Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

Today I want to talk about my home state of South Australia and the impacts the federal government's decisions are having on its future. South Australia is at a point of economic transformation. The federal government's decision in 2013 to withdraw support for the car manufacturing industry has meant that South Australia has had to confront the reality that it needs to develop new industries and very quickly in order for it to prosper.

In the last three decades the advancement of our state has slowed to a crawl, and not a single person in South Australia will forget how former Treasurer Joe Hockey goaded Holden to leave. Now, as a nation, we no longer build cars. That is a great travesty, I believe. Until the end of the Second World War, Adelaide was the third-largest city in Australia. Now it is a distant fifth, with its population growth lagging behind the growing metropolises of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

While slow population growth is a serious concern for my state, a bigger concern is the fact that our young people, our educated graduates and our skilled workers are leaving for the east coast or—worse—overseas. South Australia's population has a median age of 40 years, second only to Tasmania. In my electorate, the median age is 46. There aren't enough jobs for young people, and so our best and brightest move away. They don't want to. Once they move, it is rare that they return. As a result, there are 25,000 fewer young people living in South Australia today than there were in 1981. That's not sustainable for our state.

The challenges facing my state are significant. With these challenges I believe come opportunities. For six years in a row, Adelaide has been ranked as the world's fifth most liveable city. It has the lowest cost of living of any of the mainland state capitals, which means owning your own home is not a pipedream. In Adelaide, there is a chance that you will be able to buy, unlike in the eastern states. From an economic perspective, the South Australian wine industry is booming and its agriculture industry is growing steadily. The closure of the Mitsubishi and Holden plants appeared to be deadly to the state, but from the ashes of those longstanding economic pillars rises an opportunity for South Australia to truly cement its future. We must build on what we have whilst looking for new opportunities. I believe that the future of South Australia rests with its ability to innovate. In the book The Smartest Places on Earth the authors discus how, around the world, rust belts are the emerging hotspots of global innovation. Rust belts are turning into 'brain belts'. I encouraged the Minister for Education and Training to read this book, but obviously it didn't make the summer reading list.

I cannot overstate my disappointment that the federal government decided to cut $2.2 billion from the university sector in MYEFO. These far-reaching cuts have placed an effective cap on student places. While I acknowledge that the demand-driven system has led to perverse outcomes for vocational education and training, a cap on student places without a thorough review of how best to position our education sector shows that the federal government is focused solely on protecting its bottom line at the expense of Australia's, and particularly South Australia's, future.

Many times I have stood in this place and reminded the Prime Minister of his first statement as the leader of this country: 'We want to be innovative and agile,' he said. Well, for a government that prides itself on its innovation agenda, cuts to university funding are not acceptable. And Labor is not blameless on this issue, either. Together, Labor and coalition governments have cut a total of $3.4 billion from the university sector over recent years. This sector, which is the third-biggest export sector in the country and attracts thousands of international students each year, is the sector we want to invest in, not to cut. The way forward is to invest in education, and there is no doubt about that. South Australia is beginning to establish itself as an innovative state. Backed by three world-class public universities, innovation will be the key to South Australia's renaissance. Cuts to university funding put the future prosperity of South Australia at risk, and it is galling that the Minister of Education, who is responsible for these cuts, is also a senator for South Australia. The minister well knows how much this will disproportionately hurt regional Australia and South Australia in particular.

But while the federal government continues to reject its own innovation agenda at South Australia's expense, our universities are doing whatever possible to advance our state. Last month I visited the New Venture Institute at Flinders University, which operates as an incubator particularly for start-up businesses. This facility allows start-ups to access the knowledge and resources of the university and in many cases to take on university students as interns while they put the framework in place to ensure the future of a brand-new business. Since its inception in 2013, a total of 232 start-ups have gone through the program, and these businesses have created more than 60 jobs. Not all these start-ups will succeed, but it takes only one or two brilliant ideas for that money to be repaid tenfold.

This year Flinders is expanding this model to the Limestone Coast in a move that will provide tremendous opportunity to regional South Australia, and cuts to university funding threaten this potential. The Medical Device Partnering Program, which supports early-stage innovation and technological developments for medical devices, is housed at Flinders' Tonsley campus. This program receives no federal government funding, despite crying out for it, and only limited amounts of state government funding. Flinders University invests in this program, yet without increased funding the program has had to turn away medical professionals and members of the community who are coming forward with great ideas. It just doesn't make sense. We are reducing the cost of healthcare delivery, yet neither the state nor the federal government is providing any support. And it's not only the federal government that's threatening the future of South Australia. The federal opposition and the South Australian government are continuing to advocate against Gonski 2.0, an incredibly important reform package that will have far-reaching impacts for South Australian schoolchildren. I was proud to be part of the Nick Xenophon Team in discussions on this bill, because I saw how important it was for the country to get school funding right. I am aware of misinformation being spread by both state and federal Labor regarding our involvement and the package of the reform, and I'm happy to address this misinformation today.

