Australians are paying a high price for four years of Labor’s broken promises, wasteful spending, economic mismanagement, and incompetence.
Click 'Expand' below to read or download a detailed briefing note of Labor's four years of failure.
Labor came to government in November 2007 with Kevin Rudd promising a “national plan for Australia’s future”. Some plan!
Instead of showing a clear sense of direction, Labor has commissioned 185 policy and program reviews, committees and inquiries over the last four years.
And when it came to the crunch of the 2008 global financial crisis, Kevin Rudd and Labor panicked and failed to think through the consequences of their hasty decisions.
Labor inherited a strong and growing economy, a $20 billion budget surplus and $45 billion in the bank – all thanks to 11 years of prudent economic management by the former Coalition government.
Yet, in four years Labor has turned a massive budget surplus into four consecutive record budget deficits, with more budget deficits to come as long as it remains in charge of the nation’s finances.
Under Labor Australia has gone from having $45 billion in the bank to net government debt of $107 billion. Labor is accumulating debt at the rate of $100 million a day.
Labor’s economic mismanagement has been matched by its administrative incompetence and costly policy back-flips.
- It couldn’t put roof batts into people’s roofs without starting fires.
- It couldn’t build school halls without rip-off after rip-off.
- It closed the Nauru detention centre and rolled out the red carpet for people smugglers to resume their evil trade that the Howard government had closed down.
Then, in a fit of panic, Labor’s faceless men decided to remove a first term prime minister and install Julia Gillard.
In just under 18 months, Julia Gillard has transformed a bad Rudd Government into an even worse Gillard Government.
The clearest warning that things would only get worse for Australia was when Julia Gillard signed up to a coalition with Bob Brown and the Greens. Bob Brown has effectively become co-prime minister.
Julia Gillard’s commitment to get the government back on track has unravelled at a rapid pace.
- Julia Gillard trashed her solemn pre-election promise not to introduce a carbon tax.
- The ‘Citizen’s Assembly’ announced to find ‘community consensus’ on a price on carbon was abandoned and replaced by a secretive, new Multi-Party Climate Change Committee due to pressure from the Greens.
- Cost of living pressures on families keep going up and up, and will accelerate further because of the Labor-Greens carbon tax.
- Labor’s multi-billion dollar NBN rollout has continued without a proper business case to justify the expense and with subscriber take-up rates a joke.
- Australia’s multi-million dollar live cattle export trade to Indonesia became the victim of panicky policy making on the run.
- Labor has created a sovereign risk problem for the first time ever by announcing punitive new taxes without serious consultation with the people directly affected.
- Detention centres have been opened in Curtin, Broadmeadows, RAAF Base Scherger, Pontville, Inverbrackie and Maribyrnong to cope with the continued waves of illegal boat arrivals.
- Julia Gillard’s ill-conceived East Timor processing centre was finally abandoned long after it became clear it was never going to happen.
- Labor then cobbled together their “Malaysian solution”, leading to even more confusion…and the boats have kept on arriving.
- The Murray Darling plan was released, causing uproar in rural communities, forcing the government to go back to the drawing board.
- The ‘no ifs, no buts’ promise to deliver a budget surplus in 2012-13 is fast becoming yet another Labor mirage.
Labor’s four years in government is a shameful story of advantages lost, promises broken, opportunities missed, taxpayer monies wasted, programs mismanaged and the security of our national borders compromised.
Australia deserves better.
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