Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an incredible performance from the member for Blair. What confected outrage. Not once during his tirade did he mention where any of these funds were coming from. He should sit quietly and hang his head in shame for being part of the worst government since the Commonwealth was started. He was part of the team that got this country in this mess. How did the debt come about? It came through school halls that were overpriced and pink batts that burned down houses. That is why we are in the position we are now. That is why the coalition has had to implement the sensible budget that is in these appropriation bills that we are debating.

The financial irresponsibility of the Labor Party is absolutely breathtaking. They have been here in the last couple of weeks with their confected outrage about money that has been cut out. The member for Blair mentioned money that was cut out of the Gonski reforms. The money was never there. It was in years 5 and 6 of the budget. It was not accounted for. There was no indication of where the money was going to come from or how it was going to be funded. It was off on the never-never. It was a fake promise. Quite frankly, the previous government's actions were very irresponsible. As a matter of fact, they deliberately lined up budget booby traps so that as year 4 rolls into year 5 and they come on the budget papers we have these unfunded promises with no possible way of funding them. Look at the money that was wasted on the $900 cheques. If you surveyed the people of Australia and asked them what they spent their $900 cheque on, I guarantee that 80 per cent of them could not tell you. There were cheques to dead people and to people who lived overseas—it was an absolute debacle.

We have come to the point where we have had to take sound economic decisions in these bills we are debating that make the appropriations for the 2014-15 budget. We have had to look at the debt trajectory out to the end of the forward estimates, which had us heading towards a debt of $670 billion, an unsustainable level of debt. Admittedly, some tough decisions have had to be made. If the members opposite think that the general public outside the confines of this parliament and outside the confines of the cloistered world of the press gallery care, I think they are mistaken. The people I speak to in the streets, the people of Parkes, understand that you need to manage the budget of the country just like you do your own budget. I was in business for over 30 years. At times I would like to have had the Labor Party's attitude and gone out and purchased whatever my heart desired, but I knew that, ultimately, whatever I spent I had to pay back. It is exactly the same with running the country.

We have reduced the deficit. We are heading towards getting back into surplus in a few years time. How can that happen without making the sensible decisions. Just once in a debate I would like to hear how members of the Labor Party were possibly going to pay for all the promises they made. If they had won the last election how were they going to fund these things we are talking about now? They were based on a mining tax that raised no revenue. It is said that this budget hurts low-income earners. One thing that the Labor Party could do right now to help low-income earners is repeal the carbon tax in the Senate. That would mean $550 to every household. A carbon tax is a tax that based not on wealth or otherwise but on merely existing. It does not matter whether you are poor or wealthy, you pay for the carbon tax. If the Labor Party were serious about helping people in Australia they would vote to remove the carbon tax right now.

There has been a lot of negative discussion from the other side about this budget. I am not here defending a budget that needs defending. I am here, proud of the job that we have done. I think that the Australian people were looking to the coalition for someone to take control, to make the hard decisions and get this country back on track.

The investments that were made in this budget are investments in things that will actually grow the economy. Governments do not create wealth; people create wealth. When they have got confidence that the country is being run well then that confidence will flow through to small business. When small businesses start employing people, when people have got the confidence to start to get on with her lives then we will start to see this economy turn around.

Australians understand that we need to live within our means. But they also understand that if this country is going to go grow and prosper, we need the infrastructure to carry that. This budget has the largest infrastructure spend of any budget in the country's history. The coalition knows that to put in the hard infrastructure to help expand our industries in agriculture, in mining, to unplug our cities, to make them more efficient you need investment that is going to last for the long-term—investment that is going to create wealth, investment that is going to grow wealth and investment that is going to encourage people to invest in the country.

There is no greater example than the railway line from Melbourne to Brisbane, the inland rail. It has been a discussion in Australia now for many years. Indeed, the previous minister would mention inland rail but had no real commitment to it. In this budget we see $300 million going towards the implementation of the inland rail. That will go towards environmental studies, finalising the final route and some preliminary infrastructure work. The inland rail will not only have a genuine ability to reduce emissions and do something about our climate but it will improve the safety of our highways. Double-stack container trains will be travelling at over 100 kilometres an hour between the cities and moving freight cheaply and efficiently. But not only that, it will act as—as I call it—the steel Mississippi, giving the inland areas of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland an opportunity to grow. Businesses will grow. It will provide a corridor for agricultural and mineral exports to our neighbours.

With the free trade deals that were signed by this coalition government, by Minister Andrew Robb in Japan and South Korea—and we are very close to coming to an arrangement with China—we are going to see that the agricultural producers in my electorate are going to have access to markets that they only ever dreamed about. We will see a revolution. I will use that 'revolution' word only once. It was a favourite word of the Labor Party. We had revolutions here for everything a few years ago. We will see a revolution in agriculture as those markets to the north open up. We will see a change in the landscape where high-value produce can be delivered into the Asian market. But we need infrastructure to do that. We need that railway line and we need the roads that can connect the high-producing agricultural areas to that line.

In this budget, on a personal note, is money to complete the Moree bypass. One of great debacles in government misconduct was the previous minister, my predecessor, John Anderson, allocated $54 million to build a bypass around Moree on the Newell Highway. The New South Wales previous Labor government squandered that and ended up with half a bypass. Now, thanks to this budget and contribution from the New South Wales coalition under minister Gay, we are going to see that bypass finished.

In agriculture there will be $100 million over four years for a competitive grant program to deliver cutting edge technology. Australian farmers are the best farmers in the world. They are innovative and they understand research will drive that invitation to a higher level. The productivity of agriculture over the last six years has dropped by 1.7 per cent, and we need to turn that around, (1) by having infrastructure that can connect to markets, but (2) by research, and we have a commitment to the research.

There is $20 million over four years for stronger biosecurity. We nearly had a merging of our AQIS with other departments, and anyone who understands agriculture would know that we need to keep our borders secure when it comes to disease. What makes Australia such a valuable agricultural producing area is the fact that we do not have the diseases that many of our competitors do. So that $20 million will secure our borders and help with the ever-constant vigil against diseases such as foot and mouth.

There is $15 million to support small exporters with export grants to help them remain competitive. There is $8 million to improve access to registration of agricultural and veterinary chemicals. And there is $9 million towards fisheries projects, including OceanWatch, and more support for coordinated representation for the recreational fishers and an invasive marine pest review.

One of the big changes that is going to affect the people in my electorate is 'Earn or learn'. While there has been some criticism of this by those opposite, I can tell you that this program is going to be welcomed in my electorate. For too long, it has been an option for some people to opt out of school and go straight onto welfare. Not only has that been devastating for the individuals involved; the effects through entire communities have been devastating. We are going to see people actually out and doing things—for example, through Green Army projects such as the one that I have been working with, with the Moree Plains Shire Council in the Toomelah-Boggabilla communities. There is a Green Army project to improve the environment along the banks of the Macquarie River and give employment to young people.

We are going to see support for younger people to go into trades through the Trade Support Loans, which are similar to the HECS scheme. Now apprentices and people doing diploma courses can get similar help to university students. I have been overwhelmed by the response that I have been getting in support of this program. I do not think anyone quite realised how difficult it was for apprentices and people undertaking education that was not mainstream university education to gain financial assistance.

So this is a budget that I am very proud of. This is a budget that does not shirk the responsibility of being in government. This is a budget that clearly shows the Australian people that the government are in control and that they have their interests at heart. They are not pandering to interest groups. They understand that money borrowed is money that has to be paid back and that this is the first step on the long road for the Australian economy to get back on track.

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