Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What question time did demonstrate today is that the Labor Party aren't the government that, before the election, they promised they would be. It's the same old Labor. It's the same old Labor that can't make decisions. It's the same old Labor that makes decisions for its mates. It's the same old Labor that doesn't consult, despite all the promises that it made prior to the election. Remember they promised that they would be an open and transparent government. We haven't seen much of that. In fact, as has been indicated by colleagues here already this afternoon, they spent half the day gagging debate on a motion of ours that they then moved and voted against. They promised to be a government of lower power prices. I think we all remember the 97 times that the Labor Party promised us that there would be a $275 reduction in power prices, and, of course, the number 275 cannot cross their lips anymore. The promise has been abandoned. It has been broken. They promised us lower cost of living, and yet inflation continues to run at six per cent.

They promised us a consultative government, and I think, as we've seen here this afternoon, that, if you ask the pharmacists about that, they might not agree. We gave the government the opportunity to spend some time consulting with pharmacists this afternoon, and they knocked it back. Rather than debate it, they gagged it. So, as to their being consultative, open and transparent, none of that is being seen. Clearly, they are not the government that, before the election, they promised they would be.

They promised us lower housing prices and lower housing costs, and yet there have been 11 interest rates in a row under this government. And, of course, when they can't make the argument—and we've just seen a demonstration of that—they get personal, they get nasty. They promised a fairer, kinder government and parliament, and they haven't delivered on that promise either. We see it every question time: if they can't answer the question, they'll try and deflect the question to something else, they'll blame somebody else or they'll get personal. That's the tactic of this government, and its not what they promised they'd be before the election. In fact, we've seen hardly anything of what, before the election, they said they would be.

Senator Liddle and Senator Nampijinpa Price came in here yesterday with a motion to conduct an inquiry, off the back of bad reports, concerning reports, from ORIC and from the office of the Auditor-General. Of course, the government are not prepared to do that either. Then we have to bring into this chamber—and it's part of the general conversation this afternoon—a motion to actually even have public hearings in a Senate inquiry. How is that the trait of an open and transparent government? The Senate moves to take on a Senate inquiry into a piece of legislation, and the government doesn't even want to have public hearings and uses its numbers, in the committee, to shut it down. Really, how does that meet any of the commitments that the Labor Party made before the election about the way that they would operate? Open, transparent, ethical? I wonder what Qatar Airways thinks of the fact that they can't get access to additional flights into the country? Who does that benefit? The government were asked about who they had meetings with. They don't want to say. They just want to deflect the question. They want to blame somebody else. As I said before, if they can't get that to work, they'll get personal.

It really is time that this government actually started to do the things that, before the election, it promised it would do. I don't think it will, because it's just the same old Labor, with the same old characteristics, the same old traits. They can't keep their promises and can't commit to the Australian people.