Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is 14 or 15 minutes that I will not get back! It just shows what those opposite stand for. It is a culture of complaint. Not a single positive solution or alternative has been proposed. That is typical of those opposite.

It is a pleasure to rise in this chamber today to speak in support of the 2017 budget, which will provide tremendous opportunities for the people, businesses and organisations in my electorate of Forde. We see, in this budget, the Australian government providing the opportunity and the incentive for many in our community to take advantage of the opportunity that is there. We see a budget that is framed around seeking to provide fairness and responsibility—importantly, through the guaranteeing of fundamental services that the people of Australia expect, need and use every single day. These services affect thousands of people in my electorate of Forde and will support them and give them the encouragement to take other opportunities that are presented in their daily lives.

I would like to start with funding for schools. We hear those opposite carry on about cuts to funding for schools. Well, when they were in government they actually never funded anything other than what was in the forward estimates. Everything outside of that was just a complete fairytale. Our needs based funding model for schools has been endorsed by the doyen of those opposite, David Gonski, and is about fairness. It is about fairness because we are treating every student in each system equally. Schools in every sector in every local community in the electorate of Forde will be receiving significant increases in funding because of our needs based funding model. We had a forum with the Minister for Education and Training last week where we went through it in detail. We had the vast majority of principals from our schools in Forde at that forum, and they were very, very happy with what they were presented with. So it is great news for the 41 primary and secondary schools in the electorate of Forde and some 32½ thousand students.

The total increase in federal government funding for schools in the electorate of Forde over the next 10 years is some $417 million. Importantly—and this is based on the discussions I have had with a number of principals—they would have been happy to receive what they were currently receiving, because in Queensland we had extra money put in after the 2013 election, some $800 million, that those opposite never committed to. Not only have we increased funding in this budget for schools in the electorate of Forde and schools in Queensland; we previously increased funding for schools in Queensland in the 2013 budget. That is reflected in programs, such as I4S, that the schools run. Those principals would have been happy with the existing funding, because it allowed them to run the programs that they needed to run, let alone the real increases that we are now providing to schools in the electorate of Forde and across Queensland.

Importantly, our increased funding will be tied to reforms that evidence shows make a real difference in supporting our teachers and schools in improving student outcomes. This is a system that reflects the importance of students, the important work that parents do and the valuable work that teachers and school communities do every single day in our electorates right across the country.

The government is also working to continue to provide record funding for health and, in particular, Medicare. In the budget, we have set out a guarantee of Medicare's future, with a dedicated fund which will protect those vital services for this generation and the next. We have seen a record number of Australians in Forde accessing these vital services. Last financial year some 1.1 million GP services in the electorate were bulk-billed—a bulk-billing rate of 95.2 per cent, which is well above the Australian average of approximately 83 per cent.

In addition to that, this budget provides over $1.2 billion for cheaper access to medicines. We are listing more drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to ensure families have access to these vital drugs. These drugs and medicines will assist people suffering from conditions and diseases such as heart disease, pulmonary fibrosis, schizophrenia, psoriasis, severe asthma, myeloma and more.

Importantly, in this budget we will seek to continue strengthening our support for mental health and suicide prevention, with a package of over $170 million. As somebody who has a headspace in my electorate, I am well aware of how important this ongoing funding is. Part of this funding package includes some $80 million to continue community mental health services for people with mental illness who do not qualify for the NDIS. This is contingent on state and territories matching our funding to ensure we have a national approach and funding commitment. Additionally, Australians living in rural and regional areas will now have significantly improved access to psychologists under a new $9.1 million telehealth initiative set to rollout later this year. There is also funding for things such as barriers and signage at high-risk suicide locations, mental health research and, importantly, support for our veterans.

I had the pleasure last week of being joined by the Brisbane South Primary Health Network to announce a $350,000 suicide prevention and mental health trial program in Logan. This is a very personal issue for hundreds of individuals, and I am very pleased to say that this trial will be able to provide better support to those who need it. The trial is structured around people presenting to Logan Hospital emergency department with mental health issues or self-harm issues. They will then be engaged with the services of the people at Brook RED, one of our great mental health service providers, who are a peer based support group. They will go and stand alongside these people right from the get go to try and prevent the issues becoming worse.

