Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 and related bills for the 2008-09 budget. Sadly, the good people of my electorate of Paterson are to suffer under the ruthless Rudd Labor government’s first budget. The 2008 budget has seen some of the most valuable funding and support programs for regional and rural communities axed by this metro-centric government. This program was designed to assist community groups with large projects outside their budget constraints to bring regional communities together to work as one. The Regional Partnerships program had delivered for the community at Paterson—for example helping the coastal patrol at Forster-Tuncurry to purchase a rescue vessel suitable for shallow waters. Some $22,550 in matching funding was provided for these heroes who put their lives on the line for others. Port Stephens Community Arts Centre was helped to extend its premises to include woodworking facilities with a $65,866 grant—again, bringing the community together by providing an outlet for ambition. Gresford Showground Reserve was helped to increase capacity of the arena and improve customer and tourist resources with a grant of $27,500. Expansion of the Karuah Community Hub was made possible with a $264,000 grant. That has helped this community left empty by a Pacific Highway bypass. Gloucester Community Workshop Facility was assisted with the costs of construction and the fit-out of the facility with a $103,764 grant. This group helps make the homes for the disabled usable—hardly a pork-barrelling measure, unless the Rudd government thinks that disabled people are not worth funding or fighting for.

Communities were left waiting for answers on Regional Partnership grants prior to this budget, which would have been an enormously valuable exercise for seniors, families, the disabled and low-income earners with their respective parts of the electorate. They have now missed out on the funding because of a ruthless Rudd Labor government budget. Projects such as the building of extensions to the rear of the existing Uniting Church in Karuah to create the Karuah Community Caring and Youth Centre, which would have provided a safe place to be and opportunities for young people to interact with their community, only sought just over $147,000 out of a $310 million program.

The Local Government Training Institute is managed by the 12 member councils in the Hunter region that actively seek opportunities for cooperation and resource sharing. The core business of the unit is to research, develop and coordinate training for council employees which is cost-effective and accessible locally to all concerned. The project cost was $1.836 million and the funding sought was only $700,000. Other projects that were under development by the Hunter Area Consultative Committee that will never see the light of day include the Dungog multipurpose centre that the Dungog Agricultural and Horticultural Society and the Dungog Shire Council have been working together to develop. This project had already secured state government funding to the tune of $65,000. The additional funding from the Regional Partnerships program would have allowed for a larger centre to cater for indoor sports.

Clarence Town Senior Citizens Centre wanted to expand its existing facility to double the size of the centre, upgrade the kitchen facilities and provide disabled access to facilitate expansion in the group’s activities. Clarence Town, although a growing community, has restricted public transport facilities and a lack of modern community facilities. This, combined with an ageing population, makes plans to improve the building to create better community facilities commendable.

The Fighter World relocation funding of $528,000 was approved by the coalition, but not contracted. This grant would have assisted in relocating the only themed specific aviation museum in Australia to a more suitable site at RAAF Williamtown, enabling Fighter World to increase its exposure to potential visitors and, among other things, display exhibits such as the Sabre, Machi, Mirage, F111 and FA18 aircraft. Simply put, the scrapping of Regional Partnerships programs means less money for regional Australia. The Minister for Finance and Deregulation has gutted Regional Partnerships by announcing the program will be cutting the coalition’s Growing Regions program by $145 million. Many promises were made in the lead-up to the 2007 federal election—erratic, vote-grabbing promises made by the Rudd Labor Party, with little or no foresight or substance to ensure their ultimate completion.

Health care is an issue of great importance to the Paterson electorate. With one of the highest aged constituencies in Australia, we rely on our health facilities and workforce as much as any other region in the country. Health services in the Paterson electorate are under pressure. Overworked and under-resourced centres such as the Tomaree Community Hospital in Port Stephens are struggling to maintain their level of medical care on a budget stretched almost to breaking point. Our public health system suffers from a shortage of doctors, leading to excessive working hours and strain. One doctor was recently quoted as saying that he was very much looking forward to working only a 12-hour shift.

The situation has become so dire at the Tomaree Community Hospital that we have recently had five out of 10 doctors at the facility threatening to withdraw their services due to excessive working hours. We cannot blame these tireless health professionals from being forced to take such extreme measures, for it is on their shoulders that the burden of health care in Australia rests. All this while we have the Cape Hawke community hospital, a private hospital at Forster in the Great Lakes region, with a floor of empty beds and a New South Wales Labor government dragging its feet in signing a much awaited agreement to allow public patients into this hospital. When will common sense overcome political ideology and reluctance to help the community?

During the election campaign Labor promised the people of Paterson millions of dollars to establish GP superclinics in the Paterson electorate. In joint Labor Party media statements dated 12 and 22 November 2007 from the then shadow minister for health and ageing, the Hon. Nicola Roxon, all of the local ALP members and the ALP candidate for Paterson, it was confirmed:

Labor will invest $5 million to establish two GP Super Clinics in the Charlton electorate and Port Stephens.

