Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Senator Conroy) and the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (Senator Carr) to questions without notice asked by Senators Barnett and Carol Brown today relating to consultancy contracts and to income support for students.

Labor’s wasteful and reckless spending is now systemic right across the government. I say that because today I can announce that $952 million worth of consultancy contracts have been awarded by this government since it was elected two years ago. That is approaching $1 billion in consultancy contracts as of today.

That is a disgrace because it is on the back of a hollow promise from the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner, prior to the election that he would cut consultancy spending by $395 million over a four-year period. That is a huge amount of money and he said he would be cutting it. What has happened? Spending on consultancies has gone up and now this government is the highest-spending government in Australia political and parliamentary history. It is approaching $1 billion. As of today, the official figure on the AusTender website—it is available for members of the public to see—is $952 million. It is a disgrace.

They have promised one thing and they have delivered the exact opposite. Waste and mismanagement is now systemic across the government. The question with respect to this government is, it would appear, Kevin Rudd’s complete disregard for obtaining value for money for taxpayers. In less than two years they have wasted billions of taxpayers’ dollars, despite their hollow promises to cut waste. I can refer to a Courier-Mail article of 12 November headed ‘Budget blow-out hits Kevin Rudd’s war on waste’:

THE Rudd Government has blown $2.85 billion—or $130 for every Australian—on financial waste and mismanagement since being elected to office.

It is a disgraceful record and they should hang their heads in shame. Yet Senator Conroy came into the Senate today and, in answer to my question, pooh-poohed the question. The article goes on:

A string of spending blowouts and broken election promises has undermined Labor’s commitment to crack down on wasteful budget expenditure during the global recession.

It is wasteful, it is reckless and it is systemic. It is in complete disregard to the interests of taxpayers.

Only last week it was confirmed that the government wasted $7.7 million, with another $700,000 in contingency costs, on the GROCERYchoice website, which the government was willing to spend over $13 million on. That is over $8 million wasted on a website because of that hollow promise made prior to the last election that they wanted to bring down grocery prices. We all knew that they could not be believed, but they tried to foist this idea on the Australian public. The Senate report canned the GROCERYchoice website big-time. The Senate report said:

… GROCERYchoice was a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money, clearly demonstrating the Government’s apparent disregard for obtaining value for money.

It identifies the total cost. Recommendation 8, the last recommendation, states:

The committee recommends that the Government learn from this episode of waste and mismanagement and ensure that such inappropriate and careless spending does not occur again in the future, noting that now, more than ever, value for money for the taxpayer should be a top priority.

That is exactly right, and let us hope that this government does learn its lesson. They have put forward these hollow promises and they have not delivered. In fact, the exact opposite has occurred. That wasteful spending is just another broken election promise for Labor.

We have a top 10 list in the Labor Waste annual report, which is on the laborwaste.com website, and I encourage members of the public to send in information and concerns about the waste that this government is putting the Australian people through. You have the GROCERYchoice website, the school stimulus debacle, the highest consultancies cost in history for any Australian government, laptops in schools, the Northern Territory housing program of $45 million and not one house, the tax bonus waste, stimulus advertising, the broadband tender—$20 million wasted right there and then—climate change advertising and of course the 2020 Summit, where $2 million was wasted. It is a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money and they should be ashamed. (Time expired)