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

I too rise today to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2014-2015 and cognate bills. Before I start, I would like to express my frustration at the fact that delays in passing legislation and the negotiations with the Senate have cost the budget more than $10½ billion over the forward estimates. That is a shame, because the outlook is quite positive for our economy, with historically low interest rates. Particularly for the people in my part of the world, the depreciation of the Australian dollar and lower energy costs due to the removal of the carbon tax have made conditions much more conducive for business. The other things that have given the businesses in the Parkes electorate reason for optimism are the free trade agreements that have been signed with China, Japan and Korea and the opportunities that those markets will mean for primary producers and the miners in my part of the world.

But there are some issues in this appropriation bill that are particularly relevant to the area that I represent. One of the announcements is the GABSI, the Great Artesian Basin Sustainability Initiative. This has been a very successful program, and the funding was dropped off by the previous Labor government in their last year. I am pleased to say that, through lobbying and meetings with me and the member for Maranoa, we were able to restore the funding for the Great Artesian Basin Sustainability Initiative.

For those of you who might not be aware of the significance of this program, it is the scheme that is known as the piping and capping. Many of the artesian bores in the Great Artesian Basin were put down close to 100 years ago and have been continuously running, forced to the surface by pressure and flowing like that for 100 years. The continuation of this GABSI program has meant that more of these bores will be capped and piped, and the savings for capping and piping on a particular bore are higher than 95 per cent. So this is real protection of the Great Artesian Basin.

I get a little frustrated when the green influence in groups like Lock the Gate talks about the protection of the Great Artesian Basin when in actual fact the GABSI, which was originally funded by the Howard government, has done a wonderful job securing and protecting the resource that is the Great Artesian Basin. It will need to continue on because, as more bores are piped, the pressure increases and bores that were not running freely will be.

One of the issues in the north-western area of my electorate—basically an area around Coonamble, Pilliga, Brewarrina, Walgett and Lightning Ridge—is drought. We now have producers who are staring down the barrel of their third year without production. Indeed, some of these areas have had less than 14 inches of rain over the last three years. The last worthwhile rain that was had in this area was the flood in 2012. While it can be expected that farmers should be able to prepare for a drought that will possibly last a year or even two, I do not believe it is possible for anyone to be prepared to financially manage a drought that goes over three years.

Following on from a visit by the Prime Minister with the assistance of the Minister for Agriculture early last year, the drought assistance program that has gone out into this area has been worthwhile. I will not say that it has alleviated the suffering, because nothing will alleviate the suffering that people face when they are battling a drought constantly, but at last count I think there are over 4½ thousand farm households now receiving household support, which gives some dignity back to those homes by helping people purchase the basic necessities of life. Quite a few hundred farmers have accessed the low-interest loans, of which there are two different sorts, some over five years, some over 10, and those have helped. But I am flagging here today that we may need to look at what else we can do in that area that is defined by the one-in-100-year drought.

Quite recently the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, the Hon. Warren Truss, was able to announce some funding under a couple of programs that were very beneficial for the Parkes electorate. The Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program was most welcome when it was announced last week. I know from personal experience that funding like $573,000 of Commonwealth funds to go towards the $1.146 million upgrade of the Maskuta Creek Road and the Gil Gil Creek Road in the Gwydir Shire will be very useful for the productivity and safety in that area. The large quarry that uses the roads basically sources the material for the Gwydir, Moree and part of Narrabri shires as well as up into Queensland will now have a safer road for road train access to remove the road material from this quarry. That is a contribution with the federal government, the Gwydir Shire and the local quarry owner.

There is $300,000 for a new rest area. That will be half the funding for a rest area on the Mitchell Highway at Trangie, which will do much to help the safety of many of the trucks that use that road. There is $700,000 towards a $1.6 million widening and resealing of the Croppa Creek Road at Moree, which will make that highly productive area much safer with the large amount of truck traffic that uses. It. There is also $532,000 which will go towards a $1.296 million project for the widening of the Dandaloo Road at Albert in the Central West with the Lachlan Shire, which also will be much appreciated. There is $210,000 for improving signage and safety on various far north-west highways, for a total project of $420,000 with the New South Wales RMS, and $23.795 million for a raft of measures on the Golden Highway from Muswellbrook to Dunedoo. The Golden Highway is a critical transport link into the Central West as B-double access is not allowed down the Great Western Highway into Western Sydney. The Golden Highway now linking to the Hunter Expressway is a major freight corridor into Sydney from the Central West.

There were various bridges announced across the Parkes electorate under the Bridges Renewal Program, but a program that has a great deal of expectation attached to it is the National Stronger Regions Fund. That is $1 billion over the next five years, and that will help boost projects that will increase productivity in regional Australia, particularly parts of the Parkes electorate. The $100 million black spot program for mobile coverage is rolling out, and there is a great deal of expectation as to where those towers will be announced. I have to say this really only needs to be a start. It is a timely reminder that in 2008 in this very place the then Labor government removed the $2½ billion that was the Regional Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund. It rolled into the overall package for the global financial crisis. Since that time, there has been no government money going into improving telecommunications and mobile phone coverage in regional Australia.

The NBN rollout is also starting to get back on track after Minister Turnbull has taken control of this project, and that will also make a difference. But mobile phone coverage is unacceptable and we need to be doing more. When many of the farm machinery that is used now is monitored remotely and when technicians need to have Next G coverage to do an analysis of a breakdown with a tractor or a grain harvester it is important that we have that mobile coverage. I am sure that people in other parts of the country would not put up with having no mobile coverage at all.

The other thing that this government is doing is mutual obligation for welfare recipients to receive Newstart. There is also the Green Army project. It has been very well received in the Parkes electorate. I spoke in this place yesterday about the Green Army project that is up and running in the Macquarie Valley and one that is about to start up on the border regions at Boggabilla and Toomelah with the Kamilaroi people in that area.

Communities are saying to me that they want their young people to have a reason to get out of bed in the morning, that they want their young people to have a purpose in their lives and that they want their young people to have a proper job. For too long we have been paying people to sit down. That has been soul destroying for those people, it has been bad for the country and it has been bad for the communities in which they live. I am pleased to say that we are well on the way to implementing those programs to get all Australians to put their shoulders to the wheel and to have an opportunity that many of us take for granted.

One of the great programs that is preparing young people in western New South Wales for the workforce is the Clontarf Foundation. They are doing a great job in the western towns. There are also academies at many of the schools—the Girls Academy at Coonamble High School is preparing those young ladies for future life with programs in that town of Coonamble and in other towns. There is much more that we need to be doing.

I would like to welcome the change of focus by the National Drug and Alcohol Council and the new committee chaired by Kay Hull, the former member for Riverina—now with a focus on ice and amphetamine use in our communities. Quite frankly, it disturbs me greatly that beneath the calm and pleasant surface in most of my towns—probably all the towns in my electorate—there is an epidemic that is ripping my communities apart, and that is ice. We really need to focus on this issue. It is particularly difficult; a lot of the people who are dealing in this insidious substance are embedded in the community. They target the most disadvantaged people in the communities and, quite frankly, in many cases there is no way back from ice addiction.

As a parliament and as a society, if we do not address this drug that is tearing our communities apart we will be paying for the consequences for decades to come. We do need to deal with this issue.

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