Labor's broken promises - House of Representatives - 4 February 2010 |
4th February, 2010 |
If anyone were to go back and read Labor’s policy documents from before the last election, they would wonder if this government had any relationship whatsoever to the people who wrote those policy documents.
Remember some of the famous statements before the election? Remember the campaign declaration: ‘This reckless spending must stop’? The government then goes out on an extravaganza of reckless spending not seen since the days of Whitlam, in fact probably even worse than the days of Whitlam. We have unbalanced budgets. We have a debt for future generations to pay that has already run to at least $120 billion.
Remember Labor’s TV ads? Remember the then Leader of the Opposition, now the Prime Minister, looking the camera in the eye and saying, ‘I am an economic conservative. I am committed to balancing the budget.’
Before the election, Kevin Rudd was saying, ‘I am an economic conservative.’ Well, Labor’s first budget has produced a $27.1 billion deficit—double the highest deficit ever previously recorded in Australia. Their 2009-10 budget predicts a record $58 billion deficit. Net public debt is to blow out to $315 billion. This is the government that said that they were economic conservatives and that the reckless spending would end. The promise was broken. That, of course, is not the only promise that was broken.
What was perhaps the flagship election promise of the Labor Party was the promise that they would deliver fibre-to-the-node broadband with speeds of 100 megabits per second to 98 per cent of Australians, beginning by Christmas 2008, at a cost of $4.7 billion. Not one element of that promise has been delivered. We are past Christmas 2009, and not a single home has been connected to Labor’s high-speed broadband. Labor axed the $900 million OPEL contract, which would have been delivering fast broadband speeds to most Australians by now. Now, they have reworked the promise. It is not 98 per cent of people anymore; it is only 90 per cent that will ever get fibre to the home. Two million Australians, mainly in regional areas, have been left out altogether. If you live in a town of under a thousand people, you do not count anymore and you have been excluded from Labor’s promise. And once more, the cost has blown out from $4.7 billion to $43 billion. Not a single house has been connected and there is no plan—no business plan, no idea how it could ever possibly be developed—another broken promise.
Do you remember when Labor said they would give a computer to every secondary school student in years nine to 12? Well, that promise is now that there is only a computer available for every second child—and only then if the state government or the parents pay for the electricity, the programs, the cables, the repairs and the upgrades. It is another promise clearly broken. Remember Labor said they would deliver an education revolution? But literacy and numeracy standards are falling. What about the promise that Labor would provide a trade training centre at all 2,650 secondary schools in Australia? ‘A trade training centre for every school’—that was the promise. But now it is a trade training centre for a cluster of schools, a cluster of towns; not for every high school in the country. It is another broken promise.
Remember how Labor said they were going to establish GroceryWatch to bring down the price of groceries, so people would have to pay less? Now, after spending $13 million on a whole series of failed GroceryWatch reporting schemes, Labor have abandoned it altogether. Today’s newspapers report the litany of increased grocery prices, showing this government has failed again to deliver on one of its election promises.
What about Fuelwatch? That was going to help motorists buy the cheapest petrol. Not long after, Labor abandoned that promise as well—another broken promise.
Let us go right back to the very beginning.
During the election campaign, the Prime Minister said that the parliament would resume before Christmas and ministers would not be allowed a Christmas holiday break. Well, the ministers all had their Christmas holiday break and parliament did not start until mid-February 2008. It is one of the latest beginnings to parliament ever recorded—another broken promise.
Labor said, ‘We will establish an office for children and young people.’ But there is no sign of that office—another broken promise.
Remember Labor promising that they would reduce the costs paid to consultancies by $395 million? What has actually happened? Labor paid $952 million in consultancy contracts in its first two years—more than any other government in history—another broken promise.
Labor said that they would provide an extra $15 million for rural research and development corporations affected by the drought. In the end, they provided $10 million, but that was for climate change activities—another broken promise.
Remember their promises about the hospital system? Labor was going to fix the hospitals. They would give the states until mid-2009 to fix the hospitals or the government would have a constitutional referendum to transfer responsibility for health to the Commonwealth. Mid-2009 has come and gone, and all Labor is proposing is a review of the last review. No action—another broken promise. People still wait in the hospital queues to get basic treatment. Bills are not being paid at country hospitals. The butcher will not deliver the meat. The veterinary surgeons have to provide the bandages in some of these places. Labor has taken no action. This is a tragic broken promise for all Australians.
What about their other big flagship program—Labor’s modern award system? No workers or employers would be worse off under this new industrial relations system with the utopian goal of making all workers better off and all employers better off. Well, it has failed dismally. Almost all employers are worse off; and so are many employees. In fact, in Queensland, so many employees are worse off that the state government has delayed for a year introducing the system rather than reduce wages for so many Australians—another clear broken promise.
Labor also said that they would have a particular relationship with the unions, and so industrial relations would improve—there would be fewer strikes. Strikes increased sixfold within months of the election of the Labor government. Under their new award scheme, hardly a day passes when there is not news of more industrial action and outrageous demands. A small shipping company just a few days ago had to agree to $50,000 an employee increase in wages just to stop another strike at a vital time.