After the recent budget, we now find that funding for the Port Stephens GP superclinic in the electorate of Paterson is apparently not so readily available and it could take up to five years before anything substantial is done to help the health service providers and constituents of the Paterson electorate. The Rudd Labor government continued advocating the supposed benefits that the GP superclinic would have. These benefits appear to have been ignored as we see another delayed promise, unfulfilled within the term of the current government.

It comes as no surprise then to see that the Rudd Labor government has also reneged on a core promise to the serving men and women of RAAF Base Williamtown, when in the budget there was no announcement of the promised defence family health centre for Williamtown. In a joint media release dated 22 November 2007, the now Minister for Defence stated:

Labor’s package of investment in the Hunter includes two Defence Family Health Clinics to service the Singleton and Williamtown bases.

The Rudd Labor government claim to have put defence families front and centre this year but have failed to actually deliver. This was a key promise on health services for the defence families of those who serve our nation. I ask: where is the member for Newcastle on this issue, as RAAF Base Williamtown is now in her electorate? She is silent and missing in action. The personnel of RAAF Base Williamtown were promised by Labor before the election that they would have one of the 12 defence family healthcare clinics to provide free dental and health care for ADF dependent spouses and children. In fact, the $33.1 million promise was slashed to $12.2 million and then spread over four years, only five clinics have sought to be built instead of 12 and limits to the dental service are capped at $300. You are all right if you are in the Army at Singleton Army Base, which just happens to be in the Minister for Defence’s electorate of Hunter. It will receive one of the trial systems with no dedicated clinic, just a rebate system of sorts. Again, Labor has delivered nothing for Williamtown personnel and their families.

There are many issues in and around the Paterson electorate that have a direct impact on the health and wellbeing of my constituents and the people of the region. An unequivocal promise was made in a media statement dated 12 November 2007 from the member for Hunter, Joel Fitzgibbon, and other Labor candidates. It stated:

Federal Labor supports the provision of Medicare funding for an MRI machine in Maitland.

We now again see another Labor backflip, with the first warning signs for this promise being broken when the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, in February recalled the existing tender for ‘an MRI service covering Newcastle and the Hunter’, which was announced on 26 September 2007, and simply added in the word ‘Maitland’. Anyone who knows the area would already consider Maitland a part of the Hunter because it is where the valley actually starts. Too bad for the people of Maitland that Joel Fitzgibbon, member for Hunter, was reported in the Maitland Mercury recently to have ‘not been briefed’ on the issue and could not go into bat to get the funding from his federal Labor colleagues for his own pre-election promise—a promise for a separate MRI licence for Maitland. If the blame game is to stop between state and federal governments, a great start would be for the government’s own ministers to stop the blame game on each other.

Labor promised secure, long-term funding for the GP Access After Hours clinics at Toronto Polyclinic, Newcastle Community Health Centre and Maitland, Belmont and John Hunter hospitals. Instead we see a Labor ‘streamlining’ of funding for after-hours medical services, a reduction of $26 million over five years. If only Arn Sprogis were still the CEO of the Hunter Division of GPs, he would be going off his brain at this reduction in funding. He fought very hard for the funding we currently have and it appears all to have been in vain. As the Paterson electorate covers almost 10,000 square kilometres, this decision to hinder the provision of vital after-hours medical services hurts the constituents of the Paterson electorate deeply.

The recent Rudd Labor government decision to increase the income threshold for those required to pay the additional Medicare levy will directly hurt those who choose to continue membership with private health insurers. By increasing this threshold, Mr Rudd and Mr Swan are inducing a mass exodus from private health insurance. An industry report has predicted almost one million members will abandon their fund and many funds have already publicly discussed dramatic premium increases as a direct result of this decision. These premium increases tempt even more to leave the health funds, placing an even greater pressure on our already suffering public health system. Even Mark Fitzgibbon, managing director of NIB Health and brother of the member for Hunter, has confirmed that the recent changes would adversely affect sales and lapse rates in the industry. Perhaps the member for Hunter should have sought the advice of his family before supporting policies that will no doubt hurt the people of the Hunter region.

When it comes to walking the walk on the environment, Labor has failed. It was the coalition that introduced the solar panel rebate and it is simply wrong to scrap the $8,000 rebate for households earning a combined income of over $100,000. These households are not ‘rich’ as Mr Rudd has indicated; they are honest Australians who were trying to help the environment. The Rudd government’s decision to go backwards environmentally means that mums and dads on $51,000 each will now have to pay the full cost of installing solar panels, which typically ranges from $12,000 to $20,000. This is a big cost burden for families as they struggle with higher petrol and grocery prices. They will be denied the opportunity to help in their part to reduce greenhouse gases.

