Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

and inflation and unemployment in 30 years. It is a pretty good record. We have the trifecta. The Labor government got the worst possible trifecta of any government in Australia’s history.

I thank the parliament for sending me to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting in the UK recently. The theme of that conference was good governance. I think this budget shows that we have good governance. Not only that, but people from the other Commonwealth governments around the world—those from Africa, the Caribbean nations, New Zealand, the UK, India, Pakistan and so on—all were very complimentary about the good governance of this country. In fact, the UK parliament, which is recognised by many as the mother of Commonwealth democracy, has even adopted this very thing that we are debating in here now. It has adopted a main committee, a second chamber, as well. I think imitation is the best form of flattery, and it has certainly done that.

It is with great pleasure that I rise today to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2006-2007 and cognate bills. The electorate of Barker has received some big wins through the delivery of this budget, which will address many of the key issues of importance to constituents and me. Barker received benefits for the River Murray, and I represent all of the River Murray in South Australia. We received benefits for our roads, families, pensioners, retirees and businesses, and tax cuts, amongst other things. Firstly, we were presented with the announcement of a further $500 million injection into the Murray-Darling Basin, bringing the government’s total investment in this basin to almost $2 billion since 1996. If you want to talk about environmental results and outcomes, it has been this government, the coalition government, that has actually delivered, not just talked about it.

The current funds will assist to restore the health of the Murray-Darling Basin and will in turn benefit the environment, irrigators, industry and regional communities. This allocation will also fund additional projects under the Living Murray Environmental Works and Measures Program and provide additional resources to ensure the return of 500 gigalitres per annum by 2009 for the Living Murray environmental flows. To put that into some perspective, I think the total annual allocation for the Central Irrigation Trust in South Australia, which handles most of the irrigation in South Australia along the Murray River, is 142 gigalitres. So we are delivering three times that for the environment.

The capital works which will now be possible include construction of salt interception structures and systems to reduce salinity and maintain water quality for Adelaide and other areas that are supplied by the Murray River. For example, the area where I live in Keith, some 150 kilometres away from the Murray River, is supplied by the Murray River. It will maintain quality for regional communities and irrigators. Completion of the sea to Hume Dam fishway by 2011 will allow our native fish population to reconnect along the River Murray. It will also ensure that we have maintenance and renewal of the River Murray water delivery infrastructure, which is currently being run down, and new infrastructure to maximise the environmental benefits of water recovered for Living Murray initiatives, providing greater confidence that recovery of the important ecological sites along the system can be achieved. I and the Australian government now call on the Murray-Darling states—South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland—to invest generously to restore the health of the River Murray.

I am pleased to see that roads within Barker received a boost in funding through an additional $7 million as a supplement to the Roads to Recovery program—and that is just in Barker. These additional funds will provide local government with a greater opportunity to accelerate the upgrading of the local road infrastructure. Barker has received an additional nearly $1 million through the AusLink black spot program in the latest announcements, which will include work on shoulder sealing, improvement to delineation and edge lines and the installation of staggered T type cross intersections at locations in Padthaway, Kongorong, Borongong, Colin Grove, Berri and Palmer. With the black spot program now in its 11th year, the government is continuing to ensure work is carried out at some of the high-accident areas across the nation, which is exactly what is needed to combat the unnecessary loss of lives on our roads.

The AusLink program has contributed an extra $100 million for the Sturt Highway. Added to the allocated $10 million for the Sturt Highway upgrade projects in 2006-07, the Australian government’s total AusLink funding commitments to this highway reach $159.2 million. The program will focus on regularly spaced overtaking lanes, increased road surface widths to accommodate standard width traffic lanes and sealed shoulders, reductions to sharp bends and blind crests, improved junctions with more and better defined lanes for slowing and turning vehicles, along with smoother and rebuilt pavements.

This goes a long way to increasing the safety of our roads. Roads are important in an electorate like Barker because it is such a big electorate and has a lot of roads. My electorate is about 10 per cent bigger than the state of Tasmania, so you can imagine the amount of roads that I have. I also know that you, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, have an even bigger electorate than I do, and so you would realise just how important road funding is to our electorates.

With safer roads, we will be better equipped to move South Australia’s fantastic produce, including wines, within the regions of the Barker electorate. I represent nearly half of Australia’s wine industry—the best part of the Australian wine industry—with areas such as the Barossa, Coonawarra, Padthaway, Mount Benson, Wrattonbully and so on. They are very important to my area. They are going through a tough time with the oversupply crisis that has hit a lot of our grape growers, especially in the Riverland in South Australia. We had a rally on the weekend, and it was very interesting to hear the very sad cases of grape growers affected in this region. I was very pleased to be able to announce at that rally a further $500,000 funding to help the industry get through its problems, because the grape growers in that region are really struggling—as they are in all grape-growing regions around Australia.

