Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I was coming to that point. Thank you, Senator Birmingham. It is one of the less stupid decisions the government has made, but the government was forced to do it by the industry, strongly backed by the coalition. I have to commend my colleague Mr Baldwin, in the other place, who is working in this area. They were forced into a backdown. The fact that the Labor government was even considering linking the CPI to this was just stupidity.

How many times does this government have to whack industries across this nation? I think the Australian people would be absolutely thrilled if this government could just once get something right. It is not just a question of us standing on this side of the chamber railing against this bad government. It is actually true and the Australian people recognise that. I really feel for all the people in the tourism industry, particularly those people in regional areas. We have some of the best holiday destinations in the world. I love this country, and I know that so many Australians do. All Australians do. We think Australia is the best place in the world, and why wouldn't we? But the people who are out there working hard in the tourism industry, many of them in small businesses, woke up the morning after the budget to find that they had had yet another whack, all because the Labor government cannot manage money and they needed another tax grab to try to shore up the coffers.

Just look at the waste and mismanagement. In the Home Insulation Program $2.5 billion was mismanaged, with at least $500 million to be spent fixing the mistakes. Computers in schools had a $1.4 billion blowout and it is way behind schedule. The $175 million Green Loans Program was mismanaged and eventually dumped and then replaced with the $130 million Green Start Program, which never started. And my personal favourite: the government sold the parliamentary billiard tables for $5,000 and then spent over $102,000 determining whether or not they got value for money. They wonder why the Australian people get so angry when we see yet another tax hike, when the government simply cannot manage money. That is only the tip of the list—and there is around $239 billion of debt.

So, here is the government whacking the tourism industry to try to scrabble some money back out of them, and they are one of the industries least able to withstand a whack. It just shows this government's complete disconnect from the tourism sector and with what is right for the Australian people. With this piece of legislation we have seen yet another shambolic tax grabbing policy from this appalling, inept, hopeless Labor government.