Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, you will learn something from Churchill, because Churchill was a man—I kid you not—who had the strength of his convictions to make the tough call when the tough call had to be made. And this is a tough call that had to be made. In our current deficit, you will notice that we still have $49.9 billion of loss this year. Our projections next year are $29.8 billion, and even by 2017-18 we will see a deficit of $2.8 billion. So even then we are still only closing the gap, but the tough calls need to be made.

We have made some tough calls, but we have also invested very much in our future. I got emails all last week saying what we can and cannot do, and many of those emails would have us go down the same way as the Argentinian economy, where they put in huge disincentives for people to earn. We have not done that. We have not made that mistake. We have actually invested in building capacity. Cutting company tax rates has been fantastic. That will mean that a small business in my electorate will put on an extra apprentice, and that is what we have to do. If we can get one extra person—

Ms Hall interjecting—

Well, you should listen because you are going to learn something. If you can put on one extra person, that is an extra job in a country community. I did an apprenticeship, and a first-year apprenticeship is very tough to live on. In fact, if you are on a first-year wage, on $200 a week, it is quite a struggle. We have recognised this. We are actually the party for the worker, and we have recognised this. We have given a help scheme for apprentices. I know that as a first-year apprentice it was a very big deal for me to be able to buy the tyres on my car, but with a help scheme there is real recognition of this. For the first time, students who study at Longerenong agricultural college or at SuniTAFE will be able to access a help scheme. This has been an instrumental thing that we have campaigned for for a very long time—a recognition that rural trades are essential to growing our economy and growing our wealth.

We have expanded the research and development in agriculture by $100 million. We have also invested in our roads—our first mile of road. Did you know that the average truck now weighs 60 tonnes? We have to be able to get down that country road. We have added another $350 million for Roads to Recovery and another $300 million overall for Bridges to Recovery. This has been a great investment and real recognition that investing in roads is going to be key.

One of the tough decisions has been to put an excise on fuel and to index that excise. It is easy for the Labor opposition to sit back and say, 'That's a broken promise.' But we are linking the excise to road infrastructure. My electorate makes up one-third of the state of Victoria, and there are a lot of country roads. The people in my electorate say to me that they want to be able to make a phone call and they want to be able to drive a country road. For a very long time we have seen not enough investment in country roads. It has been the coalition, which championed the Roads to Recovery policy, that has boosted that. That is recognition of the fact that boosting our investment in infrastructure lets us enhance our export capacity, which increases our wealth. Even out of my electorate, there is $5.3 billion of economic activity. I would say that there are not many electorates across Australia that have that level of economic activity.

We continue to invest in looking after our land. There is $525 million for the Green Army Program. I am going to have three Green Army projects in my electorate and I am going to try to get some more. The thing I like about the Green Army Program is that it gets young men and women aged 17 to 25 outdoors, breather the fresh country air and get involved in hands-on environmental management. This is how you actually move people away from being armchair environmentalists, of which we have seen too many, to being people who have a passion and an affinity for looking after the land. Not only will those people undertaking Green Army projects be doing something of value that will lift their self-esteem they will also be getting some skills and doing some good environmental work they will help the region. We have $342 million in the Community Development Grants Program. That is money that will go into our communities to help build small infrastructure. Also part of the budget is the national stronger regions fund. That is a $1 billion that will be spent right across Australia to build those small projects that are very important to people.

For my electorate in the budget there is also an additional 3,000 places for the Clontarf Foundation. I met with some of these guys last week. They are young Aboriginal men who use sport as a motivation for getting them back to school and getting them back into learning. One of the key factors about this budget is that, unlike the previous government, which was not prepared to put some tough love into unemployment benefits and in driving people to work, we have introduced and earn or learn program. The earn or learn program will not have people living on $2 noodles for six months, as those opposite would have us believe; it will have some very good programs that will help people get a job. That is what we want.

Mr Acting Deputy Speaker Randall—I think that is the right title. It sounds very regal for you, doesn't it? We want to see people get a job. Getting a job builds your self-esteem. Getting a job builds your self-worth. We do not want people to see themselves as unemployed. We want to see them as employable and looking for work. That is something we need to do right across Australia. In my electorate there are jobs, and a lot of them are currently being filled by Irish and German backpackers. We want our young Australians to get involved in the workforce. That does not mean you start off in the job that you always want. I never started off in the job I always wanted, and I am not sure I am in the job I always wanted now, but here I am. The point is—

Dr Leigh interjecting—

You could try. I think you had a good go but did not quite—I think you polled 17 per cent. Across my electorate we want to have people who are active and take a job. That is going to be very critical, Mr Deputy Speaker Randall. Is that the correct title?

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