Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Wide Bay, in his contribution, was talking about how fast we can get the money out the door. That reminded me that, 51 minutes prior to the last election being called, the then parliamentary secretary of his party, the National Party, spent over $3 million in allocations to Regional Partnerships. That was pretty fast. I think that takes the cake for getting the money out the door really fast—51 minutes prior to the election.

Just having to sit there and listen to the humbug about the spending, I remembered very well that, with the Regional Partnerships, one-third of the funding went to just 10 coalition electorates. All of this was documented. It was not only documented but was also in an ANAO report. It said of Regional Partnerships:

... the manner in which the Programme had been administered ... had ... fallen short of an acceptable standard of public administration ...

It said a number of other things as well. It also said—and we have heard here today—that there was the $1.5 million for the Gunnedah ethanol plant that does not exist. We know that $420,000 went for the cheese factory that closed down and also an extra $22,000 went to it three months after it closed. It was unbelievable, sitting there listening to the member for Wide Bay.

One other thing: today the member for Wentworth was talking about quality and saying that was really the issue now. Before that, though, it was quantity. Then we had the member for North Sydney saying, no, it is really about quantity. So what is it? Is it quality? Is it quantity? We do not know what it is. It shows the division that exists within the opposition and within their party. They do not where they are on this. You have some people out there applauding the stimulus package, like the member for Cowper. In the newsletters he does in his local electorate he talks about how wonderful it is, welcomes it and explains it to the people in his seat. He says how good it is. How can it be wasteful spending—and that is what the accusation is—when every economic organisation, institution and commentator has endorsed the government’s stimulus plan?

The fiscal stimulus has recognised that it has kept people in jobs, kept retail figures up, was responsible spending and was timely, targeted and temporary. We all know that. They are the inbuilt elements of a stimulus package. It has to be timely and it was; the government acted decisively. It has to be well targeted and it has to be temporary. All those elements exist. How can it be wasteful spending? I look at my electorate of Page. The money that has gone into schools is keeping people in jobs, building infrastructure and providing better facilities to students and teachers. Home insulation: how could that be wasteful spending? In my area there are already 249 applications.

Just the other day, the Parliamentary Secretary for Employment—the member for Blaxland—and Bill Kelty were in Lismore. We had a jobs forum. A local company, Power Results, had 20 employees and now have 130 because of the insulation. The parliamentary secretary, Bill Kelty and I went and met the workers. We saw them about to install the insulation, and we talked to them. They had also come off jobs, they were long-term unemployed, they had come into the workforce and they talked about what that meant. That is what this is about. Stimulus is about nation building, recovery and supporting jobs—jobs for now and jobs for the future. These guys told us what it meant to them to have a job. Firstly, it meant money; secondly, it meant they had some sort of a life, they had connection and they were somebody in the community. We spent time with them. How could that be wasteful spending? Indeed it is not.

Last week in the Northern Star, the local newspaper, the editorial talked about it. The headline on Thursday, 3 September was ‘In the market for a boost to confidence’. It said:

So far we are the only developed country in the world to avoid a recession in the world’s major economic downturn.

           …         …         …

The Coalition must be seething and will continue to play up the country’s debt as the legacy of this Labor Government.

But thanks to the Labor Government … the country has beaten the odds— (Time expired)

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