Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

It is hard to follow the contribution of Senator Wortley, but I will do my best. Some years ago I coined the term ‘roosternomics’, which was to reflect upon the understanding of economics by those who had been described by Mark Latham as roosters—in particular Senator Conroy, who had a birdlike appreciation and understanding of economic issues. I thought roosternomics had died, but clearly it was resurrected today in the parliament in question time. Senator Conroy started with a twisted and tortured explanation of what a cost-benefit analysis is. One would think that a cost-benefit analysis would be reasonably easy to explain because you would talk about the costs and the benefits. But no; Senator Conroy started talking about profitability of businesses and things of that nature.

What strikes me as incredible about this government—and it has been confirmed by what Senator Wortley and Senator Doug Cameron have said—is the fact that they have their whole business practice upside down. It is back to front. They committed to a $43 billion program, a $43 billion rollout of broadband in this country, without having a business plan, which is only now going to be tabled, and without having an adequate and appropriate examination of whether it will be worthwhile. They still have not had that done. A cost-benefit analysis means: is the burden of debt that this country is going to be saddled with as a result of this infrastructure rollout going to be worth it for the benefits? Unfortunately, the government do not know that. They cannot do it. They cannot table a list of simple things such as the cost savings that they have trumpeted. I asked them about the permanent savings today, but Senator Conroy cannot talk about them. I have asked why he will not just get a cost-benefit analysis done. He will not do it; he says it is not necessary.

This is roosternomics at its finest. It is almost ‘ostrichnomics’; it is ‘put your head in the sand’ stuff. It is not even wanting to put your mind to the potential benefit that might be gained from going down a prudent path. If we want to know why the national balance sheet is in such bad shape at the moment, we have to look at how twisted and tortured this government are when they go about their policies. They have an extraordinary track record that I hope no government will ever match. We have had billions of dollars wasted in various programs: green loans programs, pink batts programs and solar panel programs. We have had a list of failed and flawed ministers. Senator Conroy is just joining that list now. But the amazing thing is that they are proud of their record. Pretty soon, when you lose a billion dollars here and a billion dollars there, it adds up to a reasonable amount of money. I find it extraordinary that they continue to justify it, while telling the Australian people: ‘Trust us. This is good for you; this is what you want.’

Even though people are taking up the 100 megabits a second, I am yet to see or hear of one person taking up Senator Conroy’s one gigabit per second—the 1,000 megabits per second that he said was going to be a thousand times faster than what people are getting now. These things are simply figments of Senator Conroy’s imagination. As I said yesterday, Senator Conroy and, of course, Senator Wortley, who was trumpeting about Willunga—and I notice that Senator Wortley did not acknowledge my interjection in which I asked if she had ever been to Willunga—I was speaking just yesterday to someone from Willunga who said that they cannot get the National Broadband Network in their street in Willunga. You think, ‘Gee, that’s a concern, isn’t it?’ when people cannot get it even though you are trumpeting it as the great example of how successful it is. It is appalling. I know they have had no response from their local member of parliament, either state or federal, because it seems that this government do not want to be accountable for their false and failed promises.