Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The President has received the following letter from Senator Moore:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

"The Abbott Government's second anniversary of broken promises, slogans, dysfunction and division."

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

The proposal is supported. I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance. The title says it all, quite frankly: 'The Abbott government's second anniversary of broken promises, slogans, dysfunction and division'. Mr Abbott told SBS News on the eve of the election that there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no change to the ABC or SBS. We have come a long way since he made that bold statement. What have we seen? $80 billion cut from health and education, which in turn is supposed to put pressure on the states to raise GST. So that is doing two cuts in one, which in itself would be another broken promise.

There are cuts to pensions and cuts to the ABC and SBS. Mr Abbott also said to the people before the election, 'no new taxes'. After all of that, he then chose to bring in the fuel tax. Not only has Mr Abbott broken all of these promises; he also has so little respect for the people of this country that he continues to deny cuts and broken promises. Mr Abbott shows breathtaking contempt in his ability to stand there and continue to say, 'I didn't say that—or if I did, I didn't mean it'. He does not do the proper thing and say, 'I apologise; I made a mistake; let's move on'. He does not seem to be able to do that.

The best, I think, was the 'stable, mature, adult government' line that we got. Mr Abbott said in his address to the National Press Club shortly before the election:

My aim is to lead a no surprises, no excuses government that says what it means and does what it says.

You have to make a choice here. Either this government is incompetent—that is all we can see it as—or it has intentionally misled the Australian people on this issue. Either way, Australians have been let down by the Abbott government. Mr Abbott went on to say, 'A serious country deserves an adult government.' I am still waiting to see either an adult government or the coalition taking government seriously. 'Elect the coalition and you'll have a grown-up, adult government that thinks before it acts.' Well, knights and dames—need I go on? I am gobsmacked by that in itself. They have to tell people, 'We're going to be an adult government.' They have to tell them they are going to be serious. Quite frankly, they have been anything but. If the display over the past two years is a serious attempt at governing, I would hate to see what this government looks like—like sand, the highly orchestrated management smoke-and-mirrors game being run through the Prime Minister's office. To be fair—the coalition wants me to be a little fair—all the blame cannot be laid at the feet of those opposite. After all, they are only doing what they are told to do by the PMO, quite frankly. But that is another problem.

It has failed to pass its budgets. The first budget—what a doozy. The government has only passed about half of the measures it announced in its first budget and it is still trying, badly, to talk to the crossbenchers—maybe talk to the opposition—but it seems almost impossible for this government to talk to anybody but itself. When only half of its first budget has passed, how does the government expect to pass the current budget? Does Treasury assume that the budget will be passed? I think the root of their problem—if I could give them a small piece of advice, but I doubt they will listen—is that the government simply cannot deal with the crossbench senators. Its only tactic seems to be, at least from as far back as I am, either to bully or to try to blackmail senators into some sort of position. But they seem completely incapable of having a negotiation, having a proper discourse with both the opposition and the crossbenchers. I think the root of their problem is that they just do not know how to negotiate. They are too busy and have been too used to having a silver spoon in their mouth and expecting the world to bow to them upon any wish that they have. What they— (Time expired)

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I first read today's MPI talking about broken promises, slogans, dysfunction and division, I actually thought that the opposition were putting up an MPI about themselves. So I am delighted to talk about the achievements of the first two years of the Abbott government. I am a very proud member of this government and the governance team. Despite what those opposite have said, what we are delivering is good government. A good government is one that delivers in that national interest and takes the tough decisions that are needed. This government has achieved a lot over the first two years. I could not possibly list them all, so I have just gone through—and it did not take me any time at all—and found the first top 50 achievements and decisions of this government. We have not just talked about it, we have not had endless inquiries, we have not deferred things off past the forward estimates, we have not prepared complex programs on the back of a coaster; we have done things properly and we have done a lot in this country.

What did we inherit? I went back and had a quick look at what we inherited and what Labor's idea of a good government is. Labor's idea, clearly, of a good government is record deficits, massive debt, the world's biggest carbon tax, which actually did not work; many more people unemployed; NBN project delays and cost blow-outs; cost of living on the increase; billions of dollars of taxpayer money wasted on pink batts and school halls; grocery watches and fuel choices—the debacles go on and on. Illegal boat arrivals were out of control; they had lost control of our borders. Education standards slipped significantly under Labor, and health services got more expensive. To add insult to injury—to all of that—despite their absolute promise, defence spending was gutted. That is the standard that we heard Senator Ludwig refer to just then. That is what Labor think is good government.

