Labor Fails To Deliver On Two-Thirds Of Its Election Commitments

19 Dec

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 19 December 2011:

Reports today in the Courier Mail, Herald Sun and Adelaide Advertiser confirm that over a year since the election, the Gillard government has failed to give the green light to over two-thirds of its election commitments. Answers to Senate estimates reveal that 54 of the government’s 80 election commitments made to local communities have yet to receive approval in a familiar story of excessive red tape and cost blowouts. *

Lucky for the Gillard government they don’t have a record of breaking promises, because otherwise this could be a real knockout blow for them.

Labor seems to be able to spend money on waste upon waste in record time but can’t seem to meet the simple commitments it made to local areas to get local votes at the last election. How can anyone believe Labor’s promises at the next election?

Julia Gillard told Parliament on 20 October 2010 that:

“I do commit to keeping the promises at a local level that Labor and Labor candidates made at the last election … The reason I am able to say that with confidence is that during the election campaign we had a proper process of costing, which means we understood the costs of the promises that we were making. We made proper provision for them in a context where the budget is coming back to surplus in 2012-13 and where across the election campaign our promises were matched by offsetting savings.” **

If the projects were all costed at the election, why has it taken over a year for these projects to get approval? If Labor truly understood the commitments they were making, why haven’t the projects been given approval? Did the Prime Minister really understand what she was saying when she said that proper provision was made for them?”

On 1 August 2011, Janelle Saffin promised the people of Page that Labor would fund an upgrade of the Ballina Lighthouse and Lismore Surf Lifesaving Club. They are still waiting for the funds.***

On 10 August 2011, Laura Smith promised the people of La Trobe that she would deliver $2 million to the Monbulk Soccer Centre. It hasn’t happened.****

On 14 August 2011, Peter Garrett promised to build the Springwood Centre. Two Christmases have almost passed and the people of Logan are still waiting.*****

These are just three of 54 other commitments made by local Labor members at the last election that are yet to be honoured.

The Government has allocated $165 million to the Community Infrastructure Fund to fund its election commitments made at the 2010 election. The clock is ticking on whether the next election will come before many of these projects.

Tags: , ,

%d bloggers like this: