Hansard from Senate - 13 March 2008
Access Card
Senator COONAN (2.24 pm)—My question is to
the
Minister for Human Services, Senator Ludwig.
Minister, why from opposition
did Labor oppose the
coalition’s smartcard yet now supports it, wasting
$1.1
billion of taxpayers’ money in the process? What will
the new card
cost?
Senator LUDWIG—I am surprised that the Liberals
have fallen into
the early trap of opposition of in
fact believing everything that they read
in the paper
without checking the facts of the matter—but that is
what I
expect from an early opposition. The Australian
government is considering a
range of measures to
tackle welfare fraud. But let me tell you what we
are
not considering: we are not considering reviving the
Liberal’s doomed
billion dollar access card. The access
card was touted as a magic card that
would solve all
the problems in health and welfare service delivery.
This
was a fantasy built on Mr Joe Hockey’s fondness
for glitz, glam and sideshows
at the expense of hard
facts and numbers.
The article claims that the
government’s plans are
expected to be informed by the KPMG business
case.
There is a slight problem with that. The business case
was never
made public and remains cabinet-inconfidence.
If we were planning on using
that business
case to inform the process, we would have to wait 30
years
for it to be made public, because the Liberals
took the business case to
cabinet. That means that not
even as minister can I see the full version of
that. But
there is one thing that we do know about the business
case, and
that is that Finance never agreed to the costings.
Something that we know
about the access card
project more generally is that it was also not
running
on time or on budget. For that, you only have to look
across the
aisle at Senator Ellison.
The previous ministers, Hockey, Campbell and
Ellison,
and now the shadow minister want us to take it on
trust that they
are competent, capable and trustworthy
enough to implement large-scale
projects, but I am
afraid that that is not what the record shows,
quite
frankly. Imagine if Senator Coonan, the Liberal
spokesperson on
human services, was responsible for
the access card today. Senator Coonan, as
Minister for
Communications, Information Technology and the
Arts, could
not roll out a carpet, let alone a broadband
network. As I said before, the
cabinet embargo on the
business case lasts for 30 years. Based on her
record
with broadband, if Senator Coonan were responsible
for rolling out
the access card, Australians would
probably get to read the business case
before they got
the card. They would probably be paying it off for
that
long, too. The article is wrong and misinformed on
many levels. A
simple check by Senator Coonan might
have provided a factual basis for a
question.
This government has made the right decision in
terminating
the doomed access card project, which we do
not have a
business case for and which was little more
than an ID card by stealth. That
is all it was. The Rudd
Labor government has delivered on our election
commitment
to abolish the Liberal’s national ID card and in
the process we
have saved the taxpayer more than $1
billion dollars. That places downward
pressure on inflation
and downward pressure on interest rates. That is
the
right thing to do. (Time expired)
Senator COONAN—Mr President, I ask a
supplementary
question. The minister seems very confused.
He will recall
saying in answer to a dorothy dixer question
from Senator Polley on 13
February that he is not
proceeding with the access card because he is
focused
on the practical things that will make a real difference
rather
than a card. Do you now rule out any version of
a smartcard?
Senator
LUDWIG—After listening to that supplementary,
I remind the opposition—as we
had to remind
ourselves occasionally—that it is well worth listening
to
the answer to the question before you ask a supplementary.
I will draw the
attention of the Senate to the
answer that was in Senator Coonan’s press
release. The
answer by the human services minister, me, to the
question
without notice asked on 13 February 2008
was:
I can confirm that the
government has terminated the Liberal’s
much flawed access card.
…… …
It is the financially responsible thing to do. It is the
fiscally
conservative thing to undertake.
That is the statement I
made. Nothing has changed
since that time. That is the position that has been
outlined.
I am not sure whether the opposition are trying
to find
something to hide behind—maybe they are
looking for a fig leaf. In this case
there is no card to
hide behind. The access card has been abolished. It
will
not be continued with. A billion dollars has been returned
to the
budget.
