Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Toowoomba region is a leading light in Australia's economic recovery from COVID-19, and our future is only looking brighter with the strong measures announced in this budget. That applies across the myriad industries that are based around the Toowoomba region.

We've got a wonderful agricultural industry, of course. I was speaking to the good people at the Port of Brisbane recently, and they told me that over half of their exports come from around Goondiwindi, in an area of about a 200-kilometre radius. They come right into the electorate of Groom, which is an absolute hub for agriculture. We've got a fantastic transport industry, which has benefited from recent investments like the second range crossing. We've got a wonderful defence industry—I'll talk more about that later on. We also, sadly, have a declining mining industry. It's the only down point here. It's wonderful to hear the members opposite talk about their support for mining. I genuinely would have loved to see some Labor government support for mining in my patch. The New Acland mine is potentially a great contributor, and not just to my region and my state. I'll be out there with CEO Ronald Schmidt shortly talking about the future. Sadly, we're not talking good things there.

I won't dither too long on the downside of the state government's lack of support for the mining industry in my area; I want to talk about the wonderful things that have come out of the budget over the last year. In the most recent regional labour force data, we saw the unemployment rate drop to five per cent in the Toowoomba region. That's the lowest of any region in Queensland and well below the state figure of 7.3 per cent. This last budget was a very Toowoomba-friendly budget, as is the current budget that's just been released. That was very much what was being put to me by the people at the TSBE political leaders summit that I attended last week. That was business leaders from around the Toowoomba community as well as other elected representatives. We were discussing the many ways over the last 12 months we have seen the Toowoomba region really grasp all of the incentives that have been put in front of it and continue to grow and thrive. The message loud and clear back from the good people there at TSBE was that this was a good budget that was going to continue to drive jobs and growth in the Toowoomba region.

As wonderful as it is to hear from those leaders, it's much better when I get out and do a little bit of doorknocking and hear from the people themselves in their homes. How wonderful it was last week to do a little bit of doorknocking in Highfields and hear from a lovely lady and her husband, both teachers in the area. They moved to Highfields to teach. The husband was teaching at the Highfields secondary school there, one of the quickest growing schools in Queensland. This is just another area in which this budget is driving the Toowoomba region. It's bringing people to our region, it's bringing families to our region and we're growing.

The number of people in employment from March 2020 to March 2021 rose by a staggering 18.7 per cent in our region, with an extra 11,800 people in a job. The great example I have of business growth in our area is the Finch Cafe. When the pandemic first struck, the Finch Cafe, like many others in the service industry, were hit very hard and were trying to work out what to do. They adapted. They started a line called iCooked of precooked meals, frozen meals, that they were selling to get them through those first couple of uncertain weeks. But then, as JobKeeper kicked in and as the economy started to open up, not only did the Finch come back, not only did the customers come back and not only did they continue to grow but they have done well enough to be able to sell iCooked, the business they built in the pandemic, and also to open a second cafe. This is a great example of new jobs being brought into Toowoomba by the incentives of that last budget.

I'm happy to say the Morrison government's measures that got the Toowoomba region through the turbulence of last year and have placed us on such strong footing will continue on in this budget. It's that simple process of continuous improvement that I think any other engineer would be familiar with—building upon what works. We have seen jobs and growth come to Toowoomba over the last 12 months and we will continue to see that.

There are 61,400 taxpayers in Groom who will benefit from the tax cuts of up to $2,745 this year. That is pumping more money back into the local economy, places like the Finch and places like Hannah's, a long-time local store. You can pop in and get a new hat or a new check shirt. Or, potentially, that's money going into local charities. Just last week I was at the LifeFlight ball, a fantastic organisation that raised $420,000 on the night. That's keeping choppers in the air. Toowoomba has the busiest base in Queensland and one of the busiest in Australia. That is being supported by the local community. That support is there because our community is thriving and growing. So that's what we see. These are the benefits that flow into the community when you're able to drive jobs and growth.

The instant asset write-off will be extended to 30 June 2023, allowing up to 17,000 Toowoomba regional businesses to write off the full value of any eligible asset. This means things like new machinery for factories and farms. I was out at a feedlot recently. We've got quite a few feedlots. In fact, while I know Rockhampton loves to call itself the beef capital, I think Toowoomba has that title. I know the member for Dawson agrees with me. Toowoomba is the beef hub of Australia and, one day, the world. I was talking to Mort & Co at their wonderful Grassdale feedlot. This is a place where a one per cent improvement can have a significant impact on their bottom line; a one per cent improvement can bring in more jobs. When we have these instant asset write-offs, when we bring in new equipment that introduces with it new efficiencies, this is where we see this growth. I know that they're very excited about the opportunity to continue to take advantage of that.

