Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Nationals Whip in the Senate) (17:38): Just before I make my speech on this motion, I would like to address some issues from the earlier debate on the motion to take note of answers where I reflected poorly on Senator Kim Carr; I seek to withdraw those remarks. I will move on now to debate the motion before us: That the Senate condemns the Coalition for its failure to honour its pre election commitments to the Australian people. That is quite a brash motion to bring before the Senate when the current government is less than 100 days old. No, we did not rush to a 2020 Summit; we did not invite every celebrity across the land to Parliament House with some butchers paper and some whiteboard markers and seek to map out a legislative agenda. No, you are right; we did not do that. We took a very different approach. We took the adult approach. Our ministers had been working for a long time whilst in opposition to come up with comprehensive plans of how to deal with the travesty that the former government left us with, and those plans are being rolled out in a very clear, methodical way and we are making a great start. So I think this is great hypocrisy from the former government, the now opposition. I think the Australian people have noticed a stark contrast between the behaviour of the past three governments—the Prime Minister Rudd government, the Prime Minister Gillard government, and the Prime Minister Rudd mark-2 government—and that of the Abbott government. Our national priorities have also been making excellent progress, and I will run through some of those. As I said, the job of cleaning up Labor's mess is not easy, and will take a long time, but we have made an extremely strong start. What I found most challenging, as I sat and listened to the debate across the chamber over the last few days, is the complete denial and rejection by the now opposition of the effect their hand and their policies and their decisions taken over six years and their approach to a variety of portfolio areas has had on the current state of things. So I think this motion is a bit rich. They might have left it a little longer, but no, they jumped the gun—so eager they are that, less than 100 days in, they think they are going to somehow put their mess at our feet, while we are actually just heads down, working at cleaning it up. We promised legislation to scrap the carbon tax. I just love it! It has been on the Red for a long time, this legislation to scrap the carbon tax. If you, Senator Farrell or Senator Stephens, were to go out and do a straw poll right across Australia—you could even go to Wycheproof in Victoria; you could go to Cairns, to Burnie, to Kangaroo Island— Senator Farrell: They'd say, 'We want Labor back!' That's what they'd say: 'After three months, we have had enough! Let's get rid of them!' I know Kangaroo Island. Senator McKENZIE: You could ask them, Senator Farrell, though you might want to wait until I ask the question before you attempt to answer it, because the question I would be straw-polling is: 'Do you know what Tony Abbott's government's No. 1 election promise was, prior to election day?' And I can tell you, Senator Farrell, you will get them in droves. To a man, woman and child they will all be able to quote back what Tony Abbott had promised to do, and it was to repeal the carbon tax. We were mocked about how often we said it. And now you stand in the way of what the Australian people voted for, and what has been on our legislative agenda here in the Senate. So for you to be moving a motion here that condemns us for not meeting our election promises while you stand in the way of us actually being able to vote on the No. 1 election promise, despite having the opportunity from day one to do so is, I think, the height of hypocrisy. You have to accept the will of the Australian people. They were very, very clear. We promised legislation to scrap Labor's disastrous mining tax—a tax without revenue that has hit at confidence in this vital sector. It is time for the mining tax to go. It is also on the Red. We can vote on it anytime you like. You can assist us. You do not have to condemn us. You can actually assist us to fulfil our election promises. And we look forward to you assisting us to fulfil our election promises rather than trying to condemn us. We are systematically going about the task of implementing our promises and doing what Australians asked us to do at the ballot box. We are dealing with the debt cap, the budget, Labor's NBN, schools funding and Labor taxes. And you need to get on board and assist us to do the job, not condemn us and stall the program. Other achievements so far include Operation Sovereign Borders. We have said our policy would mean lower taxes and lower costs, and almost 100 announced but unlegislated tax changes are being dealt with. You actually could not get your legislative program together. Does anybody seriously remember the last day of sitting in the last parliament before we headed off to summer break? Remember, Senator Farrell? You are looking blankly at me. Let me remind you— Senator Ronaldson interjecting— Senator McKENZIE: No, Senator Ronaldson; don't go there! Senator Ronaldson: It's there, on the floor. Senator McKENZIE: It is, and it can remain there. We were here till all hours of the evening with less than 15 minutes to debate the varied legislation—the childcare legislation et cetera. I could go on and on and on about the number of bills that were guillotined through here. It is absolute hypocrisy for them to stand up day after day, saying that they need to have their say on these bills, when at the very same time last year we were here until way past midnight while Labor and the Greens guillotined bill after bill. It is absolute hypocrisy. We are improving the ability of people in Indigenous