Last week was the first round of Senate Estimates hearings for 2010, with ministers and officials facing detailed Senate questioning.
The revelations from Estimates show how this Labor government is big on talk but short on action. After two years in office, very
little has been achieved – other than unprecedented levels of public debt. The chickens are now coming home to roost as Australians call Kevin Rudd to account for his failure to live up to Labor’s promises.
It was a bad week for the Labor on a number of fronts – many of which were exposed by Senate Estimates committees and then followed up in the House of Representatives.
I attacked the Government over its internet filtering policy – apparently the Government can’t even get the filters at Parliament House to work properly. How do they expect internet filtering for the whole nation to work too?
One of the big revelations was that two of our Collins Class submarines will be out of action for a combined total of nine years. These are the same submarines ordered by Kim Beazley under the last Labor Government and which have been plagued with problems for over a decade.
Defence is still getting its payroll wrong, with members of the service being required to repay thousands of dollars due to administrative errors, despite promises from the current and former Labor Ministers.
Labor is back to form when it comes to jobs for mates – Labor hack Mike Kaiser was appointed ‘Principal – Government Relations and External Affairs’ at the National Broadband Network. The job was not advertised and others were not considered. Kaiser will now collect $450,000 of taxpayer’s money each and every year. Why a government owned company needs a government relations adviser’ is another question entirely!
Labor’s continual failure to live up to the promise to ‘fix our health system’ was further illustrated by the admission that, after two years in government, only two of a promised 31 GP Super Clinics are operational.
Peter Garrett is under attack on multiple fronts. Up to a thousand homes could have live electricity in their ceiling due to poorly installed insulation under the Rudd Government’s Home Insulation Program. Kevin Rudd and Peter Garrett are denying responsibility, but we know that they were warned about the risks of faulty installation last year
There have also been multi-million dollar blowouts in the Green Loans Program.
This election year is now well and truly underway. The Coalition is determined to hold Labor to account for its failure to govern for all Australians. No longer will spin, photo-ops and media stunts do – the Coalition will measure Labor against action and outcomes. I look forward to working with you to make Kevin Rudd follow in the footsteps of James Scullin 80 years ago – a one-term Prime Minister.