As always, Senate Estimates hearings this week exposed Labor’s lack of respect for taxpayers – and their inability to manage even basic functions of Government.
First, the ongoing waste – it never seems to end.
This week, I spoke to Neil Mitchell on 3AW about the Government’s wasteful spending including a $100,000 inquiry into the sale of billiard tables, taxpayer-funded sleep classes for public servants and the ridiculous case where my office was unable to purchase a plastic chair mat to stop the carpet wearing without an ergonomic test by a private company.
Australian Financial Review: 18.10.11
Second, I pressed the Labor Government about the ongoing saga of Ken Henry’s appointment as a ‘special adviser’ to the Prime Minister, under a rarely used provision of the Constitution. Ken Henry is only the seventh such appointment since 1975!
The Government couldn’t answer basic questions, such as how it will manage the conflict between a project that must include financial services and being on the board of a major bank? The Australian, The Australian Financial Review ,The Herald Sun and The Courier Mail all noted this.
Courier Mail: 19.10.11
Third, while Labor are wasting your money, they are feathering their own nests.
I forced the Government to admit that what was once a promise cut the size of ministerial size by one third had been broken – it has expanded again. And there is now even a special taskforce to “sell” the carbon tax.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Small Business Minister admitted that small businesses will face higher power bills due to the carbon tax, and that there was nothing in the Government’s $40 million education fund to actually help them. As reported by the Business Spectator, small business is on its own again under Labor.
Just like the Kirner Government in 1992 and the NSW Labor Government in 2010, this Labor Government is falling apart. Yet Labor sees its betrayal of the electorate as a reason to celebrate.
The Coalition is not going to let the Government get away with its broken promises and record waste – Australia deserves and needs a new government.