Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to continue the speech in which I was so rudely interrupted in quorum calls today by the silly opposition in this parliament. I think it is really a bad thing for the opposition to play political games when backbenchers are trying to make their contribution to the House. It is very disrespectful to the House and to the people of Australia. I want to continue on the schools assistance legislation and why it is so important to Tasmania.

I particularly want to talk about the importance of small schools in country areas. I was talking about how technology has improved the opportunities for small country schools and how they have so many opportunities for both classwork and the extras such as sport, music and other activities. In Tasmania, where a cluster system has worked quite well in the past, many of these schools interact on sports days—football matches, hockey and netball, all with the strong involvement of parents, teachers and the local community. There is a growing body of evidence that small schools can and do deliver comprehensive education.

The assumption used in Tasmania to justify small schools' closures—the economies of scale argument often advanced—is that reduction of expenditure per pupil would translate into greater public pupil achievement because the money saved could be invested in school improvement. However, where there have been closures in other countries, there is no evidence to support this finding. There is, in fact, a growing body of research that, far from seeking to defend the retention of small schools, actually seeks to examine the success of small schools. In general this research points to the human scale of small schools, the satisfied and willing cohort of pupils, socially independent school leavers transferring to post-primary schools, committed teachers, the opportunity for parents to exercise choice of school that numbers of small schools typically afford, relative autonomy and distance from bureaucracy, excellent responses to the local community and a good school-pupil and school-family match.

Financial concerns taken in isolation might present a potential argument for some in favour of the amalgamation or closure of small schools, but it is important that such argument be counterbalanced by other considerations such as the adverse effect of children being bussed to different environments; the sociological importance of rural schools in the community; its role in the preservation of memories of local families and local history, culture, folklore; its significance in the pride of the town; and the attachment of the people to the school. There is also the small business effect: who is going to deliver the newspapers and who is going to run errands around the local shop? Who is around to pack groceries in the store on school holidays? In Tasmania these tend to be done by secondary school students. Many who come from country towns will return at weekend to that town if their childhood links are there. As mentioned previously, small schools can assist in change—not only changes in education but also changes in their communities—that can be just as good as economic drivers.

To get back to the bill before the parliament, the national curriculum provides an advantage to these small schools because once again they can be part of the national scheme by providing education, as they are now linked to almost anywhere in the world. Rounding up a pile of small schools into one is not going to improve their educational outcomes. It will merely remove the driving force of the community and lose its direction and pride. With the huge investment that Labor has put into schools it has become possible to change the face of education. In the new funding rounds government will oversee the rollout of the first phase of the $69.1 million Empowering Local Schools initiative to a thousand schools in 2012 and 2013, giving school communities more say in decision making. I hope we might be able to obtain and use some of that money to allow Lyons' small schools to develop their future sustainability and ensure their continuation. (Time expired)

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In September 1921 a World War I veteran by the name of Charles Halliday Engisch, established an independent community newspaper. As a resident of the Bennelong suburb of Gladesville, Charles became a strong, passionate and vocal fighter for his local community and was enduringly proud of his paper, the Weekly Times. He was a foundation member of the Gladesville RSL sub-branch and served as its president and volunteered his time on numerous community organisations, including as first patron of the Gladesville and District Junior Cricket Association for an astonishing 47 years.

Charles worked tirelessly on his paper and every Thursday morning he would take the first tram to his brother Leslie's printing press in Bankstown and carry all 4,000 copies of the week's edition back to the Gladesville community for distribution. In 1971, just a few months short of the 50th anniversary of his paper, which remained fiercely independent and renowned for its impartiality, Charles Engisch passed away at the age of 77. Ownership remained with the family as his son-in-law Earl Ware took over the Weekly Times.

In 1979 a local champion, with a ceaseless grin and ink in his veins, by the name of John Francis Booth became the new owner and standard bearer of the Weekly Times. JB as he is known to all had served on the local council and launched an ombudsman campaign in 1964 with the strong support of Charles Engisch. JB said, 'Like the Remington man, I liked the product so much that I not only bought one issue of the paper but the whole company!'

Thirty years since this decision I am proud to call JB a friend and am delighted to next week join him in celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Weekly Times. Charles Engisch may have been TWT's founder and its reason for being, but after 32 years John Booth has cemented himself as the lifeblood and the heart and soul of this community paper. JB holds high the paper's traditions and values of independence and maintains a patriotic local focus, including a fearlessly one-eyed dedication to the mighty Wests Tigers. His achievement in keeping the TWT so successful is even more impressive when one considers the strength of his competition: the Murdoch and Fairfax empires. In this environment of big business, big money and the constant struggle for print advertising dollars in an increasing online world, the Weekly Times remains free with a circulation of 54,000 across the Bennelong region.

