Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thankfully, this budget is the last Labor budget to be delivered before the next election. This budget proves that a vote for Labor at the next federal election will be a vote for chaos. The Gillard government's financial and budget management is in absolute and complete chaos. Labor's budget gives us more debt, more deficit, more taxes, more broken promises and more uncertainty—all from an incompetent, mendacious government that cannot be trusted.

The Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2013-2014 and related bills highlight the contrast between Labor and the coalition when it comes to economic management. For example, the last budget delivered by a coalition government saw a $19.7 billion surplus. The word is 'surplus', Madam Deputy Speaker. The last budget delivered by Labor saw a $19.4 billion deficit—I repeat: 'deficit'. They are very similar figures; however, one is in the black and one is in the red. This highlights the complete reversal in the government's economic fortunes under this Labor government.

Australia entered the global financial crisis with no public debt, a $20 billion surplus, $60 billion in the Future Fund, a $6 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund and a record low four per cent unemployment. Australia entered the global financial crisis with a well-regulated financial sector, a reformed labour market, strong public finance balance sheets and conservative fiscal and monetary policy settings—all courtesy of the former coalition government. As a consequence of the hard work and the economic discipline of the coalition, Australians saw relatively modest effects from the previous global financial crisis.

Despite Labor promising to be an economic conservative during the 2007 election campaign, we saw those TV ads ad nauseam with the then Leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd, and deputy leader Julia Gillard with hands on hearts, saying: 'We are economic conservatives.' This Labor government subsequently embarked on a massive spending spree that put the federal budget into record deficit. The spending spree included billions of dollars on pink batts, unnecessary and overpriced school halls and $900 handouts. This government failed to get value for the taxpayer's dollar. Yet every dollar the Labor government has spent in this budget is borrowed money. It will all have to be paid back by the taxpayers of the future. This money is borrowed from the earnings of future generations of Australians.

Labor's debt and deficit is true to Labor form. When the Labor government say that this is a Labor budget, they really mean it—a Labor budget of debt and deficit, combined with defeat. There is a member of this parliament, in the House of Representatives, the member for Longman, who has never seen Labor deliver a surplus in his entire lifetime. This Gillard government just does not understand that it is spending other people's money. Labor have not been able to balance those books since 1989. With all the talk about online betting, this mob has got form. If you were to take odds on whether they would ever post a surplus, I am pretty sure you would get very high odds.

Last year, the Treasurer promised a $1.5 billion surplus, but instead he has delivered a deficit more than 12 times as big at $19.4 billion. The deficits announced by the Treasurer this year came after more than 500 promises of a surplus. My favourite line from this mendacious, deceitful government is: 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead'. But I have to say the Treasurer gets pretty close when he says:

The deficit years of the global recession are behind us. The surplus years are here.

An opposition member: That is last year's budget speech.

Last year's speech on the budget, as my colleague here says. So if Australians could not trust Labor's word last year, how can they possibly believe them going into an election year? Previous election: no carbon tax under a government I lead; this election: surpluses in the future. Each of them has about the same level of credibility—credibility because Labor lacks credibility.

Labor's legacy to Australians is more than $250 billion of debt. That equates to debt of around $10,870 for each Australian. By the way, when we left government it was just in excess of $4,000 per person in surplus. So $10,870 for each Australian in debt. A family of four would be struggling with Labor's cost-of-living increases. And not only has the mortgage gone up, but so have the Visa and MasterCard bills. But thanks to the Rudd-Gillard government, their share of Labor's debt could be up to $43,480 per household. And the problem with Labor's debt and deceit and deficits is in fact the waste, the failure to get value for the taxpayers' dollar.

Labor likes to talk a lot about infrastructure, but in 2013-14 they will spend $3.5 billion on the roads. To put that into context, that is less than one per cent of the budget's $398 billion spending. In contrast, the budget papers reveal yet another blowout in the management of Australia's borders by at least $4.7 billion since last year's budget. The $13 billion interest bill that this government now faces because of Labor could have been used to deliver tax cuts or, more importantly, to fund other programs. Both the NDIS and Gonski could have been fully funded and paid for without a levy if we were not paying $13 billion in interest rates. What we have is a government complicit with debt and deficit, and Australians are paying the price for economic incompetence.

Let there be no doubt: the coalition very strongly supports the NDIS. We have been asking the Prime Minister since its inception to form a joint party committee so we can take the politics out of the issue. The Prime Minister, perhaps the most partisan Prime Minister I have ever seen, has declined that offer. Last week I met with the Mai-Wel Group, a disability service provider to the people in the Hunter Valley, just outside my electorate. It is clear to them and it is clear to me that the government still has not done all its homework on the NDIS. There are questions still on when, how, who and where still to be answered fully. The NDIS rolls out in Newcastle in five weeks time, Lake Macquarie in 2014, Maitland in 2015, and yet service providers still have questions that need to be answered. I fear for the expectations being delivered to those with disabilities that they may be let down by this government, but the coalition is right behind the NDIS.

I spoke earlier about how the Gillard government had failed to prioritise infrastructure spending. Its decision in this budget to backend fund projects in the never-never over 10 years is like a scene straight out of the TV series The Hollowmen. Like The Hollowmen: 'Let's make promises in the never-never that we know we're never-never going to have to deliver'. I note the minister for infrastructure, Mr Albanese, and Senator Thistlethwaite have been seeking praise for the budget allocation to the Bulahdelah bypass. In their press release, they talk about $300 million. It is due to open in a number of weeks. Work has been underway on that bypass for the past six years. It was actually started by the Howard government, but this government seeks to take credit for $300 million—all spin instead of the tail-end funding to complete the project in the next couple of weeks.

I would like to quote from an article now that appeared in the Newcastle Herald during the 2010 federal election. It is all about funding and how magnificent local members are. It says:

THE new mining tax would be used to pay for an overpass for the rail crossing on the New England Highway at Scone, in a significant election sweetener rolled out by Labor yesterday.

That was about Mr Fitzgibbon, the member for Hunter. I want you to note that word: overpass. Overpass means when you build this little bridge and the traffic goes up and over the railway line and keeps going. It does not need to stop for trains.

Despite originally getting only a couple of million dollars for a study, the member for Hunter has now been crowing about funds back-ended in this budget for a Scone level crossing. You do no have to be Einstein to work out that there is a lot of difference between a level crossing upgrade and an overpass. The promise originally to the people in that area was for an overpass—and what they will get is an upgraded rail crossing. The member for Hunter will go on promising that this will be delivered, like he promised at the previous election. Now he will hang his hat on the F3 extension. Straight after the 2007 election he said, 'No, it won't be built; there's no money.' It only got built when he got himself into trouble.

How could anybody trust Labor to deliver on anything? It has never delivered on a surplus. It has never delivered on core funding commitments to our community. In this budget alone Labor has broken so many of its own promises, including not proceeding with the increase to Family Tax Benefit A, abolishing the promised tax cuts for 2015-16 and cancelling the company tax cuts that would have commenced in 2012-13. And who could forget the mining tax that was supposed to share the benefits of the boom that has only raised a fraction of what Labor claimed it would? It did not stop it spending the money, but it only raised a fraction.

This is a government that does not understand budgets, does not understand taxation and, worse still, does not understand the expectations of the Australian people. Australian people can understand when you have to deliver bad news and tighten the belt, but the Australian people will never accept a government that breaches fundamental trust by deliberately misleading them before an election and doing something different after it. It started with 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead', it has been escalated with, 'There will be budgets surpluses into the future' and it has been delivered the final blow with the broken promises that I have just outlined.

I will obviously hear members who talk about how magnificent it is that Defence spending has finally been reinstituted. I would also point out that over the last four years $25 billion has been ripped out of the portfolio—that is, projects that have not proceeded, especially small contracts. There has been no substantial planning or direction on things like submarines or the future of frigates. There is so much underspend that it has put a lot of Australian Defence support industries into chaos. Like always, it will be the coalition that has to step in, clean up the mess and deliver national security and real outcomes for our community.

There are two industries in our area where ministers like to turn up, have their photos taken and talk about the great work they are doing. They are not impressed with the Defence cuts and the effects it has had on their businesses. In particular, the workers at those places who face uncertain economic times because of the mismanagement of this government.

I could speak for hours about the impacts of this government on the Australian economy. There are all of the misleading statements and failure to deliver, but there is one thing that concerns me more about this budget. This government talks about the need to support Australian families, to support growth and opportunity. Their favourite catchline phrase at the moment is 'Cut to the bone.' They have not only cut to the bone but also they have cut through the artery of pride in this nation. No longer can Australian people take any resemblance of pride in their government after what they have done, creating a slow death financially for the people of Australia.

I am looking forward to the budget consideration in detail, where I will focus on my portfolio area of tourism and regional development, as I hold the minister to account for the cutbacks and failure to deliver in those portfolio areas.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand in support of the appropriations bills before us, which will authorise the expenditure in the terms contained in the recently announced budget. This budget was created to keep Australia's economy strong, making a smart investment for the future and ensuring everybody gets a fair go.

There is a balanced focus on having a strong economy and creating jobs, while assisting families to meet the cost of living. Investments in infrastructure and education also form an integral part of this budget. Good infrastructure is essential to support the growing population among large projects—like the WestConnex project, which will greatly benefit residents of Western Sydney. Many local roads and dangerous intersections will also be fixed as a consequence of this appropriation.

Good education is essential to secure the high-skilled jobs for our young people in the future. Our children deserve the best quality learning environments so they are not left behind in what we see now as an increasingly competitive world. As an example, every dollar the New South Wales government invests in education will be matched by two dollars from the federal government. New South Wales schools will receive an investment totalling around $5 billion over the next six years alone.

Importantly, this budget does not overlook the most vulnerable members of our community, including people with disabilities. Guaranteed funding and the delivery of DisabilityCare Australia will see the National Disability Insurance Scheme become a reality and provide much-needed support for people with disabilities, their families and their carers. Care and support for a person with disabilities will no longer depend on how they acquired their disability or where they live. All Australians will be covered, including the almost 4,200 residents in my electorate that have a disability. We are also facing the challenge of investing in the future and assisting the members of our society who need additional support, all the while making responsible savings decisions. We managed to create a plan that does this while still keeping these cuts to a minimum.

I think it is important in this debate that we look at the position of the other side. I think you will find it does stand in stark contrast. Those on the other side have a plan to rip out the schoolkids bonus, take away the cost of living assistance and scrap the historic pension increases. Among other cuts, they also intend to decrease the tax-free threshold, which we increased to $18,000; they are going to reduce it back to $6,000, and that will certainly hurt the lowest paid workers in this country, many of whom reside in my electorate.

Labor has been trusted by the electorate to govern Australia for 20 of the last 31 years. I say that there is good reason for that. Today one of the main testaments to this government's good economic management is the interest rates, which are now lower than any other time of the previous government, with families on an average mortgage of $300,000, which is the average in my electorate, paying up to $5,500 less now in repayments.

Three times over Labor's period of governing, our nation has faced an economic crisis that has arisen from factors beyond the control of a comparatively small and an internationally exposed economy such as ours.

The first was in the mid-80s when the Hawke-Keating government confronted a dramatic collapse in the terms of trade, which saw a decline in the index from 65.4 to 55.3 between 1985 and 1987, which was the sharpest two-year decline in more than 50 years. Labor responded courageously with a mid-term economic statement that saw a sharp reduction in spending, a dramatic process of deregulation and an opening up of the economy. Two important points need to be made about these initiatives. Firstly, they were certainly far-reaching when they were introduced in such a way as to protect low-paid and vulnerable workers and their families. Secondly, the then opposition fought tooth and nail against many of the key measures enacted as a necessary response to the critical economic situation. There is nothing new about the hidebound negativity of the opposition and their contrariness when it comes to opposing vital and overdue reforms.

Labor faced its second economic challenge shortly after coming to office in 2007 when, in early 2008, the sub-prime crisis of the United States morphed into a near total collapse of major US financial institutions resulting in a full-blown recession across much of the developed world. Many in this country did not feel this recession, but it is one that continues to reverberate today, certainly, through the economies of the US, Japan and many of the European nations. Australia, almost alone across the developed world, escaped largely unscathed from the global financial crisis acknowledged by most economists as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Australia was almost unaffected because this Labor government responded quickly, courageously and effectively with a $10 billion stimulus package and a series of bank deposit guarantees. You will also recall that it was necessary for further stimulus measures, worth $47 billion, which were delivered in 2009. The effect was to defy the dire prognosis of many economists such as Chris Richardson of Access Economics, who in January 2009 predicted a halving of the corporate tax profits. As a matter of fact they grew that year by about three per cent on current prices, and he predicted a rise of 300,000 in unemployment, which was six times the actual figure. He also predicted that the New South Wales and Victorian economies would be stuck firmly in reverse. The truth is, as history will show, that both states outperformed the whole country over the period.

The International Monetary Fund—hardly a hotbed of neo-Keynesian radicalism—is just one of the many organisations to acknowledge that this government got its strategy right. In 2013 it reported that the Labor governments of 2007 and 2010 had been fiscally prudent and that the Labor stimulus spending in 2008 and 2009 was appropriate to stabilise the economy. Another organisation, the OECD, also applauded the stimulus package saying that it had a strong effect in cushioning the downturn. All three of these agencies, for the first time in our history, have given the Australian economy the prodigious AAA rating. That has never occurred before.

Similarly, the Reserve Bank of Australia Deputy Governor Philip Lowe, in an address to the Australian Industry Group on 19 March this year said:

So over these three years we have seen growth close to trend, a stable and relatively low unemployment rate and inflation at target.

