Madam Speaker, those are the exact words I was waiting for because I intend to beat up on the government a little, so I guess that would be expected anyway.
The throne speech was completely unnecessary. To point this out and to reinforce that fact, almost half the promises from the 2001 throne speech have not been dealt with, 18 of 39 promises have not even started, 12 are partially completed and only 9 have actually been fulfilled.
This is all about the Prime Minister attempting to get some favourable air time. I believe that many members of the House are absolutely correct when they compare the throne speech to the Sears wish book. I am sure you, Madam Speaker, can remember looking through that book as a young child hoping and wishing that some of the things that you saw would actually be under the tree come Christmas morning. Well the reality is that the Prime Minister has given no consideration to how any of this will be paid for.
The throne speech is a regurgitation of many things that the government has spoken about over the years but has managed to sidestep or completely dishonour. I only have to go through red books one, two and three. All three editions have a familiar theme: broken promises and promises unfulfilled. Let us go through some of them so we will have an idea of what some of these recycled promises might be.
Many of the promises are recycled from previous throne speeches. One example is a resolution to the issues of our aboriginal people. We have heard that before. We also have heard before about support for children in poverty. More children are living in poverty today than when the government took office. The control of greenhouse emissions. The government side cannot even control its own gas emissions let alone greenhouse gas emissions.
What about increased support for foreign aid? Foreign aid now is exactly 0.2% of our GDP. It is the lowest it has ever been in the history of the country and it is getting worse, not better.
Mr. Speaker, could you clarify how much time I have left?