Jim Lloyd (Robertson, Liberal Party, Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I speak on the appropriation bills tonight. This 2007 budget is the result of hard work—hard work by the government and, more importantly, hard work by the people of Australia. It has come about because of many reforms that we have put in place: tax reform, which was opposed by those who sit opposite; waterfront reform, which was opposed by those who sit opposite; industrial relations reform, which was opposed as well by the Labor opposition. Every measure that we have put in place to ensure that the economy is strong and to pay off the Labor Party debt of some $96 billion has been opposed by the Labor Party opposition. But now because we have paid off that debt, saving some $8 billion a year in interest payments, we can invest in the future. Since 1996, due to the hard work of all Australians, there are two million more people in work, we have unemployment at a 32-year low, real wages are up by some 23 per cent and we have low inflation and low interest rates.

This budget will see tax cuts of some $31.5 billion over the next four years—again, rewarding Australians for their hard work. There will be $5 billion in the Higher Education Endowment Fund. To improve childcare assistance, the childcare benefit will increase by 10 per cent over indexation and the childcare tax rebate will be available as a direct payment. This is an important initiative for the people in my electorate of Robertson, where many people are commuters and there are many families where both parents work. We certainly need the increase in the childcare benefit, and making the childcare tax rebate available as a direct payment will be of great benefit to many of the families in Robertson.

Another great initiative in the budget is rewarding older Australians and carers with the $500 one-off bonus for pensioners and $1,000 to recipients of the carer payment. These are benefits that older Australians deserve because they are the people who have worked all their lives to ensure the financial prosperity that we enjoy today. It would be unfair for us as a government not to allow them to share in this prosperity. In my electorate of Robertson we have many people who have chosen the Central Coast as their retirement area, so I am very pleased with this initiative.

In my portfolio of Roads there is the AusLink funding. The Australian government will invest a massive $22.3 billion in Australia’s land transport system from 2009-10 to 2013-14 under AusLink mark 2. This is the biggest investment in land transport infrastructure that has ever been made by an Australian government. It is a massive 41 per cent larger than the current AusLink program. The government is investing some $15.8 billion under the current program, from 2004 to 2009, including $250 million in extra funding that the government will spend on AusLink strategic regional projects in 2006-07. The government is also investing an extra $300 million in the AusLink Strategic Regional Program under AusLink 2 which will enable councils to submit new applications for funding. Of course, we have the continuation of the AusLink Roads to Recovery program, one of the most successful programs the government has introduced in recent years. That program will continue until June 2014 and we will increase its funding by some 14 per cent from June 2009. Roads to Recovery funding will increase from $307.5 million per year at present to $350 million per year from 2009-10. That means that every single council in Australia will share in this additional funding that can be spent on their local roads.

Under the AusLink program I am pleased that there is additional funding for the further planning of the important F3 to M2 link, which is to the south of my electorate. It is critical not only for commuters in my electorate of Robertson but for all transport heading north out of Sydney along the Pacific Highway or the New England Highway. I am also pleased that there is funding in the budget to allow the continuation of the F3 widening program, which is currently under construction between Cowan and Wahroonga. This will see a great improvement in the current delays that are experienced not only by commuters but also by the freight transport industry as they try to get in and out of Sydney. I am very pleased that those particular measures are of great benefit not only to my constituents but to the constituents of Dobell and the electorates further north up the New South Wales coast. The AusLink black spot program will continue until June 2014, with a 33 per cent increase in funding to $60 million a year from 2009-10. The extension of this program will fix around 2,300 dangerous locations on Australia’s roads.

In 2007-08 the government will spend some $72.4 million on the Regional Partnerships Program. It is a program that I know those sitting opposite do not like but it is critical and very important to communities all around Australia. It has made a magnificent contribution to the infrastructure of many communities around Australia. That program is key in helping regional communities, particularly with their economic development programs.

