Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We had the budget speech and the budget reply speech. I'll make a few comments on the budget first of all. Again the people of my electorate of Bendigo were disappointed. It was another budget that saw us excluded from any significant local community infrastructure funding, despite the fact that we have many projects on our wish list and active lobbying had gone on. One project that our local Bendigo business community really wanted to see funded was the upgrade of the Bendigo Airport terminal. It was also a key project of our local council. It was not funded in this budget.

The government will spend $33 billion on a piece of land for a future runway that may be built in the next couple of decades, but yet it couldn't find the $4.5 billion to match the state Labor government funding to upgrade the Bendigo Airport terminal. This project would have delivered local jobs, particularly for local small businesses involved in construction. It also would have secured the return of the Qantas route between Sydney and Bendigo, which started not that long ago. It was an incredibly successful route that Qantas are keen to restart. We know that we could secure that if we had a terminal upgrade.

Also not funded was the upgrade to the Fogartys Gap interchange. It is the one major intersection on the Calder Freeway that doesn't have proper on and off ramps. Tragically, it has been the place of far too many road accidents, not just in the last 12 months but in the last decade. For those who don't know the intersection, cars coming from Harcourt or Fogartys Gap, which leads to Maldon, have to cross the freeway to turn right to go to Bendigo. Some people don't realise that they have to cross a lane of the freeway to turn right, so we've had a couple of near misses and, unfortunately, a number of deaths. This is critical infrastructure. The Deputy Prime Minister likes to talk about road safety, but when it comes to road safety in my electorate the funding is not there.

I raise these two projects because they are not on the government's priority list, yet significant funding went to the Nicholls electorate in the north, into Shepparton, and significant funding went to other electorates held by coalition members. There is a feeling amongst the people in my electorate that, because we didn't get prioritised in the election, we haven't been prioritised since this government was returned. We feel left out and left behind when it comes to our fair share of funding for our local community. I know that the local council, the new councillors, will continue to campaign for this funding, so the government has not been let off the hook when it comes to either of these projects.

I note that the government had some token money available—and I say 'token money'—for local councils and local community projects through various grant schemes. When you stand in question time and say, 'There's a billion dollars,' it sounds like a really big figure, until you divide it amongst all the councils that we have in Australia. Then it ends up being a couple of hundred thousand. It doesn't go far. It does help, but it doesn't go far. A couple of my local councils have used this funding to upgrade footpaths, which is vital. This is a program that I'd encourage the government to continue. We have Roads to Recovery and Bridges to Recovery. Paths to Recovery is the next step. Even though I am the federal member, people in my community contact me about the need to build the missing links between housing estates, to upgrade broken footpaths, and what role the federal government can play in that. I believe that, if we play a role in helping councils upgrade local roads, we should play a role in upgrading local footpaths. They're good for health. They're good for mums with prams. They're good for older Australians. They provide safe routes and access, connecting schools, shopping strips and communities to each other.

Another area of the budget that bitterly disappointed the people of my electorate was the complete lack of support for the arts. The government said that they've done enough. They announced a big fund, but no money in that fund has been spent. The arts industry was one of the first industries to be shut down, taking all the associated industries with it. When you put on major events, be they concerts or productions, there's AV equipment, there's crowd control and there's catering that go along with it. Groovin the Moo is a major concert that travels around regional Australia. When we lost it in Bendigo, lots of local businesses missed out. That was the beginning of the cancellation of major events because of the COVID-19 crisis. Everybody accepts that these events could not go ahead because of the health crisis. Everybody accepts that it's still not safe for these events to go ahead. What they want in a federal government is leadership and support to help them get through this season, next season and the year after, when we hope it will be safe for them to open. Instead, what our local showgrounds got was a couple of hundred thousand—in fact, less than $200,000—to do a bit of paintwork. It was well short of the funding they require for the major redevelopment project they have.

I flag our showgrounds because I know that lots of regional MPs have showgrounds in their electorates. They're not just for agricultural shows. These are multipurpose facilities. They quite often host the local football teams and netball teams. They also are a place for major concerts and events. They hold equestrian events. If they've got the facilities, they're also where you have local markets, sport meets and so on and so forth. The showgrounds in my electorate tend to be booked out all year round when you add all those events in together. I'd better not forget the cricket season because it will be remembered if I do not remember the importance of our showgrounds when it comes to hosting local cricket competitions as well. Yet they're ageing infrastructure. Again, there's an opportunity for the federal government. If they were genuine about partnering with regional communities, they would help to fund the restoration and building of our showgrounds. These are just a few projects that this government could pick up on.

I know that when Labor was last in government and the Liberal and National parties were in opposition they were incredibly critical of the building schools program, the Building the Education Revolution fund, which was highly successful, despite all of their criticism. To this day, I still go to completely brand-new schools that were built in my electorate through that fund that the former Prime Minister and then education minister created. A school like Lockwood South Primary School, with its old hall, was never going to be rebuilt because it only had about 40 students, but under that program the entire new building that it got was literally a brand-new school. We have about 15 schools like that in my electorate.

