Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I start, I must give a big shout out to the students of Glenmore Park Public School, as their local member has asked me to. It is a pity they had to witness that performance. But we know why this matter of public importance is up today: it is to hide the incompetence of the opposition. They are trying to put up whatever smoke and mirrors they can to hide their incompetence, because not only did the Leader of the Opposition show this week that he was not fit for public office—he showed clearly that he was not fit for public office when we had a Prime Minister visiting from another country—but also he showed that he is incompetent at conducting a good stunt.

This week we saw the Leader of the Opposition ready to go out to try and conduct a stunt. He thought: 'What could we do now? What would be a good stunt? We'll leak it to the papers that we'll have a plebiscite—a non-binding plebiscite—on the carbon tax. Yeah, we'll leak that to the papers.' Then what happened? The Leader of the Opposition probably should have thought about this. He was asked on radio whether or not he would abide by the result of a plebiscite, and he could not say yes. He could not say that he would listen to the people on his own proposed plebiscite. So, while it was probably in theory a good stunt, it was very, very poorly executed.

That is unfortunately what we have seen from the Leader of the Opposition. Interestingly enough, we have not heard any more about the national plebiscite in the days since it became clear that it was a stunt, but he is trying a number of other stunts, trying what he can—coming in here and being incredibly negative and incredibly disorderly. From what we saw before, he is really just trying to have a joke, trying to deliver a few one-liners—that is all the Leader of the Opposition is indeed capable of—on a day when we have seen a momentous agreement to facilitate the rollout of the National Broadband Network.

When we talk about incompetence, we only have to cast our minds back to the previous Howard government. They tried to fix broadband, but they did not try very well. They had 18—I think it actually got up to 20 but on the record I will say 18—failed broadband plans. In my electorate, where many people are on pair gains and many people cannot access broadband and are on dial-up, people were waiting for the previous government to do something. The first plan came—failure. The second plan came—failure. The third plan came—failure. Then there was the OPEL contract which the previous government put in. They said, 'This will cover 98 per cent of Australia.' After a bit of work, they said, 'Oh, whoops; it will only cover 72 per cent of Australia.'

There were these constant failed broadband plans. And they have the cheek—I think that is the right word—to come into this place and criticise our National Broadband Network. I have got news for the Leader of the Opposition: people in Australia are pleased with our progress on the National Broadband Network. They welcome the National Broadband Network. For the first time, they are seeing a real solution. People in my seat of Kingston could have told the previous government that the structural separation of Telstra would be very important to facilitate competition. They knew it. Unfortunately, the previous government did not know it. This government and this Prime Minister have forged ahead and are delivering the National Broadband Network. This government is delivering for Australians, no matter where they live, a good fast broadband service because good broadband is important for our economy. I know that the Leader of the Opposition does not think that. I know he thinks that the National Broadband Network will be just a national entertainment system. He is clearly not listening to small businesses in my electorate. Small businesses and the business associations in my electorate see the lack of broadband as the No. 1 impediment to expanding their businesses. If the Leader of the Opposition really wanted to be a leader for small business, not just for his Liberal Party mates who end up on the front page of the newspaper, he would step out of the way of our National Broadband Network.

But we know that with this Leader of the Opposition it is always no and it is always hysteria. We have seen this when it comes to putting a price on carbon. We have seen the hysteria as he runs around to different factories and other places claiming gloom and doom will come from the carbon tax. Quite frankly, I have noticed that when the Leader of the Opposition goes to different places he never mentions his own policy, and I have wondered why. He says that the sky is going to fall in with the carbon tax, but he does not mention his policy. I think the reason he does not mention his policy is that no-one else supports it. There is no economist around who has come out and said: 'Yes, let's tax the Australian people more and subsidise big polluters. That's the answer.' No economist is saying that, and people who believe in a market mechanism to price carbon, like the member for Wentworth, are not saying that. Unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition has said: 'No, we're not going to let the market decide. We're not going to believe in market principles. What we're going to do is pick some winners and plant some more trees and that will fix climate change.' Unfortunately for the Leader of the Opposition, no-one believes him when he says that. Quite famously, he has stated before that he is a weathervane on this issue. In fact, I am sure that when he goes off to one of the conferences he is going to attend with Lord Monckton he will ask Lord Monckton for endorsement of his policy. But I do not even think that Lord Monckton will endorse his policy of direct action, because it is not a credible policy at all.

We also know that when it comes to a strong economy the Leader of the Opposition has a very big credibility gap, because our government has put the fundamentals in place to manage the mining boom and spread its benefits to the whole country. We know that the previous government, incompetently, did not manage the first mining boom; in fact, they wasted and squandered the benefits of that mining boom. An extra $100 billion of revenue was squandered by the previous government. But we in this government are determined to make sure that we spread the benefits and use this opportunity to invest in our future and ensure that this country is on the right track. That is what the Australian people are looking for. They are looking for a Prime Minister, and a government, who acts in the national interest, and that is the Prime Minister we have. When we look at the opposition leader all we see is a leader who is obsessed with his personal ambition, with himself and with his political stunts.

We saw that quite clearly in his budget-in-reply speech. When the Treasurer was outlining where we might go in the future in this new Asian century, the Leader of the Opposition provided no credible alternative economic plan. Instead, we got quite a few jokes, quite a few one-liners and the playing up of slogans to the gallery. We got no credible economic plan. Instead, we got: 'I'll refer to our costings from the election. That's what we're falling back on.' The problem with the costings that he was referring to from the last election is that there was an $11 billion black hole. While the Leader of the Opposition was running around suggesting that perhaps he was a more credible economic manager, what we saw was a big $11 billion black hole. I am not sure what you think, Mr Deputy Speaker, but I think an $11 billion black hole is an incredible position to have. The Leader of the Opposition should have used his budget-in-reply speech to correct the record—to actually do his costings and come up with an alternative plan. He did not do it; there was nothing in it.

We also saw that type of performance when it came to dealing with the Queensland floods. This government was getting on with rebuilding Queensland and working with the Queensland government, but from the Leader of the Opposition we just saw opposition, carping, three-word slogans and no real plan. He put a bit in: he thought he would use some One Nation emails and cut some of the aid budget and a few other things. But he had no credible economic plan for the future. While this government gets on with the job, the Leader of the Opposition can run around and do all the stunts he wants— (Time expired)

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