Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is committed to jobs—I appreciate that. They were committed to their own jobs and their own jobs only prior to the last election, but they were not committed enough, because they lost quite a few of those jobs and that is why they are on that side of the House now and why we on this side of the House. They were not able to look after their own jobs, let alone anybody else's. The member for McMahon, that was a great audition for the top job over the other side—the opposition leader's job. It was not a really good rehearsal, but he will have to keep trying and I am sure that he will in 2015.

The member for McMahon mentioned two words beginning with 'W' and 'R'. I would put it to him that he was wrong about the two words that he used. 'W', when it comes to Labor, tells me of waste, and 'R' tells me of regional. I will get onto that in a little bit.

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

I hope the member for Hunter stays and listens. There is the famous proverb: 'There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.' Surely that applies to the Australian Labor Party. There is a big difference between promise and performance. There is a big difference between what is needed and what is actually delivered. There is a big difference between Labor and the coalition, let me tell you.

It has been a year of achievement. The member for Hunter would acknowledge that. We began with budget repair—reducing projected debt by $300 billion. There was the largest infrastructure package ever—committed $50 billion; leveraging $125 billion. We facilitated significant state reforms; repealed the insidious minerals resource rent tax and the carbon tax, ultimately leading to the largest falls in electricity prices on record; privatised Medibank Private—the third-largest initial public offering globally this year, with over $1 billion above what we initially expected; removed around $2 billion worth of red tape; and repealed 57,000 pages of legislation. There was the end of the age of entitlement for industry. And there was more: agreement on three key preferential trade agreements—South Korea, Japan and China. We delivered smaller government, abolished 76 agencies, authorities and boards. There was $1 trillion of environmental approvals and 300 major projects were approved. It goes on and on, including rebuilding employee share schemes and dealing with the Labor tax backlog—almost 100 unenacted tax measures were taken care of. There was international leadership on cracking down on tax cheats. There was a 15-point Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development action plan. There is still more to come. Next year we have the Federation white paper and the taxation white paper. They will be key papers which are going to help the economic reform of this nation. And there will be further progress on budget reform and further preferential trade agreements.

In question time today, when the member for Berowra and the very well respected father of the House talked about the year of achievement, all we heard from the other side—

Mr Husic interjecting—

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

The member for Chifley was one of them and the member for Hunter was another. I am not quite sure about the member for Fraser. I think he was concentrating on his Eureka debate tonight. There was nothing but jeers and mocking laughter by Labor. Ignorance, ineptitude, irresponsibility, incompetence and absolutely incapable of seeing reason. That is Labor. It is writ large.

We compare our record of achievement, our year of achievement, with what Labor left this country: $123 billion worth of cumulative deficits, $667 billion worth of debt if nothing more was done, if nothing was set out to be achieved by the coalition. That has left this nation, the taxpayers of this nation—the mums, the dads, the families—with a $1 billion interest bill each and every month. That will increase to $3 billion if we choose to do nothing. Labor are opposed to $28 billion of savings including $5 billion of their own. This includes $9.6 billion of remaining welfare changes. We all know how rusted Labor is onto welfare. Labor want an additional $15 billion of spending restored which will worsen the budget bottom line by $43 billion.

We are looking forward to a stronger economy in 2015-16. Economic growth is projected to improve next year from 2.5 per cent to three per cent. Employment growth is anticipated to grow by 1.5 per cent. Stable unemployment will be around 6.25 per cent. It is too high, but it is certainly not as high as that which was recorded under Labor, and we are working towards reducing it all the time. Exports of goods and services are forecast to improve in volume with a seven per cent growth in 2015-16.

Mr Husic interjecting—

These are important, Member for Chifley. Interest rates are at a historical low. Big infrastructure is starting to roll out.

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

Member for Hunter, I actually, kind of, heard you cheering today when the agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, stood up and talked about the 39,000 agricultural jobs created since we came to government. He is cheering now, as he should be. From our farmers, Labor took away their water and took away their hope. The member for New England is getting on with the job of rolling out a drought package. He is getting on with the job of giving farmers back water, with the help of Senator Simon Birmingham, as well as giving them hope.

This coalition have succeeded in achieving a number of avenues, after only a year in government, following the debt and deficit legacy that we inherited from Labor after their six disastrous, miserable years in office. They were chaotic and dysfunctional years. We are getting on with the job of cleaning up after the disaster left by Labor. Labor presided over the most vast Australian debt position in modern history.

Interestingly, in The Australian, that reputable newspaper, on Tuesday this week there was an article titled, 'Money for marginals sees Labor exposed', which said:

… Labor funnelled money to projects in marginal electorates that were not deemed appropriate,

This is under the RDAF funding. The article continued.

The Australian can reveal that a wide range of worthy projects missed out.

Honourable members interjecting—

You should read the report from the Australian National Audit Office, Member for Hunter, which states:

… there was not a strong degree of alignment between the Minister's—

This is the member for 'Ballarort'—Ballarat, pardon me—

funding decisions and the panel's recommendations. On 40 occasions, the decision made by the Minister diverged from that recommended by the panel in round three.

Amongst those was a really important one, as The Australian reported:

… a program for disadvantaged, homeless and drug dependent youth was set to receive $500,000 in round four of the project, but the decision of the panel was also ignored.

That was in Narrandera, a town which really needed that funding and was really looking forward to it, but it was overlooked by Labor. Even though Catherine King came into my electorate in the lead-up to the election and said that it was going to happen. But, of course, it was never going to happen because Labor, firstly, overspent the money from the mining tax by $17 billion or thereabouts, and, secondly, they had no intention of funding these very good programs, as the ANAO recorded. The ANAO report said:

A feature of the Minister's decision making was the lack of strong alignment between the funding decisions taken and the panel's recommendations—nearly half of the funding awarded (48 per cent) went to applications that had been categorised as other than 'Recommended for Funding'. In total, 74 decisions were taken by the Minister over rounds three and four that diverged from the advice of the panel.

The report continued:

It is difficult to see such a result as being consistent with the competitive merit-based selection process outlined in the published program guidelines.

What a disgrace. What an absolute rort and typical of Labor. But the member for McMahon certainly benefited. He benefited from a multimillion dollar program, and I hardly think that the member for McMahon's electorate is regional. But, be that as it may, what an absolute disgrace.

The legacy that Labor has left Australians is 200,000 more unemployed. It is a shame that, amongst those 200,000, there were not actually more Labor people running for parliament at the September election last year. Gross debt, as I said earlier, is projected to rise to $667 billion. We are paying far too much in interest each and every month. That money could be used to help irrigate Australia, to help regional programs, to help fund the program at Narrandera for Outreach, for the unemployed and for drug dependent people. But, no, they laugh and they continue to pour scorn upon these very good programs that they should have funded. They promised that they would, but they actually failed to.

There is a big difference, as I said before, between actual performance and promise. That is why there is a big, big difference, also, between the coalition and Labor. We get on with the job of doing things, of creating jobs and restoring this country to the levels that it should be. All Labor does is wreck and ruin.

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