David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the two bills before the House,  Appropriation Bill (No. 5) 2008-2009 and Appropriation Bill (No. 6) 2008-2009. I note that these bills are supplementary—and, indeed, complementary—to the earlier bills that were introduced in relation to the Nation Building and Jobs Plan, which the government seeks to implement. It is, I think, significant that I rise to speak on these matters today, because today marks a couple of significant occasions. First, today begins the process of the payment of the first round of cash payments under the Nation Building and Jobs Plan, otherwise known—and certainly in my community people have come to know the Nation Building and Jobs Plan by this name—as the ‘Rudd government stimulus package’.

Those payments begin to flow, and will continue to flow, over the next two weeks. The first round of payments will be made to those single-income families that are eligible for family tax benefit part B. Those families will be receiving bonus payments of $900 over the coming fortnight. In addition to those payments, payments will be made to families that currently receive family tax benefit part A who have children of school age—children between the ages of four and 18. Those payments will be made to families at a rate of $950 per child.

These are significant payments. They are the first tranche of payments to be made under this plan, and I simply make the observation—and I do this frequently as I talk to people in my community—that the cash payments represent an important part of the overall package, but they are a reasonably small part when viewed in the context of the overall expenditure that has been set out under the Nation Building and Jobs Plan—or the ‘Rudd government stimulus package’.

If we break down the figures, we will see that some two-thirds of the funding announced by the government will go into medium and longer term investment. On the one hand we have a short-term stimulus which is designed to protect jobs and secure, in the medium and longer term, some employment for people in industries that may otherwise be struggling if the cash flow coming into household budgets were to see a contraction in people’s spending patterns. In the medium and longer term, the infrastructure spending will have a significant impact in assisting the Australian economy to emerge even stronger from the current difficulties that the world economy faces, not only providing jobs along the way but also securing longer term infrastructure investment that will be of lasting benefit to communities such as my community in the electorate of Lindsay.

I note in particular the investment that is to take place in relation to our schools. Let us not take these initiatives—the education revolution, the School Pride program and, indeed, the proposals to roll out funding for science labs and language learning centres—in isolation. Let us consider them in the context of the trades training centres initiatives and the computers in schools initiative. We will see that in such a short time the Rudd government has gone a very long way in delivering on the promise of an education revolution. There were those on the other side who laughed at the expression, but as I travel through the many local primary and secondary schools in my community I see a revolution occurring. I see a revolution in technology through the computers that are being rolled out. I saw the beginning of a revolution in relation to trades training just last week, when the Deputy Prime Minister came into my electorate and visited Cambridge Park High School and announced that two local trades training centres would be funded in my electorate. There are not just two schools involved in these two centres. The first centre, which was sponsored by the government schools and involved government schools, is a major facility at Kingswood High School and involves upgrades and complementary works at six other government schools within my community. So we are talking about seven schools that will benefit from over $7 million in that instance, delivering trades training in schools for those particularly interested in metals and engineering. We also have the Catholic school proposal, funded through a program that was brought forward, and the author school for that was McCarthy Catholic College at Emu Plains. The other participating schools are Caroline Chisholm College at Glenmore Park, Xavier College at Llandilo and St Columba’s High School at Springwood.

Bringing all of these schools together—and that was certainly something that I sought to achieve in convening a number of meetings with local schools and local service providers—we were able to secure funding for projects that leveraged the entitlements that those schools could have individually tapped into. In pooling their funds and their resources, we now have clustered facilities that are of a very significant scale. I noted that there were a very large number of projects approved in New South Wales by the federal government in the second phase of the first round of funding under this program, but two of the largest programs were in fact the two within my local community. I certainly congratulate those people involved on showing the initiative to collaborate with other schools within their community to try to secure the maximum outcome for our local community—and I am certain that that has been achieved with the centres that have been delivered.

That is an important part of the education revolution that we are delivering. I want to refocus my comments to the post-Christmas stimulus package, but, before doing that, I said earlier that this was a significant day. It is significant not only because of what has been achieved in relation to the commencement of the payment of the cash payments but also because there are some figures that came out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that relate to housing dwelling commitments. What we saw in those statistics today is that the January 2009 trend compared with the December 2008 trend in the number of commitments for owner-occupied housing finance increased by 2.4 per cent. In the current climate, that is significant. The number of commitments for owner-occupied housing finance, excluding refinancing, rose by 2.6 per cent. In trend terms, we saw the number of commitments for the purchase of new dwellings increased by 5.2 per cent. In the context of a global economic recession, which has followed all of the chaos that the global financial crisis brought to countries all around the world but which eventually made its way to our shores, in the context of those difficult economic times, one must ask the question: why would housing commitments for new dwellings be increasing at a time of such uncertainty? The answer is simple: the package of policies that the Rudd government has delivered for working people around this country has ensured that there continues to be incentives for people to make that very big decision that any individual or family makes when they sign a contract to commit to building and/or moving into a new home.

