Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, they are very excited. Eight of my primary schools have already been allocated in excess of $16 million to build new multipurpose halls and libraries, while the remaining local primary school upgrades will be announced in future rounds. So, if you have missed out, do not be upset; the first eight are out of the blocks but there is more to come.

I have never hidden the fact that I have a very large department of housing community in my electorate. I can say that 28 new social houses will be built locally and that—and I suppose this has been long overdue—1,735 of the department’s homes are going to undergo repairs and maintenance. This is huge. All up, I would have about 7,000 of those homes in my electorate. I am not sure what the maths are, but I know that a significant percentage of those homes are going to undergo long-awaited repairs. I know that there are some very good people who have been living in these homes for many a year and who have paid their rent to the department of housing regularly but who have a backlog of repairs on their particular dwelling. So they are going to see the light of day. We are talking about 1,735 houses. We are going to have some very happy tenants there.

Blacktown City Council has received a total of $2.2 million to build local infrastructure. I think that is for about 10 programs involving a whole range of different parks and gardens in Blacktown. I am absolutely delighted about that. I should mention, of course, that within that allocation there is $146,500 towards the Black Spot Program. So, all in all, you can see why I am so excited about all those projects that have been announced and that will commence in my electorate—1,854 in number.

We are building infrastructure to ensure that the federal government is actually taking up the slack while the private sector contracts. When the private sector recovers, of course, our infrastructure program will continue, but not at such a significant dimension. Why shouldn’t a government, in an unprecedented economic downturn, a global recession, the likes of which I have not previously experienced—quite frankly, no-one in this room has experienced—take the initiative? What does it mean? We are concerned about families. We are working together. We are concerned about the impact. I would love to say, but I cannot, that no Australian family or no family in my electorate will be hurt by this downturn. What I can say to them is that they have a government that is doing everything that it possibly can.

The opposition keep on talking about $300 million of debt. It is a lot of money. But I have a graph from the IMF. I am not trying to defy you on props, Deputy Speaker Scott. I cannot display it on PowerPoint. This graph shows very clearly, the member for Canberra, Australia’s level of debt as a percentage compared to GDP. At its worst Australia’s will be 13.8 per cent of GDP. In the second-largest economy in the world, Japan, the equivalent will be 140 per cent of GDP. We will hit 13.8 per cent and then we will decline. The advanced economies will hit 80 per cent. Australia will hit 13.8 per cent. The US and the UK are about the same, a bit over 80 per cent. That is, the size of their debt as a proportion of their economy will be a bit over 80 per cent. I repeat: in Australia it will be 13.8 per cent. No-one likes borrowing such an amount of money, but what these figures demonstrate is that we have a great capacity to do it.

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