Let me go through a few of the achievements of this government in two very short years. First, on the economy, we abolished the carbon tax, saving Australian families at least $550 a year and taking a yoke off small business and large business, which ultimately creates more jobs. That is No. 1. No. 2: we abolished the minerals resource rent tax, which again, I know from my own state, would have been an absolute disaster. We have conducted a commission of audit, which conducted the most comprehensive review of government spending in a generation to highlight waste and areas of unsustainable spending, which we are now addressing for the first time in history. Those opposite did not do that. We are stopping Labor's proposed bank deposits tax which, again, was regressive, unnecessary and very punitive. No. 5: despite the rhetoric from those opposite, labour force participation is increasing—to the point where we have now created over 335,000 jobs. We have actually created 335,000 jobs, and the participation rate—particularly amongst women, which is fabulous—is increasing. There is more to be done but I reckon that in two years that is good government. Those are a few things on the economy.

What have we done for Australian business and trade in two short years? Unlike those opposite, who did not conclude any free trade agreements, in just over the first 12 months we finalised three free trade agreements with major trading partners covering over 50 per cent of our exports—Korea, Japan and China—and we are currently in negotiation with India for a fourth. That is an enormous achievement. That is what good government looks like: looking towards the economy of the future and where we can create and sustain jobs into the future. We have cut tax for small business. That is No. 7—I am only up to seven so far of 50. This is a government which has been consistently open for business, delivering the biggest tax cut in history for small business. That is what good government looks like. We have introduced the instant asset write-off for small business, which means that all small businesses can now invest for jobs and for growth for their future. We have introduced the red tape reduction programme with repeal days. So far, what have we done? We have cut $2.45 billion in red tape for business. This has exceeded the red-tape reduction target by nearly half a billion dollars over two years. We have exceeded what our already ambitious targets were two years ago. Most importantly, for jobs in the future, we have granted over $1 trillion worth of major project environmental approvals so that businesses can get on with creating prosperity, future wealth and, critically, jobs. That is only No. 10—and that is only in two years.

What else have we done in infrastructure? We have invested heavily in infrastructure. We have not just talked about it. We have not just made promises about new roads and other major infrastructure. We have invested. We have handed down a $50 billion infrastructure package, which is the single largest infrastructure package in Australia's history. That in itself is good government, and that is amazing progress in two years. What else have we done? We have taken another really tough decision on a second airport for Sydney at Badgerys Creek, something that the previous government was completely incapable of doing. Why? Because it was a bit of a tough decision. At No. 13 of my top 50 achievements of this government is that we are building the roads of the future.

On border protection, we have stopped the boats. Fifty thousand people came here under the previous government. They lost control of the borders. Twelve hundred people died under the Labor and Greens policies which they supported in government. Not a single person has died since we stopped the boats. We have created the Border Force, which is a wonderful improvement for the protection of our country's borders. We are combatting home-grown extremism. We are establishing a victims of terrorism compensation scheme. We have reintroduced temporary protection visas. Again, these are just a few of our many achievements in border protection and national security.

What did the previous government do on the environment apart from introducing a carbon tax which, as we have seen, did not even work? We are taking direct action. We are planting trees. We are looking after the environment. We have thousands of people across the country working on the environment.

Senator Carol Brown interjecting—

You may laugh, but 'direct action' means just that. We are not just talking about protecting the environment; we are getting out and protecting the environment. Not only are we planting trees and rehabilitating saline farmlands; we are protecting the Great Barrier Reef. We are doing all of that and still cutting carbon emissions by 26 to 28 per cent by 2030. We are not just talking about it; we are doing it.

Our achievements in education are numerous, but the thing I am particularly proud of, as is the foreign minister, is the New Colombo Plan. What have we done in two short years? By the end of 2016 over 10,000 Australian students will have studied in the Asia-Pacific region. That was not done by those who talk about education over on the other side. It was done by this side, by the government.

Defence is something that I am extremely passionate about, particularly as I had to suffer through the broken promises working up at Russell offices when we were promised that there would be no funding cuts. The other side said, 'If you make the Strategic Reform Program reforms, you will get the money back.' Guess what? It was another broken promise by those opposite. The legacy is going to take at least a decade to fix.

The government has conducted the First principles review of Defence, which has universal support and is now being implemented. We have commissioned a white paper, which is the most comprehensive in living memory. It is the first one, unlike those from those opposite, that is fully costed. It will be absolutely fully costed, including the force structure review. Again, this is something those opposite were completely incapable of doing. In my book, that is good government.

We have initiated a competitive evaluation process for Australia's Future Submarine program. We have three potential bidders in the process that is now underway. The previous government did not commission a single vessel in six years. In six years they did not commission a single vessel, which has resulted in the valley of death that we have been talking about. This government has funded it and we are now making it a reality. We have also brought forward—and funded—the Future Frigates program by three years. Those opposite did nothing. We are. We have also brought forward the Pacific patrol boat tenders. We are also starting to remediate the issues caused by those opposite in the air warfare destroyer program to make sure that it can be delivered. We have invested in the joint strike fighter. We have also, wonderfully, reinstated the ADF gap year program.

