Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a delight to speak about this year's budget through the mechanism of Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2017-18. When you think about the Australian economy, it is really a remarkable achievement that we have had going on for 26 years of continuous economic growth—the longest period of economic growth of any country anywhere in the history of the world. Since the coalition government were elected in 2013, we have created half a million new jobs. We are continuing the program of economic prosperity through the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the introduction of the Registered Organisations Commission, which will improve productivity in all workplaces, particularly, with the ABCC, on building sites. It is also more than a thousand days since the last boat arrived, and we have restored confidence in the immigration system.

What we have in this budget are more of the government's achievements and more of its prudent economic management. I want to talk a little bit about the nature of the budget settings. The budget settings are around fairness, security and opportunity. I want to look particularly at the situation of the debt and the deficit, which is so important to those on this side of the House. We have reduced the growth in debt by two-thirds since we came to government in 2013. It was at 34 per cent; it is now at less than 10 per cent. We have cut the rate of growth in spending. It was more than 3½ per cent when we came to government; now it is less than two per cent. Over Labor's six years, they accumulated around $240 billion in deficits. Over the same period we too have run deficit budgets, but we have had $70 billion less in deficits.

Happily, from 2018-19, for the first time in a decade, we will no longer be borrowing to spend on everyday expenditure—we will no longer be putting things on the credit card when we go out to dinner! We are going to return the country to surplus in 2020-21, with a surplus of $7.4 billion. Since we came to government we have had $25 billion in savings passed by the Senate, but we have had savings of $14.7 billion stall and we are no longer going to proceed with them. It is like any company's balance sheet: if you know you cannot produce things, you take them off the balance sheet, and that is what we have done here.

We need to push harder. We need to continue to focus on debt and deficit. That is why it is so important that these bills are passed, why it is so important that these measures are undertaken. And it is why it is so important that the coalition is returned at the next election, because one can only imagine how bad the debt and deficit will be if those opposite get their hands on the kitty again.

Another of the important economic measures we have taken is to extend the life of the Future Fund. We are not drawing down any Future Fund money for an extra 10 years, and this will save a century of taxpayer money on what have been unfunded liabilities of Public Service pensions. And we have raised $3 billion from multinational tax avoidance laws. In one year we have raised that amount from just seven companies. Despite a fair degree of bloviating before the election, those opposite chose to vote against the bill that made that law.

I heard from the previous speaker, the member for Bendigo, what I have heard so often from members opposite: an obsession with the small-business tax cut that we passed at the end of this financial year, which allows tax cuts for businesses with turnovers of up to $50 million. Labor was only prepared to support a tax cut for businesses with turnovers of $2 million, but anybody who knows anything about business knows that a business with only $2 million turnover is a microbusiness, not a small business. It is very important that Australia's corporate tax rate becomes competitive with the rest of the world, because at the moment our corporate tax rate is massively uncompetitive. In this budget we are providing further opportunities for small business by extending the instant asset write-off for small businesses purchasing items of capital of up to $20,000. I know the small businesses in my electorate really think that this is a fantastic opportunity and a fantastic measure.

We are creating opportunities for first home buyers and in the housing system more broadly. One of the big issues in my electorate is the cost of housing, particularly for first home buyers. We are creating a super saver scheme, which will allow people to use their superannuation accounts to save money for a home deposit at deductible rates. There is a measure that I am particularly proud to see the Treasurer has included in the budget, which is releasing more Commonwealth land for the purpose of housing construction. We on this side of the House have been saying for a long time that the real issue in housing affordability is the question of supply. It is one thing for a Commonwealth government to say that; it is another thing for the Commonwealth to actually do something about it. So it is good to see that we are releasing Commonwealth Defence Force land in Moorabbin.

But there has been an element of the housing affordability debate where the settings have been unfair, and that seems to be where we have seen foreign buyers crowding out the market, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, making it more difficult for young Australians to purchase their first homes. That is why we have put together a range of measures, like the abolition of the capital gains tax exemption for foreign investors. We have mandated that 50 per cent of new developments need to be sold to domestic buyers, and we have put in place a foreign investment levy of at least $5,000 on all future foreign investors who fail to either occupy or lease their property for at least six months each year. There are more controls on interest-only and investor lending, and the government has made $120 million of divestments of property illegally owned by foreigners. We know what a problem this was under previous arrangements, where the Foreign Investment Review Board was not actually applying those measures properly, and how that has crowded out the housing market.

In infrastructure, this budget is replete with opportunities, with $75 billion spent on infrastructure for the Snowy Hydro; for the inland Brisbane-to-Melbourne rail, a great, nation-building project, an iconic project, which will help transport freight between two of our great capitals; and for the Western Sydney Airport. It is so good to see that the government is getting on with this particular proposal. I have to say it is particularly good to see that the government is building this airport, because I think that any people who live in Sydney know that the present Sydney airport is quite unsatisfactory, and you would want a completely different approach taken in the construction of a new airport. I commend Minister Fletcher for his decision in that regard.

In my own electorate in relation to infrastructure spending, there is an extra $50 million that has been put into the NorthConnex project. In acknowledging and speaking about NorthConnex today, I note that there was a worker on NorthConnex who died on site yesterday. My sympathies and prayers are with his family.

The NorthConnex project is a very important project. It will take 5,000 trucks and cars off Pennant Hills Road every day and provide the missing link in our road transport between Brisbane and Melbourne, cutting 15 minutes and I think about 21 sets of traffic lights off that journey. It is a very good Commonwealth-state-private-sector project that has been funded under an approach that we in this government have taken.