As I said, our veterans also receive assistance in this budget. All past and current service personnel who have undertaken at least one day of full-time service will benefit from easier access to free mental health support and services. Enhanced access to counselling for veterans and veterans' families counselling services will benefit partners and dependants of contemporary veterans. I am sure many in this House have, from time to time, unfortunately seen veterans come into our offices who are struggling with mental health and other issues—both those who are contemporary, or recent, veterans and those who have served in the past, in conflicts a long time ago. These services will provide benefits for some 1,163 veterans and their families living in the electorate of Forde.

All DVA clients, including the 2,000-odd DVA clients in the electorate of Forde, will also benefit from an investment in this year's budget to modernise DVA's ICT systems, which will provide easier access to DVA services and improve claims processing times. I know, from when I regularly go to visit the Beenleigh RSL and talk to the veterans there about their dealings with DVA, they will be very happy to see that, because that is a frequent source of complaint. I am sure that for all of us it is a frequent source of additional work in our offices, so we will all be happy to see that investment and that upgrade.

One of the most important measures in the budget is the coalition's commitment to securing funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Australians with a disability deserve the best care we can provide and the National Disability Insurance Scheme was established to fund this. But, despite the protestations of those opposite, it was never funded properly to do the job that it was set up to do. Once fully rolled out, the NDIS will help an estimated 3,463 people in the electorate of Forde. I am very pleased to be able to go and say to those people that it is this government that is ensuring that the NDIS is fully funded, so that the services that they deserve and require will be able to be delivered. Funding these vital services will ensure that these people have the dignity in their lives that they so richly deserve.

As well as funding these vital services, we have also announced measures that will help grow the economy and create more jobs for Australians. Delivering tax relief for small business is a critical component of this. In this budget, we are extending the incredibly popular instant asset write-off for small business. There are some 14,600 small businesses in the electorate of Forde that will be able to take advantage of this measure, and I know that, in the small-business forum and roundtable that we had with the Minister for Small Business last week, the extension of this measure was very, very well received.

In addition to extending the instant asset write-off, we are also delivering small- and medium-business tax cuts benefiting some 3.2 million small and medium businesses, which employ 6.5 million Australians. This will help some 15,400 businesses in Forde, with turnovers up to $50 million if they are incorporated and up to $5 million if they are unincorporated, to invest and employ more Australians.

One of the issues that I see frequently in my electorate, and I think it has been a growing problem over time, is when I talk to businesspeople about access to people for apprenticeships. In this budget, the coalition government is creating a fund to help train Australian apprentices in key trades and skills to get more young Australians into work and to help Australian business grow. It is not just businesses that employ people. Many of these apprentices can go on to set up their own business. For example, my brother is a ceramic tiler. He did his apprenticeship—fortunately with our father, who is a ceramic tiler—and he has for the past 30 years very successfully run his own business as a ceramic tiler. That is just one of many stories.

Many, many people in our electorates who we get to do work in our houses or in our offices are self-employed tradespeople who did an apprenticeship and maybe worked for an employer for a little while to build their skills, but then they have taken the opportunity to strike out on their own path. We should look at rewarding that and ensuring that we have the next generation of tradespeople in our communities. That is what this fund is aimed at doing. This extra investment will help approximately 2,200 local young Australians aged 15 to 24 who are looking for a job or looking for more work in the electorate of Forde.

In our community last year, I launched the ParentsNext program. I am pleased to say that in this budget we have extended that nationally, with some $263 million of funding to help young parents who are looking to get back into the workforce to build their skills and capacities.

We have also announced the abolition of the 457 visa to ensure that we have a visa system that caters to the needs of our economy and focuses on ensuring that there are jobs first and foremost for Australians, particularly those who are apprentices but also those who are more generally looking for work.

It is the coalition government, through the range of measures that I have outlined in this budget, that is looking to provide support to families, reduce cost-of-living pressures and create opportunity. It is one of the things that we as Australians do very, very well. If we are given an opportunity, we can grab that opportunity and run with it and make a great success of it. There are other things in the budget which I do not have time to cover. The child care and preschool funding package has been enormously well received in electorates like mine, where over 11,000 families in the electorate will benefit. There are our affordable housing plans and greater accountability for our big banks, which I know is an issue for many. It is this coalition government with this budget that is looking to create the opportunity for Australians to grow, prosper and succeed. (Time expired)

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