Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I approach the end of my second year as a member of parliament, I want to take this opportunity to give the people of Fisher an update on what I have and the Turnbull government have delivered for our community.

I have spoken many times in this place about the transformative and unprecedented package of federal funding we have delivered for the Sunshine Coast's long-neglected transport infrastructure. In short, since my election the Turnbull government has allocated $3.2 billion to upgrade the Bruce Highway between the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, and it has committed $390 million to duplicate the North Coast railway line. I appreciate that that pales into insignificance against the money that the federal government has put into Groom, but I'm very, very pleased and very proud to have delivered on such incredible funding for the seat of Fisher. We have also supplied millions to produce a detailed business case for high-speed rail between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. These investments are going to get local residents home sooner and safer and provide a massive boost to our local economy.

However, we've gone far beyond this unprecedented infrastructure spend, delivering for every part of our community. In education, we've delivered $266 million in extra funding for our 39 local schools, meaning that every school will see an increase in per-pupil funding over the coming four years. For younger students, we've delivered increases in childcare support for 5,795 families in my electorate, in addition to an extra $200,000 we've allocated for three local childcare centres through the Community Child Care Fund. Fisher's young people will also benefit from the $5 million we have invested in a new Sunshine Coast community sporting hub in Kawana that will provide both amateur and professional facilities for our sports men and women.

We've delivered the Commonwealth-supported medical places needed for a full medical school at the new Sunshine Coast University Hospital. When all those nay-sayers said that it couldn't be done, we delivered. And we allocated $69 million extra for the University of the Sunshine Coast. That hospital, the University of the Sunshine Coast hospital, has become part of an emerging Sunshine Coast healthcare hub, following the Turnbull government's investment of $5 million in mental health treatment and research programs at the mind and neuroscience research centre otherwise known as the Thompson Institute. I was heavily involved in advocating for funding for the Thompson Institute, and I will continue to do so, to support the work this great organisation does. We've also allocated $487,000 for a new program to help 700 young people with autism on the Sunshine Coast, and $1 million to support Fisher's homeless students.

Our record investment in Medicare has led to the highest-ever bulk-billing rates in my community. Between July 2017 and March 2018, 88.3 per cent of all GP appointments were bulk billed. People in Fisher saw their GP 135,000 more times without paying this year than in the last year under Labor.

In employment, more than 20,000 local businesses have benefited from job-creating tax cuts and our instant asset write-off, leading to unemployment of only 5.1 per cent. It's the first time, to my recollection, in my memory, that we've been lower than the national average. I'm very proud of that. I'm further supporting local jobs by helping to diversify our economy through the Fisher defence industry initiative. This scheme has seen millions of dollars of defence contracts flowing into business in Fisher, including a $1 million grant to local business HeliMods to commercialise their groundbreaking power-assisted stretcher loader technology, and I'm very hopeful of making another announcement in the defence industry space in the next couple of weeks.

For employees, we are in the process of delivering tax cuts for 60,697 low- and middle-income earners in Fisher. This will put up to $1,060 back in the pockets of local families.

We've delivered funding for three mobile phone blackspot towers in Beerwah, Glass House and near Peachester. They'll dramatically improve mobile reception for small businesses and consumers alike. We've delivered a $140,000 grant for CCTV cameras, and $205,000 for wildlife conservation—on top of another $250,000, so it's about $500,000 for conservation— (Time expired)

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