Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank you for the opportunity to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2014-15 and cognate bills today. There is no hiding the fact that there has been some very highly vocal and predominantly negative reaction to the budget both before it came down and at the time it came down. I had concerns as well. In hindsight, I think we could have handled it better. I made this very public argument that we could have focused on a lot of the positives rather than on just the negatives, because people are genuinely concerned. But there is no doubt about it that the reason we are now in government and not the other side is that people realised that it had got out of control. They were desperate for somebody who was responsible to come in and clean up the mess and get the house back in order.

We had a similar challenge back in 1996. This budget is a tough budget, but it is a fair budget. We did it back in 1996 and I am confident that we can do it again. At the end of the day, as I say, when the party is over somebody has got to come in and clean up the mess. And that is what we are doing now. I believe this is a responsible budget. The previous government ran up five record deficits and left $123 billion in future deficits and, without policy change, our debt was going to reach about $667 billion. We are certainly repairing the budget and, in so doing, will strengthen the economy.

Instead of having Labor deficits of more than $30 billion in 2017-18, it will be down to less than $3 billion. That in itself will be quite an achievement. I recognise that the saving measures that we are putting forward will affect every sector of our society. By sharing the load, we certainly lighten it for everyone.

I have been asked a number of times what the budget means. My honest answer is that, as Chair of the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia, the coalition's commitment to the development of Northern Australia fills me with a great deal of confidence. When we put down the report—and the white paper will come out at the end of this year—there will be a requirement for infrastructure funding. What chance would we have had if the deficit continued to go north? What chance would we have had if our government debt continued in that $600 billion northern spiral? Everything is coming down, which gives me a great deal of confidence that, in the 2015 budget, there will be something there for infrastructure to get the Northern Australia white paper becoming a reality. I can tell you now that there are many people in our region who are really looking forward to that. This budget sets the theme, if you like, to allow us to provide significant funding to make it become a reality.

When you look at what is in the budget now, there is another big difference. The others were throwing around promises like confetti, with $200-odd million for the peninsular development—all this money was going everywhere. But when you looked behind it there were no dollars there. It was no more than a piece of paper.

In this budget we have recognised projects of great significance and great importance. The first one is $6.7 billion for the Bruce Highway. I know you have also been actively involved in this campaign, Mr Deputy Speaker, with the eastern seaboard members. Now the money is actually in the tin and ready to be spent. It includes $46.4 million for the Cairns Southern Access Corridor from Robert Road through to Foster Road. There is money to complete the job which was incomplete when we came in—they did not have enough to complete the job, so we are putting money into that as well.

We have actually put the cash in the tin now for $210 million of Cape York infrastructure. These are little projects which are very important to us. The Mossman Botanical Gardens is something Alan Carle and Peter Wood and their team have been working on. It is a fantastic initiative to set up botanical gardens in a little place called Mossman, north of Port Douglas, basically featuring all the flowering trees of the Daintree Rainforest. We have put in $1.4 million to allow them to acquire the site. Again, it is money in the bank, not hollow promises which never materialise.

It is great to see that we got the    Black Spot funding. It was our initiative and has had an amazing impact on safety on our roads. In the Roads to Recovery program, bitumen has been laid throughout local authority areas—again, a coalition initiative which we continue to support. With the remote airstrips program, I got a call today from the CEO from Pormpuraaw very concerned because Senator McLucas had put out a press release saying that we are going to cut it. It just shows you how little the other side understand what budgets are all about. We had actually budgeted the funding for 2014-15 and then we will be looking at priorities after that. Of course we are funding that. At the moment, Kowanyama air strip is in the final stage and that is all they have to look at—their next-door neighbour. They are doing the work. Lockhart River is doing the work. Again, Senator McLucas and shadow minister Albanese are scaremongering about it. But people know better. They see what is happening on the ground.

There is an investment of    $42 million in the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine at JCU. That money is now in the bank. We have budgeted for it, we have made the commitment, we have now locked it in. Cairns and the Torres Strait will benefit from a large chunk of this funding. Money is in the bank for the seawalls I have been talking about for the last three years, in spite of the fact that the other mob had promised it for years and years. Even when they eventually put out the press release, there was absolutely no money. That money is in the tin and they are starting the work right now.

We have been raising insurance for a long time. The response from the other side after the flood inquiry at the beginning of 2012 when there were nine recommendations—if they had taken the nine recommendations at the time, the problem may well have fixed itself. Rather than that, they played politics with it and blamed the state government. Then they said, 'Let's fix it with stamp duty for state governments.' That was the only recommendation they took out of it. They said, 'We'll have a look at it,' but they made it so constrained that nothing could come out of it.

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