By the standards of most other countries, this represents a very good outcome and a high degree of internal balance.

Viewed in this light, how hollow and dishonest is the conservative's rhetoric about waste and mismanagement. The question that has to be asked is: what would they have done if they were in office during these financial challenges? The coalition's favourite economist, Judith Sloan, let the cat out of the bag on ABC's Lateline on 3 May when she said:

I don't believe in this that a government should do whatever it can to keep an economy out of recession.

…   …   …

There comes a point when a recession, hopefully a mild one, actually can be quite useful and that's what should have been allowed to be done

That is it in a nutshell. That is where they get their economic advice from. That is the difference between Labor and the conservatives. We on this side of the House do not believe that the lives and livelihoods of families should be a blight in the cause of fiscal rectitude whereas those on the other side in their candid moments admit that there is a price to be paid and they are prepared to pay it.

Australia now faces its third economic challenge. The challenge is above all testaments the country's success in weathering the global financial crisis, and so it comes about. As one commentator describes it, the most devastating, long-lasting impact of the GFC is that it created a flight of capital to economic safe zones and in a weak global economy Australia looks very attractive to those investors. Our terms of trade, although still strong, are clearly faltering. Interest rates are low yet our currency remains high, particularly against a weak US dollar, the euro and the pound. This is hurting all our globally exposed industries and is having an especially damaging impact on tax receipts from businesses. It calls for our even-handed fiscal approach, however, that tackles the imbalance between revenue and spending on both sides of the equation. That is precisely, quite frankly, what this government has attempted to do through its budget.

We need to ask what our opponents would have done in these circumstances. Tony Abbott gave a rare insight into the approach that he would favour when he addressed the right-wing Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne on 5 April. The IPA, in addition to being the ideological home to the climate change deniers, also favours the radical agenda of dismantling a large part of Australia's safety net as much as the regulatory frameworks that protect workplaces, households, the environment as well as privatising a wide range of iconic Australian public assets. They recently condensed their extreme agenda into a 75-point wish list, and Mr Abbott was right on board:

So, ladies and gentlemen, that is a big ‘yes’ to many of the 75 specific policies you urged upon me …

There is a very clear difference in the values held by those opposite and those of this Labor government. Our values are clearly demonstrated in this year's budget and the 10-year plan to ensure a fairer and stronger nation for the future. We will continue to invest in the future, to make responsible saving decisions that will strengthen our economy and to provide front-line services that families rely upon all whilst supporting and caring for the most vulnerable members of our society. These are the Labor values. These are the values I stand by. I am proud to support these bills and support this budget.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was interesting that the member for Fowler did not manage to spend the full amount of time available but the vast bulk of the time he did use he simply trash talked the coalition. How remarkable.

It is supposed to be a budget born out of Labor values, that he struggled to articulate, and somehow it was economically responsible—and he could not point to any real examples of that. And then he went on to talk about how helpful it would be for people in our community and he struggled to identify who those people would be. Instead we got a dissertation of trash talk and assertion, setting up to the coalition all sorts of mischief which does not reflect the coalition's position at all.

And this is where we have got to these days. This government is so dysfunctional, so tired of itself that it cannot even defend its own budget. It is supposed to be the high watermark for government and government members to advocate all the virtue that is in the budget as some kind of fiscal plan to support an economic strategy to strengthen our country. What is missing is that there is no fiscal plan here. There is no clear economic strategy to restore the prospects of a nation, and there is certainly no national interest guiding that just day-to-day survival talk in an attempt to preserve their own positions in parliament rather than look after a plan for the country.

It was interesting to hear that this job was badged as one about jobs and growth. This budget was supposed to be about jobs and growth. Yet remarkably, this budget forecast a reduction in the rates of economic growth in the country and an increase in the unemployment rate—so much for it being about jobs and growth.

But it does put it on par with the last budget. Who can forget the opening remarks of the Treasurer when he said—and this was last year's budget:

This Budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time.

He went on to promise:

The deficit years of the global recession are behind us. The surplus years are here.

That is what the Treasurer said. That is what has been found to be so empty and vacuous by the numbers that are in this budget. Yet. Yet here you have Labor members harking back to their bad luck, to how everything has been cruelled by circumstances and they are really much better than the facts present. They are really very competent if only these areas of bad luck would not here. Isn't it incredible though? How come that every year Labor is in government there is bad luck? In the community where I was raised, hard work meant you were luckier—you had created your own luck—and it was remarkable how those who worked hard and applied themselves most diligently seemed to be the most lucky. That simple life lesson seems to be lost on this government.

In fact rather than the four year of surplus, this budget heralds not only the most extraordinary budget broken promise about the surplus that we are supposed to have where we are now greeted with figures pointing to a $19 billion deficit, it then forecasts deficits for years to come. Nineteen billion dollars, the fifth biggest deficit in our nation's history, which next financial year will be $18 billion, the sixth biggest in our nation's history, and the year after that $11 billion. Now that is not the seventh, it is actually the eighth. Labor delivered the seventh largest budget deficit back in 1995-96.

What we are expected to believe from this government is that if you elect Labor for a fourth time you will get a budget surplus. A fourth election win will enable the Australian public to get a budget surplus. We have not had one since their initial election in 2007, and none since 2010. There is not going to be any before 2013 election and Labor hopes that if they are re-elected after the 2016 election you might get a budget surplus. That is an awful lot to ask the Australian public: that after four elections Labor promises they may deliver a budget surplus—and a wafer-thin one at that.

I think I share the views of many in the community that I represent and many that I speak with as I travel around representing the small business community. This crowd, Labor, just cannot be believed. There is no economic strategy to guide the nation's economic future after they have squandered and overspent the rivers of gold coming from the mining boom. There is no clear strategy to get the budget back into surplus even though we were promised that the job would not only be done this year, it would be done for evermore. There is no coherent strategy around what those sensible and prudent budget cuts will be. There is no evidence in here that the government has learnt at all from the mistake it has made over and over again—taking Herculean optimistic revenue forecasts, claiming them as locked in, spending the money like a Christmas bonus that you spend back in June, July, August, September, October and November, and then it might arrive in December, and even if it does, it looks nothing like all the money you have spent—and somehow we are supposed to take these guys for real.

I am reminded of that great statement that John McEnroe made after a bad line call, 'You can't be serious!'

We cannot treat this government with seriousness and these numbers certainly are not serious. They are dodgy. They are rubbery. They are indefensible and that is why you just heard the member for Fowler not even use his time available to explain the virtue of the budget so lacking is it in virtue. He could not even spend the whole amount of time trash talking the coalition. That is what is wrong with this government: they just do not have a plan. They have nothing positive to say. They have no strategy to steer the country out of the hole that they have driven this nation into because of their spending problem. And it is a spending problem. This is a spending problem this government has, not a revenue problem.

The 2013-14 budget sees this government $80 billion in front of the revenue that was available when the Howard government was last in office. This government has $80 billion more but it still cannot balance the books. We are still seeing debt and deficit as far as the eye can see. Rather than have revenues savaged, what is being savaged is the nonsense Herculeanly optimistic, fantasy forecasts of revenue that the Treasurer relies upon time and time again to try and suggest he has got some capacity to balance the budget. What has been savaged is the Treasurer's credibility. That is what has been savaged, not the revenue. The revenue is growing substantially.

As I travel around Australia I know small business owners would love to have their revenue growing at over seven per cent. They would love that. They wish they could have that but they do not because the economy is tough out there. There are no sloppy profits anywhere. There are no easy margins. A lot of businesses are just running to stand still in this economy Labor has created. They would love that growth in revenue the government has got.

Not only has the government spent all of that but they have spent more and driven us into this extraordinary point where Labor has now spent $192 billion more than it has raised over the last five years. We have seen expenditure as a percentage of GDP higher every year under Labor than the last years under the Howard government. They all say 'but look at revenue'. Yeah, that is a cute tactic. When you are not paying your bills, your revenues are down from where they should be. Have a look at the expenditure. Have a look at what is in this budget about some kind of credible path back to surplus.

Here is a graph about the reality of the mining boom revenues. See how it is going down? But in alpine proportions the government expects that it will have this ski jump coming up the other end that will somehow salvage it from its arrangements on revenue. These are the carbon tax numbers. These are the realities of what is going on.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask the member for Dunkley to refrain from using props.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There must be some kind of frozen fingeritis as the Treasurer counts his money. He must have chilblains to try and have people believe that these alpine ski jumps are anything like reality.

The one I think is extraordinary is apparently the boats are going to stop. They are not going to change any policy setting. They are not going to reinstate the Howard government policies that actually worked. But the boats are going to stop. The member for McEwen—I will forgive him for being a bit of a rookie—do you know how many people were in detention who had arrived illegally by boats when the Howard government left office? Four people. Labor used to go around saying that every boat that arrived was a policy failure. They were getting stuck into the coalition because we kept Manus Island open and there was only one person in there. What a nice problem to have. Now there are tens of thousands of people. There is no change in policy but again this budget relies on the assumption that everything is going to be back under control. We will be able to strengthen and protect our borders yet there is no evidence of that.

Our VISA card limit as a nation is $300 million and is under pressure again. It has already been lifted five times by Labor as they fund their spending binge. The budget papers reveal that it will peak again at $370.3 billion in 2016-17 yet there is no provision in here for raising that VISA card limit because the government knows it cannot face its own failure again after assuring the parliament over and over again that it would never be need to be corrected again.

Then there is the Parliamentary Budget Office account of the structural deficits and surpluses. Again, another kind of ski jump—the ones that are above the line are the structural surpluses under the coalition and the ones below the line are the structural deficits under Labor. Even in here there is a very concerning warning drawn to the parliament's attention. It talks about what the government calls its signature programs. Its school improvement program actually saw $325 million pulled out of schools over the life of this government. Again, you are expected to vote for Labor four times before you see any upside. That is a lot to ask of people I would submit to you. It also talks about disability care. It says that it is nice that the structural deficits are made a little bit less worse by the government's approach to these two signature projects. Why is it saying that? It is saying that because, in here, the Parliamentary Budget Office knows that there is less money being spent on schools in the forward years of the estimates. That takes the pressure off the structural deficit Labor has created. They give the government an implied 'thank you' for taking some pressure off the budget structural deficit. But then they say, 'What happens after those years?' There is the ski jump again; the expenditure is supposed to go up. Vote for Labor four times and you might see some upside. Here is the warning saying that that will add to the structural deficit that Labor has created and inculcated into our financial system. It makes the same point about the disability program and the increase in the Medicare levy. It is making the point that more money is being raised to pay for the trials than is needed at the moment, but when the scheme is fully rolled out there is nowhere near enough money. So, even on these signature programs, the Parliamentary Budget Office is belling the cat again that Labor is incapable of managing finances, and that is causing great concern through the Australian community.

We have heard some people say, 'Well, what will the coalition do?' Did you see that fantastic budget address-in-reply by the Leader of the Opposition? What a remarkably good speech. It is probably the best I have seen. I am told by people who have been involved in public life for decades longer than me that it was the best they have seen as well. It was clear and coherent. It was a plan with more fiscal detail than Labor or any opposition leader in the last 30 years has provided. It showed how you could keep what was supposed to be the compensation for the harm of the carbon tax without the hurt of the carbon tax and how that would be funded. With the budget emergency that the government has created we will all have to, as a parliament, face up to some difficult financial decisions. Whatever side of politics is elected, all will need to face up to that economic reality. Even Labor, if they are re-elected, will have to face up to the economic reality. That is why when they are making promises about spending you just have to remember all the promises that have been made already. They have less of a shelf-life than a loaf of bread; it goes off after about a week. This is the problem that we have with this government.

Don Argus has warned people about the concerns and has pointed to the need for consolidation. But I am worried about what it is doing to young people who talk to me about their concerns. They do all we ask of them as a society to train, to prepare, to study to tool-up and to nurture their capacity to make a contribution, and they are wondering where that start will be. Where will that start be? There is nothing in this budget that builds confidence in the economy. There is nothing in this budget that gives some support or a game-changer to small business. There is nothing in this budget that takes the pressure off household budgets. There is nothing in this budget that gives encouragement to courageous men and women who take risks to create opportunities for themselves and their communities. There is nothing of that kind in this budget whatsoever.

What is in this budget is a whole lot of short-term fixes that do not stand the test of analysis. What is in this budget is the longest confession note that they are trying to make life difficult for whomever forms government after the next election. What is in this budget is a testimonial to all the mismanagement, the waste, the debt and deficit of years of Labor, which this nation cannot afford to keep, and the people in this nation cannot bear having it hung over them as a disadvantage for their future prospects and future opportunities. I will give you an example. The debt—$7.8 billion a year will be the interest charged on Labor's debt alone. Imagine what you could do with that. Imagine what you could do with all of the spending that has gone onto non-productive and useless activities that have not improved our capacity as a nation and our prospects for the future. It is quite the opposite.

For the small business men and women who are looking for a sign that Labor had the vaguest interest in their success, there have been five small-business ministers in 15 months. There is no interest in the quarter of a million jobs that have been lost in small business as a result of this government's mismanagement. Even the things they were promising such as the lost carryback, which was a proposition the coalition advocated in response to the GFC, has gone as well. The tax office is saying, 'Don't use it. Do the right thing by the nation.' (Time expired)

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2013-2014, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2013-2014 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2013-2014. The bills are to appropriate money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the ordinary annual services of the government and for related purposes. I do so in the context of Deputy Prime Minister Swan having delivered a budget that is committed to making our nation stronger, smarter and fairer. I do so in the context of being a proud member of the Australian Labor Party, someone who is passionate about looking after older people, especially those living on fixed incomes, Australians living with disability and the families and carers that support them, and students who take the time to put themselves through higher education or training. As you know, Deputy Speaker, education is the great equaliser in Australia. If funded appropriately, it provides great opportunities for the nation, not just in the short-term but in the next 50, 60 and 70 years as we compete with the rest of the part of the world that we are located in, which is Asia.