One program which did not get a lot of publicity in the budget, but which is going to make a significant difference to the Australian community, is the bushfire program. The government will provide some $41.2 million over the next four years to help the states and territories lease aerial firefighting equipment similar to the famous Elvis sky crane that we see every year doing a wonderful job saving homes, lives and properties all around Australia. On a yearly basis our spending on aerial firefighting will increase by 25 per cent from its current level of $8 million in 2006-07. And $20 million will be spent over the next four years to extend the Bushfire Mitigation Program, which helps fund fire trails and other measures to make it quicker and easier for firefighters to get bushfires under control. This program was originally due to end in 2006-07 and will now continue until June 2011.

With my electorate of Robertson being well and truly surrounded by national parks, bushfires are a constant risk to my constituents. I know that they have benefited greatly from this Bushfire Mitigation Program. In some of the bad years we have certainly seen the aerial firefighting services save many homes and much property in and around the electorate of Robertson. So I am very pleased that we have been able to extend this particular program.

Local councils will receive some $1,749.4 million in financial assistance grants in 2007-08. The government’s grant funding is $65.2 million, or 3.9 per cent higher than it was in 2006-07. I know that the road funding and the local government funding was certainly welcomed by the Australian Local Government Association. The media release that they put out immediately after the budget says it all under the heading of ‘Budget bonanza for local roads’. The President of the Australian Local Government Association, Paul Bell said:

I am pleased that the Federal Government has recognized the transport expectations of local communities that are beyond the financial capacity of local councils.

I especially welcome the $250 million for the AusLink Strategic Regional Program made available immediately. The initial program was over-subscribed by more than a billion dollars and this additional funding goes some way to meeting this enormous unmet demand for economic infrastructure in regional areas.

The press release went on:

Cr Bell also welcomed the longer term commitments from the Federal Government to community transport infrastructure through the $1750 million for the Roads to Recovery Program over the 5 year period of AusLink 2 and the $300 million for the Strategic Regional Program over the same period.

Whilst ALGA has welcomed the budget I would like to make a couple of comments on the local government reforms that are currently being rammed through by the Queensland Labor government. I attended a rally in Barcaldine with Bruce Scott recently. The anger and concern there was quite extraordinary. I know that there have been many rallies throughout regional Queensland in the last few days. I appeal to the Queensland government to listen to the communities and to delay these reforms.

There was a process of reform under way—the SSS process; the Size, Shape and Sustainability program—which was being worked through with ALGA and the local councils. It certainly would have gone back to the communities in the form of referendums for those councils that chose to voluntarily amalgamate. But this heavy-handed approach by the Beattie government is without precedent. The communities are not going to have a say on this. I believe the boundaries are going to be decided by a committee of seven people without the communities having input into it. It is something that I certainly do not support, and I know the Australian government does not support forced amalgamations.

It is interesting that the Leader of the Opposition went up to Queensland. We have seen claims being made that, should we have an Australian Labor government after the next election, they will be able to work hand in glove with all the states and territories because they are all of the same political persuasion. The first real test of that was when Kevin Rudd went up to Queensland and spoke to the Premier, Mr Beattie, and told him that he did not support what he was doing. Mr Beattie, I think, basically said: ‘Thanks, but no thanks. I’m going to get on with what I’m doing without listening to the people of Queensland.’ So I certainly think that the Leader of the Opposition has failed in the first step of showing whether he can work with the state governments.

I was also concerned about the fact that people take the budget good news for granted these days. I was reflecting on the fact that basically since 1996 people who are 30 or younger really have not known a Labor government. They have not known Labor budgets. I thought that I might do a little bit of research, because the expectation was that people looked forward to our budgets. They have gotten used to the rewards—the returns for hard work, effort and reform—and the expectation on budget night is that people will think, ‘What’s in it for us and how much is the government going to give us back in tax cuts, increased road funding and increased funding for education?’ There was never any concern about the negatives.

So I asked the Parliamentary Library to do a little bit of research on the front pages of the Daily Telegraph after each of the budgets in the last decade under Labor. What I found was very interesting. When we go back as far as 20 August 1986 we see the headline, ‘Budget axe on welfare, jobs and wages’. It said:

This is how the budget brought down by Treasurer Paul Keating last night will affect you.

It went on to say that for wages there would be a two per cent discount in the January national wage increase and a threat of further discounts—lower wages. Welfare was slashed by $500 million and health was slashed by $300 million. Petrol and diesel were up 3c a litre from midnight. In relation to tax cuts, the first stage was delayed and the second stage might get introduced.

Then we had new taxes on luxury cars, wine, some non-alcoholic beverages, flavoured milk, swimming pools, kitchen sinks, toilets, bathroom fittings and a sales tax crackdown on computer software. Bank accounts debit tax went up. That was in 1986. I will move to 1990. I wish those people listening to this broadcast could see the front page of the Daily Telegraph. There is a caricature and a huge headline ‘Slugger Keating. Old, sick and jobless hit’. The article stated:

Treasurer Paul Keating delivered a penny-pinching Budget which left pensioners and families feeling punch-drunk last night.

Mr Keating said sacrifices were needed to lift Australia off the canvas to win the battle against inflation and foreign debt.

That is very interesting. In August 1992 in another article it stated:

Consumers will be hit with tax increases on everything from cigarettes, Medicare, swimming pools and bank interest to pay for new jobs outlined in the Budget.

New business taxes will also be considered next year ...

On 18 August 1993 I have highlighted a photograph of a family with two kids on the front page of the Telegraph Mirror. Underneath it says: ‘They have gone back on so many of their promises so far it’s just not funny.’ It says what the Treasurer gave and what the Treasurer took.

After Labor delivered its last budget, the front pages were very interesting. Some people might say, ‘You have gone back a long way into history.’ I have not gone back that far. I have the front page of the Telegraph Mirror on 10 May 1995 and I also have the front page of this year’s budget special. Both articles are by chief political reporter Malcolm Farr. Malcolm has been around for some time: the same reporter—different stories. The headline on 10 May 1995 is ‘ Pay to save’. Under the heading ‘What you gain and lose’ it states:

Taxes—

we all know about the l-a-w tax cuts—

Promised second round of tax cuts for middle income earners dropped.

This is followed by:

The tax rises were announced last night as the Government pledged to match dollar-for-dollar superannuation contributions on a sliding scale.

Then there is:

... a Budget brought to a surprise, although token, surplus of $718 million.

We now know that that was a lie. When we came into government, there was a $10 billion deficit and a total deficit of $96 billion. It is only through the Charter of Budget Honesty that we have been able to get the exact figures. The article continued that this so-called surplus ‘is achieved through a $700 million trimming of spending and $2.3 billion in tax rises’. The article said:

The tax rises include a 10 per cent excise increase on cigarettes, a 5 per cent jump in sales tax on new cars, and a new 12 per cent sales tax on hardware and materials used to complete home construction.

If my memory serves me right, there was such an outcry that it had to renege on that increase. Company taxes were hit with a rise in tax from 33 per cent to 36 per cent, and the Medicare levy was also increased. Writing about this year’s budget in the Daily Telegraph the same chief political reporter, Malcolm Farr, says:

Tax cuts for all and billions for education—

with a caricature of Peter Costello—

Who’s a clever boy then.

Peter Costello last night created a $5 billion university endowment fund in a Budget.

It goes on to say:

The tax cut is worth $14.42 a week for an average family earning $55,000 to $60,000 a year—carefully shaped to avoid pressure on inflation and interest rates.

The Budget attracted widespread acclaim  from business, family and environmental groups.

…         …         …

The Treasurer used his Budget speech to detail and praise the Government’s economic record over 11 years - and to urge voters to let it continue that management task.

“Back in 1996 the Budget was in deficit. We were living beyond our means,” he said. Today we are living within our means.

As far as I am concerned, the warning for young Australians is very clear. The economy does not run itself. The position we are in now has not happened by accident. If we were to see wall-to-wall, union controlled Labor governments in every state and territory—and in the federal government—it would be a very sad day for those young people who are trying to pay off their mortgages, raise a family, start a business and get on with life. Instead of looking forward to surplus budgets where the effort from the government and the hard-working taxpayers of Australia is returned to them in increased infrastructure funding, increased education funding and increased tax cuts—and believe me, nothing has changed with the Labor Party: they might like to say that they have changed, but, believe me, they have not—look at Labor’s record, not at what they say. Look at what they do and look at the control behind them. You could be looking at budgets where people are losing not gaining.

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