David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

This year is the coalition's eighth budget. Having finally balanced the nation's book—which was an amazing effort—before COVID, we had to deal with a one-in-a-hundred-year pandemic, and that's precisely what this budget is. The last budgetary cycle has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as the Treasurer highlighted, this budget is the next stage of our economic plan to secure the recovery that has commenced with a huge bang and make sure that it continues. We lock in this amazing recovery. It also guarantees the essential services, whether it's in childcare, aged care, schools, hospitals, mental health or the NDIS.

There are also personal income tax and business tax incentives, because we need our industries to get the latest equipment to improve our supply chains so that there can be big investments in plant and equipment. The low and middle income tax offset will allow that. It'll allow companies like James Strong, which runs a huge production facility making all pressure-packed cans for the whole Australian market, to upgrade that facility so we can produce more and get efficiencies, and to get a proper efficiency by processing the raw aluminium that comes from the other end of my electorate at the Tomago smelter rather than sending it up to Thailand and then bringing it back again. It will allow a lot of efficiency and growth. To do that, the instant expensing, or instant asset write-off facility, will mean that sort of investment is a whole lot easier, whether it's my small businesses like all the tradesmen that need new equipment or the farmers that really wanted to get all that new equipment so that they can do the latest techniques in carbon sequestration in our soils, or whether it means getting equipment on your dairy farm so that you can put in a biodigester and process all the dairy waste—or at your piggery—and turn that into pure water and really great fertiliser and get rid of all the waste. It's a win-win. These tax incentives for companies to invest in new plant and equipment are going to deliver huge dividends for many years to come.

The government are also investing in new apprenticeships. Apprentice subsidies have already delivered over 100,000 new positions around the nation, but we still need to increase our skills base. If we want to become an independent nation that has its own supply chain, we need skilled workers. We cannot have everyone at university, so we need to grow the trade and skills sector, and these subsidies, along with continued and expanded apprenticeship and training places, will do just that.

Also, the infrastructure the government has announced in this budget will deliver major dividends. For instance, on the Pacific Highway, even though it is duplicated, there are five high-risk intersections, where individuals in cars, people towing caravans, semitrailers, b-doubles all have to dice with death to cross the four lanes of the highway. When it was built, it was just duplicated. When the coalition came to power, we increased the funding for the Pacific Highway upgrade to the 80-20 split. Those sections in the south, north of Newcastle, were not built to motorway standard so they do not have flyovers. I was so pleased to see in the budget the funding for the Harrington- Coopernook flyover. Instead of playing dodgem cars and chicken with four lanes of traffic, when that is built, people between Harington and Coopernook will be able to travel on a grade-separated interchange. There are many more we have to do but this is the start.

The government have also increased our defence capability and expanded the capability of Newcastle airport, which is the major airport for people not only in my electorate but from the electorates around the Hunter, up the North Coast into the New England area. It means Newcastle airport or Williamtown Air Force Base will have an upgraded runway capability that can take Code E aircraft—that means, wide-bodied jets that can fly to the US, up to Singapore and Hong Kong or over to the Middle East in one go. It will truly make it an international airport.

The extra defence capability will mean our Air Force can have those big air tankers, the Joint Strike Fighters, the re-fuellers and re-tankers there as well because the airport runway upgrade will make that a possibility. It will also allow the commercial side of the Newcastle airport to expand. It is already an aerospace hub, but all of the businesses that support the defence capability will be able to expand. It will also have the capability of having hundreds of thousands more tourists when inbound tourism reopens, because we will be able to make it a truly international hub.

Also, all of the exporters from the Hunter and the New England and up and down the coast, such as an abattoir at Wingham that has to ship its exports up through Brisbane or down through Sydney, will now be able to put their products on these Code E aircraft out to the markets of Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, at the Hunter airport. It will be a fantastic initiative, and I am so proud that the coalition government is delivering on it.