That is 32 actual delivered achievements of this government. What is No. 33? For regional and northern Australia, we have delivered the White paper on developing northern Australia, which we know will result in a complete transformation of the society, future jobs and growth of our north. We have committed to funding northern Australia through $5 billion of investment in the region. We have implemented a comprehensive drought relief package. We have released the agricultural competitiveness white paper. We have also recommenced the live export of sheep, cattle and goats to Bahrain— (Time expired)

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to today to speak on the matter of public importance—that is, the long record of the Abbott government's broken promises. There are many of them I could list. For example, there was the slashing of the renewable energy target when this government promised it would leave it alone. There were the cuts to health, with billions of dollars ripped out of our hospital system when the Prime Minister said he would not cut health care. He was on a unity ticket on Gonski funding, and what did we see? The Gonski reforms have been undermined. There were the cuts to the ABC and the SBS. The list goes on and on.

The truth is that it is not just these broken promises that concern me. If I am being really honest with myself, if this government decided that it would not scrap the most important and effective climate change laws anywhere in the country despite its promise to do so, I would welcome it. If it decided to leave the mining tax alone, I would welcome it. For me it is not really the issue of the broken promises, although that is part of it. It is what lies underneath them. What lies underneath is this very cruel, brutal, dog-eat-dog, job-destroying agenda. That is what is at the heart of this government.

There was also an element of cowardice there because, like with all bullies, when it came to showing a bit of mettle in the lead up to the election, the then Leader of the Opposition could not do it. The coalition could not put this agenda out in front of the Australian people for them to make a legitimate choice. They did not have the courage to stand up and say, 'This is what we stand for. We want the Australian public to vote for it.' They did not do that because they know that what they stand for is deeply unpopular with the Australian people.

Some analysts have said they have a communication problem and are unable to communicate their vision. I disagree completely. It is not the issue of communication that is the problem; it is the product itself. You know what they say about communication in advertising: it just helps you realise you have a bad product a little more quickly. That is the issue with this government. When faced with the biggest challenge of our generation—climate change—what is their response? 'Let's abolish these incredibly effective and important laws and let's start paying polluters to pollute.' Even worse, 'Let's destroy the Renewable Energy Target,' which is the vehicle to create jobs and industry in the 21st century Australian economy. When it comes to health, 'Let's dismantle the most effective thing we have in terms of providing health care'—that is, universal health care and Medicare—'and let's put in co-payments to make people pay more for their health care. Let's follow the two-tiered US model.' There is income support: 'If you are down on your luck, tough luck. We're going to remove income support from you.' The list goes on and on. We have a budget crisis. What is the response? 'I know: tax cuts. We'll fix the budget by cutting taxes.' Not only is their agenda brutal and cruel, it is fiscally irresponsible. The one decent idea that mob had was paid parental leave and they scrapped it.

So, here we are two years on. I remember the times when we would see members of this government standing up and throwing buckets over the then Labor government with exactly the same sorts of matters of public importance. I feel like I have entered a time machine and we have gone back a couple of years. The truth is that we need to have an adult conversation about the needs of the nation. The needs of the nation require us to make some tough decisions—some tough economic decisions—if we are to achieve a balanced budget over the economic cycle. We do need to tackle the issue of raising revenue. Superannuation tax concessions, multinational tax avoidance and tackling the issue of housing affordability through changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing—those are the sorts of discussions that we need to have in this place. How do we build on the institutions that we already know are working? Health care and education—how do we make them stronger and how do we improve them, rather than: how do we tear them down? Unfortunately, this government has shown that it is just not up to the task. In a few short months, the Australian community will be able to make a choice. They know what this government now stands for and I am sure they will make the right choice. (Time expired)

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to make a contribution to the matter of public importance: the Abbott government's second anniversary of broken promises, slogans, dysfunction and division. Before the last federal election in 2013, the Prime Minister said that he wanted to be known as the Prime Minister who keeps commitments. Here we are today and the reality of the coalition's two years in government could not be more stark. That commitment by the Prime Minister is in tatters. From the very start of this federal government, they started to break promises. They broke the promise that they made to Australian pensioners, they broke the promise that they made to Australian families and they broke the promise that they made to the institutions of the ABC and SBS. They went about breaking nearly every promise that they made to Australians.

Just after the federal election in 2013, I went to a forum that was being presented by Ms Macklin. One of the participants at that forum said, 'I voted for Mr Abbott because he said that he would not cut pensions, and I'm here today because that promise has been broken and I am fearful of what will happen to me.' That is what that Tasmanian said—a Tasmanian who lives in Mr Nikolic's electorate of Bass, who is a member of parliament that did not stand up to the Prime Minister and say, 'Hang on, you said there would be no cuts to pensions. You said that you would not cut pensions, and here we are trying to take money from pensioners who really already struggle to make ends meet.' That is the government that we have here today.

