Mark Baker (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last year we welcomed and passed a budget which delivered on over 10 years of strong economic management. Importantly, the 2004-05 budget delivered on our 2004 election commitments. Last year we fulfilled our promises, while this year we are delivering the fruits of the coalition government’s strong economic management and securing our future. This year, billions of dollars in tax cuts over the next four years and additional benefits for carers, seniors and families in our communities are the dividends of the coalition government’s strong economic performance. Major reforms to income tax and superannuation, bonus payments for families, carers and seniors and increased investment in our roads will help to continue Australia’s growth and prosperity.

Forgive me, Mr Deputy Speaker, for being parochial, but I believe it is also important to put this budget into the context of what it will mean for my electorate. Members may be aware that, as a result of the Hawke and Keating Labor governments, in 1996 unemployment in my electorate of Braddon, which encompasses north-west Tasmania, was around 11 per cent. The outlook was bleak and clouded and the region was stagnant, with our young people moving away to find employment. Now unemployment is around six to seven per cent. There is a skills shortage. Our young people have a future, with business development and sound economic growth.

I have said before that regional Australia is the first to feel the effects of an economic downturn and the last to recover. Tasmania, and in particular the north-west coast, was hit hard by the economic mismanagement of the previous government. ‘The recession we had to have’, high unemployment and high interest rates left not only my electorate but regional Australia reeling.

Over the past 10 years, the Howard government has turned around the national economy, and gradually regional Australia has begun to show the benefits. Direct assistance in the form of such programs as Sustainable Regions, though much maligned by those on the other side of this House, has provided added impetus for jobs growth where it is most needed. In the last few months I have had the privilege of announcing funding projects which are creating many new jobs in my region. For example, who would have thought, 10 years ago, that a milk cooperative in Burnie, Tasmania, would have the confidence to diversify into premium aged single malt whisky? But they have.

Whisky Tasmania, a subsidiary of Betta Milk, will soon be releasing the first bottles of what I am sure will become known as Australia’s finest whisky. And I am proud to say that the coalition government has been there to assist, providing more than $800,000 through Regional Partnerships and the Sustainable Regions Program. This funding is assisting Whisky Tasmania to get its product out on the shelves sooner and to open a visitor interpretation centre, which I am sure will become a major new tourist attraction. But, most importantly, the funding is expected to help create more than 20 new jobs—and they are full-time jobs. This project demonstrates much about the north-west of Tasmania and about how the coalition government is working to assist and develop regional Australia.

The benefits of strong economic growth, low interest rates and low unemployment have filtered down from the national level into our regions. In addition, the coalition has provided direct assistance to help our regions get back on their feet. In north-west Tasmania, we are seeing the benefits of the up to $12 million committed to our region under the Sustainable Regions Program. Myriad projects have been approved totalling well over $11 million, and they are already delivering results in the community, including world-class research and development in the agriculture and fishing sectors.

This year’s budget will continue to build on the coalition government’s achievements for regional Australia over the past decade. I believe the income tax cuts in my electorate will inject another $25 million into the local community in the next year alone. Based on north-west Tasmania’s average taxable income of $35,000, the tax cuts will deliver $25 million, if not more, in savings in the coming year for our region’s more than 38,000 taxpayers. This is admittedly an estimate but, if anything, it is a conservative estimate. If we base our estimate on population share then the real value of these tax cuts to the north-west community could well be much higher. Low-income owners, of whom there are many in my electorate, will particularly benefit, with a saving of some $1,011 a year, or almost $39 a fortnight, for those on an average annual wage of $25,000, thanks to a 27.8 per cent cut in the effective tax rate.

Families, seniors and carers will all benefit. Figures provided by the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs illustrate that the 2006 budget will deliver for thousands of north-west families, carers and seniors. Some 2,400 north-west Tasmanian families with three or more children are expected to benefit through the extension of the large family supplement. Those who care for others will also benefit from the one-off bonus payment due to be paid by the end of next month. The around 800 recipients of the carer payment will also receive a $1,000 bonus, while the 2,001 recipients of the carer allowance in my electorate will receive $600.

