Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have just heard the previous speaker waxing lyrical with regard to community cabinets. The truth of those community cabinets is that they are absolutely controlled to the hilt by the prime minister’s department—and contrived to the hilt by the prime minister’s department. They are an incredibly expensive exercise, and half of them leave their bills behind for the local township to mop up. They are steeped in spin. The only ones to fall for those community cabinets are Sky TV, who foolishly televise the community cabinets. I have sat there on a boring day watching them—for about five minutes before I switched over to something a bit more interesting. Something more contrived and controlled I have never seen before. It fools no-one but, as I say, Sky TV.

This evening what I would like to talk about is the Rudd government, and that is a good entree that I have just given. Since the election of 2007 it has certainly taken to the public purse with vengeance—having been denied access to it for almost 11½ years during the previous Liberal government. They were stewing over all those years. Seeing the debt paid off, the surplus racked up and the future funds created must have been anathema to the Labor Party. Since being elected to government, Labor have reverted to their tradition of debt, deficit and waste—and wasteful, frivolous, laughable, self-indulgent and corrupt spending. There are two prime examples, which we have brought to this chamber on several occasions. The first, of course, is the ‘Julia Gillard memorial school halls’ project, where billions of dollars have been wasted on projects which would be hideously laughable if they were not so serious. The greatest example is the pink batts program, where $3.9 billion is being spent on pink batts. That says it all—$3.9 billion being spent on pink batts. As I say, it would be laughable if it were not so serious.

Tonight I would like to bring to the attention of the Senate something even more laughable than those two examples—something more frivolous, more wasteful and frankly more corrupt. I am referring to Labor’s so-called Tree of Knowledge. It was asserted by Labor that the tree, a ghost gum that stood in the township of Barcaldine in central western Queensland, was where the Labor Party was formed. Myth has it that a group of shearers sat under the tree during the famous shearers’ strike of 1891 and discussed the beginnings of a political movement. Typical of Labor Party history, it is delusional. Equally typical of Labor, they do not mind throwing millions of taxpayer’s dollars at their delusions. This is the case with the so-called Tree of Knowledge. The federal government allocated some $2.9 million of taxpayers’ money and the state Labor government gave an equivalent amount to establish a shrine around the tree at Barcaldine in Queensland.

Now comes the myth busting—the truth that Labor cannot handle. First of all, the allocating of government funds to such a blatant party political cause is a rort. The ALP has made no contribution to the project. Frankly, it seems that the political party, now that it is in government, is unable to distinguish between government money and party finances. Secondly, putting aside all the pretentiousness of calling Labor’s sacred site a ‘tree of knowledge’ after the biblical tree in the garden of Eden, the tree in fact is not a tree—it is a stump. The actual tree was poisoned many years ago. It has been reduced to a stump. Moreover, in 2008 the stump was pulled out of the ground, at great expense to the taxpayer, and transported to Brisbane. It was preserved in some sort of formula and then sent back to Barcaldine to be replanted. I have a picture here of the stump being pulled out.

There is more. This comical farce continued when the dead stump was returned from Brisbane and had attached to it an artificial trunk, branches and leaves. There is more to this ridiculous joke: historians Peter and Sheila Forrest were commissioned by the local council to carry out a history of the site. Much to everyone’s embarrassment, they discovered and proved beyond doubt that no shearer ever sat under this tree on strike or even during a smoko. But wait, there is more! Labor knew all along of this historical fraud and tried to cover it up. But the truth was so compelling that even the noted Labor Party historian Manfred Cross said, and I quote:

I am quite satisfied that what the Forrests put down on paper on the basis of evidence is quite accurate.

I invite Senator Faulkner, a noted Labor Party historian, to come into the chamber and dispute the facts if he believes my claim is wrong. It is one thing to mythologise about your origins stemming from shearers meeting under a ghost gum; it is another to fleece taxpayers of millions of dollars based on an untruth, and a party political one at that. It tells us more of what is at the core of Labor’s very ethos. There was a grandiose opening of the shrine on May 2 this year. I received an invitation to it but did not bother going; however the Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, did and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett did—and, in full knowledge of this false history, they perpetuated the lie; and in the full glare of the cameras they told it. The fix was in.

The fourth point is what a hideous monstrosity it is that they opened. Frankly it has ruined whatever aesthetic attraction Barcaldine might have had. It is an ugly piece of architecture built over a dead stump with artificial limbs and no history, and it looms over the whole town. Again, I have pictures to give evidence of my claim.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McGauran, it is disorderly to waive things around in the chamber.

Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Even when you see this monstrosity, you cannot believe it. It has made the township of Barcaldine a laughing stock—and it deserves to be so, as the local council played along with this myth. The architect, and moreover those who approved the design, must have been hallucinating. The much maligned ‘Big Peanut’ from the City of Cairns has more appeal and artistic merit.

So far we have the local council, the Premier of the state, a federal minister, the Labor Party and its historians all playing along with this game, at taxpayers’ expense. But the charade is also joined by a peak body and keeper of our historic and most treasured sites, the Australian Heritage Council. It might surprise if not shock people to know that the so-called Tree of Knowledge was placed on the National Heritage List in 2006. It was listed along with the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Exhibition Building, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and so on—great icons.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Mr President: it would be misleading the Senate not to include Greg Hunt.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order, Senator Conroy. Resume your seat.

Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a most exclusive and beautiful list that the stump is quite undeserving to be associated with. In the Heritage Council’s annual publication they wax lyrical about the tree’s size and historical importance and glorify the so-called historical connection between the shearers sitting under the tree and the Labor Party. But the question rightly asked of the council is: what is the truth? Well, I finally received a reply to that question from the Australian Heritage Council. The council as good as acknowledged the tree was not a meeting place. Nevertheless, it says in its letter to me, ‘The tree is a symbol.’ If you say it enough, a lie becomes the truth. I guess that old saying comes to life in this situation—very much Labor’s creed and modus operandi.

It is probably all too hard under a Labor government for the council to extract the stump of knowledge from the National Heritage List. But it ought to be extracted if Australia is going to have a heritage list that is credible, devoid of political bias and of genuine consequence, including such sites as Mawson’s Hut, Old Parliament House in Canberra and the Australian War Memorial. These are heavyweight listings and are diminished by the stump. This is an issue that very much sums up modern Labor—fake and always milking the public purse. I regret that so many people have played along with Labor’s scam, which would be funny except for the millions of taxpayers’ dollars involved.