Steve Gibbons (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 and related bills. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge a significant milestone for a company that has become an institution in my electorate of Bendigo. On the evening of 9 July 1858, what the Bendigo Advertiser called a ‘very numerously attended meeting’ was held at Abbott’s Hotel to discuss the formation of the first local building society. James Sullivan, who chaired the meeting, told the meeting that the object of the society was to encourage people to settle permanently in the locality. ‘Surely, every man of right feeling would rather see men living in comfortable houses than tents,’ he said. Of course, a building society would benefit not only borrowers but also savers, and Sullivan was worried about large sums of capital leaving the town in the form of deposits with other societies. Local accountant James Burnside moved:

That it is considered expedient to establish a society to be called the Bendigo Land and Building Society for the purpose of enabling shareholders of such a society to become possessed of freehold and leasehold property or other benefits.

One hundred and fifty years later, we know this institution as the Bendigo Bank. The bank has grown fourfold in the 13 years since its conversion from a building society: its customer numbers have reached 1.3 million, the number of employees has quadrupled to 4,000 and it has more than 400 branches. The bank’s founders believed that its prosperity would come from contributing to the economic and social wellbeing of the community in which they had chosen to live and work.

That philosophy is still followed by the bank today, and nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in its community banks. In the 1990s, when our major banks were almost daily closing country bank branches across the country, Bendigo Bank demonstrated its faith in regional communities. Community banks are owned by their local community and operate on a franchise from Bendigo Bank. By the end of 2007 there were more than 200 community banks across Australia, with over 615,000 accounts and $10.7 billion in banking business. They not only offer banking services to the community but through grants and dividend payments also retain capital locally for the community’s benefit. They have returned almost $17 million to their communities through donations and grants for local projects and paid more than $12 million in dividends to local shareholders. A further $36 million in operating costs is being spent with local businesses. Bendigo Bank today is truly one of the country’s most innovative and successful institutions. On behalf of all central Victorians, I would like to congratulate its staff, both past and present, its management—and, in particular, CEO Rob Hunt, who has been a major force in the outstanding success of the organisation—its directors past and current, and its shareholders on the superb contribution they have made and continue to make to so many communities across Australia.

The Rudd government’s first budget sought to honour its commitment to wage war on inflation. With underlying inflation reaching 4.2 per cent in the March quarter, well above the Reserve Bank’s inflation target, the government delivered a budget surplus of 1.8 per cent of GDP—well above the one per cent target established under the previous government. Growth in real spending will be 1.1 per cent in 2008-09, the lowest rate for nine years. Over four years, the budget makes savings of $33.3 billion. Economic growth is forecast to slow in 2008-09 to 2¾ per cent.

Treasurer Swan identified four key principles of his first budget: honouring election commitments, delivering for working families, investing in the future and beginning a new era of responsible economic management to sustain growth in challenging times. Key initiatives to deliver these principles included the $55 billion Working Families Support Package, an initiative including cutting income tax, reducing the cost of educating and looking after children, making housing more affordable, providing the Teen Dental Plan and making sure that grocery and petrol prices are competitive; $2.4 billion in additional support for older Australians and carers; $5.9 billion over five years for the government’s education revolution, with initiatives in the areas of early childhood education, schools, vocational training and higher education; $2.3 billion over five years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the unavoidable challenge of climate change; and $3.2 billion for a national health and hospitals reform plan to work with the states and ensure spending on health reflects the needs of the broader Australian community.

To ease bottlenecks and allow infrastructure to support future economic growth, the Rudd government is providing significant funding for national infrastructure projects through its Infrastructure Australia program. Three new nation-building funds have been established—the Building Australia Fund, the Education Investment Fund and the Health and Hospitals Fund—that will provide around $40 billion for future capital investments in infrastructure, higher and vocational education and health to modernise and reinvigorate the Australian economy.

This classic Labor budget delivers for central Victoria. It is the first federal Labor budget for almost 12 years and it certainly does not disappoint. It is a responsible nation-building budget that also delivers for working Australians in the finest Labor tradition. The budget was aimed at building a strong economy through responsible economic management and reining in the irresponsible spending of the former Howard government that had contributed to the current inflationary pressures.