JB is ably helped by a team of dedicated workers and volunteers with Ulrike Eichmeyer, Greg Turner, Chris Karas and Ruth Lesslie to name a few. Their efforts and passion for their community and paper have led to the TWT being conferred a string of awards over the past decade. Every week, the editorial 'JB's World' lists the seemingly endless array of family members, friends and colleagues celebrating milestones on that particular week as well as paying tribute to community volunteers and heroes who have passed on.

JB is dedicated to his Scouts, the region's heritage and broader community issues, regularly hosting public forums in his offices. JB richly deserves the Order of Australia honour he received in 1976 in recognition of his service to the community and the Centenary Medal in 2001, which paid tribute to his contributions to Scouting and the media. Yet despite all the awards and the service and the great local paper that I look forward to receiving each Wednesday, the most enduring and enamouring aspect to JB is the enthusiasm with which he stays true to his editorial by-line, the simple philosophy: keep smiling. There is no doubt that next Friday night, as the local community gathers at TWT headquarters, JB will have a smile from ear to ear and from beer to beer. As the representative of the people of Bennelong, I thank and congratulate JB, Ulrike and all of the team for a wonderful achievement.

Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the winter recess in the same way as my colleagues I have regularly attended ceremonies to mark the opening of the capital and improvement works funded under the government's Building the Education Revolution program. At every opening the teachers, support staff, parents and students could not have been more supportive or appreciative of the federal government's investment in education. The government's record investment in Australian skills has delivered modern facilities to schools across the nation. The formula used has been used in every single one of the 150 electorates across the nation, irrespective of whether they are Labor, Liberal, Independent or National. In the Banks electorate a total of $85,236,722 has been expended through the three key programs: Primary Schools for the 21st Century, National School Pride Program, and Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Secondary Schools. Padstow TAFE received $406,446 under the Better TAFE Facilities program.

Locally I have seen and experienced the difference that the new and upgraded classrooms have made to our schools, in addition to the COLAs—covered outdoor learning areas—the multipurpose halls, the walkways, the new toilets and sewerage systems, the new libraries, the playground upgrades and all the other facilities in our schools. I know the opposition continues to bleat in sound bites over expenditure on these projects. I say this to those on the other side: you could never have had the vision to complete such a scheme. A nation-building enterprise such as this had some problems, but to put this into perspective, of the 23,670 construction projects, there were 332 complaints, of which 326 have now been resolved. I know that the various facilities will be used by the school and by the broader community. The government's objectives in this were to provide schools with the largest capital input ever experienced as well is to provide support for local businesses. This program ensured that jobs were maintained and created in a very difficult financial situation.

I have heard from not only tradesman but architects, surveyors, landscapers and so many others who were able to gain employment or remain employed because of this initiative. When you multiply that by the over 23,000 school based projects across the nation you can see why we fared so well during the global financial crisis and why we are the envy of economies around the world.

I would like to recognise the commitment of all school communities in my electorate who helped make these developments possible. Without the cooperation of principals, teachers, support staff, families and local workers these schools would not have had the 21st century facilities they so richly deserve and now enjoy.

I do not apologise for the fact that I am a Keynesian. Indeed, because this money that was injected into the community, when you look at the multiplier effect—which if you read the economic textbooks is about four times what you spend—we have a situation where in the life of this government we have had 750,000 jobs created since the government was elected and about 350,000 of those jobs were created during the global financial crisis. Instead of tax cuts what we have had through the schools programs and indeed through the social housing programs is infrastructure that will, in effect, re-infuse the local communities where that work was done. That is what I have experienced as I have gone around my electorate. There are schools like East Hills Girls High School, now in the member for Hughes's electorate and formerly in my electorate before the last election. That school will get over $10 million to, in effect, reinvigorate the school. Just last week under another program, which was funded by the former state government, we opened a large gymnasium. The member for Hughes was there and he saw how that school had been reinvigorated. It was a school built in the fifties and sixties and was, like so many in my electorate, badly in need of funds. It took a global financial crisis for the government to spend the sort of money that it spent. Under the Building the Education Revolution it spent $16.2 billion. In my opinion it was money well spent. Of course some builders ripped us off. Of course some builders did well out of it. Who has not had a bad experience with a builder? But the positives far outweigh the negatives. As I said when we were opening one presentation, 97 per cent is not a bad result. I would not mind getting that at school. (Time expired)

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to inform the House of my office's idea to raise extra funds for the victims of the flood in Brisbane. As I have stated before, after the flood that so devastated the great city of Brisbane, my office and I wanted to do something special to raise money for the victims of the flood and to support the city of Brisbane. Like many fellow Brisbane residents, I was so impressed with how the Brisbane City Council under Campbell Newman rose to the challenge, mobilising thousands of volunteers to put Brisbane back together. As such the Lord Mayor's Community Disaster Relief Appeal Fund was the obvious benefactor for this great initiative.