This action by the Rudd government is as bad for small businesses as it is for the environment. Already solar companies are laying off staff as home owners rush to cancel their plans to install solar panels. Businesses are reporting that three-quarters of all contracts have been cancelled since the budget was brought down and there is little or no sign of new ones being signed. John Head of Tanilba Bay installed photovoltaic cells on his roof last year. In a letter of appreciation written to me he said:

I wish to thank you and your government for coming up with such a wonderful scheme, no doubt this will help with the concerns about global warming. I wish others would take advantage of the scheme.

But many will be denied the opportunity because of the cost. Furthermore, in the recent budget, the Rudd government set a target of 134,000 jobs to be lost over the coming year. Unfortunately it is jobs from the solar industry that are the first to go. The environment is the big loser from the Labor government’s misguided decision. People are now being actively discouraged from reducing emissions. Given all the cancellations of solar panel installations, tonnes more CO2 than necessary will be pumped into the atmosphere. The federal opposition and the solar energy industry have both been strongly critical of the plan, which will limit the $8,000 rebate to homeowners earning less than $100,000.

Labor’s grab for tax is nowhere more evident than in the alcopop tax. I applaud the coalition stand to reject the alcopop tax and support the opposition leader’s position that this is a tax binge falsely presented to Australians as a health measure. As a father of three teenage children, I am very concerned about the level of alcohol and drug abuse across Australian communities. But this problem is not just confined to some young people; it is also a cultural and social problem for our nation. Labor said the alcopop tax would reduce binge drinking. In fact, the budget papers forecast alcopop consumption to rise by up to 9.3 per cent a year. As the shadow Treasurer, Malcolm Turnbull, stated on 15 May 2008, the revenue from the alcopops tax is going to increase rapidly from $628 million next year to $880 million three years later. These estimates assume more people are going to be drinking these drinks and it looks like Wayne Swan’s revenue forecasts are actually based on the assumption that binge drinking is going to become greater.

In research I have found that the average cost of two four-packs of Vodka Cruisers is $27, which equates to nine standard drinks. Mishka Vodka is available for the same price, $27, and is the equivalent of 21 standard drinks. This is why this tax makes no sense. Which one are young people going to choose? Or will this drive teens to other forms of alcohol or, worse still, drug use? I would point out that the drug speed is available for $20 per point, that enough cannabis is available for $10 to make 15 cones, and an ecstasy tablet costs $25, which can be shared between a number of people. It is all about the cost. My local bottlo tells me that the sales of ready-to-drinks have slightly decreased but there has been a sharp increase in the sale of 750-millilitre bottles of straight spirits. This tax has been scorned by my constituents both young and old who drink RTDs and who are adamant this measure will have absolutely no effect on the amount of alcohol that they, their families and their friends will consume. Simply put, the Rudd Labor government have got it wrong. They do not understand the issue and, moreover, they do not know what they are doing.

Those that binge-drink usually make a decision to get smashed before they go out. They usually start off at home with spirits like vodka or bourbon. Then, when they arrive at the venue, they will buy an RTD to be fashionable. Next, because of cost, they may have some dope, an eccy tab or, worse still, some ice, which fries the brain and creates the violent episodes we see reported in the media. This tax will do nothing to address the problem of binge drinking and will probably do more to increase the sale of illicit drugs. The National Drug Strategy Household Survey confirms binge drinking by young women since 2001 has actually declined and alcohol abstinence in this group has increased.

In March of this year the Rudd Labor government asked the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy to make a report to COAG in December 2008 on options to reduce binge drinking. By introducing this knee-jerk, revenue-raising policy the Labor government has openly stepped outside its own policy-making processes and made a mockery of all its new advisory groups. When the Rudd Labor government realises that it has got it so wrong, will it then put a 70 per cent increase in excise on straight spirits, cask wine or beer?

President of the Newcastle and Hunter Hotels Association, Bruce Woods, says that this tax will not address the issue of binge drinking. Bruce Woods and his industry colleagues are concerned with high-volume RTDs such as Smirnoff vodka drinks, with an alcohol content of nine per cent, as opposed to five per cent in a Bacardi Breezer. One of the answers—so simple—is to decrease the alcohol content of RTDs. Bruce Woods says that industry groups support that move as a way of addressing binge drinking and the increases in domestic violence that come from it. The answer is not just charging more for RTDs.

Members opposite quote drink spiking and rape of young girls as a reason to increase the tax on RTDs. Well, I put the question: is it better to have a known content of alcohol in a pre-mixed drink in a bottle rather than a drink that can have an enormous of amount of alcohol—from the increase in 750-millilitre bottle sales of Bundy, bourbon and vodka to name a few possibilities? Education on the perils of irresponsible alcohol consumption and drug abuse is the answer, not taxation—particularly taxation that is going into consolidated revenue, not tied to fixing the problem. I support the coalition’s establishment of a national forum of alcohol specialists, educators, police, parents and people with expertise in this and related fields to develop a truly integrated approach to what is truly a national and cultural problem. There are many more issues about the shortcomings of this budget that I would like to address, but time restrictions prevent me at this stage from saying more. (Time expired)

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