Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022, which is effectively the appropriation for this year's budget. Last week, I was out and about in my electorate. I visited the towns of Manjimup, Collie, Esperance and Mount Barker, and I also briefed the Albany Chamber of Commerce and Industry about this year's budget. So I rise today not only to support the budget but to provide some feedback from those great, hardworking men and women of my electorate of O'Connor and their view of the budget.

We can't really talk about the 2021-22 budget without putting it in the context of where we've come from. It was only a little over 12 months ago that people across my electorate and, indeed, across Australia were closing their businesses down. They were being told by state and federal governments under emergency health laws that they had to close their businesses. Gymnasiums, coffee shops, restaurants and hotels were in dire straits, and no-one really knew where this pandemic was going to take us. Businesses were suffering from enormous uncertainty, and the government had to provide some support and provide it very quickly. Of course, the JobKeeper program was announced in early or mid-April last year, and the first money started to go to businesses at the end of April.

Just the other day I was at a luncheon where there were two ladies who own significant businesses in the town of Albany. One owns a series of car dealerships and employs 61 staff. She told me that the day before JobKeeper was announced she called in all her staff and said: 'I'm sorry but I'm going to have to put you off. I can't offer you any ongoing work in the middle of this pandemic.' The following day we announced JobKeeper. She was able to call her staff back in and say: 'Forget what I said yesterday. You're back on for at least three days a week.' As we all know, the economy started to improve through May and June. June was one of the strongest Junes they'd had in some considerable period of time. Beyond that, the business is now going as well as it has ever gone.

The other lady owned a caravan park. She had told her 41 staff a couple of days before we announced JobKeeper that they would be out of work. She was able to call them back in. As we all know, particularly in Western Australia, domestic tourism has never been stronger, and they've had a wonderful 12 months since then.

We've got to look at this year's budget and some of the spending initiatives in the context of where we've come from. Looking at the big picture, during the March and June quarters of last year the Australian economy contracted by three per cent. To put that into context, during the global financial crisis the Australian economy contracted by 0.1 per cent. That gives an indication of the magnitude of the economic crisis we were facing 12 months ago. What we're seeing today is nothing short of an economic miracle.

Obviously, people are interested in their own personal financial situation. As I went around last week talking to people in my electorate, the feedback I got was that, among the nearly 59,000 people across O'Connor who will receive it, the low- and middle-income tax offset of up to $1,080 for a single and up to $2,160 for a couple is very well received and very much appreciated. Those low- and middle-income families will be out spending that money, putting it back into the local economy and supporting the local businesses that employ them. So that was very well received and I got some terrific feedback on it.

As I've spoken to chambers of commerce around my electorate, the thing they're very appreciative of is the reduction in small business taxes. For the 19,000 small businesses across my electorate that turn over less than $50 million per annum, the tax rate has this year come down to 27c in the dollar, and it will fall to 25c in the dollar in the 2024-25 financial year. They very much appreciate that, and they're very keen to invest the extra income back into their businesses, grow their businesses and grow jobs across my local economy.

One of the big initiatives around investment has been the instant asset write-off. Not only has it been a boost to those businesses that are investing in new equipment, growing their businesses and growing the number of people they employ; it also has been terrific for the dealerships and businesses that sell equipment. Across my electorate, the biggest complaint of machinery dealers is they just can't get stock to sell to farmers. They're run off their feet with orders at the moment. It's the same with car yards. As I've driven down Albany Highway in Albany, where there's a strip of car yards, I've noticed there are no vehicles in the yards. They can't get stock. So they are having some of the best of times, but times would be even better if they could get stock.

There is the extension of the loss carry-back. Businesses that paid tax in 2018-19 and 2019-20 but are suffering losses this year will be able to access the loss carry-back measure. My heart goes out to the travel agents in my electorate, who are really doing it very tough. They are the types of businesses that will be able to access the loss carry-back measure and get a tax refund this year, which will put a bit of cash flow back into those businesses. Hopefully, for those travel agents and other businesses that have been impacted particularly by the lack of international tourism that's happening at the moment, that cash flow will keep them on their feet until things turn around. There are around 20,000 businesses in O'Connor who will access that particular facility.