To date, 2½ thousand apprentices have already been hired locally under the wage subsidy schemes. This number will only grow, with an extra $1.5 billion this financial year for the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements program. This is very important to our area, because this is going to really fill Toowoomba's skill bank. We're going to need that, because we have a wonderful project coming through our area called Inland Rail. In fact, I was out with Minister Coulton only a couple of weeks ago on the site where the first bit of work will be done in the Toowoomba region on the Inland Rail project. If we look across the full expanse of that project, the Toowoomba region will undoubtedly benefit most amongst anywhere along that line. We've got a significant amount of expenditure going into the Toowoomba region, as the line comes up close to the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport, continues in a tunnel underneath north Toowoomba and then heads down the range. That work will be done in Toowoomba. We can see what happened in Parkes, where 90 per cent of the expenditure went to local businesses, and we can expect something similar. The apprenticeships that people are entering into under these incentive programs are so important because they're going to build up our skill bank and ensure that we can deliver this project with local people.

I stood on the site of Interlink SQ, the only intermodal hub that has been approved at this point. This is where the western line comes in and will intersect with the inland rail. We have the Warrego Highway and the second range crossing all within cooee of the one spot, and you can see how much of this area will benefit by this infrastructure coming into play. Those apprentices have work in front of them. There is plenty of work there for them to do, and we need that. In fact, an article in today's Chronicle, titled 'Jobs galore: Toowoomba businesses begging for more workers', states: 'From boilermakers to funeral home workers, Toowoomba is screaming out for more people to come in.' We are growing at such a rate. We need more people to come to Toowoomba.

There's a further $2 billion worth of infrastructure going into Queensland, particularly road projects, and this includes $6 million this year going into resurfacing the Gore Highway between Toowoomba and Millmerran. We saw a similar amount of work done on the Warrego Highway upgrades recently. I think everyone in our region who's travelled that road and who's seen what that improved surface does not just for our commuting but for our transport industry, moving our agricultural products to market along those roads, knows how important that work is. Now we will have that same investment, those same improvements, on the Gore Highway, and that's fantastic news.

On top of this is an extra $250 million for the Building Better Regions Fund and an extension of the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, which has been successfully used by Toowoomba Regional Council to upgrade local roads and community infrastructure. In our patch, over the last two years, that meant $11 million going straight towards council approved, council prioritised projects, improving our local road network. What it means in this budget is another $8 million coming in, another $8 million worth of support coming to the Toowoomba Regional Council to improve our local roads. That's so important in a regional area like Toowoomba, where our roads aren't just getting us to and from work or to and from the shops; this is how our product, the work of our hands, is moved to market. It is so important that these roads continue to be invested in.

Water infrastructure is another key area for our region, and it will get a boost under this budget. The On-farm Emergency Water Infrastructure Rebate Scheme will be extended for 12 months, with an extra $50 million poured in to ensure drought affected farmers can access the rebate that was originally oversubscribed by the state government. This is important because this is a way for the federal government to directly help farmers in my region address their water security issues. That means farmers being funded to put on their own land the dams they need to secure the water to continue to grow and to continue to supply to a market that is wanting their produce.

This government's once-in-a-generation spend on aged care will help in more ways than one. There's $17.7 billion in targeted spending that will improve the quality of life for more than 125,000 seniors living in Groom and increase employment opportunities in our already strong health sector. I went out to Beauaraba, a wonderful aged-care facility at Pittsworth. And I think it's not far from the truth to say this could be some of the best accommodation that there is in Pittsworth. It's a fantastic location. They don't want it to feel like a resort, but with the standard they provide; the excellent quality of service, provided by the local staff, it's so wonderful to experience, coming in and seeing the smiles on their faces and watching the good work that's happening there. This encourages me that this is the standard we can aspire to and it's wonderful to see it in Pittsworth. It's so wonderful to see the support that the local community give to this aged-care facility. I would very much like to thank all those local donors I met on the day, who are there to help and support and who know very clearly that this is the standard we must aspire to.

More than 1,300 local families will benefit from the increased childcare subsidy. As a father of three kids I certainly am aware that the cost of child care is something we must always keep an eye on. I think of putting my kids into the local Kath Dickson facility in Toowoomba and how great that was but also what the burden was for us to be able to put our kids into that and the cost. It's wonderful to see the government addressing that.

I want to turn to the point that I think I was most happy to see in my region from this budget and that's the funding that's going to go towards our local defence industry. Down the hill from us we have the Amberley air force base and it gets a lot more attention. But in the seat of Groom we have two barracks, with one at Oakey and one at Cabarlah. These both play such an important part in our local communities, supporting not only jobs but the supply chains of local communities who provide work, services and products into these places. The defence industry has been fantastic in supporting our local manufacturing industry and using local manufacturing to supply its needs.

We have $60 million in this budget going towards defence bases in my patch. We have $31 million that will be going to upgrade engineering services and buildings at the barracks at Oakleigh, with these works commencing mid-year for completion in 2023 and another $29 million for infrastructure upgrades at Cabarlah. This is part of a $270 billion spend in defence over the next 10 years. I'm so excited about this. This was something that I spoke about in my maiden speech: the opportunity for us to grow our defence capabilities in the Toowoomba region, for this to become something that we become very, very good at. This becomes a speciality of our region. I've had great conversations, at length, with different suppliers who want to move to Toowoomba, who want to take advantage of our growing defence industry. I think this is a wonderful investment in our local community. I think that continued investment will only reap better dividends.

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