Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was listening with great interest earlier in the adjournment debate to some remarks made by my colleague Senator Bernardi about the administration of affairs in the great state of South Australia. I could not help but think that there was a pattern here because, as it happens, this was a theme I proposed to take up myself this evening but in relation to Queensland. I have to say to my colleague that when it comes to maladministration, the South Australian Labor government are amateurs compared with the incompetency that exists within Queensland on a regular basis and which has occurred over many years. It is not just maladministration of the budget, as Senator Bernardi pointed out in relation to South Australia; the Beattie government is responsible for consistent, repetitive and debilitating maladministration of Queensland policy. I call it public policy by trial, by smile and by guile. This is a unique form of public administration, one which is unlikely to be found in any of the textbooks.

It works a bit like this. The Beattie government, having failed to address matters of administration within the state, imposes massive inconvenience on the citizens of Queensland, deprives them of services and, in some cases, imposes life-threatening circumstances upon them—as, for example, with our water crisis or in relation to hospital administration. Having imposed the trial, which creates massive burdens on Queenslanders, both individuals and businesses, we move onto the second phase of this particular form of administration, where Mr Beattie usually smiles. He apologises. He says he is sorry. He perhaps admits some wrongdoing, and he sincerely undertakes to fix the problem. Then he moves into the guile phase of administration, in which he tries with his not inconsiderable political skills to address the problem. So there is a masterful display of activity, a flurry of decisions and, of course, a large amount of money thrown at problems which should have been addressed much earlier than they were. It is all too late by that time, because, when we get to public administration of this kind, it costs two, three or four times as much to address the problem as it would have if it had been done in a timely and appropriate way.

If this were a one-off event—if this were a situation that occurred perhaps once in a term of government—then perhaps Queenslanders might be generous and they might forgive the government. But, as I said, this is serial behaviour. It does not just occur in one area of administration; it occurs in almost all: family services, health, transport, water infrastructure, mental health, police services and the ports. I could go on. Through almost every area of public administration for which the Queensland government is responsible there has been failure, if not a complete collapse of public policy. It is management by crisis. The default position is to create the crisis, deal with the crisis and then try to manage the crisis. There are not too many public administration texts with which I am familiar that recommend this as a form of public policy management.

I could talk about many areas of public administration, but let me take up the theme that Senator Bernardi took up in relation to budgets, because, of course, the Queensland budget was only recently introduced into the parliament. One could talk at some length about its shortcomings, but let me just mention two areas of notable failure. First of all, there is the matter of debt. When the Beattie government came into office in 1998, Queensland had no debt. If you look at the budget papers for 2007-08, they disclose that there is a surplus of revenue over expenditure. On the face of it, this all looks very encouraging. The government is participating in sound financial management. But, if you look more thoroughly at the budget papers, what do you find? You find that the state government is spending and borrowing. There has been $16 billion borrowed in relation to infrastructure. That is on top of the $18 billion already part of government debt in relation to government corporations and a further $12 billion which will also be incurred in debt in relation to further government corporations. So, by 2009-10 there will be a debt for Queenslanders of something in the vicinity of $46 billion, which is going to cost Queenslanders in the vicinity of $600 million a year in interest payments, equal to the cost of running various public services throughout the state on a yearly basis.

Why is this necessary? Because there has been a complete failure to plan the public affairs of Queensland. The Queensland Labor government has failed to discharge an elemental responsibility of government—to plan ahead. Knowing that 1,500 people are moving to Queensland on a weekly basis, the government has consistently ignored the consequences of that kind of migration. Beattie called his Treasurer, Anna Bligh, ‘Bligh the builder’, but Mr Seeney, the Leader of the Opposition, got it right—he called her ‘Bligh the borrower’.

Second of all, let me take up the theme of GST. How easy it would have been to better manage the state’s finances with all that GST revenue coming into Queensland. Since 2000, $46 billion has flowed into the coffers of the Queensland government through GST revenue. This year, 2007-08, there is an expectation that something in the vicinity of $8.4 billion will also flow into the treasury. One cannot help but wonder what would have happened to the administration of Queensland if those funds had not been available over the period of the Beattie government. It barely warrants thinking about.

Of course, this GST revenue, Mr President, as you well know, was part of a deal. The states, including Queensland, were to receive this money for removing 10 state taxes. Has Queensland kept its side of the bargain? Like all states, it has completely failed to do so. Every day, Queenslanders are required to wear the burden. Thus far Queensland has discharged no more than half of its responsibilities in relation to the GST. Five of those taxes remain in place, including the ones that hurt the most: stamp duties on the transfer of assets. The Beattie government has not just failed to remove taxes; it has actually added taxes—part of the guile strategy—calling those new taxes ‘levies’. There was a new ambulance tax in 2003 and a new new-and-used car sales tax this year, a car tax which is supposed, according to Mr Beattie, to be about tackling global warming. The Queensland Treasurer, of course, gave the game away when she told the real story: ‘This is to assist spending in relation to social services.’ The RACQ spokesman, Gary Fites, had it right when he said: ‘This is nothing more than a revenue grab dressed up in green clothing.’

I could talk about every area of public policy in Queensland. I could draw the Senate’s attention to the maladministration that exists in every single area of government responsibility and discuss each one in detail; but clearly I have almost run out of time tonight. Instead, I will very quickly talk about the failures of the ambulance service. This is a large service, with its many members dedicated to the health and public good of Queenslanders, yet the service is in complete disarray. Staff—95 per cent of those surveyed—are in wide agreement that they have to work under unsatisfactory conditions. A levy which was imposed in 2003, as I said, was supposed to fix the problem but has failed to do so. There is poor management, bad shift rosters and a large number of other concerns— (Time expired)