John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A great champion is one who can turn adversity into triumph. There will be 1,200 highly skilled workers out of work at Ford, which announced that it was ceasing production in Australia after 93 years—a major adversity. Come in spinner: a triumphant announcement was made of relief packages and then the operational headquarters of the NDIS coming to a Ford factory near you! A champion of spin, but no champion—no Shane Warne. There will be no more Falcons, which were the most reliable and durable taxi—the family car; the fastest four-door car in the world and a legendary race car. No more.

In Bennelong over the last 5½ years of Labor government thousands of workers have lost their jobs. According to the most recent ABS data, over 3,000 small businesses in Bennelong have closed their doors each year under this government. These small business people were suffering from escalating energy costs and unfair competition practices by the big players and then finally succumbed to the most difficult trading times of their lives. They were promised Grocery Watch, but what they got was a great big tax—more regulation and more broken promises. Federal policy hits Bennelong.

There are 14 multinational pharmaceutical companies operating in Bennelong—big businesses that invest big money in the creation of life-saving drugs. They are companies crucial to the nation's health. They need certainty. They need to be able to trust a government that they enter into agreements with, like the MOU that confirmed that the PBAC process would be honoured in regard to approval of new drugs to be listed on the PBS. When, at the first hurdle, this did not eventuate, the response around this global industry was that Australia is a country of sovereign risk.

There has been a loss of confidence; there have been cutbacks and job losses. Federal policy hits Bennelong. Now those opposite promise Gonski. The timing is marvellous! This big-spending plan of investment in education at the very moment that they promise to rein in spending because we are facing economic peril and national debt projected to exceed $290 billion before the year is out—ramming through the House 71 pages of amendments to a nine-page bill, with no notice, and allowing only 90 minutes of debate, showing that this government prefers to turn this important issue into a political football rather than engage in genuine debate. Even those with the shortest of memories will remember their last investment in education, the BER. In Bennelong alone there were 15 school halls built that never taught one child one thing but had an average cost to taxpayers of over $2 million per building—federal policy hits Bennelong again.

Then there is border protection, a policy that worked but is now sunk with, in its place, boats arriving in ever greater numbers. This may at times seem a distant problem other than for the small item of a cost blow-out of some $6 billion. Concerns raised by Bennelong residents that asylum seekers were being housed inappropriately at Macquarie University, side-by-side with female international students, were dismissed. Now one of these Red Cross clients is waiting in custody on charges of sexual assault on one of those students—federal policy hits Bennelong again. 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead' was said, but there is a carbon tax and it hits everything. Even our local pool has seen its costs go up and up—more broken promises, and federal policy hits Bennelong again.

In Bennelong, whether you are trying to survive as a small business operator or desperately wanting to keep your job, if you want your child to get the best education for the money that is available, if you are a multinational pharmaceutical company, if you are a university wanting to attract foreign students, or if you simply want to take a swim this all-encompassing array of policies so hastily dreamt up and wastefully implemented hits everyone in Bennelong. Federal policy hits Bennelong again and again. There is no spin for Bennelong, just hard facts. This government has not missed us once over the past five years and, when you are gone, we will not miss you.