Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker Saffin, I would like to commence my contribution by congratulating you on your election as member for Page and for your elevation to the Speaker’s panel. I look forward to seeing you in that chair on a number of occasions, and I really look forward to working with you over the life of this parliament. Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2007-2008 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2007-2008 are about delivering on the Rudd government’s election commitments. This legislation signals a very different approach to government. Gone is the mean-spirited, divisive, narrow approach of the Howard government—an approach that lacked any sort of vision, an approach that led from behind. We have moved to a new approach, an inclusive approach, a visionary approach—an approach that was signalled at the very start of this parliament with an apology to the Indigenous people of Australia.

Whilst the Rudd government will be a reformist government and a government of great leadership, it will also be a very fiscally responsible government. That is why the Prime Minister has signalled our fiscal responsibility with his 10-point plan. The 10-point plan includes investing in an education revolution to lift the skills and know-how of the Australian workforce. The previous government ignored the skills crisis that existed in Australia. It chose to bury its head in the sand. It chose to let Australia enter the state that we are in at the moment, simply because it would not acknowledge the fact that we had a skills crisis. It was more about doing the workers over. It was more about giving it really hard to the hardworking men and women of Australia. The second part of the Prime Minister’s plan is to accelerate the digital transformation of the Australian economy through a high-speed national broadband network. Within the electorate I represent in this parliament, Shortland, which is a metropolitan electorate, there are many residents who in the time of the Howard government just could not access basic broadband. The Rudd Labor government is going to get around this and make sure that the people of Australia are delivered high-speed broadband.

The third point of the Prime Minister’s plan is to reform regulatory arrangements to minimise the compliance burdens on individuals and businesses. Members on this side of the House have seen, on occasions, how businesses are absolutely stifled and strangled by the regulatory compliances that were put upon them by the Howard government. Similarly, individuals—constituents who I represent in this House—find that these restrictions, these requirements for them to jump through hoops just to get the most basic services, work against them. They work against them being able to develop the skills that they need to and work against them being able to access the knowledge that they need. These restrictions even work against their being able to access work.

The fourth point of the Prime Minister’s plan is to take decisive action on the long-term challenges of climate change and the water shortages which threaten the viability of many Australian regions and industry sectors. The previous government ignored, for 11 long years, the fact that climate change even existed. It refused to sign Kyoto. I have never been more pleased with the action of any Australian government than I was with the action of the Rudd government in signing the Kyoto protocol, which it did right at the beginning of its term.

The other point of this plan is to widen Australia’s economic engagement with key economies in the Asia-Pacific region. You can see by the actions of the Rudd government already that it has acted to see that this happens. The future of Australia is in our interaction with that region. The future of Australia is not the Howard way but rather the Rudd way.

One of the issues that I would like to raise is the way that the Howard government chose to allocate funds. Those of us on this side of the parliament were constantly faced with the rorts of the Howard government, where funds were directed not based on merit but rather based on which National Party seat or marginal government seat that particular project happened to be in. The Regional Partnerships program was one of the vehicles for that. In my own area on the Central Coast we saw the Tumbi Creek fiasco. We on this side of the House will be adopting a very different approach to those projects in regional Australia and throughout the whole of Australia. We will have a very transparent approach, an approach that delivers to people in an open way, so that people can understand why that money has been allocated.

The parliamentary secretary has undertaken an audit of all those projects that were previously promised money under the Regional Partnerships program. One of those projects was a project in my electorate, the Fernleigh Track, which was allocated $750,000 as part of a commitment made by the Rudd government in the lead-up to the last election. I would like to say today that that commitment will be delivered on. The parliamentary secretary has assured me that that will be the case. And I would like to assure the people of Shortland electorate that the money for the Fernleigh Track will be delivered. It is a wonderful initiative, and one that is of regional importance. It is not only of importance within Shortland electorate; it has the support of both Newcastle and Lake Macquarie councils. A working group has been working on it for many years. That $750,000 will be coming the way of the Fernleigh Track.

