Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise, essentially, to talk about nothing—and I do so in the specific context of ‘A show about nothing’, which went to air for the final time in 1998 on this day: the Seinfeld show. Many people here would be familiar with Seinfeld and would recognise many of the self-absorbed, vain and indignant characters who appeared in it. They created a flurry of activity where none was required, and it was mostly a waste of time. It was a very popular show.

The Australian people could be forgiven for thinking that Seinfeld has started up in Australia once again. For the last six months, we have had our very own version of it—that is, the Rudd Labor government. I say that because for six months—or nearly six months—we have had a flurry of activity about nothing. There have been any manner of headlines and there have been all sorts of inquiries—outrages about a number of issues that have arisen. What they have done in all of that has actually achieved nothing.

It came to a spectacular climax last night with the presentation of the budget. Nothing new was in the budget last night. We had the familiar characters, of course. I guess Mr Rudd would be Jerry Seinfeld, and I could probably see Treasurer Swan as George Costanza, because the only thing they did was talk about what they had already done for the last six months. There was very little in new announcements last night—in fact, we could have saved the Australian public a whole lot of wasted air time by just leaking the actual budget speech. Most of the material that actually came through had already been announced previously, and was rebadged existing coalition policies.

In a number of areas, such as disability, there has been a redirection of funds from the disability assistance package through to the Commonwealth-State Territory Disability Agreement—that was already announced. The utilities allowance had already been announced. The National Disability Strategy is a new program that had not been announced—and I commend it—but the problem is that the $7.7 million over four years is not new money. It is coming out of the existing FaHCSIA department.

The $100 million for ageing carers had already been announced. The carers bonus—which caused this government so much angst so early in the year—was only a single-year measure, from my reading of the budget papers, and they have failed to commit to the continuation of that through the budget papers. This leaves carers in a state of distress, and they are certainly raising that in a number of press releases that have come across my desk today.

There is respite brokerage for older carers as well. The problem we have with some of these announcements is that the funding has now gone directly from a Commonwealth oriented focus, from non-government organisations or organisations that can actually deliver services, to a very clearly dysfunctional, inefficient state government service delivery system. I say that because, in the numerous consultations I have had with organisations supporting those with disabilities and their carers, they have all raised with me the difficulties they have experienced within the state systems. In the state systems, under the current CSTDA, the service providers are also the funding providers for a lot of non-government organisations, and I think this raises a serious concern. Effectively, you have the person who is going to be providing the money providing a competitive service also.

This government promised to fast-track the CSTDA after an extension late last year. In fact, the first extension was in about June last year, when the state Labor governments refused to negotiate and walked out after 20 minutes with the previous government. In December, it was re-announced there would be a further extension until June. Disappointingly, because it was identified as a priority and a fast-track requirement for this government, it was flushed out through the press that this agreement still has not been reached and will be extended once again, leaving people in limbo. There was a much-vaunted $1 billion contribution to the CSTDA, of which—of course—$900 million was simply the reallocation of the previous government’s promises.

We have, effectively, a budget about nothing. It is a budget in which paper has been shuffled and funds have been reallocated to suit an agenda which is not really in the public interest. It is an agenda that is in the interests of specific target markets of the Labor Party. I say that because, in the public interest, we want to ensure that there is a strong commitment to families, we want to ensure that our most disadvantaged people are actually looked after, we want to make sure that there are jobs available and we want to ensure that we have efficient, open and transparent government operations. None of those things are taking place under this government.

In my own state of South Australia, there are any number of concerns. The government boasted of—or inherited, I should really say—a surplus of around $20 billion, and proudly boasted last night they were going to have $21.7 billion in surplus and they were going to earmark that for infrastructure. Infrastructure is, of course, a commendable project, but we have to recognise that this allocation of funds can only come on the back of the work done by the previous government, in which various funds were set up—not least of all to pay off Labor’s historic $96 billion debt that we inherited as a former government. We set up funds to ensure the solvency of funding public sector superannuation, we organised the Higher Education Endowment Fund, we organised a Communications Fund, and some of these have been raided already or attempted to be raided by this administration—the Future Fund, as I mentioned. They are plopping some of the money into another fund and badging it all as their own. But they have failed miserably to support any number of areas with this $21 billion surplus.

Let me touch on a few of those areas that are relevant to my state of South Australia. Mr Rudd made a number of promises. He made a promise that Defence health clinics would be built in Edinburgh and Elizabeth North. The outcome? It is a broken promise. The centres are being provided in other states but the clinics promised for Edinburgh and Elizabeth North have been cancelled. There was a promise of $500 million for South Road. I did not see much mention of the $500 million figure in the budget, but there is a figure of $12.6 million in planning funds in this budget. So there is only a shortfall of $487.4 million. There was a commitment for $451 million towards Adelaide’s Northern Expressway. Unfortunately, it falls a little short there—about $391 million short, because only $60 million appears in this budget. There was a promise of $7 million for the Victor Harbor Road, but only half a million dollars has been allocated for planning funds in this budget. There was $10 million identified among the promises of the Rudd campaign for teaching and clinical training infrastructure at Flinders Medical Centre. I cannot find any reference to funding in the current budget papers. There was $160 million promised for a desalination plant in the upper Spencer Gulf. I cannot find any funding for this in the budget papers. And on it goes: lots of community organisations miss out. They were counting on this money and very important infrastructure projects.

This government has claimed to have already delivered on its election promises. The reality is that the budget shows a whole host of broken promises. That is why I say that this is really a budget about nothing. It is a budget about spin—in fact, this government is all about spin, and manufacturing issues and areas of contention to divert the focus away from some of the failings that have already become so apparent. The budget falls flat in so many areas. Carers and people with disabilities in this country deserve far better. I say that because the direct transfer of funds from the disability assistance package to the states and territories effectively symbolises that this government is washing its hands of delivering disability services to those who are the most vulnerable in our society. This budget pours millions of dollars into inefficient state and territory governments that have consistently failed to deliver important services. National Disability Services said today that this year’s budget ‘was never likely to be the one that brought home the bacon for the disability sector’. I ask you: if you can’t bring home the bacon for the most vulnerable in our community when you are running a $21.7 billion surplus, when can you do it? It is the cause of very great concern to those who are amongst the most vulnerable in our society. I would hope that in future budgets there will be more substance and less spin, because the Australian people deserve a great deal better.