Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2007-2008 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2007-2008, which seek appropriation authority for the additional expenditure of funds from consolidated revenue in order to meet requirements that have arisen since the budget. The total additional appropriation being sought is $3.3 billion, approximately 4.5 per cent of total appropriations. Many of the items that are not in these bills represent the first stages of our government’s commitment to rein in government spending. Many of the items not in these bills represent the last desperate gasps of the Howard government as it attempted to buy itself another term. During the election campaign we made a promise to the Australian public that we would manage the public purse with diligence. This government made a commitment to the Australian people that we would identify areas where reductions, savings and offsets could be made from the previous government’s spending program. Unlike the previous government, we know we have a battle on our hands. The onus is on us, as a government for all Australians, to manage fiscal policy responsibly.

We are serious about tackling the inflation problem, we are serious about the impact that 11 interest rate increases in a row have had on borrowers and we are serious when we say that it is crucial for all levels of government to manage public finances appropriately and effectively. At present, underlying inflation is at 3.6 per cent—a 16-year high. This rate is now threatening to go even higher. Today is the day to act on the challenge of rising inflation. I acknowledge that the member for Dunkley may feel very passionately about many of the things that he has spoken on. However, the previous government failed to deal with inflation and we have been left to do it for them. Our government is serious about this challenge. Every decision we make on public spending has to be made on a long-term basis.

These proposed bills are merely the start of a long road of thoughtful public spending. This government has already announced a five-point plan to fight inflation. The first point in this plan was to ensure that the government takes pressure off demand by running a strong budget surplus. This government will show fiscal restraint. This government is committed to a budget surplus above 1½ per cent of GDP. To achieve this is not easy. To achieve this, we need to make tough decisions today. During the election we said that we would have a review of spending. We did not attempt to hide it—we said we would have a review of spending. Now our razor gang has been working to cut the waste out of the budget. In the bills that I support today this government has identified $643 million worth of savings over the next four years, including $243 million in 2007-08. We want to put maximum downward pressure on inflation. We want to do everything in our power to ease the financial burden on working families that are impacted by interest rate and inflationary pressures. This is not just some academic exercise that we are engaged in. Everything we do in this place—every spending decision we make—has a direct impact on the capacity of working families to pay their mortgages, to buy groceries or to pay their childcare fees.

There is still more to be done. The Rudd Labor government will continuously look at spending money wisely, and we will continue to review the spending of all departments to show fiscal restraint. These initial savings are just the beginning. More savings will be announced on budget night. The previous government squandered millions of taxpayers’ dollars to buy votes. Public money was pork-barrelled, public money was squandered and the economic opportunities of the mining boom were carelessly fed to the inflation monster that this government now has to fight. Four hundred and fifty-seven million dollars was spent on government advertising in a 16-month period under the Howard government. Three hundred and fifty million dollars was spent in a single year on Work Choices. Both of those initiatives alone represent the savings that we found in this budget. Imagine if the previous government had not spent that money on its profligate advertising campaigns. This bill brought to the parliament once again shows the Rudd government’s firm guarantee to the Australian public that we will follow through with our own election commitments. That is what we were elected to do.

One of the key capacity constraints in the economy today is the skills crisis. Addressing the skills crisis was one of the core planks of our election campaign. This bill sees the implementation of the first part of our government’s agenda to overcome the skills crisis: $242.1 million will be provided to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to enable a number of programs that work to tackle our skills crisis. Of this $242.1 million, $100 million will go towards establishing the National Secondary Schools Computer Fund. These grants will provide up to $1 million for schools to provide new or upgraded ICT equipment for students in years 9 to 12. This is welcome news for the schools and students in my electorate who have already shown a keen interest in taking up this funding.

