Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Townsville is the largest city in northern Australia. As such, we have a huge role to play in the development of northern Australia. That is why the lack of funding coming through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility—or, as we like to call it, the 'No Australia Infrastructure Facility'—has had a dreadful impact on our community in terms of infrastructure projects. Townsville has the largest Defence population in the nation; therefore, we have the largest population of veterans, ex-serving personnel and their families. We desperately need investment in infrastructure that will create jobs for veterans and ex-serving personnel as they transition from the services to civilian life. This is an incredibly challenging time for veterans and their families. The No. 1 priority that veterans talk to me about is the need for a job. It is also a massive issue for their partners and spouses and, in some cases, children who have left school. We need to see infrastructure funding coming into our community, to ensure jobs for these people who have given of their lives so selflessly to ensure that we can live in a country with the freedoms that we experience here.

We also have a desperate need to see ongoing funding into veterans' mental health and health services. Minister, it is a very interesting situation that we find. The budget saw a $40.7 million cut to veterans' dental and allied health services. Why has this occurred?

We also have seen savage cuts and the devastation of our TAFE system. This has created a huge problem for the building of the skills that we need as we move into the future. We have significant skill shortages in our community, across nearly all trades.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:03 to 12:15

TAFE is an essential component in the building of skills into the future for our young people and mature-aged people transitioning into jobs of the new economies.

One of the issues I would also like to raise with the minister is why we are cutting university funding to James Cook University to the tune of $36 million and Central Queensland University to the tune of $38 million when we know that only half the number of students are transitioning to university in regional centres. Cutting the funds to the universities in the electorate of Herbert will have a devastating impact on the young people in my community who wish to attend university.

The other issue of huge significance where we need to see significant funding is that of aged care. We are seeing medical wards and the subacute unit at the Townsville Hospital and Health Service overburdened with elderly people who should have access to residential aged-care beds or assistance in their home. That is simply not happening. It is incredibly distressing for those elderly citizens, their families and the communities that they belong to. It also means that we cannot bring people who need admission to hospital into medical wards, because the beds are taken by people who need a bed in a residential aged-care facility.

Finally, the infrastructure that we need in our community, which will also create jobs, is the NBN. It is an absolute disaster in my community. For example, in the suburb of Douglas, where a lot of university students live and where the university is located, the NBN is so poor students are moving away from that area to live in other parts of the city because they cannot get good quality internet access. So my question to the minister is: why won't this government invest in vital infrastructure projects in the electorate of Herbert?

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