Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is, in fact, a debate on the budget but I thank the previous speaker for his words regarding Townsville. It is a great temptation for me to consider visiting there in the future; it sounds like a glowing spot on the globe. But what we are really talking about here today is the federal budget. It is my privilege to rise and speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2007-2008 and cognate bills, and I would like to begin by placing on record my acknowledgement of some of the positive measures in this budget from our point of view, and there are some.

I welcome the funding commitment in this budget of $71.8 million to the realisation of Griffin Legacy projects in Canberra as, hopefully, an acknowledgement by this government of the need for a strong and proactive relationship between the federal government and the nation’s capital. With the Canberra Centenary celebrations but a few short years away, I would hope we would see a continuation of this attitude towards our national capital into the future.

I also welcome the announcement of some of the tax cuts. They are long overdue and Labor has been calling on the government to deliver that very tax relief. Unfortunately, what is delivered could be interpreted as little more than bracket creep. This small relief will take some small pressure off families in Canberra who are putting that much and more into their petrol tanks and their shopping trolleys. I will be having a little bit more to say about petrol tanks a bit later today, given the latest frightening petrol prices emerging around the country. But with the increasing fuel prices and the knock-on effects of our ever-increasing grocery prices, one has to wonder how much of this new tax relief will be eaten up, if it has not been already, leaving little bonus in the pockets of working families.

I also welcome the one-off payments to carers and seniors. You would be pretty sour if you did not welcome that, but note that this government led by Mr Howard is apparently comfortable presenting to the electorate short-term, glossy, packaged one-off payments that provide a temporary relief but deliver no long-term plan to address the financial and other pressures that these people in our community continue to struggle with.

Contrary to much of the hyperbole around this budget, spruiked by the Treasurer and the Prime Minister in the days after the budget, the sad reality is that it has missed the mark. The government with this, their 11th, budget have failed to put forward a plan for Australia’s future. They have demonstrated the arrogance of extended incumbency, preferring to rest on their laurels. They choose to splurge an offensive amount of working families’ taxes on slick PR advertising campaigns, now totalling in excess of $1.7 billion since their election in 1996, with some $4.1 million this week alone on rebranding what I would call their shambolic Work Choices. It is Work Choices that has, in many cases, cut take-home pay and stripped away working people’s entitlements. These same Australians are footing the bill for this gross media buyout which the government hopes will somehow wipe out our collective memory. One has to stop and ask the question: surely this government could have and should have spent taxpayers’ hard-earned $1.7 billion better.

If people in my electorate were asked what they would like to spend their money on, I know they would say: improving access to bulk-billing and quality public health care; caring for people in our community who need our help—those with disabilities and illness, and our elderly; and delivering improved funding to our technical colleges, our universities and our schools. It is almost like the Treasurer went rolling down the supermarket policy aisle, picking the shiny sugary and hollow treats to keep the kids quiet instead of good long-term and solid policies which make for a healthy and cared for society.

I would like to concentrate for a moment on the issues which are impacting on the people in my electorate of Canberra. The city of Canberra is not only the nation’s capital, it is a place where great decisions are made and it is home to many of our national landmarks. Canberra is also a major regional city which provides the economic and social basis for the south-west region of New South Wales. Canberra, like many regional centres, is looking to the federal government to provide the services and infrastructure which will meet the needs of the people of that community. It is for that reason that I have already welcomed the funding commitment in this budget of $71.8 million, which I referred to as a hopeful acknowledgement by the government of the need for a strong and proactive relationship with the nation’s capital.

If we can just look at GP and Medicare services, one such issue our community expects the government will address is its poor access to affordable medical services. Affordable medical services come down to two things: the availability of GPs and specialists, and access to bulk-billing. Yet, sadly, the ACT continues to enjoy the unenviable tag of having the lowest bulk-billing rates in the country, at only 51 per cent. They have risen from the low forties, but they are still the lowest in the country and well below the national average of 70.8 per cent. This, along with very high out-of-pocket expenses when visiting the family GP, is a concern. The sad fact is that far too many people wait months to access specialist services.

Turning to dental care, the government has failed, in my opinion, to address the dental health of working Australians. Its announcement in the budget only pours money into this government’s already failed dental scheme which was applicable only to people with chronic diseases. They are certainly entitled to services, but this new announcement does nothing to address the waiting list backlog. This already failed program will not solve the dental problems of working families for three key reasons: it does not apply to almost all of the 650,000 Australians on public dental waiting lists, it has complex referral requirements, and it still sees patients paying very high out-of-pocket costs. Again, the government has taken the smallest of conciliatory steps to address the serious problem of its own making as a result of the rash decision in 1996 to scrap the $100-million-a-year Commonwealth dental program. As I said, we are now back to 650,000 Australians on public dental waiting lists.

