Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the appropriation bills. I agree that the Australian public will be making choices at the next election. Given the performance of the Leader of the Opposition and the alternatives that he offered in his speech in reply to the budget, I would suggest that the choice that they will be making is hoping to goodness that Labor stays on the other side for a lot longer. I say to the honourable member for Hotham that this budget has been very well received in my electorate in Far North Queensland. I think that was reflected in the mention of winners and losers on the front page of the local paper. In effect, they said the winners were everybody and the losers of this budget were the drug smugglers, the terrorists and the illegal fishermen. I see that that quote was used in a number of other national papers as well. That, in a nutshell, shows clearly how the broader Australian public received the budget.

Another thing that the budget drove home to the Australian people was the fact that the Australian government has achieved zero government debt. The announcement in April that we had achieved that almost went without recognition, but I think it was driven home in the budget. That $96,000 million that was passed on to this government back in 1996 is gone completely, which gives us another $8 billion or $9 billion a year that we can spend on the Australian people, investing in Australia and in Australians’ future.

The member for Hotham made a comment about the progressiveness, if you like, of the Australian Labor Party in their commitment to tax reform. I almost choked when I heard those comments because there are people still living who remember that it was the Labor Party that introduced the capital gains tax and the FBT—the fringe benefits tax. He made the comment that the Labor Party had given personal income tax reductions for seven consecutive years, but let us have a look at the wholesale sales tax as the member for Hotham leaves the chamber. The wholesale sales tax went from 10 per cent to 12 per cent, from 20 per cent to 22 per cent and, of course, from 30 per cent to 32 per cent. We had an alternative with the GST, which we introduced at a flat 10 per cent. The honourable member failed to acknowledge that, in bringing in the flat rate of 10 per cent with our GST reform, we threw out all of the wholesale sales tax—that mishmash that was imposed on the Australian people. Who could ever forget the l-a-w law tax cuts? If we were holding our breath waiting for them, we would be choking by now.

In direct comparison, on 1 July this year there will be $36.7 billion in personal tax cuts for the Australian people. That is six consecutive years in which we have been able to deliver tax cuts. The 30 per cent threshold will rise to $25,000, the 42 per cent will come down to 40 per cent with the threshold increasing to $75,000 and the 47 per cent will come back to 45 per cent with the threshold increasing to $150,000. This in effect means that 80 per cent of Australian taxpayers will be facing a top rate of 30 per cent or 30c in the dollar. I think that this is an outstanding achievement, given that the top marginal rate of 45c in the dollar will be paid by no more than two per cent of Australian income earners. I think these rates will certainly make Australia extremely competitive internationally.

The other thing that is in the budget that will be of tremendous benefit is the family tax benefit, which has almost doubled since 1996. Part A was, at that point, $2,400; it is now $4,200. Families now receive a maximum amount if they earn up to $40,000. This will benefit almost 500,000 Australian families. Larger families too will get additional help, with the large family supplement kicking in on the third child rather than on the fourth child. In the area of families, the child-care funding caps have been completely abolished. This means that, where there is a need in our communities, there is no reason that people who want to provide that service cannot get access to child-care funding.

Another major area was superannuation. This has been applauded right across the sector. I know independent retirees in my electorate thought it was absolutely fabulous that at last they are not going to get those double and triple whammies in relation to superannuation. What a great way to create incentives, with exit tax being abolished from 1 July 2007. It will mean that, if they take out a lump sum, they will get the benefit of 100 per cent of that lump sum. As with the pension, they have already paid tax on the way in, so the pension that they will draw from their pension scheme will be tax free.

Business has also been very pleased with the budget. The Labor Party was putting up an argument that there was nothing in it for retention of our skilled workers. I would suggest that the changes we have introduced to the personal income tax system are probably the best retention incentive that you are likely to find. We have always been very good at training and skilling young people. We have trained some of the best in the world but, unfortunately, because of our very uncompetitive and punitive tax system, once they got those skills, they very quickly were attracted overseas where they could earn income without losing the bulk of it in income tax. By changing the tax treatment, we now have the ability to retain those skilled people in Australia and use their skills. I believe we have also created an environment where many of those people who have been attracted overseas by more competitive tax regimes will now find a reason to come home: to benefit from this. I think accelerated depreciation also is going to be of significant benefit to Australian businesses, and businesses will certainly invest more in new technology and plant when they have that 200 per cent write-off.

Another area that the member for Hotham suggested we had neglected is the regions. I find that suggestion rather amazing. He also mentioned the neglect of our roads. The AusLink program that was introduced by this government has been the single biggest investment in road and rail infrastructure in this country’s history, and I think that needs to be acknowledged. Out of that program we have a $220 million investment in my own area that has been brought forward to deal with flood-proofing problems on the Bruce Highway from Cairns to Townsville, which were highlighted with the recent problems we faced with Cyclone Larry. It will mean that bridges like the Mulgrave River bridge can be upgraded to ensure that we are not held up for unreasonable periods of time due to flooding in the future.

