Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Western and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2009-2010 and cognate bill Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2009-2010. In so doing I will just pick up one point made by the member opposite—that is, potential recommendations by the Henry review in the context of the resources sector. These suggestions are all in the media and simply have the status of speculation. In the context of a resources rent tax, I know a lot about, and have worked in, an industry that works under the only resource rent tax regime that exists in Australia, and there is not one single oil or gas project in our country that has been held back by the petroleum resource rent tax regime. It was a tax system that was created in the early 1980s and worked very effectively to remove a whole range of ad hoc and ad valorem taxes and replace them with an excellent tax, regarded as being one of the best in the world. It is a tax which remained untouched by the Howard government, a tax which remained untouched by Peter Costello. It is a tax which did nothing but quietly hum away, generating substantial revenue for Australian taxpayers, who are the resource owners. The beauty of the resources rent tax structure is that, by its nature, it cannot compromise whether or not a project goes ahead. It is a tax whose simple beauty is that it cannot affect whether or not a project will go forward. Whether or not Henry recommends such a tax for Australia is yet to be seen; whether or not the government accedes to that recommendation is yet to be seen.

This debate is a good debate. It is a pity that the member opposite is so poorly informed, but I am very happy to spend time with him to explain to him that in fact this tax, which has worked so seamlessly and effortlessly for 25 years or more, has generated substantial revenue for governments of all colours and persuasions and has not been amended in its nature at all.

We stand at this point looking at this legislation and knowing full well that we can be optimistic about Australia’s future. We can be optimistic because we have a government which has responded appropriately and in the right way to the global financial crisis, creating the right kind of investment in our community and keeping our economy strong, and supporting employment and the communities that otherwise would have suffered the horrible force and brunt of unemployment that would have come Australia’s way with the global financial crisis, which did travel through the United States and Europe, through Britain and through the countries of most of our trading partners. The sheer intelligence of the government’s response has been clearly missed by those opposite. But it is important for us to point out that we now have communities that are affected by unemployment and that we do need to continue to press the case for the stimulus, and we need to do that both to protect our communities and to protect our economy and its skill base.

One of the worst impacts of the global financial crisis in Australia in 2009 was in fact a winding back of apprentice numbers and the training of people for the resources sector in my state and in other resource rich states. It is important that we do keep our skills performance and training measures up to scratch to ensure we do have enough skilled workers to furnish that growing economy. It is great to see South Australia as a powerhouse of the resources sector, joining Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales in leading the Australian mining sector’s recovery.

In this legislation $14.9 million has been reclassified as part of the payments which are structured under the East Kimberley Development Package, payments which are made to the Shire of Wyndham and East Kimberley, a shire which is essential to the delivery of the East Kimberley Development Package announced jointly by the Prime Minister and the Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, on 3 July last year, in Kununurra. The East Kimberley Development Package builds on the work of several governments in Western Australia to create an outstanding agreement with the Mirrawong Gadjurong people both to allow for agricultural and horticultural development and to ensure appropriate compensation to traditional owners and Indigenous people in the Kimberley area.

Importantly, the social investment package, the East Kimberley Development Package, was constructed in close cooperation with the government of Western Australia—with Premier Colin Barnett, Minister Brendon Grylls, health minister Kim Hames and education minister Liz Constable—to ensure a hand-in-glove approach to supporting infrastructure in this region with that newly elected state government.

The $14.9 million that has been reclassified is delivered through the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley, demonstrating the great partnership that exists now at all levels of government to ensure that the social disadvantage in the East Kimberley is addressed by substantial investments in infrastructure that match the substantial delivery of programs funded by the state government. The package forms part of the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan and was developed in response to the unique economic and social circumstances of the East Kimberley, and it will contribute to the Australian government’s national-building agenda, providing a stimulus to the economy as well as addressing Indigenous disadvantage.

The East Kimberley Development Package specifically supports the region through investing in social and common-use infrastructure. Since being launched, the Australian government has worked with the East Kimberley community and the Western Australian government, the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley and two Indigenous organisations to further develop the planning and design of 29 individual projects. Project plans have been submitted for nearly all projects, based on designs prepared with extensive community consultation.

On 22 January, I had the pleasure of joining the Wyndham East Kimberley shire president, Fred Mills, and the member for Kalgoorlie, Mr Barry Haase, to officially open the Wyndham swimming pool. The opening took place on a Friday evening, as a thunderstorm was gathering and lightning and the wind were gathering around us. Both the member for Kalgoorlie and I had great pleasure in watching that pool be opened, watching the kids of the community play in that pool and noting that it was originally opened in 1966 as part of the post-Olympic push to deliver pools to communities across the country. Now why was that particular 44-year-old facility important? Because the only other swimming facility, down the road, is in the river at Wyndham, which is populated by extremely large crocodiles, a massive current and tidal drift and is simply unsafe for any recreational use by swimmers, divers or the like. The swimming pool is a critically important piece of community infrastructure in Wyndham.