communities to take control of their own economic destiny, and we have kick-started talks at APAC. One of the election promises the Prime Minister made prior to the election was that the first country he would visit on becoming Prime Minister would be Indonesia, and it was. The Commission of Audit is underway to deal with the debt and to actually kick-start our economy and start getting rid of the layers of regulation and burden that you have wrapped up our most productive sectors in in that short six years—the most significant examination of the cost of government in more than a decade. We are delivering on the one-stop shop with the states for environmental bilateral approval and assessment processes. That is going to be a much-welcomed change, and an election promise that I am looking forward to delivering on. I am sure that discussions on Friday will assist that. It was one of Labor's own legislative programs until the hasty-hasty deal with Windsor and the Greens, and you backed away from it. But do not worry: we will get the job done. Work is underway with state governments to fast-track the new major road links and upgrades as we promised at the election. We have established, as we promised, the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council and the Indigenous Advisory Council. Compensation will be available to victims of terrorism overseas, as we said it would be. And last week we concluded negotiations for a free trade agreement with South Korea, as we said we would do. We said that we would fast-track those negotiations to ensure that our producers can get our fabulous produce, financial services and the like into countries of strategic importance. Regional Australia is going to be the big winner out of the Korean free trade agreement—$700 million to beef, $500 million to sugar and a significant increase for our dairy industry, which is going gang busters every single day. We are dealing with Labor's debt legacy, and that is going to take a little longer, Senator Farrell, than the little under 100 days you are wanting us to get it all fixed by. It will be a little longer because it is such a mess. Senator Farrell: You've created the mess! Senator McKENZIE: You were left with a surplus and here we are: net debt spiralling out of control and hurtling towards $400 billion. It is going to take us a little longer than 100 days, Senator Farrell, to deal with that election promise, but we are committed to the task. Just this week the government has taken another step towards cutting red tape for universities, yet another election commitment that we are honouring. The reporting requirements for Australian universities will be reduced and simplified in a new push to cut red tape for the sector. The minister has just made announcements to adopt all 27 recommendations out of the 2012 PhilipsKPA review into reporting requirements for universities. This is great news for our education sector. We want universities spending more time delivering the best higher education possible—researching and teaching in areas that are going to build our nation—rather than trying to do the work with one hand tied behind their backs: academics filling out forms, counting and shifting bits of paper around to their pro-vice-chancellors rather than getting on with the good work of what a university should be doing in the community. The Senate should do the right thing this week and scrap Labor's bad taxes and give our economy the clean start it needs for 2014. Here is your chance: a Christmas wish for all! If we had asked Australians what they would have liked for Christmas on election day—another little straw poll—I think the result would have been quite clear, and that would have been to get rid of the carbon tax. You can still deliver. Now is the time for Labor to accept that there was an election, the people spoke and they said, 'Get rid of the carbon tax.' You could do it now— actually you probably cannot do it now, but you had the chance. You had the chance to alter the sitting arrangements. You had the chance to bring the Senate back tomorrow or bring it back next week. Let every single Labor Party senator and Greens senator have their say on these important bills. Senator Farrell: You waited three months to bring the parliament back! Senator McKENZIE: Let them have their say, Senator Farrell, and let us get to the pointy end and actually put the bill before the Senate and vote for it, as was the mandate given to the Abbott government at the election. There is more to do, but we are keeping faith with the Australian people after they were so badly let down after six years of Labor. Before the election, Labor said they would scrap the carbon tax. Just this week, Mark Butler said they would scrap the carbon tax. Now is the time for Labor to determine whether or not they will break their own election promise. How hypocritical of the now opposition to accuse us of not honouring the election promises, when every person in the country would have known, as I said earlier, what our No. 1 promise was. Labor gave us six years of chaos and poor governance, and we need to remember what that Labor legacy is. We are meeting our promises. We are actually delivering on Labor's promises, which I find quite curious. There is one Labor Party election promise that we are not going to commit to, because, in a very cynical way, the then Minister for Regional Development, Local Communities and Territories, Catherine King, went around in the lead-up to the election, misleading community after community, and community group after community group. Round 5 funding agreements in the Regional Development Australia Fund will not be funded. They were election promises by the Labor government during a very bitter election campaign. She put that out into communities that are now seeking us to fulfil Labor's promises, but that is not our