Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2008-2009 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2008-2009. I would like to start by stating the obvious, that Australia, as we all know, is not immune to the global financial crisis and neither are the people living in my electorate. Over the course of the last few months, like all of us, I have been asked questions about the global financial crisis—questions about its cause, questions about its duration and, above all, questions about its effects. Although discussions about answers to these questions will continue, what is critical and pertinent is how we as the government respond. This government has responded very swiftly and decisively to the impact of the global financial crisis, aiming at every point to protect the Australian economy and the Australian community.

Our first response was, of course, through the first stimulus package, the Economic Security Strategy, which came into effect on 8 December 2008. This was a package that saw $4.9 billion go towards assisting pensioners. There is no-one in this House that would not be fully aware of the hardship that our pensioner community has sustained, and none more so than my pensioners in my electorate. I can tell the House that my pensioner groups were very clear about their struggle to make ends meet. I therefore challenge anyone to suggest that this $4.9 billion package, which involves giving single pensioners a lump sum of $1,400 and coupled pensioners a lump sum of $2,100, was a waste of taxpayers’ money. The extension of the First Home Owner Grant scheme to help those wanting to purchase their first home has been enthusiastically welcomed by many in my electorate who otherwise would have remained unable to enter the housing market. As the Minister for Housing said in question time yesterday, this initiative has already yielded encouraging results with nearly 30,000 Australians having taken up the first home buyers grant. Volumes of sales in my electorate of Calwell, and specifically in the suburb of Craigieburn, have gone up by 25 to 30 per cent.

The Rudd government will also invest $187 million to create 56,000 additional training places, an initiative aimed at doubling the Productivity Places Program so that we can strengthen productivity and protect the Australian economy. This takes the government’s total investment in training places to more than $400 million since April 2008. This particular measure will be of immense benefit to those in my electorate who need assistance with entry into the workforce either for the first time or following some retraining. The people in my electorate are very worried about the security of their jobs. They are worried about their ability to meet their mortgage commitments and to meet the demands of their family budgets.

People in my electorate come from a very diverse social and economic background. Calwell, as I have said many times before in this House, is home to a high number of families, to sole parents, to low-income earners, to single income earners, to carers, to age pensioners and to people on disability pensions. My electorate is also home to many tradespeople and low-skilled employees, and we rely heavily on the manufacturing sector for jobs. We have seen far too many jobs lost in Calwell over the last 18 months, particularly in the automotive and textile industries.

It saddens me to inform the House that this morning I heard that Pacific Brands—the manufacturer of Bonds, King Gee, Holeproof, Yakka, Sheridan and Dunlop Volleys—announced the closure of its clothing manufacturing facilities in Australia, with the intention to shift to global sourcing. A total of 1,850 jobs, including 1,206 direct manufacturing jobs, will be lost nationally. In my electorate, in Coolaroo, Broadmeadows and the Craigieburn area, 298 jobs will go as of February 2010. Pacific Brands attributes this to what it calls a ‘debt reduction strategy’ as a consequence of the global financial crisis and long-term unviability of manufacturing in Australia. I certainly hope that this is the case and that companies are not just using the global financial crisis as an excuse to shift jobs offshore in search of cheaper labour. I and my constituents have no choice but to take Pacific Brands at its word. But, as you can see, a large number of Australians are going to be left without an income and will need to be retrained in order to re-enter the workforce. Hopefully the retraining package that I referred to earlier on will be of assistance to my constituents who face this latest round of job losses.

Calwell has two major growth corridors. This growth has brought with it an influx of young families with hefty mortgages. Financial counsellors in the various local welfare agencies began sounding alarm bells some 15 months ago as they experienced record levels of people seeking their advice and assistance. People had gotten themselves into so much debt and credit card debt that they were unable to meet repayments and ran the risk of being unable to feed their families and keep their homes. That is why, when it came to making practical decisions to help working families to balance their budgets and stimulate economic growth, the Rudd government delivered $3.9 billion to families raising children. This support was given to families who receive family tax benefit part A through a one-off payment of $1,000 for each eligible child in their care. Families with dependent children who receive youth allowance, Abstudy or a benefit from the Veterans’ Children Education Scheme also received a one-off $1,000 payment.

The appropriation bills we are debating today have gone a long way to assisting my community, because my community has been a beneficiary of them. In fact, it is estimated that some 44,000 households have directly benefited from this package. Appropriation Bill (No. 4) allows for our $300 million Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program to be directly allocated to individual councils. I can report that my council, the Hume City Council, has already compiled a list of projects it has put forward, and I have already met with the mayor and the CEO to help move that agenda forward. Our council is very excited about the opportunities that have been made available by the federal government and is looking forward to meeting the challenges. Our council has received $1,627,000 under the program. That is the sixth highest figure in the state and a good indication of the level of need for infrastructure works in my electorate.

The top of my council’s list—and I would like to outline that list; I am sure they would be chuffed with this—is a $9 million Craigieburn library and learning centre, an important piece of infrastructure in a suburb that has experienced phenomenal growth. I referred to that ongoing growth in the figures that the Minister for Housing announced yesterday in relation to the First Home Owner Grant scheme. If you bring young families into new housing estates, you need to attend to their social, educational and recreational needs. This particular facility is an extension of the iconic Hume Global Learning Centre in Broadmeadows. I am very pleased that the council is keen and committed to establishing an outpost of the Hume Global Learning Centre in Craigieburn.

The council has also sought approval to build a car park on the western side of Progress Reserve in Coolaroo, a footpath along the Hume Highway between Fordson Road and Somerset Road, stage 1 of the shared footpath and bike path along Merri Creek from Western Ring Road to Barry Road in Campbellfield and an extension to the Gladstone Park Bowls Club and to design and construct a state park in Broadmeadows and work on the Sunbury town centre streetscapes on the east side of Evans Street. The council also wishes to build two extra courts at the Greenvale Tennis Club and a new outdoor netball court at Broadman Reserve, with training lights for the rear oval at Langama Park. As you can see, all are works for the direct and overall benefit of our community, in particular our young people’s learning and recreational activities.

The Rudd Labor government has risen to meet the most difficult economic challenge of our time, and it has resolved to do everything it can to help limit the worst impacts of the global recession in this country’s future as it navigates through what many are predicting will be a long period of hardship and uncertainty. It goes without saying that today’s announcement by Pacific Brands, for my electorate and for those of many other members of this House, will be an ongoing, rolling experience of job losses that need to be addressed by this government. This government is doing that, and I can only commend the bills to the House. I certainly hope that, in the next 12 months at least, my electorate in particular will not be the recipient of further bad news.

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