Knowing that so many people across Brisbane, particularly on the bayside, have an appreciation for and an affinity with fishing, my electorate of Bonner is also the proud home of Wilson Fishing Rods, Australia's premier fishing rod manufacturer. As such, I decided to contact Wilson to see if they would like to donate five very special fishing rods, rods that are unique, specially made for this special purpose, and which would also fetch a premium price to aid in the flood relief.

The Alvey fishing reel company is a historic, Brisbane based reel manufacturer that has been in business for more than 90 years. It was a victim of the 1974 Brisbane flood. I felt very confident that they would also do all they could to help, so I contacted Mr Bruce Alvey to see whether he would join with me and Wilson rods in a special partnership to manufacture five distinctive fishing reels and create a limited edition fishing rod and reel combination, the proceeds of which would be donated to the flood recovery fund.

I was delighted that both these Brisbane based companies were enthusiastic in producing a unique fishing rod and reel combination, one that we all knew would appeal to a collector, regardless of whether or not they liked fishing. The final specification of the Alvey fishing reel is made of Huon pine that is over 1,000 years old. It is turned by a master craftsman and features a unique laser-cut design on the stainless steel face of the reel. The reels are then adorned with original 1950s Alvey badges that were salvaged from the 1974 floods from where the original Alvey fishing factory was situated in St Lucia, Brisbane. These fishing rods are proudly Brisbane made and are engraved by Brisbane's premier engravers, John Hammond and his 2IC Duncan Vickers, who have very generously donated their master engraving on these exclusive numbered fishing reels.

I sold three of these unique pieces but, given that the flood had been and gone and so many people had given so generously to other appeals, I wondered if the last two reels would fetch such a premium price. Any doubts were truly unfounded. While I spoke at one of my local Rotary meetings, I informed the audience of this great opportunity to give back and receive simultaneously. To my surprise, after the speech a local businessman came to me and said that he would immediately write out a $2,500 cheque to secure one. I was in a quandary about what to do with the last rod and reel and decided to leave it with Toni, the lovely businesswoman who runs the Water Tower Bait and Tackle Shop in Manly. Toni happened to mention the rod and reel to her electrician, who immediately wanted to buy the last combination, sight unseen, for another $2,500. The only thing I regret is that we did not have more to sell. Campbell Newman said that the flood recovery would be a marathon, not a sprint; I am happy to have completed our leg of this marathon and at the end donate just over $10,000 towards the Brisbane flood recovery.

The Bonner office could not have done this alone. I would like to thank Toni, Doug Barton, a man who gives so much to the bayside community, Greg Willems, Paul Vincent, Steve Taylor and Mark Chapman—a man with a big heart for his community—for their outstanding generosity and support in doing their bit to help rebuild our wonderful city and get our fellow Brisbanites back on their feet. The great news is that you are all now the proud owners of a unique heirloom.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is customary for new members and senators to use part of their first speech to give some account of their careers before their election. I will be very interested to see how much new Greens senator Rhiannon chooses to tell us about her political past, because so far she and her supporters have been very reticent. As evidence of this, let me tell the House about a battle which has been going on on the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, where ever since April a number of people have been trying to write a full, honest and properly referenced account of Senator Rhiannon's early career. All of those efforts have been thwarted by a person called Chris Maltby, who has repeatedly deleted any honest account on the grounds that such attention is disproportionate. Maltby lives in Bondi and is the husband of Waverly Greens Councillor Prue Cancian. He is identified on his Facebook page as a member of the New South Wales Greens. I suspect, although I cannot prove, that he is acting on behalf of the New South Wales Greens or perhaps just the Rhiannon faction. He suppresses any version of Wikipedia which might embarrass the senator.

So what are the facts about Senator Rhiannon's past that Mr Maltby is so keen to stop you reading? You cannot find these censored facts on Wikipedia, but at least you will be able to find them in Hansard. At least in Hansard Australians can read a version of the text which Mr Maltby has been repeatedly excising from Wikipedia. In 1971 the Communist Party split over attitudes to the Soviet Union, particularly the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Senator Rhiannon's parents, Bill and Freda Brown, left the CPA and joined the Socialist Party of Australia, which was loyal to the Soviet Union and supported the invasion. The Browns joined the CPA at a time when it was totally loyal to the Soviet Union and Stalin's leadership. They could not have remained in the CPA if they did not share this belief. Brown was the editor of the CPA paper Tribune, which strongly supported the Soviet invasion of Hungary.

Mark Aarons writes: 'Lee Rhiannon became a senior office bearer of the youth wing of the SPA, the Socialist Party of Australia, serving on the central committee's youth subcommittee, attending the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society and developing close relations with the Soviet, Czechoslovak and East German communist youth groups.' In '77, Rhiannon led an SPA delegation to Moscow at the invitation of Leonid Brezhnev. In 1980-93, Lee O'Gorman, as she was then, was New South Wales Secretary of the Union of Australian Women, founded in 1950 as a CPA front and controlled by the SPA after the 1971 split. In the late 1970s, Bill Brown was the editor of the SPA journal Survey and O'Gorman was a regular contributor to it. Her articles frequently praised the Soviet Union.

