Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

A lot has happened since the Governor-General delivered her speech, prepared by the government, a few short months ago. With no disrespect to the Governor-General, it was a speech that was more noted for what it did not say than for what it did say. In fact, I think most of us by now have really forgotten what the Governor-General’s speech indicated. I emphasise that is no disrespect to the Governor-General, but of course, as we all know, the Governor-General’s speech is written by the government of the day.

In spite of dire warnings by Senator Wong, the Labor Party and the Greens about these climatic catastrophes that were about to befall the world and Australia, did the Governor-General say in her speech anything about putting money aside for those expected catastrophes? The Rudd government came into power with a $20 billion asset in the form of savings the Howard government had made. Elsewhere there was $60 billion put aside. All of that $60 billion has been wasted in two short years by a government that is addicted to spending and taxing. As a result of that, when we have these calamities that are very normal in Australia and for which governments must expect to have to pick up the bill every year, we find ourselves with the coffers bare and the government, the Labor Party and Ms Gillard again talking in the only way they know about a supposed solution for these issues—and that is to impose another tax on the already overtaxed Australian public.

Her Excellency, in her speech, made no reference whatsoever to the failures of this government’s predecessors or to the lack of any mandate that this present government has for any program. This government in its previous iteration was well categorised as a government that was all spin and no action. It was a government that had been elected three years previously with a lot of goodwill, goodwill that had been dissipated by the brutal removal of an elected prime minister by a group of faceless men who control the Labor Party in this country. Mark my words, Madam Acting Deputy President: the same thing will happen to the current Prime Minister. You can see already that the Rudd loyalists, as Mr Toohey in his very perceptive article in the weekend paper noted, are out there campaigning to get rid of Ms Gillard. In spite of the fact that Ms Gillard has clearly watched closely the performance of the Queensland Premier in times of tragedy, nothing will save Ms Gillard from the faceless men who control the Labor Party. You see around the hall the Rudd loyalists, the anti-Gillard people, already gathering. It will not be long. Senator Arbib had better watch out, because he was one of the leaders of the push to get rid of Mr Rudd and install Ms Gillard. He must now be regretting very heavily that action.

Labor’s huge majority in the previous parliament was completely destroyed. There were huge swings away from Labor to the coalition in the resource rich states of Western Australia and Queensland, and we saw the unedifying spectacle after the election of the Prime Minister, who had assumed office by the most deceitful and vicious action against her former leader, clinging to power by offering whatever it took to the Greens and the Independents. Cling to power the Labor Party did, by its fingernails. In the end, it became clear that the government had no program, no mandate, no authority and no vision. It did, however, have a very clear determination to cling to power because, in the end, for the Labor Party, power is what it is all about. The election campaign was full of promises by the Labor Party which it never intended to keep. The sort of duplicity that would have done credit to the former socialist governments of eastern Europe was replicated by the Labor Party in the election campaign. But, as bad as the Labor Party was during the election campaign, that negativity paled into insignificance against the dishonest and deceitful campaign by the Australian Greens.

The Labor Party’s campaign was full of mistruths and downright lies about the mining tax, the carbon tax and detention centres, for example. During the course of the campaign, we were told there would be no carbon tax. In fact, Ms Gillard promised the Australian public, the less than 50 per cent who voted for her, that she would not bring in a carbon tax—and they voted for her on that basis. Of course, as soon as she was in power, what was the first thing she did? She indicated that a carbon tax would be introduced. She said that a deal on the mining tax had been struck with the mining companies. We know that that announcement by Ms Gillard was also a downright mistruth: there had been no deal struck with the mining companies and that has become obvious now. We were told there would be no new detention centres. When the issue of a possible detention centre in Cape York at RAAF Base Scherger was mentioned it was denied by the Labor Party and its functionaries. We now know only too well how untrue that denial was.

