George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

The right approach for an opposition in the face of a bad government introducing bad policies is to oppose it, to defend the Australian people from those bad policies. As a matter of fact, most of the measures that this government has introduced the opposition has supported, but Senator Evans is quite right when he says that on many occasions we have said no. We have said no because the Australian people want us to say no.

Senator Crossin interjecting—

Senator Crossin, if you want us to stop saying no, stop introducing bad policies, because we will always say no to bad policy. If you want us to stop saying no, stop increasing taxes, because your government in the last four years has increased or introduced 19 new taxes. So stop introducing new taxes and stop casting new burdens on the shoulders of the Australian people, and we will not say no to it. If you want us to stop saying no then stop wasting money. Tens of billions of Australian taxpayers' dollars were wasted on programs like pink batts, school halls and cash for clunkers, and the list goes on.

If you want us to stop saying no, stop blowing out the national debt. It should never be forgotten that when this government came into power Australia had no public debt. That was the first time, in the memory of anyone in this chamber, that Australia had no public debt and it was a result of the prudence and the competent economic management of John Howard and Peter Costello. In less than four years, Australia now has the highest level of public debt in our peacetime history. That is your legacy to the public finances of Australia. So if you want us to stop saying no, then you stop placing the burden of debt on the shoulders of the next generation and the generation after that. To this day, this government is borrowing $100 million a day to service its debt. Our net public debt today stands at $110 billion as a result of you. You inherited from John Howard and Peter Costello the most favourable set of public finances of any country in the OECD, and within four years you have wasted that decade of saving for which your predecessors were responsible. So if you want us to stop saying no, you stop imposing that burden on our children's shoulders. If you want us to stop saying no, introduce some policies you can be proud of. If you want us to stop saying no then stop telling lies and stop breaking your promises.

We all remember four years ago to this day when there was a change of government, and at the start of any new government there is a sense of hope. The people who decide to throw out an old government and install a new government do so with a sense of hope. Mr Kevin Rudd, who was stabbed in the back last year by Prime Minister Gillard—just as your friend and colleague Harry Jenkins was stabbed through the heart by Prime Minister Gillard this morning—in 2007 instilled in the Australian people a sense of hope. In particular, he made a pitch to Australian working families. He said to the Australian people, but in particular to Australian working families—people who had previously been called the Howard battlers or the forgotten people in a generation before that—'The Howard government is neglecting you, but we will make your lives better.' The Rudd government was elected, four years ago today, for this reason more than any other, because it won the confidence of the great Australian middle class. It made them believe and made them hope that it would make their lives better. What has it done? It has made their lives worse.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

It is all very well for Senator Evans to entertain a backbench of superannuated trade union hacks on the Labor side with the speech that he just gave, but if you go out into the real world, Senator Conroy—somewhere I know you have never stepped—and you ask ordinary, everyday Australian families whether their lives are better today or worse today than they were under the Howard government, you will find nary a one who will tell you their lives are better. If you go to the supermarkets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or any other Australian capital city or any regional centre and you ask a sample of the Australian people, 'Are you doing better today than you were under John Howard?' I bet you that you will scarcely find one of them who will say, 'Well ,you know, Senator, things are a lot better today than they used to be four years ago.' You will not find one.

Senator Crossin interjecting—

I know you do not mix with ordinary Australians, Senator Crossin. You only mix with superannuated trade unionists and party hacks. But if you spoke to real people you would not find one who would say that their life is better today because of your government, because they know the truth—that is, their life is harder because of your government's waste and incompetence and addiction to spending and taxing.

In my question to Senator Evans today, in which he sought to pass off the responsibility to state governments, I reminded him, and let me remind the chamber again, that since his government came into office electricity prices have increased by 60 per cent. People are suffering and working families are suffering because of you, and it did not have to be this way. You did not have to blow the budget. You did not have to take the country into an unprecedented level of peacetime debt. You did not have to waste those tens and tens of billions of dollars that have forced up costs, but you did because you are hopeless and because every Labor government, when it comes to managing public spending, is hopeless. As a Senator Mason is fond of pointing out, every Labor government leaves the country deeper in debt when it goes out of office than when it came into office. Every single Labor government in the history of Australia has left the country in more debt when it went out of office than it had when it came to office. In this case, you came into office inheriting a surplus and you will go out of office, next year or the year after that, with the biggest peacetime debt that any Australian government has ever clocked up.

In any event, on your watch and because of your policies, after only four short years Australians are paying 60 per cent more for their electricity. To make matters worse, you have just forced through this parliament, against a solemn pledge not to do so, a great big new carbon tax which is designed to force electricity prices up yet further. Because of you, because of your policies, Australians pay 36 per cent more today for their gas bills than they did when you came into office. Whatever Senator Evans might say, it is your responsibility. It happened on your watch, because of your policies. You face the people next year or in 2013 and tell them that it was on your watch that electricity prices went up by 60 per cent, that gas prices went up by 36 per cent.