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

I also want to reflect on the fact that the mismanagement of the economy over the last six years means that a Noongar cultural centre within my electorate will not be funded. If we think about the $1 billion we pay per month in interest, all of those initiatives that I have outlined could have been funded with that money in reality. So the aspirations of people in my community are dented by the fact that we do not have the capacity to move forward in the way that they had anticipated and expected. I look forward to a better budget and a better economic future for Australia under the Abbott government. I want to be able to deliver the programs that Hasluck wants and needs, for the constituents who live within my electorate. I look forward to a government with the benefit of hindsight and the establishment for the use of resources that come back into the economy that enables us to build those very things that are the fabric of any community in which we live. To me, mismanagement is an indictment because it has an outcome that is unpalatable. I would hope that Labor has learnt from those last six years and that whenever they come back to the benches they do not squander the opportunities for future Australians.

I commend these bills to the House. I certainly look forward to a future in which our economy prospers and grows, and in which the budget deficit accumulated over the last six years is reduced, and in which we move back, in the long term, to deficit levels that will enable initiatives in my electorate to be funded in the future.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will not, as others will have in this debate, from our side of the House, lambast the government for its budget, although I probably could. I could even be critical of the previous speaker.

But I want to use these appropriation bills to talk about a single person who has had an enormous impact on the lives of many Australians, in particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but most importantly, Aboriginal people in my own electorate of Lingiari. I am talking about Kwementyaye 'Tracker' Tilmouth. Tracker was born in 1952, in the south of the Northern Territory as an Arrernte man. From the age of three, like so many others, he was taken away from his family and country with his brothers, William and Patrick—three years old, stolen from his family, taken from his country.

In Tracker's words, the 'lighter skinned' older siblings had been sent to Adelaide, which Tracker saw as a reason for us 'darker skinned ones'—himself, William and Patrick—to be sent north. They were sent initially to Retta Dixon home in Darwin for around six months. Tracker was a little unsure as to how long this was. Then he became a resident of Croker Island, which was run under Commonwealth authority by the Aborigines Inland Mission in 1956. Then at Minjilang, Croker, he stayed for quite some years, until his teens when he left. In 1963, he was taken to Somerville Homes, where he undertook is secondary schooling in Darwin.

In the late sixties and early seventies, he returned to Central Australia. I am giving you this background because this man was a unique individual, and someone who, when the history books are written, will be seen to have had a significant impact on the way we think around issues to do with economic development on Aboriginal land—particularly in the Northern Territory—and most particularly, the place of Aboriginal people in this country.

When he arrived back in Central Australia, I am told that when he arrived at the airport, he and his brothers were there with a welfare officer, who introduced them to his father, then apologised that his mother had died—so much sadness.

He returned back to Central Australia, and among his first jobs was sweeping a floor at a meatworks in the abattoirs. He worked as a stockman at Angas Downs station, and then went off to work at Uluru—Ayers Rock then—at the petrol station. He worked in a garage there. Later he went back to Alice and worked in the building industry—I think probably with his brother Patrick—as a painter and roofer. It was in this period that he became engaged actively in the world of Aboriginal affairs and, as he was later to do, became employed with the department of Aboriginal affairs, I think, probably as a field officer.

He was instrumental in working with others as a founding member of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, an internationally renowned healthcare organisation delivering primary health care to Aboriginal people in Central Australia, and of the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service. He was very much a part of the foundation of these two organisations. He became employed by the department of Aboriginal affairs and he worked in places as far-flung as Docker River and Urapuntja—or Utopia—to the east of Alice Springs, which is the region where his family was from, as it happened, and where he made contact with his relations and later was recognised as a traditional owner of Alcoota, to the east of Alice Springs.

He was a man of great intelligence. This is a young Aboriginal bloke who had been stolen by the state, sent to Croker Island and back to Darwin, and then came back to Alice Springs. He was a man of innate intelligence and creativity who knew that he needed to learn more. During the late eighties, he was sent away again, on his own volition this time, to Roseworthy college in South Australia, where he got a bachelor of agricultural science. That opened up a whole vista for him around areas to do with land management, and gave him a better and deeper understanding of things he innately knew about country. When he arrived back from his degree, he was a bit of a pest around the Central Land Council, I am told.

I actually think I met Tracker in the late seventies or early eighties, when I was working in Central Australia for the Australian National University in a remote part of the north-west of South Australia, mostly, and through Alice Springs. I think it was then that I met Tracker and I suspect he was probably a field officer. In any event, he came back to Alice Springs with a fire in his belly and he went into the Central Land Council and then, because of his perseverance but also because of his intelligence and his background, he was appointed assistant director, between 1990 and 1994, and became the director, from 1994 to 1999.