Unlike much of the world, Australia's economy has been resilient, but I know that for many small businesses and families it has not been easy. I know that people in retail are not being swamped by shoppers pulling their wallets out. I have over 19,000 small businesses in my electorate. I know that they have been doing it a bit tough. Some of that can be traced back to the global financial crisis, some can be traced to the vagaries of an internet shopping world, with internet shopping being on the increase, and some of it obviously can be traced back to a Queensland that has seen 14,000 jobs cut, with the people in the jobs that service these employees suffering accordingly. There has been one good thing about seeing Premier Newman's cuts in Queensland: it has given us a glimpse of what austerity can do to families, to homes, to small businesses and to a state's economy. It certainly has given us a taste of what would happen if the Liberal and National Party were successful on 14 September.

As I said, I know that not everyone in my community is having an easy time at the moment. Many modern families, working mums and dads, are finding it hard to juggle working and caring for children, managing cost-of-living pressures, and supporting ageing parents. These are tough challenges for people. It has just been announced that electricity bills under the Queensland state government are likely to go up by nearly 20 per cent in the next financial year—another cost for families in Moreton to bear.

As a member of the Labor Party I am always particularly focused on jobs, on employment. We know the benefits that come with having somebody in the household working. I was here during the global financial crisis when we voted to secure jobs because of the advice we had from Treasury about what would happen if we did not. What would the Australian community would look like if you cut 200,000 jobs? There would be 200,000 homes where the worker was on unemployment benefits. Not only would that be a big cost to the economy but there would be the social consequences flowing from that. Having grown up in a single-parent household, with my mum being a nurse, I know how horrified many Queenslanders must have been when they thought their front-line jobs were safe only to find their jobs cut by Campbell Newman. Imagine that multiplied. Imagine what we would have seen if 200,000 people extra had been on unemployment benefits.

Jobs are always the federal Labor government's No. 1 priority. We are working hard to support families in coping with these cost-of-living pressures. Obviously as a government under Prime Minister Gillard we have a strong plan to strengthen the economy, to grow those jobs beyond the mining industry. Whilst the mining industry is very significant and is expanding—and there is still a pipeline of infrastructure either about to hit production or about to be assembled—the reality is there are lots of other opportunities for us in this part of the world, particularly in terms of some of those strong Queensland opportunities like tourism and the service industry, and things like education.

Throughout the GFC, the Labor government focused on keeping people in jobs. We spent a lot of money creating new apprenticeships and making sure that economic growth was maintained. In the time that I have been a member of parliament, we have delivered over 900,000 jobs—at a time when nearly 30 million jobs have been lost throughout the world. We have unemployment at 5.6 per cent. Compare that to the 500 million people located in Europe, where unemployment is at 11.9 per cent. There are a few horror stories scattered throughout there. In places like Spain you have got nearly 25 per cent unemployment and some areas have 50 per cent youth unemployment. Imagine the social dislocation that comes with every second young person having no hope and having no job.

Australia has AAA status for the first time ever. We are one of only eight countries in the world to have the status. This status was confirmed again by the rating agencies after Deputy Prime Minister Swan delivered his budget night speech. I know there is fear and misinformation being peddled by those opposite—this relentless jeremiah about debt, doom and gloom. We have the ridiculous situation where the Leader of the Opposition is comparing Australia to Cyprus. We are a million miles from there and we have had the independent rating agencies confirm this.

We are now the 12th biggest economy in the world—up from the 15th biggest economy at the time the Labor Party took office in November 2007. Our economy has grown more than six times faster than those great powerhouse nations like Germany and the United States. This is what we need to be compared with.

I am proud of the Australian Labor Party's achievements and, more importantly, our focus on the future. Look at some of the projects and policies we are rolling out. We have signed the DisabilityCare agreement, which will surely go down in history in the next 30, 40 or 50 years as one of the greatest achievements of any modern government. I was proud to be at Autism Queensland in Sunnybank when the Prime Minister and the Premier of Queensland signed the DisabilityCare agreement that locks in funding for over 2,000 people living in Moreton with a disability. It is a great comfort for them. They will have control over their lives and have support for their families and carers. It will provide certainty for all Australians in the event—horrible as it is to contemplate—that they or their loved ones acquire a disability. They will receive the care and support they need. This policy will kick off in only 34 days time.

Let us look at education, which is something I am particularly passionate about, having been an English teacher for 11 years. In my time here in this parliament—just in the 42nd and 43rd parliaments—we have doubled the investment in school education at a time when the Premier of Queensland in one year in office cut funding to every single school in Queensland. Every state school received a cut and then obviously, as anyone who understands school funding knows, that flowed on to non-government schools. That is a policy to compare and consider on 14 September. This Labor government has invested in education and the LNP government has slashed.

We have upgraded facilities at every single school in Moreton. Sure, it was an economic policy, but Prime Minister Rudd at the time knew that every principal, P&C president and P&F president had a list of jobs that needed to be done and those jobs benefited the tradespeople around those schools. All 9,200 schools throughout Australia received that immediate boost and then the bigger projects were rolled out, such as the libraries, the school halls et cetera.

We have provided more information to parents through the MySchool website. Having been a teacher and having worked for a teachers union, I know how tough this has been for some teachers. They are very professional people. Now we accept it as part of the communication process. It is accepted by all in the community and is one of the most accessed websites going.

We are delivering the skills and training required for the jobs of the future through our $3 billion jobs and skills package. I am proud to say, as someone who only got a break in life because I could go to teachers college, we now have an additional 150,000 students attending university. Who are these people? They are people like me who grew up in rural and remote areas, people with English as a second language or Indigenous people. So we are creating opportunities rather than just catering for the privileged.

Let us look at some of the other great achievements. We have raised the superannuation guarantee from nine per cent to 12 per cent, boosting the retirement savings of 8.4 million Australians. This is something that I am sad to say the Leader of the Opposition has committed to cutting. History will condemn him, whereas history has judged kindly those great leaders like Hawke and Keating who took the time to implement superannuation changes so that all Australians benefit from having managed funds. We are now seen as the Switzerland of the south in terms of having an ability to manage money. It will be a great job opportunity for children in 10, 20 and 30 years time as we move into Asia, India, China and Indonesia to show the great skills we have.

One of our proudest achievements—the one you know is good because those opposite condemn it the most—is our emissions trading scheme. It would have been nice to bring it in on 2 December 2009 but unfortunately the Greens voted with the Nationals at the time and put the kibosh on it. But we do now have a price on pollution at a time when the planet more than ever needs to do it. I notice under the Keeling Curve we went past the 400 parts per million, which should be putting out an alarm bell across the planet. At least we have taken a step, but those opposite have committed to rescinding our scheme and coming up with this hair-brain scheme that will put $1,300 per household extra cost onto it. And it will not work. Their policy seems to be geared towards the low-hanging fruit—and the reality is the low-hanging fruit has already been plucked by the Labor Party's policy.

We have an affordable paid parental scheme already in place, with over 2,000 local families in Moreton benefiting from Australia's paid parental scheme, proudly delivered by Jenny Macklin and the federal Labor government. It is an affordable, responsible scheme, not one that will give people struggling on $300-, $400- or $500,000 a year—paid by the taxes of cleaners and the like—excessive contribution. It does not make sense. We have already had it flagged by some of those opposite. They have planned to not only increase costs, such as the increase in the GST, but also roll out austerity. I am terrified of that. In my local electorate they have made a commitment to not fund public infrastructure, particularly that great policy initiative of the Cross River Rail.

I look forward to fighting, in the lead-up to 14 September, to achieve such initiatives as a new rail crossing at Coopers Plains at the Orange Grove Road intersection. It is a rail crossing that was articulated by Gary Hardgrave back in March 1996 in his first speech, yet he did nothing about it in his 12 years as a member of parliament. I will endeavour to have funding obtained for that. I am also looking at what I call a dragon crossing in my electorate at Sunnybank, between two supermarkets, to make it both an iconic piece of architecture and disability-friendly, and so will put some lifts in for people to cross the very busy main road. I am looking to bringing back koalas to Toohey Forest, working with Darryl Jones and the Griffith University, to look at the feasibility to ensure that the Toohey Forest area can support a koala population, even if it is a support population.

I am committed to getting some money for the local men's shed at Sunnybank, working with the Sunnybank RSL who do great work, looking to upgrade the Acacia Ridge sporting precinct and fund some of the renovations at the Yeronga community centre, install some CCTVs at one of the nightclub areas in Sunnybank Hills and fund some of the necessary renovations at the Oxley Senior Citizens hall, the Sunnybank Special School, the Acacia Ridge community centre and the Kyabra Community Association.

I am proud to be part of the Labor Party because I know that elections are important turning points for the nation. They expose some of the reasons we decide to join a political party in the first place. I know what Labor values are about. They are about supporting families, they are about giving people opportunities and they are about investing in education and providing a disability care program. I am proud of these initiatives. (Time expired)

Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood and Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I proudly rise today to support the appropriation bills 2013. I support a budget that has Labor principles at its very core. I support a government that has not been afraid to make once-in-a-generation investments critical to our nation's wellbeing and development—investments that go far beyond political cycles and parliamentary terms. We are a government that has had the courage to make big decisions about this country's future. This is a budget that puts Australia's interests first. Most importantly, it is about jobs and it is about growth. In my ministerial portfolios, I warmly welcome record investments, yet again, in early childhood education and care and continued funding for successful job placement measures, such as job expos and local employment coordinators. Locally, as the very proud member for Adelaide, I have joined with my community to celebrate the massive funding contribution towards the much needed South Road upgrade in the city's inner north-west—something that I know the Deputy Speaker is also very supportive of.

Before I discuss those specific measures in more detail, I want to go back to jobs and growth and to the need to make choices. Just as our government safeguarded our economy and in turn millions of households across the country from the very worst of the global financial crisis, we must maintain a responsible, steady course, because we have seen what savage austerity in Europe has created: record jobless numbers, growing poverty and business closures—all on a massive scale, all widespread. Labor made the choice when the GFC was knocking on our door not to go down that road. We framed budgets that faced those challenges head-on and insulated our economy with positive investments. As a result, since Labor came to office more than 950,000 jobs have been created. We are proud to be presiding over an unemployment rate right now that stands at 5.5 per cent—one of the lowest in the industrialised world. Our budget strategy has seen Australia achieve the gold-plated stable triple A credit rating from all three global ratings agencies for the very first time in our history—something that the Liberals could not achieve in 11½ years in office.

Ultimately, the proof is in the pudding. In the worst economic conditions in 80 years, our economy is 13 per cent larger, with solid growth and contained inflation. It is in spite of these tough global economic conditions and through maintaining a strong economy, as well as achieving responsible and sensible savings measures, that we are now in a position to enter a new phase of nation-building investment. The National Plan for School Improvement is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn the unfair funding structure for Australian schools on its head—a funding structure that kept too many students back simply because of where they were, the size of their school or a host of other specific circumstances. In this government, we believe that all children deserve a great school, and we are looking at the decisions required to ensure that that occurs. For the first time, we link funding to each student's needs. The budget provides an additional $9.8 billion over six years.

Just as Labor created Medicare, so too will we be the creators of DisabilityCare Australia—the first stable and secure funding stream for people with a disability and their carers. The significance of this move cannot be understated. For far too long, successive governments have shunned the opportunity to reform services for the profoundly disabled, leaving people with significant and permanent disabilities and their families and carers behind. Ours is a government that is changing all of that. The delivery of DisabilityCare will ensure the level of support someone receives does not depend on when or where they were born. I would like to congratulate South Australian Premier Joe Weatherill for being one of the first to enter into agreement with the Commonwealth to jointly fund and deliver disability care across South Australia.

To deliver a stronger economy, this budget also commits $24 billion to vital infrastructure, bringing the government's total investment to around $60 billion from 2008-09 to 2018-19. I also want to take this this opportunity to highlight the massive investments made in my two portfolio areas, both of which are integral to the growth of the economy. Our government will once again deliver a budget with a record investment to improve access to quality, affordable child care for Australian families. More Australian parents have been supported in this budget to access child care for the first time.

The strong growth in the number of children and families accessing child care reflected in this budget confirms that our policies are working. Almost 1.4 million children and over 960,000 families will access child care in 2016-17 supported by government childcare assistance. Never before have there been more children and families in Australian child care or more government assistance to subsidise their fees, something that we are incredibly proud of. That is potentially more than 960,000 people who are able to contribute and play a role in the workforce as a result of this sector which has been so strongly supported by our government. Over the next four years we will invest over $25 billion in early childhood education and care and, just to put that number in context, that is almost quadruple what was invested in the last four years of the Howard government. We are making that investment because we know how important child care is for workforce participation and the economy and because we also know that high-quality early childhood education and care gives children the best start in life and is one of the best investments any government can make.

A number of specific funding measures will help to build a childcare system more responsive and suited to the needs of modern families. Firstly, we are investing $475 million over four years in childcare assistance to help more parents receive the training and skills they need to enter or re-enter the workforce. This includes an additional $27 million in this budget and $225 million in the last budget to support more families with the cost of child care with the Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee Assistance program so that they can get the skills that they need to get into the workforce.

