Mary Fisher (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Rudd Labor promised cooperative federalism. We have seen no results of that. Most spectacular failures from so-called cooperative federalism come to mind. Look at water. There has been no national management of water, no national management of any sort of relief for the Murray-Darling Basin and no results from cooperative federalism for health reform across the country.

Rudd Labor promised Fuelwatch. Result: waste. Rudd Labor promised GROCERYchoice. Result: waste. Rudd Labor promised NBN round 1. Result: waste—18 months of time and some $30 million of taxpayers’ money wasted. Rudd Labor promised green loans. Result: waste. In fact, the result was a program that is still, in name only, Green Loans but somehow does not have any loans left to be made. Laptops in schools—another Rudd Labor promise. Result: noncompliance. So much for cooperative federalism. Another Rudd Labor promise and another Rudd Labor failure.

What can we rely on Rudd Labor to do? It is pretty clear that if they could not run NBN round 1 how could we, and why should we, rely on and trust Rudd Labor to deliver NBN round 2? If Rudd Labor could not run and manage the Home Insulation Program round 1, how should we, and why should we, rely on and trust Rudd Labor to deliver on the Home Insulation Program round 2? If Rudd Labor could not manage and deliver a genuine national agreement to manage the Murray-Darling basin in a time of drought, how should we, and why should we, rely on and trust Rudd Labor to deliver a genuine national agreement to manage the Murray-Darling basin after one of the greatest wets in the north in the past 30 years? The pressure is hardly going to be on Rudd Labor now. Rudd Labor, state Labor and Rann Labor are going to say it has rained—particularly South Australian Labor—after months and months and months of saying, ‘We cannot make it rain.’ The pressure is off; the job is done; the job is right.

How can we trust Rudd Labor to deliver? How can South Australians trust Rann Labor to deliver again when they know they cannot trust Rudd Labor, they cannot trust state Labor and they cannot trust Rann Labor? How can the Australian electorate, and in particular the South Australian electorate, be expected to trust Labor governments, federal and state, which seem to rely on mateship to achieve results? South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, crows today that he somehow enjoyed results for SA from his good friend, from his mate, Kevin Rudd, due to a 20 or so year-long friendship with the Prime Minister. If that is the best the Premier, Mike Rann, can show as a result of a 20-year-long mateship with Prime Minister Rudd, then it has delivered few results for South Australia.