DR ANNE ALY MP

MEMBER FOR COWAN

COALITION GOVERNMENT FAILURE

MATTER OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

THURSDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 2020

*AS DELIVERED*

About a decade ago I was finally able to afford the means to travel. So, for the first time, I travelled to an academic conference in France. I didn't have a lot of money, so I went online and looked through some hotels that I thought I could afford, and I found this hotel on the outskirts of Paris called Le Jardin—the Hotel Le Jardin, just outside of Paris. I thought, 'This looks all right; I'll book this place.' Well, 'le jardin' in this particular hotel turned out to be a dusty collection of fake plastic flowers, hidden away in the hotel's foyer. It occurs to me that this government is the political version of Le Jardin.

Whether it's the NDIS or the NBN, whether it's education or health or aged care, this government continues to fail everyday Australians.

Today we see reports in the newspapers that access to the NDIS is dependent on postcode, with children in lower socioeconomic suburbs waiting for two years for the help they so desperately need. You've got to wonder: what kind of government presides over a system that discriminates against children in disadvantaged areas?

What kind of government presides over waiting times for home care packages that are so long that people are dying as they wait? What kind of leader turns his back on a country as it burns? What kind of government puts out a political advertisement asking for donations in the middle of a bushfire crisis? What kind of government doles out taxpayer money—'a hundred dollar bill, y'all'!—to pork-barrel their own electorate, for their own electorate's advantage? It's not your money; it's taxpayer money.

 It's money that is paid by the hardworking mums and dads and the volunteers who applied for those sports grants in good faith, believing they would be assessed on the basis of merit, not a colour coded spreadsheet. What kind of government? A government that is so focused on itself that it has forgotten how to govern, a government that is so plagued by chaos and division that it is failing to look after Australians, with no plan for jobs, no plan for wages growth, no plan for climate change, no plan for energy—no plan, just spin.

It is a government that continues to defend its sports rorts, even in the face of a scathing report by the Auditor-General, that tells Australians that it's undertaken its own internal review and then refuses to release that review, citing precedence and consistency. It's just a whole lot of spin.

I have noticed something. I have noticed that the government used to use to word 'stable' a lot during question time in their Dorothy Dixers.

Have you all noticed that? In every question they used to ask about stable government—but not any more, because even the theatrical calisthenics of the Member for Stirling can't save this government from their own hypocrisy when they talk about stability. Even Scotty from Marketing can't put enough positive spin on this government's track record to make it appear even remotely competent in looking after the needs of Australians.

ENDS

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