This budget has also delivered access to flexible child care to meet the needs of modern families. Our government understands that there has been a significant shift in the workforce in the last decade with a 25 per cent increase in the number of women in employment—a 25 per cent increase in just 10 years. Obviously, that is changing the way families are structured and it is changing the way that we go about work. We understand that for many families a little bit of flexibility would go a very long way in helping as they juggle work and child care, which is why in this budget we are investing $5.5 million to deliver childcare flexibility trials at over 50 sites across Australia to provide more flexible child care to respond to the needs of modern families.

We have also delivered a $1.3 million childcare flexibility fund, a National Competitive Grants Program, to encourage those who have ideas on the way forward on new and innovative ways that they can better assist both families and children. We are interested in looking at funding those and then ensuring that those trials are backed up by an independent evaluation by the Australian Institute of Family Studies to see how they are meeting the needs of modern families and to see how they may be able to be rolled out more widely.

This budget has also delivered in difficult times a commitment to our professional early childhood workforce, a commitment to our children that they deserve the best quality early childhood education led by qualified educators helping them to learn and develop. Our government understands that the professionalism of the early childhood workforce needs to be recognised on a sustainable and permanent basis across the sector moving forward. That is why we have set up the long-term pathway for early childhood educators to pursue better wages and that is why we have committed in this budget to establish a Pay Equity Unit within the Fair Work Commission. This unit will be able to do the research and collate the data to further assist appropriate resolution across the whole childcare sector in the long term. And of course it builds on the outcomes we have achieved in other feminised industries with pay equity for social and community sector workers and for the aged-care sector.

Also in the interim, we have announced the Early Years Quality Fund to deliver an extra $300 million into the sector to support centres to lift the wages of early childhood educators who meet certain eligibility criteria over the next two years. This is a big step on the path to a professional early childhood workforce. It has now been recognised for the first time in this budget by our government, and I want particularly to acknowledge the work of my colleagues, both Bill Shorten, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and Peter Garrett, the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, for making this happen.

The centrepiece of our childcare budget package is of course fee assistance, making child care affordable and manageable for families right across Australia. This is a tough budget environment but it is a testament to this government's core priorities that we have continued to make record investments in fee assistance, some $22.1 billion over the next four years.

Other governments may have decided under the circumstances to target the fee assistance structure to achieve significant savings. They might have decreased the actual childcare rebate which stands at 50 per cent of costs. They might have lowered the annual cap, the maximum amount per year, that families are allowed to claim through the rebate. Other governments may have also decided to means-test the rebate or even to put a cap on the number of childcare places we fund. We are not that government. This budget continues to deliver the Labor government's support for the childcare rebate which we increased from 30 to 50 per cent. We increased the annual cap from $4,354 per child per year as it sat under those opposite to $7,500. We have made a clear decision to keep that and to not means-test the childcare rebate in this budget because we know how important it is to families with the cost of care. We will continue to deliver these record amounts, although of course we know that those opposite have pledged that all of this would be up for review and placed in jeopardy if they were to win government.

Closer to home, my electorate of Adelaide can also see the significant investments in this budget for themselves. This year's budget brings $448 million to upgrade and widen South Road. I know that everyone in the inner west is aware of the dire need to undertake this work. In fact, just this year alone I have had over 16 street corner meetings in this part of Adelaide and this has been the No. 1 request and concern. This is finding that I strongly advocated for after receiving significant feedback from the local community. Improving South Road has been a strong message I have received from residents in the area and this is a real investment in a real project which I am incredibly pleased to be able to assist delivering for the people of Adelaide.

Specifically, this funding will upgrade and widen South Road between Torrens Road and the River Torrens. It will include sinking 1.4 kilometres of the road below surface. It will include erecting an overpass for the Outer Harbour rail line, building three grade separated intersections at Hawker Street, at Port Road and at Grange Road, upgrading and realigning of the existing South Road to become a surface arterial road from Torrens Road to Ashman Parade and upgrading of Torrens Road intersection and the construction of an off-road shared cycling path which I know many people have requested. It will include installing a new walking trail from Torrens Road to the Torrens River. This funding will significantly ease the congestion along this section of South Road. More importantly, this funding will improve the lives of local residents who are sick and tired of being stuck in traffic, who are sick and tired of spending time bumper-to-bumper that they would much rather be spending at home with their families or in their workplaces being productive.

But we also know that this is a project that you will only get from this side of the House because those opposite have made it very clear that this is a project that will be on the chopping block if they are elected to government, instead choosing to invest funding in the most marginal Liberal seat in the country in Boothby at Darlington in a project which we now is not as high a priority as this one for the local residents that I represent and that the Deputy Speaker Georganas represents to so very well.

There are a number of other budget measures for Adelaide which I am really proud of including the Creative Young Stars program which will help foster the creative young minds of people in our area. Walkerville in the electorate will be eligible for competitive grounds to deliver innovative online local government services using the NBN. There will be more funds for youth cancer networks around Australia with the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide leading this project in South Australia. All of these are incredibly important projects. This is why this budget is a good strong Labor budget and I am so pleased to be representing these significant wins for the people of Adelaide. This is why I am so proud to be part of a government that in challenging times has found a way that we can deliver the school improvements that Australian children deserve, that we can deliver DisabilityCare Australia, our first National and Disability Insurance Scheme, because we have made the hard calls to enable us to be able to adequately fund our proposals. I commend the bill to the House.

Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2013-2014 second reading debate. Australians have great opportunities ahead of us, many of them bestowed upon us by a country abounding in natural resources. But we also have some steep challenges. Some of them, like the high Australian dollar and vestiges of the global financial crisis, are not of our own doing. Too many, though, are incumbent upon us by a government treading through a quagmire of its own incompetence.

Australians are being short-changed by a government more desperate to preserve its own power than to help this great south land to prosper. The Gippsland region puts in far more than it gets out of state and federal economies, whether it is 24 per cent of the nation's milk output, 25 per cent of Victoria's beef production, nearly 90 per cent of Victoria's power generation or more than 60 per cent of Melbourne's fresh water. In McMillan we grow and make and power things. McMillan is the main street of Australia: it is where generations of families settled after World War II to make their homes, start their businesses, grow their farms and build their own towns and communities. Whether I am talking to a group of kindergarten mums in Korumburra, tourism businesses in Warrigal or mechanical engineers at a power stations in the Latrobe Valley, my constituents tell me they want a government that believes in them and that will not stand in the way of their aspirations.

McMillan is now broaching another chapter. With our large expanse of agricultural land, churning coalfields and rolling hills, our region is welcoming a new generation of families: young families who want to start a new life for themselves in Pakenham or Drouin and older folk who want to find a place to enjoy their twilight years. To sustain this we need new hospitals, safe roads and investment in business from government. Yet in this federal budget, despite a largess becoming of a king's ransom being delivered to marginal Labor and Independent seats around the country, not a single dollar spilled over from this pork-barrelling feast into McMillan. Not in the West Gippsland Hospital, not on the Warrigal-Korumburra Road, not on the Korumburra kindergarten, not in Leongatha, not in Wonthaggi, not in Inverloch, not in Drouin, not in Thorpdale, not in Trafalgar and not in Moe. Not even the Long Jetty.

In fact, after this government had gone in for a smash and grab on the power stations in the Latrobe Valley, the very ones that provide nearly 90 per cent of the energy that keeps Victoria's lights burning, this Gillard-Swan government then gutted the Latrobe Valley transition fund. That is the fund established between Regional Development Victoria, Minister Peter Ryan and his former federal counterpart Simon Crean. Both men are passionate about regional Victoria, and both recognise the untold damage that would be unleashed on the Latrobe Valley by ripping the coal industry from under their feet. For the Latrobe Valley, the carbon tax really was arbitrary destruction of shareholder wealth in those power generation assets and the callous disinterest in the thousands of jobs that that industry sustains. The transition fund was the cushion designed to slow the fall, buying time and a buffer of support for the power stations and reliant businesses and jobs to adjust.

Buried on page 37 of the Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport budget papers is confirmation that the Latrobe Valley can now expect an average of less than $2 million per year over six years in the federal government's supposed support for the region's transition to a cleaner economy. As the Latrobe Valley Express reports:

Buried somewhere in the most recent federal budget papers was a figure of $15 million, to be spread over six years, for the Valley's structural adjustment as it moves to a low-carbon economy …

The Express also picked up that this government was trying to squeeze itself out of the $200 million specifically set aside for regions expected to see power generators close under the government's now abandoned Contract for Closure process. This government is now trying to squeeze itself out of that obligation, and my good friend and colleague the member for Gippsland has noted this, saying that the Contract for Closure conditions were a caveat they added later just to get out of it. Rightly so, given the government's Clean Energy Future website refers to:

… assistance supports workers, regions and communities that remain strongly affected by carbon pricing after other forms of assistance have been provided

It does not mention Contract for Closure. If the Latrobe Valley does not fit that definition, then no region in Australia ever would. That the federal government can try to justify reducing support for Latrobe Valley by inferring that regions have not suffered unduly as a result of the carbon tax is an absolute furphy. The carbon tax has had a massive impact on the Latrobe Valley region, on the region's confidence and on the confidence of local business to make investment decisions, which, by the way, they are not making but just holding off on. The government is being dishonest with itself, with its leadership, with the numbers in this budget and with the Australian people by trying to perpetuate this furphy.

There is another injustice that the government is prolonging for businesses and workers in this nation that I want to address, and that is the bludgeoning of small business away from growth, investment, ingenuity and job creation. Weekend penalty rates are being used as a blunt instrument against small businesses, particularly in the tourism industry in regional areas. My longstanding view on this issue was reinforced a couple of weeks ago when I met with about a dozen small business tourism operators from across West Gippsland. These are really iconic Gippsland businesses, which are renowned for their food, wine, hospitality and uniquely exquisite views. One of these businesses, which is just outside of Warrigal, hosted the former Minister for Tourism Martin Ferguson, when, last year, he had the good grace to go there and announce a successful T-QUAL grant. Like his other former portfolio areas of energy and resources, Martin Ferguson knew and understood business and industry, and those sectors trusted and respected him for that.

These small businesspeople are not mini moguls requiring a largesse of profits, as those on the other side would have you believe. They are not making huge profits. They are not seeking to pay a pittance to their workers, even though they often pay that to themselves. They are decent people who demonstrate real ingenuity towards their business operations. People visit this area for lunch or to get away for a weekend—whether to Foster, Fish Creek or Warrigal—and they come back again and again and again. These dozen or so small business and tourism operators and I met recently, and this is what they said to me: 'Russell, weekend penalty rates are killing our businesses. They stop us from putting on more staff. They create bad morale between full-time staff who work to one wage level and the staff who choose to work a couple of hours on the weekend because it is substantially more. This means we do not have enough left over to put back into the business, to make it bigger and better and more sustainable.'

In Gippsland, as in many regional areas, the majority of tourism business comes at the weekend. This is great for students or even for mums or dads who may not be able to work during the week. It suits them to be able to work a couple of hours on the weekend, when they have to be at university or doing a school run from Monday to Friday. But penalty rates set up a two classes of workers—those who work from Monday to Friday and who do a full week for an award wage and those who choose to work those couple of hours on the weekend for an all together better wage. This means that a teenager working for a few hours a week can be paid up to $29 an hour to wash dishes. You can imagine how that would go down in any workplace. It shows a complete disregard not only for the needs of the business but also for the modern realities of today's communities and workplace environs, where choice and flexibility are as important for the employer as they are for the employee.

There is another quintessential Gippsland industry that is being hindered, not helped, by this outdated approach to the modern workplace, and that is our dairy industry—the backbone of Gippsland's economy, where our fortunes ride more on a Jersey cow's back than on a sheep's back. These antiquated penalty rules mean that you cannot employ someone to do less than three hours of work a day, even though milking takes only an hour and a half. The Gillard government is ripping off our dairy farmers by effectively forcing them to pay twice the cost for half the output. There is a potential caveat in these penalty rules which means that, if the work being undertaken is an essential service, the three-hour rule can be overridden. For animal welfare, economic necessity and farmer wellbeing, dairy milking should be retitled as an essential service and be made exempt from these ridiculous penalty rules. These rules mean that a high school student who wants to squeeze in one or two hours of work between their time after school and their VCE study at the local hardware shop cannot, because Bill Shorten says that it is exploitation, not education. I have to note, though, that only last month Bill Shorten was on the ABC radio's Rafael Epstein program, and he did concede that regional tourism operators may warrant being a special case. I can only urge the minister to further develop his consideration of the tourism sector as a vital regional economy and to add to it that the dairy industry is an essential service.

McMillan, as I said, is in the main street of Australia. It is at the economic heart of Victoria, and it is being sorely deprived of the realisation of its full potential by this Prime Minister. As I said to my local branch meeting last week, if the Labor Party do not change the Prime Minister in June then we will change the government in September. Australia deserves so much better.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak these 2013-14 appropriation bills today and am disappointed that I only have a short amount of time to do so. Exposing the failures of this government has sadly become far too easy and its incompetence continues to undermine people's faith in this parliament. Following the non-spill initiated by the member for Hotham, Simon Crean, in March, it is apparent that Australians will have to endure this shambolic Labor government until September, despite efforts on both sides of the parliament to bring about an early election because of its dysfunction.

