Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

'I will deliver a surplus in the first year of a Tony Abbott government and every year thereafter'—so said Joe Hockey, the then shadow Treasurer, in 2013. Not once did the coalition deliver a surplus. The Liberal and National parties left us a trillion dollars of debt. We have turned a $78 billion deficit into a $22 billion surplus in our first year in office, and we've turned a projected $57 billion deficit into a $9 billion surplus in the budget, reducing government debt by $150 billion initially and then by $180 billion. So, in nine budgets, debt and deficit were worse under the coalition—the second-highest taxing government in the history of the Commonwealth of Australia, surpassed only by the Howard and Costello government.

At a macro level, through the budgetary process, we're getting debt and deficit under control. At a micro level, I know that people in my electorate find it hard with the cost-of-living pressures. The budget is designed to help people who are under pressure now, while setting Australians up for the future. I know that what's important to them is to make sure that, when they go to the shops and when they pay their energy bills, they can get a better deal for themselves. That's why every taxpayer in my electorate will find relief in the budget, due to the revised stage 3 tax cuts that we have brought in. Some 2.9 million Australians who would not have got a cent of tax relief under the coalition are now getting tax relief under the Labor government. Some 13.6 million Australians are getting tax relief. In addition, we're providing every household with $300 of their energy bills. We're investing in a Future Made in Australia. We're certainly seeing the expression of that in Ipswich in my electorate. We're investing in much-needed local road infrastructure project in my electorate.

It's a Labor budget for average Australians—working-class Australians and middle-class Australians. It's designed to take pressure off working families. We're talking about good news in my electorate. For example, from 1 July this year, there will be tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer in Blair. Eighty thousand people in Blair—every single taxpayer—will get a tax cut. The average tax cut for taxpayers in my electorate is $1,380, and 90 per cent of taxpayers will be better off. Critically, the tax cuts delivered by Labor will be bigger for low- and middle-income earners than those of the previous coalition government, and that'll help with cost-of-living relief.

We're also delivering a better deal for working families by paying superannuation on government funded paid parental leave. This will make the super scheme fairer for families, particularly families with children. It will benefit 180,000 families a year. The government's also providing $3.5 billion in energy price relief. Of course, those opposite voted against the energy price relief when we put forward bills in relation to that previously, so let's get rid of the sanctimonious and untrue statements from those opposite saying they're concerned with energy price relief when they had a chance to vote for it and didn't do so. From 1 July 2024, more than 10 million households will each receive a total rebate of $300 and eligible small businesses will receive a rebate of $325 on their electricity bills through the year. This comes on top of the $1,000 Queensland government energy rebate, which means families in Blair will get $1,300 in total off their energy bills next year.

On that note, by the way, it was terrific to have the Treasurer at the Ipswich Show on the Sunday following the budget to have a chat with locals about the cost-of-living relief measures provided in the budget. He had many chats with local businesses and individuals at my stall there. It was also an opportunity for local businesses who were exhibiting at the show to show their wares, and I congratulate the show society and encourage those local businesses who are having challenging times to make sure that they get the help they need and deserve and that they get access to people like the Treasurer to have a chat with them.

This budget also provides some very important and big investments in key projects like the Mount Crosby interchange and the Bremer River Bridge, as well as funding local roads. The budget provides $42.5 million for the Bremer River Bridge strengthening, and that's really critical. The bridge has been affected over time, including by the many floods we've had in Ipswich, such as the 1974 flood, the 2011 flood, the 2013 flood and, of course, the 2022 flood. There have been changes to the industrial precincts and housing in the area, and the hydrology and topography of the river have changed, so this is critical to make sure that the Warrego Highway and the conditions for the traffic that goes over that bridge and towards Brisbane and Ipswich and on to Toowoomba are upgraded. It's very important to make sure that bridge is stable.

There's $134.5 million for the Mount Crosby interchange upgrade, so that's a total of $177 million for these two vital projects on the Warrego Highway. That's really important. About 58,000 vehicles a day go through the Mount Crosby interchange. It's critical for the suburbs in Brisbane and Ipswich like Karana Downs, Mount Crosby, Karalee, Tivoli, Chuwar, North Ipswich and Brassall and even for people in suburbs like Booval, East Ipswich, Raceview and Flinders View. Big suburbs on the south side also benefit, because this is an important entrance into Ipswich. The Cunningham Highway, the Warrego Highway and the Ipswich motorway are the three main entrances into Ipswich from Brisbane. So this is absolutely vital. We're doing another bridge over the Warrego Highway. It will connect to a secured road corridor towards Moggill and the Brisbane River. That's a very important safety upgrade. It's important for the lives, livelihoods and lifestyles of the people in my community. It's absolutely critical for freight that goes towards Brisbane and Toowoomba and to the Lockyer Valley and the Somerset region as well.

Blair is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country. It's No. 2 in electoral enrolment in Queensland. So it's a very fast-growing community around Ipswich, with the satellite cities of Springfield and Ripley as well. So the budget is investing in infrastructure in our community. There's a record amount of Roads to Recovery funding as well. There is an additional $1.5 million for the Cunningham Highway Safety Package. We have $132.2 million, one of the largest funding commitments under Roads to Recovery in the country. My electorate includes parts of Brisbane and, of course, Ipswich as well as the Somerset Region.

