Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

When we come into this place, those of us on this side of the chamber have a very firm belief that we have a responsibility to ensure a secure future for the Australian people. That is what we believe; that is a priority. That is absolutely what we strive to do every single day. There is no doubt that we are facing very serious times, as my colleague Senator Cormann said. We are facing very difficult times.

This package of bills that we are looking at, the Appropriation (Nation Building and Jobs) Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 and related bills brought to us by the Labor government, is $42 billion worth of economic stimulation, according to them—a $42 billion package that, according to them, is designed to stimulate the economy in these difficult times. Earlier today, my colleague Senator Mason pointed out that in fact it is not an economic stimulus; it is a political stimulus. You barely have to scratch the surface of this package to realise that it is not going to deliver the economic stimulus that is needed. That is what we on this side believe, and that is the reason why we are not supporting these bills.

The primary intent of this legislation is not going to be achieved. Labor wants to have that economic stimulus; we do not believe it is there. You do not have to go very far into this package to see that political stimulus. All the hype and media focus is on the package providing an economic stimulus, but, if you drill down—and if the media has a close look—line by line through this package, you see that it smacks of political stimulus.

One of the quite extraordinary things about this is the absolute arrogance of the Labor government in asking the coalition to tick off on this package within a matter of 48 hours. That is just extraordinary. It is even more extraordinary when you go back to when the coalition were in government—and you do not have to go back very far—and see that we were subjected to hours and hours of railing from the then opposition, from this side of the chamber, that they were not able to scrutinise legislation, that they were not able to look at things properly, that it was a dereliction of duty that they were not able to have a good look at legislation. And now what do we see? We see that very same Labor Party sitting on the other side saying, ‘Rush it through, tick it off, don’t look at it, don’t scrutinise it; we don’t want you to say a thing about this after any scrutiny—just tick it off.’ I do not know about anybody else, but to me that position is the direct opposite of the one they had when they sat over here. Now they have moved over there, they have decided that it is quite all right to rush stuff through and expect the coalition to tick it off, thank you very much.

Senator Cormann made some comments earlier about the hypocritical nature of that. I will just say that it is extraordinary, and the Australian people should look at what the Labor Party did when they were in opposition compared to what they are doing now they are in government. It is $42 billion—that is, $42,000 million—and the Rudd government expected the Liberal and National parties to say: ‘That’s fine, Prime Minister; you just pop that right on through. I’m sure the Australian people will be fine if we tick off on $42 billion worth of their money without having a look at it! But, sure, we’ll just go right ahead and do that.’ We do not think so. We want to have appropriate scrutiny of these bills. It is right and it is proper and it is fair, and the Australian people deserve it.

My very good colleague Senator Joyce said earlier today, ‘Why the haste?’ What difference do a few days make when we are going to have some proper scrutiny? Why the haste? As he said, ‘Is there a pile of boom gates behind a shed somewhere that might be pulled out and we can have a bit of a quick run-out around the country?’ I do not think so! While boom gates are very worthy and very necessary things for rural Australia—living in rural Australia I absolutely know that, as do my other rural colleagues in the chamber on this side—it is not actually the first thing that comes to mind when we are talking about what is going to lead us to an economic recovery. I cannot see President Obama sitting over there going: ‘Right, I’m in now. What am I going to do? Hmm. Quick, think: Economic recovery, 300 million people, $900 billion—I know! Boom gates!’ It is not appropriate. While that is only one part of this package, it is an example that comes back to my earlier statement about it being a political stimulus. That is about politics.

My good colleague Senator Joyce also mentioned the pink batts in the ceiling this morning—another thing to drive the economic recovery. And my very good colleague Senator Williams pointed out that for a very close companion of his, this was going to do her absolutely no good at all in her house. So how much work, how much scrutiny have the government put into what they are doing? Minister Wong was asked this afternoon in question time about the Energy Efficient Homes program and about the batts going into the homes. The question was: what was the estimate of the carbon dioxide that will be emitted in the manufacture and distribution of the insulation required for the 2.2 million homes targeted under the government’s program? Guess what? She did not know. The minister could not answer that question. This is from a government, from a side that rails constantly about how important the environment is. And it is. It is extremely important. And in spite of the minister’s comments that we often hear about this side of the chamber, we are very, very conscious of the importance of the environment on this side of the chamber, particularly those of us who are farmers. We realise that if you do not look after the land, the land will not look after you.

But a question like that, a question that anybody would think, ‘Hmmm, perhaps the government’s actually considered what the effect of rolling out these batts is, seeing that it’s such a great idea and it’s one of their keynote things’—the minister could not answer the question. Is this indicative of the amount of work and scrutiny that has gone into their own package? If they do not know the answers, how on earth are the Australian people going to get the answers? How on earth are the people in Australia going to have any confidence that the Labor government have put this package together with the right amount of analysis, scrutiny, foresight and thought that it deserves? It is that very reason—that is, that we do not believe they have—why we are not supporting it. We are not going to support it for precisely those reasons.

Interestingly, my colleague Senator Cormann said earlier that the Labor Party has reverted to type. He is quite right. Borrow, borrow, borrow; spend, spend, spend; borrow, borrow, borrow—it is what they know, it is what they do. ‘Sound economic management’ are three words that are not in their vocabulary. It is about borrowing and it is about spending, and it is not their money. The $42 billion is not money that has suddenly fallen out of the sky recently or that we have managed to pull up from underneath a building. This is Australian taxpayers’ dollars. This is Australian people’s money. And $42 billion is an extraordinarily huge amount of money—42 thousand million dollars. Perhaps the ALP has not realised it, but going into debt has its consequences. It has consequences. And who is going to pay it back?

I will tell you who is going to pay it back: our children. It is our children who are going to pay it back. It is my William, my Henry, Barnaby Joyce’s four, all of my colleagues’ children, and every other family’s children in this country who are going to pay this back. I do not know if the Labor Party have actually thought about that, but these are real children that are going to be burdened with this debt for years and years and years to come. Debt for a package that we do not believe is even going to go close to delivering the economic stimulus that is actually required.

We are not going to tick off $42 billion of spending that is going to plunge mums, dads and our children into enormous debt for years and years and years. Mr Rudd, the Prime Minister, is constantly talking about working families, as are all of the other Labor members because they work on message and they are like little parrots and they all say exactly the same thing all of the time. They are constantly talking about working families. Well, working families are going to be working for a very, very long time to pay this back.