Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Australian taxpayers do need to see that taxpayers' dollars are being spent wisely and that there is for government value for money in every tax dollar spent. In this budget, we made important steps towards improving the efficiency of the public sector by reducing duplication.

I might just backtrack a little, because I was asked by the member for Higgins earlier about the Asset Recycling Fund. Indeed, it will start on 1 July 2014 as a dedicated vehicle to provide funding and financial incentives to states, territories and other bodies to invest in new productivity enhancing infrastructure, including through the Asset Recycling Initiative. It is getting on with the job of building that important state infrastructure that is so badly needed.

The member for Parkes and I were at Queanbeyan on the weekend and we saw a Queanbeyan bypass initiative announced by not just the Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner, the member for Oxley, but in close conjunction with the Deputy Prime Minister and the good Nationals member there, the member for Monaro, John Barilaro. That is an example of federal-state cooperation—getting on with the job of building that infrastructure which is so sorely needed. It would not have happened under Labor, member for Parkes—it would not have happened. And we were there to witness it first hand—the delight in people in Queanbeyan to that announcement. It certainly would not have happened under the previous member, Steve Whan, but is happening under the current member, John Barilaro.

The Asset Recycling Fund will start from 1 July, with an initial size of about $5.9 billion and with contributions from uncommitted funds currently in the Building Australia Fund and around $2.4 billion in uncommitted funds currently in the Education Investment Fund, which is around $3.5 billion. As the member for Higgins alluded to earlier, that is going to see considerable investment in the states. She certainly wants to see Victoria through all of those important transport grid projects in Melbourne and, certainly, regional Victoria will benefit from the Asset Recycling Fund.

As I mentioned earlier, the government is achieving savings of $43.3 million over four years. The member for Parkes would like to know that we are also realising savings of $19.4 million over the forward estimates by abolishing and merging some small agencies to improve coordination and to increase efficiency. For example, we are merging ComSuper with Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation so that the administration of the Commonwealth superannuation schemes occurs through a single entity. We are also realising the synergies between the activities of the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman and the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

To investigate where else we might be able to realise further efficiencies, the government is developing and implementing a contestability framework over a three-year program of work to review whether government functions should be open to competition, and the appropriate means for this to occur. People who pay taxes want to make sure that their taxes are being used wisely, and want to make sure that they are getting value for money. This work will complement the scoping studies into future ownership operations for four operations announced in the budget, and that goes towards making the sorts of considerable savings that we need to fix up Labor's mess.

I need to answer the shadow minister's questions, and time permitting, I certainly will. For those questions I have not got the time for, I will get back to him on notice. For example, the staffing numbers you have asked for; I will certainly get back to you and provide written advice to that effect. He talked about Mud, sweat and cheersa publication I indeed authored; and certainly, Australian taxpayers have had to endure more than their share of mud and sweat through the past six years with the previous Labor government. And they were cheering on 7 September when the coalition was returned to government. They were certainly cheering, because they knew that the sensible people were back in charge. They knew that the mature people were in charge: the member for North Sydney was in charge of Treasury; the member for Cook was in charge of immigration and border protection; the member for Wentworth was in charge of communications; and the member for Wide Bay was in charge of regional development, infrastructure, local government—all of those important things that have grassroots people of Australia making sure that their voices are being heard in Canberra, because they were not being heard over the past six years. They were not being delivered upon; like the NBN—with no cost-benefit analysis.

We have had to do some things that have not been widely accepted throughout the nation. One of them was a co-payment of $7.00 to visit your GP. I know the shadow minister was in favour of that, because—speaking of writing publications—he authored a publication which actually endorsed that view.

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