Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2009-2010 and the Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2009-2010. I was elected to the parliament as the member for Chisholm in 1998—and it is a bit scary that this year marks 12 years in this place. During my nine years in opposition, many meritorious projects in my electorate were continually denied funding. There was not one funding announcement by the Howard government in my electorate. Indeed, the coalition did not even announce many projects they would fund under their own candidates. So it is an absolute joy to be part of a government when something is finally happening in my electorate—and I am still skipping around in a state of exuberance when I get to go to things that have been announced and are happening in my electorate. I have always found this situation a bit odd, because I thought the Liberal Party would consider Chisholm to be a marginal seat and would want to take it back at some stage. But I have had nine years in the wilderness and things are now finally happening—and it is a terrific place to be.

In my electorate, projects are underway and funding has been committed to a number of key infrastructure, educational and environmental initiatives. These projects are worth highlighting as they reflect the Rudd government’s unprecedented commitment to local communities across Australia. The appropriation bills before the House include funding for the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program, which was set up by this government to support investment in community infrastructure such as libraries, community centres, sports grounds and environmental infrastructure. The Rudd government is taking a refreshing approach to infrastructure investment after the coalition’s failure in this area during its 11 years in power.

The whole concept of community infrastructure is of significance and importance to suburban electorates such as my seat of Chisholm, which incorporates many of Melbourne’s eastern and south-eastern suburbs. I have often said in this place that the suburbs are ignored. The people who live in the suburbs often disappear off the map, because they are not a regional area or a region in crisis. But they are where the majority of Australians choose to live. They are where most of our community activity happens. I think it is a bit sad that the suburbs are denigrated and ignored, but I am very proud to represent a purely suburban electorate and the people who live there. I think the suburbs are great. As I said, they are where most Australians choose to live. And quality community infrastructure is of vital importance because of that. Most of my electorate do not want to have to travel into town or to other suburbs to do their activities on the weekend, so having vital community infrastructure where they live is important.

The community infrastructure program has allowed local government to get on with the job of addressing their infrastructure backlogs and delivering quality facilities to their communities. The $800 million invested as part of the program equates to the largest one-off commitment to local infrastructure in Australian history. It reflects the Rudd government’s steadfast commitment to improving community facilities across Australia. My electorate encompasses two fantastic local government bodies: the City of Monash and the City of Whitehorse. I would like to congratulate Charlotte Baines, who has recently been elected as Mayor of the City of Monash, and Bill Pemberton, who has been elected as Mayor of the City of Whitehorse. Both Monash and Whitehorse have benefited from the government’s community infrastructure funding—sharing in the $800 million announced last year—and both councils are very forward-thinking in their own projects and in funding them. I commend them for their ongoing support of infrastructure and their local communities.

Whitehorse council has received $2.5 million from the Rudd government to develop Wembley Park Sports Precinct. The project is well underway. It is not far from my house, and I drive past the new developments. We are very much looking forward to having a new soccer pavilion, along with the refurbishment of an existing grandstand and change room. Soccer, world football, is a sport that has increasing participation in this area. The soccer club had outgrown its rooms and there were no facilities for women, whose involvement is growing and growing. These facilities will make a huge difference to the club. There has been a steady increase in membership at the club, which is associated with the facilities. The project has been welcomed by the Whitehorse sporting community. It will provide improved facilities for Whitehorse and the eastern suburbs more generally.

Whitehorse has also received funding for several smaller scale projects. Last year, I had the pleasure of joining representatives from the Whitehorse City Council at the opening of the Victoria Rose sensory play space in Box Hill. This is an absolutely delightful project. The government provided $35,000 for this project, which is aimed at children aged between three and 10 years and caters for those with developmental delays and disabilities. I want to commend Biala, the fantastic organisation which is next to this play space and had a great deal to do with it. Like many of our organisations, it developed through the support of individuals who saw that children with developmental delays and disability need their own specific play areas and play based education where they and their families can come and feel that they are getting the one-on-one care that they need. The rose garden that has been built will be of terrific benefit to them and to the wider community.

The Box Hill community also welcomed $154,000 in funding for the refurbishment of the historic Box Hill town hall, which included money for replacing the roof, redecorating and exterior painting. I hope that somewhere along the line we might be able to get some money for the redevelopment of the Box Hill aquatic centre that the Whitehorse City Council has just announced. I commend the council for taking the step of redeveloping the pool. Water spaces are very difficult and costly to replace. The aquatic centre is getting to the age where the debate was about whether to close it or maintain it. The council has made the tough and expensive decision to maintain and support the facility, and I want to commend them for that. I have long been an advocate for ensuring that the centre is open to all. I will declare that I am a member of the centre and was in the pool just yesterday afternoon. It is a great pool, on Surrey Drive, but it is getting a bit old and tired. As my child was madly getting her stroke ready for her swim meet on Friday and we were going through the painstaking exercise of making sure her dive was not too deep for the start of the race, we were appreciating the facility but hoping it will improve. I commend Whitehorse City Council for that. We will see if I can get some additional funding at a federal level.