Central Victorians especially will benefit from several of the measures announced on budget night by federal Treasurer Wayne Swan. The government’s $55 billion Working Families Support Package will help people cope with day-to-day living pressures by cutting income tax, reducing the cost of educating and looking after children, making housing more affordable, providing a teen dental plan and making sure that grocery and petrol prices are competitive. That would be very much appreciated in my electorate of Bendigo and indeed throughout central Victoria. An average household earning $770 a week will have its tax bill cut by $20 a week from this July and by as much as $35 a week by 2010-11.

Funding of $1.9 million for Bendigo’s Chinese precinct continues the Rudd Labor government’s record of delivering on its election promises to the people of Bendigo. Funding for other Bendigo-specific election commitments include the virtual critical care unit development, the redevelopment of Bendigo Health’s primary care centre and the business case for the Australian Military Mobility Centre, and central Victoria’s Solar Cities initiative had already been allocated out of the Commonwealth’s 2007-08 budget.

The federal budget will help working Australians deal with rising cost of living pressures. This classic Labor budget is targeted at those Australians who have been working hard to build a future for themselves and their families but are now finding it harder and harder to balance the family budget. After years of neglect by the Howard government, Labor understands this and is taking action with its $55 billion Working Families Support Package. These tax cuts, which were promised during last year’s federal election campaign, have been targeted squarely at those who deserve them most: working Australians. Labor’s tax cuts provide substantial support to the many central Victorians who are in the low- and middle-income brackets. The effective tax-free threshold for low-income earners will go up to $14,000 next year and increase to $16,000 by 2010-11. Families earning the median income in the Bendigo electorate—that is, the median household income—of $40,000 will have up to $1,800 a year more disposable income from next July as a result of Labor’s tax cuts.

In addition to the tax cuts, the Working Families Support Package delivers on other Labor election commitments by introducing an education tax refund to help parents with the costs of educating their kids, at a cost of $4.4 billion; increasing the childcare tax rebate from 30 to 50 per cent and paying it quarterly, at a cost of $1.6 billion; acting on the housing affordability crisis with a $2.2 billion package covering First Home Saver Accounts, the National Rental Affordability Scheme and the new Housing Affordability Fund; providing a teen dental plan at a cost of $491 million; a fairer Medicare levy surcharge threshold for individuals and families; and implementing the first ever national Fuelwatch scheme.

The Howard government just stood by while working Australians were hit with rising living costs. It has been left to a Labor government to take action to help them cope with the pressures of day-to-day living in these challenging times.

The Rudd Labor government’s first budget also delivers on its election commitments to improve the education and skills of working Australians. Investing in our people is the best way to secure prosperity, spread opportunity and increase living standards into the future.

This budget delivers on Labor’s commitment to an education revolution and includes $2.5 billion over 10 years for the Trade Training Centres in Schools Program; $1.9 billion over five years for 630,000 additional training places to boost the skill level of the workforce; and up to $1 million for computers and communication technologies in each secondary school for all students in Years 9 to 12.

A federal Labor election commitment for Maryborough was delivered recently with the announcement of a $500,000 grant towards a new complex care unit. The funding will be provided this financial year to allow Maryborough District Health Service to get started on delivering this much needed facility. There is also potential for additional money in 2008-09 as part of the health funding initiatives announced in this federal budget. This is a major investment for the Maryborough community. It will deliver a resource centre for integrated case management; a centre for the referral of clients requiring more intensive case management; a range of walk-in, walk-out specialist services not currently available locally; teleconference-telemedicine facilities where diagnostic assessments can be obtained from the most appropriate specialists; a resource centre to help patients with self-management; and a centre for clinical placements of medical students from universities to help attract and retain medical professionals in the regional community.

This funding is a clear example of the Rudd government’s commitment to rural and regional health services. All in all, I think Bendigo has done very well in the first six months of the Rudd Labor government.

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