Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He is very good with footpaths. It is funny that you mention it, the member for Moreton; I might get to that in a moment. But why have they failed infrastructure? It is because their assistant minister is a failure as a minister. He is a failure because—instead of looking at infrastructure planning clinically and taking the best advice from independent experts—he goes on jaunts. We had revelations last week of his propensity to go to Norfolk Island. I have an article here labelled, 'Minister defends island trip to promote thrifty spending'. This is a particularly good one, I found, because the assistant minister spent $25,000 on VIP flights to Norfolk Island to give a speech urging the residents of Norfolk Island to cut their spending. Let me repeat that: he spent $25,000 of taxpayers' money to go to Norfolk Island to tell them that the government had no money. This is the calibre of the individual that we have.

Then, shortly after that, we had another article by the Adelaide Advertiser, entitled, 'Rocky path for Jamie on Norfolk'. This one is special. This one is my favourite, because he spent another 25 grand—that is, more than the equivalent of one person's annual pension—to go to Norfolk Island to do one thing: announce that they were going to build a footpath. Let me repeat that: 25 grand to announce a footpath. I see some smiles from members of the National Party over there. The National Party love pork-barrelling, but not even they would sink to these debts. At least they got a cheese factory that burned down, a railway line that went nowhere or something else. They got more than a footpath. The member for Mayo spent $25,000 to announce a footpath! There are a couple of problems besides the spending of $25,000. The footpath had already begun construction, funded by the local community collecting donations and built by volunteer labour. Only the member for Mayo—the brains trust behind Work Choices and the brains trust behind Steve Marshall's failed South Australia election campaign—could travel on a VIP jet and spent 25 grand to announce a footpath that had already begun construction and that he was not even funding! The community of Norfolk Island were funding it.

It is no surprise that the assistant minister's response to this embarrassing saga was not to cop it on the chin—even though there is the irony that he was the Liberal Party's waste watch spokesperson when they were in opposition and that he released this tome on supposed Labor waste. I would submit that his two trips would be No. 1 and No. 2 in that book, if he had any balance. He did not respond by copping it on the chin. He responded by putting a media ban on the Adelaide Advertiser. That is the maturity of the member for Mayo. He blamed the messenger. He blamed the journalist involved and said that he would no longer respond to the Adelaide Advertiser's inquiries. I am sure that the Adelaide Advertiser is greatly heartbroken about that! No wonder the senior minister does not even trust the member for Mayo to get his sandwich order right. No wonder those opposite do not even trust the member for Mayo to get ham sandwiches for Warren Truss.

This is a sad indictment of a government that has presided over massive infrastructure cuts. We saw $2 billion cut from infrastructure in the 2015 budget. In 2014, we saw a $925 million cut to financial assistance grants to local councils. Those cuts led directly to $13 million in cuts to my two local government areas, Lake Macquarie and Newcastle. We have seen an East West Link with a cost-benefit analysis of 45c. Let me repeat that: for every dollar of Commonwealth investment, it returns 45c. Only a minister who could spend $25,000 to travel to Norfolk Island to announce a footpath would think that returning 45c for every $1 spent is a good deal for taxpayers. This is the calibre of the government we have over there. We have had six months of good government! Well, God help us when they get governing really seriously, because this is a joke. They are an embarrassment and they need to be kicked out at the next possible opportunity.

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