I'm very pleased, as chair of the Queensland Black Spot Consultative Panel, to see that the budget provides $10.8 million for one year for the national road safety education and awareness campaign, which is critical in Queensland. We have large roads and a large volume of traffic, including trucks. It's a really important education and awareness campaign. There's $21.1 million over four years to improve the reporting of national road safety data via the National Road Safety Data Hub. That's absolutely critical. This is so important for my community in our big regional and rural electorate.

The government's providing assistance to make the HECS-HELP system fairer by cutting $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians. I've got two university campuses in my electorate: USQ Ipswich and USQ Springfield. That change will help 23,000 people with HELP debt locally. We're capping the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the CPI or the wage price index—that's really critical—and we're backdating it to 1 June 2023. Those with a HELP debt will receive a credit, and HELP debts will never grow faster than wages—absolutely vital for people living in my electorate.

We're investing $2.8 billion to strengthen Medicare by providing additional Medicare urgent care clinics, more free mental health services, higher Medicare rebates for many common medical tests and over $160 million in a women's health package. Patients in my electorate had the benefit of nearly 6,000 visits to the Ipswich Medicare urgent care clinic, and I can see what a benefit these types of clinics will be elsewhere. This is ensuring local families can get bulk-billed care when they need it, reduce out-of-pocket costs and take pressure off the Ipswich Hospital emergency department.

We're expanding Medicare coverage to four MRI machines in Blair, from the Mater in Springfield to Ipswich central. It's really important for my electorate to have that. The figures are quite clear: 73,376 residents in Blair will benefit as, in the past year, they have accessed 223,201 pathology services. It's very important making sure these tests stay bulk-billed by extending the Medicare rebate for common medical tests, including waiting times, and catching health problems sooner. That's very important.

Just last week I open the new Ipswich Medicare Mental Health Centre, formerly known as Head to Health, in Nicholas Street Precinct in Ipswich, in the mall—delivering on another commitment I made at the last election. This vital service provides free walk-in mental health care in a safe and welcoming space without the need to make an appointment. And I'm very pleased with the engagement with local First Nations people in the naming of the various rooms. It's a large precinct and it's very important for local people in my electorate. It complements and adds onto the headspace that we've provided in East Street for younger people.

We're investing $4 billion to deliver cheaper medicines to ease pressure on household budgets by freezing PBS co-payments and adding more medicines to the PBS. Residents in Blair have already saved more than $2 million thanks to the Albanese government's commitment to deliver cheaper medicines. Everyone in Blair who accesses PBS medicines are set to save even more as a result of the freeze in the maximum cost of the PBS medicine. What's more, pensioners and concession cardholders won't pay more than $7.70 for their PBS medications for the next five years.

We're investing $1.9 billion to help nearly one million Australian households with the cost of rent by increasing the maximum rate of the Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 10 per cent. That builds on the 15 per cent increase we announced in September 2023. Combined with indexation, we'll take maximum rates more than 40 per cent higher than when we won office in May 2022. This will benefit 12,630 households in Blair. This is the first back-to-back increase in rent assistance in more than 30 years.

When it comes to housing affordability, particularly in my electorate with young families and fast-growing satellite cities inside of the City of Ipswich, the Albanese government is delivering billions more in the budget to build homes across the country. I was pleased to have the Minister for Housing, Minister Julie Collins, out to my electorate recently. She was inspecting some of the housing boom that is taking place in the Ripley Valley. We need to boost supply. There is a $6.2 billion boost in the budget, taking the government 's total housing investment to more than $32 billion. This builds on existing policies, like the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which I wish the coalition had voted for. It opposed it. There's also the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator and the Help to Buy shared equity scheme, which they did not approve of or support either. More than 1,600 people moved to Ipswich in the first quarter of this year, so doing this will help to ensure we have the increase in housing infrastructure we need to meet our growing population.

One of the things that is really important for the about 7,000 participants in the NDIS in my electorate is making sure that we get every dollar in the scheme to the people who really need it the most. One of the big issues for not just my electorate office but those elsewhere around the country is making sure that local people get access to the NDIS and get what they need. The budget allocates a further $468.7 million to support people with disability and get the NDIS back on track. There's $214 million over two years to fight fraud and to co-design NDIS reforms with people with disability. That's critical. I've seen evidence—and I've taken it to the minister—of occasions in my electorate where I felt people were not doing the right thing. If people aren't doing the right thing, I'm calling on people in my electorate to bring it forward to my office, to make complaints about it and to take it further, because we've got to make sure that people who are living with disability are not abused. There is a shocking power imbalance for those perpetrators of abuse, those criminals and thieves who want to abuse the system. The fraud needs to be stamped out. So I'm calling on people to do the right thing. This is absolutely vital to the thousands of people in my electorate as well.

Finally, we're making sure that we make a future made in Australia. This is critical—and I was pleased to see the Prime Minister in Ipswich for this. We're providing $15.3 million to support the manufacture and export of 100 Boxer heavy weapon carriers to Germany. That's provided for in the budget. They'll be manufactured by Rheinmetall Defence Australia at Redbank in Ipswich. The contract is valued at more than $3 billion. There will be 600 direct local jobs and hundreds of indirect jobs, involving 300 local companies. That's supporting small business. It's the largest defence export agreement in Australia's history and it makes sure that Ipswich is at the forefront of the global defence industry.

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