Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

Stuarts Point is one. Scotts Head is another. Massive overexpenditure: nearly a million dollars for a shed. Willawarrin is another. Corindi is another. I will speak to the good member after, and I will continue my contribution to this debate.

We have always had to face the prospect of natural disasters. Dorothea Mackellar wrote of ‘droughts and flooding rains’—but she left one out. It is droughts and flooding rains and higher taxes under Labor to pay for it. Governments have to be prepared to pay for such contingencies, and the best way to deal with natural disasters is not with a flood levy; it is to run a surplus. That is what is missing from the mindset of this government: running a surplus. Since coming to power this government has not delivered a surplus, and has very little prospect of delivering a surplus. It certainly scores a B-minus for economic management.

I would also like to reflect on the way that my electorate was treated when it was hit by a declared natural disaster in March 2009. Did my electorate get assistance for the floods of 31 March 2009? No, it did not. Despite it being a natural disaster, your government turned its back on the people of Coffs Harbour in their hour of need. You did not provide them with a Centrelink emergency disaster recovery payment, which is being provided just about everywhere across the country. They were denied that assistance by a government that is out of touch. Now you are going to expect those same people who were denied a Centrelink emergency disaster recovery payment to pay the flood levy. It is absolutely outrageous that you denied assistance to one cohort of people who suffered from a catastrophic flood, a more than one-in-100 year event, but now you are quite happy to whack them with a flood levy. I have to tell you that is not going down well on the streets of Coffs Harbour. They have no problem with paying a flood levy to help people, but in their hour of need they were denied the sort of assistance that has been offered to others. They got 400 millimetres of rain in some areas, and apparently it was not a big enough disaster. Hundreds of houses were inundated, but it was not a big enough disaster. Hundreds of businesses were inundated, but no Centrelink disaster recovery payments were made.

One of the real concerns of Australian people about this flood levy is the issue of how wisely the money would be spent. This government has form on waste and mismanagement, and we have chronicled just a few. We have talked about the BER and about the pink batts program. Let’s not even venture towards the Green Loans program—another little chestnut. People are rightly sceptical about this government’s ability to deliver programs effectively and efficiently. And what did the government do to try and restore some credibility? They called in a Liberal, John Fahey. So devoid of economic credibility were they that they did not call in Penny Wong to ensure that the program was properly managed; they had to call in John Fahey to try and resurrect some element of credibility because the Australian people believe that a dollar given to this government is a dollar wasted. So I have to say it is of great concern to the Australian people that their hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars are being poured down the drain by a wasteful government that cannot live within its means; a wasteful government that cannot make the tough decisions to rebuild Australia as required without imposing a new levy, a new tax. The Australian people deserve better. Australians do not mind helping a mate. They certainly do not like to be taxed unnecessarily. They certainly do not like to be taxed by an ineffective government that cannot manage money and has to try and depend on a former Liberal finance minister to restore some of their economic credibility.

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