Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research (Senator Evans) and the Assistant Treasurer (Senator Arbib) to questions without notice asked by Senator Brandis and the Leader of The Nationals in the Senate (Senator Joyce) today relating to the Labor Government and to small business.

In doing so, I reflect on the day after the events of yesterday. I think the one thing that sent the message home was an email I got at about nine o'clock last night which I am quite happy to show those opposite without the name and address on it. The email is from someone who has supported the Australian Labor Party for 40 years and refuses to do so ever again. I took the liberty of ringing this man last night to talk about it. I will show the email to those opposite, because they do not believe me and will want to see it. This person quite clearly says that this is a dysfunctional, deceptive, dishonourable and economically disastrous government that he will no longer support.

I want to put the email in the context of what happened yesterday and the build-up to yesterday. I will repeat the comments that I know those opposite have been told over the last three weeks. The public are sick and tired of the Australian Labor Party worrying more about their own jobs, particularly the Prime Minister and Mr Rudd, than they worry about the jobs of Australian workers. When some 25,000 Victorian manufacturing workers' jobs are at risk this year, including those at Alcoa in Geelong covering the seat Corangamite, the self-indulgence and the damage done to the political process over the last two weeks will continue for many years. Those opposite know that the wounds of the last two days are covered in tissue paper and not gauze. Those wounds will open up sooner rather than later. No-one in the community and no-one opposite believes that this is the end of the Labor Party's leadership problems. Coming with that is a repeat of the dysfunctionality of this government that we will see again. Nothing has changed from yesterday.

I put into context some of the comments that were made in the run-up to this debilitating leadership dispute, particularly from Victorian backbencher Darren Cheeseman, the member for Corangamite, who told the Sunday Agethat many rank-and-file MPs concluded that Ms Gillard's leadership was now 'terminal'.

Julia Gillard cannot take us to an election. She will decimate the party if she does.

He went on to say:

There's no doubt about it, Julia Gillard can't take the party forward. The community has made its mind up on her.

I think it is in the best interests she should resign.

Further, he said:

Certainly it would be interest-of-party for Julia to stand down and allow Cabinet to select a strong candidate.

Mr Cheeseman knows something more than I do: I thought it was your caucus that chose the leader. But here we have from Mr Cheeseman himself confirmation that the faceless men who run cabinet are indeed the ones who are putting prime ministers in and out. Out of the mouths of babes, the likes of Mr Cheeseman. I want to talk briefly about some of the issues that are still confronting this government. I want to talk about Craig Thomson. I want to talk about New South Wales Police investigations. I want to talk about some comments that Mr Thomson made on 15 February. Mr Thomson repeated a statement:

… I have done nothing wrong. I have fully cooperated with the investigations and I look forward to them concluding. I note that the only investigation to have already concluded, that of the New South Wales Police, did not find any wrongdoing by me.

And yet what happened over the weekend? What was reported in the Australian on 25 February? I will read from the article:

NSW police are closing in on alleged corruption involving Labor MP Craig Thomson and Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson, raiding the premises of graphic designer John Gilleland who is claimed to have secretly provided the pair with credit cards.

So on 15 February we have this man saying it had been concluded and New South Wales Police could find no wrong, and here they are a week and a half later making raids which directly involve Mr Thomson.

This government is completely dysfunctional. This government does not deserve to govern for another day. This government must go to the people and let the people decide who is best placed to run this country. They have a clear difference: hope, reward and opportunity or complete dysfunction. I know which one I will choose. (Time expired)

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of questions directed to Minister Arbib and Minister Evans. I could go the low road like Senator Ronaldson, but I would like to be above that. I think to myself that it is absolutely unbelievable that all this lot on that side can do is go the low road.

Maybe I have misled. Maybe I will take a minute to talk about the incompetence and two-facedness of senators on that side of the chamber. I think it has only been four years since we on this side began sitting through the three or four leadership changes on that side. You heard certain senators screaming out, 'What about Mr Costello?' If Mr Costello was that great, I do not know why he never stood and had a crack. But then it was all about Mr Nelson and how fantastic Mr Nelson was. How long did Mr Nelson last before he was taken out by Mr Turnbull by one or two votes? How long did Mr Turnbull take? Do not go away, Senator Ronaldson—he was your mate. He probably still is your mate. He is probably a very decent bloke. I think he was taken out within about a year when he tried to pull the low road about a certain ute in Mr Rudd's campaign. So he exited. At that stage there was a competition between Mr Abbott; Mr Hockey, who was all over the place on where he stood on climate change; and Mr Turnbull. I think Mr Abbott won by one vote. But here we go: it is only the Labor Party they want to talk about.