Another glaring absence in this hard-sell budget was the omission of support for Australia’s People with Disability. Whilst the one-off payments to carers are welcome, the government announced nothing in the budget that can provide long-term hope to the thousands of carers in the Canberra community who are shouldering all of the responsibility for the care and welfare of our disabled. Negotiations for the new Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement—CSTDA—remain bogged down, and I believe it is due to be re-signed in the middle of this year. They are bogged down, while the minister responsible refuses any additional funding. Unmet need is continuing to soar and, frankly, people out there living with disability in their families face a bleak future. I believe it is an absolute national disgrace to see a federal government adopt this attitude. The minister cannot simply sit in the corner with his arms folded and say, ‘I’m sorry; no more money.’ I ask: how many millions of dollars are the government spending on their own political future, not the future of people living with disability?

Another area of concern in my community is child care. I welcome any funding directed towards improving the access and quality of child care in this country. Yet the Treasurer’s approach to child care has a touch of a cheap magic show act: hey-presto and, all of a sudden, families can now access the rebate for child care in the financial year in which they actually spent it rather than in the next year. I have never known the government to wait for payment from Australians, so why were Australians expected to wait for theirs? It was far too slow a system containing a flaw that was pointed out so often, so early, by so many, including Labor, and now it is suddenly being fixed. It is an election year. Child care makes up a substantial part of the average weekly wage. So whilst these discounts in costs are, again, welcome, they are, like many other government initiatives, so long overdue.

Parents are also concerned about the quality of care and the opportunities that their children have for the very best social experiences and early-learning opportunities. At present it is not hard to find a mum or dad who struggles to find any place, let alone a place that promotes learning, as well as quality care, for their children. In Canberra we are fortunate in that we have some very good centres. I want to commend, very sincerely, and thank those who work in this sector and work so hard in their care and their delivery of services to our kids.

Labor understands that quality child care serves two important roles. Firstly, affordable high-quality child care will encourage more parents back into the workforce, and giving those people the confidence to return will be good for today’s economy. Secondly—and many childhood experts would say most importantly—these early years are critical to the life learnings and capabilities of our children. For that reason alone, Labor believes early childhood care and education must be a priority. That is why I am really proud of Labor’s policy to introduce a $450 million early childhood learning program for our preschool children.

Locally I would like to pay particular ongoing tribute to the tremendous work that the local community organisations play in supporting our community, our families, our young people and our seniors. I make mention of the community based organisations Southside Community Service, Communities at Work, which covers Tuggeranong and Western Creek districts, and Woden Community Services for their ongoing efforts in the southern side of the Canberra community. All of them are involved in child care but also in more far reaching community services.

I would also like to take this opportunity to put a congratulation forward to the efforts of Red Cross on their decision to establish a mental health first aid training program. I was very pleased a few short months ago to have the privilege of launching this initiative. This program will play a positive and important role in raising the awareness and understanding of mental health issues in our community, how they affect people and how the public can best help. We all know what the Red Cross first aid programs do, so I am sure it would not take much imagination from members of this place to understand the importance of a mental health first aid training program by an organisation like the Red Cross. They are to be commended for taking that initiative.

The question of education is also paramount in my mind and in the minds of my community. This government have demonstrated what I think is a bit of a Johnny-come-lately interest in education only because they have been embarrassed into action by the policies Kevin Rudd has announced as part of Labor’s education revolution. Of course, we have welcomed quite honestly the $5 billion endowment fund, but it is a bit of a nicely packaged pre-election gimmick that only begins to fill the education hole that this government has dug for itself since it came into power. Labor has a long-held commitment to education—education highlighted by policies we have already brought to the community as part of Labor’s education revolution. They include: $111 million to encourage students to study maths and science at university; establishing a national curriculum board to develop a uniform national curriculum for the core subjects of English, history, maths and science; a $62.5 million pilot program to fund construction of shared facilities between government and non-government schools, and I have seen an example or two of that in the Canberra community and it is something that is really worth promoting nationally; a $2.5 billion plan to invest in our schools to help build new trade centres to lift school retention rates; and, of course, the $65 million Asian languages strategy. They are all very good and obviously useful and practical strategies towards our education revolution.

