State Economy

Hansard ID: HANSARD-1323879322-101186

Hansard session: Fifty-Sixth Parliament, First Session (56-1)

State Economy

Mr STEPHEN KAMPER (Rockdale) (17:17:54):

I bring to the attention of the House a matter of great concern to my constituents in Rockdale—namely, the economic management of our State and country. Those opposite, including the Treasurer, try to mock or degrade the legacy of Wayne Swan. He was one of only two Australian treasurers to have been awarded Finance Minister of the Year by Euromoney—the other was Paul Keating. Unfortunately, for all the big talk from those on the Government benches on their money management skills, they do not hold a candle to the likes of Wayne Swan. He steered this country away from economic disaster during the global financial crisis, making us perhaps the only major developed nation in the world not to suffer through that period.

TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Adam Crouch):

Order! The member for Oatley will cease interjecting.

Mr STEPHEN KAMPER:

I am happy to inform the House that there is hope yet for this Government, because behind all the neoliberal bluff and bluster of our Treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, beats the bleeding heart of a Keynesian ideologue. This is the only thing underpinning this Government's attempts to match Labor's unemployment figures from 2011.

Mr Greg Aplin:

What has this got to do with your community and your constituency?

Mr STEPHEN KAMPER:

My constituents are extremely concerned about these matters—of course it has a lot to do with my constituents.

Mr Mark Coure:

Point of order: I have not heard the word "Rockdale" more than once, and that was when the Temporary Speaker gave the call to the member for Rockdale.

TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Adam Crouch):

I have heard the member mention Rockdale, but I remind the member that a private member's statement should focus on issues pertinent to a member's electorate.

Mr STEPHEN KAMPER:

As I said earlier, the people of Rockdale are extremely concerned about the way this Government is squandering funds. In Keynes' general theory he wrote about the Government employing people to perform pointless activities rather than allow unemployment, which begins to explain a lot about the justification for many of this State Government's major projects. What better way to stimulate the economy than to build roads to nowhere? Perhaps the Government will not allow public scrutiny of the WestConnex because it is underpinned by socialist employment policy. Treasurer Perrottet might not want to admit this, but he is in the midst of a classic Keynesian spending frenzy. But I have to give credit where credit is due. The rebranding exercise of "asset recycling" is an absolute winner. It is a great way to describe selling off the productive assets of the State and blowing the cash on wasteful projects.

Mrs Leslie Williams:

On infrastructure.

Mr STEPHEN KAMPER:

Yes—on stadiums. While he may like to describe himself as a free market champion when he is in the House, out there on the streets he is spending money like a drunken sailor. He is so infatuated with stimulation that he is running out of ideas on how to spend taxpayers' money. Picture the light bulb moment when Treasurer Perrottet rang the Premier late one night with the brilliant idea of knocking down the ANZ and Allianz stadiums to "recycle" $2.5 billion into their reconstruction. Forget about Keynes—Karl Marx would be thrilled to see the Government knocking down 20-year-old stadiums just to rebuild them. This is a government that has stimulus coming out of its ears. Those opposite have stadium stimulus. They have roads stimulus. They even recently spent $600,000 on self-help books—stimulus for the printing industry. This Government obviously needs all the help it can get.

The Premier and Treasurer love to stand up and take credit for employment results and job numbers that are on par with 2011 numbers that the Labor Government was achieving after the global financial crisis. Members of my Rockdale community have expressed this to me on many occasions and I need to get it across to the House—not to mention the huge problem of underemployment which lurks within the current unemployment figures. The people of Rockdale know the Government has inflated surpluses over the forward estimates by some $5 billion—members opposite need to know this—through dodgy accounting with the Transport Asset Holding Entity and a tricky ledger entry masquerading as Government policy—

Mrs Leslie Williams:

You wouldn't know how to read the things.

Mr STEPHEN KAMPER:Time expired.

Of course I do, because that is what I did for 30 years. When they got caught out they doubled down— []

Mr MARK COURE (Oatley) (17:23:17):

The real risk for New South Wales is the member for Cessnock as finance Minister. The real risk for New South Wales is the member for Keira as Treasurer. That is the real risk for New South Wales. We on this side of the House are spending up to $70 billion over five years on infrastructure—new hospitals and upgrades to roads, hospitals and schools. Members on that side of the House oppose every new school, new road and new hospital. We on this side of the House are getting on with the job of upgrading and fixing the mess that Labor left us.

Mr Daryl Maguire:

Point of order: First, there is a convention in this place that members deliver private members' statements relating to issues raised by their constituents. Secondly, there is a convention that decorum and order is upheld when private members' statements are presented to this House. When a Parliamentary Secretary or a Minister replies to a private member's statement, it is disorderly for that member to leave the Chamber during the reply. It is also disorderly to walk around the Chamber while another member is addressing the House. I ask you to draw the attention of members to the rules and conventions of this House that have existed ever since this Parliament was formed. The presentation we just witnessed was out of order and I ask you to direct members to abide by the standing orders and conventions of this place and to treat this place with the dignity it deserves.

Mr Clayton Barr:

To the point of order: I concur with the good member for Wagga Wagga in relation to the presentation just given by the Parliamentary Secretary. He unnecessarily attacked people who had not made any comment during the giving of the private member's statement or been referred to at any stage during that statement. He took the opportunity to make an unfair attack on people who were not involved in the process at all. The manner in which a Parliamentary Secretary responds to a private member's statement is part of the decorum, the tradition and the standing orders of this House.

TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Adam Crouch):

Order! I concur with the member for Wagga Wagga. What I saw a few minutes ago in this place was nothing short of disgraceful. There is a decorum that needs to be upheld in this Chamber. We have seen an appalling lack of that this week and I will have no hesitation in sitting members down should it continue. Under Standing Order 52, members will be heard in silence and any breach of that will result in members being sat down or removed from this Chamber for the rest of the afternoon. I thank the member for Wagga Wagga for bringing that to my attention.