The ever-lengthening list of broken promises from this government is nothing short of appalling, and what is really sad is that the Australian people are almost starting to become immune. They are almost immune to the seemingly almost daily broken promises from this government. I say to the Australian people—every single person across this country who is listening right now—do not let that happen. Stop the immunity, start paying attention and start noticing every single time this government breaks a promise, because it is going to keep happening.
This is a government that should be called the BP government, because they are slick as oil when it comes to breaking their promises. They have form. Forget about all the things that are happening at the moment; let’s have a quick walk down memory lane to the last term of government. What did they say before the last election? ‘We will fix hospitals. If there hasn’t been an improvement by the middle of 2009, we will move to take over the hospital system.’ Guess what, colleagues? As you all well know, nothing has happened. We still walk into our hospitals in our regional areas and know that there has been absolutely no improvement.
And the list of broken promises goes on. Remember computers to every secondary school student in years nine to 12? Those are gone—completely gone. What is it now—every second child and only if all the parents in the schools are actually going to pay for all the associated costs? Remember GroceryWatch and Fuelwatch? They promised to put downward pressure on grocery and fuel prices. That is another broken promise. I particularly like this next one. What about retaining the private health insurance rebates? They promised they would retain them. What do we see now? A government that is planning to do exactly the opposite. It is appalling. The Australian people deserve better than this. They deserve better than a government that is going to break its promise at every turn.
But isn’t it interesting now? We have seen over the last term those broken promises throughout the term. Now we have a situation where the Prime Minister is telling us before she even breaks them that she is going to break her promises. Maybe that is just to harden up the electorate so that when they all come, as inevitably they will, the electorate is a little bit more immune to the broken promises from the government. What is it that she said?The Age on 17 September said:
JULIA Gillard has declared that climate change and some other election promises will not be kept to the letter by her minority government - and “people are going to have to get used to it'”.
I think that if she could not form a government that was going to allow her to deliver on her election promises then she probably should not have formed that government at all, because those people across this country who voted for her on her promises deserve to believe that those promises will be honoured, and they simply are not.
One of the worst broken promises, of course, is on the carbon tax—and isn’t that a beauty? Let’s have a look at a couple of those quotes from the government—prior to the election, mind you. On Meet the Press of 15 August, Wayne Swan said:
… what we rejected is this hysterical allegation that somehow we are moving towards a carbon tax …
He also said:
We have made our position very clear. We have ruled it out.
Julia Gillard claimed ‘There will be no carbon tax—’
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Order! You must refer to the Prime Minister by her proper title.
I do apologise. The Prime Minister again claimed:
There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.
How can the Australian people believe anything at all that this government says? We know that this government now wants a carbon tax, and there are two very simple things that the Australian people need to understand. This is going to be a massive new tax that is going to hurt Australian people from one coast to the other. It is going to increase the cost of electricity; all of the costs that are going to be incurred are going to be passed on down to you, the Australian people, and guess what? If the rest of the world is not on board, it is not going to make the slightest bit of difference to the climate. So here we go again on this merry-go-round—down this fairyland path—the same way we did with the ETS: with the government trying to convince people it is going to change the climate. As my very good colleague in front of me, Senator Joyce, says: if taxes were going to cool the climate, this place would be freezing. It is not going to do what the government says it is going to do. The best climate change we have seen recently—the coolest the planet was—was probably in the office on the other side of this place when they had a change of leadership in the Labor Party. This government will not stop breaking their promises, and the Australian people need to know it.
Question agreed to.
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