Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked today.

I want to address two of the questions that were asked today. They were both directed to Minister Wong. The first one was from coalition senator Senator Ruston, and the second was from Senator Cash. I have to say, I think most of us on this side really rate the question time performance of Minister Wong when she comes in here. She's very good at standing up and delivering a response to questions that are given. I wouldn't say they are necessarily answers, because we ask questions and sometimes they are darted and moved around and there's not too much direct response to the questions that are asked.

The first question went to a very serious issue that's emerged, something that's been revealed recently, which is in relation to the Mobile Black Spot Program. Senator Wong was asked about that. Sadly, from her response what I'm getting is flashbacks of what Labor is traditionally known for. What we've got here is a situation where Labor have already conceded that 27 out of the 27 black spot program allocations in New South Wales are all in Labor-held seats. We've seen previous governments and administrations of the Labor kind have this in their history, in their pattern, where they deliver programs, essentially pork-barrelling, into their own seats in order to get an electoral gain come election day. The minister admitted that the minister involved in this program personally selected every spot. I imagine she had a map of Liberal and National electorates in front as she ensured that the constituents of those electorates would not benefit from that program. It so happens that a lot of black spot areas are actually in Liberal and National seats because they're often in rural and regional areas, where we tend to get a good Liberal and National vote, so no doubt that's what's happened. The mob over there like to point the finger, but I remind those opposite that they are, and always have been, the worst kind of offenders. They do it particularly artfully, I've got to say.

The Mobile Black Spot Program is designed to provide funding to improve mobile coverage in areas outside of the metropolitan area. In this round, the communications minister personally selected all 54 locations to receive funding. None of the locations were chosen based on departmental advice—none. Of the 54 locations chosen by Minister Rowland, three-quarters were in Labor electorates. Despite Labor holding just a third of the regional seats in New South Wales, 100 per cent of the 27 locations chosen by the minister in that state were in Labor electorates. In Victoria, three selected locations were in ALP seats. This program, this selection in round 6 of the Mobile Black Spot Program, is dodgy. It is dodgy.

I must point out the sheer hypocrisy of this government. I want to read you a quote. See if you can guess who might have said it, Senator Scarr and Senator Cash. It reads:

Taxpayer funds are ones that are paid for by hard workers … They deserve better than to have their taxpayer funds from their hard work funnelled into marginal electorates on the basis of a political whim.

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We need governments to be held to account for their actions.