Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Sport (Senator Lundy) and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked by Senators Cash and Cormann today relating to asylum seekers and to the budget.

I always enjoy an anniversary and I quite like a party, but five years of hard Labor is no cause for celebration. I could indulge in cheap rhetorical blandishments but I will not.

Senator Boyce interjecting—

We can summarise this debate, Senator Boyce, by simply asking this: is this country of Australia, after five years of hard Labor, better off? So is Australia better off after five years of hard Labor? If you are an average Australian and you have seen your electricity bill go up by 89 per cent, are you better off? If you were deceived by the Prime Minister about the introduction of a carbon tax, are you better off? Are you better off when a carbon tax means that the cost of living rises? Are you better off when a carbon tax means we are less competitive against other major competitive nations such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, the United States and Canada?

Are you better off when a carbon tax means slower economic growth, means less money, in short, to pay for Labor's grand promises? After five years of Labor, are you better off if you have watched $70 billion in federal government assets, which is what the Howard-Costello government left, become $150 billion in debt? In particular, are you better off if you are young and will be paying the bill for Labor's profligacy? When this government dumps in the laps of young people the IOUs for the current generation, will you be better off? No, you will not. If you have children in school and have seen Labor spend about $20 billion on the education revolution, seen that the results in domestic tests are stagnant and that the results in international comparative tests are actually worse, the PISA tests are worse, are young kids better off? No, they are not.

Are you better off because the education revolution is now the education crusade, even though they cannot find the Holy Grail of better test results? Is anyone celebrating now that we have just reached another milestone—that is, 500 boats arriving within five years of a Labor government? That is an average of more than 100 a year and, of course, the rate is increasing. Are we better off? I worked overseas for a while and I heard of Medecins Sans Frontieres, but now we have Australia sans frontieres—a nation without any orders, a country that cannot even defend its borders, lets in 100 boats per year and 30,000 illegal arrivals.

After five years, where are we? First, we have a government that is totally unable to effectively, efficiently and economically implement its policy initiatives—everything from pink batts to school halls, from computers in schools to the carbon tax and the security of our borders. What is the granddaddy of them all, Mr Deputy President?