Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note the comments from the member for Hunter. His passion for and interest in regional and rural Australia—we like Joel—in particular agriculture, is long term. I am a positive person and my contribution today is really about highlighting the positive aspects of this budget, which is a very forward-looking budget. The trouble with the party which the member for Hunter is a member of is that they have never seen a dollar that they did not want to spend. They do not understand the fundamental that governments, including theirs, do not have their own money. Governments have money that is raised by the good people and the good businesses around this country that pay tax. Unfortunately, after the party of the last six years, somebody has to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, Labor just simply will not go home after the party. The initiatives to clean up the budget, to fix the budget and to reinvigorate the Australian economy are being blocked in the Senate. It is time for the Leader of the Opposition to get his senators back to work. The Labor Party is in denial. We simply cannot keep paying the mortgage on the nation's credit card with more borrowed money.

This is a budget for the future. It is about Australia. It is about Tasmania. In my case, it is about my electorate of Lyons—and I will touch on the good things in the budget for my electorate in more detail later. It is also about my children and my grandchildren, as it is about yours. So many good aspects of the budget have been overlooked by those on the other side because of their ideological pursuits.

Here are some general budget facts. The government is currently paying $1 billion a month in interest on the money borrowed during the six years of Labor, and the debt repayments on this borrowed money is forecast to grow to $3 billion every month. This simply cannot go on. The underlying cash deficit for this year is estimated to be $49.9 billion in 2013-4. This was the budget that the member for Lilley, for those who have a memory, said was going to deliver a surplus.

Under the coalition's plan, the budget is forecast to be back in balance by 2018-19 with surpluses building to at least one per cent of GDP by 2023-24. This is a plan for the future. The face value of Commonwealth government securities debt on issue is expected to fall from the previous estimations, if nothing was done, of $667 billion to fall by almost $300 billion with the initiatives we put forward in this year's budget. There is a long-term plan to get the Australian economy on a sustainable footing by asking everyone who can to help. Higher income Australians on incomes of more than $180,000 will contribute through the Temporary Budget Repair Levy. Individuals will contribute through indexation changes in pensions, means-testing the family tax benefit, changes to Newstart eligibility and new patient co-contributions for standard GP consultations. This is about all as Australians making a contribution to this nation. Businesses will contribute through a reduction in industry assistance, the public sector will be rationalised and politicians and senior public servants will have their wages frozen.

There will be no change to pensions during this term of government. There will also be a wage subsidy for mature age job seekers with up to $10,000 available to bosses and businesses who hire mature job seekers over the age of 50 who have been out of work for at least six months. This is in addition to the initiatives around the Tasmanian jobs plan. The Higher Education Contribution Scheme, HECS, will be extended from degree courses to sub-bachelor and diploma courses and a new $20,000 loan for trade apprentices introduced. These are such important measures and such important initiatives, particularly in regional areas of Australia and particularly in my home state of Tasmania.

One of the key aspects of the budget was the investment in infrastructure. Tasmania will share in the single biggest investment, a $50 billion investment in infrastructure across Australia over the next seven years to deliver vital transport infrastructure for the 21st century. With contributions from the private sector, with contributions from state governments, this amount can be leveraged up to over $120 billion. The investment will transform infrastructure across the country and lay the foundations for future growth. The budget is a structural document to move us away from perhaps I would argue 10 years of short-term consumption, accelerated enormously in the six years of the previous government, to a budget that is building for the future, to a government that is restructuring investment on the medium and longer term time frames.

To further leverage private sector investment, the government will use its balance sheet to help manage risks that might otherwise impede private sector financing. Key projects in Tasmania include the Midland Highway upgrade and the freight rail revitalisation to upgrade the rail network to secure the safety, reliability and competitiveness of rail freight operations. Even as recently as last week there was an announcement of the upgrade of the Brooker Highway between Hobart and my electorate of Lyons at Bridgewater.

