Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking to the motion to take note of the answers of Senator Conroy and Senator Arbib, I want to highlight the fact that in terms of managing this economy they are demonstrating indiscriminate and reckless behaviour, particularly with respect to education but not just with respect to education. They have no interest in ensuring that value for money is being received by the taxpayers. In terms of outcomes, what is the story? They do not know. They have no idea how jobs have been created by the government’s spending. In terms of educational outcomes, they have no idea. We had the farcical arrangements with the laptops in schools where the original budget was $1.2 billion, and that blew out to $2 billion. That is a 66 per cent increase in expenditure. It is a problem with the government’s mismanagement and maladministration, not just of government services but of our economy. They failed to take into account the operational costs of the laptops—such a basic, fundamental management procedure but they did not take those costs into account. We saw a 66 per cent increase for the taxpayer.

As Senator Mason indicated earlier, this is a government of PR and spin. That is what they are interested in. I call the Prime Minister the grand spinmeister. He is the grand spinmeister, and his troops and his ministers are doing his bidding. But it is not just education. I want to list some of the other areas of waste, mismanagement and maladministration by this government. We have had the tax bonus waste, where we have seen millions of dollars going out to dead people, to deceased estates. There have been 15,934 of those, to a few weeks ago, and over 27,000 Australians living overseas have received the tax bonus, when the key objective was to strengthen and grow the Australian economy. We had the $14 million splashed on wasted policy reviews. They have spent $14 million on 140 policy reviews but they have only acted on a handful of those findings. We had taxpayers’ funds wasted on the Prime Minister’s bid for a UN Security Council seat, and you would know, Mr Deputy President, being on the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, that the budget reports a direct cost for this bid of $11.2 million, over a two-year period, but there are potentially tens of millions of extra dollars to be used from other parts of the budget, including the foreign aid budget. We have seen this $164,000 splurge on a blatantly political website—yes, a $164,000 bill for a blatantly political website promoting the Rudd government’s budget. Senator Michael Ronaldson, our shadow Special Minister of State, highlighted these concerns just some weeks ago. We had some issues with the 2020 Summit. The government expended $2 million of taxpayers’ funds on that talkfest. And what have they done? The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has agreed to fund only nine of the 962 recommendations. As the Australian editorial said at the time, it is big hype, small ideas, none of the ideas proved visionary and most are recycled.

Then we had the issue of government legal costs exceeding $500 million. Remember that the Labor Party in opposition attacked the Howard government’s spending on lawyers, and Attorney-General Robert McClelland has been forced to defend the Rudd government’s 2007-08 legal bill of $510 million—up from $408 million under the Howard government. So it was a $100 million increase in costs for lawyers under this government. The government also now has the reputation of having the highest consultancy costs in the history of the Australian government. They spend more on consultants than any government in Australian history. As of just a month or so ago, consultancy costs have totalled more than $500 million since the government has come to office. Of course the shadow minister before the election, Lindsay Tanner, promised to cut consultancy costs back by $395 million. So their waste, inefficiency and mismanagement knows no bounds.

Question agreed to.