Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This afternoon, I want to talk about a very grave matter of public importance, which is that, if the opinion polls are to be believed, by the end of this year we will have Labor governments in every state and territory of Australia, including the national government. I have to say that I do not believe those opinion polls—although it is silly for politicians to stick their heads in the sand. Quite clearly, the Labor Party do believe the opinion polls. The hubris and arrogance that they are already showing indicates that they believe that they are simply the government-in-waiting, and no better demonstration of that could exist than the disgraceful speech by Mr Rudd yesterday at the luncheon for the Canadian Prime Minister.

To use that opportunity to start making political points, to get down to crass politics at a luncheon which has traditionally been non-partisan, I think not only demonstrates Mr Rudd’s arrogance and immaturity but also puts the lie to him allegedly being a diplomat. No-one with any diplomatic training would pre-empt our esteemed visitor, the Canadian Prime Minister, who was here to make a presentation from the Canadian people to the Australian people. It was gazumped and pre-empted by Mr Rudd’s silly story about his forebears coming out in the First Fleet and attending plays in Sydney. Big deal! Many Australians have relatives and forebears who came out with the First Fleet, and they are all as proud of it as Mr Rudd is—and so am I. But to use his speech yesterday to gazump and pre-empt a presentation from the Canadian people to the Australian people shows his arrogance and immaturity and the fact that the Labor Party are already counting the numbers post election.

Mr Rudd, as well as allegedly being a diplomat—which clearly from yesterday he is not—also claims to be a fiscal conservative. Why? Because the focus groups told him that that has a good ring about it. Let us have a look at Mr Rudd’s fiscal conservatism. First of all, he wants to rob the Future Fund of $5 billion to set up a broadband system that the private sector is very happy to be doing as part of their business. So $5 billion, which was last year’s surplus, is out of the way in one go. Mr Rudd is also promising to give everyone Commonwealth dental treatment. The cost of that, as was clearly pointed out in the other place, is $5 billion annually. So in just two initiatives, Mr Rudd has already spent twice the surplus from last year, and that says nothing about all his other extravagant, arrogant promises and all the other commitments he is making for roads, rail, health and everything else. So the fiscal conservative tag is only a tag; it is not genuine.

I despair of wall-to-wall Labor governments because I have seen the arrogance of Labor governments, particularly in my home state of Queensland. Remember that the Queensland Labor Party is the party that has spawned Mr Beattie, Mr Rudd and Mr Swan, the would-be Treasurer. It has spawned some excellent people like the previous Acting Deputy President, Senator Moore, but it has also spawned people like Bill D’Arcy, who is currently in jail on child sex offences, and Keith Wright, who was the Labor leader in Queensland in the state parliament, who is in jail on child sex offences. Keith Wright was also a member of the federal ALP in this place for a period of time.