Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

No, it was under another rorts account. While I do appreciate some of the views and interjections of others, I draw back to some of the important points about why we need a Future Fund. As I said, it is to take out the rorting. It is to start putting priorities in place. Let us have an ‘infrastructure Australia’ type body, a peak body that reports back to COAG, which does these things properly and sets an agenda for this nation—not an agenda for the National Party, not an agenda for the Liberal Party, not an agenda for the Labor Party but an agenda for the nation. There are projects screaming out for this government to fund and they need to be prioritised. But they do not get a look-in because they are just not on the biggest block in town. That is a concern to everybody.

Labor’s initial contribution to the skills account would cost in the vicinity of $170 million per year when fully operational. Everyone, from the Reserve Bank to the OECD, is shouting warnings about our shortage of skilled workers. If the government has not heard the noise and has not heard the calls for this, then it is truly blind and deaf to the issues happening within the community.

Home owners are also feeling the impact as the cost of building and renovating the family home increases. While there was a slowdown in the housing market, we can see it picking up again. I read yesterday that one of the Liberal backbenchers, in trying to get himself on the front page of a paper, decided he would call for a doubling of the First Home Owners Scheme. That sounds great on the surface but it further distorts the housing market and puts more pressure on people trying to enter the market. Rather than being an advantage and a bonus, it actually distorts the market. Housing prices go up on the back of these things. Rather than properly targeting how to best help people into housing, this government uses these crude, blunt instruments. Do you know why they are crude, blunt instruments and why the government prefers to use them? Because they look good. It is like giving everybody a $600 cheque before an election—stuff what it adds up to, what it costs and what it actually delivers; it looks good and feels good to give people a big cash payout just before an election. It will feel good for the government—stuff the economy; stuff that it is going to make public housing and housing generally more difficult to get into. It will just sound good if somebody on the Liberal side advocates more money going into the pockets of first home owners. Yes, let us do something for first home owners. Let us have a Future Fund for them. Let us look at ways to get people into their own homes. But let us not do it by fuelling price rises and growth in the housing market to the point where people can no longer afford them at all, no matter how much first home owners grant is available.

So there are real flaws and chinks in the government’s thinking, in the processes and in the way they apply themselves not only to housing and skills but also, particularly in relation to this bill, to a Future Fund. The reality is we do need a Future Fund, but the reality is we need the right Future Fund, one that invests in Australia, one that will invest in the priorities of this nation’s needs and one that will deliver for a long time into the future for future generations, not a Future Fund that is all about the Treasurer and his making himself look good to his backbench to garner the particular votes that he is seeking. Let us get it right. Let us do it right. Let us invest in Australia’s infrastructure. Let us get some of the pork-barrelling out of funding. Let us not have a discretionary fund for ministers which is just another slush fund of the most obvious kind where the minister directs things to a steam rail that never actually takes place. Let us get it right. It is for Australia’s future. (Time expired)

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