Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Evans) to questions without notice asked by Senator Abetz today relating to the budget.

The gang of four has now become the gang of three, and the 2IC has been rewarded for her treachery and disloyalty and taken over from the worst Prime Minister in the history of this country. After accepting her 30 pieces of silver, she has once again betrayed her commitment and conviction about the previous policies of what has proved to be a hopeless and hapless government, of which she was the architect. One of the first things she has done is ditch the taxpayer funded advertising justifying their great big new tax on mining. I salute the fact that the advertising is not going ahead, because it was a waste of taxpayers’ money and it was an abuse of the privilege that this government received.

But what is astounding is that yesterday, the day before and the day before that, Ms Gillard, now Prime Minister Gillard—it fills me with fear—was justifying this expenditure. Thirty-eight million dollars was well-spent yesterday, apparently, but not today. This joins the long list of ditched and dumped disastrous policies and justifications this government are trying to hide under the political corpse of Kevin Rudd. But it will not work, because the structure of this government is essentially the same. The faceless, backroom boys are still pulling the strings of whatever puppet they have in charge. It will not work. The Australian people will see through it.

Kevin Rudd, for all his failings, was named ‘Canada’s mining man of the year’, thanks to his work to destroy Australia’s mining industry. But while he was getting that award, there was strong competition in the Labor Party for the award of ‘undermining man of the year’. Could it be the triple F of Feeney, Farrell and Faulkner or the ABC of undermining: Arbib, Burke or Conroy? All of them have butchered a Prime Minister in the greatest act of betrayal that the Labor Party has ever seen. The list of backroom people—

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, my point of order goes to relevance, as well as hypocrisy, given what those opposite did to Turnbull. But, most importantly, my point of order is relevance.

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

Senator Wong, that is a debating point rather than a point of order.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I should articulate my point of order a little more carefully. The point of order is relevance. This is ‘taking note of answers’. What Senator Bernardi is commenting on has absolutely nothing to do with any answers given in question time today.

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

There is no point of order, Senator Wong. Having sat through question time, I can say that I think relevance has become somewhat debatable.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, on a point of order: the minister in making her point of order could not help herself and directly referred to Senator Bernardi’s alleged hypocrisy. That should be withdrawn because it was directed personally at him.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You want me to withdraw? Surely after your hypocrisy with Turnbull, do you really want me to withdraw?

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

Order! Senator Wong, If you used the word ‘hypocrisy’ and it was directed at a senator, then I must ask you to withdraw.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. Clearly, Senator Wong, who was 100 per cent behind Kevin Rudd last night, is feeling a little challenged. But I would return to the backflip by Ms Gillard on the $38 million waste of taxpayers’ money. So proud were the government of their track record that they had to knife the architect and replace him with the 2IC.

I know there are those who clung loyally to the flag that supported such disastrous policies. I know that Senators Cameron and Wong came out supporting and justifying all of the policies of the Rudd government, but the problem is that it is not going to change now. They have changed the colour of the hair of the puppet at the top but the same backroom boys will be doing the job of ruining this country day by day. It is an absolutely undistinguished record. What they have done to the mining industry is to challenge it. They have justified their great big new tax on mining by saying that it is actually going to grow the mining industry. We now know that is absolute poppycock, and we know it because Ms Gillard can no longer justify the misinformation that was put out by this government, a government that was intent on spin and propaganda rather than on substance and the national interest.

It is galling to me that Senator Wong stands up and talks about relevance. Let me say this: Senator Wong unfortunately has been deemed irrelevant by this government because the portfolios that she has continued to hold have proved to be perhaps the most disastrous of a very bad and failed government. So while Ms Gillard will be saying that things are going to change and that they want to enter into a truce, such statements are motivated simply by electoral opportunism. They want to buy some peace so that they can stop the haemorrhaging and hide these disastrous and failed policies under the corpse of the former Prime Minister. He was a flawed Prime Minister, a failed Prime Minister, a disastrous Prime Minister. He was a Prime Minister who has really done no credit to Labor or to this country. But that is not the point. Ms Gillard was entrusted as the deputy leader and she has displayed no loyalty. This is the greatest act of betrayal.

Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to follow Senator Bernardi in speaking on this take note motion. There is nothing more fascinating for the public of Australia, I am sure, than to listen to that speech. How is it that those opposite can stand up and reflect on Labor’s decisions in relation to leadership, having cleaned out two leaders of their own and having ditched a leader on the back of a principle in circumstances that defied their own claims that it was a policy area of no regard—that is, climate change? What we have is a new leader who will take this country forward with pride, dignity and vision.

How is it that those opposite can stand there with any credibility and say that this government has not achieved anything? Our achievements are so comprehensive compared with the 11 years of the coalition government’s absolute neglect of our education system—both secondary and tertiary. Education, research and development and the investment we need to make in enhancing what we build, design and export all suffered under the Howard government. We went backwards on so many national indicators including, very importantly, our connectivity.

