Condemnation of the Government

Mr ARMSTRONG (Lachlan - Leader of the National Party) [12.27 p.m.]: I move:

(1) That this House condemns the Government for misleading the people of New South Wales into believing that there exists a surge in development in New South Wales solely through the efforts of the Labor Government;

(2) That this House recognises the previous coalition Government efforts in facilitating development and investment in this State prior to 25 March 1995;

(3) That this House commends the coalition Government for its role in facilitating projects such as:

(a) Walsh Bay development;

(b) Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf development;

(c) Sydney Casino;

(d) AT and T;

(e) FOXTEL pay TV headquarters;

(f) American Express; and

(g) City West development;

which the current Government is wrongfully claiming as its initiatives.

Despite the fact that this motion has been on the business paper for some time, it is as relevant now as it was when it was first moved. Simply put, investment in New South Wales has been stalled since Labor won government in March 1995. The Carr Labor Government has scared off potential investors. But what would one expect from the enviro-nazis such as the Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Land and Water Conservation, who have taken to the statute books and ripped away any desire or reason to invest in New South Wales.

Ms Allan: On a point of order. It may be appropriate for the Leader of the National Party to use those types of expressions, but it is not appropriate for him to do so in this House. I take offence at his expression. Even if my point of order is not upheld, it should be noted that this is not the appropriate place for such expressions to be used about me or the Minister for Land and Water Conservation.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Mills): Order! The Chair did not hear the expression and the Minister has not specified what it was.

Ms Allan: Hansard will have recorded the term "enviro-nazis". It is an increasingly popular term amongst people who are critical of environmental issues. It is not an appropriate term to use when referring to people’s human dignity. I take offence at that comment.

Mr ARMSTRONG: On the point of order. I am pleased that the Minister explained that the expression she objected to was not "ripping away any desire or reason to invest in New South Wales". She has now identified that she objected to "enviro-nazis". That expression is in common usage in the broader community, it is understood by the community, and indeed it is a term that is recorded in Hansard. Therefore, the expression is in order and clearly meets the situation.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! Though I understand that the term may be considered offensive, I rule that it is not unparliamentary. I do not uphold the point of order.

Mr ARMSTRONG: The former Olympic chief, Mr Rod McGeoch, raised the alarm before the Standing Committee on State Development when he said that the Government should capitalise on the Olympics and encourage investment opportunities. He criticised the Premier and former Prime Minister Keating for not seizing opportunities to put the State and the country ahead. The Government needs to put New South Wales back on a sure footing, to create jobs for young people and to restore confidence in the State’s economy. How is business reacting to comments from the Premier that we need to "cap our population growth to help reduce the enormous impact" that people are having?

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for State Development is present in the Chamber. She and the Premier, the Minister for State and Regional Development, the Minister for Land and Water Conservation and the Minister for the Environment promote the State. But the Premier said, "No, we have to cap the population." That is a contradiction in terms. Cabinet needs to address the issue and decide who determines Government policy on these matters. The Premier has been hijacked by the doomsayers who would lock up the State and throw away the key.

We need to go back to basics; we need a Premier to lead, not to travel around the globe like a frustrated foreign affairs Minister. After 31 months, with numerous trips under his belt, the Premier is yet to understand the need to get back to the basics of good government and to clearly encourage investment. When the former coalition Government took office in 1988 it established the Department of State Development. Despite Labor’s best efforts at
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that time to derail that initiative, the coalition had outstanding success in bringing real investment opportunities to New South Wales. The list of companies and corporations which were brought to New South Wales under the former coalition Government reads like a who’s who of the current business world.

It is worth recording some investments that the former coalition Government drew to New South Wales: the Minehunter project at Newcastle; Tomago Aluminium smelter, worth $600 million; British Aerospace-Ansett Flying College at Tamworth, $6.5 million; ICI relocated its research and development facility to Cessnock from Melbourne; the Australian Newsprint Mills at Albury, $120 million; the Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh, a project valued at $300 million with 6,000 jobs created - and that has been hailed by the current Government. Major companies that have set up national headquarters in Sydney include Optus, BT Australia, Vodaphone, Cathay Pacific - with a total investment of $2.7 billion and 3,500 direct jobs for New South Wales.