He then moved on, after 2000, and moved back into Northern Australia, west of Darwin, where he pursued what was a long-term goal for him, something that had germinated while he was at Croker. He had imagined people getting fish and other seafood without hassle. That was new to him, being involved in fishing. From around 2003 onwards, Tracker was involved in the purchase of land and embarked on establishing an agricultural prawn farm. He gained the permits, built the ponds and a home, and grew his first crop—no mean feat. Remember his background. Remember his background.

But during all this period—I have given you a bit of a potted history of his employment—he was engaged in the public debate. He was engaged in holding governments to account. He was engaged in making sure that Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory became aware of issues that were of importance to them. He did many things. He was involved in developing a land management system for Aboriginal people living on their land. In 1992, a GIS was developed with him, with help from the CSIRO, for the Central Land Council departments to use in pastoral land management, fire strategies and other program areas. He was involved in negotiations with mining companies in the CLC region that set national benchmarks for such agreements. In 1994, he renegotiated the Mereenie gas agreement to include 15 per cent Aboriginal ownership. In 1995-1996, he was involved in the Granites gold mine agreement and had a previously unheard of level of Aboriginal employment and training successfully implemented for close to 20 years. He was a man very much before his time, asserting the rights of Aboriginal people to a place in this country, and a place in their own countries, around economic development and through the exploitation of resources.

He restructured and refocused the operations of royalty associations for traditional owners in Central Australia. In 1998, significantly, he gained the financial, land, human and other resources required for the development of Centrefarm in Central Australia, a means of Aboriginal employment and investment in the horticultural industry, something that is still operating today. Between 1989 and 1997, he planned and oversaw the purchase of five pastoral leases for Aboriginal traditional owners. He was an enigmatic figure but he had a real passion for getting people involved in employment.

Tracker organised constitutional forums for Aboriginal people to plan for their futures. In 1998, he was instrumental in developing the Kalkaringi statement, which came out of such a forum. It was instrumental in the successful opposition to statehood proposals for the Northern Territory that did not constitutionally enshrine Aboriginal land rights. He was absolutely imperative and really fundamental to opposition to reform proposals by the then Howard government through the Reeves review of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act and prevented those reforms going ahead by working with the countries and the Aboriginal owners of those countries in the Northern Territory to oppose the proposals.

There are many other significant things that Tracker did during his long working life. He made a difference—he made a serious difference—to the way we see and work with Aboriginal people. I am proud that he was a mate of mine. Occasionally he gave me a bit for my corner, and that was all well and good. But he did not spare me and he did not spare many others when he was of that mind.

In 1998, he had the opportunity to enter the Senate. Bob Collins had retired, and the national executive was to appoint a new person to take that position. Tracker was approached. Kim Beazley, the Labor leader, was in his corner. The then national secretary, Gary Gray, was in his corner. Laurie Brereton was advocating very strongly on his behalf. It was Tracker's if he wanted it. Sadly, and to the shame of some, his position was undermined by people inside the Labor Party who were spreading vicious rumours about him, and he decided not to do it. Then he made some very serious and very funny, I think, assertions about the Labor Party and its ability to contemplate looking after the interests of Aboriginal people. But he should have been a senator, and the world would have been a different place, let me tell you. It would have been an interesting ride with Tracker in the Senate. I do not know what he could have been, really, but it would have been a very interesting ride and I am certain, if he had been there, he would have been a minister—no question. He was that sort of person. He was self-deprecating and he used acerbic language, but he was really one out of the box.

I want to just quote a couple of his mates, one of whom was Jack Ah Kit. In an interview with the ABC this morning, I think, he said: 'Tracker would support his arguments. While he may be viewed as controversial, he always stood by what he was saying and he needs to be remembered for being a strong-willed person with a great sense of humour. Tracker was a role model, a mentor, a strong advocate and a self-confessed mongrel,' which he was. Another friend, a very close, lifelong friend said this:

He was larger than life, irreverent to the nth degree, funny as Larry, a shit stirrer and a lunatic rolled into one. He was a green eye charmer and the most faithful of friends to us even though we fought one another most of the time. God threw away the diecast after he was born and there'll never be another character like him who could simultaneously mix with the elders in remote communities; camp with them for weeks and speak their language; muster their cattle with them; then move back to his house in upper suburbia (golf course Alice Springs); a card-carrying member of the CFMEU; a Palestinian one day, an Israeli the next; one who could mix with his coalition mates; revert back to an avowed Labor supporter when it suited him, or be the epitome of an anarchist the next "the nigger on the back verandah'; he helped many whitefellas to become rich ('I'll remind a few of them that at the funeral), was forever scheming (just days before he died) to try to become the first Aboriginal billionaire.

