Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Ludwig, as the patron senator for Bennelong, I keep a very close eye on what happens in that seat.

Let us look at the government’s $200 million on campaign advertising despite pledges, when in opposition, to slash federal spending on advertising. There was a story today in the Australian. And, as I mentioned, let us look at the blatant and shameless political spending on school signs, which has been exposed by the Australian Electoral Commission as politically motivated. You are not even being subtle with the signage at the schools. In the Investing in Our Schools Program, we had little plaques put in discreet places at the school. But you have to have the big sign right in front of the school, right near the entrance to the school and right near the entrance to the polling booth. If that is what you think it is going to take at the next election for people to vote Labor and if you already feel desperate enough to have to put those signs up in schools, then maybe you have a problem.

You are pursuing this political strategy. You are borrowing more and more money to spend more and more money in marginal seats, thereby imposing an absolutely huge debt burden not only on this generation but on future generations. As I said, the real concern is that this reckless spending is going to result in higher taxes and higher interest rates.

In conclusion, I will say this in relation to New South Wales: what was once the premier state in this country has now been reduced to a soap opera. Every day we have been seeing the incompetence of Labor in New South Wales, but now we are going to see the spectacle of federal Labor—those very people who were in Sussex Street when New South Wales was sent to rack and ruin and who are now sitting here—going to bail them out.