Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Listening to the recent debates on the attempt by the Rudd government to change the Medicare levy surcharge made me consider the number of promises that this government has failed to implement or promises on which it has misled the Australian public, and although I have only 10 minutes in which to describe so many of them—and I will probably be back on repeated occasions to complete the list—I thought it important to explore just some of those broken promises so that the Australian public is aware of how poorly this government has performed at any particular level.

The first of these comes in the private health insurance rebate. Before the election in 2007, Kevin Rudd, the now Prime Minister, committed both himself and his Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, to retain the private health insurance rebate. Mr Rudd said:

The private health insurance rebate remains unchanged and will remain unchanged.

But the reality is somewhat different, because Mr Rudd has sought to means test the private health insurance rebate. The government have proposed—and it has been rejected once, thanks to the coalition—and they are continuing to propose that there be a sliding scale of means testing for the rebate. If that is not bad enough, because it is going to drive people out of private health insurance, the government are also seeking, and have had it rejected for the second time, to increase the Medicare levy surcharge, which is simply an additional tax on the Australian people. That is, quite frankly, two broken promises by a government that has a long, long list of broken promises. During the 2007 election campaign, Mr Rudd promised to provide every Australian secondary school student from years 9 to 12 with access to their own computer. He said:

Today I announce that, if elected, federal Labor will undertake a groundbreaking reform by providing for every Australian secondary school student in Years 9 to 12 access to their own computer at school.

The reality, of course, is somewhat different. Yes, there is an undertaking, but most of the students that Mr Rudd made that promise to will have completed university by the time that this government get around to fully implementing their program. As it stands, there are around 780,000 more computers that are required by these students waiting to be supplied by the government. It has taken over two years to implement just a fraction of what they promised, yet these students now have been left in the lurch. It cannot be interpreted in any other way than another failure to implement a promise made by this government. In superannuation, something that concerns so many Australians, particularly in these volatile economic times, Mr Rudd said before the election:

There will be no change to the superannuation laws, not one jot, not one tiddle.

He incorrectly pronounced it. It should be ‘tickle’ but he said ‘tiddle’. But the Rudd government did change superannuation. They halved the maximum limit on concessional contributions and also cut the co-contribution rate by one-third. This has impacted on people’s planned retirement. When asked by Australians why he changed the superannuation arrangements, despite his election promise, he said he meant there would be no ‘substantive’ changes and that his changes were just ‘fine tuning’. But that is not what he said before the election. I know we need a dictionary to understand most of what Mr Rudd says, but does the Prime Minister really require a dictionary himself to see that ‘substantive’ is not the same as ‘no change’—not one jot, not one tiddle?

What about childcare centres? In 2007, Mr Rudd and the Labor Party promised to provide an extra 260 childcare centres close to schools and community facilities. The reality is that after two years in power the Rudd government have only got three centres operational. The hope is that 38 will be completed by the end of this year. So in their first term in government the best they can do is to build 38 out of their promised 260 new childcare centres, and that is being optimistic.

The government cannot even give us a time frame for when these childcare centres will be completed. A spokeswoman for the minister responsible, the hapless Minister Ellis, stated that establishing 38 centres by the end of 2010 was in line with the government’s commitment given at an estimates hearing in June 2008. But 38 centres! What about the other 222 that were promised in 2007? What happened to them? Ms Gillard blames the collapse of ABC Learning Centres. What, then, happened to ‘the buck stops with me’? It is another promise unfulfilled.

A worse example comes in the trade training centre arena. Before the 2007 election, Mr Rudd promised:

... a Federal Labor Government would ... build new trade centres in all of Australia’s 2,650 secondary schools.

It was revealed just weeks ago in Senate estimates, thanks to my colleagues Senator Cash and Senator Cormann, that only one trade centre had been established, and that centre is in Mr Rudd’s hometown of Brisbane. Lucky Brisbane! What about the 2,649 other trade centres that were promised? Three months ago, government officials informed my colleague Senator Cash that it was hoped that 15 trade training centres would be completed by the end of January 2010. We are yet to see that happen too. It is a broken promise on top of a broken promise on top of a broken promise.

We are keeping watch on these broken promises, just like the government promised to keep watch on the price of fuel. It announced that it was going to have a national Fuelwatch scheme. According to the Treasurer, Mr Swan, it was going to save Australians up to $10 a tank. He said:

... today in metropolitan Sydney the difference between the minimum and maximum rate being charged at the bowser is something like 27c a litre, so you can easily save $10 a tank.

But, soon after its announcement, the Fuelwatch scheme was exposed as an irresponsible and ridiculous initiative. It would have prevented motorists from taking advantage of natural price cycles and discounting. It would have disadvantaged independent operators and encouraged price collusion. So we have to say thank goodness that this scheme could not make it past the Senate, because everyday Australians would have been disadvantaged.

What about hospitals? Mr Rudd and Ms Roxon stated that federal Labor’s health reform would involve the following commitment:

... a Rudd Labor Government will seek to take financial control of Australia’s 750 public hospitals if state and territory governments have failed to agree to a national health and hospital reform plan by mid-2009.

Put simply so that people can understand it: if hospitals were not fixed, Mr Rudd was going to take them over by the middle of 2009, and the buck stopped with him. Do we remember that? Let us just check the calendar. It is early 2010. Mid-2009 has come and gone and Mr Rudd is backing away from his promise at a million miles an hour. It is a broken promise, just like our broken hospitals that Mr Rudd is failing to fix.

What about GROCERYchoice? Do we remember that? Mr Rudd promised to bring down grocery prices for everyday Australians, and the government’s GROCERYchoice website was the tool that was going to do it. It was going to deliver fairer and more open and transparent pricing for consumers. The government said that it would play a part in empowering consumers ‘to find the best deals at the supermarket’. But the reality was somewhat different from the spin put forward by this government. Far from empowering consumers, the GROCERYchoice website ended up costing consumers—Australian taxpayers—millions and millions of dollars. It was cancelled less than one year after it commenced. It was a monumental failure. It had no impact on the pricing of groceries. It did not get a fairer deal for the Australian consumer; it gave them a worse deal because their taxpayer dollars were wasted. This government has wasted billions of dollars.

What about the baby bonus? On various occasions, Labor mentioned that they would not change the baby bonus, but change it they have, because they have started means testing it, limiting it to those families who are on an income under a certain defined amount.

Another promise was rainwater tanks for surf-lifesaving clubs. The government were going to invest $3 million to provide surf-lifesaving clubs with the wherewithal to install rainwater tanks, or to contribute towards a large water-saving project. Just 45 tanks have been delivered in two years. What a disgrace. (Time expired)