He was the ultimate chameleon and his motto as he said to me should have been "I can be what you want me to be". He was, to steal a song – "A walking contradiction, partly truth. partly fiction."

He was a legend and we loved him (still do) and he'll never be forgotten.

To his wonderful wife, Kathy, and their beautiful children, Amanda, Shaneen and Cathryn, can I say he was a much loved person—you know that—but above all else, he loved you more than anything.

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

Mr Deputy Speaker Goodenough, on indulgence, I just want to associate myself with the words of the member for Lingiari. He was an incredible man. Thank you.

Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to rise to speak in this debate on the appropriation bills that give all of us in this House an opportunity to talk broadly about the budget issues and, as we just heard, talk broadly about any other issue of public importance. The member for Lingiari showed in his moving speech the broad nature of this appropriations debate. Although we are on the budget bills, technically, convention of course allows members to speak on any topic at all.

This afternoon, I want to speak about the budget, not so much from a national perspective, as important a focus as that is for all of us—and we will have heightened focus on that later in the work with the release of the Intergenerational Reportbut for the residents of the electorate of Casey about some of the local initiatives that we pledged prior to the last election and that are being rolled out now across the Casey electorate. From a local perspective, I was determined to pursue local policies that would build a safe community, a stronger local economy and a stronger community. I took those pledges to the last election. It is very fitting that my friend and colleague the member for Mayo and Assistant Minister for Infrastructure is in the House. He has been responsible for implementing each of the initiatives that we took to the election. He has been out to the Casey electorate, and I have discussed the timing of the funding of so many of the pledges. It is fitting that he is here at this hour, because the appropriation bills, the budget bills, which fund all of the big programs that we argue about and debate in this House, also fund the very local things that are community priorities.

I wanted to do what I could with the community to build a safer community. That has entailed funding that has been provided by the minister at the table on behalf of the government for security cameras in the town of Lilydale and the installation of security cameras for the first time in Healesville and Yarra Junction. All in all, $250,000 is being provided. Those cameras are set to be installed throughout the course of this year.

There are two local school communities crying out for funding for car parks. Both schools are right near Warburton Highway, which runs out through the Yarra Valley. For parents dropping off and picking up children it was becoming very hazardous. For the Launching Place Primary School and the Woori Yallock Primary School funding was provided for the construction of new car parks at both of those schools. Those works are due to commence around the middle of this year and will be completed after just a few months.

In the heart of the Casey electorate we have a not-for-profit driver-training centre, Metec, which I have spoken about before. It is based in Kilsyth. It has done so much for so many local residents learning to drive. It provides a safe off-road environment for those who are about to get their licence or may have just got their licence to learn to drive in a safe environment, in fact, to learn in a safe environment what to do when they lose control of a car. The electorate of Casey is very like the electorate of the minister at the table, the member for Mayo. They are probably the two most similar electorates. The Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Ranges in the electorate of Casey and the minister at the table representing an electorate of similar size through the outer suburbs and the Adelaide Hills. So many young residents learn to drive and get their licence. The very first night they can drive into the country in hazardous weather conditions. Over more than 30 years, Metec has provided important courses. It is great that we have contributed $100,000 so they can extend what they call their car control area, which to the rest of us is known as a skidpan, where young drivers can learn what to do when they lose control of their vehicle in the wet.

There are a number of initiatives that are being rolled out to strengthen the community—four Green Army projects in particular. The first has already commenced, at the end of last year, in the Yarra Valley, broadly from Healesville, Yarra Glen, Steels Creek and a number of other towns. That is underway. I had the pleasure of meeting the team of 10 doing that great work. They are working for six months for a wage to improve the local environment. Three others, in Mount Evelyn, in Monbulk and along the Warburton trail, will commence later in the year. They will do great work and it will provide a great opportunity for those 18- to 24-year-olds who are signing up for that important project.

Of course, sporting facilities are very important to all of our electorates. They are also so often a community hub. That is why there was priority funding for the Don Road sporting pavilion in Healesville, as well as the Queens Park oval, also in Healesville, where junior sport is played. Works on those projects will commence towards the end of this year. The Monbulk netball club required a court resurfacing and new shelters. This was something that they had been wanting to do for a long period of time. In partnership with the council, with a federal grant, I was pleased to be out there just the other week to see works commencing. Those facilities are due for completion in April this year. The Mount Evelyn Football Netball Club, as so many clubs experience, had no change rooms for the netballers. With an innovative project involving the northern metropolitan institute of TAFE and partnering with the council, funding has been provided for the construction of those change rooms. They are being built at the TAFE and they are due to be installed in the coming months. Similarly, for the Yarra Valley netballers, where a new 24-court facility has been built, funding was provided to shelters for those courts, which was a priority for the Yarra Valley district netball association.

