Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia, Victoria and the Goldstein community have much to celebrate in this year's federal budget. It's a budget that builds on our vision for Australia as a forward-looking modern liberal nation with unparalleled living standards. This budget can be encapsulated in three words: opportunity, security and responsibility—opportunity by delivering three stages of tax cuts by increasing the bracket from $80,000 to $87,000, lifting it to $90,000 next year and then to $200,000 from 2024 to 2025; security by increasing the number of home aged-care packages by 14,000 over four years to give Australians the freedom to choose how they retire and age at home with dignity and choice; and responsibility by introducing a 23.9 per cent tax cap on government spending and delivering a surplus next financial year to start paying back Labor's debt legacy.

Frankly, this has been the best budget since returning to government in 2013. It provides the framework to advance our values through legislative action. The end of the frustrating incremental return to surplus is now in sight. The deadline to start cutting debt has been brought forward a year. Next year, we will finally reverse Labor's debt legacy. We are talking tax relief, better childcare, increased home care for retirees, funding for schools and huge investment in infrastructure. First and foremost, the budget continues to tackle the rising costs of living for households, including in the Goldstein community. While maintaining fiscal discipline and fast tracking our national surplus, we are tackling major tax reform. The budget's bold reforms bring us closer to an ideal setting where taxes are lower, simpler and more consistent for the whole of the Australian community. Indeed, 60,799 taxpayers in the wonderful Goldstein electorate stand to benefit from low- and middle-income tax relief. That the means a hairdresser on 50 grand will have an extra $530 in their hip pocket, increasing to $3,740 over the seven years of this plan.

Cost-of-living pressures are also being relieved as the new childcare system comes into place on 2 July: 4,019 families in the Goldstein electorate will now benefit from more accessible and affordable child care. We know that child care hits the hip pockets of families, but that it also particularly aids and assists women and professional women in the electorate to be able to make choices themselves. And as the government's National Energy Guarantee is implemented, and decades of policy deadlock are finally put to rest, families can also start to benefit from more affordable electricity and gas prices.

But this budget is also backing the 22,112 local businesses in the Goldstein electorate. Business tax cuts will help them to invest, to employ and to pay their workers more. Over a thousand small businesses in Goldstein have previously benefited from the instant asset write-off, and that measure has now been extended for another 12 months.

When business conditions are optimal, the dividends speak volumes in employment, in profits, in opportunity and in investment in communities. The Turnbull government has now delivered more than one million jobs, nearly 1,100 per day. The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows strong growth in full-time work, and that's particularly important for those returning to work or seeking out their first step on a rung on the ladder of opportunity. We're giving a fair go to those who may not have had one previously. We're giving people the chance to turn their human capital and intellectual capital into economic success and progress.

This budget also addresses the challenges we face as an ageing population. It gives retirees support to keep living in their own homes or helps them relieve financial stress by converting some of their housing equity into an income stream. There are an additional 14,000 places for in-home care, as well as new measures to enhance quality of care and transparency. The Goldstein electorate has 26,314 people over the age of 65; they all deserve dignity and security in their retirement, and as they age throughout their lives.

Australia's cities are developing at a rapid pace and it's the duty of the government to plan for the future. That's what's included in this budget. Investment in nation-building infrastructure is also at record levels. Our population growth rate is about 1.6 per cent a year, but to make sure that we meet the challenges of that growth rate and to make sure that it's sustainable it must be backed up by the investment and infrastructure needed to support a healthy, growing population. When growth is preceded by planning and investment it does wonders for economic prosperity, liveability and social mobility, and for the security of every resident.

Through the Infrastructure Investment Program, $9.7 billion is being rolled out in Victoria alone. It includes $5 billion for the Melbourne Airport Rail Link. Hundreds of constituents in the Goldstein electorate have regularly raised with me their concerns about the absence of an airport rail link and their capacity to be able to connect, whether for business or for pleasure, directly to Melbourne's major air route and hub, to reach not just the rest of the country but the world. This $5 billion investment in the Melbourne Airport Rail Link finally delivers a piece of infrastructure most Victorians believe should have already been delivered many decades ago. It's been in planning for decades and, ultimately, the state government has had to be dragged kicking and screaming to support it by the federal government putting down this $5 billion in matching funding.

There has also been $1.8 billion committed to the North-East rail link, which will deliver benefits, of course, to large parts of Victoria—particularly the northern and eastern suburbs, and connecting out to other areas of the state as well. There is $475 million for the Monash rail project, which, critically, will connect parts of the CBD through to Monash University—the Caulfield campus and then to the Clayton campus as well. I say that with a bit of nostalgia, because many moons ago, when I was a younger gentleman, I served as the president of the Caulfield campus of Monash University. During that time, one of the projects that I actually implemented with university management was to build a bus route directly connecting the campuses. It's nice to see that after many years, that project has gone from an idea to something that was adopted, and from a bus project now to becoming, ultimately, a rail project as well. That's the consequence of legacy and the consequence of leadership, and full points should be given to the Turnbull government for recognising that opportunity.

