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

‘We might need it one day’—thank you, Senator Cash—‘and we might need it one day soon, because this is all falling apart.’ The very interesting thing is that hospitals and health have not been mentioned in this package. Guess what. I wonder what is suddenly going to start coming out of that $200 billion limit you are asking for. It looks like an omission from this, so I am sure the Prime Minister has a little plan in his back pocket. The point is that this spending is not anywhere near finished. You do not ask for an increase to $200 billion without the intent to spend it. That money is going to put the burden of debt onto our children for years and years.

What is in the package for infrastructure? Schools. We are great believers in investment in schools. The coalition put in place the Investing in Our Schools program. What a great program that was. How much the schools responded to and completely applauded that program. Of course, the Labor government got rid of it. Isn’t it interesting to look at all this funding that is going to schools at the moment? If the state Labor governments were doing their job properly and were putting the money towards schools as they were supposed to, the ALP government would not even have to be doing this. The Labor governments around the country are failing our school system, and they know it. This is just a cover-up. It comes back to the point that this is not an economic stimulus; it is a political stimulus. This is about bailing out state Labor governments. If they had been doing their job properly, the money would not be needed.

It is interesting to note what else is not in the package—rural Australia. Senator Stephens, as somebody who professes to be from rural Australia, you should be absolutely appalled. What is the total value of the package? $42 billion. How much do you expect rural Australia to get out of that? Maybe $15 billion? $10 billion? $5 billion? Maybe we should cut it down a bit—$3 billion out of $42 billion? Does that sound fair? Maybe it is a little bit light on for rural Australia. We get $20 million. There is a big outlay from the Labor government! As a percentage, I would say that that shows exactly how much Labor cares about rural Australia.

Hospitals are not in the package. ‘Kevin Rudd will fix our hospitals’ was the quote from the current Prime Minister during the election campaign. There is nothing at all in this package for them. Maybe it is to come later. Maybe we will see it next time around. Why isn’t it a priority now? That is an absolute priority for people across this nation.