Today I would like to discuss some of the implications of this budget on the people of Canning. Clearly, this budget has been compiled by spinmeisters rather than economists. It is a dishonest budget and I am sure the Treasury officials despair when they see this government make a mockery of our nation's most important fiscal document. Why do I say it is dishonest? It is because when the Treasurer delivered his speech he said, 'I now say this is a budget about jobs and growth'. The budget papers said growth would be less and jobs would increase, so it just cannot be true. On that note, it has become increasingly difficult to determine if elements of the Australian Public Service have become politicised or incompetent, as Graham Richardson pointed out on his show recently. He said someone has to be blamed for these wildly incorrect predictions.

The Treasury head, Martin Parkinson, has tried to defend himself but he should learn that advice to your political masters should be frank and fearless. As we know, his predecessor, Ken Henry, not only involved himself in partisan views but also took a job in Prime Minister Gillard's office when he left. So it shows where he lined up.

Looking at some of the assumptions in this budget makes me wonder if Treasurer Wayne Swan believes Australians are fools. Wild assumptions paint a rosy picture of times ahead, despite it being clear that we are headed for tough times as a result of the mishandling of our public finances by this government. Firstly, let us look at the carbon price assumptions, which renowned economist Henry Ergas has described as garbage.

The budget contained a major backflip by Minister Combet—and indeed this government—by writing down the projected carbon price for 2015-16 to $12.10. The coalition said for many years that Treasury's original prediction of a European carbon price of $29 a tonne was fanciful. After defending the indefensible for far too long the government has backed down and more than halved this predicted price. The problem is that $12.10 is still far higher than what the EU carbon price is expected to be, which is currently $5 a tonne.

Most worrying is how the government has arrived at this figure of $12.10. Did they investigate the likely movements in the market based on expert advice, current trends or other meaningful analysis? No. Amazingly, the economists were apparently sent to the back of the room while the spin doctors crudely drew a straight line between where the carbon price is and where they need it to be in order to meet our emission reduction commitments. Maintaining a goal is one thing but to roll the dice with Australia's economy and base revenue forecasts on an aspiration is simply careless.

Herein lies evidence of the fundamental failing of this Labor government. Rather than take a prudent approach to public finances, they spend what they do not have—in other words, they have a spending problem not a revenue problem, based on shaky predictions and wildly optimistic assumptions that never eventuate. This is a terribly irresponsible way to run a government and simply would not be tolerated in the private sector.

Such foolish behaviour is not limited to the carbon tax revenue predictions. The mining tax projections have also been subjected to this government's overly optimistic manipulations. Raising just $200 million this year, the tax has raised 95 per cent less than the projected $4 billion that was originally forecast. Over the forward estimates, rather than raising the $26.5 billion that was originally forecast, the mining tax will only raise something like $5.5 billion. After this embarrassing write-down, did the government learn from its mistakes? Not likely.

Despite this enormous write-down, Australians are expected to believe that the MRRT revenue will increase from $200 million this year to $2.2 billion in 2016-17—in other words, a 10-fold increase that is not validated or justified in the budget papers. It is just a prediction. Treasurer Swan blamed the lower terms of trade on the high Australian dollar for the write-down in revenue. The budget papers point to slightly lower terms of trade in the years ahead and the Australian dollar is to remain high and yet somehow we will receive a thousand per cent increase in the MRRT revenue. How does that work? Australians have now witnessed what happens to a budget when it is delivered by a treasurer with no past experience in economics or public finances. Collecting union dues clearly does not prepare a treasurer to be a competent person to run a $1½ trillion economy.

I would like to take a moment to dispel a myth that has been peddled by Labor members and their apparatchiks, claiming the budget is now in structural deficit because of the policies of the Howard-Costello government. As Judith Sloan articulated in last week's Australian, the Parliamentary Budget Office report which initiated this falsehood is littered with errors and omissions. Take, for example, the fact that the stimulus spending was omitted from the calculations used to determine the structural balance—$67 billion of Commonwealth expenditure removed from the calculations was simply omitted. The PBO's report which attempted to argue that the Howard government was responsible for a structural deficit is just nonsense. The effort to try and shift the blame from the spendthrift government that has been office for almost six years and has delivered record deficits to a responsible government that delivered record surpluses is a sad and desperate ploy.

Any amendments that this government deemed necessary to fix perceived structural problems could have been implemented long ago—in fact when it first got in. Only the ABC and its commentators would like to peddle the myths contained in the PBO report. Viewers watching the Insiders program yesterday would have seen Niki Savva as the voice of reason among Labor apparatchiks. Mike Seccombe tried desperately to place the blame for the parlous state of our nation's finances on the Howard government. I suggest that Mike calls one of his Labor cronies and asks them what they have done to address the problem that he attributes to existing prior to the 2007 election. Alternatively, I suggest that Mike puts his bias to one side and subjects his beloved Labor Party to adequate scrutiny, as he should as a commentator. One would expect that from a professional commentator on such a show. Better still, he can fly back to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts and continue writing for the Vineyard Gazette and allow the ABC an opportunity to adhere to its charter on providing a balanced program. Unlike many of those at the ABC, Australians have measured this government. I am not down on the ABC; I think it is a great broadcaster and I would like to see it never being subjected to privatisation. People like Chris Uhlmann, Leigh Sales and Latika Bourke report the news and give excellent commentary, unlike predecessors such as Kerry O'Brien. People used to bail me up on the street about his adequate and balanced reporting on the ABC.

We have heard that this Treasurer promised to deliver balanced budgets and we were told hundreds of times after last year's budget that he was actually going to deliver a surplus—a wafer-thin $1½ billion surplus. What Australians actually received in this budget was a $19.4 billion blow-out, larger than economists had predicted, yet Australians were not overly surprised as they have become accustomed to bad news from the Gillard government. I am told time and time again in travels across my electorate that they are simply waiting for September to let this government know what they think of their economic management. They manage their household bills and, when they see a government that cannot manage an economy, they are frightened and worried about it continuing. The old saying that they were waiting for Keating on their verandas with baseball bats has now gone in my opinion. They are now sitting with bazookas on their front verandas waiting to deal with this government.

We have demonstrated that this year's budget does not help Australian families deal with the rising cost-of-living pressures. Because Labor has failed to be fiscally responsible Australian families are now paying for Labor's waste and mismanagement. In fact, data released last week by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling underlines the fact that Australian families are paying for Labor's waste. The data shows that the cost of raising a child has risen 50 per cent in the six years of this government, while billions have been wasted on everything from pink batts, school halls and cash for clunkers to cost blowouts on border protection, the NBN and the set-top box programs. I could go on. It is Australian households that are bearing the brunt of this waste and mismanagement. Childcare fees have risen 22 per cent in just two years and our indexation of the childcare rebate is not recommended to be until 2014. Indexation of income thresholds for claiming family payments and FTB supplements are also on hold until 2017, after the next federal election, so two elections away. Increases to Family Tax Benefit Part A payments have been scrapped. This affects more than 11,000 families in the electorate of Canning. Family Tax Benefit Part A arrangements were set to increase up to $300 per eligible families with one child and $600 per families with two children and more. Slated increases to the tax-free threshold have been axed, affecting people earning up to $80,000 a year. The average income of a person living in the Canning electorate is $30,000 a year, based on the ABS figures. The abolition of the baby bonus is also going to hit expectant mothers.

This budget reveals that Labor's total investment in school funding for primary and secondary schools decreases—$325 million over the next four years. In fact the budget clearly shows that over the forward estimates period new or additional money for education will only come from state and territory governments who agree to these Labor proposals and not from the Commonwealth itself. It is a cruel hoax and those advocating give a Gonski are being misled on this issue. In terms of Western Australia, analysis reveals a $229.2 million reduction over three years for school education. Labor's model essentially penalises Western Australia for investing in education over the years. I say to my constituents, 'You deserve better.'

I just wish to talk about the effect of this budget on Western Australia. Many times in this chamber and the House of Representatives I have broached this subject. Anyone who spends any time in Western Australia understands the level of frustration that is felt among locals who can feel the wrath of Canberra pilfering the Western Australian wealth. Perhaps this anger would be lessened if taxpayers knew what the money is being spent on. However, six years of economic mismanagement spiralling debt and wasteful spending have eroded the faith of Western Australians in this government. Premier Barnett is often dismissed by his opponents, particularly the federal Labor Party, when he defends the right of Western Australia to receive its fair share of Commonwealth funding. I often think about Labor Party room and the despair that they must feel and of the daylight robbery. I know how Mark McGowan must feel because he cannot wait to get out of Western Australia every time Julia Gillard comes to the state.

In an article in the West Australian by Gareth Piker on 23 May this year, he pointed out in a heading, 'WA taxes carry a nation', going on to say:

Almost $15 billion more in taxes leaves WA each year than flows back into the State in Commonwealth spending, a WA Treasury analysis shows.

The article points out that net contribution to the other states and territories is a staggering $6,447 for each resident from Western Australia, way beyond that of the other two donor states, New South Wales and Victoria. So WA gives $6,447 per capita, New South Wales gives $301 and Victoria $235. The takers are Northern Territory, $17,058; Tasmania, $6,706; South Australia, $3,087 and Queensland, $1,325. This is in face of the fact that WA's share of the GST is 45c in the dollar. Treasury estimates that Canberra took $42 billion in taxation from WA but only spent $27 billion in the state in 2010-11. That is the most recent data. Treasury sources say the prediction was unlikely to improve as the state budget is handed down.

This compares with the excessive spending on the electorates of the Independents in this House. The member for Lyne and the member for New England have been bathed in money since this government has been in place and we all know why. This government survives on their two votes. It is not fair that states like Western Australia are being milked of their resources when you have this government cravenly wasting money and then pork-barrelling their own electorates. For example, my electorate has received nothing to date from this government under the RDA. And this compares shabbily to the amount of contributions: I have the second-highest number of fly-in fly-out workers anywhere in Australia. They deserve some of their funds to be returned to them. (Time expired)

Geoff Lyons (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to add my remarks to the debate on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2013-2014 and related bills. This year's budget keeps our economy strong, makes the smart investments for our future and ensures that every Australian gets a fair go. Importantly, the 2013-14 budget sets the National Disability Insurance Scheme in stone—one of the biggest social reforms our country has seen. For too long, successive governments have shunned the opportunity to reform services for the profoundly disabled, leaving behind people with significant and permanent disability, their families and their carers. The government is proud to be changing that. Delivering disability care will ensure the level of support someone receives does not depend on where they live or on the manner in which they acquired the disability. Around 1,850 people in my electorate of Bass will be eligible for support under disability care, which is fantastic.

Australians have a choice in September this year: a choice between Labor protecting jobs, caring about the vulnerable and making the smart investments we need for the future, or the coalition's savage cuts to the bone, and its slash and burn. The member for Warringah's choice would be to cut to the bone so hard that he would put tens of thousands of jobs at risk and grind the economy to a standstill, stopping growth—like President Hoover. The savage cuts of Premier Campbell Newman in Queensland and the Liberals in Victoria are an entree to what will happen if the Liberals win in September. Before the election, the Leader of the Opposition wants you to believe you can have lower taxes, less savings and smaller deficits all at once. Yet we all know that after the election he will slash and burn like his mates in Queensland and Victoria. This is a mindless recipe for higher unemployment and lower growth.

We on this side are governing for the future, investing in infrastructure and working to deliver the NBN. We are looking after regional Australia and thinking about what is important to local communities. For example, in the recent budget it was announced that every Broadband for Seniors kiosk would receive extra funding for a new computer and touchscreen monitor, ensuring seniors can benefit from a wider range of interactive computer applications and programs. There are many kiosks in Bass, at Invermay Bowls and Community Club, Glenara Lakes, Ainslie House in Launceston, Elphinwood Gardens, UAC, Aldersgate Village, Masonic Homes of Northern Tasmania, Fusion Home Support, PCYC Incorporated, Uniting Care Tasmania, Pilgrim Uniting Church, Ainslie House in Low Head, George Town Neighbourhood House, George Town District Hospital and Community Health Centre and Bridport Ex-Service and Community Club—all of which will benefit.

I am also pleased to be able to tell seniors in my electorate of Bass that the federal government is supporting a three-year trial program to support pensioners over pension age to downsize their homes without an immediate effect on their pensions. There are over 9,600 pensioners in Bass who will take part. This is a great opportunity for them. There are also more than 12,600 local pensioners now benefiting from Labor's historic pension reforms including the biggest increase in pensions for 100 years. Since 2007, single pensioners on the maximum rate are receiving $207 a fortnight and couples on the maximum rate are receiving $236 a fortnight combined. We are also looking after families. For many modern families, with mums and dads juggling it all—working, caring for children, managing costs of living pressures and often supporting aged parents. While jobs have always been the federal Labor government's No. 1 priority, we have also had to work hard to help these families deal with the very real pressures that they face. In Bass, 990 local families are benefiting from Australia's first paid parental leave scheme, delivered by federal Labor. Around 80 local dads and their partners are already benefiting from Labor's new dad and partner pay since 1 January 2013, which provides two weeks paid leave to spend time with their new child and their family. More than 6,900 local families with 12,100 schoolkids get help with back-to-school costs each year thanks to the Labor government's Schoolkids Bonus. Eligible families will get $410 for each child in primary school and $820 for each child in high school, paid in two instalments each year.

We are also looking after workers. Approximately 37,000 taxpayers in Bass received a cut on 1 July 2012 and around 31,000 taxpayers received a cut of at least $300, and 3,000 local residents will pay no tax at all, due to the tripling of the tax-free threshold. This will make a big difference to family budgets. The average wage-earner in Bass now pays approximately $2,103 less in income tax than in 2007-08 as a result of Labor's cuts for lower- and middle-income families, which is significant. It is also worth noting that recently I had a jobs expo in my electorate of Bass, where 2,400 people attended and well over 200 full time and part-time jobs were filled. Labor understands the dignity of work and the dignity that work provides.

