Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We will negotiate in a proper, sensible and responsible manner with the states and offer them the money to abolish TAFE fees—what the government, under the former minister, should have done instead of setting up these federal technical colleges, by negotiating with the states and getting an agreement with the states to improve the skill level of this country. And they failed. It is a failure by the federal minister to negotiate properly with the states to achieve things. Federalism is about negotiations between the states and the Commonwealth and, of course, our other tier of government as well. When that fails, you have stupid things set up, like these federal technical colleges.

TAFE does an excellent job in the states, but it could do better if it had more funding and federal help. I heard an example only the other day when I was talking to the Tasmanian state minister David Bartlett, who said that the TAFE teaching delivered to the students enabled them to experience some real work practice through working with clients, developing a brief and negotiating a successful outcome. He was telling me that a number of students that he had just been talking to had won a design award to promote Tasmanian wine by designing wine labels for a client. I know Labor will be providing assistance once we are in government, and we will abolish fees to make life easier.

We also need to do a lot of work to develop new apprenticeships and trade skills in many areas and to look for ways to encourage people to finish their trade training. I understand that we also need to encourage people to finish their training in technical areas, right through to certificates V and VI and diploma levels. That is something that has been totally missed by this government.

Communications is probably at its lowest ebb yet. We have a situation where Telstra has been struggling with providing broadband. Australian technology is becoming antiquated. We are now slipping behind other countries in the world in this fight for technology and in having technology where it should be so that people can increase productivity and increase their opportunities for training and education through fast, efficient and effective technology at the right price.

Poor old Telstra is now struggling to compete because the basic infrastructure is not there. We have cut off all the options for putting Telstra’s energy and skills into rolling out new infrastructure for broadband across the country because we have sold off half of Telstra and we are now attempting to sell the other half. We need to get rid of all the sales items around the provider and get on with renewing the copper wire and looking at how we can improve fibre optics, wireless delivery and satellite access. We really have to lift our game as a nation. This government has failed to do anything in this budget to assist in this area.

Business in Australia is climbing up the wall trying to get proper services out in the regions, as you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker Causley. People are not able to do what they want where they want to do it. They cannot live and work where they want to. I know this only too well in my electorate of Lyons. One of the biggest issues is the lack of access to broadband and all other IT innovations. I could say the same about free-to-air TV. Why these two cannot somehow come together to approach and use technologies to make people’s lives a lot better, I just do not know. There is nothing in this budget to help. There is nothing at all from this government to help us in this area. And this is about productivity, it is about training, it is about education and it is about improving our country.

As it is, I have people in the Lyons electorate who have no broadband within 20 minutes of the capital city. That is disgraceful. I have people in northern Lyons who get no free-to-air television—none, zip—and they are within 40 minutes of Launceston. I noticed in one of yesterday’s news clippings another whole section of people in north-west Tasmania who suddenly have no television. They have lost it because of broadcasting changes. This is just ridiculous. A few of the millions that are being allocated to tax cuts and other things could have been better employed in making sure that communications in Australia are better delivered, that we have a plan to do the whole of this country and that we get broadband at a price that is comparable with the price in rest of the world. Labor plans to make this happen, to give Australia an opportunity to compete on equal terms with other countries.

No funds have been allocated to infrastructure and there is no vision for nation building in this budget, just cheap hand-outs for buying votes and trying to stay popular so that the Treasurer has an opportunity to have a crack at the leadership of his own party. That is how the Treasurer is looking at Australia. No budget items were allocated to help boost superannuation. There is no further encouragement for people to save for their retirement, despite the removal of the tax on the end benefits. We should be encouraging people to save more.

This brings me to the statement that the Prime Minister loves to make, especially in the parliament—and yet it is so wrong—that wages were so much lower under Labor. He is trying to imply that people are better off under the Liberal industrial relations policies. How wrong can he be? Costs were lower then so in comparison wages were higher, and the workforce put a proportion of their wages into superannuation. There were trade-offs, and tax cuts were put into superannuation. So, although the weekly payment may have been lower, workers were building on their future payments by saving in superannuation.

I believe the individual was a lot better off under Labor than under this government. We will see that as we go on, with some of the stuff that is starting to emerge. The Spotlight example, where people are losing $90 a week, is a prime example. At least in the old days they had a living wage, not a make-believe amount that the government gives with one hand and takes away with the other. We looked to the future when we introduced compulsory superannuation for everybody. That will make a lot of difference to young women just starting out in the workforce now. But there should be a greater contribution from both employers and employees, and we can do that through tax cuts. That would give a lot of people more opportunities for the future.

The other area that is a disgrace is the funding for defence forces and veterans. There have been comments made lately by the federal Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Bruce Billson, that Defence Force personnel should be more emotionally resilient. He was criticising the troops from the past as being misfits and ne’er-do-wells. What the devil does that mean? I do not understand, but I think I have some idea. Our very highly trained and efficient defence forces are sent into areas of conflict and at times become affected by what they experience and see. They should be emotionally affected; if they were not they would probably be robots, just primed to kill and nothing else. That is not what our troops are; in most cases they play great roles in peacekeeping and as trainers. They are human beings, so it is not surprising that when they are faced with atrocities these things affect them.

As veterans they should have the same resources as those that are physically injured. Mental injuries are just as long lasting and are more likely to affect their families and be passed down to their children. Today our defence forces are spread all over the place, with long tours of duty because recruitment is down, and we are running out of troops. Inevitably some will not be able to cope as well as others.

We are wasting our time in Iraq. I think we are spending $1 billion plus there. We have all these problems in our local areas, like East Timor, the Solomon Islands and other parts of the Pacific, where we could be playing a lot more of a role and spending that money on diplomatic work, aid, training and making better governance. We seem to be able to spend money on war zones, but not in our own area looking after our own troops, either serving or retired. Not only is this government not looking after them but it is insulting those on the front line. It is heartless and thoughtless and should be strongly condemned. My veteran constituents are demanding an apology from the member for Dunkley for his insensitive comments.

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