Meanwhile, Monash City Council has also been awarded funding for a number of projects that will be of immense benefit to my constituents. Four million dollars is going towards the new Batesford Reserve youth and community hub, which will co-locate community service providers in a new purpose-built facility. The project will deliver a centralised and supportive youth facility and will contain a number of community service providers to cater for high-needs residents of the community. A number of neighbourhood house programs as well as education and training programs and community health services will be co-located in the facility. This is a project that Monash council has been working towards for a number of years, and it is only now, with the financial support of the Rudd government, that this dream is being realised. I had the absolute pleasure of being at the first turning of the sod at the opening of the redevelopment last week. I am still sporting the ink on my hands from the hand prints I have dedicated to an artwork, a ‘house of hands’. I would like to commend the artist for his great vision and work but I really do want to know how to get off the ink. This is an exciting project which will support the Ashwood community and surrounding suburbs. I also want to commend the numerous community groups which are a vital part of this project.

Just recently I attended the opening of the new Oakleigh pool and recreation centre, to which the Rudd government contributed $200,000. This federal funding was used to upgrade facilities at the recreation centre, including off-street parking, landscaping and walking paths. I would again like to commend both Monash council and the Victorian government for their efforts in redeveloping the Oakleigh pool. It has been transformed into a fantastic facility that will serve the community for a long time to come. Projects like this highlight the importance of community infrastructure. I would also like to commend the community campaigners who made sure that the pool stayed open. It was through their actions that Oakleigh still has its historic outdoor pool and diving platform. If you want to have a good weekend get on down to Oakleigh and jump off the 10-metre diving board. It was through community action that the pool is now being maintained, and we are very grateful for that.

Monash council is also involved in a project being managed by the neighbouring Boroondara Council, the Gardiner’s Creek Trail project, to which the government has committed $2.5 million. This project will link several of Melbourne’s inner eastern suburbs through a continuous shared pathway between Box Hill South and the Main Yarra Trail in Hawthorn. The funding will see the construction of about 1.5 kilometres of a new three-metre wide path, which will be used by both pedestrians and cyclists. I am proud that the government is building these important community infrastructure projects in Chisholm. This bike path will enable cyclists to go under Warrigal Road.

1.8:09:49 For people who know Melbourne, Warrigal Road is incredibly busy and nowadays cyclists have to stop at one part of a bike track, get off, cross a very busy road and go on. As I have watched my child do it with her father on occasion, I am looking forward very much to her having an underpath to ride on, and people will literally be able to ride from the outer suburbs all the way into town on this great bike path.

Each project has helped to support jobs during this time of economic uncertainty. More importantly, each project is a high value investment in the future of my electorate supporting the local community for many years to come. The Batesford Reserve facility will create 71 new local jobs, and that is a terrific thing for our community.

This unprecedented funding for local projects was of course a key component of the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan, a package that has effectively steered Australia away from recession and kept unemployment at low levels. This is a point worth emphasising: Australia is the only major advanced economy not to enter into recession. We have the lowest debt and deficit and one of the world’s lowest unemployment rates. These statistics highlight the strength of the Australian economy and clearly indicate the government’s stimulus plan has worked. The stimulus has cushioned Australia from the worst effects of the global recession, facilitated economic growth and, in doing so, has made our economy the envy of the Western world.

A key component of the economic stimulus plan has been our unprecedented investment in education infrastructure. The Building the Education Revolution program is the largest school modernisation program in Australia’s history and is benefiting every school across the country, including those schools in my electorate of Chisholm. The government is investing over $82 million upgrading facilities across Chisholm’s 46 schools. Given the age of the electorate, many of these schools are getting to their groaning use-by-date and need much updating and improvement, and it has come at a great time for many of these schools.

I have received an overwhelmingly positive response from school communities about this project: teachers, parents and principals are all ecstatic about the government pumping millions of dollars into the schools to ensure teachers and students are teaching and learning in modern facilities. It is gratifying to be part of a government that places education at the top of its agenda and is delivering real improvements to school communities across Australia, particularly into primary schools that often go unrecognised and unrewarded. Despite what the opposition might suggest, the BER project is money well spent, is money that is going towards improving our education facilities and is undoubtedly a good thing.

Recently I visited one of my local schools Kingswood College to inspect the exciting new works that are taking place there. Kingswood has used its National School Pride money for landscaping and beautification works through its central courtyard area while construction of a new multipurpose hall is well underway through the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program.

Kingswood is also benefiting from a trade training centre with close to a million dollars in funding allowing the school to upgrade existing hospitality facilities to industry standards. Kingswood College works in conjunction with the William Angliss catering college to deliver a very high standard of hospitality and catering training. This is a terrific benefit not just to the school but to the wider community who will be able to use these facilities after hours and on weekends. This will allow students to train in a simulated workplace and help equip them with the skills they need to effectively and competitively participate in the hospitality industry. Kingswood is just one example of how this government’s focus on education is leading to improved facilities and outcomes in our schools.