The government is so driven by out-of-date ideology and controlled by vested interests that it has come to stand for nothing but cuts and broken promises. This is a government so focused on itself that it is devoid of any real vision for the nation. The division that now grips Mr Abbott's cabinet and the caucus room has left this government paralysed. It has no legislative agenda and no policy for the future; just a growing list of leadership contenders and, I might add, a growing list of cabinet leakers. Perhaps I should say that there is also a growing dinner card for Mr Murdoch.

Let's see what this government has achieved. We see for the first time in over 20 years more than 800,000 Australians out of work, with unemployment increasing from 5.7 per cent to 6.3 per cent now. You will not hear that in the contributions from those opposite. They do not talk about the 800,000 Australians out of work, they do not talk about the unemployment rate now and they do not talk about the youth unemployment rate. Tasmanian senators in this chamber know that the youth unemployment rate in some parts of Tasmania is over 20 per cent. Shame on those opposite.

They also do not talk about economic growth, which has been below trend in every quarter under this government. You will not hear them talking about that in their contributions here today. Of course, they do not talk about the living pressures on ordinary Australian families. They do not talk about the fact that they want to take away from those families over $6,000— (Time expired)

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For two days in a row now I have had to whip out my driver's licence and have a look at my date of birth, because the opportunity that the Labor Party gave us yesterday and again today looks like a gift! I could not have written this matter of public importance better myself if I had wanted to tailor it around the performance of the Abbott coalition government.

Let me deal with them one at a time. I will start with the broken promises. I will do a little comparative here, using exactly the same words, so there is no confusion. 'There will be no carbon tax under my government': Gillard. 'There will be no carbon tax under my government': Prime Minister Abbott. Go left or right; go whichever way you like: only one of them was telling the truth. Only one of them kept their promise; the other one broke their promise, and that would be your mob—the Labor-Greens coalition. If we want to talk about broken promises, let us talk about the 70-odd occasions that your Treasurer indicated that we would create a surplus. How many surpluses did we get under Labor? That would be none. So I was delighted when I saw the opportunity to talk about broken promises.

I have a very limited period of time in which to get through this and so much to say, so let me now go to the slogans. I will run through our slogans: 'I'm going to be an infrastructure Prime Minister'—that is a slogan; that was a pearl.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How much?

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

$50 billion, I think, Senator, has been the investment to date—something like seven times the Snowy River scheme. In relation to my home state, I see there are some other senators from Queensland here, and no doubt when they make their contributions today they will acknowledge the coalition government's investment in my state: $6.7 billion on the Bruce Highway. And of course there is our magnificent range crossing, which takes me up to my lovely place at home on those few occasions I get there each month. So I am going to go with that. That is a big green tick on that slogan—we have an infrastructure Prime Minister.

'We are going to arrest the decline in the budget.' That decline would be the structural deficits that were put in place and were going to continue, in the forward estimates under Labor, to take us to nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars in deficits. We have not heard the word 'trillion' here; we are in the phase between billions and hundreds of billions. We would have had deficits of $0.7 trillion.

'We are going to stop the boats.' That is what we said. It is not about stopping the boats—I love the words of former Prime Minister John Howard: 'We will determine who comes to our nation and on what terms they arrive.' That does not reflect on any part of the policy other than to say, 'We will have secure borders.' Australia is blessed in the world with having some ability—a better ability than most—to manage our borders. They are not particularly porous. As a result, there is a slogan: 'We will stop the boats.'

Another slogan: we said we would restore the live export trade. Think about that. Your mob brought the live animal export trade to a standstill, sending tens of thousands of families in my home state and across northern Australia into bankruptcy, in effect. They have never recovered. Third and fourth generation farming families, grazing families, ended up going to the wall.

I am pleased to see that the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate—obviously she has been watching me on the television—has come down to pick up a few points. I will go steady so that you can take some notes, Senator Wong. You raised the issue of jobs. We said we would create more jobs. Indeed, in just under two years we created 335,000 jobs. That is 335,000 more people in work in this country than was the case when we took office.

I will stay around agriculture, because it is one of my favourite subjects. We have free trade agreements with Japan and Korea and of course the pending free trade agreement with China. I predicted yesterday that the effecting legislation for that agreement will pass through this place when Labor finds a way to roll itself over and look like it has not capitulated. It will create tens and tens of thousands more jobs around this nation. Those opposite want to talk about jobs and the FTA, but it is about two bob's worth of jobs that they think are going to be taken under some anomaly in legislation introduced by the Labor Party during their term.