But small and medium sized wine producers who use those grapes have obviously benefited from this budget through the wine equalisation tax—otherwise known as WET—producer rebate scheme. When I first came into parliament, the WET system was introduced with the new tax system. There was a lot of disquiet about the WET in my electorate. I was told many times that, even though wine tax was a lot less than tax on spirits and beer, I would have no hope of getting a reduction. I am pleased to say that in 2004 we got our first reduction in WET, allowing for $1 million each year, which we got with the current scheme, to be rebated. This meant that wine producers could have up to $290,000 rebated. We further extended that to $1.7 million, which brings in quite a few of the medium sized wineries, and that now allows for a rebate of up to half a million dollars. If the wine industry can maintain its health, that helps us get through some of the problems we have with the grape industry. As you know, Mr Deputy Speaker, this has been a very important program for my electorate. Certainly, I am very pleased about it, as are all the wine producers in my electorate.

There is something in this budget for every taxpayer, which is very important. This is the sixth consecutive year that the government has been able to deliver tax cuts, and this budget is delivering personal tax cuts worth $36.7 billion, so we are certainly doing something right. The 30 per cent threshold will rise to $25,000, the 42 per cent tax rate will be cut to 40 per cent, with a $75,000 threshold, and the 47 per cent tax rate will be cut to 45 per cent, with a $150,000 threshold. In effect, this means that 80 per cent of Australian taxpayers will be facing a top rate of 30 per cent, or 30c in the dollar, and 45c in the dollar will be paid by only two per cent of Australian income earners.

Once again, the government has shown its commitment to families, with the announcement of $28 billion to assist families with children. The maximum rate of family tax benefit part A per child has increased by 75 per cent over the same period. It is now at the rate of $4,200. From July, more families will receive the maximum rate, and they will be able to earn up to $40,000 per year without having their entitlement reduced. There are also benefits through the large family supplement of $248 to families, which is now available to families with three children as opposed to the previous requirement of four or more children. One of the reasons we can afford this is we are no longer paying $8.4 billion every year to pay off Labor’s debt. We are not paying a cent now. That was wasted money going to banks. We now have $8.4 billion that we were paying in interest to banks. We have that forever. Every year we are saving $8.4 billion as a result of getting rid of Labor’s debt.

From 1 July the government will remove the cap on outside school hours care and family day care places, resulting in 99 per cent of all child-care places now being uncapped. This will deliver Barker families more places and more choices as parents balance work and family. It is a positive step to assist parents to return to the workforce. It will also allow the child-care sector to be more flexible and more responsive to the demand for child care in the local community. Parents are also being reassured through the government’s commitment to ensure that the services provided will still need to meet the required state and territory regulations. This will ensure families will still receive the standard of care they expect and deserve. From 1 July 2006 parents will also be eligible to receive the new child-care rebate of 30 per cent of out-of-pocket child care expenses of up to $4,000 per child per year.

Older Australians will benefit through the extended eligibility of the utilities allowance to cover recipients of mature age allowance, partner allowance and widow allowance. These recipients will be paid by 30 June 2006, with the same one-off payment applying to those currently eligible for the utilities allowance. This is a one-off payment on top of the benefits that they may already receive and this allowance will greatly assist those people in meeting the costs of regular bills, including gas, electricity and water.

Older Australians in the rural areas of the Barker electorate have received a double win with changes to the treatment of land under the pension assets test. I have had a lot of people from my electorate contact me on this, and I am sure you also do from your own electorate, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott. From 1 January 2007 the family home and surrounding land of people, where they have had a 20-year connection with the land and they cannot realise the asset or lease the land, will be exempt from the age pension assets test. This is a very welcome change for many of my constituents who have worked the land for many years.

The government has proposed a plan to abolish tax on superannuation benefits paid from a tax fund to people aged 60 and above from 1 July. With taxation of superannuation benefits being extremely complicated, retirees cannot be expected to readily understand how their benefits will be taxed, and that undermines confidence in the retirement income system. Under the new plan benefits paid to retirees aged 60 and above from tax funds would be exempt from tax. Benefits paid by untaxed funds, mainly to public servants, would continue to be taxed but at a lower rate. Up to 100,000 retirees a year would benefit from 2007-08.

I am pleased to see this budget has provided $214.1 million in new funding for programs to combat illicit drug use, tackle alcohol misuse and support drug and alcohol treatment services around the nation. I am particularly pleased with the $25.2 million which will be provided for a national campaign to discourage abuse of alcohol. The government’s Tough on Drugs strategy now enters its third phase, with funding being provided in the amount of $23.7 million. The campaign will target illicit drug use amongst young people and increase community awareness of the harm caused by cannabis and such stimulants as ecstasy and amphetamines.

I applaud the budget funding to increase the number of university medical students and the initiatives to increase the number of doctors in rural areas. Very importantly, in my electorate—because of its size—I have two rural clinical school programs. Our announcement to commit more than $70 million over the next four years to establish a national legislated do not call register is again welcome relief for constituents in my electorate. The Liberal government has now eliminated the $96 billion of net debt that Labor left the Australian government when it left office. The budget is in surplus for the ninth time in 10 years, and I congratulate this government on delivering a budget for all Australians.

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