Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity to discuss a number of issues on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2006-2007 and cognate bills. I commence this by saying that the 2006-07 budget has once again been well received by the Australian public, particularly by those in the electorate of Hume—which I represent. Of course, the majority of punters have welcomed the additional tax relief provided for in this budget, which delivers $36.7 billion back into the hands of hardworking Australians. I will read for the House part of the front page story which appeared in one of the Hume electorate’s local newspapers on 12 May 2006:

As a boy, East Bowral resident Simon Unwin remembers Federal Budgets as a time when the adults groaned about increases in taxes on various items.

These days, Budgets can be somewhat more positive, and Mr Unwin likes the look of Federal Budget 2006 in terms of income tax cuts.

Mr Unwin and his wife Jacqui live in East Bowral with their four children—Alyss, 13, Jessica, 11, Chelsea, 8 and Zachary, 4—so are slightly above the Federal Government’s new definition of a “large family”, reduced from four to three children.

Simon works as an engineer earning between $70,000 and $80,000 a year and Mrs Unwin is a stay-at-home mum.

Based on the Federal Government’s Budget, Mr Unwin will have $44 to $52 more in his pocket each week.

While the Unwins won’t be receiving anything extra in terms of family benefits, they’re happy with the extra cash they’ll have from tax cuts and are confident they’ll come out ahead, even with a mortgage and petrol costs.

“We’ve got a little bit more than we did and, even if we’re using it, we still have that little extra to use,” Mrs Unwin said.

“If we hadn’t got anything, it would have been harder.”

That really is the crux of it. Through its strong economic management, the Howard government has been able to give something back yet again to the Australian taxpayer. I take this opportunity to compliment not only the Prime Minister but, more importantly, the Treasurer not only for being able to deliver nine surpluses in the 10-year period of the Howard government but also for the magnificent work that they have done on behalf of taxpayers by paying out the $96 billion debt that the government inherited when it came into government in 1996. That has relieved the taxpayers of this country of the $6 billion in interest that was required to be paid each year on that debt. That $6 billion has now been freed up to be used in a very constructive way for the relief of various items centred around taxes. Of course, we will always have those who say it is never enough, but it is tax relief at a level which is affordable and sustainable. I am pleased we have been able to deliver it and deliver it responsibly.

I am also pleased we have been able to offer a helping hand to a group of people often neglected—our independent retirees. These are people who have worked hard their whole lives and saved so that they could ensure that they would not be a burden on taxpayers in their twilight years. The superannuation changes contained in this budget have been applauded by groups, including the Association of Independent Retirees. President of the Southern Highlands branch in the electorate of Hume, Sheila Ring, described the changes as ‘super’. She would not be alone in doing so. These changes will dramatically simplify superannuation and improve the retirement incomes of the more than 10 million Australians with superannuation accounts.

Another group I know that is very pleased with the 2006 budget is older Australians living on the land. The decision to amend the pension assets test for rural land-holders has been widely welcomed by farmers and rural residents in Hume. Many are eager to see full details of the changes, which come into effect in the new year. I must thank the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs for his interest in this matter—a matter I have been raising with a number of my parliamentary colleagues, including the member for Gilmore, who sits in this place tonight, and with this government now for some two years. How we as a government could have allowed such imbalance to occur between home owners in our cities and those on the land is unfathomable.

It has concerned me for a number of years now that pensioners in rural areas were not treated in the same way as those in built-up areas when it comes to the age pension. For example, a person living in a $600,000 house in Mittagong has always been able to claim the pension because their home is exempt from the assets test. People living on rural acres, however, have only ever been exempted from the value of their home and the surrounding five acres, meaning many people have been forced to subdivide or to sell. This comes at a time in their lives when other stresses, such as their own health or caring responsibilities, are already present. It is an added burden our seniors do not need.

Also to benefit seniors, the government will provide $134.2 million over four years to continue capital assistance to aged care providers in rural and remote areas. The funding will and has facilitated the building, rebuilding, upgrading and extension of residential aged care infrastructure in rural and remote Australia to ensure these facilities conform to building and care standards. I know providers in the Hume electorate are already assessing their eligibility for this new funding.

For older people who do not have access to appropriate aged care, the government will provide $152.7 million over five years to improve care for older patients in public hospitals by enhancing in-patient services and the transition to appropriate long-term care, avoiding readmission to hospital and improving care services when people stay long term in smaller rural hospitals. Again, this is a measure which will have a very real impact on constituents in the Hume electorate.

Another budget announcement which has been highly praised in my electorate—and it is something I have been working to achieve since my days as a state member—is the decision for this government to fund the preliminary stages of the duplication of the Barton Highway between Canberra and Murrumbateman, including the Murrumbateman bypass. I am very pleased about that because I have always maintained that, as far as road funding is concerned, we should concentrate our efforts as governments on the issue at hand—road safety and the reduction of the deaths and mutilation on our roads and, more importantly, the sadness that those deaths and injuries bring to many families.

I had been frustrated, I must admit, since 1988 because I had not been able to convince members of this government, through former transport ministers, of the need for this funding. It was frustrating for me because political games were being played. Those political games have been played not only in relation to the Murrumbateman bypass but also in relation to the Hume Highway, so I was very pleased to see that huge package of $800 million going to the Hume Highway. I can recall that just after the 2001 election I made some critical comment about the need for us to put aside the politics of expediency and concentrate on the needs. It did not matter whether the roads that needed funding in the interests of saving people’s lives were in the electorates of Labor, Liberal, National or Independent members. If the need was there, we should have funded them.