As I spoke to people across my electorate, particularly those in businesses, the biggest issue they have is finding skilled workers. Albany, Kalgoorlie and Esperance are the three largest towns and cities across my electorate, and unemployment has a three in front of it in all of those towns. It's as low as 3.2 per cent in Albany. Of course, a big component of this year's budget is our commitment to the JobTrainer scheme, which has been doubled, so we're making available up to 450,000 new training places. I hope that, for many of those people across my electorate who are currently looking for work—and there are not that many of them—there's an opportunity to get new training and an opportunity for those businesses to put people on and put them into training places. Hopefully, we'll see some other people who are currently in work upskill and move on to better-paid positions. We'll also be providing a 50 per cent wage subsidy to support 170,000 new apprenticeships. There are already 3,235 apprentices in O'Connor. I love to see these young people set their life's path on a trade. We need skilled tradesmen in my area and in my regions to support the mining industry, the ag sector and the general community as a whole. Anything we can do to get more of these young people into jobs so that they can live and train in the towns they grew up in and so that they don't have to leave and go to university in the metropolitan areas is all to the good. I'm very pleased to see that we're making more of those apprenticeships and traineeships available for people across my electorate.

In terms of infrastructure, I spoke to many of the local governments across my electorate and they're very, very pleased with some of the programs that we've put in place. I'll run through some of those announcements. There is the Roads of Strategic Importance initiative, which is about moving product and produce from the inland areas where it's produced to the ports, and the Central Wheatbelt freight network has received $160 million. That involves a group of about 15 local governments across my electorate and also in the electorate of Durack—my very dear friend Melissa Price's electorate. That will allow the local government authorities to upgrade their road networks where they're used by freight that's actually travelling through their shires—not produced by their ratepayers but costing their ratepayers to maintain those road networks. The Roads of Strategic Importance initiative will assist them to do that. What is particularly popular amongst the local governments is the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. Across my electorate, currently 38 local governments receive $38 million in total across those local government authorities. This is untied spending of about a million dollars per local government authority. I've got a couple of examples of some nice little projects that were conducted by some of the small shires with a very small rates base who wouldn't normally have the money to carry out those projects. The Shire of Cuballing has probably got a couple of hundred people living in it and even fewer people who actually pay rates. They were able to spend $73,800 on a main street upgrade, an upgrade to a rest area, and upgrades of playgrounds and toilet facilities for people who stop in the town and the local community to use. That's a little project that wouldn't normally have happened if they hadn't received some money from the government. Just up the road, the Shire of Brookton spent $180,000 to upgrade their local caravan park, which is about attracting, and providing a good amenity for, visitors and also to provide some temporary accommodation for seasonal workers. Those are the sorts of nice little projects that wouldn't normally be funded without the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program.

We've also announced $130.4 million for our regional connectivity program, and a very important component of that across my electorate is $80 million for round 6 of the mobile phone blackspot program. We all rely on mobile phone communication today. We all take it for granted that we'll be able to pick up the mobile phone wherever we are and make a call or download some data or do some business. If you live in the electorate of O'Connor there are some large areas that still don't have consistent mobile phone coverage so we'll be looking for some more support for new mobile phone towers across my electorate out of that particular program. The $250 million for round six of the Building Better Regions Fund is a very important fund for the larger projects across my local government area. An example of a project that has been completed previously: the Shire of Broomehill-Tambellup, through the Great Southern Housing Initiative, have built 56 houses for shire workers, community workers, in those small towns where the market has failed. There's no private investment in new housing in those particular places. It's nice to see that that money was invested in those housing assets for local government and other workers in those small towns.

Although it wasn't part of this year's budget necessarily, although the ongoing funding is, another example is the HomeBuilder program. In the city of Albany in the December quarter we saw a 300 per cent increase in the number of housing approvals. So there were 279 new houses approved in that quarter, which has absolutely put a rocket under the local building trade industry. They are so flat-out. They're able to be well paid. They're taking on new employees, new apprenticeships. The extension that we have given will keep them busy for at least the next two years. I'm very pleased that we have been part of that.

I want to quickly mention agriculture and the resource sector—two of the main industries across my electorate. Part of this economic miracle that we've seen over the last 12 months in this nation has been driven by both agriculture and mining. My electorate certainly played its part in that terrific season last year across the Southern Wheatbelt in my electorate. Record grain crops were produced. The biggest problem we've got at the moment is getting that produce to port. There's shortage of truck drivers and a shortage of train drivers. So we need to get more people into those positions and trained up very quickly.

In the resources sector, the gold mining sector, which is centred around Kalgoorlie, had its best year ever. There have been some big projects started and there's plenty of work in the pipeline. There's a huge contribution to the national economy out of my electorate and I'm very proud of them.

In conclusion, this year's budget is about building on the economic recovery that we've started. We're not quite there yet, and we've had a wonderful result, but this budget continues to support the families and businesses across O'Connor that have been part of this economic miracle.

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