The smallest grant of all was to the Warburton Millgrove football club. The member for Mayo, who is in the chamber, as a very intelligent football fan, supporting the same football team as me, will appreciate this. The club required new goalposts because they had never had professional goalposts fitted. In fact, they had concrete posts that had been fitted some decades ago. So a $10,000 grant has provided them with some goalposts, which will enable that country town to host finals and will have a good effect on the local economy. The Yarra Junction Football and Netball Club will get funding to upgrade their change rooms and provide a new storage area and a gymnasium for the cricketers, footballers and netballers. At another local level at Healesville, $55,000 was provided for a case study to examine the feasibility of the hospital becoming independent. That study is underway now.

I mentioned programs to build a stronger economy. I want to focus particularly on two. One is the Yarra Valley tourist railway. The minister very quickly executed this important contract. In fact, he came to Healesville to sign the contract with the council. That is providing just over $3.5 million to reconstruct the old railway between Yarra Glen and Healesville as a tourist railway. This is something that has the support of all of the local chambers of commerce and the business community, who were all there when we had the signing of that contract. At a tangible level, it will boost tourism numbers and boost the local economy, not just in Healesville but right across the Yarra Valley. Tourism is vitally important in the Yarra Valley—to get day tourists to stay the night and to get more international tourists into the area. That was a priority for me that will boost the tourism industry. It will build jobs; it will provide more opportunities in the job market for young people just starting out in particular. It will help every business in the town and across the Yarra Valley once it is operational. Work is well underway and I look forward to going to their open day in just a couple of weeks.

In conclusion, in the brief time remaining I want to focus still on tourism. I want to focus on the Victorian economy and infrastructure. The Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development has done a number of these projects, as I mentioned, but the biggest project in Victoria is one that the Labor state government is refusing to proceed with. That is the East West Link. The federal government has provided $3 billion to build the East West Link and the state Labor government is refusing to build it. It is contemplating spending nearly $1.2 billion on compensation not to build it. It will be the biggest amount ever spent not to build a road.

For the people of the outer east and the Yarra Valley this road is absolutely vital. You have heard here in question time, from the minister, about the absolute necessity for this road to relieve traffic congestion, to reduce commuter times. Let's focus on the punishment to the tourism industry in the Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Ranges of that road not being built and the punishment to the horticulture industry trying to get their products to market. Time is money. We are not alone in thinking this. The Leader of the Opposition once thought this, and as the minister has pointed out, he thought it before he entered parliament when he put in a submission with the Australian Workers Union, and he thought it again as soon as he became a member of parliament when he put in a joint submission with three other members of parliament, a submission that said doing nothing is not an option. Both of those submission strongly supported the East West Link for all the reasons I have outlined.

Our $3 billion is there for the road to be built. It is not too late for 'do nothing Dan', the Labor Premier, to build the road and to see common sense. It is not too late for the Leader of the Opposition to show some leadership, as a leader of the Labor Party, but also as a Victorian member, on what is best for the Victorian economy. Back when he put these submissions in, he was 'Build it Bill', but what he has become is 'Roadblock Bill', and he is road blocking the outer east and the Yarra Valley from a better future. (Time expired)

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on these appropriation bills, and will focus in my contribution about the impact of this government's very cruel and unfair budget, and what it means for the people of far northern New South Wales in my electorate of Richmond. I will be particularly focusing on many of their broken promises as well. There is certainly a lot of anger in the community about the impact of these broken promises upon the people of the North Coast of New South Wales. In fact, here we are, many months and months after the budget, still talking about how unfair it is and how it has impacted. We have had 18 months of the government's broken promises and policy failures across a whole range of different issues, and it has indeed impacted everyone across the nation.

But in terms of those broken promises, they have been very severe for those living in rural and regional Australia. People there have really felt some of the impacts of these harsh policies. Before the election, we had the Prime Minister and all the members of the Liberal and National parties out there saying there will be no cuts; no new taxes; none of this will happen; none of these changes will be there. I know in areas like mine, the North Coast of New South Wales, he had members of the National Party out there running around saying that to everyone. That is why now no-one trusts the National Party in my area, because it was those representatives that were out there saying now cuts, no new taxes—yet that is precisely what happened when they got into government.

We will have a look at some of those measures and how they are impacting on people, particularly things like the GP tax, which we know has just been paused for a little awhile—we know that it is still on the table. It really is a tax on the very sick and vulnerable. We see things like the $100,000 university degree stopping kids from regional areas actually getting to university. We see the petrol tax pushing up the cost of living. We see cuts to the age pension robbing our older Australians of $80 a week. We see cuts to community services, youth services and family payments. We see cuts to schools and hospitals, and cuts to the ABC. For regional Australia, this is indeed another betrayal by the National Party, because these cuts will be devastating to regional areas like mine. You can call these broken promises, what you like—deception, untruths, whatever you want—but one thing is very clear: the Prime Minister and the Liberal and National parties, with this absolute trail of broken promises, just cannot be trusted.

We will start first with the doctor tax. Hasn't that been interesting? Today we hear that it has just been paused for the moment. What we saw, essentially, in this government's first budget was them declaring war on Medicare and universal health care. We know that is on their agenda: to destroy bulk-billing and get rid of it. I think this was perhaps one of the worst broken promises ever, again, for regional areas. We had the doctor tax plus the PBS hike. Department of Health data show that people in these regional and rural areas will be hardest hit by the Abbott government's more than $1 billion hike in PBS medicines. The top 12 electorates that will pay the highest out-of-pocket expenses for PBS medicines are in regional and rural areas—that is a fact. So they are getting a double whammy. They will have the cost of this GP tax, in whatever form it may be—we have seen so many different forms of it so far—and they also have the PBS increases. So that will increase the total out-of-pocket expenses to patients.

We have all this on top of the cuts we are seeing from within NSW, from our Liberal-National government as well. We saw that government slash funding when it comes to health and hospital services. They slashed $3 billion, and that has had a really big impact on the hospitals in my area on the North Coast—there is Tweed Hospital, Byron, Murwillumbah Hospital and Mullumbimby. All of these have been severely impacted by this state-wide slashing of funding by $3 billion. Those $3 billion in cuts includes $2.2 billion in program and operating costs, and $775 million from hospital staff budgets. In fact, New South Wales now has the longest elective surgery waiting list times in Australia.

What we are seeing now is this state government going around making lots of false promises to people—in fact, blackmailing them—saying, 'We might pretend to fund something,' but what they are going to do is sell off the electricity network. I can tell you, there is a lot of opposition to that in my area. People are seeing through it. They are seeing their state Liberal-National government for what they are—that is, a government that is trying to bribe and blackmail people to vote for them, saying, 'You might get this, but we will sell off your electricity network.' But what happens when that is sold off? We know their prices will go up. People are very much aware of what they are trying to do. But those severe health cuts by that state government, added to the Abbott government's cuts as well, have really been devastating for people in regional areas, and particularly within my area.

If we turn to the GP tax, we have seen so many different rumours and have heard about so many different actions that they may or may not be doing. We know it will be coming back. We know the Prime Minister is committed to it. We know the Liberal and National parties are committed to a GP tax in some form, because they are committed to destroying bulk-billing. That is their agenda. But if we look at some of the things that we have previously heard the Prime Minister announce—he had a $7 GP tax, a $20 cut, then a $5 GP tax, then four years worth of cuts to Medicare rebates—what is next? We heard the health minister saying that it was a pause, but we also heard her say at a press conference today that 'the policy intent was, and remains, a good one'. So we see that there is a strong commitment to having it; we will just wait to see what form that it comes back in. The one thing that we do know is that on at least 53 occasions the Prime Minister has supported the GP tax as good or decent policy and one that he is committed to. He has said on many, many occasions that he thinks it is good policy. And we have seen all this on top of the $57 billion cut in hospital funding. We are seeing a whole range of health and hospital measures that are devastating to people right throughout the country.

We can move on to issues like the petrol tax. That is an incredibly fair one for people in the regions—indeed, in my area, they call it the 'National Party petrol tax', they are so angry about it. The reality is that people in regional and rural areas have to drive further to access a whole range of activities. Of course, they also read what the Treasurer said in relation to that issue—that poor people don't drive, which really does reflect how out of touch he is. Indeed, all those opposite just do not understand people in regional and rural areas at all.

Their education policies are one of the main areas that highlight how out of touch they are, particularly when it comes to higher education. The fact is that a university degree should depend on your capacity and ability to work hard and should depend on the marks you get, not on your bank balance. This government has put university out of the reach of so many people. What people in my electorate tell me is that it is just not something that their children will be able to achieve; the costs make it too difficult. We saw the government recently continue its attack on regional and rural students through its Higher Education and Research Reform Bill. I spoke in the House to condemn this attack on young people wanting to go to university and their families. That bill contained $1.9 billion in cuts to universities, which is a huge amount. People in my electorate really object to these massive cuts, they object to $100,000 degrees and they oppose the Americanisation of our world-class university system. It really highlights the unfairness of this government when it comes to education.

We have also seen from this government cuts to youth programs. These cuts have been devastating in my area. In the budget we saw the Abbott government completely cut all three youth unemployment prevention programs: Youth Connections, Partnership Brokers and National Career Development. This cut was made despite the programs delivering excellent results since they were established by Labor in 2010. In my area, the Byron Youth Service, which does an outstanding job of providing services for young people, have spoken out about the impact of cutting programs like Youth Connections. Youth Connections has a truly impressive success rate in finding alternative ways to help people finish year 12, with over 80 per cent of participants in work or study 18 months after completing the program. It is a great program that makes a huge difference.

We also saw some very unfair cuts to community service grants. It was on Christmas Eve last year that many community service organisations in my electorate were informed that their funding would be cut—another bad decision by a bad government. In regions like mine they blame the National Party for these cruel and heartless cuts. We saw $270 million being slashed from some of the most important front-line services across the country, from organisations that are the backbone of communities. They provide services to often our most vulnerable people—services like emergency relief, financial counselling, parenting programs, housing and homelessness organisations and youth support. I have spoken in the House before about the impact of some of these cuts on programs like the wonderful REALskills program, which provides such great support and life skills for young people. That is another cruel and unfair attack by the National Party in our area.

The North Coast branch of the St Vincent de Paul charity has said that the federal government has cut its emergency relief budget by 70 per cent. That is a huge amount in terms of the emergency services that they provide. There is a huge amount of distress right across my electorate when it comes to the cuts to these community services. People desperately need them. I implore the government to make sure these services are put in place. People need these every day. These are emergent situations, and people do require these services. There is so much chaos and confusion surrounding all of these cuts. I really implore the government to put all of those services in place.

I have spoken in this House many times before about this government's environmental vandalism. We see it at a federal level and we have also seen it at a state level. That has been highlighted recently in our area. I have said many times that the North Coast of New South Wales is such a great place to live—the best part of Australia, in fact. As locals know, there is a threat posed to everything we have, and that is from harmful coal seam gas mining. Our community's view is very clear: they do not want to have that on the North Coast. That has been shown through a variety of ways over the years. Whether it be thousands going to demonstrations, signing petitions, lobbying all levels of government, people are very vocal about this. I, of course, have made my position very clear: I do not support coal seam gas mining and other unconventional gas-mining activities within our region.

With the coming New South Wales state election, I am very pleased that New South Wales Labor's election policy is very clear. In fact, New South Wales Labor leader Luke Foley has reiterated that Labor will ban harmful coal seam gas mining and unconventional gas-mining activities across the North Coast. It will absolutely be banned.

In contrast to all of this, we see a very shameful policy from the North Coast National Party representatives. They have come out and announced their support for a pro-fracking gas plan. The National Party's plan is harmful to communities, water resources and farmlands. In fact, the National Party's coal-seam gas policy puts at risk existing clean and green businesses like tourism, agriculture and food production, businesses that are at the heart of our local economy on the North Coast. It really is shameful that all those National Party MPs and candidates in the Liberal-National government have this pro-CSG expansion policy that will put CSG wells into our valleys, farmlands and villages. The National Party policy will see rural families being forced to live some 200 metres from CSG wells. That is why people are so opposed to the National Party's expansion of coal seam gas mining.

Under the National Party's plan it is business as usual in existing licensing areas for risky CSG and other unconventional gas-mining activities. It is particularly because of this plan that people do not trust the National Party. The National Party reissued all of those licences on the North Coast in September 2012. They have this gas plan, and they are absolutely committed to expanding it right throughout the North Coast. It is for this reason that people are holding them to account, because without a doubt the vast majority of people on the North Coast of New South Wales oppose harmful coal seam gas mining and other unconventional mining.

We can see from both the federal government perspective and the state government perspective that many of their harsh policies are quite devastating for the people of the North Coast of New South Wales. From the federal perspective, we have a government in complete chaos. We have a government of broken promises, a government of unfair, cruel budget measures that are really impacting people. We have the ongoing saga of the GP tax. We will see what form it takes in the next few days. We know it has just been paused for a short while. We have the petrol tax, which, as I said, is really devastating for people in my area. We have $100,000 university degrees, making it completely unaffordable for people from regional and rural areas to even think about accessing higher education. We also have cuts to pensions and family payments.

The cuts to the aged pension and family payments are very distressing for many people in my electorate, particularly those older Australians. It will be devastating for them. For people who are living week-to-week, those increases in costs of living will be very difficult. This is compounded by state government cuts as well, which are making life very difficult for them. They have many concerns, as I have said, about the fact that the Liberal-National state government wants to privatise electricity networks. This will mean we will have electricity prices going up on top of all of these other harsh cuts and new taxes. All of that will increase the cost of living expenses for locals as well.

At the end of the day, for areas like mine, it is the National Party who are seen to be responsible. It is the National Party who will be held to account for all of these harsh measures. They are very much part of this government and part of this decision-making process. They are out there talking about these policies, and they will be held to account. It is because of the National Party's actions that we are now seeing people being severely impacted. I believe that at both state and federal levels we will see people holding them to account and making it clear that they do object to the very harsh policies that are devastating our region and, I imagine, many regions throughout the country. I think rural and regional Australia have really given up on the National Party, because the National Party gave up on them a long time ago. They do not represent the interests of regional Australia. It is only Labor that will stand up for those people in regional and rural areas, whether it be on health, on education or, in my area, on harmful coal-seam gas mining.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2014-2015. Irrigation feeds the nation—at least that is what my bumper sticker says. I celebrate the new irrigation development in Tasmania. It is the way for them to go. It is a way for us to harness our water resources across Australia and to be the maximum food production nation that we can be.

Unfortunately, piece by piece, the miracle of engineering that was once the great Goulburn-Murray Water irrigation system is being dismantled. The state-owned agency, Goulburn-Murray Water, is in a serious financial situation. The Victorian Auditor-General's Water Entities report 2011-12 said the financial results of Goulburn-Murray Water are 'unsustainable and overshadow the results' of the remaining water entities in that sector. In 2010-11 the entire Goulburn-Murray Water board resigned and a number of senior managers departed. You would have hoped for better things! But, sadly, for irrigators, the food producers in my electorate, the latest report of the Auditor-General shows a further deterioration of Goulburn-Murray Water's financial position. The 2013-14 Water Entities results of the Victorian Auditor-General reported:

Goulburn-Murray Water was unable to service the finance costs associated with its existing debt from the cash flows generated by its day-to-day activities. It had to draw on new borrowings to pay operating costs.

The Auditor-General was of the opinion that this financial position was unsustainable. So what is the problem? Why is this the case? For one thing, Goulburn-Murray Water has 757 effective full-time staff to deliver 2,108,000 megalitres of water to about 14,000 irrigators. Let us compare those numbers with the operator in New South Wales—Murray Irrigation Ltd.

Murray Irrigation is not a state-owned and public-service run entity. It is a highly efficient irrigator-owned cooperative. This agency delivers half the volume that Goulburn-Murray Water does, but with only 136 effective full-time staff. If you double the number of staff to deliver the same volume as Goulburn-Murray Water to 272 full-time staff, Murray Irrigation would still have only about 36 per cent of the staff of Goulburn-Murray Water. Obviously, they would not double their staff to deliver twice the water. I am just using this example to show how grossly inefficient Goulburn-Murray Water is with a workforce of a size that cannot be justified, and with levels of efficiency and activity that are just a disgrace when compared with any other water-delivery agency in Australia or the rest of the developed world. All of those staff—very few actually operating in the field—do not produce a satisfied customer. The goal for achieving customer satisfaction was set at 82 per cent in 2011. Goulburn-Murray Water reported that their overall customer satisfaction reached 56 per cent in that year. In 2013, when Murray Irrigation in New South Wales surveyed the overall satisfaction of their customers it was at 96 per cent.

Irrigator constituents come to my office in despair. They come into my Shepparton electorate office sometimes so distressed that they are thinking of ending their lives. They complain about their unfair treatment, the unconscionable behaviour of the water authority, the litigation, which they have become embroiled in, that has taken up all of their cash and any possible future the next generation has in farming. They talk about the water costs and fees that have broken them. They talk about the poor maintenance of the system, the never-never promises that have been made to them about when their turn for the modernisation project work will come to their farm. They talk about the fact that they cannot actually apply for on-farm water use efficiency grants, because they have not as yet been 'done over' by the modernisation system. They have to wait in a queue—one year, two years. It is not unusual for five years to be the waiting period for these farms before they get the attention of Goulburn-Murray Water in the food bowl modernisation project.