This matter is important because, despite all the froth and bubble, Labor has achieved nothing. It has very few runs on the board. In the face of lower inflation and a booming property market, the Government has had to raise taxes to cover its economic mismanagement. The effects of those taxes are yet to come to haunt the Government. A short article in the Daily Telegraph showed that the September occupancy rates for four-star hotels dropped by more than 10 per cent last year while five-star hotels dropped by 0.5 per cent. Despite the need to resort to taxes such as the bed tax and poker machine tax, the Treasurer recently conceded that, far from the State budget moving to surplus, it is currently running at a deficit of over $350 million.

Put simply, the State is claiming to be actively encouraging investment but is putting a new tax on the industries which are championed by business and by governments nationally and internationally as having the biggest growth rate. One can go to any business conference or lunch and listen to a visiting lecturer from overseas. If one asked the lecturer, "What is the future of Australia?" he would reply, "Tourism." But the Government has imposed a direct tax to suppress and dampen tourism in this State. And, guess what? It’s working! The official figures show that New South Wales is losing out on tourism because of the bed tax. The Australian Labor Party conference rejected the desperate bid by the Premier and Treasurer to privatise the electricity assets. The economic situation will only get worse. The Government will be forced to continue to raise taxes which will force business to go to other States. The Treasury briefing paper states:

. . . if the State is to maintain its commitment to high priority expenditure in education, health and other areas adverse fluctuations can only be managed by cuts in other budget programs, borrowings or tax increases.

Those are not my words, that was the Treasury advice to the Government. That advice says that unless things change, there will need to be cuts in other budget programs, borrowings or tax increases. No wonder business is going elsewhere. It is worthwhile outlining some opportunities lost to other States: Foxtel customer services is moving to Melbourne, resulting in the loss of 1,000 jobs; Westpac has moved its $200 million loan centre to South Australia; Bankers Trust established a new regional operations site in Adelaide; Cathay Pacific national headquarters has been moved to Melbourne; Esso moved from Sydney to Melbourne; and Schweppes made Melbourne its regional headquarters.

Other international companies which are establishing regional headquarters in Melbourne include Air International; Campbells Soups; Chiquita Foods, which moved to Victoria from Auckland; L. M. Ericsson, which established its research and development facilities in Melbourne; Hella, VDO and Oracle. Some recent investors establishing in Melbourne include Hakubaku, a Japanese food- processing company, which announced an $18 million Udon noodle manufacturing plant in Ballarat; General Motors and Cerebos, which moved from Parkes to Victoria because the Victorian Government has successfully created a major food- processing centre in central Victoria at the expense of New South Wales.

Today talks were held to try to save the Edgell cannery at Cowra, in the central west. A group of local farmers wished to take over that cannery, but the productivity from that and another cannery that was subsequently built in the same town but which closed down will now benefit Victoria. Victoria has done New South Wales like a dinner. New South Wales is losing, because it is not only failing to attract new business but is losing existing business. I seek an extension of time.

Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Mills): Order! Standing Order 118 does not allow for extensions of time. However, the Leader of the National Party will have an opportunity to speak in reply for five minutes.

Mr ARMSTRONG: There is a desperate need to revitalise the Government’s activities. That is one
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reason that the Opposition supports the honourable member for Port Jackson becoming the next Minister for rural New South Wales; we want somebody who has some imagination and wants to get out and do things. We do not want another old hack like the honourable member for Clarence should he get the job. [Time expired.]

Ms NORI (Port Jackson) [12.37 p.m.]: It is a pity that the Leader of the National Party is the only member of the coalition to be in the Chamber during his contribution. I am glad that the Opposition acknowledges that the people of New South Wales think that the Labor Government has created a surge in development throughout the State. At least we agree about one thing, but I am amazed that the Leader of the National Party would move a motion like this. His party claims to represent the bush. However, all of the projects mentioned in this motion are in Sydney - in fact, they are all in my electorate. How kind of the Leader of the National Party to work so hard for my electorate, but what a pity about the bush.

It is no wonder that Government members come across so many people from the regions who are disillusioned with the National Party. The Leader of the National Party did not consider one project in the bush to be worthy of mention. Since I became Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business I have made dozens of visits to the regions, and they have not been social visits. The Government has hosted consular visits and trade delegations to promote regional development initiatives, launched new investments, and taken part in seminars, conferences and local business meetings to highlight the diversity of skills, products and opportunities in regional New South Wales. The State Government has been working to get people partnered and linked so that new business initiatives and investment can take off, or be retained, in the State.