I'm not saying that this government, as an economic stimulus project, could replicate that program, but they could do something similar. They could do something for the schools that still need buildings to help build the buildings that they need. They could partner with local and state government to build the infrastructure, such as upgrading our showgrounds, that would give opportunity for regional communities to rebuild post-crisis. But all we tend to get from this government is a little bit of token money, a little bit of money to help with painting or fencing. It is not really enough to deliver the economic support that the communities need.

Another problem that I have with the government's budget is that it tended to focus on the people who were doing okay. The tax cuts, for example, favoured people already in work. They favoured people already on high incomes. They did not provide a genuine narrative or a program or a plan about how they're going to recreate work. This government boasts about the jobs that have been created since the pandemic and since some jobs have started to come on, but they haven't really been clear or honest about what kind of jobs they are. They're insecure jobs, they're casual jobs, they're jobs in sectors which are still being damaged by the recession and are struggling to recover. Having a couple of hours a week in a job, hoping that business will pick up, is not a job you can count on, yet this government counts it as a job created.

I think about the people in my area of Bendigo. We moved out of stage 3 restrictions, now into step 3A, a little sooner than Melbourne, but business is not back to normal, despite being able to take those earlier steps in regional Victoria. People are trying to survive on one shift a week or a couple of shifts a week. We are not back to prepandemic work levels, yet the government has moved to cut JobKeeper and JobSeeker.

Another criticism that I have of this government, and why I support the amendments that have been moved in the lower house, is that in seven weeks time the Coronavirus Supplement for those on JobSeeker will run out. Right before Christmas this government will push thousands of Australians back to the old Newstart rate. They won't tell them whether they are going to keep the current rate with the supplement going or whether they are going to increase the base rate, the old Newstart rate. It is an appalling way to treat Australians, many of whom have recently lost their jobs through no fault of their own. It demonstrates the meanness of this government. It demonstrates their focus on spin and how they go for headlines and not genuine reform.

This is a recession that we have never seen the likes of before in Australia. Previous recessions have really targeted male dominated industries, our blue-collar industries. When you look at the 1990s recession, it was the industries like manufacturing and construction that took a hit. This recession has not impacted those industries yet, and we hope that it won't. In this recession, in construction they haven't missed a day of work in regional Victoria. In manufacturing we've lost a few days and a few shifts in food manufacturing, but the rest of manufacturing has not missed a day. When it comes to the mining industry—we have gold mining in Bendigo—they haven't missed a day. These industries are male dominated industries. These are the higher-paying industries and they're doing well. I am thankful for that because these are the secure jobs in our electorate.

It means that the people who have been hit hardest by this COVID-19 recession are the industries that women predominantly work in: hospitality, retail, service based industries. Yet there is no plan to support them in this budget. They just hope the trickle-down effect will happen, that in a recession people earning money, who will get the tax cuts, will actually spend on services and goods and entertainment. It's a really big wish of this government, and it actually bucks the thinking of what's happened in previous recessions, where data proves that people save in a recession; they don't tend to spend. We also know through research that if you were to increase JobSeeker and maintain JobKeeper, that money would continue to flow through the economy. Every dollar of relief you give to people on low incomes gets spent locally. It is where the government is not quite in touch with what is happening in reality.

The budget that the government delivered was very much a Liberal-National budget. It talked about tax cuts. It talked about programs and spending in the forward estimates, off to the never-never. The classic was the one that was revealed today about the women's economic statement, which was a commitment made back in 2018 and reheated, repeated, in this budget. We may get some money spent on it next year. What a joke! When it comes to their commitment towards women's economic security, they repeat, reheat, announcements and never actually spend any of the money. The budget that the government delivered focused on the top end of town. It focused on those who are fortunate enough to be in secure jobs. It did not focus on the industries or the areas that are most in need of support post COVID-19. It did not focus on our older Australians. There was not a new dollar for aged care, despite the royal commission's interim report and reports talking about neglect. It did not go anywhere near addressing the problems that we have with home-care packages and it isn't going to significantly reduce the waiting list that we have in our country.

These are the issues that people in my region care about. They care about older Australians having access to what they're entitled to. If people have been approved for an aged-care home-care package, they are just in shock that they're on a waiting list, waiting to get access to the support that their loved ones need. The fact that we have people in our country dying before they get access to the program they've been approved for is a national disgrace and something the government should be ashamed of, yet they stand up in question time and boast about how well they're doing. It's another example of how the government are all about spin and marketing—that one hour that they're on the TV, that grab that they get at the end of the night on the evening news. They're not actually committed to the genuine reform that we need. We are going through a very deep recession. It is a time when we need a government of true leaders. I'm disappointed to say that's not what we have.

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