Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Once again, here we are, two months after the deadline of phase 1 of the National Commission of Audit, and the government still has not released the draft report or recommendations to the electorate or this parliament. We keep hearing, 'It will be released next week,' and, 'It will be released next month,' but the end date keeps dragging out. The coalition government delayed releasing it before the Griffith by-election and the South Australian and Tasmanian state elections, and now it looks like they are going to delay it until after the Western Australian Senate election. What are those opposite trying to hide? Why is the plan so secret that they are not willing to come forth and explain to this parliament and to the electors of WA, or anyone else for that matter, to explain what this Commission of Audit—or commission of cuts, as most of us refer to it—is going to deliver?

Since coming to government, Mr Abbott has done nothing but cut. Thanks to the Labor opposition in this place, a range of measures introduced by the Labor government, including the schoolkids bonus, the instant asset write-off, low-income super contributions and the Income Support Bonus will still be in place after the MRRT repeal bill is voted down—and I am assuming that that will be the case if people in this place have the decency and common sense to know that those measures should be retained. I have mentioned all of these before, but they are still important and well worth mentioning again: the Regional Development Australia Fund grant has been cut; the Tourism Industry Regional Development Fund grants, cut; the National Crime Prevention Fund, cut; childcare and aged-care sector pay increases, cut; the NBN rollout, cut; the Building Multicultural Communities Program, cut; payments to the children of veterans who have been killed or injured, cut. This is just a small snippet of cuts by the Abbott government, and it is frightening to think about what other cuts they may have planned.

Being a Queenslander, I am able to stand in this chamber with some experience of cuts from an LNP government, and I use the example in Queensland of the Newman government—in particular, following the release of the report by Peter Costello's Queensland Commission of Audit. It is recommending a number of measures, including opening up public assets to private enterprise, and future investment into the public service. Also, an article on the website of the Courier-Mail, that old, reliable tabloid up there, has the title 'Costello's commission of audit report urges Newman government to sell off Queensland's assets'. That is dated 1 March 2013 and says:

"There is a need for greater workforce flexibility and mobility so that resources can be readily redirected to areas of highest priority—by removing restrictive workplace practices which add unnecessary costs without delivering improved output …

"Industrial relations and enterprise bargaining arrangements should not fetter the ability of managers to manage."

In other words, more jobs are on the chopping block, and some entitlements could be given the flick as well. The article also went on to report that they found the government could get its AAA rating back by selling government electricity assets, including Energex and Ergon, as it states this would raise between $25 billion and $35 billion, or by selling off some of its other corporations, including Queensland Investment Corporation and SunWater.

Premier Newman has also told Queenslanders that he would be taking the issue of asset sales to the next election to seek a mandate—a bit different from what he has said previously. The website of the state member for Mulgrave, Curtis Pitt, has identified that by collecting a range of quotes from Premier Newman regarding asset sales, including:

The poles and wires transmissions stuff, I believe, should be owned by the people because they are natural monopolies …

In November 2012 he said:

My vision for the electricity sector is that we have a government-owned, world's best practice, efficient operation owned by the people of Queensland. That is what I would like to see.

In April 2013 he told parliament:

So let me be absolutely clear today that we decided to not consider divestment of Energex, Ergon or Powerlink to pay down the debt … and we certainly will not be seeking any mandate to undertake a sale of those assets at the next election.

Let me tell you, Madam Acting Deputy President Ruston, that is already happening in the community cabinets. They are going around the countryside on a listening tour, explaining to people how they are going to cut those assets. That is why people in WA should be extremely concerned about this Abbott government and the effects on the economy as a whole.