The deceit and duplicity of the Labor Party in the national campaign was mirrored in the campaigns run by the Labor Party at local level. In the electorate of Dawson, up my way, we were told that the sitting member had retired from ill-health, but everyone knew that the real story was that he had been forced to retire by the faceless men of the Labor Party in favour of their selected candidate, the Mayor of Bowen—interestingly referred to locally as Moscow Mike. We know in the Townsville based seat of Herbert the wishes of the local Labor Party branch members were completely ignored when the national executive, the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, selected disgraced former Mayor of Townsville, Tony Mooney, as the candidate for what the party believed would be the easiest of electorates to win. In fact, it had become a notional Labor Party electorate following the re-distribution and it was ripe for picking by the faceless men of the Labor Party. As the Labor Party do, they buy, sell, trade and will these seats to their mates, friends and families.

In the case of Herbert the local Labor people were absolutely shattered. This had the impact of local Labor Party branch members not supporting the campaign, which resulted in the head office having to pay people to man polling booths in the electorate of Herbert. I will just repeat that: the Labor Party national campaign had to pay people to campaign in the electorate of Herbert. Indeed, in one of the most extraordinarily deceitful aspects of the campaign, the Labor Party in Herbert handed out a deceptive counterfeit how-to-vote card indicating that those wishing to vote Green should follow this counterfeit how-to-vote card, which appeared to be a Green how-to-vote card, giving the Labor Party second preference. So incensed were the local Green activists, who had made a deliberate decision in Herbert not to preference any party and not to hand out how-to-vote cards on polling day, they were running around the polling booths telling people who had received the fake Green cards that these cards were not Green how-to-vote cards but in fact bogus Labor cards.

I questioned some of the young people who were handing out fake Green how-to-vote cards at the booths, and so did colleagues of mine. There were some funny stories about them, I have to tell you, but it became clear from what I was told by these young people that they had answered an internet advertisement offering them a job at $25 an hour to hand out how-to-vote cards. Most of them told me they believed they were handing them out for the Greens political party and they were surprised when I showed them that the cards were actually authorised and produced by the Labor Party.

It was quite funny. A couple of the young people I saw giving out those cards were actually saying to the people they handed them out to, ‘Here is a how-to-vote card but we’re voting for Ewen Jones, the LNP candidate, and we urge you to do the same.’ Some of the people handing out how-to-vote cards did not even vote on election day, because they were New Zealanders looking for some cash during their backpacking tour around Australia. But can you believe it, Madam Acting Deputy President—the once great Labor Party having to pay people $25 an hour to hand out fake how-to-vote cards and to man their own booths? It was because Labor stalwarts in Townsville were so incensed at the faceless men who had destroyed their choice as the candidate and put in Tony Mooney. Of course, in both Dawson and Herbert we know the results of the Labor Party national executive putting in their favoured candidates. Both seats were won very comfortably by the LNP, and all credit to Ewen Jones and George Christensen.

Prior to the election, all the electorates north of the Tropic of Capricorn, numbering nine in all, were held by the Labor Party or Independents. When the dust settled after the election, the Labor Party had lost all but two seats in Northern Australia, and in Capricornia, for example, it had suffered an eight per cent swing against it. The result in Northern Australia was certainly a singing endorsement of the leadership of Tony Abbott, the policies of the Liberal and National parties and the organisational skill of the Liberal Party in Western Australia, the CLP in the Northern Territory and the LNP in Queensland.

The Governor-General’s speech talked about parliamentary reform. We know what the Labor Party think of democracy and parliamentary reform. Senator Cameron made it quite clear in his now well-publicised comment that Labor Party parliamentarians were just like zombies and had no say whatsoever. No-one knows why the people of Australia voted for individual candidates, because, according to Senator Cameron, all they do is act like zombies, sit there and get told what to do—although I expect the zombies will be rising, Senator Hutchins, looking at Ms Gillard and yearning for the days when Mr Rudd was leader. Let us hope Mr Rudd gets back as leader. I would look forward to the challenge of him being in charge again, but I guess it is six of one and half-a-dozen of the other.

