James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022 and the associated bills. Equally, I indicate that I won't be supporting the amendments of Mr Bandt and Mr Chalmers, whatever they might be. This bill, substantively, is the budget that was handed down by the Treasurer a fortnight ago. This is a budget that is, in equal measure, great for the country, great for my state, and great for my electorate of Sturt, so I'd like to take the opportunity, in the time I have to contribute to this second reading debate, to talk through each of those three elements, perhaps in reverse order.

In my electorate of Sturt, this budget continues to invest in local infrastructure. We have three major congestion-busting initiatives in the budget under the Urban Congestion Fund in the electorate of Sturt: the Magill Road-Portrush Road intersection, the Fullarton Road-Glen Osmond Road intersection and the Fullarton Road-Cross Road intersection. All three are excellent outcomes for my local electorate, and all three are going to help families get home more quickly and more safely, as well as increase productivity. The Portrush Road-Magill Road intersection is on Highway 1, the national highway network. That's the one that's most advanced so far. I know this stretch of road very well. In fact, a little over 20 years ago, I grew up probably less than 100 metres from Portrush Road when it went through a major upgrade by the then Howard government around the turn of the millennium—the year 2000 or so from memory. It might have 1999 or 2001, but it was around about then. Now we're continuing to invest in that corridor, and there is a $98 million investment jointly between the Commonwealth and state governments for the Portrush Road-Magill Road intersection. It is a fifty-fifty funding partnership, and progress is very well advanced.

There has been a little over 12 months of hard work on land acquisition for that project. Land acquisition, as we all know, can be difficult at times, and it's important that you take your time when you're undertaking land acquisition to do the best you can for those who are having their properties acquired and support them as best you can through the process of relocating. I believe that in all cases we have met that important test of being modelled through that process. It is a responsibility of state government, but of course I've been very close to it as the federal member. We now have the land acquired, and the tender has been awarded. The major relocation works have been undertaken. The big 66 kilovolt line that had to be realigned has recently been powered up by SA Power Networks. So the fun part begins. All the hidden works that no-one would notice are now done, and we're going to see a transformation of that intersection over the coming months.

Every day, 65,000 vehicles use that intersection, so I'm thrilled to see that that project is progressing very rapidly now. In August, we should see some of the early new access roads opened on that project—some of the left-turn lanes from Magill Road onto Portrush Road. Once the surface pavement is done there, they'll be open to traffic and my residents will start to feel the benefit of that project. By the end of the year, the practical completion of that intersection will have been done, and it will be early in the new year that the final beautification of the streetscapes et cetera will be finished. I'm very proud that we've been able to deliver that in my first term as the member for Sturt. It's one of the most significant infrastructure investments in the electorate of Sturt for a long, long time, so it's excellent to see that, that commitment having been made at the last election, whenever the next election may be, I'm very confident that that project will be largely completed. I'm glad that we've been able to keep our commitment to the people of Sturt in a great partnership with the state government.

The other two intersections that I touched on are on Fullarton Road. Both the Glen Osmond Road-Fullarton Road and Cross Road-Fullarton Road intersection projects are proceeding well. They're at earlier stages than Portrush Road-Magill Road because, again, land acquisition has been sensitively handled. One of those in particular had a significant heritage issue which we have been able to overcome very successfully, and I'm glad about the outcome. The old Waite gatehouse is now going to be relocated on the Adelaide university site instead of being demolished, which was contentious, locally, from a heritage point of view. We've been able to work through that challenge and, I think, get an excellent outcome. Not only is the intersection upgrade, which is vital and which we all support, going ahead but also we have been able to ensure that a critical part of our heritage is going to be protected and, in fact, enhanced because, in relocating that building, we're going to turn it into something that can be used for the local community by local community groups.

I had the Treasurer in my electorate last Monday, and one of the projects I was able to take him to was the Kensington Gardens Reserve upgrade. I've spoken about that quite a few times in this chamber, and it's great to see that project is well and truly past the halfway point. The site demolition and remediation has been completed. As I said before in relation to the Portrush Road-Magill Road intersection project, the fun part starts now. The tree planting is commencing. The civil works have been done for the wetland construction, so now it's about vegetating the site. We're also getting the new tennis courts, which are being graded as we speak. It is a great outcome for the local sporting infrastructure at Kensington Gardens and for the surrounding suburbs and also a great outcome for families that use that community asset for a whole variety of things, including sport and recreation. As I say, there's not just tennis there; there are also cricket, rugby, walking the dog, keeping fit and all sorts of other activities. Of course, it's a beautiful, pristine, locally protected environmental asset as well. The Stonyfell Creek wetland project, as part of that, is an excellent environmental outcome locally.

We committed $5 million to the Max Amber Reserve to rebuild the clubrooms there for the Athelstone Football Club and the Athelstone Cricket Club. Again, now the foundations have been poured for that project, so site demolition is concluded and all the re-alignments et cetera are done. We've poured the slab and construction is apace. Hopefully, in six months time we'll see that site completely transformed. With next year's football season and the subsequent cricket netball et cetera seasons, we'll see a great outcome for the local community in the Paradise-Athelstone area, not just those who are members of the various sporting clubs that play there, although they of course are going to get an excellent outcome. Again, we're seeing a piece of vital community infrastructure reborn, and it's not just the sporting clubs that'll be able to have access to it. The RSLs, the Rotarys—all those volunteer organisations in our communities that work so hard as volunteers to serve in their various capacities deserve our support. I'm so proud that again we've been able to work as a funding partner with the local Campbelltown council in that case to see that $10 million upgrade proceed. Again, I anticipate that will be completed before the next election, whenever that will be—another example of making a commitment, following it through and delivering it for the people in Sturt.

