Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No. As I was saying, this will allow many small businesses to upgrade equipment and improve productivity, which will benefit their bottom line as well as improving our nation’s productivity. By improving the cash flow of small businesses, this measure will provide greater relief to many small businesses.

The third measure in this initiative is to address the need to improve our nation’s infrastructure. The Resource Super Profits Tax offers the opportunity to fund $5.6 billion in new infrastructure expenditure over the next 10 years. This is money that is urgently needed for investment in critical infrastructure projects to reduce bottlenecks. I am pleased to note that the budget provides $71 million for the road-rail terminal at Moorebank in the neighbouring electorate of Hughes. This is a critical project which can assist in reducing traffic congestion in south-western Sydney.

The most important infrastructure development is the rollout of the National Broadband Network. This project is vital to Australia’s future. As many other members would find, the most common complaint coming to my office by email relates to slow broadband services in Western Sydney. It is clear that no private sector operator is willing or capable of providing a world-class broadband network. Failure to proceed with the rollout of fast broadband will leave Australian businesses in an information dark age. But the Luddites opposite seem to think that we can put up with snail-paced information technology for years and years to come.

Nothing illustrates this better than the announcement by the opposition that it would scrap the electronic health records system. This is one of the most effective ways of improving patient safety and healthcare delivery, and it is not surprising to see that it is supported by health professionals across the board. It seems that only the opposition is out of step with this important health initiative. The electronic health records system is one part of a $2.2 billion investment in our health system. While the previous government failed to maintain the Commonwealth’s share of hospital funding, this government has accepted the Commonwealth’s responsibility in health care and ushered in a new age of health system reform.

As I began by saying, this will be my last contribution to a budget debate.

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