One of my all-time favourites is the reduction in energy costs for small businesses across the nation and some big industries. It got right into our households and it arrested to a certain extent the decline that was happening in manufacturing under Labor. It has allowed people to get on with their businesses and to get them back into a profitable form, where they employ more people. It is right of Labor to raise the topic of jobs. Historically they were the party for jobs, job seekers and workers. I think it is fast evolving not just that the coalition have the reputation of being good economic managers—and I thank those opposite for raising the opportunity to discuss that—but that we are the party for the workers. We are the ones who are creating jobs and giving people a future, growing wealth and getting their personal circumstances into shape. This was a wonderful opportunity for you to raise these matters.

My final bit is about dysfunction and division; in three words: Rudd, Gillard, Rudd. You want to talk about dysfunction and division? Rudd, Gillard, Rudd—three prime ministers in 20 minutes. The ink was not even dry on the letterheads around there—but fortunately, as a savings measure, you were able to whip out the couple of thousand letterheads that were left, and put the Gillard ones in storage, in case we had another turnaround. And of course you did have one more attempt at that; we all know that. You had more attempts at elections. You had more elections over there than they have at my bowls club.

So I want to thank you. You are not even listening to me, ladies. I am genuine in my appreciation of you for having picked the topics of broken promises, slogans, dysfunction and division. Those were perfect topics for us to talk about the failures of the Labor Party during their six-year term.

Glenn Lazarus (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, I only have five minutes to talk about the MPI today. Tony Abbott has said so many stupid and insulting things and his government has implemented so many bad policies that it is really hard to know where to start. But I will kick off with my home state of Queensland.

Is Queensland better off under the Abbott government? I believe the answer is no. Has the Abbott government done anything positive for Queensland? Again, I believe the answer is no. Do they have any ideas about how to help Queensland moving forward? Sadly, the answer is no. Queensland has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and is experiencing one of the worst droughts on record, and yet the government has done absolutely nothing—

Senator O'Sullivan interjecting—

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator O'Sullivan, you have just had your full eight minutes to make your point. Senator Lazarus has a right to be heard in silence. Thank you.

Glenn Lazarus (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Queensland has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and is experiencing one of the worst droughts on record, and yet the Abbott government has done absolutely nothing to address these issues.

We need infrastructure projects—improved roads, rail and public utilities. We need jobs, growth and economic expansion. We need increased tourism, regional development and consumer and business confidence. We need clean, local, reliable, renewable energy, more investment in clean energy and cuts to power bills.

But, despite this, what has the Abbott government given us? I have jotted down a few things. It has given us: the continued abuse of human rights by deliberately thwarting marriage equality in Australia; a cut in Australia's carbon emissions reduction target; a cut to Australia's renewable energy target, so that we are now the only country in the world to reduce an RET, and I think that is pretty embarrassing; a spend of $20 million on an advertising campaign to sell its free trade agreement with China, the signing of which allows companies that have a 15 per cent Chinese investor to import 100 per cent overseas workers, undermines Australians' safety and environmental standards and allows companies to sue the Australian government; luxury chopper rides to party fundraisers on the public purse; a dramatic increase in the cost of divorce for women across the country by increasing the cost of Family Court fees from $845 to $1,200; the establishment of a wind farm commissioner—because apparently wind turbines have been known to upset cows in some remote parts of Australia—even though coal seam gas mining is destroying land, farms, water and lives across rural and regional Queensland; cuts to the pension for low and middle income earners without giving them any time to plan or prepare for those cuts; cuts to arts funding by slashing the Australia Council's budget and setting up a 'George Brandis slush fund' for the minister's pet projects; the spending of millions on a widespread advertising campaign to sell their intergenerational report, which is discredited by the celebrity scientist who they paid to sell it; the failure to act on allegations of physical and sexual abuse of asylum seekers on Nauru, despite knowing about it for over a year; threats to sack 1,700 people from research jobs if the Senate did not pass their deregulation bill; multiple attempts to cut funding to the higher education sector and increase the cost of degrees for Australians; the defence of their decision to hold an International Women's Day lunch at a club that only accepts male members; attempts to bully the Human Rights Commission's president into quitting because she questioned the government's treatment of asylum seekers; the bungled tendering process for submarine building in Australia; the awarding of a knighthood to Prince Philip on Australia Day; the abolition of Australia's only National Water Commission, which was responsible for overseeing the management of water across the country; the disbanding of numerous key advisory bodies and councils across the country; cuts to the CSIRO's funding, resulting in mass job losses across the research sector; the statement that coal is good for humanity, made only because they donate large sums of money to the Liberal Party; the scuttling of a proposal from Indigenous leaders for constitutional recognition of first Australians; the gouging of millions of dollars from programs for first Australians across this country; and the statement, as to first Australians, that living in a remote community is 'a lifestyle choice'!

