Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers from Senator Conroy. In doing so, I refer to Senator Conroy’s actions in January, when he had a personal holiday in Colorado. He said on the public record that it was a private holiday ‘which was fully paid for by me’; yet it was revealed in the media yesterday, thanks to the good investigative journalism of Ellen Whinnett at the Sunday Herald Sun, that Kerry Stokes, billionaire businessman and part owner of Channel 7, actually provided Senator Conroy with a free lift pass. Of what value that was, I do not know, but it was paid for by Mr Stokes. Of course, this was just a month before Senator Conroy, on behalf of the federal Labor government, announced a $250 million tax cut to the free-to-air television operators.

Let’s put it on the table, let’s come clean: let’s say exactly what happened, when it happened and why it happened. What was Mr Stokes trying to gain by offering this free pass and what was Senator Conroy doing in accepting a gift of this nature in the ritzy resort in Colorado? These are questions that need to be answered, and Minister Conroy should come clean. We have already seen the example of Mike Kaiser’s $450,000 special deal as ‘government relations advisor’ for the rollout of the government’s new entity, NBN Co. In my view, it smacks of cronyism. It smacks of special deals; it smacks of special jobs for special mates.

This is the type of government we have in Australia today. It is not good enough. The public do not like it. So many promises have been made that have now been broken. We have seen so much waste of taxpayers’ money. The public are now starting to see through the spin and that there is no substance. This is the minister responsible for $30 million in a botched NBN rollout tender. The tender process went on for months and months and in the end had to be cancelled. Seventeen million dollars of that, of course, was directly in taxpayers’ money and the other $13-odd million was the tenderers putting in their best effort. The minister knew early on that the process was flawed but allowed it to continue, again abusing the process and abusing taxpayers’ money.

We have had the examples of GROCERYchoice, with nearly $10 million wasted, of the Fuelwatch debacle and of the NBN rollout tender debacle, with $30 million wasted. We have had promises like, ‘Let’s fix the public hospital system by 30 June 2009’—and what has happened? Nothing. No delivery on that promise. We have had the GP superclinics promised; they have not been delivered. The childcare places in schools have not been delivered. This is a government of empty promises. You have had the promise to cut back on consultancy fees. They are now at a record of over $1 billion over the two years of the government. They promised to cut it back $400 million. This government is a disgrace and the waste and mismanagement must stop.

On the NBN rollout in Tasmania, Senator Conroy said they were on time. What a joke! He was in Georgetown, Northern Tasmania in April last year with the full fanfare and the Premier announcing that broadband was to be rolled out in July 2009. They are one year late, and he is trying to make the case that they are on time. It is a joke. There is no business plan for Tasmania. They say it is an estimated $700 million, but they will not come clean. They are not answering questions I have on notice in the Senate demanding that they say who is paying for that $700 million—whether it is the state or federal government. We still do not know the cost to the user or the consumer. We do not know the take-up rate. There is a lack of consultation with businesses and local government on which towns will be benefited and which ones will be kept out. Ninety-five per cent of the aerial connections will be above ground. We have no contracts with the ISP; they were meant to be announced by March, so they have got eight days to do that; and there are no offers to the public. Really, the government have to come clean and advise the public or this is clearly more waste and mismanagement. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.