Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 and related bills. I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak in support of Labor’s first federal budget in more than 11 years and the first that Labor have delivered during my 10-year parliamentary career. I am proud of this budget. It delivers on all of our election promises. It is a responsible budget considering the economic circumstances of high inflation and high interest rates and yet it makes good on all our election promises, delivering for working families. Finally, low- to middle-income earners are back in the picture. What a relief after all those years of Howard government budget handouts for high-income earners who did not really need them. For once the people who actually carry this country are being acknowledged and provided for to the tune of a $55 billion Working Families Support Package. But this budget is also good for Australia’s future. It is a vision. It puts the people in my electorate of Chisholm at the centre of our commitment to tackle inflation and lays the building blocks for a stronger, more modern Australia.

The Rudd government has delivered a tight fiscal policy to bear down on inflation while investing in sustainable productivity and growth, dealing with the issues of skill shortages. Strong economic management is the key. A surplus of $22 billion will ensure a strong budget at a time of global financial turbulence, with every dollar of new spending matched by spending cuts. The government is right to avoid wasteful spending that puts unnecessary pressure on the economy and makes the Reserve Bank’s job of controlling inflation harder. Thanks to years of Howard government neglect and inaction, productivity growth has fallen to its lowest rate in over 17 years. Government spending needs to be more firmly focused on measures that boost the economy’s productivity potential. This reinforces the economy’s ability to deliver strong and sustainable growth without triggering inflationary pressures. This budget focuses on the supply side; the Howard government allowed demand side pressures to build up and push prices up.

It is a good budget in the tradition of great, visionary, nation-building Labor budgets. We have reprioritised spending towards education, health and infrastructure, to invest in Australia’s future while giving working families the tax relief—$46.7 billion in personal income tax cuts—they need at a time when the family budget is severely stretched. I applaud these measures. They address many of the concerns of my constituents, who saw education, health care, child care, aged care, investment in infrastructure and the environment go backwards under the Howard government. They felt short-changed and rightly so. If governments do not invest in the wellbeing of the nation, who else will?

Education is a key concern for many of my constituents. Many of them are university students, graduates, lecturers and teachers, parents of students or just people who are concerned about the skills shortages and the creativity of our nation—and the previous government’s lack of investment in education. I am delighted to say that the two universities in my electorate—Monash University, with the largest campus at Clayton, and Deakin University, with the city campus at Burwood—have received large funding boosts in this budget for urgent capital investment works. Monash University received $29.6 million and Deakin University received $13.8 million. That is money that is desperately needed by both those campuses and universities. That money is a one-off payment to those universities, under the Better Universities Renewal Fund, to renew and upgrade information and communications technology systems, laboratories, libraries, student study spaces, teaching spaces and student amenities. The money will make those universities a better place to work and study and it will take the strain off the universities’ budgets. It will go some way towards addressing the neglect and decline in university facilities that we saw under the Howard government, particularly thanks to Peter Costello, who was, of course, a Monash graduate and who should have treated his old alma mater better. The not-so-voluntary voluntary student unionism was a nasty piece of regressive ideology.

I am also pleased to say that Box Hill TAFE’s business enterprise centre received $350,000 in funding to support small businesses in the area. This funding was promised during the election campaign last year by the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy when he visited Box Hill Institute of TAFE with me. I am pleased to say that the government has delivered on that promise. I have been a long supporter of this centre, which is a one-stop shop for local businesses in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, providing invaluable support and advice to small business people who want to improve their business. It is a terrific centre, as Box Hill TAFE is a great institute, and I am pleased that the money is going to such a worthwhile institution. The funding is part of a fantastic $42 million program to fund small business advisory centres across Australia.

No-one can say that the ALP does not support small business, and this initiative was most welcomed by the small business community. Indeed, Labor’s education revolution will provide $5.9 billion for the education of all Australians, from our youngest citizens to university students. It will invest $534 million over four years to provide universal access to preschool years for 15 hours a week, 40 weeks annually, by 2013—a terrific initiative. It will invest $1.2 billion over five years for the digital education revolution to deliver information and communications technology to all year 9 to 12 students, $2.5 billion over 10 years for the trade training centres in schools, $578 million to improve literacy and numerary and $662 million for the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program. Asian language study is a big issue in my electorate of Chisholm, which has a very large Asian population. They have been quite disappointed over the years that the study of Asian languages has faltered, particularly through the school system, as not many Asian languages are offered at school level. Hopefully, this will encourage the take-up of Asian language studies at school level, as opposed to the numerous Saturday and Sunday classes that operate quite extensively in my electorate.