Finally in Sturt, the Magill Village project is also well underway. It's in exactly the same category as those I just touched on. We made a commitment of funding before the last election and we're seeing these projects well and truly being constructed now and being delivered in my first term as the member for Sturt. So Sturt's done very well in this budget. South Australia has done well in this budget. The city deal which we signed a few years ago between the South Australian state government, the Adelaide City Council and the federal government is a fantastic transformation of that old Royal Adelaide Hospital precinct in the heart of the city. It's actually just outside my electorate, unfortunately. I wish my boundary were a few hundred metres further west, and then I could say that it was in my electorate. But nonetheless the people of Sturt, like the people of Adelaide, will benefit enormously from this city deal project.

Again, progress there has been very rapid. Subsequent to the city deal being signed, we also made decisions at the Commonwealth level around the Australian Space Agency, which is now open and operating on the site in the McEwan Building. Of the five heritage buildings there, four have been completely restored, and they're all full of a wide variety of private sector businesses with people with new ideas in the industries of the future. It's a fantastic incubator site for new ideas and people that want to start small but have ambitions of building very large businesses. They've got a home there at lot 14 on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site thanks to the partnership that we have in place between the state, federal and local governments. There is more than $150 million of Commonwealth funding, and in the upcoming year alone more than $40 million in the budget is going towards that precinct, which has a wide variety of very exciting developments as part of that project. I won't go through them all now given the time I have left, but I'm very proud that we've delivered that partnership. It's a great example of three good governments working together—the city council, the Marshall Liberal state government and the Morrison Liberal federal government. These are things that people in my community talk about when they say they're pleased to see governments working together and having some vision for the future and understanding how you can leverage government expenditure to also unlock private expenditure to grow our economy. That's the point I want to turn to now at a more national level when it comes to this budget.

Last week, as I said, the Treasurer was in Sturt. Apart from some of the other things that I've already mentioned, we went to a great local business in my electorate, a cheese manufacturer called La Casa Del Formaggio. La Casa Del Formaggio—'the house of cheese' in Italian—is a second-generation business. I think they're in the 33rd year. They make a fantastic product. It is one that they're selling right around the country. But, of course, they have ambitions to sell it right across the globe. What do they love about the budget? Well, the budget backs them. The budget gets behind them and says to them, as a business, 'Hey, we want to support you and help you make decisions to grow and expand your business. We want to be partners with you and give you the confidence to make decisions so that you will grow your business, expand your markets, employ more people and grow our economy.'

One of the things that they, like tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands—possibly towards a million—of businesses in this country, are taking advantage of is the instant asset write-off. Who wouldn't be looking to the instant asset write-off as an enormous opportunity to bring forward investment decisions? Obviously, it puts them in a position where they can now invest in the expansion of plant and equipment. They can invest in eligible assets to grow their production capacity, knowing that they can immediately write down that expenditure in the year that they incur it. This has meant that they have made the decision that they will dramatically expand their operations at this business, which has given them confidence. They're going to employ more people. They're already employing nearly 200 people, but if their plans are successful, if they export and if the demand is there for them to increase production to that extent, through this expansion they'll be able to employ many, many more, possibly hundreds, into the future. They're very honest about making that decision because it gives them an opportunity, and they're not going to miss that opportunity.

They're an example of a business, like so many other businesses, that is saying, 'Wow, when there's a government out there that understands what it is to back businesses and that sends us a message that says you want us to make these investment decisions, you've got to take some risk. When you're in the private sector, you've got to put your money on the line.' But, as a government, we're saying, 'We understand that risk. We understand some of those hesitations. We understand what you're weighing up. Hopefully, it will go well, but it could go wrong. What can we do to help you have more confidence in making that decision?' The instant asset write-off is one of the best examples of us saying to businesses, 'We want to join you and support you in making those decisions, taking those risks, expanding your business, investing in your business. We'll give you a higher incentive than usual to go ahead and make those decisions.'

This unashamedly needs to be a private sector led recovery post COVID. When you have a private sector led recovery, the best thing is that it's not sugar-hit, one-off expenditure. It's investment that lasts for years and decades into the future. We're talking about stimulating our economy in a way that's going to have a constant, permanent, future dividend. We're not sending cheques to dead people, putting pink batts in roofs and doing all those sorts of things that we recall were so unsuccessful in the global financial crisis response of a previous government that shall remain nameless. Instead, we're backing the private sector to make their own decisions and invest in those decisions. We're not telling them what to do or how to do it. We're just giving them the incentive to make the decisions that they have thought about but haven't yet had the confidence to go through with, and this has made a huge difference for them.

I saw it in black and white last week when the Treasurer and I went to just one business of the hundreds, if not thousands, in my electorate that are going to take up this opportunity. It's one of the great measures in the budget. It's going to provide enormous, front-loaded economic stimulus. But, as I said, the dividend from it will be constancy, because it's getting people to invest in assets that can grow their business, and that growth, and the benefit of that growth, will be enduring well into the future. So I commend the work of the Treasurer in this budget. I'm proud to be part of the Morrison government, the team that has delivered it. I'm very pleased in particular at the fact that businesses in my electorate and across the country are going to be able to use this budget as an opportunity to make decisions and lead us out of the economic challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

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