Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say, in relation to Labor’s backflip on the access card, that the stumbling, bumbling performance today by Senator Ludwig should be ringing alarm bells in the community that the Rudd Labor government is incompetent and has no plan whatsoever to deal with welfare fraud. Just one month ago, on 13 February, Senator Ludwig was actually boasting about scrapping the coalition’s access card and crowing that it was the financially responsible thing to do. He said that Labor had better priorities than saving taxpayers from being the victims of fraud, such as the education revolution. He said:

We are focused on the practical things ... rather than a card.

So, as of 13 February, Senator Ludwig was very clear that Labor would not have a smart card. Today, of course, he could not rule it out. So, within the space of four weeks, what has been revealed is that the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has put it back on the table. This is a backflip of spectacular proportions, and the public are owed an explanation. Either Senator Ludwig has been reversed rolled or gazumped by the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister has finally woken up to the fact that there is a need to reduce fraud on the Commonwealth and to reduce the complexity of there being 17 different payment cards to access Commonwealth benefits and has woken up to the fact that the Medicare card is 23 years old and the Australian Federal Police have said that it is more often than not enabling fraud rather than preventing it.

It is interesting that Senator Ludwig said, in a press release on 1 March:

... welfare fraud is a significant problem and ... the ultimate victims are ordinary Australian taxpayers.

His solution—and I do not think this is a joke; I think he meant it to be taken seriously—was to announce a ‘Fraud Fortnight’, an initiative which sounded like an extended Halloween trick or treat session lasting two weeks, which was supposed to raise awareness of welfare fraud. You have to say to Senator Ludwig: that really does not cut it. Fraudsters are getting away with ripping off welfare and Labor are going to have to do more than trick or treating.

So what did Mr Rudd come in and say to the minister? He said, ‘Look, we’ve got a fraud problem which we’ve got to fix.’ What was Senator Ludwig’s response? He said, ‘We’ve got a sort of trick or treat, Prime Minister; that should scare off the fraudsters.’ Mr Rudd was not happy with that. He preferred to do what he does best; that is, to look at coalition policies—which, of course, he could copy.

This might sound like a case of deja vu, because we know that this me-tooism has become something of a habit for the Labor government. When they do not have a plan of their own, when they do not know how to deal with any of the really difficult problems—the heavy lifting that is necessary in government—they seem to be coming round to the idea that the coalition’s ideas were not too bad after all. You only have to look at Senator Conroy’s pathetic performance on trying to roll out a broadband network. He has adopted the same expert taskforce, with much the same members, as the coalition and he has already broken an election promise in allowing it to slide beyond the promised time frame. As Senator Ludwig’s answer makes very clear today, you can see very clearly that Labor are desperate to find some answer to the problem of welfare fraud. The Australian people are not that dumb that they cannot see that this is a direct and obvious steal from the government’s access card.

The coalition government was already well advanced in the design and implementation of a smart card to address these problems, and yet Labor, as opportunistic as ever in opposition, could not help themselves. They decided to chuck it out, waste a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money; and now, in government, Labor realise that Australia needs to use technology to address welfare fraud. They want to develop a consumer friendly and useful smart card to address fraud. What is clear from this display and Senator Ludwig’s complete inability to rule out an access card is that is what they are going to do. They know they should not have ditched it in the first place and they have simply adopted ours. (Time expired)