I would love to hear that side over there stand and talk about what they will do. For the last four or five years all I have heard from the Liberal Party—not from the doormats but from the Liberal Party—is what they will not do. I know they have a $70 billion black hole, but we went through an election in 2010 and it was all about what they would not do. There was no vision. Regardless of how the cards fell, Australia gave us a hung parliament. Whether we like it or not and whether that side of the chamber likes it or not, we were given a hung parliament.

I tip my hat to the Prime Minister: she has done an absolutely magnificent job not only forming government and negotiating with independents and the minor parties but also putting through under her leadership no less than 269 pieces of legislation. But what do we hear from that side? They only go the negative. Everything is no. I have a little bit of gratuitous advice: why don't you just take your eyes off the polls in the newspapers? Instead of letting the fourth estate do all your campaigning, why don't you lead the charge and tell us what you are going to do for this great nation? How are you going to better the lives of future Australians? It is deafening.

Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just wait.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would be remiss of me to miss this opportunity. I heard that you, Senator Sinodinos, have been promoted to the finance committee. To be really honest with you, I heard a collective 'Whew!' coming out of the red halls up here when they heard that. They thought to themselves, 'Thank goodness—someone with a brain!' I have not seen you operate in the Senate too much, but I have no doubt your credibility is extremely high. But I tell you what: you do not need the other three. Do the party a favour and give them something else to do, like checking out the gardens. You get on with it. I know that I speak from the majority of Australians looking forward to hearing something positive come out of that side on what they are going to do at the next election.

But I really did want to go to the small business opportunities that this government has provided. I got to see Senator Joyce, the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, which he forgot about last night—he was reminded by Senator Evans that he was the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate—struggle through the most ridiculous set of questions about what the Labor Party is doing for small business and to see Minister Arbib completely wipe the floor with and embarrass that side of the chamber on a ridiculous question. We have done so much for small business, not least the Building the Education Revolution of $16.2 billion. I have done some 50 BERs where small business people were rewarded with not only keeping their job but keeping the jobs of their employees. On that, thank you very much.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given to questions asked by Senator Joyce and Senator Brandis. What a farce. What an absolute embarrassment. From the answers given today, the Gillard government would have us believe that everything is fine—that they are all happy little vegemites over there—but at its core it is still the same government, a government which has just gone through quite an embarrassing public confessional. It is the same government that oversaw the failed policy implementation across so many areas. There was biosecurity. I am glad Senator Sterle mentioned the BER. There was pink batts, GroceryWatch and Fuelwatch. Time does not allow me to list all the areas of failed policy implementation by the Rudd-Gillard government, but one of particular interest to me is the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which is just going on and on providing uncertainty across the southern basin in particular.

This government knifed Kevin Rudd for his incompetence as Prime Minister, and Labor wants Australians to believe that a few hours of peace will actually make up for 4½ years of division and dysfunction. As for how we are proceeding today, Steve Gibbons, the member for Bendigo in north-central Victoria—who, we might remember, sent out that wonderful tweet about the 'psycho Rudd'—is quoted in the local press as saying he makes his own decisions and is 'not accountable to anyone—you moron!' This is how he is responding to constituents, to real Australians who have real concerns about how this government is treating them and their country. The government does not listen. It fails to deliver. It does not understand that we live in a democracy.

Over and over this week and last week we have heard from ALP ministers and backbenchers outlining exactly why this government has failed to deliver good governance. It is a grocery list of projects mismanaged by both the Gillard government and the Rudd government—and we heard it from them. There are no better people to speak about it, I guess, than the people who have actually lived it. The Australian people are tired of a government which fails to listen to them, fails to lead and fails to deliver. Good government is about good policy, not about getting a good headline. And, for the record, rarely does a good headline in the seat of Melbourne—taken from Labor by the Greens at the last election—make a very good headline in Manangatang. I will just give you that heads-up!

