Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

from the seat of Lyons, for his heartfelt contribution. And, in the robust spirit of the debate on appropriations, we will hear opposition for the sake of opposition. But, in saying that, you made some points, and the idea of having a robust debate is to be able to freely put your case forward in the nation's parliament and then have it rebutted aggressively by those on the other side. But I always welcome the debate and your contribution to this place; you are nothing other than entertaining in this joint. So I appreciate your contribution.

I am going to start by just picking up on the honourable member's contribution around education. A key word was 'fairness'. He said that we were cutting funding to education. I am going to start there—in the education space.

My electorate of Wright is beautiful. It is an absolutely beautiful electorate. It is on the Gold Coast hinterland, and goes up to Toowoomba and down to the New South Wales border. It is very picturesque. I have 71 schools—primary and secondary, Catholic, independent and state—with 23,220 students. I can stand here in this parliament, put my hand on my heart and dispute the comments made before that there were cuts to education and say that every single one of the schools in my electorate—71 in total, with 23,220 students—will be the beneficiary of extra funding as a result of Gonski 2.0.

I have not looked at the Tasmanian numbers, but I am aware that if there are 90,000 schools 42 schools will be worse off—their funding will go backwards. The member for Lyons must have the unluckiest seat in the country if 42 of the schools in his electorate are going to go backwards. I will go back up to my office, I will go to the online calculator and I will check his schools and bring to the attention of the House whether his schools will be worse off. A question was asked of the Prime Minister in question time today about a school that was going backwards, but when we looked at the online calculator, surprise, surprise, the school mentioned in the question was going to be many hundreds of thousands of dollars better off. I will do that for the member for Lyons to assist him—it might change the flavour of his media releases; his principals, who have been hearing him saying they would be worse off, might be surprised to see that they might be better off under Gonski 2.0 than they were last year.

The member for Lyons was talking about 'if Gonski was instigated', but we now have Gonski 2.0, which is not as aggressive. He is playing on words when he says that is where the cuts were. We make the point, in open debate, that those investments were never going to materialise because Gonski was not fully funded. Our education process is fully funded; nevertheless, I will help the honourable member for Lyons by pointing out that most of his schools will be better off, and I look forward to taking the opportunity to school him.

There is a total increase in federal government funding for schools in Wright over the next 10 years. I am not a fan of forecasting over 10 years. I love my economics. Our budget papers run for a period of four years—they are the forward estimates. Anything outside the estimates are outlook years, and I do not normally like those forecasts. But we have included, this year, 10-year forecasts because schools, rightfully—the member for Lyons will agree with me—are looking for financial security for their planning and they are looking for an indicative idea of what government's intention is into the future, so in this case we are using 10-year forecasts and I am very proud to say that in my electorate alone over the next 10 years we will be the beneficiaries of no less than $275 million extra, all things being equal from today. Importantly, our increased funding will be tied to reforms, and evidence shows that that makes a real difference in supporting our teachers and schools to improve student outcomes.

Over the weekend I had the privilege of having dinner with a group of high school principals who are motivated to change the trajectory of our English and literature outcomes for students in the state of Queensland. We were joined by a gentleman by the name of John Collins. John is the author of the Collins reading and writing program out of Harvard—an incredibly talented man, 75 years of age. His wife, Becky, was unable to travel with him this year—on behalf of the parliament we hope that her surgery went well and we look forward to seeing her on their next trip. I am pretty sure, after speaking to John Collins, that he is not of the government's political persuasion, but, as someone from Harvard University, he was excited about the extra money and the reforms being spent in the education system. He did make the point that extra money does not normally mean better outcomes for students—it does go to better quality teachers and it does go to a number of other factors relating to socioeconomics and demographics. Another issue around education is that maybe we should not get too hung-up on our PISA standings—that is a conversation for another bill on another day. This is a fair system. It is good for students, it is good for parents and it is good for teachers.

Just before I leave education, I want to quickly mention an opportunity I had last week to visit a school whilst I was in the Lockyer Valley. Not only are we making a commitment to all my 71 schools that they are going to be better off financially next year and over the next 10 years but, on top of that, we are going to partner with our schools, either in the Catholic system or in the state system or others, in our Capital Grants Program. I was very proud the other day that we are partnering, to the tune of around $2.3 million, with our Catholic school over in Gatton, Our Lady of Good Counsel. The principal over there is Nathan Haley, and his deputy is James Bradley. They are doing an amazing job with that school. The first compliment I offered them—the Capital Works Program was around $2½ million—was the value for money that you see when you walk into the place. I remember back when we were doing comparative analyses of value for money I saw similar types of capital expenditure in the education revolution world under a former government, where $2.5 million would basically get you a lean-to and a tuckshop.