The Governor-General spoke about a stronger economy. I have mentioned that the $60 billion the coalition had put aside in credit was frittered away in two short years by this government addicted to spending. Now, after the government promising no carbon tax, we are going to have a carbon tax. After the government saying the mining tax had been fixed, we are going to have a new mining tax. And now we are going to a new tax to do the sorts of things that governments are expected to do—that is, look after infrastructure and look after Australians who have suffered from calamities.

The Governor-General also made reference to climate change and sustainability. I still cannot understand how Senator Wong, Ms Gillard and the Labor Party can go around saying that Australia has to lead in reducing carbon emissions. Australia produces less than 1.2 per cent of the world’s output of greenhouse gases. The Labor Party want to break Australian industry and Australian workers so that they can go to the world stage and say, ‘We’re leading the charge.’ If all of the programs that even the Greens have put forward were adopted, the impact on global output of greenhouse gas would be absolutely infinitesimal. I have always said that, when the rest of the world does it, so should Australia, but to try and lead in this area will just destroy our economy and the jobs of workers, which the Labor Party pretend they look after.

On regional Australia, the Governor-General’s speech contained a couple of half-columns. The only person the government could find to be appointed to the regional portfolio was a bloke who represents an inner city Melbourne seat. Mr Crean is a nice guy, and to become the ACTU boss and then fight his way through the Labor machine to get elected to parliament, he clearly has got some things going for him. But stuck down in one of our biggest cities, in the centre of Melbourne, is the guy that looks after regional Australia. I suppose it is better than the Rudd government, which had two ministers, one sitting each side of Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport, doing the portfolio work for regional Australia. The government pay lip-service to regional Australia. I am the shadow parliamentary secretary for northern and remote Australia. I am not quite sure who I am shadowing at the moment, because after the election and the very poor result that the Labor Party had in Northern Australia, they have completely dropped the title. They have dropped any interest they ever feigned in Northern Australia, and it will be left to the coalition to give proper recognition to the wealth, the energy and the enthusiasm that Northern Australia brings to our nation.

I want to make some comment about the Greens political party. Their members are more interested in outdated and discredited socialist policies more reminiscent of eastern Europe in the fifties and sixties than a modern democracy of today. The absolute stupidity of those comments by the Greens leaders on Australian coal companies being the cause of the floods and cyclones is just beyond comment. That is the sort of group that keeps this government in power. That is the sort of group that will direct the Labor Party, who are only interested in power, and will direct the policies—those left-wing, socialist, eastern European policies of the fifties and sixties. That is what this government has to rely on to stay in office. Stay in office it will, and that means it will roll over to the Greens.

I will seek leave at the end of my speech to table a list of climatic conditions which is going around the internet. I have had my staff check them with reliable sources. As best as we can tell, most of the conditions are accurately portrayed. It shows that cyclones, floods, droughts, storms and other weather calamities have been happening since European man first recorded these things in Australia. Practically every year since 1864 there have been major climatic events. As far as I am aware, Senator Bob Brown, the Australian coal companies were not pumping out greenhouse gases back in 1864 and in practically every year since. I raise this only to show up the sort of stupid comment—an absolutely gormless comment—made by the leader of the Australian Greens. This is the party that the Labor Party relies on to cling to government, and that is a disgrace. There will, I am sure, be more said about that over the next months. Senator Brown will no doubt be trying to wiggle out of his comments, but he and his colleagues are absolutely ridiculous on these sorts of things.

I will conclude as I started, having said that things have changed quite a bit since the Governor-General made her speech. I think yesterday most of us in this chamber indicated our empathy, our distress, our support and our condolences for those who have suffered as a result of the natural calamities that Australia expects and that we have had over many years. It is on a sombre note that the parliament starts this week. It is of regret to me, however, that this government is so incompetent that it has not put aside or at least saved some of the money the previous government allocated for the work that we all know will have to be done every year as a result of natural calamities. I urge the Senate to support Senator Abetz’s very perceptive amendment to this motion and urge that the motion be adopted.