There are 311 local workers already benefiting from Labor's new Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme. This scheme delivers on the government's 2010 election commitment to provide greater certainty for Australian workers. If their employer enters into liquidation or bankruptcy and they cannot pay their full entitlements, like annual leave and redundancy pay—the Leader of the Opposition voted against this—we will protect workers' entitlements. Labor has looked after Bass and I am very pleased with the support Labor has given to my electorate.

Thousands in Bass would be left behind with a coalition government—6,900 eligible families and around 12,100 children if the schoolkids bonus is ripped out. They will cut to the bone, ignore the needs of the future and always ignore those in our community who have no voice. The Gillard government will always act responsibly to prioritise jobs so that the economy works for more people. We know that the biggest threat to the Tasmanian economy is the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition is coming under increasing pressure to change the way the GST is distributed and we have just heard from a member from Western Australia. They are into GST, don't worry about that.

Let me inform the House that the Liberal candidates in Tasmania have been espousing that the only way the GST formula can be changed is by agreement with all state premiers. This is not the case. The distribution of GST is determined by the Treasurer. It is the Treasurer who signs the determination of state revenue-sharing relativities that are used to distribute the GST, under section 8 of the Federal Financial Relations Act 2009. It is not something that is agreed with by the states or requires change; only the Treasurer. There is a requirement that the states are consulted, but the Treasurer has full discretion. It is for this reason that Tasmanians and South Australians are worried. Tasmanians are worried that the GST could take away from our state, resulting in massive cuts to essential services, like hospitals and education.

Treasurer Wayne Swan has assured Tasmanians that the Australian government will support the principle of horizontal fiscal equalisation. The Liberals are hopelessly divided on this issue. The Liberal premiers of Queensland and Western Australia believe they deserve a bigger piece of the pie and the Leader of the Opposition has said he is sympathetic to their concerns. In fact, he says one thing to those states and then comes to Tasmania and says something completely different. What we have to do some time or other is get it in writing—because that is what he says you can believe.

It is clear that if the member for North Sydney, Joe Hockey, becomes Treasurer he could decimate Tasmania's revenue with the stroke of a pen. Do we trust Joe? No. They have free rein to make their own decisions, and that is a $600-million risk to Tasmania's finances. Labor has worked hard to protect jobs and support families and that is what it will keep doing. The Prime Minister has a plan to strengthen our economy, to grow jobs beyond mining and support families so that no one gets left behind.

Throughout the GFC, Labor focused on keeping people in jobs, creating new apprenticeships and maintaining economic growth. Australia has triple-A status for the first time, one of only eight countries in the world with a 12-biggest economy, up from 15. With Labor, our economy has grown more than six times faster than Germany and the United States. We are helping families, working hard to protect jobs and investing in the future.

Those opposite have had a negative, disruptive five years in opposition and they have been too lazy to come up with a plan. Their document that was released in Tasmania this week is supposed to be a plan. It is no plan. It is all smoke and mirrors—and mostly mirrors because all they are going to do is look into it.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the appropriation bills for 2013-14. Where does one start? Perhaps we should go back to 2007. We had the economy growing strongly. We had record low unemployment. The previous coalition government had fixed the problem that we had on our borders. Our borders were secure. The budget was under control. The previous coalition government had paid back $96 billion of the previous government's debt. What often gets forgotten is that not only did they pay back that $96 billion but along the way they also paid $57 billion worth of interest. So they paid back the $96 billion in debt and $57 billion in interest repayments. On top of that, they put $45 billion in reserve in the Future Fund. It often amazes me when I come into this place and hear members from the other side saying that the Howard government never did this and never did that. They had to pay back $150 billion of Labor's past debt and deal with that first before they could put aside $45 billion in the Future Fund.

That was back in 2007. Then of course we had the then opposition leader, Mr Rudd, acting as a John Howard light and convincing the Australian population that he should be given a go: 'It'll be all right. We'll continue. I'm a fiscal conservative'—I remember the words. That was back in 2007. Here we are with the Labor government delivering five deficits in a row, the five largest deficits in our nation's history—$192 billion combined budget deficits.

This year, after promising us a surplus, we end up with a $19.4 billion deficit, and we are still counting. The financial year is not over. I know there is talk about banning live odds. I would like to bet a few dollars that that $19.4 billion will blow out and be a lot more by the time the final figure is weighed in—coincidentally, after the election. Next year we are promised a deficit of $18 billion and the following year still another deficit.

I remember sitting down in the House 12 months ago when the Treasurer delivered his budget speech. I have a copy of it here. The budget speech delivered on 8 May 2012. He said:

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Treasurer started:

The four years of surpluses I announce tonight are a powerful …

What a complete load of crock. He went on:

This budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time.

It goes on. The Treasurer also said:

The deficit years of the global recession are behind us. The surplus years are here.

He continued:

Surpluses that provide a buffer against global uncertainty, and continue to give the Reserve Bank room to cut interest rates for families—

And again:

… we're balancing the books.

What an absolute farce!

But it was not just in the budget speech. Take some of the other comments that we heard from the Treasurer and the Prime Minister. Here we have the Prime Minister on the Today show in November 2010. The Prime Minister said:

The Budget will be back in the black, back in surplus, in 2012-13.

Laurie Oakes said, 'Guaranteed?' The Prime Minister said, 'Yes.'

Then of course we had the Treasurer on the Sunrise program on 18 August 2010. The Treasurer said:

Well, we're getting back into surplus in three years, Kochie.

David Koch responded:

Okay, come hell or high water?

The Treasurer said:

Come hell or high water.

And of course it goes on.

Then we had the Prime Minister in a speech on 13 April 2011 when she said:

My commitment to a budget surplus in 2012-13 was a promise made and it will be honoured.

We saw that promise broken. It was not honoured on budget night just a few weeks ago.

This language is detrimental to every elected official in our country. As politicians, we try to think that we do the right thing and have a proud reputation, but when we have a Prime Minister and a Treasurer that make statements like that time after time after time and when that is on top of the promise that there 'will be no carbon tax under the government I lead', is there any wonder that the public out there simply do not believe a word the government says? When they come in now and make all these grandiose promises, the public is simply taking them with a grain of salt.

When we talk about the debt and the failure to deliver a surplus and delivering none out of five and not being able to produce a surplus and running up the deficit, what does this actually mean to the public? If you look at this year's Budget Paper No. 1, page 10/9, 'Australian Government general government sector net debt and net interest payments', it shows the cost to the community.

If we go back to the last year of the Howard government, 2007-08, we actually had $45 billion in the bank. On that the country was earning $1,196 million in interest—$1,196 million was coming into the government revenue before we collected a cent of tax. If we look at that across the 150 electorates, that was $8 million for each of our 150 electorates coming into the country, that we could have done things with. Mr Deputy Speaker Symon, I am sure that in your electorate there are a lot of things that you could do with $8 million. I know I certainly could have. That money of course has all gone—spent—and of course the debt has been racked up year after year after year.

In this year and the next three years there is the interest that we must repay. Forget paying off any of the principal, just the interest alone. I will go through the numbers. This year we have to pay $8,238 million in interest. Next year it is an estimated $7.8 billion. In 2014 it is estimated at $8.4 billion and in 2015-16 it is estimated at $9.7 billion. This year and for the next three we as a nation must pay back in interest only, mainly to overseas foreign interests, $34.23 billion. That is $34,230 million that has to come from the pockets of the taxpayers of this nation and we send it mainly overseas just to pay the debt that this government has racked up. That is the cost. That works out at close to $1,500 for every man, woman and child in this country. Or $6,000 for every household of four. That is what is going to have to be taken out of their pockets to pay for the waste, the mismanagement and the dysfunction of this government. That is why we go on about the debt; that is why it is important to deliver surpluses; that is why this reckless spending must come to an end.

I could go on for hours and hours and hours about many objectionable things in this budget. In the remaining time, I would like to raise just a few. Firstly, the cuts to the self-education expenditures. The government has capped that amount at $2,000. How can we do this? How can we stand here and claim we want to be the clever country and talk about investing in skills, and yet we cut that rebate, the tax-free threshold, the tax break, down to $2,000? There are many industries where $2,000 worth of educational expenses can be spent in a day, especially in our professions. This policy is the exact opposite of what we should be doing.

Secondly, we come to Labor's carbon tax: a farce and a deception from day 1. The world does not owe us a living. The only way we can maintain our standard of living and to grow our prosperity is to make sure our nation maintains and protects its competitive advantage. The carbon tax trashes our competitive advantage. Of course we know the carbon tax is ready to go up. It will go up at the end of June and it is also set to go up the following year. And then it goes back to the European ETS.

When we look at the pricing assumptions, we see in 2015-16 that somehow the government forecasts that will be $12.10 and yet the current European forward price is less than $6. This is just incredible. The Treasury is basically saying—they have picked a commodity that the Treasury believe they have greater forecasting than all of the other modellers in the world, all of the other forecasters in the world, and they are telling us that the forecasting and the forward prices are actually half. If that is the case, if Treasury is so confident, we should go out and spend billions of dollars buying up these European carbon credits at $6 because our Treasury tells us it is going to go to $12.

And guess what: it gets better. They say that in 2019-20, this will be more than $35. These forecasts are a farce. They make a complete farce of Treasury forecasts and they question the autonomy of our Treasury and the accuracy of their forecasts. But it is not only that way with carbon tax, it is also the same with the mining tax. All of a sudden the mining tax—that tax has hardly raised any revenue and yet we are expecting these massive increases in the mining tax—going up and up and up—contrary to every other forecast.

Then we have the asylum seekers, a $400 million industry created by the Labor government. No doubt there are people smugglers throughout the world who will be cheering for a Labor victory on 14 September. We know we have had 40,000 arrivals on more than 680 boats since this Labor government reversed the Howard government policies. To put that in context: over four years we had three fleets that settled this country—the First Fleet, the Second Fleet and the Third Fleet. Those three fleets consisted of 26 ships and 4,000 people. We have had more than 10 times that arrive under this Labor government.

As I said, I could go on and on and on, but one thing that does concern me is what this government has promised on the NDIS. There is no-one in this chamber who wants to see a National Disability Insurance Scheme delivered more than I do. But, when we have a look at the numbers, the spending does not actually roll in until 2016-17. In fact, for the next three years, there is even less spending than the Productivity Commission recommended.

This budget is a farce. It is built on dodgy figures. The Australian people deserve better. On 14 September, there is a tsunami coming. We are going to see Labor members of this parliament wiped out from coast to coast. (Time expired)

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I really do try to be positive, but that was an absolute nonsense comment. First and foremost, I do not doubt the member's sincerity in wanting an NDIS, but without Labor you would not have one, full stop. As for Tony Abbott, he has agreed to our NDIS program and our project. I have to say in terms of the budget—on which I heard a waffle emanating from the other side—that our budget was so bad that they are going to accept it! So hello, hallelujah! Talk about a load of waffle—and do not be too sure about your tsunami, cobber. You know, the old weather forecasts are not that good at times. In your arrogance, that is fine, but be it on your head when the results come in.

Anyway, I am very pleased to support this budget through the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2013-2014 and related bills. It is a historic budget because it is in the Labor tradition of having a fair go—

An opposition member: The Labor tradition of debt!

and this year's budget highlight—which you are going to accept, by the way. You are going to accept it, so settle down.

Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind everyone that use of the word 'you' is inappropriate. Members should direct their remarks through the chair.

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is novel. That is very good. Thank you. You are absolutely correct. We are locking in a long-term funding model for the historic needs based investments in DisabilityCare Australia—locked in, over time, based on need—and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, along with the reformative National Plan for School Improvement, based on the Gonski review. The principles behind it? Fairness, equity and based on need. These are two needs based reform programs of historic proportions introduced by Labor and here to make it better for our disabled citizens, their families and those who care for them and also for our students in every one of our schools.

I strongly believe in DisabilityCare Australia and the National Plan for School Improvement. This will go down in history as part and parcel of the great Labor reforms like the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the envy of the world; the Medicare system that we have, the envy of the world; and floating the Australian dollar—well, that is not the envy of the world, but it was very important for the economic development of Australia. These are proud achievements. These are Labor government achievements. No amount of waffle emanating from the other side is ever going to be able to deny that.

We have provided in our budget $14.3 billion over seven years to 2018-19 to roll out DisabilityCare Australia nationally, on top of—that is on top of—existing Commonwealth disability funding. DisabilityCare Australia requires a strong and stable funding stream to provide Australians with a disability, their families and their carers with the funding certainty they deserve, so they can have confidence that this vital reform will be locked in place. Come on board, states and territories of Australia. Do not worry about this government; worry about those governments, particularly coalition governments, Liberal governments in particular, and this so-called coalition opposition.

DisabilityCare would be especially important for families with children with disability, the scheme having a very strong focus on early intervention support. We know how early intervention services like physio, speech therapy and support for learning difficulties are critical in giving children the best possible start in life. DisabilityCare will mean that children with a disability get the right support early in their lives so they can reach their full potential as adults.

When the scheme is rolled out nationally in 2019-20, around 460,000 Australians with significant and permanent disability will get the support they deserve. In Tasmania, this means that around 11,000 people with disability will be supported by 2019-20. This enduring reform will greatly benefit the country and my region in particular where more than 2,100 people with a disability will be supported on an individual needs basis. This is great for the country, it is great for my state and it is great for my region but, most importantly, this will make a huge difference to individuals and families.

Two local constituents of mine relayed to me their perspectives of DisabilityCare as mothers of profoundly disabled adults. I would like to share those perspectives. They see a better future for the parents and carers of children with a disability. It is fantastic to hear 'a better future'. Before DisabilityCare, people would have to endure waiting lists to get equipment, indeed, sometimes for three or four or more years. There will be no more patching and making do to make something like a wheelchair last until your name finally comes up on the list for replacement. Parents and carers will not be reduced to essentially begging service clubs to assist in funding equipment and services. Indeed, how often have we seen families and friends fundraising for the disabled, trying to get funds from here and there to put towards an important piece of new or up-to-date equipment or to maintain worn out equipment?

DisabilityCare will take the stress out of crisis situations. Carers, parents and disabled persons will be supported in a crisis. Parents will be given piece of mind for the future. It is common for parents and carers to have a dread that in their death or their inability to continue to care, the disabled person will not be taken care of in a suitable manner. I can only begin to imagine what it would be like as a parent or close relative caring for a disabled family member to worry about what would happen to them once the parent became too old to properly care for them or became sick or even died. Having certitude of care and funding will be an enormous relief.

There will also be freedom of choice and not just that but more choices. No longer will the disabled have to accept mediocrity often because that is all there is available. Disability will also be more 'in the face' of the public. There will be more awareness, more acceptance and less social stigma. The disabled will be able to be matched to their abilities, not their disabilities, in the workplace and in social settings.

I thank these two mums for their thoughts and also for the great service they do for their respective children and the community. They, like so many other parents, families, friends and supporters of the disabled have campaigned long and hard for reform. I know how hard it has been to be heard and how abandoned at times they have felt. As government members and as a parliament, all of us in this chamber have legislated and now budgeted to make their lives and their children's lives better. It is a reform that every Australian should be proud of.

When it comes to the important area of school funding, the Gonski review highlighted what everyone already knew—that our school funding model needs to change. The emphasis should be and must be on needs. Too many schools and students are being left behind. Our school results have not been improving as much as they could, certainly in comparative terms. That is what the National Plan for School Improvement will change. This historic reform to school funding will create better Australian schools for generations to come, ensuring our classrooms, our teachers and our students are properly resourced. We can reach our goal of being in the top five education systems in the world by 2025. We need to keep pace with the rest of the world because investing in creating a smarter country will lead to economic opportunity and prosperity. It is not enough to be a clever country. We need to be smarter as well. Investment will increase year by year throughout the six-year period of the agreement.

This is the most comprehensive reform of school funding for 40 years. The plan will establish a national schooling resource standard, which includes a benchmark for student amount and extra money through loadings for students we know need it most. Loadings will be available to students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, Indigenous students, students with limited English and students with disability and will reflect school location and size. By making every school a better school, we will help young Australians get the best possible education to seek to secure a high-wage, high-skilled job for the future.

Unfortunately, in my electorate of Braddon, we have some of the highest levels of disadvantage in terms of educational indices. These programs are going to advantage my region and hopefully bring us in line with the rest of the country. This goes for all my schools in my region. The NSP will also be complemented with funding to improve and enhance teacher quality and training, expand local school decision making, and further develop high quality programs to improve literacy and numeracy as well as resource our classrooms so that all students can learn in the best of teaching and learning spaces, using the most contemporary of IT communications and research platforms. One of these, of course, is the National Broadband Network with all its unlimited potentialities and capacities. Unfortunately, those opposite not only oppose the NSP and the needs based funding and resourcing model it is premised on but they also oppose the future by opposing the NBN.

The National Plan for School Improvement and DisabilityCare are not just social and educational reforms, as important as they are, but they are also significant fundamental economic reforms. Needs based funding in the Labor tradition leads to a country where no-one is left behind due to where they live or their physical limitations. This leads to a country where everyone can reach their potential and be contributors to the nation's society both economically and socially. This is a better Australia, an Australia with and supportive of opportunity.

The budget strengthens the foundation of Australian agriculture, contrary to the views of some of those opposite. It prepares our farmers for future challenges and lays the groundwork for the opportunities of the Asian century which was absolutely reinforced on Saturday in Brisbane by the Minister for Agriculture Joe Ludwig and our significant resourcing of something like $40 million into the National Food Plan with a whole host of national initiatives associated with it, particularly the $28.5 million investing in an Asian food market research fund and to support the whole Asian century push and thrust both of the economy and in particular in relation to the food and fibre industry of this nation. It has been well received by the National Farmers Federation and other significant agricultural and agribusiness associations and organisations.

I congratulate the minister on this plan, along with the very important reforms that were announced most recently and budgeted for in the budget, particularly in terms of the National Drought Program Reform and the household allowance system that we have developed in its place and also importantly the investment in national farm assistance packages to assist those farmers and those viable organisations in our rural and regional Australia to cope with the difficulties that they are being challenged with at the moment—a whole complement of factors and influences—to allow them to try and get them through these challenges and at the same time to provide a pre-emptive tool for rural and regional Australia, particularly in relation to drought and its effects. I wish to reiterate the good work of Minister Ludwig, particularly on those programs and the National Food Plan recently announced.

The budget in terms of my electorate was very supportive with something like $119.6 million towards the Tasmanian freight revitalisation program. This will improve safety, reliability and competitiveness of Tasmania's rail network including upgrades to the West Coast Melba line and particularly in anticipation of the responsible economic development of mines in our region. I was very pleased to be at a mass pro-mining rally on the weekend at Tullah on the West Coast where the community sentiment was very clear that they want and support responsible economic development along with the proper protection of the environment where it is appropriate and necessary and that they want people, particularly from the hard Green side of politics, to accept balance.

Unfortunately we do not have much to look forward to on that side of things at the moment, because they are prepared to used every legal means to oppose any successful application agreed to by the Tasmanian government and the federal government. I thank Minister Burke for the fact that he did not list the entire Tarkine region on the national estate, but certainly significant Aboriginal sites and culture were recognised and for his acceptance of the application for Shree Minerals. I look forward to further applications from venture minerals on the west coast being successful. At the same time we can be assured that we will protect our very important very environment. (Time expired)

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill No. 1. The people of the Hasluck community do not claim to be wealthy nor do they cry poor. People in the community are quiet achievers, getting on with the business of life without too much complaint and fuss. The community is not particularly vocal about government policy and usually just adjusts to the changes that affect their lives without too much drama. But as I have been out door-knocking in my community and meeting people at local events, I am hearing more and more stories about individuals and families who are struggling under this government. I am hearing stories about families who are struggling to pay the ever increasing costs of private health insurance, struggling to pay for their weekly grocery bill which seems to be forever rising and struggling to pay for the electricity bills which have gone up directly due to the carbon tax. Essentially they are struggling because the decisions of this government are making it difficult for them to get on with their lives. They are facing additional pressure because this government is putting in place more plans which are costing their families.

This budget has provided more of the same that this government has been serving up since its election in 2007. This budget has yet again shown this government's true colours—taking a direct hit to the people of my electorate and around Australia, making it more difficult for families to make ends meet. Not only does this budget do nothing to help families deal with the rising cost-of-living pressures, it adds further uncertainty to their future outlook, making it even more difficult to plan ahead. What we knew before and was evidenced again in this year's budget was that this Labor government's financial and budget management is in complete chaos. This year's budget offering delivers more debt, more deficits, more taxes, more broken promises and more uncertainty. If we did not think that this could get much worse after the previous six years of chaos, debt and spin, it could. What this government seems to have failed to realise is that Australians are desperately seeking stable and competent economic management. They are seeking an end to the perpetual chaos they are experiencing at the hands of this government and they are instead looking for a government they trust to manage the economy. Above all, they are seeking for hope, reward and opportunity.

For the last five years this Labor government has been unable to deliver a budget surplus. It has been unable to deliver any kind of credible economic plan. This government wants us to believe that they will deliver a plan for the next decade. Deputy Speaker, forgive me if I seem somewhat cynical about this prospect. With the announcement of the fifth record budget deficit in five years and an increasing record level of net debt—now at $192 billion—it is laughable to suggest that this government is able to provide sound economic judgement about the decade ahead. The positive news for the people of the community of Hasluck and all around Australia is that the coalition does have a strong, positive plan for the future and one that we will deliver economic stability and one that will provide hope, reward and opportunity.

The coalition has a plan that will offer immediate relief to the many families in my electorate who have gradually been experiencing the squeeze of the rising cost of living that is a direct result of the actions of this government. To my colleague on the other side, to begin with our mindset is completely different to this Labor government. We do not believe that governments have money of their own. We believe that government money is the people's money. Today's spending is tomorrow's borrowing and next year's repayment. Governments have a responsibility to spend money wisely. Just as families and businesses need to live within their means, governments also have to live within their means. This is a vital lesson that it would seem this government has missed. The coalition does not take money for granted and we do not believe any government should. I am concerned that with this budget and those before it it is clear that this government has taken the budget and the economy for granted. Year after year it would seem that this government is adding to the mortgage simply to pay the grocery bill. This reckless and wasteful approach to the budget needs to stop and responsible government needs—

Ho nourable member interjecting—

Don't worry; we will teach you. This government was so determined to introduce a mining tax and a carbon tax, yet it was unable to get the figures right. So bad was this government's prediction about the budget that we saw this year's supposed revenue shortfall go from $6 billion to $12 billion, to $17 billion, and this all happened within the space of a mere few weeks—record Labor debt. The budget papers reveal that Australia's gross debt will breach Labor's $300 billion debt ceiling within the forward estimates. The budget papers foreshadow a further increase in the debt ceiling stating that:

The government will legislate to increase the limit as it becomes necessary.

At the last election, Prime Minister Julia Gillard promised that Australia's net debt would peak at less than 90 billion. This budget reveals that the net debt will now peak at over $191 billion, more than double what was promised by the Prime Minister. The Treasurer has delivered his fifth record deficit in five years, with at least two more years of deficits to follow. This will be Labor's 12th deficit from its last 12 budgets. The last Labor surplus was in 1989. Last year the Treasurer promised a surplus of 1.5 million, but instead he has delivered a deficit of more than 12 times as big at 19.4 billion. This Labor government is addicted to spending, contrary to what Labor is claiming.

Mr Champion interjecting—

It has a spending problem; not a revenue problem, Member for Wakefield. Revenue in 2013-14 is projected to be $80 billion higher than at the end of the Howard government, yet the Treasurer plans to deliver his sixth deficit in a row because spending in 2013-14 will be at $120 billion higher than at the end of the Howard government. In his budget speech, the Treasurer blames the high Australian dollar for having savaged revenues, yet this was one assumption in last year's budget which was actually right. With Australia's terms of trade still extraordinarily high, 15 per cent higher than at any other time during the Howard government, the budget should be back in surplus, but over the last five years the government has spent $192 billion more than it has raised. Expenditure as a percentage of GDP has been higher every year under Labor compared to the last years of the Howard government.

Labor's planned return to surplus is not credible and presents a potential black hole for future budgets. The claim of surpluses in the two out years relies on virtually no further deterioration in the terms of trade in the next two years. This is a heroic assumption and puts at risk the projected small surpluses in the two out years. It assumes that the terms of trade will remain far higher than in any year of the previous coalition government. The great big disappointing mining tax has become problematic. The forecast revenues for the mining tax personally and secretly negotiated by the Prime Minister in June 2010 have collapsed from $22.5 billion to $3.3 billion over its first four years. Mining tax revenue in 2012-13 is a staggering 95 per cent below the Treasurer's original MRRT revenue forecast and the spreading benefits of the boom package, which was the centrepiece of the Treasurer's last three budgets, seem to have been deleted altogether from the budget papers. Despite the comprehensive failure of the mining tax to raise any meaningful revenue so far, the Treasurer's 2016-17 surplus promises rely on mining tax revenue increasing by more than 10 times from its level this year. This government is clearly out of its depth when it comes to the budget. Australia needs to get back on track and it cannot afford another term under a Labor government.

This year there is a clear choice for Australians to make. On one hand, under Labor there is more chaos, more confusion, more instability and greater spending. On the other hand, under a coalition government there will be stability, security and confidence in Australia. There will be hope, reward and opportunity. The coalition has a plan with practical, real solutions to get Australia back on track. We will take pressure off families and deal with Labor's budget emergency, building a stronger, more prosperous economy. The coalition has practical solutions to help families of my electorate and across Australia cope with the ever-increasing cost-of-living pressures they are facing. The coalition will continue with the current income tax thresholds as well as the current pension and fortnightly benefit rates. We will do this by getting rid of the carbon tax to provide an instant relief to household budgets. We will also require the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to make sure that prices do not remain artificially raised when we abolish the carbon tax, ensuring that households are the ones to benefit from the removal of the carbon tax.

Since this Labor government came to power in 2007, electricity prices have risen by 94 per cent and gas has gone up by 62 per cent. This is an incredible burden, contributing to the cost-of-living pressures on families, made much worse by the carbon tax. Unlike this Labor government, we in the coalition want to ensure that families and individuals are able to get ahead in life. I want to see my community, a community full of hardworking families and individuals, have every opportunity available to them. I want to see a stronger, more connected, more sustainable local community. That is why I am pleased to be able to support the many coalition initiatives, which stand in stark contrast to what this Labor government has shown us in this year's budget.