But I have to express my extreme disappointment at the Lake Macquarie City Council. When they heard about the audit, Lake Macquarie City Council did not come and see me. Rather, they ran to the media, I understand. I was contacted by the media. I learnt about the media’s concerns in relation to the Fernleigh Track not through the media but through a third party. It is my understanding that their concerns were tabled at a council meeting on Monday last week. I was contacted by a journalist the next day, and then some time during the day there was a message for me that an employee of the council wished to talk to me. What causes me even more concern is that Councillor Coghlan of Lake Macquarie City Council, despite assurances and despite my communication with the council, has been running around part of the Shortland electorate saying that the funding for the track is in doubt. His actions stand condemned, and I am sure that the community will judge him on his actions at the next local government election.

Another Rudd government commitment to the people of the Shortland electorate was the reopening of the Belmont Medicare office, an office that was closed by the Howard government in 1998, despite the fact that it was a high-volume office, despite the fact that it serviced a very elderly community and despite the fact that its need was well and truly established. I would like to put on the record here today my appreciation of the Minister for Health and Ageing for her commitment to open that Medicare office and I know that the people of Belmont, Swansea and surrounding areas will be extremely happy about its reopening. It will be reopened because it is needed.

Health has been a very big issue within the Shortland electorate. There is a chronic doctor shortage. I have been speaking to the Minister for Health and Ageing. With our different approach to health, I am sure that we will be delivering to the people of the Shortland electorate on health. There is also a crisis in dental care, with pensioners waiting very long times to access dental treatment. Once again, the Rudd government will deliver on its commitment to the people of Shortland and Australia to make sure that they do not have to live in pain and agony and have their whole physical wellbeing undermined by poor dental health. The Rudd government’s approach to health is very different from that of the Howard government. Gone is the blame game and we now have a new era of cooperation between the Commonwealth and the states. Under the Rudd government, many of the recommendations of The blame game report, which was brought down in the last parliament, will be implemented in contrast to the approach that was adopted by the previous government.

I notice that in the appropriation bills mention is made of immigration and citizenship. I hate to return to the theme of Lake Macquarie City Council, but on Australia Day the Mayor of Lake Macquarie refused to allow the representative of the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Greg Combet, the honourable member for Charlton, to deliver his message at the citizenship ceremony. In the time that I have been attending citizenship ceremonies I have never seen that done by a mayor or a general manager. I understand the general manager was in agreement. I attend citizenship ceremonies in the Wyong Shire Council and Lake Macquarie City Council areas. I have written to the minister asking him to give me a ruling on the breach of the code of practice for citizenship ceremonies by the Mayor of the Lake Macquarie City Council—Councillor Greg Piper, who is an Independent—in his refusal to allow the honourable member for Charlton to deliver the minister’s address.

One of the first instructions the Prime Minister gave to his members was to visit schools in their electorate. I have a very strong relationship with schools in my electorate. The schools in my electorate gave me a pretty strong message about the types of things that they need. For a very long period of time they felt marginalised by the previous government’s approach to education. Even the Investing in Our Schools Program chose to communicate with the P&Cs as opposed to the schools themselves. They raised with me issues such as teachers having access to computers, wireless networks and software licences—all things that need to be looked at; a revelation in learning management; a professional approach; school security; environmental concerns; and how within their schools they had to combat quite adverse conditions when creating an atmosphere for their students to learn.

I give an undertaking to the schools in the Shortland electorate that, along with the government’s promise to deliver computers to students and to work with the schools, on a personal level I will work each and every day to ensure that their voices are heard down here and to ensure that the students in the Shortland electorate get a quality education—and that quality education means that they have access to the latest learning technologies.

Given that I have been asked to finish a little earlier so that the minister can sum up the debate, I will finish my contribution here. I thank the minister for introducing this legislation and for the content of this legislation and I thank the Prime Minister for delivering on the commitments that he has made to the Australian people and to the people of the Shortland electorate.

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