John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

and Senator Cameron perhaps might even consider listening—of these great investments by the Labor government, which just happened to fail. Let’s start with Fuelwatch: $21 million. There is silence on the other side, Madam Acting Deputy President. They might as well have thrown it in the gutter. What is the result of Fuelwatch today? It is a waste of $21 million of taxpayers’ money—or borrowed money—that will have to be paid back.

The National Broadband Network has gone from $4 billion, to $7 billion, to $43 billion and is to cost about $20,000 a connection. Where is the money coming from? We can see from the $25 million report on the National Broadband Network that it is not going to return a dividend; it is not going to attract private investment. It will have to be borrowed money that sets up and establishes it.

We will move on to GroceryWatch: $13 million. This was how Mr Rudd was going to put downward pressure on grocery prices. One of his many promises prior to the 2007 election was, ‘I will put downward pressure on grocery prices.’ So he introduced GroceryWatch, at a cost of $13 million. It is just like Fuelwatch: he might as well have thrown it in the gutter. It did not do any good; it was simply a waste of money.

Of course I will talk about the school infrastructure program, Building the Education Revolution—or the ‘builders’ early retirement’ scheme, as we should refer to it. And then there are refugees. How many boats have we had so far? Mr Rudd said prior to the election of 2007, ‘I will turn the boats back.’ What a great statement. Now, in this week’s budget, we find an extra billion dollars from taxpayers—sorry, put on the credit card that future Australians will have to pay for—to control the asylum seekers and the cost of them.

I am sure Senator Humphries, who is in the chamber, will remember the 2020 Summit—1,000 minds, 1,000 bed and breakfasts and a $2 million-plus program for nine usable ideas. I suppose that is nine more than the Labor Party would have had, anyway.

Then there is the ‘batts-in batts-out’ program, the $2.6 billion stimulus package to insulate houses. This is a very serious issue. I feel so sorry for those relatives and loved ones of the four men who lost their lives. It is darn lucky that more people have not lost their lives, when more than 100 houses have burnt down. Now we see in the budget almost $1 billion to clean up the mess. Is that money well spent? It is money wasted.

And when we talk about money wasted we should talk about the $42 billion ‘cash splash 2’: $900 to most Australians—all those on less than $80,000 gross income—to stimulate the economy. I am sure China would have been very grateful for that $900 handout spent on the new televisions and electronic items that we import from there. We do not make any in Australia these days, of course—or, if we do, it would be very few. I am glad my daughter used her $900 dollars wisely to stimulate the economy. She paid off her credit card with it, which was the way she saw to stimulate the economy. She said, ‘What a waste of money.’

We will move along to further programs. The GP superclinics: $275 million. How many of those do we have in action? I think there are two—or is it three?—completed GP superclinics. Health is a major issue. The money should be spent wisely and we should get a decent return.

The Rudd government was going to reduce consultancies by $112 million. Instead, what do we have? An increase to $800 million—6,354 consultancies. There is a blowout of almost $700 million.

It gets better. There is digital TV from Senator Conroy. In 2008 he was going to slash $22 million from the cost of the changeover. The original estimate was $16 million. It is now to cost $66 million. It goes on and on and on.

Let me look again at the Building the Education Revolution. I have had some people come to me, but I will not name them because they do not want to be publicised. They are in the education department and fear the repercussions of being named. A local builder quoted $78,000 for a covered outdoor learning area, which included the footpaths, but the government contractor came along and charged $228,000 excluding the footpaths—basically, four times the price.

Dr David Gillespie, the Nationals candidate for Lyne, is still amazed that Hastings Public School at Port Macquarie had a shade project blow out from $400,000 to almost $1 million, and the education minister only intervened after the media blew the whistle. I do not know why the local member did not raise the issue.

At Manilla Central School near Tamworth in New England, up where I live, they have two demountable classrooms off the back of a truck. That is two demountables for $1.8 million! Again, it was Senator Joyce on a television program who highlighted this waste, and again the local Independent member was asleep at the wheel. Think about building a house. Three hundred thousand dollars would build you a good brick home. So for $1.8 million you could expect to build six really good brick veneer homes. What do they do? They get two demountable classrooms. That is far from equivalent to six brick veneer homes.

The education minister was in denial. She thought this program was fantastic. But now she is not sure and is spending another $14 million to find out. Senator Mason and I, through the Senate, asked the Auditor-General to address a question of value for money. But his report, released last week, did not answer any questions. No doubt we will be asking more. No doubt the inquiry in the New South Wales parliament—in the Legislative Council—will release the information about the waste in this whole Building the Education Revolution.

I will give you another example. A school in the New England area had a barbed wire fence. The top wire of the fence around the school was made of barbed wire. Along came the experts in the Building the Education Revolution and they said, ‘That fence has to come down.’ It cost $32,000 to replace it with a new fence. The cocky next door took the barbed wire off and put a plain wire on, and $900 later the job was complete. There is a saving of more than $31,000. But, to remove the barbed wire, they had said, ‘No, we’ve gotta pull the whole fence down.’ This is a very small school I might add.

I will tell you about another school in western New South Wales. We talk about spending money for value—and we might get a reaction from the other side here. I know of a school in western New South Wales that got a new classroom for around $225,000. You might say: ‘That is a great investment. Schools need classrooms.’ But this school has a student total of three. You have three students in the whole school, and they put in a new classroom! How many classrooms do you need in a school with three students?