Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

It is great to hear that the minister is raring to go. We were told that this package had to be passed by last Friday. I have canvassed the arguments. The hectoring and bullying of the Senate by the leader of the government has now been blown out of the water by the evidence of the bureaucrats before the committee. But, if there are to be amendments to such a substantial package, then clearly the opposition and other senators are entitled to know what they are. To simply have an open-ended situation where we might only get to see the fine print by tomorrow morning, if that early, clearly is inappropriate.

For the benefit of the minister, within the package of bills we are considering is a bill entitled the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Amendment Bill 2009, which at section 5A(3) tells us that there is to be an increase of $125 billion to the total face value of stock and securities, and that is on the existing $75 billion. I confess I was never good at maths, but I thought $75 billion and $125 billion might add up to $200 billion. That is a part of the package that we are being asked to vote on. Sure, the majority of discussion has been on the $42 billion part, but this is a specific piece of legislation which I understood you wanted passed.

I was not going to ask this, but I may just follow up on Senator Ludlam’s questions. Whilst I understand that there is a coordinator-general to be placed in the Prime Minister’s office, if I am not mistaken the reporting by the states will in fact be by a coordinator-general who is a state public servant paid for by the state government who will then be reporting to the coordinator-general in the Prime Minister’s office. If we want robustness and transparency, I doubt that the state coordinator is necessarily going to dob in his or her state and say, ‘We have been missing all the benchmarks and guidelines.’ So, whilst there is somebody, as I understand it, in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, that person will be reported to by state officials paid for by the state government. I must say that does not give me much confidence that there will be that robustness of reporting. If we look at how the states report on hospitals, education, policing, roads and all their other responsibilities, it does not give one much confidence.

Can I just briefly say that it has been interesting listening to the debate this evening, with people talking about insulation, houses et cetera. The giveaways are all very nice. But, of course, the real thing here is the $200 billion debt—$9,500 per man, woman and child in this country—that will have to be repaid some time in the future.

I made those comments whilst the minister was liaising with his advisers. I have no criticism of that, but I do want his attention for the specific questions that I have. I would like to know whether cabinet approved this package and, if so, when they approved the package. When was the UEFO signed off to go to the printer? By whom was it signed off?