Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. Will the minister explain why it is important to develop and implement well-considered policy like the Defence Export Strategy rather than alternative approaches to policymaking?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bonner for his question. Of course, it's critical that policy be developed methodically and carefully in government and, of course, in opposition, and not have any unintended consequences. A good example of careful and methodical delivery of policy is the Defence Export Strategy of the Turnbull government, which we announced on 29 January.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, it is. I am actually responsible for the Defence Export Strategy. It did leap to mind. The person who should get the credit is the Prime Minister, of course. One part of the Defence Export Strategy is the Australian military sales catalogue, which we released only last week, which is very interesting reading for people. I should say that it's six times the size of the first edition, which is about 12 months old. What it shows is that defence industry is getting behind the government's defence industry policy in the defence of our nation.

I was asked about examples of good and poor policymaking. There is a bad example of policymaking around right now, and that is, unfortunately, Labor's plan to steal the tax refunds of pensioners and retirees. It is a very, very bad policy. They should be ashamed of developing a policy to rip the tax refunds out of the pockets of pensioners and retirees.

But I'd like to thank the shadow Treasurer and the member for Rankin for reminding me and the rest of the country why Labor lost in 2013. They've managed to remind everybody about the incompetence, the stupidity, the jealousy, the distrust, the shiftiness and the mendacity of the previous government, which we dispatched in 2013. It was exactly this level of detail that they brought to policymaking that ruined the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government. There are so many fabulous examples: the mining resources rent tax, which collected no revenue. It was the first tax in Commonwealth history that collected no revenue. And then there was the Building the Education Revolution school halls: $16½ billion, in many cases to put school halls next door to school halls or to put libraries next door to libraries. They had schools pretending that they didn't have a library because they'd been told they had to have the money. And there was the pink batts scheme that the Minister for Health pursued so relentlessly in opposition and the social housing that ended up being overseas student housing. But my favourite and the foreign minister's favourite was always 'cash for clunkers'. We loved the cash for clunkers scheme. It didn't even get off first base. That's the level of incompetence that we've come to expect from the Labor Party, and we should be thanking the member for Rankin and the shadow Treasurer for reminding the Australian people why not to vote Labor. (Time expired)