Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on this matter of public importance—the increasing lack of financial discipline being shown by the Howard government. The fundamental obligations of government, national security and economic management, require sober and diligent toil. They require government to be constantly vigilant in its responsibilities to the electorate. Australian taxpayers demand that their government be constantly watchful of the efficiency and effectiveness of government spending. Not only is this an economic imperative—wasteful government spending can only fuel inflation, driving up interest rates; it is also a moral imperative. The money that ministers spend on government programs is not their own. It is taxpayers’ money, which needs to be spent with the utmost care and attention.

Unfortunately, in recent times the Howard government has been complacent about its responsibility for financial management. In recent times, the Howard government has frequently betrayed its obligations to manage taxpayers’ money attentively and soberly. The most shocking example of this dereliction of duty in recent times is the shambolic process that led to the Prime Minister’s announcement of the government’s $10 billion water plan in January this year. Through the Senate estimates processes Labor was able to discover that the Department of Finance and Administration was told about this water plan late on the afternoon of Monday, 22 January, less than three days before its public announcement—that is right: just three days. Departmental secretary Ian Watt stated that the department of finance was only asked to ‘run an eye lightly over the costings’ of the package. Similarly, Treasury was not asked to prepare costings for this plan, nor was it asked to model the economic impact of the plan.

To top it all off, neither the Minister for Finance and Administration nor the Treasurer was able to fulfil their fiscal responsibilities with respect to this plan at the cabinet table, because the water plan was not taken to cabinet—$10 billion and it did not go to cabinet. I am not surprised, Senator Joyce, that the National Party have been up in arms behind the scenes. For all the minister for finance knew, the Prime Minister was running to save the Murray-Darling with a water bucket that was full of holes. Shoddy behaviour like this is how Third World countries run governments. It is how tin-pot dictatorships exercise financial control.