Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening in support of Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2010-2011, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2010-2011 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2010-2011. What we do know about this budget is that it shows the responsible economic management of this government. We will be halving the peak debt and getting the budget back into the black in three years, which is three years early. We have been talking about our early and decisive action in light of the global financial crisis, which has put us in this position where we are able to get the budget back in the black in three years. Our budget also includes the following really important initiatives: new investments in health and hospitals; new investments in skills, training and infrastructure; the Renewable Energy Future Fund to help tackle climate change; tax cuts and less red tape for small business; better superannuation; tax breaks on interest and a boost to national savings; a standard deduction to make tax time easier for working families; a third round of tax cuts for low-income earners, families and seniors; more money to protect our troops and our borders; as well as returning the budget to surplus three years ahead of schedule.

These tax cuts are really important and the superannuation changes are important. We need to not lose sight of the impact the tax breaks we have delivered for the third year in a row—on time every time—are having on ordinary working men and women, seniors and low-income earners in our electorates. We committed to them in the 2007 election and I certainly know that people in my electorate are looking forward to getting their tax cuts on 1 July. We also have our tax cut of two per cent for small businesses, which is what we need, we believe, to allow small businesses to thrive and create more employment opportunities for people in our local communities. The superannuation guarantee, which 8.4 million workers are expected to benefit from—that is, 90 per cent of all full-time workers—will increase the nine per cent to 12 per cent over time. That will increase Australia’s superannuation savings by over $85 billion in 10 years. That is a very significant boost to retirement savings for Australian working families. We have all heard the example of someone aged 30 who will have an extra $100,000 on retirement due to these changes in superannuation.

I want to talk particularly about health because health has certainly been a big issue in my home state of Tasmania. This budget has the government investing around $7.3 billion over five years to create the National Health and Hospitals Network, which is going to provide $417 million for improved after-hours access to GP and primary care services, supported by Medicare Locals; and $355 million to deliver 23 new GP superclinics. I was fortunate enough to get a GP superclinic in my electorate in the first round. Just last Saturday the tenderer for the construction phase of that GP superclinic was announced. It is being built in conjunction with the state government as an integrated care centre. It will mean over $18 million in new, better facilities in the local community near my electorate office, and I know that the local community is very pleased about that investment. That $355 million will also go towards upgrading around 425 GP and primary healthcare clinics across the country. There will be a competitive bid process for existing GP services to upgrade their facilities and technology.

This budget includes a $523 million investment to train and support Australia’s nurses. We all know the vital role that nurses play in our health and hospital system. From travelling around and visiting hospitals that service my electorate and talking to nurses, I know that they are very pleased about this. We all know that the ANF, the Australian Nursing Federation, is very pleased with this investment and has said that it is long overdue.

The budget also includes $467 million to modernise our health and hospital system through personally controlled individual electronic health records for every Australian from 1 July 2012. We have heard that this commitment will be scrapped should the coalition get elected to government. It is really important that this particular measure is not scrapped. We have heard GPs and medical professionals around the country saying that it will save money and improve efficiency in our health system. How can people say that cutting this out of the budget is going to save money when it will improve efficiency and improve savings into the future? I really think it shows short-sightedness and a lack of understanding of our health system to think that cutting this money out is going to be beneficial to the health system.

Medicare Locals is about allowing people access to after-hours GP services. As a parent of small children, I know that children can often require medical attention after hours. When you have to go to the local hospital after hours, you can wait for quite some time. It is really important that families and older people, who may have minor injuries or ailments, are able to access a GP after hours.

We are investing heavily in health. We are investing in more GP training places, more junior doctors and more specialists. This will take some time to come on board but it shows that we are looking at the whole health system as an integrated system. We are looking at funding the infrastructure now. We are looking at funding the nurses, the doctors and the specialists that are required to fix the system after 12 years of neglect. When Tony Abbott was health minister, he ripped a billion dollars out of the health system. We have heard that, in his alternative budget, he intends to cut $800 million out of what we have committed to health. As I said before, that shows a complete lack of understanding of the health system and how it works.

This government is also investing in skills and training, with a $661 million investment to increase our skills base in our workforce and ensure that the training system is responsive to the needs of our local communities. Under Skills for Recovery there will be 39,000 training places. There will also be an extension of the Kickstart initiative. I was pleased to see in my electorate a large increase in the number of apprentices under the Apprentice Kickstart program. I am certainly talking to small businesses and local communities in my electorate about that extension, and I know that some of those businesses are keen to put on apprentices under the extension. Under A Training System for the Future, $242 million will be provided over four years to work with the states to deliver the national entitlement to a training place for young people under the age of 25. That will be a very important initiative to ensure our younger Australians are able to find training places and improve their work skills into the future.

We have seen a lot of commitment from this government. I talked earlier about small business and the small-business tax break. But we are doing more for small business. Sole traders, partnerships and incorporated small businesses will be able to instantly deduct the cost of assets valued at up to $5,000. For example, a restaurant or a cafe that purchases something new at a cost of $4,000 can get an immediate tax deduction of that $4,000 rather than the usual $600 in the first year and so on. We saw how quickly small businesses took up the small-business tax rebate during the global financial crisis and the government’s initiatives there, so I am sure small businesses will also be keen to take up this tax break. We have also talked about cutting the company tax rate.

When those opposite talk about the budget and about the deficit, they seem to have forgotten that the global financial crisis ever happened. It is like they are in a cocoon and nobody mentions it. Last year in this place I spoke on the budget bills and even then they tried to pretend that the global financial crisis had not occurred. We all know that it actually did occur and we all know that Europe is still in trouble when it comes to issues of sovereign debt. We know that Australia has outperformed most of the other OECD countries. In fact, the OECD just last week revised Australia’s growth forecast and expects our GDP to grow by 3.2 per cent in 2010 and by up to 3.6 per cent in 2011. Australia is one of the strongest economies of all the OECD countries, and it is something that those opposite need to accept is due to our stimulus package and our early and decisive action in the face of the global financial crisis.

The OECD also expects Australia’s unemployment rate to fall to 4.8 per cent by the end of 2011. To me it is good news that Australia’s unemployment rate will fall. To me it is good news that the stimulus package saved 200,000 Australians from being unemployed. But those opposite seem to have forgotten that this happened. They seem to be unhappy with the fact that our stimulus packages were successful and what we did with the economy. Australia has one of the lowest levels of net debt. I would like to table a graph—

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