We have come a long way in the past year, but I want to take this opportunity to congratulate all my constituents and all Australians. We have really banded together on this but we now have to move on. The pandemic is still far from over. As you can see, there are new variants emerging all the time. A pandemic means it is a rush of a virus or a bug to which the world has no immunity. We are slowly building immunity either through vaccines or exposure, but there will be variants, just like there is a flu variant every year that is slightly different. We have to have systems in place to cope with the antigenic drift that happens in all viruses. It is like a car with a new model: the headlights, the number plate and the grill change and it still looks like the last model but it has changed a bit. So vaccines have to change and treatments have to emerge. This health budget is funding huge capabilities of vaccines in this country.

It is securing our economic future as well as our health future. I mentioned the instant asset write-off but there are other tax announcements that are really important. I have 48,500 taxpayers in the Lyne electorate. To reward them for their hard work, continuing the low- and middle-income tax offset means that an individual in that bracket will get $1,080 more and, if they are a couple, it is $2,160 in their tax rebate at the end of the financial year. There are 15,900 businesses that will benefit from that instant asset write-off.

We have new home care packages. I have one of the oldest demographics in the country, and another 80,000 home care packages means that care will be able to be delivered a lot sooner. We will now bring the total to 275,000 home care packages. The aged-care changes and reforms will mean another $10 per resident per day to enhance the viability and sustainability of the residential aged-care sector. Their workforce is struggling to cope. We have huge spending on the NDIS, but one of the unintended consequences of this spending on the NDIS is that a lot of staff are leaving the aged-care sector to work in much easier jobs in personal care in the NDIS. Some of my aged-care facilities are actually having to shut wards because they cannot staff them. That is another piece of work that I will continue to work on. We are funding 33,000 new training places for personal carers and a new Indigenous workforce.

We have 1,500 apprentices in the Lyne electorate due to the extension of the JobTrainer Fund. This will lead to many more opportunities for young Australians, especially school leavers in Lyne. In the infrastructure space, the Harrington-Coopernook flyover is one of many projects. There is also extra money going to infrastructure to increase the safety along our major highways, and you can see the sound-warning edges to the edge of the Pacific Highway north and south across the Lyne electorate. We are doing so much.

Local health care has changed during the pandemic through telehealth facilities. That has really changed the dynamic for a lot of our patients who rely on their GP but are distance separated from them. During the pandemic it was a great lifesaver that you could have telehealth consultations. That innovation is now continuing across the nation. Just shy of 370,000 telehealth consultations have been delivered in the Lyne electorate since the start of the pandemic.

There are 920 families in the Lyne electorate who will benefit from the changes to our childcare system. It is a really great budget. It is a great outcome. People are getting tangible benefits that they can see. Their family's budget will be better off because of those tax cuts. If you are a young family with two children in child care you will see that benefit on the balances. It is funding upgrades to roads like Clarence Town Road and Bucketts Way; the Brig O'Johnston Bridge at Clarence Town; the Figtrees on the Manning project, the Forster civic precinct; and Taree Universities Campus. All these are funded through coalition budgets. We have committed in earlier budgets to the design, planning and upgrade of the Lorne Road.

The local roads and community infrastructure initiative means that the councils in my area will have the funds to do a lot of those sporting amenity upgrades that everyone has been clamouring for. I might just mention a few examples, starting with the Wauchope stadium, a great place where everyone plays basketball, but it's old and fading. This funding means the council will finally be able to improve the cladding. There's going to be a new netball court at the Laurieton Sports Complex. Kendall Tennis Club has hundreds of children involved with it and will be able to expand its courts. The other big improvement in the sporting space is at Tea Gardens, where disability access is being improved through extra local roads and community infrastructure funding in this budget. The Tuncurry water park, a design change for a really popular spot, will be delivered in the near future. Many people walk up and down the Forster boardwalk, and the council has been aiming to expand this walk for ages. It will become a reality because of this budget. The Wingham CBD upgrade has been planned for at least 10 years and is finally going to become a reality. The Taree Wildcats, whose sporting fields are looked after by the council and the club themselves, will finally get some improved drainage and field upgrades, as well as new change rooms and a canteen.

These upgrades sound small at the national level, but for people in my electorate they are literally going to be game changers. There's also the upgrade of the Gloucester netball courts. I have so many small towns and villages across the 16,000 square kilometres of my electorate, I could fill a whole speech with things that are going to benefit from these tangible initiatives by supporting local governments. I commend all these appropriation bills to the House.

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