We see that what the government has done in relation to the first home owners grant has provided that stimulus in the housing sector. I know that there are many on the other side who will comment on the so-called ineffectiveness of the stimulus package. They generally confine their comments to the cash payments, but I want to directly address the issue of the first home owners grant. There has not been a lot of commentary on this, but I want to make the point that in discussions I have had with local organisations, local businesses and local developers, some of the figures I have come across are just startling. Most people would be amazed to hear what is going on in parts of Western Sydney, which includes my electorate.

Take, for example, the Delfin Lend Lease project at Ropes Crossing, which is a project that has endured many difficulties and many challenges over the years at a planning level. Despite those difficulties, it has now reached a point where a quality community is being delivered to local people wanting to move into a new residential estate. At the Delfin Lend Lease Ropes Crossing estate we have seen a 175 per cent increase in sales since October, which is astonishing. The proportion of first home buyers increased from 13 per cent to 55 per cent since October 2008.

I hear those on the other side on occasions come into the parliament and say: ‘Show us where you’re creating these jobs. Show us where the Nation Building and Jobs Plan or the Economic Security Strategy has delivered one job.’ Well, if those on the other side are prepared to listen, I am about to share with you an instance where at least 36 jobs were created. That is right: at a time when all of the talk is about uncertainty in people’s workplaces, we are seeing some businesses out there, with the stimulus provided by the government, increasing their workforce. Delfin Lend Lease have put on an extra 36 full-time staff to cope with the extra demand. That is significant and that is significant for my local community, because I would be certain that a reasonable proportion, if not a very large proportion, of those 36 jobs have been filled by local people in my community.

I note that Ralph Saporito of Glenmore Park Realty recently commented that he has been flat out. Sales have picked up by 20 per cent since last October. He has indicated that homes under $400,000 are selling within days of listing. The interest from first home buyers has had a flow-on effect on demand across the market. I make this point: what the government has done in relation to the first home owners grant has effectively put in some support at the base of the residential property market.

From talking to many small businesses in my community, I know that many of them are doing it tough, mostly because of cash flow issues. They are finding it is harder to get their creditors to pay them within the periods they need them to pay in order to maintain that cash flow. Many of them have been forced into seeking additional finance with the banks. One of the biggest barriers to securing that additional finance is the revaluations of the assets against which their borrowings have generally been made. When property prices start to decline, the ability of small businesses to put up their property—the assets they own—as security to raise finance is affected. It is a massive issue, but one that is in large part being dealt with by the good work that the first home owners grant has been delivering.

I would like to make some comments in relation to the Economic Security Strategy cash payments. Those on the other side say it was a cash splash, a sugar hit. I have to say that, from talking to people in my community, I know many of them spent the money that they received before Christmas and, frankly, I think most of them would be offended by the suggestion that it was a sugar hit or a cash splash. If we cast our minds back to when the announcement was made, back in October of last year, that these payments would flow through, it had come on the back of a concerted campaign by pensioner groups right around this country for some assistance. The biggest beneficiaries of those payments were pensioners and seniors. In addition, many families also received some benefit from the cash payments. Despite all this talk about cash splashes, I can tell you that the people who received those payments are not swimming in cash. The people who received those payments saw much-needed relief in those payments, and a very large proportion of them, in my community at least—if I can offer my anecdotal intelligence on this matter—spent that money.

I refer to some articles that appeared in my local papers at the time. Margaret Trafford, who is a pensioner, said: ‘It is certainly hard to live on a pension and this new grant pays for a few extra things.’ Kevin Finlayson, a disability support pensioner, said: ‘It’s come at the right time and will help put food on the table and make Christmas brighter.’ Anne Stratton said: ‘Thank God for this grant as it will help me a lot. I desperately need a new bed and will use some of the money to buy one.’ I know of people who used this money to get air-conditioning for their property. There was recently an article in the paper that indicated that Penrith was one of the hottest places in metropolitan Sydney.

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