Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate the member on his contribution to the debate. I would like to join him in welcoming the member for Bradfield into this place. I listened intently to your first speech yesterday, Member for Bradfield, and remembered my own. While I did not agree with everything you said, I certainly respected the passion with which you delivered your speech. So congratulations to you. I can see you are already working your way up the chamber—whipping duties in Main Committee—so it will not take you long to work your way into a shadow ministry.

I would like to speak today on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2009-2010 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2009-2010, because I think they relate to the nuts and bolts of being a member of parliament. The reason a lot of us are here is to represent our region. We have debates on various issues to do with the national interest—whether it be border security or the global financial crisis or different positions on climate change or how to deal with its effects. Certainly, as the federal member representing the Darwin-Palmerston area, the electorate of Solomon, my job is to go in to bat for my electorate, to push as hard as I can, and to get what I can for the people who have elected me to this place. I think that all members do that.

It is an interesting conversation that I often have with people back in my electorate if we do not get as much money as people thought we should from a spending package. People need to realise there are 150 electorates in Australia and we all believe that we are the best electorate and that our needs are more important than everyone else’s. We all believe that we have the best population, that we are the most multicultural and that we have the best of everything. We all believe in our electorates, and we get in here and we scrap as hard as we can to get our share of it. I am realistic enough to realise that you are not always going to get everything you want. I am an Australian as well as a Territorian, and I know that there are areas in Australia that need assistance. My area has a young population, and we are a developing area—remembering that Cyclone Tracy basically devastated Darwin in 1974. When you look at it like that, we are only about 35 years old at the moment. And we are growing. Our population, like those in a lot of regions in Australia, will continue to grow.

I remember the caucus meeting back in, I think, October 2008, when the global financial crisis was first mentioned to us. I remember the measures that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer put in place to put us in the best position to continue to develop and grow during what was the worst global financial crisis in 75 years. We know that we are not out of it yet, but the measures that have been put in place by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have gone a long way to protect us against the worst of it. By comparison with other countries, we are doing remarkably well.

Part of that program was Building the Education Revolution. I would just like to touch on a few of the things that my electorate got from that, and will continue to get into the future. Part of that program was the National School Pride Program. The government put $1.3 billion nationally into this program, fixing up existing infrastructure and helping to keep people employed during this time. In my electorate we received $5.4 million for 36 schools in round 1, and $1.8 million for 13 schools in round 2. It was great to see our local schools and community benefiting from the money that the government was prepared to give us with regard to refurbishing a lot of our schools.

I would like to also outline a couple of the things that the government is doing with regard to infrastructure for the schools through the Building the Education Revolution. It is a diverse list. There is Primary Schools for the 21st Century, science and language labs, the National School Pride Program, as I mentioned, trade training centres, digital education and local schools working together. The Australian government’s Indigenous Boarding Infrastructure Program funds urgent projects. We have three very successful Indigenous focused boarding schools in St John’s College, Kormilda College and Marrara Christian School in Darwin. There is the Diversity And Structural Adjustment Fund. The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation has been very well received in my electorate as well. Alawa school, and now Driver school, have started that program, and it has been very well received by the students. Then there is the Early Learning and Care Centres Program, and the Investing in our Schools Program. So some $55.5 million has been put into our electorate. If the coalition win they have flagged that they will cut back on the stimulus. My opponent in the election will need to come clean with the people in Solomon and Darwin at some stage and tell us which schools will not be getting the funding.

Another area that has been fantastically well supported by the Rudd government in the electorate of Solomon is the health area. It was with a great deal of pleasure that the Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, and I announced the Rudd government’s commitment to investing a massive $85 million in three key health projects for the people of Darwin.

The $28 million Flinders University project, to build a dedicated network of hospital and community based medical education facilities to allow a full medical program to be delivered in the territory, is a significant investment. For a long time we have lost our best and brightest kids who have graduated from high school with fantastic marks and have gone interstate to study medicine. Unfortunately, a lot of the time when they go interstate, they make new friends, they find life partners and we never get them back. So we have a shortage of doctors. Often we have to fly doctors in from southern capitals, and they stay a short time. I remember the days when we had Dr Scatini and Dr Short in Katherine. They were long-time residents. I have probably had my own personal doctor for 17 years. It is not the sort of thing you chop and change; you like to have your doctor long-term. I think that for the people in Darwin it will be significant that, starting next year, we will have our own doctors being trained. By 2015 I think we will have about 40 a year graduating.

Recently we had an information night at Charles Darwin University, where a facility is currently under construction for the students. About 80 parents, students and people interested in how this program will roll out turned up. I am very happy about that. For the government and the minister to commit to that, and to see the bigger picture about the north of Australia, is such a significant investment.

