Mr HOCKEY (North Sydney) (15:41): I thank my colleagues for their support. Thank you for being here and staying and being attentive throughout the course of my matter of public importance. A little earlier this week, the Leader of the Opposition was asked what it would mean should the Labor Party swap leaders from Julia Gillard to Kevin Rudd. He reflected that it would be like swapping from Burke to Wills, both of whom failed on their journey. As we approach the 150th anniversary of the death of both Burke and Wills, who were declared to be dead on the same day, for historical purposes, by the Victorian government 149 years ago, never let it be said that we are not the party mindful of history. We are. We are mindful of the fact that Burke and Wills failed on their journey, but indeed they were captivated by a heroic ambition, and that was to cross the continent. Sadly, the modern-day Burke and Wills, the Prime Minister and the former Prime Minister, possess neither the ambition nor the courage to be able to deliver something so grandiose as a good government. Australians deserve a good government. They deserve a competent and consistent government. The Australian economy, which is enjoying the very best terms of trade in 150 years, deserves strong leadership. And yet over the last four years the Burke and Wills of modern-day Australian politics have completely misled the Australian people. They have on so many occasions said one thing but delivered the absolute opposite. They have made grandiose claims but have never been able to back them up with reality. I have compiled a list. It is just a short list, covering 100 separate issues! As I have less than 13 minutes, I will select but a few to remind my colleagues of the inconsistency of the modern-day Labor Party over the last four years. For example, we recall that in 2007 the Labor Party promised to cut the bill for consultants substantially as part of their budget savings. And yet over the following two years they spent over $1 billion on consultants. They said they would build a broadband network for $4.7 billion. They have had a $30 billion blow-out. They said they would simplify the GST paperwork for small business. The shadow minister would appreciate that. They promised BAS easy in 2007, and then they scrapped it in 2009. What about the trade training centres, my colleague the shadow minister for education? They promised 2,650 trade training centres. But they have delivered one. And how could we forget Peter Garrett, the former minister for the environment? He promised to take Japan to the International Court of Justice to stop whaling. Of course, that never eventuated either. With Fuelwatch— Opposition members interjecting— Mr HOCKEY: I am glad my colleague here is so obsessed with Fuelwatch—rather uncomfortably obsessed with Fuelwatch for a while. Fuelwatch was promised because according to former Prime Minister Rudd it would bring down petrol prices. Alas, not only did Fuelwatch fail but the petrol commissioner quit after just four months—another failure. The government then said they would take over public hospitals in mid-2009. They failed to do that. They said they would deliver 36 GP superclinics and they have only delivered 11. They promised one regulation in, one regulation out. I understand the total number of new regulations since Labor was elected exceeds 10,000. How many have been abolished? Mr Billson: A handful. There are 220 for each one. Mr HOCKEY: Two hundred and twenty new regulations for every one that they have abolished. Remember they said they would establish a department of homeland security? It was never delivered. They said they would have an independent election debate commission. That was never delivered. What a grandiose claim computers in schools were. There has been a $1.2 billion blowout and they have not delivered a computer on every desk. With childcare centres the former Prime Minister promised to end the double drop-off. They promised 260 childcare centres. They delivered just 38 and then they had the Minister for Sport announce they were not going to continue with the program. With private health insurance, the former Prime Minister gave an ironclad guarantee to the Australian people he would not touch private health insurance. Then he had a backflip and wanted to introduce a means test. Of course, speaking of means tests, the Labor Party said they would not touch the baby bonus, but of course they touched the baby bonus. They had their little socialist mitts all over the baby bonus and that was the end of it. The minister at the table, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, knows this one because she has contributed to it: the Commonwealth public bureaucracy. The Labor Party promised they would cut the red tape and cut the bureaucrats. Since they were elected 20,000 extra public servants have been employed in Canberra. But there is more. There is a set of steak knives coming down the path. The government said it would not touch employee share schemes and then it had an on-again, off-again attack on employee share schemes. I forgot about this next one. The government promised green incentives, including a $50 green rewards card. I completely forgot about that but so did Labor. It was never delivered. Then there was GROCERY choice. You remember old Swanee used to have a list of a basket of goods from the local Franklins that he would take out each week. He would say how hard Australians were doing it. He said, 'We're going to bring down those grocery prices because we're going to watch them.' GROCERY choice, promised in 2007, was abandoned in 2009. They promised there would be no cap on the bank deposit guarantee 12 days before they introduced one. Then they said they would impose no new taxes. This is perhaps the most breathtaking of their broken promises. They promised no new taxes and now, after four years, Labor have introduced or increased 19 taxes. The most substantial backflips have been on the things that matter most to the Australian people, and that is where it hits their hip pocket. The government said that they needed for moral purposes to have an emissions trading scheme. It was the greatest moral challenge of our time. Then they broke that commitment. Even worse, the leaders behind that broken commitment were the now Prime Minister and the now Deputy Prime Minister. So I can understand