One example of this is internet connectivity. In my community, there are many families, students and businesses who are disadvantaged by their inability to access broadband internet. There are black spots in areas that the government has not serviced through the NBN. Despite the promises of the former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to provide fast broadband for all Australians by this year at a cost of $4.7 billion, there are many residents who are missing out while the government's NBN languishes behind schedule and is dramatically over cost, with predictions it will cost up to $90 billion all told. The residents of the black spot areas in my community include those in the suburbs of Thornlie, Southern River, Huntingdale and Gooseberry Hill. They should not be missing out on the internet because it is simply not politically convenient for this government. Only the coalition will deliver an NBN to these black-spot areas as a matter of priority, because we understand the importance of families and local businesses being able to access broadband internet. We will deliver broadband to all households by 2016, doubling the speed by the end of 2019. This will make a practical, positive difference to the lives of members of my community.

Another way that the coalition will make a real and practical difference is through investing in key infrastructure for Australia's future. For too long, there has been no plan for future growth and no plan to encourage investment in Australian infrastructure. Even now, this government has failed to address the problem. The Property Council of Australia has identified:

Yet again, the government is making it harder to attract capital to Australia on the basis of Treasury's inadequate, cherry-picked analysis of global regimes.

In my community, which is experiencing significant growth due to the mining sector, infrastructure investment is not only desirable; it is necessary to ensure a future of sustainability.

John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to bring to the attention of the parliament today a very important matter concerning the Yaralla Estate, in the heart of my electorate of Reid, at Concord. The estate was vested in the Crown under the Walker Trusts Act 1938 in a magnificent act of philanthropy by the late Dame Eadith Walker. The New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage acknowledges that the Yaralla Estate at Concord is the largest community bequest of its era, being of circa 37 hectares, to survive in an intact form in New South Wales.

The New South Wales Ministry of Health Sydney South West Area Health Service, the SSWAHS, is the present Crown authority responsible for the control, management and administration of the property. In an attempt to move the New South Wales Mounted Police Unit from their Redfern base, the New South Wales O'Farrell government, through the Ministry of Health, had entered into a sweetheart deal to relocate the New South Wales Mounted Police here and evict the current horse owners and assessment lessee from the site. No tender process was entered into. Only now, after the howls of understandable protest from local residents, has the New South Wales Liberal government backed down, but only to quash the previous decision in favour of a tender process which the local community has no confidence in. This does not go far enough, and the O'Farrell government should cancel the notice of eviction and allow the people and the horses to stay on this beautiful environmental oasis. This site was intended to remain for the use and benefit of the people and, quite frankly, this plan goes against the philanthropic acts of Dame Eadith Walker.

Yesterday, I attended a very emotionally charged rally of hundreds of local residents, who are campaigning to save Yaralla and, in particular, allow the horses and their owners to have access to this beautiful land. The rally was held on the site, complete with horses and owners. I wish to read out the very heartfelt address delivered to the people attending the rally by one of my constituents, Ms Alex Gavel. Alex is a local schoolteacher who, here in Canberra, captured the mood of the local people that I represent about the future of the Yaralla Estate. These are Alex's magnificent words:

On behalf of the Yaralla Horses, their owners, and the greater community let us express how thankful we are for the many faces that are here today. It is your passion and encouragement for this plight that inspires us to keep pushing forward in our cause, on your behalf. And it truly is OUR cause. We believe that this issue affects everyone.

Some of you live next door, some agist horses, some walk their dogs, bike ride through the grounds or bring their children to visit the horses.

Yaralla belongs to all of us.

There are many who have felt the need to question our integrity or motivations, claiming that we are just a small 'self-interest group'. Today we would like to set the record straight and tell you some of our story.

My name is Alexandra Gavel. I agist a horse at Yaralla, and consider myself, first and foremost, a member of this amazing community. I was born in the inner-west, I have grown up in the inner west, and I still live and work in the inner west.

Anyone that has had the opportunity to keep their horse at Yaralla, both in the past and present, have always considered it a privilege. But we are by no means a 'privileged' group. We are fellow members of your community, ordinary people!. I am a school teacher at a local high school. There are teenagers that ride their bikes after school to care for their horses, Uni students, parents, a child care worker, health care workers, air craft pilots, government workers, life long residents of Concord West and even the local dog groomer.

I was a 10 year old girl, absolutely obsessed with horses. Every Christmas, every birthday, in fact every day, I pleaded with my parents to buy me a horse. Yet the closest I would ever get was an occasional excursion to a trail riding establishment. Horses were all I ever thought about. As an adult, I actually feel bad for the guilt trips that I put on my parents who were raising three kids, struggling with the expenses of daily living and completely unable to afford the upkeep and care of a horse.

In 1996 a compromise was made and I will never forget the day that I discovered Yaralla Estate. My Dad had heard through a friend about the paddocks at Concord and so he told me we could have a look. Most people here today know the feeling that the 10 year old me was struck by when we drove through the top gates. The disbelief that a place so beautiful existed so close to home, the joy in seeing horses grazing and people riding, and the immediate respect for a very special person who left her property to the people to continue to enjoy as she had.... Thank You Dame Edith Walker for your gift thus far.

We barely made it through the gates when, under direct instruction, we pulled over. The very first horse that I met was Seamus, who still resides at Yaralla, though long retired now. I am sure I petted every horse there that day; Annie, Amber, Buddy, another Buddy, Romeo and Mikail just to name a few.

But the most special pony that I met that day was Willie, otherwise known as 'Yaralla's Captain Willie'. Willie had been one of the first horses on the property and had begun his time at Concord sharing a paddock with cattle. Willie had taught numerous children how to ride and care for horses including me.

My dreams were starting to come true. The opportunity presented itself to lease Willie on weekends. I am sure my parents only consented to this as it was the perfect way for me to learn just how time consuming and difficult it is to care for a horse... Unfortunately for them, this arrangement made me even more committed to my life goal of owning a horse.

Willie passed away 2 years ago in his paddock at Yaralla at the impressive age of 37.... it was a sad day for the Yaralla horse community.

When I finished school the first thing I did was get a job, then a horse. At 17 years old I got my first horse Wiskey, who is here today. Not only has Wiskey taught me so many lessons in the 11 years that we have been together, he has had the privilege of teaching many local kids and adults how to ride.

I cannot explain to you how perceptive Wiskey is. Whenever I am dealing with a lot and feeling completely lost and overwhelmed, it still amazes me how he is able to clear my mind- often best done with a game of hide and seek. These horses are our best friends, our children in some respects. This community has always respected and valued their place in the Inner West. Many residents know the horses by their names, some have even made up their own names for them. But it seems that SLHD think that a 'horse is a horse' and that they can be replaced... according to our critics we need to 'accept change and move on'.

Many of you will agree that Yaralla isn't just about the horses, and that is true for the horse owners as well. Many of us have other ties to the estate that make it so precious. One of the horse owners, a life long resident of concord has shared this unique place with her family. She spent much of her youth around the estate, has raised her 3 kids there, supported her mother through her dialysis treatment at the main house and shared her father's last moments when he suddenly passed away on the estate. Yaralla has always held a special place in my heart too as a place that I have shared over the years with my dad, and as of December my connection to the estate has become even stronger as my fiancé proposed to me at the stairs to the main house. I have no doubt that every person here today has some special memory of Yaralla that they hold dear.

We have finally been given the 'report' that was the basis of our eviction. As a school teacher, let me just state that to call it a 'professional report' is a stretch of the imagination. SLHD have expressed to us that it was written by supposed 'experts' in the field. However, the truth is that it was produced by a project management consultancy with political links to the State Govrenment and SLHD and nowhere in the report are any references made to expert opinions, best practice guidelines or research evidence. The report also discusses the Mounted Police Unit as a preferred tenant, proving that the very purpose of the report was to install the Mounted Police at Yaralla. The decision was already made to evict the current horse owners and the report was commissioned and carried out by SLHD to serve that very purpose. BlueVisions was provided with their briefing … Out with the community and their horses!

Let us make it clear, the purpose of our campaign is not, and never will be, a vendetta against the Mounted Police, nor are we insensitive to the important role this unit fulfills. We respect and commend the Mounted Police for their service to the wider community. However, we fail to see how this nullifies the wishes of Dame Edith Walker to leave the grounds to the people of NSW for the purpose of housing local horses, for Health services and for public space. This is exactly how the grounds have been used for more than 3 decades.

In addition, the Mounted Police, whilst proposing to house horses on the grounds, are a government department none the less. A number of attempts have already been made in years gone by to develop the site. Should another attempt be made, we fear that a fellow government department is far less likely to put up as much of a fight to preserve the site as we have and that this invaluable community resource would be lost forever.

The fact is that Sydney Local Health District—

that is, SLHD—

is a trustee of the land, without ownership of it. Their reasons for eviction are unfounded, biased and in some cases unsubstantiated and completely unfair. Whether lawful or not, their actions are not in the interests of the community and at very least contravene the philanthropist intentions of the Walker Estate when the property was bequeath to the people of NSW.

Do we have a vested interest in the property continuing to function as it has? Yes we do. Indeed, it is our argument that the entire community shares this interest …Yaralla should stay as it is and be used as it is for many generations to come.

So where do we stand now?

SLHD have cancelled their dodgy deal with the Mounted Police Unit and will be putting the Yaralla paddocks out to 'open tender', with the Mounted Police still being identified in a recent Risk assessent report commissioned by the SLHD as the unanimous preferred candidates. Not quite a step forward, merely an attempt to undo their most obvious wrong doing that this community held them accountable for.

However, there is still no certainty that the communities concerns will be considered. How can we be sure that the criteria set by SLHD does not favour a certain applicant such as the MPU? How can we know that the Mounted Police Unit won't just happen to be the 'most ideal' and preferred applicant identified by an O'Farrel government/ SLHD panel.

Regardless of the change in process, the agenda remains unchanged. The Mounted Police were the favored tenant all along and no one in the community should trust that this will be a fair and open process.

Speaking of fair, open and honest …Everyone would have passed the barrier fencing along the Yaralla Driveway today … I ask … how many of you have walked across that land in the last 5 years?? How many of you witnessed in shock as I did the men in masks and suits digging up the dirt??

It has been noted by SLHD that "hazardous" and contaminated waste was identified and subsequently removed from this site within the last 3 days. Workcover has visited the site and informed some residents of the Estate concerned with the acitivities, that it was indeed asbestos that the SLHD had commissioned to move, and it states as such on the workcover applications submitted by contractors.

Why were was there no community announcement, why were the people who access Yaralla not told of the immenent danger or risk and at least provided with a request to avoid the area during the de-contamination phase? … Shame on you SLHD … You continue to cling to your excuses, and your blazae fair regard for the degraded state of the Yaralla paddocks … You state it is due to your expert focus on the provision of Health Care services that you have overlooked our beloved Yaralla … You state you are not experts in management of horse paddocks … Well, I am pretty sure that failure to notify the community and neighbours of Yaralla of asbestos removal on this crown land accessible to the public is a direct and intolerable breach of your duty of care as elite public health care providers!!!

Despite all the opposition that we face, we still believe a solution does exist that will benefit the entire community.

SLHD have continually reminded us throughout our campaign that they 'don't do horses', their priority is local health.

Well guess what—NSW mounted police have a priority too—policing. There is absolutely no guarantee that they have the resources to ensure the upkeep of Yaralla. In fact, if the state of their other spelling facilities around the state is evidence of anything, it is that they are NOT ideal tenants for Yaralla.

Solution—our very own Canada Bay Council IS in the business of managing community spaces. The most obvious way to ensure that the Yaralla paddocks remain a public space is for the Canada Bay Council to manage an interim licence and to apply for the public tender. They can oversee its maintenance and use where the SLHD fell well short of their responsibilities.

Of course, this is easier said than done. The Mayor Angelo Tsirekas has strongly committed to exploring this option, but we, as the community, need to communicate how important this is to us that council support this community campaign for Yaralla.

There is still a bigger issue at hand. As a community we cannot just overlook the gross negligence that SLHD have demonstrated over the past 17 years. As trustees of the Estate there is simply no excuse for the poor dilapidated condition that they allowed the main estate building fall into, regardless of their very recent attempts to prepare it for its new purpose.

There is absolutely no excuse for the lack of care, lack of inspections and lack of support for the condition of the paddocks. Someone needs to be held accountable for this Dr. Anderson CE of the SLHD and Chairman of the Board Ron Phillips.

There is absolutely no excuse for putting the health of the community at risk by dumping hazardous waste on the property. As mentioned previously it has come to our attention late this week that 'hazardous waste' that was dumped as landfill on the estate approximately 4 years ago, known to volunteer members of the Local Heritage society, contains Asbestos. Community members it is time for us all to be outraged with the SLHD. What they have done is completely illegal, completely dishonest and absolutely disgusting!

We must hold the trustees accountable for their gross negligence by pushing that the Yaralla Estate be taken away from SLHD and be put in the hands of a body, such as council, that are better equipped with the resources to maintain a higher standard of upkeep and care.

We need everyone here today to be writing letters to Barry O'Farrell to identify your disillusionment and distrust of the current state government and to the Mayor identifying your support, make phone calls, make your voice be heard. We will continue to fight for this beloved resource, but we need your help. To truly exercise people power we need you, the people. There is still more work to do and we are still a long way from the result we are all working towards.

We thank you for your attendance today and for your continued support … We must make a call for action … We must enforce a change … the horses have 6 days until eviction … This is the thin edge of the wedge … Make your voice be heard!

I too join with Alex Gavel and all the friends of Yaralla Estate and call on the O'Farrell government to cancel the eviction of Alex and all the wonderful— (Time expired)

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18:18 to 18:31

Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being past 6.30 pm, the debate was interrupted in accordance with standing order 192, and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for the next meeting .