Mark Aarons wrote of Rhiannon's past in May 2011:

This would be simply history if Rhiannon had admitted her youthful errors and moved on. But, in a lengthy blog posted last August, she defended her parents' and her own political records …

…   …   …

But nowhere does she acknowledge how dreadfully wrong she was about the Soviet Union, nor express regrets for her gullible admiration of this abominable system. In failing to deal with her history honestly, Rhiannon places a question mark over her suitability for any leadership role, especially in a party supposedly built on integrity.

So there it is: the text which the friends of Senator Rhiannon do not wish the people of Australia to read. Sources were provided at Wikipedia for most of the statements for the text I have just read. Maybe some of these statements are wrong. If so, Senator Rhiannon should get up and explain in the Senate where the text I have read out is wrong and tell us the truth about her political past.

Senator Rhiannon's case is that she did not grow up as a wild student radical but was a dedicated member of the pro-Soviet Communist Party. When the CPA tried to free itself from Stalinism, she joined the breakaway pro-Soviet SPA. She loyally supported all the crimes of the Soviet Union during that time. And this was not a passing phase for her; she remained a senior and active member of the SPA until well into her 30s. She only abandoned Communism when it had visibly failed as a useful vehicle for far-left politics. She then joined the Greens, which is now the main vehicle for those kinds of politics in Australia.

It may be said that people should not be punished for the follies of the past and we should forgive and forget; but, as Mark Aarons pointed out in the text I quoted, forgiveness must be preceded by repentance. Senator Rhiannon has expressed no such regrets. She says she is no longer a communist, and I accept that. But she has not said that communism is and always was a false and pernicious doctrine that caused the deaths of tens of millions of people and is still causing oppression and misery in China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba. I would like to know what Senator Rhiannon now thinks of those events of the seventies and eighties which took place while she was an enthusiastic supporter of the Soviet Union. What does she think of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? What does she think of the suppression of Solidarity and the imposition of martial law in Poland? What does she think of the Berlin Wall, the shooting of people trying to escape to freedom? What does she think of the persecution of Andrei Sakharov and the Soviet dissidents? What does she think of the anti-Semitism of the Brezhnev regime? My challenge to Senator Rhiannon as she makes her first speech is to tell us honestly and clearly about her political past, tell us clearly that she has repudiated Communism not just as a tactical convenience but as a matter of conviction. (Time expired)

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What can we expect from retail pricing on the National Broadband Network? According to the Prime Minister, we can expect lower prices. She told the House of Representatives last year:

Do you want families in your electorate to have the benefit of more competition, better broadband products and lower prices? Then tick the National Broadband Network.

She also told the House of Representatives:

… look at the fact that Australians pay high prices for broadband and to look at the fact that the industry is telling us—and the Tasmanian example bears it out—that by creating a model with retail price competition you get cheaper prices, because that is what competition is all about.

She also told us last year that Australians pay very high prices for broadband by world standards. In other words, a very clear message from the Prime Minister: the National Broadband Network will bring cheaper prices. It will bring lower prices once you start to get retail prices being announced.

During the winter recess, we did see retail prices being announced. Internode, one of the larger internet service providers in Australia, announced that it would be charging $59.95 a month for its entry-level product, which is a 12-megabit-per-second product with a 30-gigabyte-per-month download limit. Interestingly that is the same price as it charges for its current naked DSL offering also with a 30-gigabyte download limit. As you would be aware, Mr Speaker, DSL products offer speeds of 20 megabits per second down, depending upon how far from the exchange you are. What one can say is that the closest equivalent to the 12-megabit entry-level offering is today's ADSL offering—$59.95 in today's world from Internode, $59.95 on the NBN—a very long way away from prices being reduced for retail broadband services as the Prime Minister claimed, in the House of Representatives last year, we could all expect.

Interestingly what we also saw from Internode was that the top-end price went up. Their top-end price today for a naked DSL product with a 1,000-gigabyte or one-terabyte download limit per month is $149.95. The top-end product in the NBN world which will have 100 megabits of speed and also a one-terabyte download limit is now $189.95 a month. Any suggestion that broadband prices are going down seems to be at odds with the prices that have been announced.

This left Senator Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in a bit of a pickle. How was he to reconcile the actual pricing that had been announced and the claims of the Prime Minister last year? His solution was to leap upon some announcements by Exetel and Dodo, two other internet service providers. Exetel put out pricing and Dodo, to use the words in Senator Conroy's media release of 23 July, has 'mooted a sub-$40 price' although we have seen no more than that.

The key point I want to make is that it is quite wrong to argue, as Senator Conroy has done, that, because internet service providers who are acknowledged to be discount operators at the discount end of the market are offering lower prices than Internode, that proves that National Broadband Network retail prices will be lower than today's broadband prices. It is a non sequitur. The reality is that Internode has a market share of nearly three per cent whereas Exetel has only about 0.9 per cent in market share. It is true that Dodo have a similar market share to Internode, but we have not seen any actual pricing from them yet. It has simply been 'mooted'. I make the point that while there is nothing wrong with being discount operators, as Dodo and Exetel are, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman reports that over the period October 2010 to March 2011, 4.5 per cent of its complaints concerned Dodo although it had a market share of 2.9 per cent. I simply make the point that the reality based upon the prices which have now been disclosed by several operators is that there is no evidence at all for the belief, that the Prime Minister articulated, that the National Broadband Network is going to mean reduced prices for broadband services. In fact, on the contrary: what the pricing that has been released demonstrates is that consumers can expect, at the very best, prices to flatline and in reality they are going to increase.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier today BlueScope Steel announced to the Australian Stock Exchange that its board had approved a major restructure of its steel-producing operations at Port Kembla and Western Port. Eight hundred jobs will be lost at Port Kembla and a further 200 will be lost at Western Port. Steel production at the Port Kembla works, which is located within my electorate of Cunningham, will be halved to 2.6 million tonnes. A number of other divisions will be closed down. The No. 6 blast furnace will be mothballed.

The decision by BlueScope Steel's board this morning is from a commercial decision-making process. The company's statement to the ASX indicates quite clearly that the company is experiencing 'structural change in the global steel industry' and an 'unprecedented combination of economic challenges' including 'a record high Australian dollar, high raw material costs, low prices for steel' and 'low domestic steel demand' in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Despite the intent of the federal opposition to link this commercial decision to the introduction of a carbon price in July 2012, BlueScope Steel again makes it clear that today's decision:

… is a direct response to the economic factors affecting our business and is not related to the Federal Government's proposed carbon tax.

My thoughts, along with those of my colleague the member for Throsby, are dedicated to ensuring that BlueScope Steel workers who will ultimately be affected by the decision to restructure the steel industry have all the necessary services available to them to deal with this loss of jobs.

The second priority for us as a Labor government is to do what it has done in the past: set out a plan to secure the steel industry during this painful restructuring process. I am very pleased that the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and the Minister for Human Services announced a $140 million package of initiatives aimed at ensuring that steelworkers and their families in the Illawarra community know that the Commonwealth Labor government stands shoulder to shoulder with them.

This $140 million package to the support the Illawarra community has three elements: firstly, assistance of up to $10 million over two years to ensure immediate access to intensive employment services by Job Services Australia providers; secondly, bringing forward $100 million of the $300 million of the Steel Transformation Plan to assist with the continuation of BlueScope Steel as the major steel producer, a major employer in the Illawarra and the prospect for reactivating the No. 6 blast furnace when the steel market enables profitable sales to resume; and, thirdly, the establishment of a $30 million investment and innovation fund, focusing on supporting new business ventures, high-value jobs predominantly but not only in manufacturing, and manufacturing services.

The member for Throsby and I look forward to working with Dr Don Russell, the Secretary of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. He has been tasked with leading a whole-of-government response to BlueScope Steel's announcement and to develop a longer term coordinated structural adjustment strategy for the Illawarra. During the next few days all care and concern should be focused on the workers of BlueScope Steel and their families. Today has been a difficult day for each of them. But over the next few weeks attention must also move to the region, to make use of the $30 million innovation and investment fund. We will work with local organisations and unions in the Illawarra to see what projects can be implemented to maintain and create high quality skilled and ongoing jobs in manufacturing and manufacturing services. Regional structural adjustment packages do work; we know this in our region. The long-term focus in the Illawarra will remain on continuing to diversify our regional economy. Since the 1982-83 downturn and the long recession in the coal industry at the time, over the last 30 years the Illawarra region has transformed. We are in a much better position to adjust to the restructuring of our manufacturing sector than indeed we were even 30 years ago. Although manufacturing still plays a major role in the economy, we now see that BlueScope Steel is rivalled by places like the University of Wollongong and the region's health and community sectors as major employers. Despite today's announcement on steel and the pessimism surrounding talk of manufacturing in Australia, I am more than optimistic that the future of manufacturing is strong in our region and lies in the transition to high value-added production— (Time expired)

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Services and Indigenous Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For three months, Australia's world-class health system refused to treat Della Johnson, a resident of my electorate, who suffers from the one-in-a-million vascular disease of the brain called moyamoya—not because the operation was unavailable in Queensland, not because treating surgeons did not know what to do, but simply because Della comes from a state that cannot treat moyamoya and there was no agreement between hospital regions as to who would foot the bill. It exposes in our wonderful health system the fact that we have eight jurisdictions and many more area health services, and are about to have a lot more under the fourth level of bureaucracy to be introduced by the Gillard government.