There is money for roads funding in Kenthurst, Annangrove, Asquith and Middle Dural: over $167,000 in construction on Citrus Avenue in Asquith; $750,000 on four sections of Annangrove Road in Kenthurst and Annangrove; $200,000 on resurfacing of Cattai Ridge Road and Old Northern Road; and almost $70,000 on road pavement patching on Kenthurst Road.

As a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I am very pleased to see the increase in security funding that has been provided in this budget. We have done this not only in this budget but in a range of measures. We are ending the 457 visas, and we have improved the citizenship test, tightening it up, ensuring that it meets Australian values and ensuring that Australian citizens have adequate English to fully integrate into our society.

Labor in government cut defence spending and left us with defence spending at prewar levels. It was so underfunded. We are increasing defence spending in this budget to two per cent of GDP. That was a goal that we had, and we have delivered it three years ahead of schedule. We are supporting our over 2,300 Defence Force personnel serving our country overseas and investing over $300 million in the AFP to help protect our country here at home and also on some assignments abroad.

One of the measures that is very important to me is the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which provides fairness to some of our most disadvantaged Australians. At any point in time, Australians can have a child with a disability. You can be struck down with a disability. This is nobody's fault. Because it can affect anyone at any time, it is right and just that all Australians should make a contribution to it. That is why this government has put together in this budget an increase of 0.5 per cent in the Medicare levy in order to fund the NDIS, and that is a very important thing. The NDIS is available to around 2,000 residents of my electorate, and I know from talking to them how important having security of funding and a guarantee that the NDIS will continue has been to them.

Labor in government failed to adequately fund the NDIS. They left it with a $55 billion black hole. What we have done here is to guarantee its funding and to ensure that the NDIS complements and does not replace existing services and to ensure that the states and territories do not cost-shift.

I have been particularly pleased to see that Minister Porter and Minister Hunt have been working together particularly to address issues around mental health funding, some of which had been transferred into the NDIS and some of which had been reduced. They are looking at ways to ensure that we maintain those important mental health funding projects that were otherwise going to be defunded or rolled into the NDIS.

The school funding program provides a great degree of fairness. There is $18.6 billion extra for schools. Schools are some of the biggest assets in Berowra, particularly the quality of the schools. It does not matter whether they are government, Catholic or independent. Over $1.12 billion is to be spent over the next decade supporting the 51 government, Catholic and independent primary and secondary schools and the over 26,000 Berowra students who attend those schools. By 2027, 35 government schools in my electorate will have received more than $514 million in funding. The 12 independent schools will have received more than $467 million in Commonwealth funding, and over $137 million will be contributed to the Catholic education system on behalf of the four systemic schools in my electorate.

I acknowledge that there are two schools in my electorate that are among the 24 that will receive less funding than they had under previous arrangements. They are Mount St Benedict's at Pennant Hills and Oakhill College at Castle Hill. Following the Minister for Education and Training's announcement of these measures, I reached out to those schools to discuss the changes and see if there was anything I could do to assist them. I want to thank the principal, acting principal and the chairs of those two school councils for the constructive approach they have adopted. I am a strong supporter of the schools and communities in my electorate. They are the absolute backbone of the Berowra electorate. I have been advocating to the minister on behalf of all of Berowra schools to ensure he understands the needs of our schools. I look forward to continuing to work with the schools and with the minister as the funding program is implemented.

In health funding we are creating fairness. We are guaranteeing Medicare and we are restoring the GP indexation rate that Labor first froze. We are retaining bulk-billing incentives for pathology, diagnostics imaging, blood tests and X-rays. Indeed, bulk-billing rates have reached record figures under this government, with this March quarter a figure of 85.6 per cent being the highest bulk-billing rate for this quarter ever on record. We have guaranteed Medicare. We have added $1.2 million in funding on adding medicines to the PBS. Of particular interest to me is the additional funding we have put in place—more than $115 million—for mental health and suicide prevention. This includes: $80 million to maintain community psychosocial services through the NDIS; $9.1 million for telehealth, with improved access to psychologists; $11.1 million to prevent suicide in specific locations where there has unfortunately been a large spike in suicides; a further $15 million provided to three major mental health research hubs around Australia in Melbourne, Sydney and the Sunshine Coast; and a particular focus on veterans, because we know it is a group that is so sadly affected too often by mental health issues and suicide, with an additional $58.6 million in funding for the DVA, particularly focusing on supporting our veterans and now serving personnel in relation to suicide prevention and mental health.

Another area where we are providing leadership in this budget is through the banking levy. Banks are highly profitable—over $30 billion per year. They benefit from their dominant position in our market. They have the advantages of regulatory protection. They had the advantage of the bank guarantee during the financial crisis. APRA, the banking regulator, says that large, highly leveraged banks are a source of risk. The banking levy will apply on our biggest five banks, raising $6.2 billion. This tax amounts to 6c in every $100 of specified liabilities greater than $100 billion. It is about four per cent of bank profits. The ACCC will monitor banks to keep the banks from passing this on to customers. This will create more competition as there are 100 other banks, building societies and credit unions to which this levy does not apply. A similar levy applies in other advanced economies, such as the United Kingdom.

Importantly, the provisions will not apply to deposits of up to $250,000, mortgages, insurance and superannuation businesses, and tier 1 capital which the banks need to hold for their licences. I am delighted to commend this bill to the House.

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