Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's with great pleasure I rise today to speak on the government's appropriation bills and once again articulate the great story that this government has to tell about the delivery of funding, services and infrastructure to my electorate of Forde, all predicated on building a stronger economy for future generations. Importantly, what we're seeing in this budget is that the budget is being returned to surplus. But, at the same time, we're delivering the record investments into health and education that Australians need and want, all at the same time as lowering taxes and delivering record investment in economic and community infrastructure.

We've done this without having to resort to the sort of policies that those opposite articulated during the election campaign, where they were going to hit the economy with a sledgehammer of $387 billion of new taxes. But that's the difference between us and those opposite: they like to tax you; we like to back the Australian people. It is this coalition government that is backing the dreams and aspirations of Australians, and our budget continues to support the individuals, families, retirees, and small and family businesses that work hard each and every day to make Australia the economic envy of the world, resulting in 28 years or more of continued economic growth.

We seek to ensure that Australians will have a strong foundation to grow their families, their businesses and their communities. We'll continue to invest record amounts into health and education and into our local schools and universities to ensure teachers have the support they need to prepare our children for the future. Public, independent and Catholic schools across my electorate of Forde will also benefit from the coalition government's record $292 billion in education funding over the next decade. Locally, schools in Forde will benefit from some $30.2 million investment in the Local Schools Community Fund to help fund school activities and new equipment. The school community fund will support over 40 schools in my electorate of Forde to deliver projects that will support the learning outcomes of our students, projects like the PA system for deaf and hard-of-hearing students at Eagleby State School, air conditioning in classrooms, rebuilding the vegetable gardens at Edens Landing State School, or Shailer Park State School's recycling program. These are local projects for our local schools to deal with the local needs of that school community.

The government is also setting about getting things right for job creation and supporting businesses that want to take on apprentices. Our policies that we took to the election focused on ensuring that our business community has the incentive and the capacity to employ an additional 80,000 apprentices over the next five years. Far too often in this place we speak about the need for people to go to university, and I also see it in my community; we talk constantly about kids going to university. But we seem to forget the importance of trades in our community and in our economy. I look at my brother, who is a ceramic tiler, as was my father. I look at the electricians, plumbers and builders in our community. We all work in a wonderful building, but this building wouldn't have been built without trades, and those people who had those trades did apprenticeships. It is a critically important part of our economy, and we should never underappreciate the importance of skills and trades in building the buildings, the factories and the things that we need to continue building our economy. Yes, university education is important, but our trades are critically important because they build the things that the graduates of our universities work out of.

I'd also like to reflect on the strong track record that the government have in delivering for health in my electorate of Forde through our local hospitals, despite the constant mistruths perpetuated by those opposite during the election campaign. We have delivered a record 65 per cent increase in funding to the Logan Hospital and we will work with the state government to deliver on the new $33.4 million urgent specialist care centre to ensure residents of Logan have access to world-class hospital care. On the Gold Coast, the residents are also benefitting from the coalition government's record investment in health and hospitals, with funding for Gold Coast University Hospital doubling since Labor was last in government, an achievement those opposite could only ever dream of. It is only our record investment into health that will strengthen and ensure affordable access to quality health care for residents across Logan and the Gold Coast.

We are also ensuring the provision of local health services with the delivery of our 53 new MRI licences nationally, but particularly for my electorate of Forde for a new Medicare funded MRI licence for Qscan at upper Coomera. Upper Coomera is one of the fastest growing areas in Queensland, let alone in Australia, and these local health services will be extremely well received. We are always looking to ensure that the residents of the electorate, not only in the Logan part but also in the northern Gold Coast, have access to those services they need.

Additionally, we're committed to guaranteeing mental health services across Australia by providing some $737 million over seven years to ensure people living with mental health receive the support they need. We are also reducing waiting lists for headspace and building more centres to support young people, again especially for those in the northern Gold Coast who will benefit from a local headspace centre. I would like to give a shout-out to the team at headspace in Meadowbrook for the wonderful work that they do. In the lead-up to the election campaign, we made a number of additional funding commitments to headspace at Meadowbrook to continue the service they currently provide.

