Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given by Senators Wong and Evans in response to questions by my colleagues Senator Abetz and Senator Cormann. We heard it here first this afternoon when the Leader of the Government in the Senate said, 'There is no black hole.' I am very confident that those words will come back to haunt not just Senator Evans but also the government as we count down to the next federal election. 'No budget black hole' were the words.

Today we have been talking about $120 billion in additional spending commitments since the last May budget, but we have not heard from anyone from anywhere in the government about how they intend to pay for those new funding initiatives, in addition to the surplus they have promised the Australian community in the next budget. When asked in question time today, no-one in the government could rule out tax increases that would hurt Australian families and Australian small businesses.

So what tax increases is Labor hiding? As we prepare for the next election, I think the Australian community is quite right and legitimate in asking Labor: what tax increases is it hiding? Is it hiding an increase in company tax? Is it hiding an increase in personal taxes? Is it hiding an increase in the carbon tax? Or is it hiding further pain for self-funded retirees with increased taxes and charges? Where is the money coming from? Who is going to be hit by Labor's secret tax plan?

We have heard this afternoon from Senator Gallacher and Senator Polley, who have high confidence in the Australian economy. Sometimes I wonder whether some senators might travel to other planets other than our own. Mr Deputy President, I would like to share with you some comments made by the shadow Treasurer when he shared with the House of Representatives data from early September. He said that the economy had grown less than half the rate of the previous three months and that retail sales had fallen by nearly one per cent in July. On top of that, he drew the attention of the House of Representatives to falls in company profits, falls in commodity prices and a deteriorating terms of trade. What did the Treasurer say? The Treasurer said, reflecting on the national accounts data, that the economy was 'simply outstanding'. So I think Australians are right to ask this government: where are its priorities and where are its commitments to improving the state of our national accounts?

Everyone knows in this place that Labor cannot manage money. Labor has true form. We have witnessed scheme after scheme and project after project that runs behind time and suffers from cost blow-outs. Remember the school hall bungles? Witness the massive cost blow-outs as a result of Labor's stubborn position on border protection, refusing for years to concede its policy had failed. Or, more recently, we have now had confirmed cost blow-outs in the National Broadband Network—not only cost blow-outs in terms of construction of the network, which is worrying enough, but significant cost blow-outs in terms of salaries and other overheads for the National Broadband Network. Never mind that the NBN is running behind schedule and failing by a very, very wide margin, increasing every day, to meet its benchmark targets for customer sign-ups. The government seems to think: if we keep paying more and more for staff at the NBN, we will end up with the problems fixing themselves. That is simply not the case.

Even today we had it confirmed that the Gillard government has wasted $10 million of taxpayers' money. Recall earlier this year when the government announced it was spending $10 million to raise awareness of the importance of recognising Indigenous people in our national Constitution. What did we hear today? The government announced that there was insufficient public awareness and support for this issue. So Labor will not proceed to a referendum, and this is despite the fact that Labor promised such a referendum to the member for Lyne, Mr Oakeshott, as a condition for his support for forming government. It is yet another broken promise—not that Mr Oakeshott seems to mind. Being the resolute man of principle that he is, he has today confirmed to the media that his lavish devotion to the Gillard government will continue. What a sell-out. Australians are entitled to ask: where is Labor's secret tax plan? (Time expired)

Question agreed to.