Page 3772 - Week 12 - Thursday, 22 November 2007
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Mr Barr: It’s time for a change, Bill.
MR STEFANIAK: “Time for a change,” Mr Barr states. What an idiotic mantra when things have been going so well. Change for change’s sake is no excuse and we will be the losers, because if he gets in on Saturday it will be an electorate that has voted for change for change’s sake—nothing else. (Time expired.)
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (5.23): I am very happy to speak to this motion today and to support it at least in its broad intent, though I might differ with the government on the detail. It certainly makes a break from having to endure the lies and the smears that seem to be being put out by an increasingly desperate Liberal Party as they realise that their tax and spending bribes are not changing minds; that people are looking for something a little bit more and a little bit better at this election. The ham-fisted pork-barrelling and deceptive scare campaigns are not gaining traction against the Labor Party, so now it is time for the illegal and the outright dishonest flyers and media grabs to be unleashed. Although it worked for them at the last election, it might be wrong for them to think that it will work this time.
I look forward to what I believe or am led to expect will be a higher standard of probity and transparency that a Rudd Labor government promises. That, of course, needs to be backed up by an effective Senate. The government’s scare campaign has been very successful if even a silver lion like Mr Mulcahy is scared. I look forward to seeing the fruits of federal Labor’s stated support for greater transparency, independent review of government decision making and freedom of information laws. I wonder if it is possible that the threat of the expanded corporations power could be used to implement a uniform freedom of information bill which abolishes conclusive certificates and removes the growing shroud of secrecy that we have seen thrown over the actions of this government since it gained a majority in the Assembly.
Perhaps the prospect that pleases me most about this is that I will not have to listen to Ministers Corbell and Hargreaves justifying their misdeeds on the basis of “the Howard government does it that way too”. I look forward to a return to the future under Rudd Labor, as we hopefully see the restoration of the many programs and policies that used to contribute to a robust democracy and the ethos of a fair go that have been destroyed and run down under the Howard government.
Many people have forgotten the vigour with which the Howard government from the first day it took over, went about defunding, disbanding and attacking any group which dared to criticise Liberal policy or ideology—everything from peak youth bodies, uppity churches and environmental groups to Labor, student unions and the ABC. Charitable tax status was wielded as an ideological weapon as the culture wars raged on and ideological warriors were appointed to positions of power in boards, organisations and agencies as diverse as the national museum, CSIRO and the ABC.
But the Telstra appointments backfired on the federal government. Doesn’t Geoffrey Cousins like to feast on the hand that fed him? Bon appetit, Mr Cousins. My colleague Greens Senator Rachel Siewert recently announced a plan to restore the vital role of the community in Australia’s democracy titled “Beyond silencing dissent”. I commend it to the government and the opposition.
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