Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the heart of good government is good financial management. The challenge we always have in this place is to turn what we believe into reality. It is easy to stand by and say, 'I believe in free education for all.' I have heard that said by some in this place. It is another thing to say, 'I believe in universal health cover.' These are wonderful things—they are wonderful things to believe in, and it is good to have beliefs and dreams. But what separates the boys from the men in this place is the decisions we make. Talking about appropriations bills really heightens this, because they are about the decisions we make. It is very easy to have dreams; it is a lot harder to take those dreams and turn them into reality.

I fear that we have not taken Australian people on the journey, like we should have done. Perhaps that is an overhang of our history. If you think back in recent history to 1992, when Australia had the recession it had to have, people felt the pain of bad economic management—the difficult times when houses were repossessed, when people lost their jobs, when there was high unemployment. When it came into power in 1996, the Howard government presented a rather disciplined and tough budget, but people accepted it because they could understand that there had to be tough choices made. They accepted that a parliament needs to make tough choices—choices that are not always universally popular.

Contrast that with the scenario in 2007, when the world went through a global financial crisis, which was largely driven by people living beyond their means across the world—people had high personal debts. The government of the day attempted to stimulate the economy by moving private debt into public debt, and the borrowings of the country were substantially increased. They threw money around; I got the $900 cheque, as many other people did, including a few dead people—at least they probably could not cash their cheque. The government attempted to stimulate the economy by moving things into public debt, and we now find ourselves with a substantial public debt of $320 billion. But we do not have an Australian population who was put on the journey, though they have lived through the consequences of those decisions. We are trying to say to the Australian people that we need to tighten our belts and that we need to live within our means because at the heart of good governance is good financial management.

We believe in quite a number of things in this parliament. We believe in creating opportunities for our children to make sure that they can access good primary education, secondary education and good higher education, but we have to make tough decisions about how we afford that. We believe that a strong society looks after those who are unwell, but we have to fund that. What separates us from the other side is that we are putting forward scenarios and suggestions and ideas on how to do that in a sustainable fashion. We also believe in good aged care. I think those who have worked all their lives, who have been valued and have contributed to the Australian economy—if they are unable, through their own means, to pay for their retirement—we need to make sure that they are not on the poverty line. We are putting forward suggestions on how to address that—difficult suggestions so that our welfare and pension remain viable, ongoing and sustainable. The greatest thing you can give to a senior Australian is surety that the pension will go into their bank book every fortnight. It is these things that separate us.

It is easy to talk about what you believe in, but it is harder to talk about what you are going to do about it. This appropriation bill is quite important to me, because it allows about $90 million for agricultural concessional loans. It is appropriate that our food producers, who contribute so much to the Australian economy, have a government that stands by them in difficult times. They usually ask very little. I know even in my electorate in a good year they would produce $5.3 billion worth of economic activity to the Australian economy. What we have proposed is some low-interest loans of $30 million. The advantage of offering low-interest loans is that it introduces some competitive tension with their existing finances. In the past some banks were inclined to put the penalty interest rate up in order to mitigate the risk and the outworking of that was that the interest rate became even more burdensome for the business going through a difficult time. A low-interest loan affords us the opportunity to say to a farmer that there are other options, and it also puts less pressure on the banks to put penalty rates up.

As well as running a strong, robust economy, we are also building. It is also important that the government has a role in growing the economy and in looking at ways that we can achieve growth so that we can ultimately set ourselves up for prosperity. Even in my electorate in the last 18 months, we have received over $297 million of additional federal investments. There is the $103 million of federal money for the Sunraysia Modernisation Project—a project that will revolutionise agriculture in a horticultural region and that has the potential to export to the world with the additional free trade agreements that we have developed and achieved. We have to take the next step of getting the protocols right, so producers can access those markets. The Sunraysia Modernisation Project has largely been built by local contractors. We have seen $4 million to upgrade to the Henty Highway and $5.6 million to upgrade to the Western Highway. We have opened trade training centres to harness the potential of our young students and give them the skills to build productivity. We have given additional money to local councils for Roads to Recovery—doubling that money in fact in the 2015-16 financial year.

I am a strong believer in practical environmentalism—environmentalism where young Australians can experience the environment and where their love of the environment is fostered by doing something. My passion that comes from my farming background. When you walk around the farm, you have time to think; you have less noise; you can hear the birds tweet in the trees. It makes you realise just how special the Australian ecosystem is—very unique. Having Green Army projects that take our young Australians and give them those opportunities to identify a scar tree or the type of grass or to understand the difference between a eucalypt and a wattle; to understand birdlife and to understand why, for example, carp do so much damage to the Murray system, whereas Murray cod do so much good. It has been a good project.