I was interested to learn that even the incredible amounts of rain the Wyndham pool will receive in the wet season—some evenings up to two inches, in the old measure, 50 millimetres in the new measure—will not affect the functioning of the pool. The water in that swimming pool, the whole 25 metre by six lane pool and the two adjacent kids pools, is turned over every three hours.

While the $950,000 that we contributed to that particular project is relatively small, an extremely small component of the nearly $200 million which is the East Kimberley Development Package, it is evidence of the strength and integrity of the package and of the cooperation that exists between the Australian government, the state government of Western Australia and the local government authorities. It is evidence of the strength of working together to deliver community identified needs. The Commonwealth funds were supported by $388,000 from the Western Australian government’s Department of Sport and Recreation and $106,000 of in-kind contributions from the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley. It is evidence of the strength of employing local labour and encouraging Indigenous employment. Of the 60-odd people who worked on the project, 41 were local and 10 were Indigenous. It is evidence of the strength of this project that leaving an enduring piece of community infrastructure for generations to come will be both enjoyed and celebrated and will once again become part of the fabric of Wyndham.

This is just one of many projects currently underway or in the planning stages through the East Kimberley. Construction has commenced on projects such as upgrades to the Wyndham health facilities, with the hospital component complete and the construction of staff housing now beginning. This is important because it will allow us to bring into Wyndham specialists and medical professionals—from Perth, principally—who will be housed in appropriate accommodation in Wyndham and thus be able to carry out their professional skills to the advantage of the local community, knowing full well that they have got great, secure and safe accommodation which will allow them to practise their professional skills to the best of their ability.

We also have improvements to the residential rehabilitation facility near Wyndham. This facility is effectively there to assist local people who are in the process of rehabilitation from the curse of alcohol, the effect of which in the East Kimberley area is truly caustic and truly damaging to the social fabric there. We also have upgrades to the Kununurra airport and the patient transfer facilities at that airport.

The Western Australian government also recently awarded contracts for construction of 23 dwellings in Kununurra and Wyndham, and a tender is currently out for construction of five more dwellings. Community consultations are progressing for the more complex projects of the Kununurra Hospital expansion and the redevelopment of the Kununurra education precinct.

There has been tremendous involvement of the community in designs for the Wyndham Community Jetty, which will be an important community asset. The jetty currently sits on a pontoon on the Wyndham River. It is clearly an important community asset but is also unsafe in any difficult weather conditions—and, given my reference earlier to the nature of that river and its occupants, the crocodiles—getting a good, safe community jetty in place will be an important addition to community amenity in Wyndham.

A key aspect of the East Kimberley development package is the promotion of Indigenous employment opportunities. These opportunities have already begun to be realised as construction is gearing up. I am told that, of the first 12 participants to go through pre-employment apprenticeships and training with Kimberley Group Training, 100 per cent of them are local Indigenous people. Funding for the salaries of and mentoring support for 20 new local apprentices will increase the availability of skilled labour in the region for years to come.

The project planning and design work done to date mean that a series of projects will commence shortly. All projects funded under the package are scheduled to be completed by June 2012. The package is a fantastic example of the strength of all levels of government working together. It is an example of the importance of all levels of government working together in Northern Australia to deliver outstanding outcomes. Over the course of the last few years, observers of governance structures in Northern Australia have often pointed out how weak they are. In many ways, the response of the government of Western Australia to getting it right in the East Kimberley—and the response of the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley to its challenges to get right governance, decision making and project delivery—gives us hope that the delivery of projects in this area will be enhanced by much better governance systems and control.

It is not hard to see that Northern Australia, over the course of the last 30 years—and this is certainly not a partisan observation—has been marred by governments from the south of this country, whether in Perth, Canberra or Brisbane, simply shouting instructions to Northern Australia and not having governance structures in Northern Australia that can be responsive. Government in Australia has tended to work on a south-north basis, whereas governance in Northern Australia is a more local phenomenon that does require investment, capability building and a cooperative approach from the Australian and state and local governments.

With that, I would like to thank my state colleague the Hon. Brendon Grylls MLA and Shire President Fred Mills for their tireless efforts to get the East Kimberley development package off the ground and to deliver results in a short time frame. I also pay my regards to Peter Stubbs, who is the chief executive officer of the Ord expansion project and former chief executive officer of the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley, for the work that he has done to prioritise projects, to stand by the tough decisions that that local government authority has had to make, and also to create the right structures to deliver projects on time.

I am often fond of saying that, in regional development and regional Australia, people who have a grumpy sense of self-reliance are so much better at understanding their needs and at looking at politicians from our town of Canberra and making a pretty quick assessment as to which ones are speed humps and which ones are really going to help. I look forward to attending more local launches of projects in the East Kimberley and throughout Northern Australia, and also to catching up with the member for Kalgoorlie when he is up in the Kimberley carrying out the work that he does for his constituents. In conclusion, I commend the bill to the House.

Debate (on motion by Mr Melham) adjourned.

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