Blog - Julia Gillard should have resigned, not Harry Jenkins

The last days of a Parliamentary sitting often produce surprising events.  In 2010 at the end of the winter sitting, Julia Gillard dispatched Kevin Rudd from the prime ministership.  This week, on the last day of parliamentary sitting for 2011, her speaker Harry Jenkins was also dispatched so that the Government could shore up its numbers.

Harry Jenkins was sent to the Governor-General to resign but it should have been Julia Gillard driving to Government House. The last time a speaker resigned so suddenly was in the last days of the Whitlam Government.

This Parliamentary week summed up all that is wrong with the Gillard-Brown Government. A speaker junked, another bad tax, a budget in crisis and three boats which arrived in just three days.

In a replica of the carbon tax, Julia Gillard has done another secret deal with the Greens to pass her mining tax. And just like the carbon tax it will leave a big budget black hole. The $11.5 billion tax should provide a revenue windfall. Instead, this Government will not only spend the lot but all the associated promises and royalty rebates will cost the budget $6 billion more than is actually raised by the tax.

Only the Labor Party could introduce two great big new taxes which actually send the budget $10 billion dollars further into the red. That’s why they must undertake a crisis mini-budget to have any hope of getting close to achieving their much promised return to surplus.

There was another stark warning this week that the Government’s toxic carbon tax will dramatically increase your cost of living but do nothing to reduce emissions. A report by UBS on Europe’s trouble-plagued Emissions Trading Scheme found $284 billion dollars had been wasted on carbon credits and had zero impact on Europe’s emissions. If the $284 billion had instead been used on direct action to clean up Europe’s dirtiest power plants, emissions could have dropped by 43 per cent!

In just three days this week, more people have arrived on boats than in the last six years of the Howard Government.  Labor has lost control of our borders. The Coalition has proven answers to Labor’s border protection mess: offshore processing where human rights are protected, temporary protection visas and turning boats around where safe to do so, and the Prime Minister is welcome to take up our amendment to the Migration Act so effective offshore processing can be reinstated in Nauru.

All this in a week when the Government notched up four years in office. It was an anniversary Labor was too ashamed to celebrate: four years of broken promises, wasteful spending, economic mismanagement, incompetence and secret deals.

The secret deals of this week are bad for democracy but are typical of a government in crisis with a Prime Minster who is far more interested in her own survival than the forgotten families that she’s supposed to serve.

Australia deserves a government that’s better than this. This week’s events are a reminder why Australia needs a government that works for the people, not its own self-interest. We need a government that can restore hope, reward and opportunity for all Australians.

25 November 2011