I will admit that the Government’s task in the regions has not been easy because the Howard Government has cut, slashed and burnt the services and programs that were the lifeblood of the National Party’s supposed heartland. The Leader of the National Party should be attacking the Howard Government as hard as Government members have been. The Leader of the National Party would be doing that if he cared about the people of the bush and the people of this State, but he does not care. Under the Howard-Costello team Australia has taken an effective $300 million cut in regional development, and by next year the cut will be $450 million. Less than $1 for each person in New South Wales is left in the Federal Government regional budget. Those figures show where the interests of the Howard Government lie, and they are not with the people the National Party claims to represent.

I shall detail a few of the measures the Government has put in place to achieve a productive partnership with the people of New South Wales. The Government has set up a special unit in the Department of State and Regional Development to make sure that businesses throughout the State understand the economic opportunities of the 2000 Olympics. It is holding Olympics business opportunities seminars across the State to let businesses know the details of Olympics tendering. The Government is working with private enterprise, through the Olympics Business Roundtable, on a range of problems to help companies reap the benefits from the Games. That work includes bringing 200 business leaders from the world’s top companies to New South Wales, including the regions, so that they know about the diversity of exporting and export-ready firms in this State with which they can do business.

The Government is also showcasing Australian high-tech industry around the world in an intensive campaign in the lead-up to the Olympics, and beyond. It has established a web site so that visiting business people can make a "virtual" visit to the regions if they cannot go there in person. The result for regional companies is that so far regional New South Wales has won more than $70 million worth of Olympic-related projects - and that figure is growing all the time. As part of the Government’s regional partnership with business, it has placed 12 Agribusiness advisers throughout the State and is putting five experienced export advisers out there as well, to help regional businesses to sell their products overseas, diversify, grow and employ more people.

The Government is setting the climate for New South Wales to do business, and already the economic figures show the results. The State economy has performed strongly in the past year, in spite of the Howard Government’s national economic environment. As at June 1997 this State’s unemployment rate was one of Australia’s lowest. New South Wales exports have had strong growth during the year, with merchandise exports increasing by more than 6.2 per cent. Substantial expenditure has also been made on investment - it is up by more than 6.8 per cent. That means that the State economy has expanded, with the gross State product increasing by 3 per cent in the year. I should have expected the Leader of the National Party to be hanging his head in shame at what is going on with the Howard Government in Canberra.

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Honourable members should consider the deal on regional telecommunications infrastructure the people of New South Wales received from the Federal Government. All honourable members know about the Regional Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund - RTIF - the slush fund set up by the Howard Government to get the support of Senator Harradine and Senator Colston for the sale of Telstra. What was the story on that? The people of regional and rural New South Wales were short-changed by $40 million in that grubby deal. Of the total $250 million package, Tasmania gets $58 million - more than $207 per head of population living in rural and regional areas in that State. Queensland gets $53.1 million - more than $30 per head in the rural and regional areas. What happened for New South Wales, thanks to Howard and Costello? Rural and regional New South Wales gets just $37.4 million, which amounts to $19 per head. What a sleazy deal!

What did the Leader of the National Party do about that? He just rolled over, he just let the Federal Government do that. Honourable members should consider what happened in Lachlan, the electorate of the Leader of the National Party. Based on population, the central west should have received almost $7 million. However, it was short-changed and received just over $3 million. New England and the north-west missed out on $3.9 million; the Riverina missed out on $3.1 million; the Murray missed out on $2.4 million - the list goes on. The National Party should be ashamed; it has not stood up for its people. National Party members should be protecting their electorates from the hits they have taken under the Howard Government, rather than moving petulant motions such as this.

In contrast, the State Government continues to provide better services for the people of New South Wales, in spite of all the cuts inflicted by the Howard Government in health, education and other areas. The New South Wales State Government is still pushing ahead. What happened with the sugar industry? The National Party deserted the north coast and stood by while the Howard Government supported the takeover of the New South Wales sugar industry by Queensland. That has been the style of the National Party all the way along - National Party members sit there, roll over and do nothing. Luckily, the people in the bush have a State Government, if not an Opposition, that cares about what happens to them. The range of measures put in place by the Government has helped bring about - as was so kindly put by the Leader of the National Party - a surge in development in New South Wales.