Thirty-three million dollars will also be provided for the Skilling Australia for the Future program. This program will see 450,000 new training places over the next four years, at a cost of $1.3 billion. This program is set to start in April this year—Labor getting on with the job. In 2007-08 the Skilling Australia for the Future program will deliver 20,000 vocational education and training places that are aimed at people currently outside the workforce. Also, $92.6 million will be provided to the department to meet extra costs associated with the previous government’s Skills for the Future program and to extend the current program until our new program commences in April—all things that will assist in easing capacity constraints within the Australian economy.

This appropriation also sees the implementation of the government’s election promise to establish Infrastructure Australia. Infrastructure Australia will be a statutory authority that will set a clear agenda for this government’s investment in infrastructure: $2.5 million has been allocated within these additional estimates to support Infrastructure Australia’s establishment by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. Once this funding has been allocated and Infrastructure Australia has been established, their first task will be to undertake a national audit of Australia’s infrastructure—something the previous government neglected to do. It was more interested in pork-barrelling infrastructure projects in coalition seats than having a strategic approach to this country’s infrastructure needs. Infrastructure bottlenecks are just another area of economic efficiency that this government is tackling, and this first step is only the beginning.

The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research will also be supplied with $15.2 million to introduce the Enterprise Connect program, replacing the previous government’s Australian Industry Productivity Centres. This program is designed to help Australian businesses become more innovative and to boost productivity, something that we will welcome desperately in regional Australia.

During the election, in terms of the Health and Ageing portfolio, we promised to the people of the Ballarat electorate that a GP super clinic will be provided in the Ballan area. Once again I would like to reiterate this promise. A GP super clinic is needed in the Ballan area to attract doctors and other health professionals to service the needs of a growing community. Labor’s GP superclinic will be a one-stop shop for medical and allied health services. Once completed, the Ballan GP superclinic is expected to include: privately practising GPs; a range of allied health services, such as physiotherapy and podiatry; mental health services, including counselling; and desperately needed dental services. This will result in patients having to travel shorter distances, being less likely to be placed on waiting lists and being assisted in receiving the basic health care that they all deserve. Currently there is a lack of consulting space for GPs and allied health services in Ballan. A GP superclinic in Ballan will provide a great boost to this area and much improved health services for our local community. Today as part of this appropriation $33.1 million will be provided to the Department of Health and Ageing to provide upfront capital grants and recurrent funding for the establishment of 31 GP superclinics around Australia, and to provide incentive payments to GPs and allied health providers to relocate to these clinics. And I am happy to say that the Ballan GP superclinic is one of these 31 that I am supporting today. Additional funding proposed for the Department of Health and Ageing also includes $31.6 million for investing in hospitals and community health under the Better Outcomes for Hospitals and Community Health Program.

You do not need to look too far in the electorate of Ballarat to see the ongoing impact that climate change is having on the world. Just last week, Ballarat’s famous high school rowing regatta was shifted to Geelong. It was shifted because Lake Wendouree in the centre of Ballarat has once again, for the second year in a row, dried up. This was once the home of the Melbourne Olympic Games rowing. The Rudd Labor government has also ratified the Kyoto protocol, demonstrating this government’s commitment to tackling climate change. The Kyoto protocol is considered to be the most far-reaching agreement on the environment and sustainable development ever adopted.

But there are also practical solutions to fighting the effects of climate change that we need in my community. That is why during the election a Rudd Labor government promised the Australian people that we would make all of Australia’s 9,612 private and public schools solar schools within eight years. The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts will be provided with $50.8 million for the National Solar Schools Plan under these additional estimates. Federal Labor’s National Solar Schools Plan will allow all Australian schools to apply for: up to $20,000 to install two-kilowatt solar panels that will provide average greenhouse gas savings of up to 2.8 tonnes per year and up to $30,000 to install efficiency improvements so schools can invest in energy and water measures—a terrific initiative to help our environment.

This plan will encourage improved energy and water efficiency in schools and set a great example to our future generations about what is needed to combat climate change. The sum of $31.8 million will be used to provide rebates to households that join the climate change fight by installing solar hot water heaters to encourage improved energy efficiency in homes.

