Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by the Minister for Employment Participation and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery (Senator Arbib) and Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Senator Conroy) to questions without notice today.

Senator Conroy might well believe that he is completely on message, but people listening today would be entitled to ask just who in the government has responsibility for spending. The stark reality, from answers given today, is that the Rudd Labor government has simply let spending get out of control. No-one, it seems, not the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the finance minister nor, indeed, the Deputy Prime Minister is capable of prudently managing the nation’s finances.

Mr Tanner is very fond of lecturing the coalition. He gets himself asked a dorothy dixer in the House of Representatives and then, as he did yesterday, wants to see what the coalition is doing about savings. I can only assume that these homilies to the House are an attempt to cover his own, no doubt acute, embarrassment as the finance minister on the beat who has presided over reckless spending. There has been $124 billion in new spending racked up just since Labor took office. That is the largest debt and deficit in modern Australian history.

There is a growing concern in the community that Labor has lost control of the nation’s finances with runaway spending, debt and deficit. If any clearer evidence were needed of Labor’s inability to manage money, it is now revealed that the $14.7 billion of borrowed taxpayers’ money for the Building the Education Revolution program is replete with examples of waste, inefficiencies, duplication and bungled administration of public finances that have been asked about in the House and the Senate with completely unsatisfactory answers. The public is entitled to an explanation.

The Deputy Prime Minister, of course, has got form when it is comes to bungled policy. The Computers in Schools program comes to mind; her costings blew out from $800 million to $2.2 billion. She is now delivering half of what was promised and costing more than twice, which is hardly value for money. This would hardly instil confidence in the Deputy Prime Minister’s managerial skills but now, of course, she has been allowed to administer the $14.7 billion stimulus for schools. Should we be surprised at the unfolding debacle?

This is a government addicted to spending and the finance minister has failed to keep it in check. After frittering away $20 billion in cash handouts, ministers are now running around in hard hats trying to convince the Australian public that the money they are splashing around now is being better spent. The truth is that this rushed $14.7 billion tsunami of spending on Australian schools is being poorly implemented; it is undeniable. There are no checks in place on the value for money for individual projects. Ms Gillard and Mr Tanner are content to play the global financial crisis defence every time their accountability on spending is called into question. Yes, we are all concerned about Australian jobs but this is simply a cloak that Labor is hiding behind.

It is not too much to ask the government of the day to show Australians how they are achieving value for money with this $14.7 billion stimulus, how they are meeting probity guidelines or if they are properly accounting for hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars. Senator Conroy’s reaction today in question time was simply extraordinary. Why is the government so sensitive if, indeed, they have nothing to hide and if, indeed, everything they have spent in this $14.7 billion stimulus stacks up? Why are they so worried about showing the Auditor-General?

When poor examples continue to surface in regard to large amounts of mismanaged public funds, Australians deserve answers. A perfect example of poor decision making was highlighted in the Australian only yesterday. A school in Senator Conroy’s own state of Victoria, a Montessori School, was found to have been given some money but that they no longer comply with the prescribed minimum standards for registration as a school. What is going on with this debacle of a program? If the government is confident that they are beyond reproach, they should not hide from scrutiny from the Auditor-General on the apparent waste and mismanagement. Australian taxpayers’ expect and deserve accountability. Instead of worrying about the coalition, Mr Tanner needs to clean up the Labor government’s waste, inefficiency and mismanagement in his own backyard.