Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate declares that it has no confidence in the Government's handling of the mining tax.

Never before in the history of the Commonwealth have the Australian people endured such a dysfunctional and incompetent government. Those of us who recall the debacle known as the Whitlam government are beginning to look on that short-term yet devastating era with a degree of fondness, as an example of sound administration and robust policy development in comparison to the past five years. In fairness, though, we do not know what depths the Whitlam government might have sunk to if given five years.

The Rudd-Gillard governments have presided over the worst governance Australia has had to endure in its 112-year history. They came to office on the back of a promise, backed up by paid commercials, that Mr Rudd was an economic conservative, yet, on gaining government, he immediately took to scribbling that essay in the Monthly condemning sound economic policy, parading his economic illiteracy in grand style.

Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard will be remembered for stunning evidence based public policy initiatives! Who can forget Fuelwatch? Who can forget GROCERYchoice? Or what about the cash splash which paid the dead and those overseas in a vain attempt to stimulate the domestic economy? We then had the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, which Ms Gillard herself wanted Mr Rudd to dump. We then had the temporary deficit, which is now in its fifth year and no end in sight. We then had the border protection disgrace, and so the list goes on—