Speech to NSW Nationals State Conference
2nd July, 2010
Ladies and gentlemen,As I was preparing this speech, a certain fellow called Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister of Australia.
Remember him? We woke up one morning and suddenly Kevin 07 is not to become Kevin 0 Lemon but has been consigned to the history pages.
So, it seemed as if I would have to simply rip up this speech and start afresh.
But really, all I needed to do was substitute the name Julia Gillard for Kevin Rudd. There is nothing she has said or done that is substantially different from what we saw during the Rudd era. The same old big spending, big taxing approach to the economy, the same old broken promises and spin, the same old breaches of trust.
Although she seems keen to suggest otherwise, Julia Gillard was there when the decisions were made for the disastrous FuelWatch and GroceryWatch schemes. Julia Gillard was there for the bungled employee share schemes. Julia Gillard was there for budget after budget that never delivered a surplus. Julia Gillard was there for the wild and reckless spending. Julia Gillard was there for the development of the discredited emissions trading scheme and the mining profits super tax. She was there for the reckless spending on pink batts. She was responsible as Minister for Training to train the installers now held responsible for 175 house fires and 4 deaths. She was the Minister who wasted more money than any other over the school halls rorts. She promised a computer on every desk but delivered only one to every third desk in spite of a $1.7 billion cost over run. Julia Gillard was there for all of it.
Julia Gillard is just as culpable as Kevin Rudd. She was in the kitchen cabinet and the 'gang of four' that made all of the key decisions.
Now, the method of Kevin Rudd's execution is very familiar to you here in New South Wales. The same Labor union bosses, warlords and thugs that installed your premier have moved to Canberra, taking their Mafia-style tactics with them. The polls shift, people panic and no matter what you've done, you're toast.
As Arthur Sinodinis, a former chief of staff to John Howard, said last week: "Labor powerbrokers saw the polls and blinked ... imagine this lot running Britain in 1940, when Adolf Hitler looked unstoppable."
A Prime Minister with a mandate from the people is out of office - on order from the party power brokers. The obscenity of union boss, Paul Howe, on Late Line gloating about removing the Prime Minister on Wednesday evening before the vote had even been taken will live in our memories.
It's like an episode of Masterchef, where someone is voted out every week. Mess up a dish and the factional and union heavyweights, whose names are barely known to the voting public, move in like the gangsters they are for a quick execution.
Now I'm not in the habit of quoting Labor MP Julia Irwin, but she did get this right: "Not since Brutus stabbed Julius Caesar have we seen such an act of betrayal ... federal Labor, unfortunately, could be on the same path as NSW Labor".
In NSW, these are the names behind this coup: Arbib. Bitar. Dastyari. Who are these people? Who gave them the right to wield such power? Why does it sound like the cast list of Underbelly?
It is a gallery most rogues would run a mile from.
And there's the rub. Fifteen years of this sort of immoral behaviour and naked pursuit of power has left the once great state of NSW teetering. It is ethically and politically bankrupt, and not that far from being financially bankrupt either. After 15 years of a leadership merry-go-round, the good people of this state are confused and cynical.
In 2007, Labor inherited a $20 billion budget surplus and $60 billion in the Future's Fund. By 2010, they have delivered a $41 billion budget deficit. Every day, they are borrowing $100 million just to pay for the excess of their expenditure over income. Just while I have been speaking, they have borrowed another quarter of a million dollars to pay their bills. Labor is in trouble because of their record - not just because of Kevin Rudd.
Labor is addicted to spending - that's why they needed a great big super tax on mining. Now it has a new name and has become even more complicated and tricky, there are concessions to everyone but unbelievably we are told that it will still raise $10.5 billion instead of the $12 billion originally budgeted.
The facts are that it is still a bad tax. It will still cost jobs and it has still trashed Australia's international reputation.
Kevin Rudd was criticized for a lack of consultation in developing the tax. It was originally designed on the back of an envelope by the 'gang of four'. Now the solution the Australian public is supposed to accept is one that has been designed by just two Ministers and three miners. Twenty-eight Ministers and two and a half thousand miners are simply out of the loop. The kitchen cabinet, 'the gang of four' has become a 'gang of three'.
Labor changed the Prime Minister to change the tax. But we will have to change the government to dump the tax. If you want to stop the mining tax, you will have to change the government. If you want to stop the CPRS, you will have to change the government. If you want to stop the reckless spending, you will have to change the government. If you want to stop the boats, you will have to change the government. If you want to stop the rorts, you will have to change the government.
It's time we ended this charade. It's time there was a new sheriff in town - in Sydney and in Canberra.