In the case of Lyons, more than $500 million will be spent on local infrastructure projects in road and rail. $400,000 has been contributed to a new strawberry venture near the northern Midlands town of Longford. $3.5 million has been contributed to Huon Aquaculture to increase their capacity to value-add in one of my state's most important and quickest growing industries, the salmon industry, at Parramatta Creek in the municipality of La Trobe. There is $1 million for the upgrade of the Port Sorell Road and $1.5 million for the Port Arthur penitentiary restoration, one of the nation's icons, a World Heritage site on the Tasman Peninsula in my electorate. There is $300,000 for solar communities in Lyons and a share of the $400 million that has been committed for the Midland Highway upgrade. Most of that will benefit people living all around the state, from the electorate of Bass of my colleague here, from the electorate of Braddon of my colleague also here today and those people that live in the electorates of Denison and Franklin in the south. But most of that money will land in my electorate of Lyons.

A large share of the $120 million to be spent on freight rail will also be spent in the electorate of Lyons, not least of all on the Rhyndaston upgrade. A share of the $26.9 million is earmarked for upgrades of north-east freight roads, which will include some contributions in the electorate of Bass, and replacement in the north-east of timber bridges in Mathinna and the Evercreech area of my electorate. Another $3.2 million has been allocated for land acquisition for the proposed Bridgewater Bridge development, on top of the $3.2 million already provided. There was $250,000 for the Dunalley community hall, to rebuild an important piece of community infrastructure after the devastating bushfires on the Tasman Peninsula in 2013.

It is important to understand that these are benefits that are recognised. These are accessible funds for councils all around Australia. The 13 municipalities that I have within the electorate of Lyons will no doubt be able to share in the $200 million extra for road black spots. An extra $350 million has been added to the Roads to Recovery program, which is significantly important in an electorate the size of Lyons, which covers 36,000 square kilometres—nearly 50 per cent of the state of Tasmania by area.

In the budget, $43 million has been committed to tourism infrastructure. As tourism is one of the most important industries in my home state and in my electorate, we will certainly be working with the Minister for Trade and Investment to seek what share of that money we can.

Also, $100 million has been committed for mobile phone black spots. Those of you who travel around Tasmania will understand that there are many areas of the state where mobile phone coverage is very poor. This $100 million is effectively a subsidy to encourage the private sector—be that Telstra, Vodafone, Optus or anybody else who wants to put up their hand—to construct infrastructure, or enhance existing infrastructure, to put mobile phone communications in areas where, if it were just based on economics and population, it simply could not be justified.

There are a lot of myths about health funding in this budget, but the fact is that next year health funding will increase by nine per cent. In the following year, it will increase by another nine per cent. In the following year, it will increase by another nine per cent. In the final year of the forward estimates, it will be six per cent, over the four years.

In education, over the forward estimates funding will increase by 34 per cent on funding levels from 2013-14—$4.6 billion every year between 2013-14 and 2017-18. This is a good outcome. As we all know, there are many things that go to making a child's education a worthwhile education. That includes parental engagement and the ability of a principal to have greater autonomy within the school he runs. It is important that we have quality teacher training and it is important that we have a robust and flexible national curriculum. Yes, funding is important, and funding will increase over the forward estimates by 34 per cent, but it is not the only measure of student success.

Briefly, in the time that I have left, I want to highlight some facts around higher education. I truly believe that the reforms that have been proposed within the higher education sector will substantially benefit young people and people looking to benefit from tertiary education within my state of Tasmania, particularly at UTas, which has a high proportion of students accessing university in non-degree courses—sub-bachelor and diploma courses. These are the stepping stones that many students use to go on to further degree courses. I just cannot overstate how important this reform is for providing the opportunity to another 80,000 students every year around Australia—many from low-socioeconomic circumstances—which currently only those attending university in a bachelor degree have, with no up-front costs no matter what your background, no matter where you come from, to go to a higher education institution of your choice.

I also wish to compliment the government, the ministers and the departments that have also extended the Higher Education Contribution Scheme to the $20,000 loan for trade apprentices. Again, it is a game changer in my state of Tasmania. This is providing flexibility by removing the impediments that young people might have to studying a trade, so we are doing everything we possibly can.

Yes, we are proud of the fact that we do not think that it is right that young people who are leaving school should be able to go straight onto Newstart. But we are putting everything we can and every resource that we can into supporting employers to take on young people who have been unemployed for more than six months. We are putting in place pathways for young Tasmanians, for young Australians. If they are unable to earn through work that is available, we are supporting them and will make it as easy as we can to help them get into tertiary education.

I truly believe that this is a landmark document. This is a document for the future. It is a document for Australia, Tasmania, my electorate, and my children and my grandchildren for the future.

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