The policy needs for regional Australia are unique, and this government fails to get it, over and over and over again. On that issue, I would like to turn my attention to one of those policies, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Minister Burke promised in November 2011, after hearing quite a significant level of angst in regional communities, to halt water buybacks in the southern basin prior to 2013. Communities and industry had been telling the government over and over again to stop it, and the message was the same in Shepparton, in Swan Hill, in Deniliquin and in Mildura, yet the minister announced this week that he will be recommencing those buybacks in the southern basin. This government fails on all levels to listen and to deliver. Last week in Swan Hill farmers and irrigators made very clear the negative impact that water buybacks have on irrigators left in the system, but this government does not listen.

Senator Wong berated the coalition during question time for not standing up for families. Where is the ALP in standing up for families living and working in the Murray-Darling Basin? I would like to see that. Where is the government support for workers being laid off in the small businesses in towns and suburbs right across the country—not just in the car manufacturing industry, Senator Arbib, but in tourism, in food processing and in manufacturing? Where is the ALP in supporting those families? I will tell you where: nowhere.

Regional Australia has lost confidence in this government. Small business has lost confidence in this government. And 30 per cent of the government has lost confidence in this government. No wonder the Australian public has lost confidence. Australia is a great country with a terrible government, and Australians know it. Stop the farce, take us to an election and let the people have a say, rather than subjecting us to another 18 months of failure and mismanagement in policy implementation.

Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers to questions given by Ministers Evans and Arbib, and in doing so I want to highlight and talk about some of this Labor government's many achievements. It is a government that is delivering and is getting on with the business of reform. This Gillard Labor government has implemented many reforms to assist working Australians to harness the opportunities of our time right across our great country.

We are doing this through pricing carbon and using all the money that is raised to support households, to support jobs in trade-exposed industries and to invest in clean energy programs—this against a rabid opposition who want to scrap the cheapest way to combat carbon emissions, to take money from health and education and to give subsidies to big polluters. We are introducing the mining resources rent tax, which will give all Australians a fair share of the mining boom—a tax which industry is prepared to pay, a tax that those opposite want to send back to those making superprofits instead of providing better infrastructure for all Australians, increased superannuation for working Australians and a lower company tax rate to businesses who are not in the fast lane of the mining boom.

Just today Labor delivered again, with the ACCC giving the final seal on the National Broadband Network. With ACCC approval of the structural separation of Telstra, for the first time in Australia's history telco providers will compete on a level playing field, and, from that, consumers will benefit. They will benefit from the competition as service providers compete fiercely to give customers the best and most innovative services at the best price. Telstra was structured and sold by the Howard government in a way that was bad for consumers, bad for competition and bad for the economy. They did not sell Telstra for the benefit of Australians; they did it for ideological reasons. Today the ACCC has ticked off on this Labor government righting another one of those wrongs of the Howard government. It means that we are well on the way to delivering the National Broadband Network, giving all Australians access to high-speed, high-quality telecommunications at uniform prices regardless of where they live.

Connection to the National Broadband Network means our children will have better access to the very best education services and those who are ill will have access from their living rooms to the best specialists. It means that local businesses will have greater opportunities to reach new customers anywhere in the world, and in an instant. Businesses with offices across the country and the world will have better access to videoconferencing and private networks, saving time and boosting productivity. Across Tasmania, people in Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point are connecting to the NBN and people in another dozen locations will have access in the coming months.

Part of being a responsible government is recognising that some communities are doing it tough because of the structural changes that our economy is going through. Senator McKenzie just asked what the Labor government is doing. Labor is helping Tasmanian communities diversify their economic base, helping regions that were hit hard by the global financial crisis and are now being hit by the downturn in the forestry industry. Earlier this month Labor announced funding for the $1.5 million Harcus River Road infrastructure project and the $4.25 million AgriTas Trade College in the Circular Head region of Tasmania, an area that has been hit hard by the downturn in some of the industries in that area. The Harcus River Road project will allow for the conversion of up to 27 farms from lower value beef production to higher value dairy production. This will immediately provide construction work for the many displaced forest workers and has the potential to create 135 new on-farm jobs once these upgrades are completed. As skills development is so crucial to our agricultural industry, the AgriTas college will deliver 200 full qualifications and 400 short course places per year. This will equip Tasmanians with the skills they need to work in and benefit from the jobs available from growth in the dairy sector and agriculture more broadly. It will also provide a boost to the local economy as people relocate for a period of time while studying.

