Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

They are not your resources; they are the resources of all Australians, who have been and who are the recipients of the benefit of the mining boom over the last few years.

Senator Fielding has already indicated that he is not likely to support such an irresponsible and knee-jerk measure, and neither will this coalition be as irresponsible as you are. The Rudd government resource mining tax is nothing more than the Labor government’s desperate search to feed its spending addiction. That is all we have seen for the last two years. The amount of waste is criminal. In case those senators opposite are wondering why my colleagues and I get so upset about their needless spending, it is because it is because it is hard-earned taxpayers’ money that they are spending in such a fraudulent and outrageous way. It is money provided by hardworking mums and dads who are under increasing pressure to make ends meet. Labor has wasted billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money over the last two years and we know they cannot be trusted with the public purse.

For the benefit of the chamber, let me remind you of the litany of this waste. Labor promised computers in schools for every year 9 to 12 student. So far, only 220,000 of the one million computers promised have actually been delivered, and I might add that the budget blew out by $1 billion. They promised to cut spending on consultancies, but what did they do? They broke their promise and instead have awarded another $1.1 billion in consultancy contracts since coming to office. They promised broadband for a mere $4.7 billion, but broke that promise and replaced it with a $43 billion plan. In the process they wasted $20 million on a cancelled tender process and spent $25 million on another report by consultants.

They claimed to have all the answers on climate change and the environment. We know that in the Prime Minister’s own words he described it as ‘the moral challenge of our times’. But they have squibbed on the ETS, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in the process to date. We have seen $50 million spent on climate change advertising and paid 150 public servants to administer the ETS. We saw 68 delegates sent to Copenhagen at $1.5 million, the solar panel blow-out of $850 million and the Green Loans Program cancelled after $175 million was spent. The list just goes on and on. They promised to cut the cost of living but we have seen that prices have continued to rise. And we have seen the millions wasted on the abandoned GROCERYchoice and Fuelwatch programs. Labor continues to struggle on basic sums, but one equation is very simple: that is that waste increases debt and puts upward pressure on interest rates. When Kevin Rudd makes promises at this year’s election, we know that his track record says he will fail to deliver and will waste significant amounts of taxpayer money in the process. Australia cannot afford three more years of Labor’s waste and mismanagement.

In conclusion, it is clear that this government is desperate to find money to pad its spending splurge. It has turned its sights on the tobacco industry and turned its sights on the mining sector, and, in the shadow Treasurer’s words, ‘This is a tax on hope,’ and on the future of all Australians.

Question agreed to.