There is tremendous pressure on the budgets of Canberra’s working families, like so many families around this nation, as a result of four interest rate rises in two years. Housing is less affordable than ever before in Australia’s history. Households are now paying a record high amount on mortgage payments, with many families now spending 20 per cent and more of their disposable income. House repossessions are soaring, with recent reports of more than 5,000 repossessions in Sydney alone. I had consultations with a particular community agency here in Canberra late last year and again early this year—they specialise, sadly, in this sort of area—and the point was made to me: you look first at the numbers of repossessions but more importantly you look at the trend of repossessions. The trend is the alarming figure, with an ever-increasing number on a graph of how families are finding themselves put under very heavy stress in relation to mortgage repayments and the general cost of living. Then you add to that the level of rent that is rising faster than inflation. One has to ask, in light of these concerning realities, how the Prime Minister can keep a straight face when he says that Australian families have never had it so good.

As a result of those consultations that I held in my community, I made a point earlier this year of including in my community newsletter a specific insert which brought to the attention of all of the households in my electorate the need to be very aware, if any form of financial pressure begins to beset the family, of not leaving it too late—get in there and get assistance as quickly as you can. We listed with that a number of agencies that they can approach. It is enough to think that we needed to do that, and we were aware that we needed to do that given the stories that we were hearing about certain sectors of my community.

On the subject of local business, I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the ongoing role that small business plays in the growth of Canberra. I would like to thank local business owners who have responded to my recent business survey, an ongoing process at the moment. Businesses need government to help make it easier and simpler for them to do business. I do not know that that is happening as well as it should, with red tape a little bit out of control. A Rudd Labor government would understand this and deliver on our commitments to reduce business regulation, including: a superannuation clearing house; easy pay GST, which the government has adopted after months of criticising us for having put it forward as a policy; fast Commonwealth bill-paying to help improve cash flow for small businesses; and a standard disclosure form for financial services products.

The issue of climate change is of course a very big issue about which many of my community share equal concern with families around Australia. They are concerned at the failure of this government to have a plan to address climate change seriously. I believe the government have preferred to ignore this issue, denying its vital importance, only waking from their 11 years of self-induced slumber by the impending election, a few good reports and a Rudd Labor plan for action on climate change. On our side we have already announced 11 practical measures to tackle climate change. They include—and this is not an exclusive list: the $500 million national clean coal fund; a setting-up of the $500 million green car invasion fund; ratifying the Kyoto protocol; establishing a national greenhouse emissions trading scheme; boosting the use of renewable energy through enabling Australians to access low-interest loans to help install energy efficient measures such as solar panels; and so on.

Locally, I want to highlight and congratulate the efforts of residents and business owners in the suburb of Farrer who have commenced the process of making this the first carbon neutral suburb in Canberra. It is yet another demonstration that at the community level Australians recognise the significance of climate change and its impact on the environment—recognition that we need to take action to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce our production of greenhouse gases. I am pleased to see that community organising themselves in the way that they are.

In the short time left, I also want to talk about Norfolk Island. As part of my electorate I have the privilege of representing some Australian electors on the external territory of Norfolk Island—good, working Australians and their families, people I believe this government has let down. The government spent a tremendous amount of money last year commissioning a number of reports to review the governance and financial sustainability of the island. There was and is a need to work collaboratively with the Norfolk Island government and the island residents to ensure the island has a secure and sustainable future. Sadly, the minister’s subsequent submission to cabinet was dismissed, ultimately delivering nothing more than false hopes to the many island residents. The major question now is: what do the minister and his government have in mind for the future of Norfolk Island? There are many issues of concern that need to be addressed and, while it is easier to lay all responsibility at the feet of the Norfolk Island government, there is no question in my mind that the Commonwealth has an important role to play. It is extremely disappointing to see so much work done and so many dollars spent with this outcome, and I along with many residents of Norfolk Island await further word from the federal government.

We have also had a bit of success recently with FM broadcasting—given that many parts of the southern end of my electorate could not receive adequate FM broadcasting—with a lot of help from my office and elsewhere. ABC Classic FM and Triple J have announced they are going to build a new transmitter, commercial stations FM104.7 and 106.3 have new broadcast frequencies down there now and ArtSound FM, a community broadcaster, has announced a new transmitter on Mt Taylor—all power to them, literally.

At this point I would like to end where I started: on two points locally and nationally. As I mentioned earlier in my speech, Canberra is really a tale of two cities, one a major regional city, which serves us as a centre for a vibrant and growing region, and the other a national capital, a focus for who we were, are and hope to become as a nation. In just five years Canberra will celebrate its centennial. We here in Canberra are very proud of the role we play in living in and supporting the city as our national capital. However, our families, the businesspeople and our community in Canberra have aspirations for their futures and the future of our city. They want to have good education, good quality child care, affordable health services and an environment they can proudly hand on to their grandchildren. I hope that, in the future, they are able to do all of those things and more.

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