The Leader of the National Party is wrong in thinking that the Government claims all of the credit for the surge in development. The Government has enlisted this State’s business people as its partners and allies in growing the New South Wales economy, and business people have responded magnificently. A cultural change is taking place in regional New South Wales. Many regional businesses now realise that they do not have to be big and they do not have to be located in the city to export. The Government has set up the innovators web site to encourage innovators from all over New South Wales to keep in touch with information about venture capital, patents and so on, to help them make their ventures commercial. The Government has run Olympic seminars. It has encouraged regional businesses to tender for Olympic Games construction and other work, and it is succeeding.

The Government has run seminars in the bush on infrastructure for telecommunications, trying to make sure that the businesses in the bush understand the value of electronic commerce and using the Internet for finance and banking purposes. The Government is trying to get to the bush the message that one has to be on line or out of business. It appointed five export advisers to try to help farmers diversify, export their product, make more profit and employ more people. That is what it is all about and that is what the Government has been doing. The Leader of the National Party can put up his little list of achievements - which are all in my electorate - until the cows come home, but the runs are on the board and it is this Government that scored them, not the failed coalition. The Leader of the National Party is reflecting on past glories, but he is in opposition now. This Government has a record that it can be proud of - and watch out, because there is more to come.

Mr SCULLY (Smithfield - Minister for Roads, Minister for Public Works and Services, Minister for Ports, Assistant Minister for Energy, and Assistant Minister for State and Regional Development) [12.47 p.m.]: I thank the honourable member for Coffs Harbour for yielding to me. I am somewhat astounded that the Leader of the National Party should refer to Walsh Bay. As Minister for Public Works and Services I have a strong interest in and responsibility for managing Walsh Bay. I remind the House of the sad story of Walsh Bay under the administration of the Greiner and Fahey governments. In moving this motion the Leader of the National Party has engaged in Stalinist, revisionist history. It is necessary to correct the
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record lest anyone believe the fantasy of the National Party that the former, discredited Government was responsible for the decision to develop Walsh Bay. The record must be set straight, but I do not have to rely on someone’s recollection: it will be enough if I quote from a 1994 report of the Property Services Group entitled "Walsh Bay - Future Directions". The report stated:

Proposals for the disposal and major redevelopment of Walsh Bay were originally instigated by the MSB in 1985 using a competitive tender process.

That was under the previous Labor Government. The Leader of the National Party expects honourable members to believe that Walsh Bay was an initiative of the former Government. He wants this House to commend him for facilitating Walsh Bay. What did the former Government actually do to facilitate the Walsh Bay redevelopment? When the Greiner Government came to office the Maritime Services Board tender process for Walsh Bay was almost completed. The coalition inherited a process. It changed that process, but the changes led to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The 1994 report of the Property Services Group also stated:

The ICAC investigation has identified substantial evidence of irregularities in the actions of public officials involved in the tender. The irregularities commenced when the Department of State Development became involved in the assessment of tenders and negotiations on the lease of Walsh Bay.

What the Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry established was that the new Government had selected two of the tenderers and set up a bidding war. This bidding war was contrary to the rules of the tender, it was contrary to accepted standards of probity and it resulted ultimately in Walsh Bay, like so much of New South Wales, lying fallow for the entire life of the Greiner Government. The sad story of the mismanagement of Walsh Bay by the former Government does not stop there. The irregularities identified by the ICAC included serious breaches of confidentiality which led to one of the tenderers learning of the other tenderer’s bid. The same financial adviser on the deal was used by the successful bidder and by the Department of State Development - a clear and appalling conflict of interest. The contract signed between the former Government and the selected developer allowed the developer to withdraw from the tender if it was not 100 per cent satisfied with the conditions of consent - also an appalling compromise of the independence of the planning process.

The ICAC report set out just how the tender process for the disposal of Walsh Bay should have proceeded and the Labor Government has rigorously followed that process. A probity auditor has been in place and the Independent Commission Against Corruption has been consulted regularly throughout the process to ensure that the number one priority of probity is followed. Honourable members should compare that to the disregard for probity, incompetence and mismanagement of the redevelopment of Walsh Bay by the former Government. Its tardy, shabby handling of Walsh Bay cost the redevelopment of this historic and important region of the city’s waterfront almost 10 years, during which time this important yet fragile heritage asset has deteriorated further. When the coalition came to office, the original tender was almost concluded. I am pleased to inform the House that in the very near future negotiations with the preferred developer will be concluded. The revised scheme for the redevelopment, which draws on proposals arising from the intervention of the Government Architect and the internationally acclaimed heritage architect, Phillipe Robert, will then be put before the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning and the Heritage Council.