We are tackling the reform of disability services in this country. Many have felt that the situation had been impossible before, but Labor can and will deliver on it. Already, thousands of Australian families have benefited from Labor's Paid Parental Leave scheme, which helps families look after their newborn babies. Labor is getting on and making the tough choices to keep the economy strong. (Time expired)

Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday was not a great day for Australia and certainly not a great day for the once great Australian Labor Party. The choice they made yesterday was a choice not to make a new start. It was a choice to look backwards, a choice to stay in their comfort zone. They will pay the price for that at the next election because, as a result of yesterday, nothing has changed. It is business as usual, and with business as usual you get the same results. That is why it is a sad day for Australia, and that is why it is a sad day for the electoral prospects of the Australian Labor Party.

I have risen today to take note of answers given by Senators Evans and Arbib to questions asked by my colleagues Senators Brandis and Joyce. I listened very closely to what Senator Evans had to say. He was asked about the cost of living and the impact of the carbon tax, but he refused to discuss the issue. They talk airily about tax cuts and benefit increases, but they do not tell us that it is quite possible that the inflationary impact of this tax will actually be higher than they have already estimated because this is a cascading tax. It is a tax which cascades through the system. Unlike the GST, where you get input tax credits back at various stages of production, this one cascades through to the final consumer. There has been no discussion and no modelling of that as far as we can tell.

It was disappointing that Senator Evans would not address the cost of living implications of the carbon tax, because if there is one issue that is burning Labor in the Australian community it is their desire to pursue this tax based on a broken promise and introduced as a result of a deal with the Independents and the Greens after the last election. That is the sad thing about this. They have not done this with conviction. They have done it as a result of a deal in order to stay in power by a Prime Minister who urged her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, to drop the emissions trading scheme. Indeed, it appears, according to Maxine McKew, quoted on the weekend, that Maxine McKew virtually shirt fronted the then Prime Minister and said, 'If you don't do this, there will be diabolical consequences.' That is the extent of conviction on this great issue of the day to do with climate change.

The reason the conviction is important is that in politics the thing we have to offer the electorate is hope and, in return, we gain trust that we will abide by our word and abide by our promises. Labor have abrogated that trust. They have broken those promises and are paying the cost of that today, whether it is in the polls that we see out there or in the ructions within the party itself. But, as I said yesterday, they agreed that they were going to go forward with the same policies and the same faces—they will get the same results.

That is why there are many in the community—not only in business, but business are particularly impacted by the uncertainty created by the government's miasma of policies—who are calling for an early election. That is an opportunity for this government to renew its mandate or for a new majority government to come in and provide strong leadership for a stronger economy, a stronger infrastructure and ultimately a stronger society. That is what we are about on this side of the house. We are about hope, reward and opportunity. Sadly, Senator Evans, in his question, did nothing to give us hope that the other side would do anything that would be of use to the Australian community in the period ahead.

In the time left to me I want to briefly talk about the response by Minister Arbib. Again, there was nothing on the great burden of regulation on small business; nothing about the impact of the industrial relations system, the award modernisation system, on small business; and nothing about the question that my colleague Senator Back raised around the gutting of the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the impact that that will have, not so much on the big end of town when it comes to construction but on the subcontractors and the small business people who feed off those large contracts. They will be at the tail end of this process and they will be the ones who will suffer from the intimidation in the building and construction industry. This is the state of Labor today—a state of deals done behind closed doors with other parties in this place and with their union paymasters. As a result of yesterday, none of that has changed.

I wish to conclude by quoting something that Maxine McKew said on the weekend about Julia Gillard and Mark Arbib. She said:

What I have never understood is why Gillard, one of the government's better communicators at the time, and someone who had taken a lead role in the 2007 election campaign … was not prepared to take on the rhetorical challenge in government—

of selling climate change—

In the end she showed precious little conviction and instead took to heart the focus-group anxieties being peddled by Arbib.

That is that nature of the Prime Minister and the senator who is leading— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.