Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to rise to contribute to the appropriation bill debate on an outstanding budget that was laid down on Tuesday night, 12 May. This is a plan, a very clear plan, to bring about the economic fortunes of this nation that were deserted by the previous Labor government. This is a plan to restore confidence, to rebuild our economy, to reduce our dealt and our deficit.

As enunciated by our Assistant Treasurer quite clearly, we have a plan; Labor has no plan. The old story of, if you do not know where you are going, then any road will get you there, is true. The Labor Party have, even in the past, opposed their own saving measures. They have opposed their own plan, so they do not know where they are going; whereas the coalition are very clear in what we want to achieve for this nation.

We want to engage with and take people on the journey so they can understand their individual contribution for this nation to again achieve greatness. Our very future as a nation depends on the measures that we take today to deliver a better and brighter future for everyone in this nation. We cannot put it back to future generations.

Steps and measures need to be taken today. They were introduced last year in the budget but, because we have a largely recalcitrant Senate and a Labor Party that does not even include supporting its own measures that are put forward, we have had to reshape our budget. We have reshaped it in a way that allows this government to build our nation for everyone to have the ability to contribute to the future direction of this nation. It does not just discard its role, its responsibility, to generations to come. Our Prime Minister in the past has said he wants to be known as the 'infrastructure Prime Minister. In my electorate of Paterson, that infrastructure is being rolled out.

The first thing I would like to talk about is the $1.5 billion announced for the new air combat capability facilities to be built across Australia and nowhere more important than the premier RAAF base in Australia, RAAF Base Williamtown. Of this $1.5 billion, $950 million will be spent at the RAAF Base Williamtown across the road from my electorate. It will support the instruction, operation and deployment of the F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, commonly known as the JSF.

Australia has committed to the acquisition of some 72 of these Joint Strike Fighters, which will provide our air crew, our outstanding young men and women of this nation who defend our nation, the latest state-of-the-art, fifth-generation aircraft. We will be at the forefront of air combat technology, and that is something I am proud of. Yes, there will be a cost—a cost to our nation. But the advantage of being at the very forefront of leading-edge technology is something that we should be proud of.

Over the next seven years, the project will provide a much welcome investment into my local communities, both directly and indirectly. There will be potential for job growth development through the works that will be carried out not only at the RAAF base but as people see the opportunity for private investment and support infrastructure in lands in and around the RAAF base. It means that all of a sudden we will have growth, opportunity and we will address one of the key issues that I have been talking about for years—that is, underemployment. We will have so many highly trained people with extensive expertise employed at the RAAF base who then exit the RAAF base and look for work. If their skills are not taken up, all of that training will have been wasted. Our RAAF base at Williamtown employs around 3½ thousand people directly, including a support staff of 300 and a contract staff of 765. It generates $280 million in salaries for individuals and families in my region. It is a very welcome contributor. There are around 2,000 RAAF families living in my community. We see great social and economic benefits of this latest financial injection.

As I said, not only do we support our Defence Force and our Defence families and the outstanding work they do but, as part of this infrastructure rollout, there is more. Our infrastructure Prime Minister was given a very clear mandate at the 2013 election—and that was to invest heavily in road infrastructure. I am pleased that last month, through the government's Black Spot Program alone, we were awarded some $13,195,000 for the region to address 36 of the most dangerous black spots in Hunter roads. Of that, some $4,895,000 was allocated to the Paterson electorate for roadworks on the New England Highway, on Dungog Road around Wallaringa Road, around Butterwick Road, on Shoal Bay Road, on Woodberry Road, on Victoria Parade, on Tocal Road at Paterson, on Lemon Tree Passage Road at Mallabula, on Dungog Road just south of Clarence Town Road, on Port Stephens Drive at Taylors Beach, on Macintosh Street at Forster, on the Pacific Highway at Nerong, on McFarlanes Road at Berry Park, on Gresford Road at Vacy, on Soldiers Point Road at Salamander, on Irrawang Street at Raymond Terrace, and on Dowling Street. All of these roads are receiving black spot money. The criteria for black spot money is that there has to have been a series of accidents or, sadly, fatalities—and these black spots are being addressed. I congratulate the government for making sure that the Black Spot Program continues. I look forward to my councils submitting further applications so we can address this issue.

I am very pleased that the Paterson electorate has benefited from the Australian government's Roads to Recovery Program. That funding has been doubled in 2015-16 to some $4.6 million in my electorate alone. It is very welcome. This means that councils can determine their priorities in roadworks to address their needs. The one thing that I want to make abundantly clear to my constituents at this point is that the black spot road funding and the Roads to Recovery funding are not the funding that will be applied to councils to address the damage that has occurred to our local roads from the recent storm event. That recent storm event affected roads in Port Stephens, in Dungog, in Great Lakes, through Maitland. All of these will be separately funded. Dungog shire will receive some $800,000, Great Lakes Council in excess of $1.5 million, Maitland council nearly $1.2 million, and Port Stephens Council will receive $1.1 million. That road funding package under the Roads to Recovery Program will mean that those councils can determine where to best spend this money to deliver the maximum advantage for our community.

