Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The measure of any government is the level of prosperity enjoyed by its citizens and by definition the Rudd government has failed all Australians. As one constituent recently wrote to me:

The government is becoming like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a health appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.

On top of its record of waste and mismanagement, Labor has now turned its sights on the one sector which kept us all afloat during the global financial crisis, mining. The 40 per cent supertax on mining profits will hurt every level of society, including the working families, pensioners and superannuants of my electorate.

Right now, unemployment in Hinkler is at 7.8 per cent, or around 4,700 people in total. Youth unemployment is at 12.5 per cent. We have 21,000 age pensioners, more than any other electorate in Australia. We are in the top three electorates for people receiving rent assistance and in the top five for people on disability pensions or carers allowance. These are the people who rely on the government to do the right thing by them and they are being betrayed by this current Labor government.

The spiralling cost of living is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, particularly those living on fixed incomes. This government, which promised the world, has delivered nothing. Because of that, the situation of these people has become more untenable. A great number of people in my electorate are in financial distress right now, proven by a recent Lifeline report which found that 1.2 million Queenslanders, or 28 per cent, were financially unfit at the beginning of this year, up dramatically from 12 per cent at the beginning of last year. Queensland has the second highest rate of electricity disconnections for non-payment of bills. And things are only getting worse in other sectors.

On the Fraser Coast, ratepayers are paying a seven per cent increase in rates this year, while the Bundaberg increase will be at least that figure. At the state level in Queensland, Labor has got rid of the 8.3 cents a litre fuel subsidy and raised vehicle registrations, water prices and tolls, and will preside over a 20 per cent increase in electricity prices over the next five years. Labor never met a tax it did not like. It reminds me of Winston Churchill’s famous line: ‘For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.’ That is what we are witnessing in this country right now.

Not so long ago, Australia had the leading edge on attracting foreign investment because of affordable coal-fired power and an abundance of natural resources. But not anymore it seems. An acquaintance of mine recently returned from a world trip, on which he met fund managers in the US and UK. Every single one of those fund managers wanted to know why the government would impose such a crazy tax on an industry which had kept the nation afloat and created thousands of jobs. They said that right now they would sooner look to send their trillions of dollars to Indonesia, Canada, Brazil and South Africa. In short, those dollars—and jobs—will go anywhere but Australia because of Labor’s mining tax.

The flow-on effect will cripple local economies, ones already hit hard by Labor’s financial mismanagement. The money wasted so far in the BER program would have been enough to put 20,000 new teachers or nurses on the payroll. The scandalous Home Insulation Program has killed many small businesses and crippled others. The evolving AusAID scandal has seen even more taxpayer dollars thrown away on fat-cat salaries and jobs for the boys. And the great white hope of the Labor Party, its health scheme—which is at its heart of altered funding arrangements between the states and the Commonwealth—will move things from a 40-60 to a 60-40 split and nothing more. Never have a health revolution and its revolutionary leaders looked so sick.