As many as 100 north-west farmers who have lived on their properties for 20 years or more will benefit substantially from the removal of their farms from the pension assets test. This means that they will not be forced to sell their farms to receive the age pension when they retire. I know this measure will be enthusiastically welcomed by many in the north-west community, given our ageing rural population, but also throughout regional and rural Australia.

Older Australians will also benefit, with approximately 12,000 seniors in my electorate expected to benefit from a one-off bonus payment of $102.80 to recipients of the utilities and seniors concessions allowances. Around 1,900 families will also benefit, with an average increase of $9.60 a fortnight due to the change in the family tax benefit part A threshold. These figures confirm the strength of the coalition government’s support for families, carers and seniors.

At the same time as putting money back into the pockets of north-west Tasmanians, this budget will deliver better and safer local roads throughout our region. Members may be interested to know that Tasmania is the only state where the Australian government spends more on road infrastructure than the state government. Given the enormous windfall that the Tasmanian Labor government is pocketing in GST revenue, this illustrates their mismanagement of road infrastructure. Tasmania once led the nation on road safety but, sadly, today we are followers. Not only is our state government stale on new road safety initiatives, it is also ignoring its responsibilities for maintaining safe modern roads, and one struggles to comprehend where we might be without the federal government’s assistance. In contrast to the state government, the Australian government is to provide a massive boost through the 2006 budget for road infrastructure. In my electorate another $18 million has been allocated in this year’s budget for duplication of the last 5.5-kilometre section of the Bass Highway between Burnie and Devonport. Work on stage 2 of the more than $70 million project which involves the construction of a second bridge over the Leven River is expected to start in August.

Municipalities with large local road networks are big winners from this budget. In Tasmania local councils will receive an additional $10 million in Roads to Recovery funding for the remainder of this financial year, a sum equal to that allocated for the coming year. Almost $4½ million has been allocated to the seven local councils in Braddon under the Roads to Recovery program, twice the amount provided in last year’s budget. The government not only will maintain funding under Roads to Recovery to assist our councils to upgrade their local roads but will also deliver supplementary funding equal to their annual allocations. This is a major win for local councils and will assist in the maintenance and upgrading of country roads throughout the north-west.

Roads to Recovery is one of the Australian government’s most successful programs because the councils determine the priorities and the Howard government provides funding to assist with this work. The extra funding provided in the budget will allow north-west councils to carry out works on roads which otherwise may not have been attended to for at least another year, if at all. I know that our local councils will be excited by the bonus funding and I am sure that it will assist to deliver safer roads across the coast. The great success of this program is that the funds are invested directly by the councils. There is no state government bureaucracy to contend with. The councils decide on their priority projects and get on with the job.

Roads to Recovery funding was in addition to the almost $1.7 billion provided to local councils by the Liberal government through general purpose and local road grants. For 2006-07 Tasmanian councils will share in some $27.6 million in general purpose and $27.3 million in local roads funding, a 3.3 per cent increase over the current year. North-west councils will also be able to continue to apply for funding under the AusLink black spot program for urgent safety improvements on roads where there has been a history of accidents. Through Roads to Recovery, local road grants and the black spot program, the Australian Liberal government is helping local councils deliver safer roads throughout the region.

The Burnie and Devonport airports will also be among the beneficiaries of the great economic recovery that this government has been able to achieve, with the five regional airports sharing in $1½ million to improve security. While this additional funding has been widely welcomed, it has not stopped Labor from misleading the public, particularly in my electorate, over airport security. Labor has tried for some time to mislead the north-west community into believing that the Australian government funds the provision of passenger screening at our major airports. The truth is that in all the major airports where passenger screening is required it is the owners of those airports that are responsible for this security measure and, presumably, they pass on the cost to airlines which then pass it on to passengers. All airports operating jet aircraft are required by legislation to provide passenger screening. Labor wants us to extend this requirement to the more than 150 non-jet airports around Australia, including Burnie and Devonport, despite the fact that a security assessment has found this to be unwarranted. If Labor had its way the cost would be carried by the airport owners, who would then pass it on to the airlines and ultimately onto passengers through higher fares. This would have the potential of undermining the viability of both the Burnie and the Devonport airports and, indeed, many regional airports around Australia and would have immense ramifications for regional Australia.

