Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

Today marks the anniversary of the election of the Rudd Labor government one year ago. What it also marks is 365 days of broken promises by the Rudd government.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! There is too much noise. Would senators please quietly leave the chamber.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the recent debate before the chamber we have had an example of how the Labor government promised, prior to the election, that there would be a revitalisation of Australia’s innovation system. What has happened? They have cancelled—axed—the Commercial Ready program, a program that did so much for innovation within Australia. I fear that the Export Market Development Grants Scheme, which also supports innovation, will indeed be the next scheme on the chopping block of the government. The Minister for Trade, Mr Crean, was to make a major trade statement this week at the National Press Club, and I understand, for reasons yet to be explained, that major speech on trade policy has been withdrawn. It has been suggested to me that the reason is that Mr Crean has been rolled by his cabinet colleagues and the Export Market Development Grants Scheme will no longer be continuing.

In addition to that broken promise, we have seen, as demonstrated during question time today, that the Rudd Labor government’s first year has been a litany of broken promises. Mr Deputy President , you would remember the promise about keeping the budget in surplus. Today we have heard the first weasel words of an excuse as to why the budget will not be in surplus next year. This government was left a $22 billion surplus by the previous government after the previous government paid off a $96 billion debt that the last Labor regime ran up. This Labor government promised they would always keep the budget in surplus yet, 365 short days later, they are now equivocating, and respected analysts are suggesting that there will be a deficit in the first real budget of this Labor government.

Mr Deputy President, you heard in question time the government promise a national broadband network start-up date of by Christmas this year. According to my calculations, that is a little over a month away, yet there is absolutely no chance that that promise will be met. There was also a promise to distribute broadband to 98 per cent of Australians within five years. You have heard today, in response to a question from the shadow broadband minister, Senator Minchin, that there is already equivocation on that five-year program. You have heard today in question time that every high-school student in Australia was to get their own computer—well, at least two students were to get one! So far they have given out 10,000, which, expressed as a percentage of what was promised, is one per cent, meaning that it will take 100 years to honour the pre-election promise of Mr Rudd and his Labor Party.

Mr Deputy President, you also heard today, in response to questions from the opposition, that Labor’s rhetoric and promises about accountability and about not having taxpayer funded promotion are all nothing more than meaningless promises made to be broken. We heard that the Rudd government has celebrated its 365 days by getting the taxpayers to fund a gloating, political brochure promoting the Labor Party. So in the short five minutes I have had available to me I have exemplified five promises broken by this government in the last year.

Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is a day of celebration for this nation. It is the anniversary of the election of the Rudd Labor government. This is the day 12 months ago when people right across this country in record numbers indicated that they wanted a government that actually moved this country forward, that actually wanted to produce outcomes for this country that were based on fairness, equity and balance, and so the Rudd Labor government was delivered.

We produced a report card on what we had done in our first 100 days in office. People ought to be proud of the fact that, as we speak in this chamber today, they can click on a website and get access to a 74-page document that, in every bit of detail possible, outlines to every Australian in this country exactly what we have done over the last 12 months and the programs we are continuing to undertake.

I think people here ought to be very pleased with the fact that this is an open, transparent and accountable government. This is a government that stood on a platform of saying that we would implement every election promise. We have a Prime Minister and a cabinet that are committed to doing that, unlike the people opposite, who were elected on a platform of a number of promises that became ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ promises. When the earth beneath them got a little bit too shaky and too rocky, a promise became a ‘non-core’ promise, a promise that was put on the backburner. But this is not a government that operates that way. This is a government that has given a commitment to actually implement every single one of its promises.

This is a government whose very first act on the very first sitting day of this parliament, in February this year, was for the Prime Minister to say sorry to the stolen generations, people who had waited for that apology for more than 11 long years. This was a government that held out a hand of reconciliation to Indigenous people right around this country, brought them into this building and started to build that bridge that was so badly broken under the Howard government.

And then our very first piece of legislation in this parliament was to start to break down and abolish the abominable Work Choices legislation that the previous government had inflicted on workers across the country. Our very first legislative action as a government was to ensure that Australian workplace agreements were gone and that our commitment to build a fairer and more balanced workplace would start to be put in place. So our very first two actions as a government in this building, back in February this year, were to start to make amends to Indigenous Australians and to workers rights around the country.

In our first budget, we cut taxes to working families and to low-income earners. We have started the education revolution. Revolutions do not happen overnight. They take months, if not years. We have a five-year plan for our education revolution, which includes building training centres in high schools. Why is that? Because the previous government was deficient in the skills training area. It sadly let this country down when it came to people accessing trade training places and developing and building the skills that we need to get this country back on track. We have started with 700,000 new VET places and the creation of trade training centres in schools around this country so kids can get on board, get a taste of trades and start trades as they finish their final years of schooling.

And we have started to install new computers in nearly 1,000 schools around this country. The parents that I talk to are excited about the fact that we will be able to provide access to a computer for their child. Some of them cannot afford it normally and they are looking forward to the day that this government can provide that notebook, the notebook of the future, for the kids in the classroom. We are proud of the fact that we will take students in this country into a workplace of the future that will be based on technology and on computers.