We have announced money for a Headspace, not only for Swan Hill, but also for Mildura and Horsham. Headspace centres show we stand by young Australians as they experience the struggles of life. We have seen rollouts of NBN in the Wimmera, Mildura and Kerang. We are providing Safe Haven Enterprise Visas to give opportunities to people who come into our communities to work. We have upgraded Longerenong College—$2 million in partnership with the state government to invest in the skill set of our food producers into the future. So—amongst the difficult budget—we are doing a lot of things. To continue on with the list: we have committed to building an overtaking lane between Red Cliffs and Ouyen to make it safer for people to drive on the roads; and we have invested in tourism, with $1.86 million for the Heartbeat of the Murray Experience.

My great dream is that more Australians will come to my part of the world—because it is simply a beautiful part of the world to come to—and not only that, but that they will come and spend time: to the port of Echuca; to then move their way on to Swan Hill and the pioneer settlement, where they can understand the trials and tribulations and value of our history; and to see the Heartbeat of the Murray while they are there—which is going to be a great laser light show on water; and that they will then to continue on to Robinvale, the sister city of Villers-Bretonneux—which will be particularly relevant in three years' time, when we celebrate the struggles of Australians at Villers-Bretonneux at Anzac Day Centenary events in 2017; and then continue on to Mildura, which is the mecca of great food. So we have invested in that tourism route. We have also provided cheap energy. We have committed to a natural gas pipeline in Robinvale, Swan Hill and Kerang; something that was raised with me on behalf of business. I know there is some argy-bargy—is gas going to be cheap?—but if you can provide gas—an energy source—with our food production, it then facilitates secondary business. We have made it easier for business by repealing the carbon tax—something we said we would do and something we have delivered on. And we are also valuing our culture with the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program: a great program that has also given us the opportunity to restore some of the memorial plaques in our country halls, and to educate schoolkids and inspire them about the sacrifices of so many before us.

We were also very blessed last Thursday to have the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, come to the electorate of Mallee. In my understanding, it is the first time a Prime Minister has visited the electorate of Mallee in over 32 years, with the last to visit being Malcolm Fraser. It was nice that the Prime Minister came, but what was more important was that he came with money! He came with $1 million to commit to the $1 million that the community is raising—and hopefully the state government will commit another $1 million—to build an oncology wing to look after people with cancer. In fact, I have to say the Prime Minister did commit $1 million, and also $100—because I gave $1,000 of my money, and that kind of shamed him into having to reach into his own wallet and pull out two $50 notes and chuck them in the tin as well. That is all he had in his wallet—I can verify that he did give every last cent that he had on him at the time. So that is the way to get some additional funds out of a prime minister!

At the heart of good government is good financial management: we are doing this. We are slowly but surely offering up suggestions about how to tackle the hard decisions—to make our economy and to make our society great. It disappoints me at times that those hard decisions and ideas which we put forward are not given time to be considered by the opposition before they are just dead against them. It is perhaps a utopian dream that we should consider ideas and listen to one another a little bit more, rather than being dead against them. I know that if Labor were in government, there would be real soul-searching as to how they, too, would go about making the tough decisions that have to be made. The future is determined by the decisions we make. The decisions we make are certainly an outworking of the beliefs which we have but, ultimately, it is the decisions that define us.

The future for the Mallee electorate is pretty good, I think. We have free trade agreements that create opportunity. We need to turn the opportunity into reality. Today, I have written to the Prime Minister outlining that, whilst Andrew Robb is leading the way and opening up these great opportunities, we also need to be resourcing someone—as assistant minister, or certainly someone in the department—to make sure that we can turn the opportunities into realities. How do we work with small business people who want to export, and help them to become exporters? I think our free trade agreements are good. I think our liveability in the regions is great. I think we have great opportunities for those people who want to realise their assets—and who are in capital cities which might be a little bit congested with traffic; the region might be reasonably well-priced for those people to come and shift to our region: we can use your skills—and the weather is warmer, so it is better for your arthritis!—and there are some great golf courses. We can have you in our country area.

We are what we believe, but we are defined by the choices we make. Our government is prepared to make the tough choices—sometimes the unpopular choices—to set up Australia's prosperity in the future. When our performance review comes up at the next election, I think Australians will consider that, and will look favourably upon us.

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