Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Rudd, on The 7.30 Report, a month or two after being elected, was talking to Kerry O’Brien, beating his chest to the Australian public and saying, ‘I will hire and fire my ministers on performance.’ I kept that transcript, by the way. I then went to Senate estimates the following year and I asked one of the ministers—I cannot remember which one it was—‘Have you got your performance measures from the Prime Minister?’ The answer was, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Bingo! They were not even given any performance measures to start with. How embarrassing that a minister did not even know that they were supposed to get letters from the Prime Minister of the day.

What is the performance standard for this minister? There has been up to a billion dollars worth of wastage and deaths and he says, ‘Not my fault.’ Does he know what is going on in his department? He thought saying that he had never read a report was a good excuse, but for me that made it even worse. Most Australian people on the street thought: ‘You didn’t read a report which you asked for and which was pretty significant! You didn’t read it!’ It is outrageous to think that he could stand there and get away with this.

The Prime Minister said on The 7.30 Report that he would hire and fire his ministers on performance but it is a disgrace. The Prime Minister has to show some real leadership on this issue. A $2.5 billion insulation program has gone belly-up. That is gross incompetence. If it is not the Prime Minister and it is not Minister Garrett it is even worse: you are trying to blame the department now. Someone has to own responsibility for this. If the minister gets away with this there is no responsibility for any ministers in the entire Rudd government. Mr Fitzgibbon must be really thinking: ‘Blimey, I got pinged! I got pushed for what? What about Garrett?’