David Fawcett (Wakefield, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will try to respect the request to keep the length of speeches to a minimum, but I wish to cover so many positive aspects of the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2006-2007 and cognate bills. This budget builds on a number of others that have benefited so many people in Australia, and particularly the people in Wakefield.

After 10 years, many people are now starting to take for granted the fact that there will be budget surpluses, record low unemployment, low interest rates and low inflation. Yesterday I had the privilege and pleasure of opening a conference on the helicopter industry in Australia and the Pacific, and we had a number of industry participants from North America, Europe and Asia. They remarked a number of times on the economic management in Australia and the strong conditions that this government has created for industry, employment and people, and they observed that people here in Australia enjoy a high standard of living. Those comments were remarkable. But what does this budget, building on previous budgets, mean for the people of Wakefield?

Firstly I would like to highlight the point that people continue to benefit from the underlying investment ongoing in areas such as health and aged care. Investment in health and aged care, for example, has doubled since 1995 to well over $40 billion. Investment in skills training, in real dollar terms, has increased from around $1 billion in 1995 to over $2½ billion now. These measures build cumulatively and people benefit from them. For example, with tax cuts, people often look at a budget and ask, ‘Where is the tax cut for this particular group?’ But, cumulatively, you see that people individually are paying less tax now. Many people say that this is the highest taxing government ever but they ignore the fact that, while the revenue from tax may be high, it is because there are more people in work now than ever before; hence there is a larger base for the revenue. Individuals are not footing that bill per se.

I would like to take this opportunity to recap some of the specific things that this economic management has meant and some of the factors that underpin it. One of the things that has characterised this coalition government is the fact that local members and the government try to remain connected with people at the local community level. Communication is important. Individually, I have taken that up by continuing my regular presence at train stations, listening posts and shopping centres and by doorknocking, as well as having regular structured meetings with local government to optimise the outcome for regional developments and investment. So the CEOs and mayors from the Wakefield Regional Council, the Light Regional Council, the Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council, the District Council of Mallala, the Town of Gawler Council, City of Playford, City of Salisbury Council and I have regular meetings to discuss how we can best work together at both an Australian government and a local government level to see investments that are not opportunistic but really will benefit the health and prosperity of people in the region of Wakefield.

I also facilitate the Wakefield Forum, which is an opportunity every six to eight weeks for people involved in particular sectors—whether it is health, education, aged care, tourism, small business or defence—to come together with the appropriate minister so that they can hear first-hand some of the government’s policy initiatives and the background and thinking behind them. And, importantly, they then have an opportunity to provide direct feedback on those things that they perceive are working well and those areas for which they believe policies can be enhanced. They have proved incredibly popular because people value the opportunity to directly connect with the ministers of this government to make sure that our policies truly work to the benefit of people.

Not only have we listened but we have acted. Nationally, unemployment is at an all-time low. In Wakefield, there are areas where unemployment is as low as 1.5 per cent. There are also areas, however, where unemployment is near 10 per cent and we have some of the classic problems of substance abuse, dependency and intergenerational unemployment. Having connected with and listened to people and tried to find solutions that they believe would work, I am pleased to say that this budget supports a number of measures that have been brought in by the coalition government.

The technical college which will be located in Elizabeth West has received terrific support, both from the community and also importantly from the business sector—and not just peak bodies, but individual employers who have signed up to be on the board and who have committed to taking on apprentices. Based on recent developments in the southern part of Adelaide and the feedback we have had from other parts of the country, we expect to be well and truly oversubscribed in terms of the people who would like to take up trade training.

We recognise, though, that there are some young people who, because of the barriers they face, do not have the capacity individually to even stay at school or move into something like the technical college. Having looked around to see who is delivering effective outcomes, not just making good promises, we have funded Boys’ Town to the tune of more than $600,000 to come down and set up in the city of Playford to make that strong connection with youth who have disconnected from education and ongoing training. Based on what they do in Logan, Boys’ Town have a fantastic record of connecting these kinds of young people with meaningful employment by shaping their attitudes. Most employers tell me that, if they get a young person with a good attitude, they will give them the particular workplace skills that they need. The Boys’ Town program works hand-in-hand with employers to achieve that outcome. Some 80-odd per cent of the people who go into their programs get the kinds of outcomes that we are looking for.