Labor said that they would maintain and improve the Regional Partnerships program, but they axed it within days of coming to office and replaced it with their own scheme—a Better Regions program—but only promises made by Labor candidates qualify for assistance under this program. No-one else can even apply. There are no application forms for anyone else. All of it is going to fund Labor election promises.
They said they were going to have a new era of clean and open government—another broken promise. It is a litany of broken promises. The parliamentary secretary, who now has responsibility for the regional development network, might like to reflect on Labor’s promises to keep the area consultative committees—another broken promise. They have all been abolished.
Let’s move into other areas. Remember Labor’s promise to take legal action to stop Japanese whaling. No legal action has been taken—another election promise broken.
What about the promise to establish 35 general practice superclinics to improve local medical care? After two years in office there is only one superclinic in operation.
Remember their promise to hold a referendum with the 2010 federal election for four-year terms for members of the House of Representatives and the Senate? The Prime Minister personally abandoned that promise on 28 January this year when he said there would be no referendum.
Also remember Labor’s promises to the Aboriginal people. Labor said they would deliver 750 new homes, rebuild 230 houses and refurbish 2,500 dwellings in the Northern Territory. They have spent $45 million and they have not built a single house. It is another broken Labor promise.
What about the promise Mr Rudd made that he would update the House of Representatives on the progress towards closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage on the first sitting day of each parliamentary year? On the first sitting day of each parliamentary year he was going to report on the progress made on Indigenous disadvantage. He did not do it on the first day of parliamentary sittings in 2009 and he has not done it this week either—another broken promise. I guess he had to break that promise because there is nothing to report on this government’s progress in addressing disadvantage for the Aboriginal people. It is another broken promise. The Aboriginal people have been let down like all other Australians.
Let’s also look at Labor’s promise to spend $100 million to re-engineer Menindee Lakes to save 200 billion litres of water a year for the Murray-Darling. It has not been done; it has not happened. It has not even started. The Labor government broke their promise.
It is another broken promise. Labor broke their promise. Don’t you have any honesty at all? These promises seemingly mean nothing to the parliamentary secretary. Labor said they will establish a coastguard. The member for Brisbane said it often. I notice he is in the House and he would recall it. He said that they would have purpose-built vessels and dedicated trained staff. Well, the member for Brisbane’s coastguard promise was abandoned within days of the election. There is no coastguard at all and there have been cutbacks in Customs and Quarantine, so there is less capability for them to do their job to help keep our borders secure.
Labor said, ‘We will create the right incentives for individuals and businesses.’ Right from their first budget cuts they gutted $1 billion from business incentives, including axing the Commercial Ready program, the Small Business Field Officers program, the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, the Global Opportunities Program and many more. They are broken promises.
Labor said, ‘We will increase the overall size of the Australian Federal Police by 500 sworn officers.’ The fact is that they are only proposing 100 officers be recruited between 2008 and 2010. On top of that they have slashed the AFP’s budget and wound back the air marshals program.
Remember one of the other classic promises, in writing, to the health insurance industry: ‘We will retain the private health insurance rebate.’ It is a quite clear and unequivocal promise. Yet Labor, time and time again, come into the House seeking to reduce the rebates to thousands of Australians.
Let’s remember one of Prime Minister Rudd’s other famous promises, ‘We will end the blame game.’ Did you know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that in the first 500 questions without notice in this parliament following the election of the Labor government Labor ministers blamed the coalition for their problems in 77 per cent of their answers? In 81 per cent of the questions from Labor members, the dorothy dixers, they blamed someone else. The blame game developed new life under this government. It is another set of broken promises.
So that is Labor’s record. Before the election there were many promises and one by one they were broken. There is no honesty, no credibility. Is it any wonder when the Prime Minister makes other commitments—to aged Australians, to people with disadvantage—and gives his carefully drafted and brilliantly crafted speeches that, frankly, no-one listens and no-one believes? You cannot break promise after promise and still expect people to believe you. You cannot make flamboyant comments about your vision of the future for the country when your record is a litany of broken promises: a failure to deliver, a failure to be honest with the Australian people and a failure to take any account whatsoever of the firm commitments that the government made when asking to be elected by the Australian people a little over two years ago.
It has been a record of broken promises, statements made, gullible voters believing and Australian people being let down. They are being let down by a government who have broken perhaps the most fundamental promise of all: the one that the Prime Minister made on election night. I will always remember the Prime Minister’s election night commitment that he would govern for all Australians. He may be governing for all Australians but if you live in the regions, if you pay tax, if you work, if you eat, if you drive, if you go to school, if you use electricity, if you care about the environment or if you are sick, then that promise does not cover you either. You are not one of the Australians whose interests this government has promised to govern for. The government have neglected the Australian people and broken their promises day after day, time after time, and they can never be trusted. (Time expired)
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