The Nationals Senator for Victoria Bridget McKenzie has this week attacked the Gillard Government’s pattern of broken promises, raised expectations and unfunded commitments in a speech in the Senate.
“When the government makes commitments to the people of regional Victoria, they have every right to expect these assurances will be kept,” Senator McKenzie said.
“Before the last federal election, the Prime Minister said there would be no carbon tax under a government I lead.
“Today is the two-year anniversary of that statement and now we have the imposition of the world’s biggest carbon tax.
“The Gillard government’s rhetoric that suppliers can pass on the rising costs of the carbon tax is not the reality for small business owners or primary producers right across regional Victoria.
“Farmers now face higher input costs, while their margins grow increasingly slimmer.”
Senator McKenzie said the Coalition’s first order of business, if elected, would be to repeal the carbon tax.
The Coalition would also deliver the NDIS in line with the Productivity Commission’s timetable, so as not to further disadvantage those who are most vulnerable.
“The Prime Minister has failed to indicate how a full NDIS would be funded and is $2.9 billion short,” Senator McKenzie said.
“Julia Gillard is giving people with a disability false hope, and has failed to indicate what will happen when the trial period finishes.
“Regional Victorians have also been overlooked for mental health facilities, with the federal government placing three headspace centres in Melbourne in the latest announcement.
“Swan Hill, with a population of 10,000 people and a teenage self-harm rate seven times the state average, was overlooked, as were Mildura and Albury-Wodonga.
“The Labor government has repeatedly broken its social contract with the people of Australia, and can no longer continue to support Julia Gillard when they cannot trust anything she says.”