My concern is that none of these reforms address the issue of Della. Were she a resident of New South Wales she would now be cured and recovering, but instead she has just had her first operation, last week—her second one is scheduled for 24 August—for the simple reason that she lives in the wrong state and in the wrong postcode. It is time for COAG to consider these issues so that streamlined care for very rare surgery can be in the best hands in this nation. With a population of 20 million people we cannot always expect to have every single operation available in every jurisdiction. But patients should not be held, delayed and pawned between states and hospital services looking for the cheapest way to do an operation.

In Princess Alexandra Hospital last week it became obvious that an edict has been released by Queensland Health to cap the number of times that a patient can visit outpatients. It is of great concern to anyone working in the public system that it is not the most efficient thing to do to be sending sick patients back to get another referral from a GP before they can return to the public outpatients system.

The issue here is that people who have complex conditions such as diabetes and epilepsy, or who are struggling with heart disease, or who are road trauma victims with broken bones, can only visit an outpatients department twice before they have to go back and get more paperwork. This was an absolutely ridiculous proposition—that you would have to go back and sit and wait in a GP's office, hope for an appointment, pick up more paperwork and charge the Medicare system, only to go back and have your third appointment at outpatients.

Mr Speaker, you can understand as a diabetic that, if you need your diabetic appointment and then a podiatry appointment and then to see your dietician, to have to return to a GP is absolutely ridiculous and inefficient, and a dreadful waste and social cost. I am glad that that edict has been turned around, and I want a guarantee from the Queensland Minister for Health that that will occur and that doctors will decide how often they see patients and to whom they refer. If you want to get outpatients seeing more patients more effectively, then engage in a meaningful discussion about integrated and primary healthcare provision; do not just cap doctors and tell patients, 'Go back and pick up more paperwork before we will offer you any more treatment,' because that is an abuse of the Australian health care agreement which says that you cannot refuse to treat a public patient.

It is also of great concern to me that in Queensland, in my electorate of Bowman, the Eastern Busway, due for completion at the almost mind-twisting date of 2026, has now been further downgraded by the Bligh government from a project to a 'concept'. Anyone who lives in my commuter community of Redlands, where 3,600 people jump in vehicles and travel down one highway every morning of the working week, will be absolutely distraught that this is now not even going to happen by 2026. We are a nation looking for smart public health solutions, and the last thing we need is delays to really important infrastructure for no reason other than that the state government cannot manage money. They committed out to 2026. There was plenty of opportunity to reschedule this. There is plenty of opportunity to look at alternative busway proposals that do not involve kilometres of tunnel and which would be far more efficient and could be built in a shorter time frame. I just think it is ridiculous that the children of the current Treasurer will have graduated from school before they ever get to travel on a busway. I think it is ridiculous that a major part of south-eastern Brisbane does not have the benefit of a decent busway for little other reason, it appears, than the fact that Redlands is not a part of Brisbane and was not the beneficiary of some of the visionary work of Campbell Newman in building tunnels and major road infrastructure for our city at a time when state Labor was not.

My great concern for my 6,000 residents who live on North Stradbroke Island and on the southern bay islands is that all ferry and water-taxi travel will not be exempted from a carbon tax. Removing that 6.8c a litre excise on diesel will be a direct hit for people who have no other option than to use a water-taxi or a barge for their vehicle. You will understand, Mr Speaker, that you cannot drive off an island, so this is absolutely essential travel. It is public transport and commuting that should be supported in this country, and I urge the Prime Minister to consider an exemption for public transport.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to speak about the sad passing of baby Dominic, who passed away on the 13th of this month. Dominic was the youngest child of Alannah McKenna. Tonight I want to pay tribute to the strength and courage she has shown in this very difficult circumstance of losing her child. The loss of a child is a grief that no mother should have to bear, more so a young mother. That is why I want to acknowledge Alannah McKenna and pay tribute to the life of baby Dominic, who was born with a very rare genetic disorder known as infantile GM1 gangliosidosis. Essentially, where most people can break down ganglioside in the body, Dominic's rare condition caused his body to store the fatty substance in his nerve cells as well as his spleen, liver and brain. Children born with this rare condition usually do not survive beyond their third birthday. In this case, Alannah and her family had just one birthday with baby Dominic in what was no doubt an extraordinary effort of having to go through the emotional and physical challenges of tending and nurturing a child through palliative care. Despite everything, baby Dominic, through his fighting spirit and resilient personality, brought enough smiles and happiness to outshine his terminal condition and to last his grieving family a lifetime.

