Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I look at the government's woeful budget that it handed down last year, and I shake my head in sadness at the way in which the Liberal government has mismanaged this country's finances with successive budgets which have blown out debt. When this government was elected, government debt was at $184 billion. That figure has almost doubled now to $317 billion. You might be able to give the government some credit if they had managed to reduce the deficit even a little, but, of course, they have not because, ultimately, at the end of the day, they are not up to it. Since their first budget, the budget deficit for 2017-18 has blown out tenfold from $2.8 billion to $28.7 billion.

The midyear budget update confirmed the Prime Minister and the Treasurer's budget has continued this government's streak of letting the deficit get worse and letting our total debt get worse. I know that the coalition look to the past for inspiration, but if I could give both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer a single piece of advice it would be that it would be wise to let this tradition end. Deficits over the forward estimates have blown out by another $10 billion. The projected surplus in 2021 has shrivelled away in the cold light of the reality of what this government has become. The simple, scary fact is that all of this budget mismanagement leaves Australia's AAA credit rating at genuine risk.

Despite the growing deficit and the looming downgrade to our credit rating, the government still appears to remain determined to give a $50 billion tax handout to big business. What will this tax break do for big business, many of whom will simply deliver that tax break back to overseas owners? What will the tax break deliver for Australian householders facing static wages being eaten away by rising costs? The $50 billion of their money that the Prime Minister wants to give to big business will raise household income by 0.1 per cent by the mid-2030s—not 10 per cent, not one per cent but 0.1 per cent over a decade.

I was thinking about how to provide an analogy in making this speech to demonstrate how puny 0.1 per cent of income growth is. It is actually quite hard because it is so small that it is basically invisible. It is a single drop of milk in a litre carton over the next 20 years, and that is what we are getting for a $50 billion giveaway to big business of taxpayers' money. In the meantime, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer are busily smashing household budgets with their cuts to Medicare, cuts to schools and cuts to family payments. You would have thought that the government would have learnt their lesson when they tried to ram these measures down Australians' throats for the first time back in 2014. It appears they have not learnt that lesson, though. They thought they would bring them back for another go in 2015 and then the Prime Minister thought he would pick them up and include them in his first budget as well. Who knows what we will see come May. Here we are with the Prime Minister looking at doing this once again with the coalition government. I am not sure how many more times the Australian people will have to reject these cuts to families, pensioners, new mums, people with disability and young people before the government will learn their lesson, but keep rejecting these proposals we will. The thing is that the government do not understand. In fact, the very thing the government have never understood is that budgets are ultimately about priorities. They are about people and Labor understands that. Priorities and people were at the heart of every budget that we brought down in our last government. People and priorities will be at the heart of every budget which will be brought down by a future Shorten Labor government.

Labor last won government at a difficult economic time for the people of Geelong, but, despite that, the Labor government then fully funded the Geelong Investment and Innovation Fund which secured jobs at a perilous moment and managed to keep Ford manufacturing in Geelong back then. Indeed, when Ford ultimately made its decision to leave Geelong on the very day it did, a Labor government was able to find the money for what is now the Geelong Regional Innovation and Investment Fund. This was in stark contrast to how the then Abbott government approached Alcoa's leaving of Geelong, where no such transition money was provided for the community. Jobs went begging at that moment. In Geelong's moment of need, this government left Geelong behind.

By contrast, the former Labor government provided $37 million to Deakin University's carbon fibre research centre, which provides one of the best carbon fibre research furnaces in the world, and the consequences of that are spinning off companies which are growing jobs to this day. We delivered $3 billion for a regional rail link in Geelong; we delivered the Geelong Bypass; we delivered the Northern Community Hub in Norlane; we delivered, as I said, the Geelong Regional Innovation and Investment Fund. Good governments prioritise local community needs, and Labor knows how important investments in local community infrastructure are for local economies and for local communities to survive and thrive.

One commitment that we made, which was of particular pleasure for me, and it again stands in contrast to a failure by this government to similarly commit, was the previous Labor government's $14 million commitment to the upgrade of the facilities at Kardinia Park. Football and the Geelong Football Club lie very much at the heart of the Geelong community. The club and its players have been an important part of Geelong for more than 150 years. Since the Second World War, the home of the Geelong Football Club has been Kardinia Park, which is the site of that investment by the former Labor government. But, in the earlier part of the Geelong Football Club's history, it was based at Corio Oval, the site of which is now in Eastern Park. It is a site which is not easily found and it is only marked by a small plaque.

There is a sadness in this for me because Corio Oval holds a very significant place in the city of Geelong's history. Not only was it the site of the Geelong Football Club and the site of a trotting track; in fact, Geelong's first three VFL premierships, in 1925, 1931 and 1937, were won at the Corio Oval. But it was perhaps in the 1880s, when Mr Dave Hickinbotham captained the most famous Geelong team, that the Corio Oval might have been at its height. We won premierships back then in 1880, 1882, 1883 and 1884 and went through the entire 1886 season completely undefeated, including beating South Melbourne in what was described at the time as 'the game of the century' to take that premiership. Dave Hickinbotham was a fantastic footballer on his own terms. He was described as fast and strong, playing in the centre. One can only imagine the sight of Dave Hickinbotham running down the centre of Corio Oval surrounded by tens of thousands of spectators. Indeed, the record crowd at Corio Oval was 26,000 spectators in a game played, I think, in the 1920s against Collingwood. Dave went on to coach the Geelong VFL team in 1910 for two years and, curiously, he is one of the few players to have recorded a 100-yard placekick, which he did in 1888.

