Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity today to recount some of the most unbelievable things that our taxpayer dollars are funding under this government. If, like me, you are a keen viewer of sport you will remember the massive ad campaign that the government ran during this year's AFL and NRL grand finals. The ad promoting the government's plan for energy policy in Australia cost the Australian electorate $760,000. This is a disgusting waste of money when you consider that the ad ran all over Western Australia, a state that isn't even impacted by the government's energy plan.

Let's not even get started on the waste of money that this government's same-sex marriage postal survey was. But perhaps my favourite example of stupid government spending is one that came from a constituent. Brett called my office to advice that he had accrued a 20c credit on his child support account that could not be refunded because it was such a small amount of money. He understood that he would probably never see his 20c again but he became incensed when he received a 50c letter in his mailbox a month later as a statement. His daughter turned 18 a decade ago and, since then, he has received that letter every month at a total cost of $82 since. For the same price, the government could have paid Brett back 410 times. For useless advertising campaigns, for a $120 million non-binding, non-compulsory postal survey, Australians have become increasingly frustrated by this government's waste.