Mr Hammond interjecting—

The interjection from the honourable member for Perth alluded to the stimulatory effect of the Building the Education Revolution, and it did have some stimulatory effects. Could it have been better? Again, that is a debate for another day. So, I acknowledge the member's interjection.

I am going to leave education now and roll into something else the member for Lyons spoke about—the Medicare situation. I said to you wholeheartedly that I do enjoy your contributions in this place, and I was interested when you mentioned that you have a 74 per cent Medicare bulk-billing take-up. We are far more fortunate in my electorate of Wright. We have already seen a record number of Australians in Wright accessing vital Medicare services. Last financial year there were just under a million—923,298 GP services bulk-billed in the electorate. I am up at around 90.9—financial year statistics. So, I would not suggest that the system is broken, because it works for me. I am quite happy to have a chat with you. They are perplexing figures that you have—whether or not it is an ageing demographic, or something else.

This budget provides $1.2 billion to provide cheaper access to vital medicines. We are seeing extra drugs being put on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme that go to helping some of the people in my electorate who suffer from heart disease, pulmonary fibrosis, schizophrenia and severe asthma. In this budget we see further strengthening of our support for mental health and suicide prevention packages of around $170,000—probably not a significant number in the overall budget. For me, I am always going to reach out and help organisations in that suicide space, particularly if it is saving the lives of some of our younger people. Australians living in regional and rural areas will now have significantly improved access to psychologists under our new $9.1 million telehealth incentives to roll out this year.

Dotted through some of the speakers on the other side of the House were those saying that this budget is unfair. For those who are listening tonight through our broadcasting capabilities, if you think spending more money on schools, putting more money into vital medicines, spending more money on prevention on suicides, spending more money on telehealth facilities and spending more money looking after veterans—in my electorate, 1,569—is unfair, well, I will then have the debate with you on what you perceive fairness to be, because I am telling you that this is fair and it goes to the people who need it. You will have the opportunity, as those who sit on the other side of the House, to come in and vote against all these measures if you wish. Vote against them, because as you come in here—rightfully so—lying, saying it is unfair, I will come in and defend the government's position that it is fair. It is right, because it goes to the heart of addressing the poor and vulnerable in my electorate who need the representation. I was elected by my people to come to this place and defend their rights. In my maiden speech I spoke of representing the voice of the silent majority. We hear the minority groups. I will come and defend this through the Appropriation Bill because I believe it is a fair budget.

We are creating a fund to help train Australian apprentices in key trades and skills to get more young Australians to work and to help them in business. This extra investment will help approximately 1,700 local young Australians aged between 15 and 24 for jobs, looking for work in Wright. Some of those on the other side are saying that helping people get an apprenticeship is unfair. That is their prerogative.

Agriculture is a key local industry in my electorate. It is the single biggest contributor to GDP in the electorate. This budget goes to helping it. The government is committed to establishing a regional investment corporation to stream the delivery of up to $4 billion in concessional loans which will benefit our local producers. Our local producers were on show more recently in Adelaide. I went down to the AUSVEG gala dinner on the weekend, where we saw some of my local growers. I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge Queensland's and Lockyer Valley's Anthony Staatz from Gatton, who was named the vegetable industry's grower of the year. He is a great Queenslander and a constituent of mine in Wright. He was flanked by a number of other finalists from all over the country, including Rob Hinrichsen, who was last year's grower of the year and is from Kalfresh in my electorate. Finalists from this year were Matt Hood from Rugby Farm and of course Sharon Windoff, making some incredible inroads for the sector in and around the work we do in making sure that we can put food on the table for Australians. Local dairy farmers will benefit from a $2 million investment in creating a commodity price index to help with planning and decision making, and $8.3 million will be invested in the livestock export industry to develop more efficient and effective insurance systems for local exporters.

We are going to spend some money in child care to help those mums and dads who are out working, trying to make ends meet. When they put their children into child care there used to be a $7½ thousand cap and government would maximise 50 per cent rebate. If you have a household under $185,000 annual income, which is the vast majority of my electorate, we are going to take that cap away again.

To those on the other side, if you think this is an unfair budget, come into this House and vote against it, but I will debate the merits of this budget. It is a budget that is designed to help those that are vulnerable. It is a budget that is designed for jobs and growth. It is a budget that is designed to help those in my electorate. Pull out the measures you think are unfair, absolutely—that is the hustle and bustle of this place. I know the organisations that are going to benefit from this budget.

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