Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I note the ministerial statement on the one-year anniversary of the Nation Building and Jobs Plan, which marks the fact that a year ago the $41 billion stimulus program was announced by the government to tackle the then unfolding global economic crisis. The immediate reaction of the coalition opposition was to say that it would not support this package. The Greens deliberated very long and hard about it and, to cut the matter short, supported the package. We are very pleased we did so because it meant that this nation did not go to a million unemployed, that thousands of businesses were protected and that thousands of people who otherwise would have lost their houses did not do so. It was, on the whole, a remarkable exercise in protecting the economy from an inevitable march into recession.

The Greens were able in the week or two following the announcement of this package by the Prime Minister, along with Treasurer Swan, to negotiate in return for supporting the package a $400 million jobs creation package, which did create thousands of jobs in this country. Particular parts of that package were: a $40 million bikeway program, which has been unrolling in all states and territories and has been very warmly applauded by local communities; and a $60 million heritage protection and restoration program for built and natural heritage. The government had almost no budget for that beforehand. That has created in turn many hundreds of jobs and skilled people across Australia. Attendant with those were other provisions to help people who faced bankruptcy and to help those, including local councils, who wanted to promote local employment. That package was recognised by Senator Abetz in here as having doubled the number of jobs per dollar in the government’s overall package. We Greens are very proud of that.

At the end of the negotiation of that program, I had directly from the Prime Minister not only his thanks but his assurance that the role of the Greens—and, indeed, our fellow crossbenchers—in ensuring the legislation went through would be recognised by him in future rollouts and announcements attendant on that package. Without us, it would have been blocked. He also personally communicated to me an assurance that where bikeways and so on were unrolled the Greens—because we were responsible for them—would be notified and be able to be there and be part of the public recognition of the good these bikeways, heritage programs and so on would do. I am not just frustrated but also sad that the Prime Minister has not upheld either of those gentleperson’s commitments to me as Leader of the Australian Greens.

The statement is quite extensive. It looks at the way in which that stimulus package did help Australia to escape a recession. There is no reference to the Greens or, indeed, to Senator Xenophon or Senator Fielding. If you look at the responses to questions I have put to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts and the Minister for Climate Change and Water about the rollout of the funding programs, you will see that on no occasion has the commitment been made to let crossbenchers—with due notice—be part of the community rollout. That is politics. We accept it. We are very happy with what has happened and the value it has brought to the community. But I must put on record that the Prime Minister has failed to carry through on two personal commitments to me, as leader of the Greens, in the Senate and in the parliament and it worries me greatly. If at a personal level you cannot have the word of the Prime Minister as a gentleman carried through into action, you have to be more careful in future dealings with the leader of this country. I would say to the honourable Prime Minister: when you make a commitment like that, you should keep it.

We Greens were and are very proud to have been part of the stimulus program. We know what it meant to the communities in Australia. It was economically responsible. The coalition parties, the National Party and the Liberal Party, blocked it. They were absolutely oppositional. We Greens facilitated it. We had the integrity, the responsibility and the national good in mind to put politics aside and—with Treasury advice, down the line—to responsibly back this package. If you look at the ministerial statement of today, there is no reference to the Senate crossbench in any way. Be that as it may, it needs to be on the public record that a commitment from the Prime Minister that recognition of the crossbenchers in the Senate would be made on such occasions has been found wanting.