Alannah's extraordinary commitment to Dominic throughout his short and precious life, as well as her care for her other two children, her son and daughter, is a testament to motherhood and to the young women in my electorate. I also want to pay a special tribute to Alannah's family, who supported her through thick and thin and who remained steadfast in their commitment to raising awareness of Dominic's condition. In paying tribute to them I would like to place on the parliamentary record the issues they want raised and believe warrant our attention.

When dealing with the treatment of rare genetic disorders we need to take a closer look at strengthening procedures that would ensure that laws which govern medical practice, as they apply to the application of medical know-how, are given more room for manoeuvre when it comes to a question between a fait accompli approach to palliative care and last resort measures to apply what could potentially be life-saving treatment. The issues that were raised with me and which I put forward to the House are that even in the event that qualified care, funding and medical knowledge are available, their application can often be prevented by law because of issues to do with the phasing stages between what is deemed an experimental trial and the clinical phase of treatment. Such legal restrictions place additional emotional hardships on those families and friends who have to care for critically ill loved ones, as was the case with baby Dominic and his family. Once again, I commend Alannah and her family's resolve and, on behalf of the community, offer our condolences for the loss of Dominic.

On another matter, I wish to table a petition which has been presented and is deemed to be within standing orders by the Petitions Committee. The petition is signed by 2,758 Australian citizens and seeks to draw to the attention of the House the increasing international recognition of Palestine as a state, including the resolution to be put to the United Nations Security Council in its forthcoming meeting in September recommending Palestine's admission to the General Assembly as a state.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable The Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives

This petition of concerned citizens of Australia

Draws to the attention of the House the increasing international recognition of Palestine as a State, including the resolution to be lout to the United Nations Security Council to recommend Palestine's admission to the General Assembly as a state, currently set to take place in September 2011.

We therefore ask the House to recognise a Palestinian State in accordance with all relevant UN resolutions, and international and humanitarian law which Australia has consistently upheld.

Current Australian policy supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state would exist side-by-side with Israel, each within internationally recognised and secure borders.

Failure to capitalise on this historic opportunity may jeopardise existing international frameworks for a just and peaceful resolution to the conflict.

from 2,758 citizens

Petition received.

The petition calls on the House to recognise a Palestinian state in accordance with all relevant UN resolutions and international and humanitarian law which Australia has consistently upheld. Beyond the importance of applying international law to this very important issue, there are practical necessities for establishing a Palestinian state. The issue of Palestinian statehood is of major concern to many Australians; indeed, there is support for the recognition of a Palestinian state in the broader international and Australian community. This is especially so with a large section of my constituency in Calwell. The petition I tabled this evening carries the hopes of many Australians who are very keen to see our country and, indeed, our government play a role in this ongoing issue.

This House has on many occasions affirmed its support for a two-state solution to the issue of Palestine and Israel, a two-state solution that will guarantee security and peace for both states. This evening in presenting this petition I also want to place on record my support for Australia to join the vast majority of nations in recognising Palestine as it seeks statehood in the UN General Assembly in September this year.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to speak about infrastructure in my electorate of Boothby. One of the issues I have spoken about several times before is the issue of having a non-stop South Road from Darlington to Wingfield—22 kilometres of non-stop expressway. It is a priority of the RAAA of South Australia; it is a priority of a number of economic development councils; and it is a priority of two local councils which cover my electorate—the City of Marion and the City of Onkaparinga.

There is a bit of history here. In 2006 the South Australian government promised that they would fix the intersection at Sturt Road and South Road. That has not happened. In 2007 the federal Labor Party in opposition then through Kevin Rudd and also the then shadow minister for transport promised that they would fix Sturt Road and South Road. Again, it has not happened. They have commissioned a traffic study which looked at fixing this intersection and at present it involves approximately $1 billion of infrastructure work and is currently unfunded.

But today we had the extraordinary announcement that the South Australian government have decided to switch an interchange worth $75 million, which they promised 18 months ago, with a traffic light. After all of the waste which has occurred—the billions of dollars at state and federal level—we have now have no sense of priorities. Something that was promised to voters only 18 months ago has now been ditched—a $75 million interchange for a traffic light. Worse, it was left to the department to announce this to parliament. The secretary of the department confirmed it before a committee hearing and the departmental executive responsible for this, Andy Milazzo, said before the hearing that he did not know if the minister had been informed.

My question is: what is it about Labor governments and funding infrastructure in Darlington? We have a whole succession of promises going back 5½ years and nothing has happened. It is really not good enough. This is something that has been promised and still never delivered. Rod Hook, the chief executive of the department, said they were hoping for federal funding. Well, the federal funding that was promised for the intersection just down the road still has not been delivered after the federal government has been in for almost four years and 5½ years after state government promised it. It is not good enough. This is another breach of faith. It is another broken promise for residents in the southern suburbs. It is just an extraordinarily chaotic process, and incredibly cynical, whereby something is promised before the election and then never delivered and the promise is just quietly shelved and not acted on. It is not good enough. It cannot happen again.

Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak of a clear and present danger facing the people of the central coast of New South Wales. That danger is the imminent action of the Liberal Premier of this state of New South Wales and his plan to create unemployment. Apart from talking down the New South Wales economy at every turn, the Premier's mythmaking about a 'black hole' has been completely discounted by New South Wales Treasury and by the New South Wales Parliamentary Budget Office. A report from Tony Harris found Mr O'Farrell's media releases about a black hole were:

… unsupported by evidence or conflicted with available information on the state's fiscal position and budgetary processes.

The economist John Quiggin told the Herald that in relation to the impact of the carbon price New South Wales:

The New South Wales government has cherry-picked all the scariest possible numbers in a way that is totally misleading and absolutely dishonest.

Let us be very clear: New South Wales is not in a black hole, nor is the New South Wales economy in crisis. Yet Mr O'Farrell continues to repeat these alarmist claims as he prepares to rip the heart out of the public sector of New South Wales when he brings his budget down on 6 September.

Unemployment is an ugly thing. It never looks good to the people who lose jobs; it never looks good to the people who wave them goodbye as they leave their workplace; it never looks good to families that have to live with the loss of freedom, the loss of security, the loss of hope for the future; and the loss of possibilities that their employment offered. The ravage of unemployment is something that the people of the Central Coast have largely been spared in recent years. This is due to the efforts of successive Labor governments at federal and state levels.

Unfortunately, in the hands of the Liberals in New South Wales, that is about to change. As those who follow events in New South Wales would know, Mr O'Farrell has, without any warning, not least to the people who baited him in at the state election, embarked on a vicious series of cuts to the New South Wales public sector. Mr O'Farrell's axe now hangs over as many as one in four public sector jobs in New South Wales.

Those members in this place from the New South Wales National Party should note that the first job losses have been in the Department of Primary Industries—like lambs to the slaughter. That is how the National Party has led it rural constituencies to those terrible job cuts. Right across New South Wales Mr O'Farrell has made it clear he is looking forward to slashing jobs—to slashing the conditions of teachers and nurses and other essential public sector workers—in the coming state budget.

For us on the Central Coast, that means that up to one in four of our local public sector families will not have the disposable income that they currently have. They will not have the income that keeps our economy ticking over. They will not have the disposable income to spend on products in our local shops, and they will not have the disposable income to spend on services from our local businesses, many of which are already struggling.

These cuts are an act of betrayal of the people in our great state. They are unjustified and potentially catastrophic under the current economic conditions on the coast. With federal economic stimulus projects in our area, like the Building the Education Revolution, nearing completion, our regional economy is slowing. Federal Labor's stimulus programs really kept people working on the Central Coast for a very long time. Mr O'Farrell's axe will undo that good work—undo the good work that saw us get through the global financial crisis, when federal Labor acted to make sure that Australians did not have to suffer the destructive impact of unemployment.

I believe the Central Coast economy could take a terrible blow, a disabling blow, from the O'Farrell cuts. As well as the economic costs there will be social costs. I ask the House to contemplate the potential effects of funding and job cuts to child protection workers. They are unimaginable. Tragedies already occur through the strain on support services. Less funding and fewer workers will simply mean more neglect. There is nothing good about that scenario.

I have to ask: will Mr O'Farrell standby and play Pontius Pilate when some tragedy occurs because police, community service and mental health workers are under resourced? More likely, he will insist that the federal government step in and fix the mess he is going to create. The O'Farrell cuts are dangerous and dishonest. They are based on fiscal falsehoods and they are immoral. I condemn and deplore the New South Wales Liberal government's job cutting. With no reason they are committed to inflicting pain and suffering on the state, and determined to inflict pain and loss of jobs on the families of the Central Coast. I heartily encourage all local public sector workers to join the rally against the O'Farrell government in Sydney on 8 September.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Football clubs are often the social and sporting pulse of country communities. The Northern Riverina Football and Netball League held its grand finals at West Wyalong on Saturday. It was a fantastic finish to a memorable season, Barellan winning the senior footy with the last kick of the game and its netball girls coming from behind to pip Ungarie in the A grade decider. Peter McFadyen, in his first year as president, deserves praise for his leadership, as does Chris Daniher, whose marvellous encouragement of his young charges resulted in Ungarie winning the under-14 title. There is no country footballing name better known than 'Daniher' and Chris's commitment to his beloved Ungarie helps keep the game alive in that district.

On preliminary final day the first grade footballers were forced to change in what can only be described as makeshift tents at Hillston. I commit myself to doing what I can to find some source of funding so Hillston can have decent facilities. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being 10.30 pm, the debate is interrupted.

House adjourned at 22:30