Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting to hear Senator Carr talk about deceit and deception and things that happened in the past. One could draw attention to what has happened in the past in Queensland. On 5 March 1990, documents pertaining to a rape at a correctional centre were shredded with other matters. It is the ultimate deceit and deception when people decide to make themselves party to actions like that. However, moving on to other things, this government has shown an incredible record of good management on interest rates. This government has one of the greatest records of being close to other benchmarks in the world, especially the US benchmark. It is interesting to note that today our official interest rate is at 6.5 per cent. The interest rate in the United States is at 5.25 per cent. There is only 1¼ per cent between them. That is a management figure; that is the capacity of the government to manage. What we can note, however, is that when the Labor Party was in power the differential between our interest rate and the US interest rate was around 8.3 per cent. That also is a management figure. It shows that Labor had in excess of seven times the differential we have now. That comes straight down to their capacity to manage a domestic economy.

One of the fundamental aspects of a domestic economy is having people with the expertise to manage that economy. As I have said before, we are on a political 747 and its capacity to fly is determined by the people in the cockpit. We have left the Labor Party’s cockpit door open and we are having a look inside. The question has to be asked: has any of them ever flown a political 747? The answer, obviously, is no. In fact, none of them have ever flown before. I do not think there is one person on the Labor front bench who has ever managed a business—not one! They have not sourced one person with the capacity to run the economy; they have not even gone close. If you want deceit and deception, it is about being completely errant in getting onto your front bench those with management expertise in business. It is quite obvious that you are not going to be able to have any credentials in running a trillion-dollar economy when there is no-one who has run so much as a corner store. What are they relying on to find these people—divine providence? Do they think the skills to manage the economy will descend upon them?

To see Labor’s management expertise, you need only look at the states. The states are the best reflection of what Labor Party management is like—and my state, Queensland, is probably one of the best examples. At the moment, I think the Queensland government are about $16.4 billion in debt. That is what they have chalked up on the state credit card. They are moving towards being between $40 million and $50 billion in debt. What have they done for the person who was responsible for that, the former Treasurer of Queensland? What prize have they presented to someone who has been completed devoid of management expertise? She is now the Premier of Queensland.

I would counsel Senator Carr very strongly, when he talks about deceit and deception and all the things that are involved in it—all the things that have happened in the past—that there are things that should be addressed and the truth should be tabled. There are some truths that have never been tabled. I hope that some day they might be tabled in here, because there are a lot of answers required. Maybe this government has only another four or five days to go, but it would be another travesty of justice if those people who have been suffering for so long from so many acts have to once again put aside any hope of those acts ever being dealt with.