Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Abbott government has a comprehensive strategic plan to invest in nation-building infrastructure and assist the private sector to create jobs. Since the election in September 2013, a total of 335,800 new jobs have been created. This year alone, 163,000 new jobs have been created. Economic growth and job creation are being facilitated through a range of measures and policies including deregulation, small business tax cuts, free trade agreements, vocational education and training, and the repeal of the mining and carbon taxes.

The budget contained $5.5 billion in the form of a jobs and small business package designed to boost the small business sector, which is a major source of employment in our economy. In addition, $212 million was allocated in the budget for the youth Transition to Work program to assist young people who are disengaged from work and study and who are at risk of long-term welfare dependence to return to the workforce.

The government has developed and released white papers on agriculture and also on developing northern Australia to guide economic development and employment growth for the next decade and beyond. The future construction of roads, rail, bridges, ports, refineries, smelters, factories, water treatment plants, electricity generation and transmission infrastructure will see employment and living standards rise. It will create opportunities for the development of agriculture, aquaculture, domestic tourism, international education and health care, to name a few.

Furthermore, the government's recent free trade agreements, signed with Japan, Korea and China, will open up demand-driven markets critical for economic growth. Trade with emerging economies will also generate more demand for professional services in areas such as architecture and design, engineering, construction, project management, quantity surveying, legal services, contract administration, transport and logistics. Overall, these strategic free trade agreements will also be positive for Australian mining exports, energy exports—in the form of coal and liquefied natural gas—agricultural exports, agribusiness and food manufacturing. The government is currently engaged in six other free-trade negotiations. Those are: two bilateral free-trade negotiations, with India and Indonesia; four multilateral free-trade negotiations in the form of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the Australia-Gulf Cooperation Council Free Trade Agreement, the Pacific trade and economic agreement, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

The coalition has delivered an infrastructure budget which allocates a record $50 billion in funding over seven years to deliver vital infrastructure across Australia. In my home state of Western Australia, $4.7 billion in funding has been earmarked for major road projects. The Perth Airport Gateway has received $675 million. The project is designed to ease congestion, facilitate tourism development and facilitate commuting by the fly-in fly out workforce. The project is expected to be completed in early 2017. Near my electorate of Moore, $615 million has been allocated to the Swan Valley Bypass. It represents a new 40-kilometre highway from the Reid Highway and Tonkin Highway intersection in Malaga to the Great Northern Highway at Muchea. An investment of $866 million in the Perth Freight Link will provide improved capacity for heavy vehicle freight movements to and from the port of Fremantle. Funding of $307.8 million has been allocated towards the Great Northern Highway from Muchea to Wubin, with a further $174 million towards the North West Coastal Highway from Minilya to Barradale. In my electorate, the Mitchell Freeway extension from Burns Beach Road to Hester Avenue has received federal funding of $209 million.

The measures I have outlined indicate that the Abbott government has a comprehensive strategic plan to build the Australian economy, create jobs and invest in nation-building infrastructure.

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