Last week I also had the pleasure of visiting St Mary Magdalen’s school in Chadstone, a small Catholic community that struggles to make ends meet. Again, the ageing infrastructure of the building needed some help, so it was an absolute delight to go there the other day with Senator Mark Arbib and find on site four apprentices being trained and utilised on this facility; four kids who are going to go on and have great careers because they were given the opportunity on this building site. It is amazing that four tradies, four apprentices, were at the one site, and it was a wonderful day to be there.

The education revolution goes beyond investing in infrastructure in our primary and secondary schools: importantly, for my electorate, which is home to several high-quality universities and TAFEs, it extends to reforming the higher education sector, including increased investment in infrastructure. The government has committed $5.4 billion over four years to higher education and innovative reform. This massive injection of funds will help achieve the aim of increasing by 40 per cent the numbers of 25- to 34-year-olds to hold bachelor level qualifications or above by 2025.

The government recently announced that Monash University, with its Clayton campus in my electorate, will receive over $111 million in research grants aimed at driving excellence, collaboration and diversity—vital elements for Australian prosperity. This is in addition to the massive $2.8 million investment being delivered in higher education infrastructure across Australia; $89.9 million is going to Monash University to construct the New Horizons centre which will see the Clayton innovation precinct as the most significant technology innovative hub in the Southern Hemisphere.

Last week, which was rather busy, I was at Monash University and had the absolute pleasure of meeting Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, Australia’s Nobel laureate, who was recognised last year for her work in biomedicine. We were opening the new biomedical facility at Monash. Again, we had contributed to the funding of this phenomenal new centre where 500 scientific researchers are going to be housed together in the facility. The collaboration was just amazing. I was a little daunted at being one of the speakers amongst so many medical scientists and PhDs—my little Arts with honours from Monash seemed to pale into insignificance in the room I was in. But, again, it is a phenomenal achievement. There is great work happening within my electorate.

Deakin University with its Burwood campus residing in my electorate has been awarded $20.2 million in research grants which will encourage its brightest students to continue to higher education. Under the Howard government we saw funding ripped away from the higher education sector. The Rudd government, on the other hand, is committed to supporting higher education research and I am delighted this funding is being delivered to my electorate.

The two TAFES that reside in Chisholm—the Chadstone campus of GippsTAFE, and Box Hill TAFE—are also undergoing dramatic improvements. The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister both visited my electorate last year to announce over $16 million in funding for GippsTAFE. This is unprecedented. The GippsTAFE looked like it came out of the ark. My dad, who trained there, said he did not think it had changed since he did his electrical apprenticeship. This funding will allow GippsTAFE’s Chadstone campus to develop state-of-the-art training facilities to supply training and services for the energy and telecommunications industries. The new facility will have untold benefits for students at the centre as well as for the relevant industries in Victoria.

Box Hill TAFE has received funding for numerous projects, all of which will lead to improved outcomes from what is considered one of Australia’s pre-eminent TAFE institutions. Perhaps the most significant project is the $2.7 million green skills hub, which will support the provision of training courses in the sustainables sector. This project will incorporate several green focused initiatives and training facilities for the development of students’ green trade skills. This project not only reflects the government’s commitment to investing in the higher education sector; it is also an apt example of our focus on reskilling Australians for a more sustainable and greener economy.

The government understands that climate change poses an immense threat to Australia’s way of life. Investing in green skills now is an important step in preparing Australia for the inevitable shift to a sustainable green economy. Projects such as this green skills hub are important to this transition. However, the government also understands that an emissions trading scheme is the only way of making the shift to a sustainable economy in a manner that will serve Australia’s long-term interests. Chisholm is one of the most highly educated electorates in the country and my constituents want real action on climate change. Without doubt the No. 1 issue that comes through in my electorate is people wanting direct action now on climate change. They know too well that the opposition’s climate change policy is a short-term political fix, a climate con job designed purely to get the coalition to the election. The government, on the other hand, has Australia’s long-term economic and environmental future in mind. So a project such as the green skills hub is most welcome and will have environmental benefit. Ultimately there must be a cap on carbon pollution to combat climate change, and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme does just that.

I have spoken today about a number of projects taking place in my electorate—projects that are investing in community infrastructure, delivering for our schools and higher education institutions and having a positive impact on the environment. What these projects are also doing is helping to keep our economy strong by investing in the infrastructure we need for the future. These projects are being delivered by a forward-thinking government committed to policies that are in Australia’s long-term interests. Before I conclude I want to thank the member for Lyons for assisting me by swapping his spot. I do appreciate that. The joys of combining speaking and being in the chair sometimes cause a bit of difficulty so I do want to say thank you. I commend the bills to the House.

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