It was frustrating from my point of view—after some 10½ years in the state parliament of New South Wales—to come into the federal parliament and make those comments about the Coolac bypass, the duplication of the Sheahan Bridge on the Hume Highway at Gundagai, the Tarcutta truck stop and the Hume Highway between Tarcutta and the Victorian border, and be told by a then staffer of one of the ministers of transport that I should not be making public comment about that and making policy on the run. I will not say in this House what I told that particular staffer. Members who have concerns about the deaths of people on roads should not be in a position where people can even attempt to gag them for saying what is publicly and painfully obvious.

The allocation of $20 million for the Murrumbateman bypass and the duplication of the Barton Highway will include $2 million next financial year for the completion of planning and design and the progression of property purchases. The construction of this road, which will of course require further significant AusLink funding once planning and land acquisition is complete, will go a long way to improving road safety in the Murrumbateman area and streamline access to Canberra for the many hundreds who commute to the city from Yass and the surrounding region each day. When this funding was announced, comments by the Yass shire’s mayor, Nic Carmody, on the front page of the Yass newspaper summed up people’s reaction to the news: ‘Finally, the Murrumbateman bypass is reborn.’

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads, Jim Lloyd, for his assistance in resurrecting the Murrumbateman bypass and Barton Highway issue and also the Prime Minister’s office, who have been willing to accept my repeated representations on this matter. I only hope we can now progress this project as quickly and with as little hindrance as possible through the community consultation and planning stages. Road safety is far too important for this project to be delayed any longer.

And, of course, I welcome the allocation of funding in this budget to provide a fairer child support system that is more transparent for both parents, places a greater emphasis on shared parental responsibility and is focused on the needs and costs of children. As members would know, I have been lobbying long and hard for these changes to child support, which will receive $877 million over five years. Most pleasing of all—perhaps even over and above the much awaited changes to the child support formula—is the fact that the package includes $146.6 million over five years to improve service standards and undertake significant cultural change at the Child Support Agency. I live in hope. At the end of the day, ironing out the anti-male bias which exists at the CSA will be one of the most fundamental changes undertaken. I do not make any apologies for saying that, because my records show that what I have just said is a matter of fact. I know families all over Australia are celebrating this package and looking forward to its full implementation.

In other areas this budget has also provided a real boost for the constituents of Hume. The announcement of 400 additional medical school places, putting more doctors into rural areas, is a budget measure vital to the long-term future of rural communities. This initiative is just part of new funding of $268.8 million over four years for an extra 2,020 new Australian government supported places in health disciplines, including nursing, clinical psychology and mental health nursing. It is a fact that we have a rapidly ageing medical workforce in regional areas, and it has concerned me for some time how we, as a government, could address that problem. This budget provides more than $60 million in extra funding over four years for an additional 400 places for first year medical students in Australian universities, many of whom will be bonded to rural areas. In communities such as Young in the Hume electorate, which suffers a critical shortage of skilled medical professionals, particularly GPs, this news has been warmly welcomed.

Still on education: I was reading the other day in a local newspaper the answers of three young people to the question: ‘How can more young people be encouraged to take up apprenticeships?’ Their answers were: ‘Make more apprenticeships available,’ ‘Up the pay a bit,’ and ‘The jobs need to be something where people can go in and actually do something, rather than just sit back and watch.’ I am very pleased that the Howard government is doing just that. We now have record numbers of young people in new apprenticeships, with almost 400,000 Australians in training, compared with 143,700 in December 1995. The New Apprenticeships Incentives Program provides a range of incentives to encourage employers to take on and retain new apprentices, as well as personal assistance incentives for new apprentices. Now we will provide $10.6 million over four years to extend the New Apprenticeships Incentives Program to new apprentices—and their employers—who are undertaking training in diploma or advanced diploma qualifications which are an entry level requirement for an occupation.

Employers of new apprentices in select diploma and advanced diploma apprenticeships will be eligible for a payment of $4,000 per new apprentice from 1 July 2006. Over the next four years up to 10,600 more employers of new apprentices will be eligible for the incentives for these higher level qualifications. We are also improving the situation for apprentices with funding of $53.5 million for national reforms in vocational and technical education to address the barriers to people taking up training opportunities, and to assist them to move into employment. It will also support a national approach to apprenticeships and alleviate skills gaps in the economy.

I am also pleased to see an additional $77.2 million allocated to the Regional Partnerships program in 2006-07. Regional Partnerships has already helped many hundreds of communities Australia-wide to strengthen growth and opportunities, to improve access to services, to create employment and to adjust during times of major change. This is particularly so in the regional areas, in the very severely drought affected rural areas of New South Wales and, in particular, the Hume electorate, where I am the representative.

It is heartbreaking to see the effect that this prolonged drought, the worst drought seen in a hundred years, has had on families and communities. I can say to you that the Regional Partnerships grants that have been allocated to communities to help them stimulate employment and attract visitors to their area combined with the water grants that have been made out there to allow people to sink bores and assist the community to continue offering sporting facilities in many of those areas have been welcomed with open arms by all of the rural communities that I represent. I know that those communities in the Hume electorate who have already received the funding are thankful for the leg-up it has provided. I look forward to working with communities in Hume and with their area consultative committees to put forward more projects eligible for support under the expanded program.

In closing, I want to say that in my lifetime this has probably been the most significant and the most beneficial budget that I have seen from any Treasurer, be it at state or federal level. It is very pleasing from my point of view to know that, because of the significant responsible management of the Howard government and the Treasurer, Peter Costello, we can look forward to more surpluses in the next two or three years and beyond. I think that the Australian public will understand that those surpluses have been as a result of the hard decisions that have been made by this Howard government and they will respond in the most appropriate way at the next election. I thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to make these comments in this debate tonight.

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