We have implemented the Water for the Future plan to restore the health of the Murray-Darling Basin, something that the government had been divided on for a very long time. Talking about improving our environment, we have ratified the Kyoto protocol. We are not climate change sceptics, unlike the people opposite me. We have actually signed Australia up to an international action to tackle climate change. We have introduced the $480 million National Solar Schools Program to encourage schools— (Time expired)

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I must say Senator Crossin’s contribution to this debate was one of the more bizarre that I have heard in this place. Senator Crossin said that today is a day of celebration around Australia. It reminded me of the bicentennial catchcry: ‘Celebration of a nation’. Mr Deputy President, I do not know about you but I must have missed the milling throngs outside Parliament House cheering: ‘One year of the Kevin Rudd government! Hip hip hooray!’ I must have missed them. I do tend to get into the office fairly early, so maybe they came after I arrived.

We have had a year of Kevin Rudd, a year of Labor. Ministers, in answers to questions today, gave the Senate the authorised version of the last 12 months. What we did not hear was a real progress report on the last 12 months.

Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How is Malcolm going in the polls these days?

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Crossin, you were heard in silence. I suggest you remain silent while Senator Fifield makes his contribution.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a story behind the spin we heard in question time today. That story is that Australia is less prosperous. The economy is weakening. The outlook for Australian families and businesses is less certain. The simple fact is: Australians are worse off today than they were a year ago.

The Labor Party promised the sun, the moon and the stars before the election. They promised a lot but they have done very little in government. The government will say, as did Senator Conroy in question time, that this is all the fault of the GFC, the global financial crisis. We recognise that no government can solve the GFC on its own, but as a government you can make the situation better or worse, depending on the decisions that you take. The government, as is well known, made the situation of the GFC worse. Before the budget, they created a panic about inflation. They egged on the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates, they talked down the Australian economy and they undermined business confidence and consumer confidence. After the budget, they introduced the open-ended banking guarantee, which caused a run on investment funds, and they jawboned the economy down, down, down, rather than doing what a responsible government does, which is focus on the economic fundamentals, focus on the strengths of the economy.

This government’s handling of the economy goes to the issue of competence, but the last 12 months also represents a breach of faith with the Australian people. Firstly, the Prime Minister, when he was opposition leader, put his hand on his heart and declared, ‘I am an economic conservative,’ and that he was committed to budget surpluses—committed; no qualification: committed to budget surpluses. We hoped that was true, because we in government had worked very hard over 12 years to repay $96 billion of Labor debt and balance the budget, and we handed a surplus budget across to the incoming government. The mantra of this government was also our mantra in government: that we would keep the budget in balance, on average, across the course of the economic cycle. That was our mantra. That is this government’s mantra. But what that statement means is that a budget deficit will be countenanced if the economy goes into recession. But the economy is not in recession. The economy is growing. The economy is forecast to continue to grow. In that circumstance, the only reason for going into budget deficit is incompetence. It is a failure to manage the budget. And that is what I fear we are going to see very soon: a combination of incompetence and a breach of faith with the Australian people.

This government has broken promise after promise. The education revolution: all it has amounted to is a few computers—not one on every desk as was promised. Health: private health insurance is being undermined, which is going to force people back onto the public health system. We were promised tax cuts. Sure, the government delivered the tax cuts that we authored, but it also gave a $19 billion tax increase. The national broadband network we have heard much of today: six months overdue. Cost of living: what did the government do? It put up the now defunct, failed, discredited Fuelwatch scheme and the GroceryWatch scheme. This government has failed time and again. There is more to honouring election commitments than just putting a dot point in a document and filling it with words afterwards. This is a government that dithers, that is bogged down in process, that has failed to deliver on its commitments.

Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is not just the one-year anniversary of the election of the Rudd government, which, I certainly agree with Senator Crossin, is something to celebrate. Today is also the one-year anniversary of the defeat of the Howard government. When the people finally got their chance 12 months ago to throw out the previous, incompetent government, a government that made—

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health Administration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cormann interjecting—

Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Am I going to be allowed to continue in silence?

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is silence, Senator Forshaw; continue.

Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The previous government made an art form of breaking promises, whether it was the never-ever GST or that we would not invade Iraq to support regime change. You could go on and on; it was a government that was characterised by constantly breaking its promises. We have just had an attempt by Senator Fifield to give us an economic lecture. He talked about the wonderful achievements of the previous government. Well, I have been here long enough—like you, Mr Deputy President, and like Senator Macdonald, who is no longer in the chamber but who asked these questions today—to be able to recall what happened back in 1996. Senator Macdonald made great play about his assumption that the EMDG Scheme might be abolished. There are all these assumptions being thrown around today by the opposition, such as Senator Fifield’s assumption that there might be a deficit. They are trying to talk down the Australian economy rather than focusing upon reality and upon the facts.