I am reminded of a comment made to a colleague of mine by an Opposition frontbencher during an unguarded moment. He said, "It is only Labor governments that build the big things around the State. If you want to get on with things you need a Labor Government to do it." One only has to think of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Darling Harbour, the Olympics site, the Pacific Highway and the Eastern Distributor. The list is a mile long. Whenever the big projects are involved, it is always a Labor Government that makes the tough decisions and gets the projects on the deck, constructed and opened. This motion is dishonest. The Liberal and National parties should congratulate the Government on its record on Walsh Bay and apologise for its own record. The Government should be congratulated on its record on the finger wharf and the $250 million in presales. That money is in the can and the project is on the way.

Mr Armstrong: You did not do that. You did not sell one unit. You had better ‘fess up.

Mr SCULLY: The motion is misleading and it should be rejected. [Time expired.]

Mr FRASER (Coffs Harbour) [12.52 p.m.]: I have great pleasure in supporting the motion of the Leader of the National Party. What honourable
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members have heard today is a great deal of rhetoric, firstly from the next aspirant for a frontbench position, the honourable member for Port Jackson, and secondly from the Minister for Public Works and Services. They have attempted to convince members of this House and the people of New South Wales that Labor was the instigator of projects that were put in place during seven years of coalition government. In the course of this debate we should be examining not what the Government claims to have done but what it has done in regional New South Wales. It has absolutely ruined development in country areas.

I will start with the timber industry. The Government came to office and bowed to a group of Greens. It did not examine the productivity of one of the most magnificent industries in New South Wales, an industry that renews itself and was being logged sustainably at the rate of 1 per cent. When Labor came to office it decided to close down the timber industry, with the subsequent loss of hundreds and hundreds of jobs in the bush, many of them in the electorate of Clarence. The honourable member for Clarence has remained silent on this issue, despite the loss of numerous jobs in Clarence. With the assistance of his colleagues from the Right, he has put himself forward as the next Minister in charge of regional development and growth in country areas. He knows what this Government has done in his electorate but he has kept his mouth closed.

Labor has ruined job prospects in Clarence. The list of developments set out in the motion moved by the Leader of the National Party - Walsh Bay, Woolloomooloo, the Sydney Harbour Casino, AT&T, Foxtel, American Express and the City West Development - were all initiatives of the former coalition Government. They were initiatives which had the support of business and would have given New South Wales a future. As the Leader of the National Party said only a few minutes ago, under Labor State Forests and the Department of Agriculture have been downgraded in country areas. In the electorate of Clarence the Grafton office of New South Wales Fisheries has now been downsized, New South Wales Agriculture has been downsized and the timber industry has been downsized. In the electorate of Clarence 400 NorthPower jobs have disappeared. The income from those 400 jobs supported the local stores, service stations and clubs, and the major stakeholders, such as Woolworths, who employ local people. The wages that were coming into the community each week have disappeared. As a result regional development in country areas is shrinking.

Small towns are crying out for assistance but, under Labor, the education office in Coffs Harbour has been closed, which will take even more jobs from the area. The Government has to look after Harry, so it has indicated it will relocate the education office to Grafton. But it is a smokescreen. One person, the Director of Schools for the region, has to take care of the needs of an area from Nambucca Heads almost to the Queensland border. As I said, 19 jobs in the education field have disappeared from Coffs Harbour. This Government has clearly signalled to regional New South Wales and to business that companies should not invest in New South Wales because they will receive no assistance from the Government. The Government is closing down country New South Wales. It is dumping on regional centres and downgrading hospital facilities and educational facilities in regional New South Wales.

This morning I spoke to my colleague from Broken Hill in another place, who told me that 22 TAFE jobs in the electorate of Broken Hill have been lost overnight. Labor has suggested that it is responsible for development in New South Wales when in fact it has been responsible for a lack of development. It is seeking the assistance of minority groups to stifle development in New South Wales. The Government is encouraging Jeff Kennett to pinch every major initiative from this State. Foxtel and 1,000 jobs have been lost to Melbourne: Westpac and a $200 million investment have been lost to South Australia; Bankers Trust and 300 jobs have been lost to Adelaide; Cathay Pacific has moved its headquarters to Melbourne; Schweppes has moved its regional headquarters to Melbourne; and Esso has moved to Melbourne. The list goes on and on. This Government is scaring business out of New South Wales. [Time expired.]

Pursuant to sessional orders business interrupted.