We have also, through things like the Sustainable Regions program, given over $1 million to the Northern Advanced Manufacturing Industry Group. This is a group of employers and manufacturers who work together with high schools in the area to give hands-on experiences to young people. They can come out and see how the kinds of things that they learn in school such as maths, science and physics translate into the workplace and what kinds of career opportunities there are. We have employers leveraging off this program and coming up with things like the Concept Creation program, where these young people are encouraged and given the opportunity to develop their own innovative abilities so that they have a purpose to stay connected to school and to move into the workplace.

Then there is the Investing in Our Schools program. There is a strong connection here. This meets the needs of local communities, because they have identified that the structures that are often put in place by the state governments do not meet the real needs they have. This has been incredibly well received. Then there is federal government funding going to individual schools. For example, in Kapunda, the high school science labs were downright dangerous and out of date. Some $2.3 million went directly to that school project. The coalition has funded simple things, such as the connecting of communities with early childhood education. Early childhood education is important, but many people cannot access that if they do not have a second car in the family or even a first car. The government has funded groups like the Playford council for a bus so that they can move young mothers and their children and connect them to some of these early learning opportunities.

There are more opportunities in child care. There is incentive funding to establish child care in Kapunda. We are working with people in Clare to make sure that they have adequate child-care services. There is more vacation child care at St Thomas Moore, for example, in Elizabeth. Importantly in this budget, out of school hours care and family day-care have been uncapped, which will provide great opportunities.

Programs such as Work for the Dole have seen the township of Gawler benefit from renovations at the Gawler train station. The Elizabeth Lions facility has been upgraded. Then there are things like Green Corp. I have been involved with a number of Green Corp projects now and have seen the life-changing impact on young people who have been put into an environment where they are encouraged and mentored to develop the life skills and the habits that will make them employable. I have been pleased to have been able at the end of that to take some of these young people who have not yet picked up work and connect them with employers. In fact, only last week I received a phone call from an employer saying, ‘I just want you to know that that young man is still with me.’ Despite all the issues that he was facing, the basis of the Green Corp program, coupled with an employer who was prepared to encourage and mentor him, has created an opportunity for this young man that will transform his life.

With regard to infrastructure, this budget continues the vision of AusLink in building infrastructure for this nation. Communities have long bemoaned the fact that there has been a disjointed approach to infrastructure planning in this nation. It is one of the great achievements of this coalition government that we have put in place a program where local governments, state governments and the Australian government, along with user groups, come together and look at transport corridors and put down in order of priority the connections and the infrastructure that they need to ensure goods flow and that safe travel for people is possible.

The coalition government have done specific things for local communities: the Black Spot funding for Hoskins Corner on the Balaklava-Mallala Road; the new northern approach to Adelaide, which will take traffic off Main North Road and make it a safer, cleaner environment and more effective for the transport of freight; and, with regard to West Avenue, allocating some $5 million to link Elizabeth West and Edinburgh Park so that we can see further investment by industry and creation of jobs for the people of Northern Adelaide. There has been cooperation and leadership from the federal government over things like flood mitigation. There have been programs that cost some $20 million where, under the original formulas, local governments just could not afford to invest in. Leadership from the coalition government has looked at changing the funding formula so that the federal government and the state government picked up a larger amount, which has seen the Gawler Regional Flood Mitigation program now funded after more than 12 years of inaction because of a lack of structure, leadership and guidance at the local and state levels. I commend the local governments who have come together and worked within this new framework to reach agreement, which is going to benefit all of the people along the Gawler River floodplain.

There are other areas I could cover with regard to infrastructure, such as health care out of hours funding, skilling Australia’s defence industry, new facilities for Vietnam veterans, the ex-military rehabilitation centre and aged care, but I am out of time. In summary, I want to confirm the fact that one of the reasons I so strongly support this government’s approach is that it seeks to connect with people. My objective in the electorate of Wakefield has certainly been to connect with people, listen to them, bring back their ideas and see effective outcomes that benefit the people of Wakefield and build a stronger Australia.

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