One of the facts is that, when the Howard government came into power in 1996, they abolished the Development Import Finance Facility scheme—a scheme that directly supported Australian industry. So I found it somewhat hypocritical to have this question asked today about dreaming up some perceived threat to the EMDG Scheme, which this government has strongly supported, unlike the previous government. If you go back and check the estimates hearings, year after year, you will recall that the previous government did very little to support the EMDG Scheme.

The Howard government, of course, had the advantage of riding on the back of the minerals boom for years and years. This government has had to face and is facing the most significant economic financial crisis since the 1930s; that cannot be disputed—a challenge to this government that no other government in the last 60 or 70 years has really had to face. And we are doing it appropriately.

All of these questions and comments that have come from the opposition today are not in the national interest. They are seeking to predict doom and destruction in the Australian economy. You have a situation around the world where major economies are going into recession. But, in this country, fortunately, through the government’s quick action early in the piece, particularly in the area of banking and financial regulation, we have a position where it is looking extremely good for this country compared to the rest of the world in terms of facing up to the global financial crisis.

I also want to turn to the achievements of this government over 12 months. Senator Crossin has referred to a number of them, such as the apology to the stolen generations. We also recall that one of the very first moves of the Rudd government was to ratify the Kyoto protocol and to get serious about climate change—an issue on which, clearly, the public judged the previous Prime Minister, Mr Howard, as not up to the mark. He was not interested in climate change as an issue, and it was significant in his election defeat. So was Work Choices.

Yet we still hear the opposition equivocating about whether or not they will support the government’s policy, for which we have a mandate, to restore balance and fairness in the Australian workplace. I could go on. I could talk about the electoral reforms. I could talk about giving recognition to local government through the great forum that was held here last week, with local government finally getting a direct voice into federal government. I thought one of the most amazing comments I heard last week was from the president of the Australian Local Government Association who said that, in all of the years of the Howard government, he could never once get a meeting with the Treasurer. What a disgrace that was! (Time expired)

Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I always get worried when I here about five-year plans, and I heard about one today. Today we heard one of the good Labor senators talk about how they have a five-year plan for the education revolution. I was wondering where I had heard that before, and it took me back to the Gosplan of the Soviet Union. I think Pyatiletka is the Russian term for ‘five-year plan’, and that is really what we have here.

Labor senators talk about how they are going to move the country forward. I do not know if they have moved the country forward, but Mr Rudd certainly took off—he has taken off and has hardly ever come back. This man is the eternal global wanderer. He termed himself Kevin 07; it is like Kevin 07 and the Zip Pets. For the last 12 months they have shown our nation the light and the sacred drafts. Reflecting back on some of those sacred drafts the Labor Party have delivered to us, it is almost Pythonesque. Remember that Mr Rudd was going to have a new economic zone—a zone of Pacific peace. Apparently Mr Woolcott is the only one who wants to be in it. So far they only have one starter. These are ridiculous, hare-brained, pie-in-the sky ideas.

Then, of course, we had Fuelwatch. What a bastion of good thought that one was—another example of the acumen of the Labor Party! Maybe that was a one-off, but then we had GroceryWatch, which was another one of their great outcomes. They had a hothouse of thought to develop all of these plans. Then they had the 2020 Summit. Remember that? The world was going to change after the 2020 Summit. That was a brilliant piece of work! I am not quite sure what actually came out of that, but we saw Mr Rudd lounging around with his clipboard and an earnest look on his face as he took down notes, glanced at the camera, took down more notes, got a better angle, better light and then left. What else did we have? Look at the defence forces at the moment. The Australian Navy’s favourite tune is We will be home for Christmasbecause they will be. They are shutting down the whole show because of the completely incompetent management, not of the Navy, but of the government that sits behind it.

Then we have the ‘economic conservative’; the man who leads a government that in one fell swoop spent half the nation’s surplus without so much as a model. On 8 December we are going to see the expenditure of this money in pubs and clubs and electronic stores. We will see this money turning into poker machine revenue, into alcohol and into assaults. You will be able to pick a town near you, go to a certain hotel and see part of our nation’s surplus being spent for the social development of this nation. They are the sorts of hare-brained ideas that have been floating out of this government. Behind it all we have an absolute brainchild—the alcopops tax. Remember that one? They were going to raise $3.1 billion and they were going to spend $50 million to stop people drinking. These are the sorts of forces and ideas that truly encapsulate exactly what we have with this government.

The piece de resistance is that they managed to start with a $21.8 billion surplus and have blown it in their first year—and they blame the mining boom for that. The mining boom has not truly peeled off yet. It is an a posteriori complex that we have actually blown the money before the problem arrives. Now we are driving the nation into recession. They will have to borrow their $10.4 billion back, forcing up interest rates for households around this nation. This is the sort of government we have. It is an absolute debacle, and sooner or later people are going pick up on it.

I agree with Senator Forshaw when he says that this government is the most serious thing to happen to Australia since the financial crisis of the 1930s. He hit it on the head there. It will be a fascinating five-year plan that this Labor government rolls out for us. We have to remember that the Soviet Union had 13—the famous number—five-year plans. Unfortunately, we have the first one coming up to us right now, and it is showing all the hallmarks and acumen— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.