As well, there is $225 million for the Frankston to Baxter link, which is critical, of course, to the member for Dunkley but also to the people who are part of the growing corridor across the south-east of Melbourne that goes to the different parts of the Mornington Peninsula. Frankston is one of the major hubs that connects to further inland parts as we progress down the peninsula. There is $50 million for the regional rail program and an additional commitment of $132 million for the completion of the duplication of Princess Highway East. There is $3 billion for the East West Link, if that could ever be delivered, because we have the intransigence and obstruction of the Andrews government who have consistently undermined the potential for the development of that important transport link. When you look at a map of Melbourne and see where the road networks are connected, the East West Link is the most critical part of our infrastructure and is completely absent. It stops freight movements and it clogs up roads, which undermines transportation by road across Victoria and particularly across the congested roads of Melbourne.

We pray we will one day see a state government that puts people first, Victorians first, and actually builds this needed road. But, instead, what we have seen consistently is a state government that would rather pay out big corporate interests to not build one. The $3 billion for the East West Link that was committed by the Turnbull government is a recommitment of an important piece of infrastructure that our state desperately needs. There was $295 million as part of the Victorian congestion package to help ease the bottlenecks that sit all across our state. Because the state government is not tackling the bigger challenges in big infrastructure and big roads, these congestion packages will help ease the burden so that parents can get their kids to school easier, they can get from school to work easier and people can go about their business on a day-to-day basis. The increasing burden of congestion along major arterial roads on weekends has now become so bad that the $295 million is absolutely essential.

Locally, the Roads to Recovery Program will assist the Bayside City Council with upgrades to Outer Crescent in Brighton. There have been some other significant capital investments in the Goldstein electorate under this budget, including the upgrade to the Glen Eira Adult Learning Centre, the Caulfield South Community House's hall renovation, upgraded training lights at the Jack Barker Oval, renovations to the Sandybeach community centre and an upgrade to the Alma Park toddler's playground as part of the Stronger Communities Program, which has invested more than $378,451 in the Goldstein electorate.

The budget shines light onto some shadows that are in desperate need of illumination, particularly in dealing with some of the great social challenges that undermine our cohesive society. One in five Australians experience a mental health condition in a given year. Anxiety and depression cause distress, impacting on functioning and relationships on a day-to-day basis and leading to poor physical health. The budget's $92.4 million investment in frontline mental health services includes $33.8 million for Lifeline, $10.5 million for beyondblue and $2.2 million for Defence Force reservists. There's also $125 million assigned for research through the government's Medical Research Future Fund. That's on top of our ongoing commitment to important youth mental health services, particularly the enduring contribution of headspace. We have a headspace centre in Moorabbin.

As Liberals, our vision is to maximise opportunity for every Australian. That means preparing our national accounts for any external economic shocks that threaten job security and opportunity. This budget recommits the majority of new revenue from a strengthening economy to paying down our national debt. That's it. It's the volcano of debt that could erupt unless we continue on our path to surplus, not in 2021, as has been stated in the past, but in 2019-20 and beyond. For the first time in a decade, the government is being very serious about making sure that we no longer borrow to pay back everyday expenses. With the budget back in the black, government services can continue to deliver better health care and education outcomes but, more critically, provide the economic security that every Australian needs. When we have global economic shocks that sometimes are outside of our control, it's the resilience that we build within our budgetary framework in making sure we have flexibility that provides us security into the future.

What we cannot afford to do is be complacent, as those on the opposition benches would have us do. They would have us sit and think it's okay to accumulate debt and the costs of simply financing it without anything to show for it—to borrow from tomorrow to live it up today. It's a form of intergenerational theft, where money is taken from the future to fund our lifestyles today. It's not just that it's unjust; it is immoral and is a position that we should never stand for.

The return to surplus by the Turnbull government is one of the most critical and significant achievements of this government, and it's the biggest gift that it can give to future generations. This budget is a forward-looking, responsible blueprint for a modern liberal Australia. The Goldstein community has consistently voiced concern over the rising costs of living, the lack of infrastructure investment, particularly by the state government, job security and the challenges of an ageing population. But, more critically, it has consistently raised concerns about the challenges facing our budget and wanting to make sure that a government—their government; the nation's government—is prudent and responsible, exercises spending with caution and seeks to minimise expenses that are unnecessary, to return to a position of surplus so we can start to pay back Labor's debt legacy. That is what this budget does: it delivers opportunity, security and responsibility for our great nation. As a government, we have listened and we have acted.

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