Page 3537 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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policies is available on our website. We are proud of them and we are happy to make them available for public debate—unlike the Liberal Party, from which, frankly, policies are still coming out. Maybe Tony’s five-point action plan sums it up. If that is the best they have got, I would take the Greens’ transparency any day over the Liberals’ failure to put their policies on their website.
Mr Smyth was also somewhat concerned that we in the Greens have not costed our policies. Clearly he was not paying attention during that part of the Press Club address today when Senator Brown spoke about it. When asked about Greens’ costings by a journalist at the National Press Club today, Senator Brown said, “Actually, the Greens asked to submit our policies to Treasury for costing, and Treasury and the government refused.” Treasury and the government refused to allow the policies to be costed by Treasury. He also noted that the Greens’ policies cost less than the revenue measures that we have proposed.
Finally, let me touch on something else. One of the members over there raised the old hoary question of the public housing costings from 2008, the one they keep coming back to. It is an interesting example, because the Treasury costing does show a billion dollars, but one has to look behind the assumptions for that. Treasury made an assumption that that policy would be delivered in four years. That is not actually what the policy says; that is what Treasury assumed. Mr Coe has heard that explanation at least several times now; he continues to refuse to accept what the actual policy is. He prefers the Treasury assumptions, but that perhaps reflects more on him than it does on Treasury.
I am not going to spend a lot of time on health and education, because Ms Hunter addressed those points in some substance. Even though the Liberal Party did not listen, I am not going to waste people’s time going over them again. However, in light of Mrs Dunne’s proposed amendment, it is an opportunity for me to touch on what Senator Brown had to say at lunchtime today.
Senator Brown has announced that the Australian Greens wish to put an extra $2 billion into the Australian education system—$2 billion. We believe this is a good news story for all students, for all Australian parents. This is a good news story. This is about putting more money into our education system, because we believe in education. As Senator Brown said, “The Greens are committed educationalists.”
The interesting question is this. Will the Liberal Party, when the opportunity comes up, support the mining tax?
Mr Hanson: Where’s the money coming from, Shane?
MR RATTENBURY: Will they support that extra revenue to come into the Australian government coffers so that we can improve our education system? That is the question that you should answer. Senator Brown made it perfectly clear where the money is coming from. The question is: will the Liberal Party enable the money to be made available?
Mr Hanson: Where’s the money coming from, Shane?
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