Our government will provide $18 million to build an accommodation complex of 50 units on the grounds of Royal Darwin Hospital for patients and their carers. Once again, we have a lot of people come in from communities who have treatment. Once they are discharged from the hospital and become outpatients, often they sleep rough; often they do not have family support or accommodation, so they will sleep rough and then come in and have their outpatient treatment. This hostel will allow a lot of community people who come in and use the hospital services to be able to stay somewhere safe and clean and will aid in their rehabilitation from whatever medical problems they have. It was much needed. It was an investment to alleviate the problems I just alluded to. It shows that we are moving forward within our health precinct on the Darwin Hospital campus, and to have that hostel will be fantastic.

More than $34 million has also been invested in a centre of excellence in Indigenous health and education in Darwin through the Menzies School of Health Research—a leading researcher of health, especially Indigenous health. Indigenous health is something that is close to my heart. I have lived in the Territory since 1974 and a lot of people I have known and have played football with have died prematurely, a lot of them because of heart disease through having rheumatic fever as a child and then getting into their late 30s or early 40s and dying. That is something that as a nation we have to address. We have to address the gap in the life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

I would like to put on the record the efforts of the Menzies School of Health Research in continuing to research and continuing to close that gap. The research is in integrated clinical care and workforce training and focuses on early childhood, education—certainly preventative education—chronic diseases, substance misuse and child abuse. The funding will also mean an increase in Indigenous employment and training at the Royal Darwin Hospital campus and remote communities. That is significant in itself. I would like to see a lot of Indigenous health workers working with Indigenous people, because they have an acute understanding of the challenges that community life brings and are able to assist them in closing those gaps that I spoke about.

Other investments include the $10 million superclinic. I was out there inspecting it with the minister a couple of weeks ago. It is moving ahead pretty well, considering the weather. We have had, I think, nearly 100 inches of rain so far in this wet season. It has been an enormous wet season. It has been a very difficult task, but the companies that are working on the GP superclinic are working diligently. Already, we are averaging about 30 people a night using the after-hours service. It is now a 24-hour service, which has taken a lot of pressure off the Royal Darwin Hospital. These investments are significant in the way the Rudd government is assisting my electorate in improving our health services.

We have also been very well supported, to the tune of $130 million, in the Northern Territory’s roads and rail infrastructure—an investment that will support local jobs and local businesses. In fact, our government has delivered an increase in federal funding of $51.4 million or 66 per cent over the 2008-09 budget for Northern Territory roads and rail projects, as well as putting in place modern, well-planned transport infrastructure—vital to the Territory and the nation’s long-term prosperity. Our record investment program will support jobs and provide an immediate stimulus to local economies.

There has been $25 million allocated to stage 2 of Tiger Brennan Drive. That is a significant investment, which will now give seamless access basically from the Stuart Highway down to the port facilities at East Arm. From a commuter’s point of view, the families living in Palmerston and the rural area who commute into the city to work will have a better run that what has been in the past bumper-to-bumper traffic. It will mean that people will be able to get to and from work quicker, in a safer environment, and be able to spend much-needed time with their families. Completing this extension is certainly something close to my heart, as I live in Palmerston. There are thousands of other Palmerston and rural residents who sit in the gridlock every morning and afternoon getting to and from work. I can see that progress is being made by Macmahons, the company that has the contract. They are doing a fantastic job in getting that ready.

One of the things that we as a government focused on was better interaction between the federal government and local councils. I know that my councils—the Lord Mayor of Darwin, Graeme Sawyer, and the Lord Mayor of Palmerston, Robert Macleod—are very grateful for the efforts that the federal government has made towards working more closely with local government. They only have praise for the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government for the way in which he has gone about getting projects on the ground. We realised that with the money spent in the stimulus packages we needed to engage Australia in working and building projects to protect jobs. Certainly, the councils around Australia have benefited greatly from these programs.

We received $2.1 million for bike paths around the Darwin area from the $40 million National Bike Path Projects. That was greatly needed. Any time that we can make bike paths safer and make bicyclists safe from cars is important. The government provided $3.6 million to improve the CBD of Darwin and a lot of these landscaping and streetscaping jobs are going on at the moment. Places for people to sit are being put in and the planting of trees along roads in the CBD is taking place. It is really beautifying the city of Darwin. A lot of people come up there. Darwin is a great place to live, it is a great place to visit and it is a great place to bring up a family. These types of projects in the CDB are ever expanding. We are getting a lot of high rises and I can see that in the future the CBD will have many more people living there, and these types of projects are making it a great place to live and a great part of the Territory lifestyle. Darwin City Council, the Palmerston City Council and the Litchfield Shire Council have all been able to receive money through the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program. I commend the minister for that program.

The Darwin port expansion is also very dear to my heart as we grow as a city. There has been the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce report on the live cattle industry. We currently move a substantial amount of cattle across our port each year. A feasibility study was funded by the federal government to look at the expansion of the port facilities. We initially contributed $50 million to the Darwin port facilities. That was for some pond work in reclaiming some land there and putting in a rail loop, as well as a conveyor belt, to move iron ore more quickly off the port. It was a substantial investment. More needs to be done and I will continue to harass and harangue the minister, as I often do, by leaving very pointed voice messages on his phone about the funding requirements of Solomon.

See this speech in context