Judith Adams (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Bilyk thinks we are a party of no action. I have about 23 broken promises by the Gillard government since the 2010 election.

In taking note of answers to questions, I rise to speak on issues mentioned by the ministers. Firstly, Senator Arbib told us about the very good training programs for Indigenous people. I wish that I had asked just what he is going to do about the 700 Aboriginal employees on the cattle stations in the Kimberley. There are 30 stations owned by Aboriginal corporations and families. A number of employees, and a lot of these are trainees, based at Roebuck Plains Station, where the Federal government has put a lot of money into training, are desperate. They do not know where they are going with the live export trade being suspended and no indication, even though the minister tried to tell us today, of when that trade might start again. It is very worrying. That might be a question for Senator Arbib tomorrow.

It is time that this chamber was reminded of the election promises broken by the Gillard government since election day in 2010. We start with the carbon tax, then the citizens assembly that was a great idea but we never, ever saw it. There was a community consensus on taxing carbon; I do not know where that went. There was a new era of openness and transparency; we are not going too well there and it seems even the ministers and the government at the moment have to put all their media and any interviews through to the Prime Minister's office before they are allowed to go out and tell the public. How do we go there? Is that evidence of an era of openness and transparency for government ministers?

Then there was onshore processing which was going to take place at Curtin and the Scherger RAAF base, and processing refugees at Broadmeadows, which is the Melbourne immigration transit accommodation. Then there was the offshore processing centre in East Timor; what has happened to that? There was cash for clunkers; I think that came and it went. Then there was the mining tax royalties; that is very dear to my heart and to Senator Cormann's, and it is an absolute mess. If I have time, I will quote Sam Walsh saying how they thought they had done a deal with government and then it all backfired. Senator Mason spoke about the cost of the BER and the failure to implement Orgill's recommendations. There was the solar credits scheme. There was the delay of the national curriculum and the delay of the new My School website. Then there was reform of health and hospitals, goodness me, just before the budget; what happened there? The whole health reform was turned on its head and that made it very difficult for us in budget estimates to really work out if it was reform or just what was going to happen. It is still not worked out and, looking at some of the legislation that is coming through, no wonder it is being sent to Senate committees to sort it out.

Then we go on to the convening of a tax summit before 30 June 2011. I think that is in eight days time. Are we going to have a tax summit? I do not know what happened there. There was sparing the Public Service from budget cuts. There was sending asylum seekers to Malaysia; we are still not there with that and one wonders if it will ever happen. There was the hypocrisy about the Pacific solution, temporary protection visas and now reinvesting the Defence budget savings into Defence and increasing Defence spending. I think we have a lot of things to follow up. In the House Hansard on 10 May 2005, Julia Gillard said— (Time expired)