James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

nator McGRATH () (): Fellow taxpayers of Australia, I bring you some breaking news from Canberra, where it was confirmed today in the Senate by the Minister for Finance of this new Labor government that one of their priorities is spending $20,000 on a 'frog bog'. Now, it's not about toilets for tadpoles or cairns for cane toads or anything like that. One of the key spending priorities of this new Labor government is $20,000 on a bog for frogs.

What's happening in Canberra at the moment is that the Expenditure Review Committee are sitting in a darkened room and going through all the spending commitments of the coalition, and they're actually putting a red line through all of them. So if you're in regional Australia, there's a giant solar powered, wind powered, coal powered vacuum cleaner above regional Australia, sucking all the money out of it, with it going to Labor's preferred projects. So if you're in regional Australia, well, you're not even going to get good luck from the Labor Party; you're just going to get a ta-tah while money goes to some really bizarre projects. The one that was confirmed in the Senate today was $20,000 for a bog for frogs.

I don't think that is a good use of taxpayers money. I speak as someone who has a patch of dirt outside Warwick. I like it when we're not in drought and we get a bit of rain there; I get the singing crescendo of frogs. I don't need $20,000 for a bog for frogs. Indeed, I went on the Gardening Australia website and I reckon you could probably get a bog for frogs for about a couple of hundred dollars. So this must be what we're seeing under the modern Labor Party: a gold-plated bog for frogs. If you're a taxpayer, you're paying for it. If you're in regional Australia, well, you're a second-class citizen, because the Labor Party is prioritising frogs over you. In fact, you're a third-class citizen: you have frogs and then people who vote Greens because Labor needs their preferences.

So, good luck Australia with this new Labor government and their spending priorities. When they should be focusing on cutting taxes and when they should be focusing on what is going to grow Australia, instead it's all about bogs for frogs. By the way—and I just want people to know this—this is just the first of many projects that we're going to find out about. This was something that my good colleague Senator Henderson told us about in the Senate today: this is the first of many projects. It's $20,000, ladies and gentlemen—$20,000 for a bog for frogs. I'm worried, you should be worried and we all should be worried about what the spending priorities of this new Labor government are.

On a very serious note—and I'll declare a conflict of interest here in terms of a friendship with Ranil Wickremesinghe, the new President of Sri Lanka—I think we should all be grateful that someone of Ranil's intellect and someone with his ethics and his approach to the importance of a liberal democracy has become President of Sri Lanka. Ranil is someone who has been a member of parliament in Sri Lanka since the 1970s. Last time I saw him over in Sri Lanka was at Temple Trees when he was prime minister—I think for the third, fourth or fifth time. What I found fascinating about that particular meeting with Ranil was that on the coffee table in his office he had a book titled, 'Ethics in Government Decision-Making'. To me, that summed up the measure of the man in terms of wanting to make sure that the decisions he made as Prime Minister, and that he will now make as President, of Sri Lanka are in the best interests of the Sri Lankan people.

It particularly hurt me, and it should particularly hurt all those who love a good book and who love to read, that when his private residence was burnt to the ground his library of over 4,000 books was burnt with that. I should advise the Senate that I will be sending some books across to President Wickremesinghe to help him rebuild his library. There will be some classic Australian books. And, for those who are listening, you may wish to email senator.mcgrath@aph.gov.au with any suggestions you may wish to make, or you may wish to send some books to me and I'll send them on to President Wickremesinghe, but also to the school system in Sri Lanka.

Senate adjourned at 19 : 50