During the election Labor also announced a National Water Security Plan for Towns and Cities to secure water supplies by repairing water pipes and reducing leaks, wastage and evaporation. Dry conditions have contributed to a 30 per cent increase in the number of water mains bursting around Ballarat alone. Ballarat has over 1,435 kilometres in the underground network of water distribution pipes, some of it well over 100 years old. Labor wants to fix as many leaks in our water system as possible.

There is yet another practical response to the fight against climate change. The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts will also be allocated $15.2 million in these estimates to take early action on the National Plan for Water Security. Within the allocation provided by these bills, $189.8 million will also be provided to the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs to assist people with disabilities, their families and carers. An annual tax-free payment of $1,000 for each child under the age of 16 with a disability will be given to any carer who is receiving a carer allowance (child). This annual payment is a financial acknowledgement of the effort and the challenges that carers face every day. Carers provide a great service to the community and by acknowledging the increases in costs for carers we recognise the economic benefit to Australia as a whole of supporting them. There are many additional costs associated with caring for a person with a disability. Aids such as wheelchairs, communication aids and hearing aids can hit hard on a carer’s hip pocket. And let’s not forget about the hidden opportunity cost of the inability for carers to find substantial employment. This allocation will go some way to assisting those families in the Ballarat electorate who struggle to make ends meet while juggling both their own lives and also caring for their children.

An amount of $9 million has also been allocated to increase the support available to people in disability business services. Also under these bills, funding of $723 million in additional appropriation for non-operating expenses is outlined in Appropriation Bill (No. 4). Of this, a significant contribution of $466.4 million will be provided to AusAID for our nation’s contribution to the International Development Association. This funding will go to assisting some of the poorest countries in the world by helping them address the cost of basic health services, clean water and primary education, just to name a few. It will subsequently improve the long-term living conditions of those most in need.

An amount of $17.6 million will be provided to the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research for the Innovation Investment Fund. An objective of the Innovation Investment Fund is to establish a revolving self-funding scheme, and the $17.6 million represents the profit on the fund’s investment.

Also recognised within appropriations in Appropriation Bill (No.4) are additional payments to the state, territory and local government authorities. Payments to the state, territory and local government authorities of $172 million include such things as: a bring forward of $20 million under the AusLink program to assist the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government with an early initiation of projects; $63.7 million to the Department of Health and Ageing to provide funds to invest in hospitals and community health under the Better Outcomes for Hospitals and Community Health Program; and a $33 million increase for the Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement, something that went into decline under the previous government.

The government promised during the election campaign that we would show fiscal restraint, and that is what these bills represent. We promised a number of very important programs during the election campaign that will help bring inflation under control and will ease the capacity constraints that have arisen in the Australia economy. Those matters are important to take pressure off interest rates as well as taking pressure off inflation. Those are the promises that we made during the election campaign.

It is absolutely critical for the Australian government to do everything in its power to ensure that hardworking families enjoy a strong Australian economy. But it is important that we make tough decisions when dealing with the public purse. We cannot go on with business as usual, pretending that nothing has happened. The tough decisions we have made begin with implementing our election commitments and cutting the waste out of the budget to meet our target of 1.5 per cent budget surplus of GDP. We have begun with investing in areas of economic inefficiency, such as the skills crisis and infrastructure bottlenecks. These tough decisions are complemented by transparency in initiatives like Infrastructure Australia, initiatives that will take the pork-barrelling and rorts out of funding and will ensure that this government is one that looks out for all Australians—particularly, I hope, all regional Australians, not just those who live in coalition electorates.

We as a government have a responsibility to the Australian people. Australian families are the ones that have worked hard and paid taxes and they are the ones that are hit hardest by interest rates and inflationary pressures. They are the ones bearing the brunt of the previous government’s profligate spending and their inability or unwillingness to tackle the hard issues within the economy. These bills represent a responsible first step in enacting our election promises whilst equally showing fiscal restraint. The Australian people voted for this government on the basis of those promises. I support these bills.

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