The Australian government is also taking major steps to address skill shortages in Australia. With the announcement of 25 new Australian technical colleges around the country, the government is creating a new way of skills based learning. These new colleges are about taking industry to education—a direct contrast to the old method of taking education to industry. This new method of skills based training will put industry in control of the skills that apprentices will learn, so that a graduating qualified tradesperson will have up-to-date skills which are relevant to their industry. I am proud to be able to say that there will be a campus in Burnie in north-west Tasmania. Through this college we will be able to provide industry led training to give our young people the skills that are needed for local industry.

I fought hard for a campus of the Australian Technical College Northern Tasmania to be located in the north-west, because this region is one of Tasmania’s major industry hubs. With major engineering, manufacturing and construction industries located in north-west Tasmania, skills based training is paramount to the growth of such industries. The Australian technical colleges will bring together the know-how of industry, the experience of local training providers and the expertise of educators to help meet skill shortages. In addition to completing years 11 and 12 school studies, students at the colleges will learn a trade and will be well advanced in their apprenticeship by the end of year 12. This will be a great step forward in skills based learning for Australia’s industries and their future growth.

The strength of the Australian economy over the past 10 years can be identified by: record low unemployment with the creation of some 1.7 million new jobs over the past 10 years; record low interest rates, which have enabled more and more families to purchase their own homes and businesses to expand, grow and develop; an increase in real wages of over 16 per cent, which is a dramatic comparison with the 1.2 per cent real wages growth under 13 years of the Hawke and Keating Labor governments; and a steady inflation rate of around two to three per cent, which has allowed price increases to be kept low and businesses to get on with the job of investing in capital projects.

As per the figures from the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics report, the gap between the nation’s rich and poor has narrowed as a result of the Australian government’s family tax benefits. This report found that the mean weekly incomes of low-income earners grew faster than those of middle- and high-income groups over the past 10 years. The mean weekly income of low-income earners rose some 22 per cent between 1994-95 and 2003-04, while the weekly wages of high-income earners rose by 19.3 per cent. The closing of this gap indicates that government policy is supporting and lifting low-income earners to a higher standard of living.

From 1 July 2006, the increase in income tax thresholds will be: the 15c rate up to $25,000, the 30c rate up to $75,000, the 40c rate up to $150,000, and the 45c rate for income over $150,000. Across these estimates, more than 80 per cent of taxpayers will now have a top marginal tax rate of only 30 per cent. Only two per cent of taxpayers will be affected by the top marginal tax rate from 1 July 2006.

These figures speak for themselves. The latest budget is projected to have a surplus of some $8.9 billion for 2005-06, with estimated continued surpluses of some $7.9 billion in 2006-07, $8.5 billion in 2007-08, and $9.3 billion in 2008-09. Australia is now a world leader in economic management—a stark contrast to the financial predicament Australia was in some 10 years ago, when we had a record number of bankruptcies and families losing their homes because of extraordinarily high interest rates.

In summary: what a difference between two eras. Through the 1980s and early 1990s under the Hawke and Keating Labor governments, we had doom and gloom, record high unemployment, record high interest rates, high inflation, a $96 billion debt and a country suffering from gross mismanagement. One should reflect and compare that era to the last 10 years of the Liberal-National coalition government, which has seen prosperity, record low unemployment, the lowest interest rates in decades, low inflation and Labor’s $96 billion debt paid off. The country has weathered the Asian financial meltdown, the burst of the information technology bubble and the instability of the Middle East. Australia is our lucky country and we as Australians have much to look forward to under a Liberal-National coalition government.

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