That time is fast approaching in your state. I was incredibly encouraged to see Andrew Stoner's recent Budget reply, outlining The Nationals strong and clear vision for your state. He has some great policies for returning a fair share to the regions and I strongly support Andrew and his team. They will do you proud.
I especially like Andrew's phrase: "Enough about Labor". Because that is really what it is about - Labor is still in power but it's time is past. What matters is the future.
The Nationals looked to the future in Tamworth with your community pre-selection. You've chosen Kevin Anderson and he will be a great candidate for The Nationals in Tamworth.
And speaking of excellent candidates, we have Tim Coates running for us federally in New England. I've had the pleasure of spending the day with Tim yesterday and you could not wish for a more hard working, more serious candidate than Tim. He is just the sort of person New England needs.
At our Federal Conference the weekend before last, we also focused on the positive rather than the negative.
On behalf of the Coalition, I announced a $1 billion Regional Education Fund. We take the view that no matter where you live, you or your children should be able to access the best possible education.
This is not a new subject for us. The Nationals led the charge against Julia Gillard's changes to the Independent Youth Allowance, which created an enormous backlash from country areas and genuine hardship for students wanting to support themselves while studying.
We know that Australia's geography and demography pose heavy challenges for regional families, especially as they move beyond the rich educational experience offered by country schools to secondary or tertiary education in the larger cities.
Students from regional areas are less likely to finish Year 12 than their metropolitan counterparts. They are significantly under-represented in tertiary education, and so much less likely to achieve a qualification that will build the skills base of our country communities. It's time to do something about this.
The $1 billion Fund is above and beyond existing money provided for regional education and will be used to bridge the education gap and to address the issues which lead to education under-achievement in the regions.
This Fund will be used to invest in 21st century education and communication tools to improve learning opportunities, and programs like encouraging quality teachers to move to - and stay in - regional and remote schools. It will support capital investment in regional universities, and material support for students who need to move to obtain their higher education.
The Coalition believes that school principals should be able to lead, and we will encourage creativity, problem solving and teamwork while retaining a core emphasis on numeracy and literacy. We will provide students with the skill sets that employers need.
The Coalition will appoint a Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education, with a dedicated regional education unit in the Department.
The Coalition also plans to appoint a Minister Responsible for Regional Health, again with a dedicated regional health unit.
We will be saying much more about health in the next few weeks, but I note with some pride that Tony Abbott announced the Coalition's $1.5 billion Real Action Plan for Better Mental Health on Wednesday.
In 2006, the Coalition made the biggest ever investment in mental health and now we want to expand on frontline services to cut the burden of mental health disorders within Australia.
Unlike Labor, we are acting on this serious issue, not just talking about it.
Also this week the Coalition announced it would introduce new indexation arrangements for ex-service personnel who are members of the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme. If elected, from July next year we will ensure the pensions are indexed to the highest of three indexes, not just CPI which can often be the lowest. This is the fair and right thing to do for our veterans and their widows or widowers.
These announcements are not simply plucked out of mid air. In Opposition we have listened to the concerns of Australians, and acted. In The Nationals case, at Federal Conference we released the Party Organisation's visionary Policy Platform that we will take to the election and beyond.
Many of the policy goals will take some years to achieve. Labor has already run up a mammoth debt and our first task must be to restore the Budget to surplus and start to pay back the Rudd debt. But there are some things we can do now.
One policy is a new $600 million Bridges Renewal Program. This is an excellent bookend to the strongly supported Roads to Recovery program (which of course was a Nationals' initiative and one we have pledged to continue).
You all know of the growing infrastructure problem posed by the decay of the more than 30,000 small road bridges, usually on secondary freight routes and mainly in regional Australia. Apart from the movement of freight, they are key economic assets in connecting local communities to the broader road network and getting people to work and school.
We want to start fixing these bridges. A new Coalition federal government will provide $300 million over four years, to be matched by the states or local government on a dollar for dollar and case by case basis. The money will be distributed on a competitive application basis giving priority to community needs and economic return.
We respect the regions and the economic contribution the make to the wealth of our nation. We will deliver a fair share back to the regions from where it comes from.
We will keep and rejuvenate Labor's Better Regions program, and it will be given an injection of funds which Labor promised but never delivered. It will be directed at doing what it says, which is creating better regions. Unlike Labor's version, people and communities not just Labor politicians and candidates will be able to apply for funds.
Our commitment to a fair share for regional Australia does not end with these new initiatives. We will have much more to say between now and the election.
The Nationals in Coalition have a plan and a vision for regional Australia. I've mentioned some television programs before in this address - now it's time New South Wales and Australia were given an Extreme Makeover.
Don't wait till it's too late - vote National and get us moving again.
