Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I feel the need to defend my Tasmanian colleagues in the face of that outburst, which suggested that Tasmanian senators and members of the lower house have not been out there talking up the important aspects of the federal budget and the federal policy positions that are now being implemented, which were promised at the federal election in 2013. I have heard, many times in this place, senators from Tasmania and the three members who represent Tasmanian electorates in the lower house out there talking up the importance of Tasmania. They support their home state. I would just like to put it on the record that unless Senator Brown has a hearing problem she should listen a little harder to her colleagues from Tasmania, even if they are from the other side of the chamber, when they support their home state.

Before I go to the substance of what I would like to say today in relation to the matter of public importance on the Prime Minister's election commitments, I would like to draw the attention of the house to the extraordinary scaremongering that continues to go on. The ABC has a fact check; maybe we need a fact check in this place, because some of the things that were said while I sat here and listened to the contribution of those opposite astounded me. They are actually incorrect. It is not just that they have not heard; they actually made statements that were factually incorrect.

Those statements, and the scaremongering that is going on, is creating a very negative and uncertain environment out there amongst voters. That is really not fair. If there are hard messages to sell, let's be honest about them and tell the voters the truth; do not beat it up with a whole heap of scaremongering.

I would like to draw an interesting comparison between the federal coalition government and a current Labor government that is in existence in this country—the state Labor government in South Australia. Labor has been in power in South Australia for the last 12 years. In that time we have seen South Australia become somewhat of a laughing stock for the rest of the country because the environment in that state does not encourage business. It does not support business growth. It is the highest taxed state and it is the state with the highest debt.

It is really quite interesting to draw a parallel between the state government and what is happening federally—the positive things we are trying to put in place, despite the resistance and blocking that we see in the Senate. We have been trying to get some of the initiatives that we took to the election campaign through this place, but we are blocked, despite the people of Australia having voted for this government on exactly those mandates.

I draw to the house's attention the fact that the South Australian Labor government is a classic example of what happens when you do extraordinary things with budgets. That is exactly what we inherited when we came into government in 2013. Currently in South Australia the 2012-13 budget deficit is $940 million. That is the highest on record. When you consider the population in South Australia, on a pro rata basis it is an extraordinary amount of money that is owed by every man, woman and child in South Australia to pay for the budget deficit in that state.

The government of South Australia has delivered budget deficits for the past four years. Over the past year, the projected deficit has blown out to $1.2 billion—the largest budget deficit in over 15 years. But the really annoying, dishonest and unscrupulous thing that is going on at the moment is that the Weatherill Labor government in South Australia is trying to con the South Australian public into thinking that this is all the federal government's fault. I just have to put on the record that the $14 billion debt bill that was projected by the Weatherill government out to 2016 was on the books well before we were elected to government in 2013. So it seems a little bit rich that we have a situation at the moment where the Weatherill government is spending millions of dollars of South Australia's taxpayers' money—it is actually not South Australian taxpayers' money because they probably had to borrow it, like they borrow everything else to spend in South Australia—to fund a campaign to blame the federal government for something that, if you look at their budget figures, they acknowledged was already in existence well before the Abbott government was elected to this place.

Worse than the budget deficit in South Australia are the election promises that the South Australian government made to the South Australian public about the creation of 100,000 jobs. In the time that they have been in government and with the creation of their 100,000 jobs policy, we have seen 8,700 more jobs, not 100,000. We need to be very careful that we get the facts on the table. As those opposite have mentioned in relation to particularly education and health, Mr Weatherill is trying to make the suggestion that the federal government are cutting health and education. As we well know—and as you would well know, Madame Acting Deputy President Lines, as you sat on the education hearings in relation to higher education and you sit on the Education and Employment Legislation Committee—education funding has not been cut. I repeat: education funding has not been cut. So, for Mr Weatherill to somehow blame the federal government for cuts in funding that are going to South Australia—when in fact the amount of money that is going to South Australia, not just for education but also for health, is increasing—makes his lie and deceit even worse.

The fact is that the South Australian government have created their own debt and deficit problem. The blame lies firmly with their policies and the implementation of their policies. It seems extraordinarily rich that Mr Weatherill would suggest to blame us and then spend additional money in creating a false campaign. You do not have to entirely take my word for this—