I could go on, but I have run out of time. What has the Abbott government done for Queensland and Australia? Absolutely nothing. All I can say is: bring on the next election. Queensland needs change.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Lazarus so rightly put it, where do you start? When the Abbott government was elected two years ago, we were told: 'The adults are back in charge.' Well, this government has just turned two, and it sure is acting its age! I should know this, Mr Acting Deputy President, because, as you know, I spent over a decade in the early childhood area, and I have seen temper tantrums and I have seen tears and I have seen all sorts of spoilt little activities there. And can I say: those on that side just embody two-year-old temper tantrums.

What we have seen in two years is a catalogue of dysfunction and division, broken promises and excuses, and absolutely no sense of confidence that this government knows what direction it is heading in. The last two years have clearly demonstrated that this government had a plan for getting into government—we all know that—but they had no plan for governing once they got there, and they still do not.

The Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, has shown that he is big on three-word slogans, yet very short on any of the 'real solutions' his party promised. We all remember that famous pledge in an SBS television interview the day before the election when he said there would be:

No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS.

That was the biggest 10-second fib we have ever heard. Following the election, Mr Abbott set about breaking every single one off those promises.

The litany of broken promises from this Prime Minister, and this government, belies something else that Mr Abbott said before the election. He promised a 'no surprises, no excuses government' because 'you are sick of nasty surprises and lame excuses'. What has transpired over the last two years has led the Australian people to seriously question the honesty of the man who occupies the prime ministership and the ministers who support him.

Let's have a look at some of the other promises that were made and compare them to what has transpired over the last two years of this shambolic government. In a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in February 2013, then opposition leader Tony Abbott said that following a change of government there would be an instantaneous adrenalin charge in our community. Yet, under this government, annual growth has been trending downwards and is now at a paltry two per cent. Prior to the election, the Liberals promised that they would create one million jobs in five years and two million jobs in 10 years. What has happened? Unemployment is now at a 13-year high of 6.3 per cent and, for the first time in over two decades, more than 800,000 Australians are unemployed. This is not surprising when Mr Abbott and his ministers have been doing everything they can to drive automotive and shipbuilding jobs offshore.

In regard to taxation, Mr Abbott said before the election that:

Taxes will always be lower under a Coalition government.

In March 2012 he said:

What you'll get under us are tax cuts with no new taxes.

After coming to government, they have introduced 17 new or increased taxes and charges, including an increase in petrol taxes and a GP tax, which parliament would not pass, being brought in via the back door. And now government ministers are hinting at increases to the GST despite unequivocally ruling it out before the last election. Australia's tax-to-GDP ratio is 22.3 percent—higher than it ever was under the former Labor government—and the budget papers show it is expected to rise every year over the forward estimates.

Despite the Abbott government's tax grab, they have still made savage cuts to essential public services. The government's first budget included $80 billion in cuts to health and education—$57 billion was cut by tearing up Labor's health and hospitals agreements with the states. Their plan to plug the hole left by their cuts to universities is to charge students $100,000 to get a degree.

As a member of the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network, I cannot stand up here today and let the Abbott government's record on the NBN go without comment. I have been over this in more detail in recent speeches, but I will just say that the government promised their NBN would be fast, affordable and sooner. Instead, the rollout of the NBN has slowed to a crawl, the cost has blown out to almost double at $56 billion and most Australians will get a network that can barely cope with the speeds many are demanding now let alone the speeds they will demand in 10 or 20 years time. While Mr Turnbull promised that the NBN would reach every Australian home by 2016, the government's second-rate network will not even reach half of all premises by mid-2017. (Time expired)

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am grateful for the opportunity to rise directly after Senator Bilyk because her contribution highlighted the very political nature of this MPI and the fact that so many things in Australia that are important, whether that be health, defence or other things, are completely reduced to slogans by the opposition with, importantly, a complete lack of facts.

Let me take a couple of things that were just mentioned. There was a claim that the Abbott government had done all it could to drive shipbuilding offshore. The Australian people known by now, because it has been in the media so much, that the reason we are facing the valley of death is that the Labor Party in six years of government signed no contracts to start building ships.

Senator Gallacher interjecting—

Senator Gallacher, a colleague from South Australia who I have great respect for, sighs at that, but he needs to own up to the fact that his side of politics made no commitments for new shipbuilding jobs. They have even come out with the farcical excuse that the reason they did not need to sign any contracts was that shipyards were working at capacity under Labor. Well, guess who commissioned those projects? They were commissioned by the Howard government. Defence has consistently said that, to avoid the valley of death, decisions would have had to have been made in the 2011-12 time frame. That was under the Labor government. Since it is only a month since this government made an announcement of $89 billion for naval shipbuilding programs—including bringing forward the offshore patrol vessels and future frigates to have a continuous build, which is something that people have been calling for in this country for well over a decade—you can see that those claims are purely political and not based on any fact.