We on this side of the chamber know that the economic infrastructure of the future is bandwidth, and yet we have those opposite still saying that they will oppose the National Broadband Network in the face of an agreement by Telstra to participate in it. In the face of universal acclamation of the elegant structure of the telecommunications policy as we have put it forward, we have this lot opposite now saying they will withdraw the investment that Labor has made in the type of technology that will underpin our education system going forward. They will pull those computers out of schools. They will stop the funding flowing to the physical infrastructure of our education system to the detriment of every generation hence that leaves schools in Australia and enters our workforce.

Theirs is a backward thinking party. We know they were a backward thinking government because we experienced 12 years of that under Howard. Now they have the gall to stand up and ask us what we have done. We have done so much. We have built new libraries. We have built new physical infrastructure in schools that changes the day-to-day experience of kids. It inspires them to know that the government of this country values their education. And, trust me, the impact of that is critical. The message that young people received under the Howard government was that the government did not care. That government had no regard for their future—for where they were going to take those children down the track.

I do not have enough time to list the successes of this government, but let me turn briefly to the investment in health. We know the health costs were blowing out. We look at the numbers under the Howard government and we look at the disinvestment. We look at the $1 billion stripped out by the Howard government, and everybody knows that we were heading to a bad place with respect to health services. Only under the Rudd government, and now the Gillard government, has there been a program for health reform involving substantive investment. We have put in place a system that will bring about real change for this country. We are talking about the health of our citizens. Combined, these two issues—investment in education and health—represent two of the very core issues that Australians hold dear.

Under the Howard government, on all those indicators, we went backwards, and you cannot stand up across the opposite side of this chamber and hold up flagpoles and compare them to the sort of physical and organisational investment we are making in our education system. You cannot compare a $1 billion withdrawal of funding from our public health system to our multibillion dollar investment in the future of a national healthcare system coordinated through our states and the federal system to deliver universal health services to Australians. They cannot compare. They know it. They have nowhere to go, and Ms Gillard will make a fine Prime Minister for this country. (Time expired)

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

‘Ms Gillard will make a fine Prime Minister’ were the ending words of the previous speaker, who is probably the only senator—and, for that matter, member of parliament—to go on Sky TV before the ballot itself. Let that be noted by her detractors when the time comes for payback. And payback is already happening: you are going to have to look for a new finance minister by the looks of things down in the House at this moment. I am told that Mr Lindsay Tanner is resigning and will not be recontesting. That little honeymoon has not lasted long.

And nothing has changed at all. All through question time you did not take the opportunity to change the direction of the government. What is the point of changing a leader if you are not going to change your policy and direction? Like all of around this place, I tuned in, glued to the press conference of the new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to whom I offer a parliamentary congratulations—no more, no less. It is a high office; I congratulate anyone who manages to scramble to that position, as they do.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Even with blood on their hands.

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

With blood on their hands, as Senator Abetz announces. All of us have been around politics long enough to know that, as we can see even with Mr Tanner, that does not hold for a united team. But far be it from me that I be distracted by the good interjections of Senator Abetz. I, like everyone, was glued to Sky’s televising of the press conference of the new Prime Minister. I was bewildered that this Prime Minister and party, who were up all night plotting and planning the new position of the Prime Minister, did not take the opportunity on day 1 to fix the problem. Why would you remove former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd if you are not going to change your policies or the direction of the party?

You have simply made a political manoeuvre as a reaction to the polls. There is no conviction of policy. You spent all of question time defending the old policies of border protection—which brings me to the point. While you were scrutinising leaders I would have thought you would have scrutinised your own leader here in the Senate. There is one who should have been dropped too. Maybe he will be yet in a reshuffle. If you want to drop leaders on the basis of polls, there probably has not been a leader who has plunged you deeper in polls than the leader in the Senate and his portfolio. No-one has mismanaged his people portfolio worse than Senator Evans. But why would I think you would be discerning at all? Why would you be discerning about who is leading your party and who is running your policies when you have just made Prime Minister the person who has managed the worst waste of taxpayers’ funds to the tune of billions and billions of dollars since Federation? That will be her badge of dishonour.

And don’t think it has been lost on the Australian people. The rhetoric that came out of that press conference! Not one policy was changed when you had the opportunity to do it on day 1. Just go back and look at the first press conference of our change of leadership. We did it for a purpose. The purpose was to drop the ETS. There was no purpose in putting Ms Gillard there unless you changed some of your policies, and one, of course, was the mining tax. The other was to toughen up your border security protection, but nothing came out of that press conference but more rhetoric.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is just the same spin.

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

It is just the same old spin. I was quite bewildered. I was quite encouraged, to tell you the truth. I was expecting more, given that you were all up late last night and you would have thought to change the direction of the party, but all we got was another version of the working family. Over and over she repeated phrases: ‘hard-working Australians’, ‘my door is open’ and ‘my love of this country’. Not one policy was changed. If you think the Australian people are just going to accept a new version of spin, you are wrong. You have miscalculated. There has to be a change in fundamental direction of policy.

This is what we will go to the election with. We already have our bumper sticker: this is a Prime Minister who is no different from the previous one. You are still playing spin. You are still playing politics with it all.

Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is all very illuminating. The opposition consider that policy consists of Mr Abbott saying that he would not do something. That was Senator McGauran’s great change of direction when they changed leader. Senator Bernardi talks about the Labor Party changing leaders and omits mention of the treachery and betrayal that occurred in the case of Mr Brendan Nelson and Mr Malcolm Turnbull. They, at least, were leaders who were trying to take you down some positive path, who were trying to develop policy, and that clearly was not good enough for the Liberal Party. In the absence of Mr Howard, who was very good at developing pragmatic policies, at throwing money at things, at making empty symbols, they floundered around looking for a leader who could develop real policies and take the party in a new direction.

So they turned to Mr Brendan Nelson. But the polls dropped, so they got rid of Mr Brendan Nelson—an act of treachery and betrayal for someone just into opposition. That leader was just done away with. Then we had Mr Malcolm Turnbull, who, again, rather than consistently saying no to everything that came through the parliament, tried to do something constructive. He tried to acknowledge that there might be some shades in the black and white. But, no, Mr Turnbull was subjected to an act of treachery and betrayal in his party room and, on the eve of making a historic, world-leading agreement, was dumped by his party.

Now we have Mr Abbott, whose crowning achievement, according to Senator McGauran, is to say no to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. What else has he done? What policies has he produced since then? Negative ones. In this parliament the consistent action of the opposition is to negate any legislation, not let anything through and not talk about their own policies but adopt a negative, blocking tactic. There are no policies, there is no action—no change, in fact, from the Howard era. Mr Abbott runs on a negative scare campaign. We all know that that can be very effective, and it did make it tough for the Labor Party. But this morning we had Julia Gillard taking up the leadership of the Labor Party, pledging to take the Labor Party in a new direction. She said that we had lost our way in the public debate, partly due to this negative campaign. She is going to take us in a new direction.

I greatly look forward to seeing the way that Julia Gillard will lead us forward. I have great faith in her intelligence and her ability to develop policy and see it through. Her faith in her country will translate to positive policy. Her love of her country will translate into policies that will take this country forward rather than being locked in the past, failed policies of the Howard era. I certainly have great faith in Ms Julia Gillard’s ability to do that. I look forward, most of all, to having a Prime Minister who looks to the future and who has the ability to take the people of Australia with her. I also look forward to working with the first female Prime Minister. It is a great thing, a great example for those of us in the party and, I am sure, all around the country that we have a female Prime Minister of great ability, great intelligence and great courage. We look forward to her taking us into the future.

Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is indeed a remarkable day in this place and indeed in Australian history. Sitting back here, listening to Senator Hurley and Senator Lundy, I wonder what parallel universe they reside in. It is just absolutely gobsmacking listening to what those on the other side are suggesting. We have witnessed a leadership spill today like this nation has never seen before. We heard Senator Hurley praise the former leaders of the coalition for their great work. At least on this side we actually have a democratic process in which we deal with these things. We have a democratic process in the Liberal Party and in the coalition under which our policies and our programs are determined in the party room—not by a kitchen cabinet of four, a rapidly reducing number. As Senator McGauran has just said, you have got one fewer now. Once there were four, then there were three and, within six hours, there are now only two. How many are going to be left? The Prime Minister will be there on her own!

We actually have a process whereby our leaders are not undermined by faceless factional warlords, good Senators Feeney and Farrell, who actually fix who is going to run their party and fix who is going to control the government. It is the unions and the factional warlords that are dictating the policies and the programs of this government. It is not any caucus but the factional warlords, and that is the tragedy for all Australians today. The tragedy is that they do not have a true government; they have factional warlords who are dictating the direction of this country. This day will no doubt go down in history as a very sad day for all Australians. Our new Prime Minister admitted in her press conference only today that she felt this government had failed the Australian people. She said only a couple of hours ago:

I know the Rudd government did not do all it said it would do and at times it went off track.

Well, hello! Here is one of the kitchen cabinet of four who suddenly, because she is wearing the cloak of prime ministership, is now admitting that, yes, the Rudd government did get it wrong and it went off track. Why has she not conceded this until now, as the former Deputy Prime Minister and as one of the key four people who have determined the policies, procedures and programs of this government?

The list of the government’s broken election promises is as long as the queue of boat people lining up to get on boats in Indonesia and other waters. When you add up the sum of these broken promises and fiscally irresponsible policies, it adds up to one big black hole that needs to be funded. So how does this government deal with that black hole? Like all Labor governments, they do not look at reducing spending or at ways in which they can get value for money out of their programs. What they do is hike up taxes, and here the mining sector are in the eye of the storm. The target is the mining sector so that they can prop up this government and plug the huge gaping hole that is in their budget. A resource super profits tax is not going to fix the problems of this government. It is not going to fix the failed insulation program. It is not going to fix the failed BER—the billions of dollars that are going into the still-being-built Julia Gillard memorial halls. The RSPT will not fix the problems of this government. It is a deflection. The government are a disgrace and they should deal with the real issue, which is their policies. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.