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

Before I go to the substance of my debate, the member for Casey may like to hear about the experience of the Australian technical college in the Hunter. It was announced last year and became operational. Students were recruited for the courses at the Australian technical college that was in the Hunter, but there were a few little problems: (1) there were no tools, (2) there was no workbench and (3) no work experience had been organised. Finally, they were able to organise donations of tools, the parents went in and built the workbenches, and half the students dropped out because they could not arrange work placements. I am sure that the Australian public knows that what Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party took to the election—the Trade Training Centres in Schools Program—is the way to go.

Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 and the cognate bills that were introduced into the parliament by the Treasurer on 13 May 2008 deliver to the Australian people. This is a budget for all Australians. It delivers tax cuts whilst maintaining responsible economic management and delivering a budget surplus of $22 billion. It is a budget for the future, investing over $40 billion in infrastructure, health and education funds.

The $20 billion for the Building Australia Fund will pay for ongoing improvements to our roads, ports, railways and telecommunications. In the last parliament I was on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport and Regional Services. We held an inquiry into the blockages to ports and the infrastructure that was needed to allow our ports to function effectively. I see the Building Australia Fund as a fund that will be able to act on some of the recommendations that were in the inquiry’s report—and that was a fine report. A lot of outstanding contributions were made to the committee, and I know that that is the type of thing that will be considered.

There has been an allocation of $11 billion for the Education Investment Fund, which will pay for ongoing improvements to our TAFEs. While I am talking about TAFEs, one of the first acts of the Howard government in 1996 was to rip money out of the TAFE system, and they never restored those funds. The fund will also improve our universities, as part of the education revolution, because we on this side of the House understand just how important education is for the future of our nation. The budget also puts $10 billion into the Health and Hospitals Fund, which will ensure that we have better hospitals and, importantly, money for medical research.

These are funds that are needed; these are funds for the future. This is a planned approach to delivering to the Australian people, rather than just throwing money at people and projects that will deliver to the government, not to the people. That is what the Howard government did—they threw money at projects that they could see would deliver to them. There is no finer example of that than some of the projects that were funded under the Regional Partnerships program.

As I was saying, these funds are investments for the future. They are investments to address the chronic skills shortage that the Howard government allowed to develop. That government was more interested in punishing the unemployed than in giving them the skills they needed to move from unemployment to work. We have a very different approach to solving the skills shortage. The Howard government last year like drunken sailors threw around the surplus in the lead-up to the election. The Rudd government has just brought down a budget that will deliver to the Australian people a $55 billion Working Families Support Package and at the same time address inflation. It is making the hard decisions that the Howard government refused to make. This is a budget to address the challenges of high inflation, which places pressure on interest rates and which in turn places pressure on our pensioners, retirees and working families.

Unfortunately, high inflation leads to high prices. We have seen a 10 per cent increase in the price of groceries and petrol. There has been a 14 per cent increase in the price of fruit and vegetables, which are staples that we should all be eating. The people that inflation has the greatest impact on are those on a fixed income—people like pensioners, veterans and retirees. Their standard of living has been badly affected. That is why we have invested so much in pensioners and retirees this year. We have increased the utilities allowance from $107.20 to $500, and it will be paid not just twice a year but quarterly. In addition to that, we are looking at the way the pension is calculated. We are looking at the types of things that a pensioner actually buys—that is, groceries and essentials. The Rudd government also recognised pensioners and carers by paying them bonuses in this budget.

It is important to mention that this budget introduces a means test for the baby bonus at $150,000. That is something I wholeheartedly support, and it is something that is wholeheartedly supported by the number of women I have spoken to with incomes above that. There is also a means test at $150,000 for family tax benefit B. There has been much talk about the Medicare surcharge. The budget delivers a tax cut to people earning between $50,000 and $100,000. When members on that side of the House talk about the Medicare surcharge, they fail to mention the impact that the 30 per cent rebate had on people taking out health insurance. They also fail to mention what I think had the greatest impact on people taking out health insurance: the community rating. They oppose the tax on luxury cars, they oppose the tax on alcopops and they oppose Fuelwatch. This says to me that nothing has changed in the way those on that side of the House look at things. They are in parliament for the big end of town. They represent the private health insurance companies, they represent the luxury car companies, they represent the distillery and alcohol companies and they represent the big fuel companies. That is very disappointing.

In the time that I have left, I will quickly—

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