The second claim that was made just then in that contribution was that the Abbott government cut funding to health. That has been a line that has been run by the Labor Party ever since the election. But, if you look at the facts—and I bring here facts from South Australia, which is my state—you will see that in 2013-14 hospital services funding was $983.3 million and public health funding was $23.1 million. So there was a total of just over $1 billion coming from the federal government. In the 2014-15 budget there was $1.053 million for hospital services and $24.3 million for public health—so a total of $1.07 billion. The figure for 2017-18 in the forward estimates is $2.188 billion. So the facts completely undermine the political argument the ALP are running with these claims that they are making.

The Australian public know that a number of the promises made by this government have been delivered and delivered effectively. We need look no further than to things such as abolishing the carbon tax. Not only did we say that we would abolish the carbon tax, but we said we would have a scheme to reduce emissions that would be more effective. When we look at the first of the emissions reduction fund auctions, we see that 47 million tonnes of abatement were achieved at an average price of around $13.95. Let's compare that with the carbon tax: at most, modelling shows it helped reduce emissions by less than 12 million tonnes, but it cost $15.4 billion. That means it is around $1300 per tonne in effect—some 93 times more expensive. It also had an impact not only on households—calculated at just over $550 on average per household—but also, and importantly, on the viability of our manufacturing industry, which goes to the heart of job opportunities for young Australians, and particularly those in a state like South Australia. Not only has this government followed through with its promise to get rid of the carbon tax, but it has made good on its commitment to put in place a scheme that will provide more emissions abatement at a better price without those negative impacts on the economy.

We have also seen the promise of getting control over our borders. That has had the benefits of stopping the people smuggling business and of preventing people drowning at sea. Yes, there are the cost savings, but there is also the human element. One of the things that people constantly talk to me about when it comes to border protection is: 'We don't like the thought of children being in detention.' Can I tell you that, when the Howard government left office, there were no children in detention, but under the policies of the ALP, which threw open our borders, there were over 1900 children in detention in July 2013. Within a year and a half of this government coming to office and putting in place our border protection policies, not only have we regained control of the borders and broken the people smuggling model, but we have reduced the number of children in detention down to the low hundreds. That is a fantastic outcome from a humanitarian perspective.

For those people who say that this government has made promises and has been chaotic, I ask them to look at some of the signature policies. The last area I will talk about is Defence. The Secretary of Defence made the comment that under the last government, not only did the goal posts move, but they were torn down and burnt—used for firewood—because of the budgetary damage done to the Defence department. This government has put us back on a track to achieving two per cent over the decade. We have started to stabilise the management of Defence with the First Principles Review; we have made the commitment I talked about before for sustainable shipbuilding. On those issues that are important to Australians—the economy, national defence and things like the environment—this government has followed through with its promises and good management to achieve real outcomes that impact Australians.

Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance before us today on the Abbott government's second anniversary of broken promises, slogans, dysfunction and division. I want to start with some of the slogans—not all of them, because there are enough of them to fill a book. Remember 'We are on a unity ticket with Gonski'? Who could forget that before the election? 'It doesn't matter who you vote for, we are on this unity ticket on Gonski.' Well, that all fell apart. What about the classic, 'Coal is good for humanity'? Where did that get us? Absolutely nowhere. What about that other classic, 'People have a right to be bigots'? Where has that got us? There was a complete backdown, as there should have been, on those outrageous changes to the Racial Discrimination Act. What about the promises, and indeed the signs and all the commitments, that subs would be built in South Australia? Remember that? They tried to deny it, but we all heard it and we saw the signs—the truth was out there.

What about that absolute insult to people, who find themselves unemployed, and particularly young people in Mandurah—14.6 per cent is the unemployment rate in the seat of Canning. They do nothing about it and in fact they insult people by coming up with titles like 'lifters and leaners'. Remember 'lifters and leaners'? It is not only Labor that is saying that. Lenore Taylor just a few days ago had a classic in The Guardian:

Two years in and the Abbott government remains a clamour of battle slogans in search of a policy purpose.

Everyone says that this government is absolutely incapable of good government and good policy and that it is living in some parallel universe.

All this from the Prime Minister, the bloke who in January knighted Prince Philip. For many Australians that was the end of it; it made us an absolute joke. What about climate change? Under Labor Australia was the world leader in the area of climate change, but now we are an embarrassment. We are chugging along at the bottom of the pile and so much so that President Obama tells us what an embarrassment we are. There is still no science around Direct Action—no scientist has come out to say, 'Good on you, Abbott government, what a great policy.' Why? Because it is just a joke.

What did we see in February? We saw that bungled attempt at changing the prime minister—we will have this kind of leadership battle where many of his ministers and some of the backbench desert him—but somehow he survived and what did he promise? He promised good government. We are still waiting. Two years in, and we are still waiting on good government. The only thing the Prime Minister really cares about is his own job. We saw all those rumours come out of cabinet last week. We saw all those lines coming out of cabinet: 'What we've gotta say, folks, is we're all on message. We're all singing Kombaya and we all have to say what a good government we are.' Fancy somebody writing lines saying: 'Just tell people we're a good government.' Good governments have actions and words, but we have seen none of that from the Abbott government. We certainly have not seen any action.

