs and a further 1,000 indirect jobs. It is a great boost to Queensland’s regional economy.

We chose the eastern alignment option because it was outside the footprint of the proposed Traveston dam, its total cost was estimated at $613 million and work could commence in September last year. That is part of a record $2.6 billion investment to improve the Bruce Highway. Yet, as is apparent, the member for Wide Bay has little regard for families, for small business people and for pensioners. He has such little regard that after the May budget he tried to run a bit of a scare campaign, telling his electorate:

The money announced by the government … is to construct a section of the Bruce Highway between Cooroy and Curra which is to be flooded by the Traveston Crossing Dam.

This is not true. The eastern alignment had been agreed but he was still scaremongering. Late last year the member for Wide Bay changed his mind again. Now he was saying, ‘The existing alignment would have been shorter and cheaper.’ That was not true. The western alignment would have meant further delay and higher costs as a decision on the Traveston dam was needed before work could start. It is pretty obvious: you would not want to build a highway that would be flooded. Its cost was $646 million. That is $33 million more than the selected option. Rather than further delay this important project after 12 years of inaction, the Rudd Labor government decided to move forward quickly and to provide certainty for local communities—for the families, for the small business operators and for the pensioners for whom you are so concerned. Work is underway and taxpayers are going to see value for money.

There are commitments that the government were elected to fulfil but which the opposition still refuses to let us fulfil because of its obstructionist behaviour in the Senate.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like on private health insurance.

Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will come to that. I am very happy to come to that question. I am talking for the moment, of course, about our commitment to climate change. We all know that the opposition leader holds unreconstructed extremist views on a range of topics. The whole country knows exactly what the Leader of the Opposition thinks about climate change. I think his hesitant and unconvincing responses whenever he is asked about the science of this tells us everything we need to know. The opposition leader has confirmed that this week by coming out with what we know is a con job of a climate policy—a policy which will cost more, which does less and which is unfunded. We have said since day one that there are three problems with the opposition leader’s climate con job: firstly, it slugs taxpayers instead of big polluters; secondly, it does not reduce emissions; and, thirdly, it is unfunded.

On Tuesday it was confirmed in the Liberals’ own figures that this con job would cost taxpayers three times more than the CPRS over the next 10 years. Yesterday the Leader of the Opposition refused to rule out cutting funding to hospitals and defence to pay for the unfunded $10 billion climate con job. Today it has been confirmed by experts in the Department of Climate Change that rather than reducing emissions this policy will actually increase them. What an extraordinary climate change policy: it will increase emissions. Rather than achieve what we want—that is, a minimum five per cent emissions reduction target—the Liberal climate con job will see emissions increase by 13 per cent from year 2000 levels. That means that taxpayers—families, business operators and pensioners—will be slugged with a $10 billion tax bill for a policy that will actually see emissions increase. What a policy. It is a joke. Only someone as perverse as the opposition leader could construe that as taking action on climate change. I think it has now been put beyond any doubt that the $10 billion climate con job costs more, does less and will mean increased taxes or a massive cut to services. What services will be cut?

So there are commitments that the Rudd government wants to honour that are being blocked by a perverse, extremist position taken by the opposition. In May 2009 the Rudd government chose to delay the start of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme by one year, until July 2011, to help Australian companies manage the impacts of the global recession. This was an economically responsible decision to take as Australian businesses were dealing with the worst global recession since the Great Depression. Despite the delayed start date, the signal for businesses to invest and start planning for a low-carbon economy was still clear. Unfortunately, the sceptics—led by the opposition leader—have taken over the Liberal Party and have dumped their election commitment to emissions trading. This was a commitment that was taken to the election by the previous Prime Minister, John Howard. It came late, but it was there. The Rudd government remains committed to the introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme as action on climate change is in Australia’s national interest. We must begin the switch to a clean, greener economy. That is essential. So we have reintroduced the legislation to the parliament this week and we encourage all senators to support action on climate change.

Let me come to some other areas where we are helping families and businesses. The Rudd government is committed to delivering a trades training centre to every secondary school across the country by 2018. That program is on track. It is a $2½ billion commitment and allows every school an amount between $500,000 and $1½ million for their centre.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At every school?

Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would welcome a visit by the member for Casey to my electorate. He can come to Bennelong and I will take him to Epping Boys High School. They are just about to start work on their trades training centre. They got their application in in the first round and it was approved.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How many laptops have they got?

Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will come to the issue of laptops. That is very interesting. If you have a spare moment, I would welcome the member for Casey to come up and visit Epping Boys High School. Principal Peter Garrard will be more than happy to show you the construction work that is going on up there. They have their program in place already. In fact I have another story about Epping Boys High School. Like so many members, last year I went to year 12 graduations at the end of the school year. For the first time last year Epping Boys High School, which is one of the most competitive high schools in my electorate, was able to hold that event at the school—(Time expired)

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bennelong told us in her first breath she thinks she is on another planet. By that remark, she showed she thinks she is still at the ABC where you have a licence to tell as many fibs as you like or distort the truth. Again, this was a challenge—

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for O’Connor is sailing close to the wind.

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am practised at sailing close to the wind, Madam Deputy Speaker. This was a challenge not only—

Consideration interrupted.