Because we on this side have worked hard over previous parliaments to ensure the government is in a strong financial position, we have been able to deliver tax cuts for hardworking Australians. In my electorate alone, over 73,000 people have started to benefit from those tax cuts, which were passed in the first sitting week of parliament. At the same time, despite the opposition from those opposite, we have sought to ensure that multinationals in our country pay their fair share of tax. The package that we passed in 2016 has resulted in an additional $13.1 billion of tax revenue by ensuring that multinationals pay their fair share. Why is this important? Because it allows us as a government to ensure that households across Logan and the Gold Coast will have the services they require through this extra tax revenue.

Importantly, too, we have a large veterans community across the electorate, and our putting veterans and their families first program, which is investing $278 million towards improving the wellbeing of veterans and their families by providing early access to services and simplified access to treatment, will greatly improve the lives of our veterans' community. You're never left wondering what David Draper and the whole team at the Beenleigh RSL think of various things that are going on when you go down for Diggers Day, but they're a great bunch of guys.

We'll also support the environment by taking responsible action on a changing climate while maintaining a focus on lower energy prices, with older Australians benefitting from this budget with a record funding of $21.6 billion—representing an increase of more than 50 per cent since 2013-14. As we can see, there are a range of measures that we've taken in this budget to support a broad cross-section of our community across my electorate of Forde. I'm looking forward to my annual Forde Seniors Expo, in September. I'm looking forward to catching up with more than 400 constituents who normally come along to that. We'll have a great day, with a great range of services and exhibitors that provide services to the seniors in our community.

We're also looking to ensure that we continue to protect our borders, and that the policies and processes we've put in place ensure that the people who have come to this country are the people that we feel confident about and that we know are going to continue to contribute to and build our economy and our society. We have a rich tradition of migrants in this country. My family were migrants in the mid-sixties. In Logan, I represent a community that has people from more than 216 different nationalities and cultures. It's the rich tapestry of those migrants that make our communities such a wonderful place to live in.

Other great community organisations in my electorate are the sporting clubs. Through major investments across a range of sporting clubs in my electorate, we're looking to reduce the barriers to women participating in sport. We're providing nearly $600,000 to Ormeau Shearers Rugby League Club and $600,000 to Logan Lightning Football Club to upgrade their change rooms to encourage more women into their sports. I know at Logan Lightning Football Club, with their women's national premier league team, how important those new facilities will be—equally as important to the successful women's program at Ormeau Shearers Rugby League Club.

We are also seeking to restore trust in the Australian financial services system by ensuring consumer protection by strengthening the regulators and increasing accountability. We've committed to taking action on all 76 recommendations from the banking royal commission. It is this coalition government that is continuing to deliver for the Australian community, but again, and as I've said a number of times, it's without raising taxes, while ensuring that we provide the necessary services that Australians expect.

One of the opportunities we have in this place is to touch on local issues that concern our local communities. In that respect, I want to particularly touch on an issue facing the Eagleby community at present, and that is a proposal by the Queensland state Labor government for the Coomera Connector—in particular, the third stage that surrounds Eagleby; the current northern alignment that will greatly affect the Eagleby community. This is a community that's rich in history, having been first settled in the 1860s. Through the hasty gazettal of that third stage without any community consultation, we have seen an enormous degree of community concern. This proposal will pass very close to existing residential properties, schools and a retirement village. It will also pass through some very productive farmland. There have been no community consultations to this point.

I would like to particularly thank the work of the Eagleby Community and Wetlands Group for the work that they are doing to bring this issue to public notice. This group of concerned residents have stood by each other to advocate and be a voice for their community, and I wish to commend the members for the terrific work they are doing to raise awareness of this project. The members are all volunteers, and I'd like to recognise them in this House today. Gerowyn Jensen does a terrific job with social media, John Larkin is busy looking into the environmental impacts, Rob Carter is looking into the social impacts and legal obligations of the state government, Robert Livingstone is researching the alternative routes, and Marilyn Goodwin is responsible for media engagement. They are an asset to our community, and I will continue to support them in their endeavours to see the route for the northern part of the Coomera Connector changed to minimise the impacts on the Eagleby community.

I urge the state government to ensure that proper community consultation processes are in place. It is important to recognise the impacts this road will have on Indigenous heritage and on the natural heritage of the Eagleby Wetlands, which are world-renowned for migratory bird breeding and transitory visits. It is incredibly important that we get this project right because it is going to have a tremendous impact on the Eagleby community if it's not done properly. I call on the state government to ensure they do the community consultation properly.

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