The member for Wakefield stood in this place yesterday and stated that the Nick Xenophon Team did a deal to cut funding in South Australian schools by $210 million. What a fairytale! The truth is that, thanks to the Nick Xenophon Team, Australian schools will see a $23.5 billion increase in funding over the next 10 years. It was the work of NXT that saw funding increase by $4.9 billion over the government's original proposal, and South Australian schools will receive $424 million on top of current funding—not imaginary money, not monopoly money—over the next 10 years. Thanks to NXT, every underfunded school in Australia will reach 95 per cent of its SRS funding by 2023—four years sooner than the government's original proposal—and this was opposed by Labor. Thanks to NXT, each state government will be required to increase its contributions to schools to ensure that no child in Australia is left behind just because they live in a certain state—and Labor opposed this measure. Thanks to NXT, the National School Resourcing Board has been established. This board undertakes reviews of different parts of the Gonski funding model to ensure that states, territories and other approved authorities comply with their funding obligations—and Labor opposed this measure.

The facts are that Labor is basing its claims of cuts that the NXT supposedly made on the basis of funding that they never committed to. It was so far beyond the forward estimates that it was imaginary money. At the time, I said it was like comparing apples with imaginary pears. They are claiming that they are standing up for the real Gonski, when the architects of the original plan—David Gonski, Ken Boston and Kathryn Greiner—all support the proposal that passed last year. Ken Boston has said that Labor corrupted the original Gonski review, and I agree with his assessment. I note that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for Sydney, still hasn't committed to meeting the mythical shortfall if the ALP wins government. So, what do we have here?

I would ask the member for Wakefield what possible reason I and the NXT would have for cutting funding to South Australian schools. We are consistently the only party that stands up for South Australia. We don't put party politics first; we put our state first. That's why we will be called SA-BEST. And, while I want to talk about what South Australians deserve, I would be remiss if I did not highlight the government's continual refusal to fund infrastructure projects in our state. The 2017 federal budget allocates $70 billion to infrastructure spends across this country. Not one new dollar was allocated to South Australia. Victoria receives $1 billion for new infrastructure commitments, and there's a new airport for Sydney, at over $5 billion. For South Australia? None. Every time South Australian infrastructure is mentioned we are told to be grateful for the submarines. South Australia's role in defence building is incredibly important; there is no doubt. We're not the only state that's receiving defence building, yet we are the only state to be told to be satisfied with no future for rail infrastructure projects as part of the 2017 budget. It's as though we don't need infrastructure funding.

In my electorate alone, there are several key infrastructure projects that demand federal government support. I would argue that if they were in any other state they would receive that funding commitment. Victor Harbor Road, which travels from the regional centre of Victor Harbor all the way into Adelaide, has long been in need of an upgrade. It needs double lanes. It's an incredibly dangerous road. The RAA in South Australia indicated that between 2012 and 2016 there was a 34 per cent increase in traffic on the road, and 43 people were killed or seriously injured on that road in that same period. The estimated cost to fully upgrade the road is around $600 million. I believe that if this road, with this usage and these accident statistics, existed in any other state it would have been upgraded years ago. Yet, when South Australians look to their federal government, the government turns its back on such infrastructure.

The freight rail line that connects Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth passes directly through my electorate. For years there's been a proposal to build a freight bypass from Monarto so that we can double-stack all the way down to the port—yet, nothing. The efficiencies in transport freight across this country would be significant, especially as the current line is approaching capacity. Regional Development Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island list this project as their No. 1 infrastructure priority for the region. Several local councils and the RDA are putting in money out of their own pockets for a scoping study to assess the full benefits of the proposal. Yet, despite the federal government's massive investments in rail on the East Coast, nothing has been forthcoming about this proposal.

The interchange on the South Eastern Freeway of Verdun currently accepts traffic only halfway. So, it's a halfway interchange: you can't get off the freeway and come through Hahndorf and Verdun if you're coming from interstate or if you're coming from Murray Bridge. It's really ridiculous. We are missing out on so many visitors, and it's clogging traffic through Hahndorf. This ramp was built almost 40 years ago. It's probably as old as most people in this place. It's the kind of infrastructure that our nation needs and that South Australia needs. So, for the last 30 years successive state and federal governments have, I believe, failed South Australia. The message that I'm receiving from my community is that we have had enough. We count too.

The major parties, I believe, use empty rhetoric when talking about South Australia. Several federal ministers and shadow ministers can barely hide their disdain when referring to issues that face our state. In question time we're often the butt of federal government jokes. I have yet to hear a single South Australian member of parliament on the other side refute such callous indifference. Like in the book The Smartest Places on Earth, I believe South Australia has the potential to turn from a rust belt to a brain belt. Our best days do lie ahead. I call on the government to back us in. It's about time NXT was not the only party standing up for South Australia.

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