the grim face of the member for Griffith when he walks into this chamber each day and has to suffer the fact that it is the now Prime Minister who sits near the dispatch box, because she was the lady who advised him to dump the emissions trading scheme. It was the then Deputy Prime Minister who advised him to dump the emissions trading scheme. So he is wondering: how does that work? Not only does the policy come back, but these guys get promoted after they misled me. This indicates that there is a continuum in relation to this mob, which is that they need to impose a tax where they see a problem. When they see the problem of alcohol consumption by young people, in comes an alcopops tax. When they see that the Australian car industry is doing it tough, they increase the tax on luxury cars. When they see that the health system is suffering because there is not enough money going into it, they try to impose additional costs on private health insurance. When the government see that the mining industry is driving business investment—it has gone from 15 per cent of every dollar invested in Australia 10 years ago to nearly 60c in every dollar now—what do the government do? They whack a tax on it. Of course, when it comes to carbon emissions, the government's great big solution to that is to whack another tax on it. But of all the new taxes, of all the insidious acts of this government, I truly believe that the one that most riled the Australian people was when the Prime Minister asked the Australian people to give generously for the flood victims in Queensland. After they donate money, organise community fundraisers, have telethons—after Australians go out of their way to give whatever discretionary sums they have available to help their mates in Queensland—what does the government do? It whacks a tax on it. No wonder the Australian people are so cynical, because this means that now the Australian people do not trust their Prime Minister and their Treasurer. It was Kevin Rudd at a press conference on 29 February 2008 who said: Trust is the key currency of politics … Little did he know that he would become a devalued currency. He would become the peso of the Pacific as soon as trust became the key currency of politics. But it goes further, because in down time at night, when I am suffering a little bit of insomnia, what do I turn to? I turn to the words of the current Prime Minister. I dug out these words from the current Prime Minister on 10 May 2005: … the Labor Party is the party of truth telling. I believe the words still stand. Come on, Bill, rush to her defence! The government is so inept that, when the Prime Minister took the job in the night of the long knives, with barely a year to go, she said: I asked my colleagues to make a leadership change, a change because I believed that a good government was losing its way. The good government that was losing its way is now a bad government that is still losing its way. The bad government that is still losing its way is having an impact on the confidence of the Australian people. The bad government which has lost its way is now causing so much concern to Australian consumers that, according to latest Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index, confidence fell to the lowest level in two years last month. So we have unemployment falling, we have economic growth improving, we have the best terms of trade in 140 years, and everyday Australians have less confidence than they did two years ago in the wake of the financial crisis. Do you know what, Mr Deputy Speaker? It is reflected in the fact that Australians are cocooning themselves, wrapping themselves in a security blanket, afraid of the instability coming out of Canberra. Household savings have increased to 11½ per cent of disposable income, a level not seen since the global financial crisis back in 2007-08. Australians are wrapping themselves up. Their discretionary spend is down remarkably, and why? Because of the incompetence of this government, because of the inconsistency of this government, because of the fact that this government cannot hold a policy from midnight to dawn. It cannot even hold a prime minister from midnight to dawn, let alone hold a policy from midnight to dawn. This is a government that has no trust. It does not trust itself, so how can it expect the Australian people to trust it? How can it expect the Australian people to believe what it says? Mr Shorten interjecting— Mr HOCKEY: And here we have the chief spear chucker. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Hon. Peter Slipper ): Honourable members will direct their remarks through the chair, and that includes the Assistant Treasurer. Mr HOCKEY: Here we have the man sharpening his knives. There is one person who pays a visit to Shortie's house every week, and that is the knife sharpener. He comes around for 20 bucks a knife, and he sharpens them up for old Billy, because Billy and his mate Paul Howes are just waiting for the moment. They are waiting for the moment, just as they did with Prime Minister Rudd. When he was not looking, along came the knives. So too it comes again. Once an animal has blood on his teeth, he will have the blood again. It is easy to kill twice; it is hard to kill once. But the Assistant Treasurer has done it, and the Australian people know it. Mr Shorten interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Assistant Treasurer will have his go shortly. Honourable members interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for North Sydney will be heard in silence. Mr HOCKEY: When it comes to competence, when it comes to consistency, when it comes to truth, when it comes to honesty, when it comes to personal integrity, the Australian people have identified the Labor Party as missing all of that. They have identified that the Labor Party is without leadership. It is not consistent. It is not honest. It is not genuine. In some parts of Australia, they refer to it as bovine defecation. In other parts of Australia they call it bullshit. It is the fact that this mob do not tell the truth, and if they do not tell the truth they cannot expect the Australian people to believe in them. If they do not trust each other, how can the Australian people trust them? If they do not have a consistent plan for the nation, how can they expect the Australian people to trust them? (Time expired)