Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure today that I rise to talk on these appropriation bills. I will talk about the interaction between these cognate bills and the stimulus that they will provide to our economy. I support these bills that are part of our national government’s nation-building agenda. The total additional appropriation in both bills is $2.2 billion, which is a significant stimulus. There is $384 million in Appropriation Bill (No. 5) 2008-2009, primarily for employment initiatives, and $1.83 billion in Appropriation Bill (No. 6) 2008-2009 for infrastructure, including rail, road and some of our AusLink commitments. These bills are vital to support and secure the jobs and training of apprentices, trainees and adult workers, who are vulnerable to redundancy in an economic downturn. These bills will also provide assistance to workers recently retrenched.

The Assistant Treasurer outlined in his second reading speech the intention of these bills. Appropriation Bill (No. 5) funds the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to provide a range of measures. These measures include an additional $43.7 million towards commencement and completion claims under the Australian apprenticeships system, which provides support to employers and apprentices. There is an additional $38.9 million to assist apprentices and trainees to return to the workforce and maintain their training. There is $34 million to keep 241 ABC Learning Centres open until 31 March 2009. There is $36.8 million to ensure that any Australian worker made redundant will receive immediate and personalised assistance to help them get back into the workforce. That is instead of having to wait three months to receive intensive customised assistance. All newly redundant workers will be entitled to receive this much needed support as soon as possible. There is $70 million to meet the expected increase in expenditure against the General Employee Entitlements Redundancy Scheme. This scheme assists employees who have lost their employment due to liquidation or bankruptcy of their employer, or who are owed certain entitlements.

The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs will be provided with additional funding to double the emergency relief program until 30 June 2011. There is $11.1 million to allow community organisations concerned to respond to the expected increase in demand for emergency relief due to the economic downturn.

Despite what the opposition says, all these measures are needed and needed now, during this period of economic downturn. These are circumstances beyond any government’s control, but it is our role as the government to assist those who need help right now and get people back into the workforce as soon as possible or give them the appropriate training to make them more employable.

Appropriation Bill (No. 6) 2008-2009 will provide additional funds for the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, with $1.18 billion additional equity for the Australian Rail Track Corporation, otherwise known as the ARTC. This corporation is a wholly owned Commonwealth company and is undertaking a significant investment program in infrastructure. This includes 17 projects to improve the reliability and competitiveness of this nation’s rail freight network. This will provide much-needed jobs and will put investment into much-needed infrastructure, and that will have a ripple effect on not only the national economy but also the local economies.

My electorate of Forde is one of those communities that were ignored for a decade in terms of infrastructure rollout. I know that the member for Forde before me worked very hard to represent her community, but she was frustrated by the lack of infrastructure that was provided on the ground. However, given the circumstances, the ability to roll out some much-needed funds in the way of a stimulus is certainly going to help my electorate to a large degree.

I have spoken on other occasions in this House about the industrial development region otherwise known as Bromelton. The ARTC, the Australian Rail Track Corporation, has significant interests in the standard-gauge rail that runs right through my electorate, crosses the border through the Kyogle loop and continues down to Coffs Harbour. There is a $55.8 million investment in rail upgrades. I have spoken on a number of occasions to this House about the need for increased infrastructure, infrastructure spending and the ability to provide transport support through the service of passenger rail et cetera. While this is firstly directed at freight movement and the freight effort in this country, it is also going to make it possible, at a future time, to put passenger services along that particular corridor. It is one of those projects that not only brings immediate jobs in terms of the upgrade but also opens up the local economy to a major area of industrial development. I should say ‘sustainable industrial development’, because it is about putting the right sorts of developments in the right locations, where they are supplied and supported by the right services.

In its initial stages this rail project will produce 120 jobs. The narrow-gauge passenger and freight service that we can provide through that service to Bromelton will be an amazing effort for all of us. This project shows that quite often an investment in maintenance alone can have a major impact, because this is about not only upgrading the line from wooden sleepers to concrete sleepers and reducing transit times but also opening up the corridor to a third rail to accommodate some of the standard-gauge freight movements that we will certainly require in the development of Bromelton.

Mr Deputy Speaker, you are probably aware that some months ago the Queensland state government declared Bromelton a state development area, an SDA, which means that it comes under a particular planning regime to open up that area to precise development on the basis of the sort of support and the sort of network required, certainly transport and road corridors, and the ability to interlink with our coastal shipping network—because one of the problems we have in South-East Queensland with the massive growth and the take-up of most available land is that intermodal facilities that supply port and road are very important. Of course, Bromelton will provide that to South-East Queensland. As Bromelton is almost a greenfields site, the predictions are that, once the economic cycle turns, up to 8,000 jobs can be created in that particular precinct. With the corridor that runs from Acacia Ridge to Beaudesert through those small townships, that sort of effort, that sort of economic injection, is going to be of major benefit to our region.

This is important for us at this time, and I am pleased to talk about any level of stimulation that we can bring to our economy. We are not sitting back. I support the stimulation of the economy wherever possible. We are living in unprecedented times. We have heard from the Prime Minister and from economic specialists who look at what is happening internationally and what may potentially happen in our own economy. As the Prime Minister said in the chamber, this is very much about preventing any major economic catastrophe that may hit us through a whole range of uncertain financial movements. It is so important that we continue to look at ways of getting ahead of the game when it comes to economic stimulus.

These appropriation bills are necessary. We talk about stimulus, but this is about supporting jobs and looking after people who may otherwise fall out of employment.

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