Not only that but our Deputy Prime Minister made an announcement under the National Stronger Regions Fund. Madam Deputy Speaker Henderson, you would be aware in your own capacity that, going into the last election, our Deputy Prime Minister announced that $1 billion would be spent over five years on developing stronger regions. Unlike the former Labor government, who had a regional package but spent most of the money in the capital cities, our government understands the need for infrastructure investment in regional communities. I was quite happy to see $9.6 million of round 1 being spent at Nabiac for the Inland Dune Aquifer Supply System. This is being supported by 50 per cent of the project being put forward by MidCoast Water. This provides certainty of potable water for those communities in and around Nabiac and around the Great Lakes area. Without security of supply of water, particularly potable water, communities cannot grow. This will enhance both economic growth and sustain my region well into the future.

I now turn to one of the greatest infrastructure needs in my electorate—that is, digital television. I have made many speeches in this parliament. I have met with ministers. I have met with community groups. Sadly, the digital television rollout that occurred under the former Labor government did not address the needs of the constituents in my electorate.

As a result of negotiations with the now minister, Malcolm Turnbull—who, unlike the former Labor minister, Stephen Conroy, at least sits down and meets with people—contracts will very shortly be signed with a regional broadcaster in my electorate. Negotiations have been settled and we will see the rollout of improved digital television services through the Port Stephens, Dungog and Bulahdelah areas, as well as other areas in my electorate. More work needs to be done. This will not 100 per cent address the situation, but Minister Turnbull has taken on board the concerns of the people in my electorate and negotiated very strongly to deliver an outcome.

Health is always an issue, not only for my constituents but for all Australians. The health of our nation is critical. I welcome the changes this government has made to achieve a better for bang for the buck—for each and every health dollar. As is typical, the Labor Party have launched massive scare campaigns about these changes, about the recent events with after-hours GP services in particular. They have had a lot to say but have done very little. I know about after-hours GP services because I actually drove the pilot program for it in Australia back in 1997 with the Hunter Rural Division of General Practice. This program was designed to relieve the need for doctors to be on call seven days and nights a week in country and rural areas in order to give them some quality of life. It meant they could roster on at a central point to provide after-hours GP services. The health minister then was Michael Wooldridge. The program received funding and all of a sudden quality of life was restored to our GPs and an improved health service was delivered. Times have moved on and processes of evaluation have occurred, so a refocus of the dollars to ensure they address current needs was critical. A tender round was held and the winning tenderer has recently been announced for the Hunter, New England and Central Coast Primary Health Care Network. A key aspect of their tender was a commitment to continue to deliver after-hours GP services.

What I saw from my Labor counterparts was much lobbying in the media, much talk and much scaremongering—but no delivery. I constantly met with Sussan Ley, our health minister. I put forward the concerns of my community. Right from day one, I was assured that across the nation there would be an additional $98.5 million to deliver after-hours GP access, improving the health of our community. I believed that Sussan Ley was doing the right thing.

There is a difference between lobbying the media and lobbying the minister. If you lobby ministers, you can deliver real outcomes for your community. If you lobby the media, you might make yourself feel great for five minutes, but you deliver absolutely nothing for your constituents. I am glad to announce that the contracts have been signed and that the after-hours health care will be continued. These services will be provided because I took the correct approach: I presented the case, I lobbied the minister and I have delivered an outcome. I could have taken the grandiose position of beating my hairy chest in the media and made myself feel good, but, at the end of the day, as each and every member in this House should be aware, we need to make sure that ministers are aware of the problem, that we address that problem with facts and that we work towards solutions. We, the coalition, have done that in our region.

Healthcare provision is critically important and I am also excited by the announcement of the GP Rural Incentives Program. My large rural electorate has a shortage of GPs. It is not as though people can go from one town to another in order to access a GP; they need GPs in their own town. What we are going to see, particularly in some of the smaller towns in my electorate—towns such as Hawks Nest and Bulahdelah where there is a need for more GP services—is increases in the incentive payments for general practitioners to attract them to the region and to encourage them to stay in the region to deliver those much needed healthcare services.

I will just point out to people that many towns in my electorate are set to directly benefit from these changes. They include: Anna Bay, Shoal Bay, Fingal Bay, Boat Harbour, Nelson Bay, Corlette, Salamander Bay, Soldiers Point, Dungog, Bulahdelah, Hawks Nest, Forster-Tuncurry, Karuah, Lemon Tree Passage, Tanilba Bay and Tea Gardens.

Money will be taken away from areas where there are plenty of doctors and enough critical mass and will provide support into attracting doctors, retaining doctors, in those much-needed small communities throughout our electorates.

I want to finish up where I started. We, the coalition, have a clear plan, outlined in the budget, to take our nation on the journey with us so that we can contribute to the benefit of this nation for generations to come, not deferring to future generations to fix the problems created by the former Labor government.

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