We will lift the year 12 or equivalent retention rate to 90 per cent by 2020. There will be $500 million invested this year to assist universities with capital funding and a $626 million funding injection will reduce the cost of studying maths and science at university. An extra 630 training places will be provided, at a cost of $1.9 billion, which is great news for Box Hill TAFE students. The budget has also put aside a further $11 billion into a special fund to be drawn on for Australia’s long-term educational needs.

Child care is also a major priority issue in my electorate. It is expensive bringing up kids, especially when you are on a limited budget. I have had many emails and phone calls from parents who cannot get their kids into a childcare centre because there are not enough places, or they just cannot afford child care, or they are very concerned about their inability to get child care with their impending return-to-work date fast approaching. In response to these problems, the Rudd government have raised the childcare tax rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. That will ensure that, in addition to any childcare benefit payment, half of a family’s total out-of-pocket childcare costs will be met every year. We have also made applying for and getting this payment much easier, because at the moment it is a minefield to apply for and get. In addition, the cap on the maximum out-of-pocket expenses claimable each year will rise from $4,354 to $7,500, and 50 per cent of the childcare tax rebate will be paid every three months instead of just once a year. This initiative will be greatly appreciated by many families in my electorate as providing welcome relief to the family budget.

A bigger initiative in this budget is aimed at seniors. I have an ageing population within my electorate. The phone calls coming into my electorate office showed that seniors were very grateful for the measures within the budget. I did not have one pensioner ring and complain. Actually, I had quite a few ring to ask why all the pensioners were complaining! The increase to the concessions allowance in the budget was welcomed with huge relief. One of the issues that many in my electorate are looking forward to is the provision for senior card holders to have access to travel concession across Australia. Victorians cannot understand that, when they go to Queensland, they are suddenly no longer considered a senior. I know that many are looking forward to that issue being resolved.

In respect of private health cover and the changes to the private health surcharge, it is interesting to note the claims from the opposition about how this will put massive pressure back on the public sector, and at the same time they claim that a whole lot of young individuals will come out of private health insurance. We cannot have it both ways. If it is the young, healthy people who will be leaving, why will they suddenly be going to hospitals? It is a ridiculous argument and eventually somebody will point out the anomaly in this argument. People currently have to go to public hospitals for a range of matters, whether they have private health insurance or not. They present to these places because they are involved in accidents or serious issues. The bulk of the private sector does not cover these. Those people will be the ones who present and have always presented. The people who will leave because of this change, if they choose to leave—many will probably stay—are not the people who will be actually going to hospitals, because they are healthy; they are young, they are healthy and they do not need hospital care.

Finally I want to again address the issue of health care. The Rudd government is committed to improving the health system in this country. We have committed $32 billion for the National Health and Hospitals Reform Plan as well as many other healthcare initiatives which will go a long way to helping solve the public health crisis. I know many people in my electorate are concerned about the lack of funding and the current state of Box Hill Hospital. Box Hill Hospital is in need of an urgent upgrade. The facilities are old, out of date and not meeting patient demands. In 2006 the state government promised a $185 million upgrade to rebuild the hospital. In this year’s state budget $8.5 million was provided for infrastructure upgrades at Box Hill Hospital, including theatre, electrical and mechanical service works. While this is a patch-up job for an institution that desperately needs a complete overhaul, it will ensure the hospital continues to function effectively while a new state-of-the-art hospital is built at Box Hill in the future. I know many of my constituents were disappointed with the state budget outcome, but I want to urge the state and federal governments to work towards the resolution of the Box Hill Hospital issue. I know the state government is committed to funding and redeveloping the hospital. We need to see action on it sooner rather than later. I commend this terrific Labor budget to the House.

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