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

That is in Lingiari; I am talking about Solomon. There is not one bit of infrastructure. It is that sort of worry that I have: you are out of sight, you are out of mind and you are up in the Top End. I have worked really hard at getting us on the map. I have been able to get us out there and get the projects that I have committed to. But we have others that are in doubt. The people in my electorate need to know that there is $30 million dedicated to a doctor’s college—a medical school—so that we can actually train our doctors and it is in doubt if the Liberal Party happen to win the next election. There are 50 accommodation units at Royal Darwin Hospital for outpatients in doubt. They are the sorts of things, major pieces of infrastructure, that will not occur under the coalition government.

The other thing obviously is the third round of the BER money—some $20 million—that will be scrapped. The shadow minister for education has already said that the BER will be wound back and the third round will not be funded. For me, as a person from Darwin who is passionate about the Northern Territory, I want to live in the Northern Territory, I want to live in Darwin and Palmerston and I want to enjoy the benefits of what Darwin and Palmerston have to offer.

When it comes to the supertax, all Australians have a stake in that mineral wealth and so it is our right to have a share of that. We have a duty to ourselves and to our children to make sure that we benefit from it. I am really worried that if we do not happen to cash in now with the supertax, we are going to miss our opportunity in this country. After 16 years of a mining boom, really, we have not got enough to show for it. The first thing that happened when we came to government was everyone screamed ‘infrastructure’.

We even heard from the member for Parkes. He stood up and had some great ideas, we will put a railway line here, we will put one over the top of the Blue Mountains and we will shoot a road up there. They were all great ideas but he should have been in this place 10 years ago and he could have put those ideas forward to the former government. Unfortunately he was not here.

I thank the small-to-medium sized businesses in my electorate for their dedication and their courage during the GFC. During that time we put stimulus into the economy. We certainly put more money into training and more money into apprenticeships with the Kickstart program and that has been well received. But small-to-medium sized businesses have really carried us through. Through the mining tax we want to reward them by bringing down the company tax level. We want to reward them for their perseverance and dedication during very tough times.

I think the opposition are still in denial about how tough the times are right around the world. We have been lucky. We are the lucky country, as people say. We are lucky that we have been able to come through the tough times. There are other countries that are looking at 20 per cent unemployment. We have seen what is happening in southern Europe. There is absolute carnage in the economies there and that leads to social carnage such as we have seen in Greece.

This budget invests $661 million to help young people in the Territory get skilled jobs. That is really important. So many of our young people, our best and brightest, leave the Territory to go and look for job opportunities. We have a big focus on Indigenous employment, but we certainly need employment right across the board. We put a lot of money into Indigenous areas, as we do for all Territorians. Those sorts of programs, which are really beneficial, are all at risk. Over the next three months, if I do nothing else, I will make sure the people of Solomon know what a risk a coalition government would be. The people of Solomon need to know that Tony Abbott is not on their side. The Leader of the Opposition does not care about how the Northern Territory progresses. I am going to make sure that the people in my electorate understand that Tony Abbott is not a friend of the Northern Territory.

The value of apprenticeships cannot be underestimated. There will be around 22,500 new apprenticeships through the Kickstart program, which is excellent. As a former Australian Apprentice of the Year, I value apprenticeships. Apprenticeships survive the boom and bust cycle of the mining industry. Tradesmen put something back into the community through training. I think I have trained around 10 apprentices myself. You build communities, social engagement and self-esteem.

I have always been worried about the fly in, fly out mentality of the mining industry. I have quite a few friends who fly in from different places. I have a mate who lives in Geelong and works at Borroloola. I have a mate who lives in Perth and works offshore for Conoco Philips—and he has done it for a long time. A lot of social dysfunction is caused by fly in, fly out. What impact is that having on society going into the future? Do the mining companies have a social responsibility to build infrastructure in towns? My worry is that we will put in a lot of money. What people did not know about is the 40 per cent underwriting of infrastructure for mining projects—and I fully support that. I think the tax gives mining companies a real buy-in in Australia’s future. They will say we need better roads on which to cart materials and we need better and safer ports. All those things give the mining companies a big buy-in.

I acknowledge Andrew Forrest and his efforts on Indigenous employment—the Indigenous covenant. It is a fantastic initiative. He is putting something back into the community. I am gobsmacked. They have made such profits that they should surely know that some of that money now has to come back to build vital infrastructure. Once it is gone it is gone, and it will be regional and remote parts of Australia that will suffer, not Sydney and Melbourne. The pie will not get any smaller for Sydney and Melbourne, because they have their own problems within the western suburbs in particular, where people are spreading out into the urban areas. It will be the people of Solomon, whom I represent, who will suffer. It will be the people of Far North Queensland, the Kimberley and even Perth who will suffer if we do not get this right.

Our commitment to health in this budget is something I am very proud of. We hear the cynical view from those opposite. It is easy to sit back and be cynical about health, but it is such an important part of our whole social fabric, just having the opportunity to live a long and happy life. We see there are problems, but let us be honest about it: everywhere you go, there are problems. There are 770 hospitals; of course there are going to be problems. There are fewer people in private health insurance, because they cannot afford it. More people are dropping out of it, putting more pressure on the public system. We need to train more doctors, and we have made a commitment to do so. The number was capped under the previous government. So we are putting in around $7.3 billion.

Sure, there are often interjections from the other side—I would not expect it from the two gentlemen here but from others sometimes—saying it is just adding another layer of bureaucracy to it. If that is happening, we need to get through that bureaucracy, because health is about getting services on the ground, at the grassroots level, to the people who need them the most.

We have put a lot of time and effort also into preventative health. There will be 5,500 GPs and 680 more specialists. We are looking at 800 allied health professionals. I know that that has been well received by a lot of people, because there are long waiting lists for those types of services. There will also be 4,600 additional nurses.

These are all really positive programs that need to be supported. If the coalition happened to come to power at the next election, I can see that all those programs would be in doubt. So I think that as a hardworking local member I need to make it clear to the people in my electorate of Solomon and to the people in the Northern Territory, where my kids live, that voting the Liberal Party in at the ballot box will jeopardise a lot of the good things that regional Australia—all of regional Australia, not just my area—have been able to enjoy over the last couple of years.

In conclusion, I think that this budget is a budget for its time, one that was needed. Obviously, we have had three years of uncertainty; let us be honest about that. When you see what has happened on the global stage, around the world, we have had uncertainty. It was a difficult time to come into power. The good days of big surpluses are certainly behind us. I doubt that even Peter Costello, who is held in pretty high esteem, or Paul Keating, who is probably the greatest Treasurer we have ever had, could have seen it through as well as Wayne Swan has. He has grown into the job very well. If you look at the figures and the graphs, you cannot argue with how we have come through the global financial crisis. This is a very good budget. I have done very well out of it and I will make sure that the people of Solomon know that this is a good budget for them. I commend the bills to the House. (Time expired)

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