Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take your advice on that, thank you. Just this month, in an interview to the newspaper, the Speaker said she had 'grave concerns' about the federal government slashing $2.8 billion from the tertiary sector. A week later, the same newspaper quoted her—once again, I am using her own words—as saying she was 'deeply uneasy' with Labor's asylum seeker policies, but in the same interview she was quick to point out that she was unable to take a stand in parliament due to her impartial role as Speaker.

This has been well and truly reflected on the public record. She has conducted interviews, and in fact I attended such an interview with her, where she has claimed that she is uncomfortable with mandatory detention of asylum seekers, a policy that stretches back to the 1990s and the Keating Labor government. If she had her way, she has said, she would release asylum seekers into the community. She does not believe in the deterrence of offshore processing and would like it to be dismantled. In fact, I point out that before she was Speaker she voted for the Gillard government's dismantling of the Howard government's Pacific solution.

I would like to note, though, for those who are affected by the fiscal irresponsibility of this government and the impact it is having on the delivery of services in areas such as Chisholm, that this is a failed policy which has already totalled $6.6 billion in blow-out costs over the last four years, money that could have been very well directed into the East West Link, into health services in Chisholm and into many other projects. It certainly would have gone a long way to eliminating the Clayton Road level crossing that many local residents risk their lives at day in, day out because it is a notorious accident point that needs to be prioritised. It also could have been directed to the construction of the new Monash Children's Hospital, for which there is huge demand in the area. A lot of business cases have been put forward for it, but the government has certainly not prioritised or supported it.

The attempts by the Speaker to distance herself by virtue of her position as Speaker from the deliberations and policy decisions of the Prime Minister are transparent and misleading. That is because these policy decisions were taken before she was elected to the role of Speaker. It was the now Speaker, Ms Burke, who voted for the carbon tax. It was Ms Burke who voted for the dismantling of the Howard government's Pacific solution in dealing with border protection. Every single vote in this parliament was taken by the government before she was in the role of Speaker. So to suggest that she has no role in the decisions that this Gillard ALP government has taken is purely misleading. History will show this and the record speaks for itself. She has supported all the decisions that have brought us to where we are today and have lead to the type of budget that we saw brought down tonight.

The people of Chisholm and, indeed, the people of Australia deserve a lot better. I am determined that they be delivered a lot better. I demand that all those who are seeking re-election at the next federal election, on 14 September, including the Speaker, Ms Anna Burke, if she is one of those, come clean with the Australian public and be honest for once in their lives.