Page 1753 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 May 2013
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Mr Smyth: Where’s NBN Co?
MR HANSON: NBN Co? Where is that? I know they have got a lovely building, because they spent $32.5 million. Wouldn’t that have been nice in the Canberra economy? Wouldn’t that have been nice? That went to Melbourne. Where was your complaint then, Dr Bourke? Where was the complaint? Where was the squealing from Labor then about something that happened in reality, not just something that might happen in the future?
There was the newly created Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency. And NDIS. I support that. It would be ridiculous to put all the NDIS offices in Canberra. They are being put out in the regions aren’t they? No squealing about that. Lots of them have offices outside. There is ASIC in Sydney, the tax office in Gippsland, APRA in Sydney, the Productivity Commission in Melbourne, the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne, the Human Rights Commission in Sydney, and so on and so forth. Let us be clear about this.
Part of the motion today is also asking for a statement of commitment from Tony Abbott. The one thing about a statement of commitment from Tony Abbott is that you know that if he said it he meant it.
Mr Smyth: He would keep his word.
MR HANSON: He would keep his word, because he is honest, because what he is saying is what he is intending—very different from Julia Gillard. We have just had another broken promise today about the carbon tax, haven’t we? We have had almost one a day of late. Look at the list. There is the carbon tax: “There will be no carbon tax.” There was promising her loyalty to Kevin Rudd—that not so much. How many times did they say the budget was back in surplus? And it was not just a promise that they would get it back: the local members here, Gai Brodtmann and others, said they delivered it, they delivered the surplus. Not so much.
There was scrapping increases in family tax benefit, providing training centres, grocery watch, the office for children and young people, 35 GP super clinics, retaining health insurance rebates, establishing a fourth network for commercial TV, no changes to superannuation laws, mandatory pre-commitment technology and lowering the tax burden. Oh! Have they lowered the tax burden? What do you think? There was the carbon tax, mining tax, the superannuation tax-free contribution, alcopops, the LPG excise, an increased flood levy, a new tax on Australians working overseas—it goes on and on. Any commitment from Julia Gillard is not worth the paper it is written on—absolutely. I can understand why they would want Tony Abbott. You could actually count on it then, couldn’t you? You can actually count on what Tony Abbott says, but not on anything that Julia Gillard says.
The reason we are in this state, the reason that Julia Gillard is cutting the public service right here and now, moving the public service interstate, is that they have wreaked havoc on the federal budget. In 2011-12, it was a $43.7 billion deficit. In 2010-11 it was 47.7; in 2008-09, 54; and so on. I think it is something like 30 years
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