job. Our job is to do what we were elected to do, which is to get rid of the debt and to repeal the carbon tax and the mining tax. I am quite chuffed, though, that some rounds of RDAF have been funded by the government in terms of building sustainable regional communities. These rounds 2, 3 and 4 of RDAF grants were not dealt with by the previous government, even though they were Labor election promises. In Indi, for instance, in my and Senator Ronaldson's home state, the government is funding $150,000 for a feasibility study of the Bright Hospital redevelopment. I know that is something the local member, Bill Sykes, has championed. The Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Jamie Briggs, made the announcement two days ago. The government is funding $405, 000 towards the construction of the Bonegilla boardwalk and bike track. The Abbott-Truss government will also deliver $50,000 towards CCTV cameras in the Alpine shire, $5 million towards the catheterisation lab in Albury-Wodonga and $1.4 million in local roads funding, as well as funding for a Green Army project for Lake Hume, the Murray River and the Kiewa River. This is delivering on election promises. This is about the Liberal-National government making sure that regional communities are not left behind, as they were by the former government, despite promises from the former minister—empty promises, as it turned out, because the money was not there, is not there. We will deliver on these promises, and that announcement was made by the minister. Each of these projects will provide critical investment in regional communities so that they can continue to develop and prosper. They are projects that were developed with the assistance of coalition members, Liberal members, and the ministers in charge, who are very supportive of these projects. The Bonegilla boardwalk project, for instance, will contribute to closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage through skills development and employment on enhancing the tourism infrastructure of the Kiewa River flood plain. One election promise that I am really looking forward to delivering is the establishment of the National Stronger Regions Fund. From 2015, regional communities will be able to apply to that fund for social and economic infrastructure that will contribute to their economic development. It is a $1 billion fund over four years starting in 2015. So we are actually doing what we said we would do. We are keeping faith with the Australian people. It is the height of hypocrisy for those opposite to come in here and, after less than 100 days, ask why we have not repealed the carbon tax. Why haven't we? Well, it got through the lower house okay, but here we are, standing in the Senate on the last day of sitting, and it has been on the red every single day. When it was first listed we had the debate to separate the bills, so we could maybe multiply each of the 11 bills before us by the number of Greens and Labor senators. If you do the calculations—and I haven't brought my calculator in with me and my arithmetic is a little rusty—I think it might take us until April before we can actually get to a vote when we have run out of speakers from the opposition. The debate throughout the past two weeks has been quite repetitive—we could have tabled the talking points and gotten on with it. I do believe it is important for the Senate to ensure that senators are able to air the concerns of their communities and constituents, to bring those concerns to the Senate and ensure that issues are properly debated. I would also ask, after the amount of time and the range of issues that have been canvassed in this debate, why we are still unable to put that package of bills to the vote, why the Labor Party refuses to accept that the Australian people want this legislation repealed. I had SPC, a food manufacturer in my home state of Victoria, come up to Canberra today to talk to coalition members and senators about the challenges that face food manufacturing in Australia, particularly in regional areas. The challenges are significant, and not dissimilar to the challenges faced by Holden and by General Motors, spoken about by their head, Mr Akerson. It is about a high dollar and high input costs. When the Leader of the Opposition was on ABC News 24 this morning and was asked by Virginia Trioli about what made up those high input costs, particularly for automotive manufacturers here in Australia, he was unable to give an answer that gave any comfort that he understood the very real concerns of the manufacturing industry in Australia. That is a huge concern. It is huge concern for AMWU members in Shepparton. It is a huge concern for workers more generally right across manufacturing. It is similarly of concern to the small and medium enterprises, many located in regional communities, who support the larger automotive industry and the larger food-processing industry and may employ upwards of five to 10 people. How are they going to sustain their business? The disconnection that the Labor Party and the Greens have from the reality of the everyday life of Australians was demonstrated by Australians throwing them out of government. Now they need to recognise that and to get on with the business of delivering on the people's will. The task before us is daunting. I do not think any of us could have predicted just how much mess Labor has left us with. They have wreaked havoc on the Australian budget, and not just for the coming term, the coming parliament, but for decades ahead. We are going to work very hard to deal with that issue. We are up to the task. We have been given a job by the Australian people, we have started that job and we will not stop until it is completed. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I call Senator Faulkner. Senator Faulkner, you have about a minute and a half.