In 2014, I spoke about the significance of Corio Oval, the significance of that history, the significance of the Geelong Football Club and the significance of Dave Hickinbotham and how this ought to be more properly remembered than simply by a plaque in that place. I proposed then, as I have been proposing since that time, that an oval within sight of the old Corio Oval that is currently in Eastern Park and used mainly as a place for cricket but which does not have a name be renamed the Dave Hickinbotham Oval. It would give a fitting legacy and memorial to him but also serve as a reminder of the significance, just a few metres away, of Corio Oval and its place in Geelong's history. I wrote then to the City of Greater Geelong to seek to pursue this project and was told that I needed to get approval from Dave Hickinbotham's family in order to do that. I was assisted by Frank Costa, the patron of the Geelong Football Club, because it turns out that the Hickinbotham family are in fact deeply connected with the Geelong Football Club. Dave's grandson Alan played in the 1951 premiership team and his great-grandson Michael is a committed Cat fan to this day. Michael lives in Adelaide. I caught up with Michael a couple of weeks ago with the member for Kingston and it has been my pleasure to get to know Michael in the context of this campaign. Michael is, of course, very keen for his family's name to be linked to this oval and for Dave Hickinbotham's exploits and, indeed, the significance of the Corio Oval more generally to be remembered by the renaming of that oval.

I wrote that letter to council back in 2014. Some might say that is long enough to make a decision like this, but I would say that the wheel that grinds slow grinds fine. I understand the decision is on the verge of being made. I am sure that decision will appreciate the contribution of Dave Hickinbotham to our city and our football club, and I am hopeful we will see a fitting memorial to that contribution named in our city soon. I really look forward to being able to celebrate that moment with his great-grandson Michael.

That speaks to the significance of community in the context of the way in which budgets prepared in this place are applied. I want to speak of another community project which, back when Labor were in power, we funded through the federal budget—a $3.1 million upgrade to the Geelong Eastern Beach precinct. In 2003, Australia consolidated a range of heritage lists to come up with Australia's National Heritage List, which was adopted in 2003. This has on it the really significant and iconic sites within our country, and they are the famous sites that we know, but it also includes a number of other sites such as the Cascades Female Factory Yard 4 North, the Moree Baths and Swimming Pool, the Mount William Stone Hatchet Quarry and the Echuca Wharf. All of these are important local places which mark out Australia's national heritage, but there is one disgraceful omission from our National Heritage List, and that is that there is not a single thing from Geelong on it. That is something that needs to be rectified.

Geelong is a significant city in the context of our nation's history. As every local in Geelong knows, it was destined to become Victoria's capital, but some 19th century Melbourne shysters—and I know I am standing next to the member for Bruce, who is no doubt a descendant of one of them—doctored a map back in the mid-19th century to show that Melbourne was closer to Ballarat than was Geelong, which, of course, it is not. On the basis of that map, funding was produced by financiers in London to build the port of Melbourne ahead of the port of Geelong, which then led to Melbourne—

An honourable member: We all know Melbourne is part of Geelong.

It is our north-eastern suburbs—which then led to Melbourne becoming the capital of Victoria. There are some who think that Geelong should get over this, but we still remember. During the period when Australia rode on the sheep's back, Geelong was very much the wool capital of our nation, and Cunningham Pier was the centre of the wool trade. Customs House in Geelong was one of the oldest customs houses in Australia.

It is right that there ought to be a representative from Geelong on the Australian National Heritage List, and I think that Eastern Beach is the perfect place to be put on the list. There has been continuous use of the Eastern Beach site since the 1840s, and it was first proposed that a precinct be built there in 1914. Works commenced in 1927, and in 1939 the current shark-proof enclosure in Corio Bay was opened. This is a wonderful Art Deco construction by the architect Harry Hare. The boardwalk and the kids pool are similar to those that were found all around greater Port Phillip Bay, but today it is about the only one surviving. It also speaks to Australia's connection with the water. It is one of the great pools of our nation, along with the Bondi swimming pool, the North Sydney swimming pool and the wonderful Cairns swimming pool. The Bondi swimming pool is on the National Heritage List.

This is a place where people in Geelong now engage in a whole lot of forms of recreation. Significant triathlon events, cycling events and running events all happen here. Geelong enjoys Eastern Beach now as it has for 150 years. Tonight I reiterate the call I have been making for some time: Eastern Beach and its precinct ought to be placed on the National Heritage List. It is time for Geelong to be represented on the National Heritage List, and I will be calling on the council to do that. It is an example of how important funding from this place is in the building of local communities.

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