What about working people? We have seen an unprecedented attack on working people in this country—whether it is their trade unions or their rates of pay. We have seen those opposite clamour to say penalty rates should somehow be taken away. Penalty rates make up 30 per cent of the take-home pay of workers. What do those opposite say? 'Get rid of them.'

They are about reducing the pay of workers by 30 per cent without a blink of their eyes. They think it is a fair thing to take penalty rates off aged-care workers, off hospitality workers, and off cleaners who clean this building late at night or early in the morning. They think it is fair to say to them, 'We are going to take 30 per cent of your pay'.

Well, Australians are no longer fooled, and the big test before us right now is the Canning by-election. ChAFTA is running hot there. They know it and so do we, because every day in this place we have these ridiculous Dorothy Dixer questions about how good it is. The people of Canning are concerned about their jobs, and that is the truth. If those opposite bothered to get out there, if they bothered to drive south of the river, they would hear that for themselves on the doorsteps of voters in Canning. The facade of the Abbott government is well and truly over; people know that it is nothing but a bad government.

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak briefly on this MPI today. One thing that we do know after two years of the Abbott government is that, no matter what area you look at across public administration or national affairs, the Abbott government has either created turbulence or systematically gone out to have fights. This is in almost in every single area when you look across the board—whether it be attacking pensioners or people on disability pensions; whether it is attacking their own public servants through outrageous wage offers and cuts to conditions; whether it is attacks on women who are accessing paid parental leave; whether it is looking at what they said prior to the election and what they actually delivered after the election.

In almost every area you go to, you can see what they said before the election and then Tony Abbott's own words: 'Measure us by what we do.' The people of Australia are measuring you by the actions you take—actions like saying one thing before an election, then getting in and fragmenting the social compact that exists across Australia, and actions like creating fights and instability in almost every area of public administration.

Look at health; look at industrial relations; look at the ABC and SBS; look at education—look at all of these important areas. Before the election they said: 'There will be no cuts. There will be no changes. We are on a unity ticket'. Then, after the election, in the first budget—who will forget the 2014-15 budget?—no-one was left untouched by that budget. That was when the cuts came, and that is when the true colours of this government were displayed in hundreds of papers, and they cannot avoid that now. They tried to cover up a bit of it in 2015-16 budget, but the damage was done.

If we look at the area of science, there is a classic quote from Tony Abbott:

I’m pleased to pledge the incoming Government to continue to support science to the fullest extent possible.

… … …

… I’d say to all of you, please, judge us by our performance.

Well, let's have a look: $115 million cut from CSIRO; $300 million from the Sustainable Research Excellence fund; $75 million from the ARC; $107 million from the CRC; $28 million cut from ANSTO; $16 million from Geoscience Australia; $120 million from Defence Science and Technology Organisation; 1,400 jobs gone from CSIRO, and 200 more to come because NICTA, which has also been defunded, is forced to merge with CSIRO just to continue its very existence.

Canberra is the jurisdiction that I have the privilege of serving and have served for many years at a local level. We always see Senator Seselja's mug on TV here, smiling happily behind Tony Abbott when he does his press here in Canberra. So let's have a look at what Canberra can be proud of: 8,000 job cuts, constant attacks on the integrity of the public service, cuts to health, cuts to education, cuts to community organisations and too many others for me to name in the next one minute and 30 seconds.

There has been $26 million taken from the University of Canberra to establish a centre for quality teaching to actually learn and understand exactly the benefits of needs-based education funding. That is just gone—awarded under one government, cut-up under the next—but not before a recruitment exercise had started. There have been cuts to all of the national institutions. They have all been cut—a bit of a saving here, a bit of a saving there.

Let's look at the Tony Abbott propaganda document that was released yesterday, 'Sticking to our plan'—and didn't everyone look happy about that in question time today? On the infrastructure page it tells us about all the infrastructure that has been delivered. When we look at the summary of major infrastructure, all of the states and all of the territories are there—except the ACT. And there was Senator Seselja, smiling and nodding behind Tony Abbott as they released this document yesterday, but there was not one cent for the ACT outlined in this document.

Yet the ribbon-cutting continues. We have seen Senator Seselja snip the Majura Parkway, the Bowen underpass and even hospital beds in the cancer centre. It was all funded under a federal Labor government and has not one thing to do with the Liberal Party, and yet there he is, cutting the ribbon, getting his mug on TV and taking credit. All this is happening at the same time that Canberra is being savaged by this government—without any advocacy from the government side of the chamber to stand up for Canberra and the proud city that we are—and he should be ashamed.