The $80 million for flood proofing around the Tully River area was set aside on advice from the state government, which was suggesting that that amount was needed. In fact, I think they fed that amount to the federal opposition here during the last election, setting aside this figure of $80 million as part of an election commitment. It is interesting that, 18 months down the track, that $80 million has grown by another $48 million—so we are now looking at $128 million for that particular section of road. We have had to allocate another $48 million to it. I think it highlights the outstanding capacity of the Labor state government to pull a figure out of the air in relation to their contributions on roads, clearly having no understanding at all of the real cost of that particular project.

The Roads to Recovery program is another excellent initiative by this government. That program has been running for some years now and has seen a tremendous number of local council roads being upgraded. Because of this program, money that would normally have disappeared into the state government coffers to be drip-fed to the councils, ensuring that they do little or no upgrading, now goes directly to the councils. It has made a huge difference to them, not only in retaining their workforce but also in sealing much larger areas of road. The fact that in this particular budget we have not only allocated their annual allocation for Roads to Recovery but we have brought forward an equivalent amount—another $307 million—means that for the 2006-07 year we have doubled the amount. It is going to make a huge difference for shires in my electorate, like the Mareeba Shire, which will go from receiving $664,000 to $1.3 million, and Cairns City, which will go from receiving $1.57 million to $2.1 million.

And, of course, the Cook Shire has suffered a double whammy in recent times. First of all, while Innisfail and the surrounding area suffered the huge wind damage from Cyclone Larry that we have seen on our televisions, they did not get much rain. Most of the rain ended up in Cape York. Areas in Cape York got a huge drenching and were absolutely saturated by Cyclone Larry. Unfortunately, Cyclone Larry was very quickly followed on 20 April by Cyclone Monica and areas like Yarradon Station, which is near Coen, received rainfall that you would find almost unimaginable in an area that normally receives about 35 inches of rainfall a year of up to 90 inches in a 72-hour period. So you can imagine the damage that was done by the cyclone. The Cook Shire certainly has a huge task on its hands in dealing with these problems. Before I finish, I will hopefully deal a little more with the impact of Larry-Monica on Cape York.

The Black Spots Roads Program is another initiative that has been of tremendous benefit in my region. The continuation of that program will certainly be a lifesaver. I am also pleased to see a significant allocation in the budget to dealing with illegal fishing in my area. It has become a major problem. Since the move over the years to remove fishermen from our waters and to shut down a lot of these areas—much of it, as you are aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, on the east coast can be attributed to the very dishonest process of the Representative Areas Program that was based on very flawed and dishonest advice provided by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which has cost so many of my fishing community their livelihoods—resulting in a closing of fisheries in the Gulf area and limiting fishing to a matter of weeks per year, the void has been filled by a huge proliferation of illegal vessels coming in, with the associated quarantine risks. Really serious problems are occurring within the fishing community—given the sacrifices that have been forced upon them in the interests of sustainability—as a result of illegal activities.

There has been a significant increase in funding of the rapid long-range helicopter response capability. Instead of tying up our vessels in towing these boats, civilian charter vessels will be used. There will be new boat destruction facilities, which are necessary, and processing facilities in Gove and Weipa as well as in Broome. There will be an enhanced charting of the Torres Strait and the northern Great Barrier Reef. An additional vessel will be provided for the area and a greater use of locals, including the Cape York and Torres Strait Indigenous population, in its monitoring. I do hope, though, that those people who are selected and trained to do this are paid according to their skills and not dumped onto some social security or welfare program. There has been a tendency to do that in the past, particularly by state governments, so I am hoping they will be paid according to their skills.

Health has been another major winner of the budget, as you know, Mr Deputy Speaker. One of my big issues over the years has been mental health and funding of $1.9 billion has now been provided in this budget. I welcome that. The thing that concerns me, however, is that there is a need for the states and territories to match that amount of funding. Their contribution has to go into support accommodation. If we do not get that support accommodation and other initiatives that the states have a responsibility to provide, then the $1.9 billion that we have will amount to nought. The big issue is that the support accommodation for many of our people suffering from mental health is either the streets or our prisons, and until we see a significant drop in those numbers then we have not achieved anything. I welcome it, I think it is wonderful, but it is imperative that we continue to watch closely to ensure that the state government fulfils its part of the obligation.

Another thing which I think has been great to see is the additional resources going into new medical school places and the additional places for other health disciplines. I hope that the Queensland state government can get its act together. It is a bit like the disincentives in our taxation system. We can train all the doctors and all the health professionals we like, but if the state government does not sort out its bureaucracy and start to create an environment that will retain those people within the Queensland health system then as quick as we can train them we will lose them. I hope there is a significant change in mindset there.

Generally speaking, I believe that the budget has been absolutely outstanding and one that we can be very proud of. There is a whole range of other things which time prevents me from mentioning now, but I do hope that we can use some of this money to help the victims in Cape York. (Time expired)

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