These irrigators are the ones who typically are on the spurs, not the main channel system. They are in the process often of being forced to convert from irrigation to just stock or domestic-only water supplies. That means they can no longer be the highly productive food producers they once were. These are the victims of the government-endorsed Goulburn-Murray Water policy to reduce the irrigation system footprint by about a third to a half. Why, you say, would anyone in their right mind deliberately set about to destroy a magnificent irrigation system, which has often been described as the most efficient gravity-fed system in the world? The problem is that, even though there is growing demand for the dairy, fruit, cereals and meats that our food bowl produces, there was a recent tragedy—the worst drought on record.

During that worst drought on record, the people of Melbourne began to seriously fear that they would not have enough water to hose their cars and their concrete drives. The Bracks-Brumby Labor government said: 'We will take 75 gigalitres of irrigators' water a year out of the Goulburn system. We will pipe it over the Great Divide. But—oops! We can't just do that without some savings being found in the irrigation system so we can justify taking their water.' So they said: 'What can we do to save all this water? Should we plastic-line the channels or replace all the Dethridge wheels with meters?' Smarter people said that would not do it. So then they said, 'The way to save all that water is to shut down half of the irrigation systems. That's a good plan; we'll do it.'

They scraped together a billion dollars from the Victorian system to pay for the first tranche and they named the new project the Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Program, NVIRP. But NVIRP was abolished in July 2012 after a damning report by the Victorian Ombudsman which found that it was grossly mismanaged, with insider trading, inadequate or absent business planning, poor value for money and various other gross incompetencies. The CEO of course resigned. But the project was then rolled back into Goulburn-Murray Water to manage—and you will recall how I have just described the management capacities of Goulburn-Murray Water. So Goulburn-Murray Water have continued on with this so-called reconfiguration program, but with another $1 billion from the federal government to finish off the job.

In 2009-10 there were 1,135 non-water users in the Goulburn-Murray Water system still being charged fees for what they now call delivery shares. Today there are 1,927 non-water users in the system. That is a 58 per cent increase in four years. That is how many irrigators are being knocked out of the business of irrigating but are still trapped on dry, less productive farms or are just depending on stock and domestic water and still paying exorbitant fees and charges, which in many cases is breaking them.

But as if that were not sufficient to be heartbreaking, despairing and grossly distressing for all of my irrigators who are finding themselves trapped by this policy, we also have the water trading problem. Because about half of my dairy farmers were forced out of the business of dairying during the worst drought on record, when the irrigation system failed, Penny Wong, then Minister for the Environment, used this opportunity to offer to buy their water for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Of course, if the bank has its foot on your throat and says, 'Sell up your farm or sell your water'—which you can now do separately—many farmers did just that. They sold their heifers to China and they sold their water to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, thinking that perhaps they could keep on going with just temporary water purchases into the future or they would walk away altogether.

Three years ago, the temporary water price per megalitre was $20, last year it was $70 and this year it is $140. It is now beyond the price for dairy farmers to pay and still make a living on their dairy properties. What is the problem? The problem is that most of the water now—the vast majority of megalitres or, rather, gigalitres of water—in the whole of the Murray-Darling Basin is owned by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder. While the act allows the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder to consider temporary trading, the entity has only done this once. That is because the trigger in the act says that trading might only occur if there is an environmental benefit or if there is no way that the environment can be served that year by an environmental release. That makes sense, except I would argue that there is also a triple bottom line enshrined in the Water Act which the minister of the day made sure was there—very rightly. That triple bottom line, surely, can have us then look at the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder's water and say, 'Can't there be a triple bottom line benefit from releasing some of that environmental water which serves the environment and the ecosystem?' It could be a wetland filling. It could be watering a forest. It could be simulating fish or bird breeding. But that same environmental water can also serve an irrigation or consumption capacity further downstream. That is the nature of water—it flows down the system. It is not all consumed by fish and frogs; it moves along.

Unfortunately, the act also says that the only use that may be made of the funds generated by selling temporary water is to buy more water from the irrigators. That of course sends shudders up and down the spines of every food and fibre producer in the Murray-Darling Basin, because we already have a cap on further water buybacks in the system—which is 1,500 gigalitres. Much of that water has already been found for buyback. I have to say that Victoria is already oversubscribed for its volume of water buyback into the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder's coffers.

This is now in active debate across the basin. It is something that we have to think about seriously. The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder regulations must be reviewed so that the water can be sold temporarily to bring down the extraordinary prices now being demanded—or able to be commanded—in the temporary water market. The problem is that there are now many profiteering non-irrigator entities who are simply speculating in the temporary water market and making a very nice profit—thank you very much—including Melbourne Water itself, who still has 74 gigalitres a year to play with in the temporary market.

But it gets worse again. You would think that that is enough despair, worry and sick-making for anyone to try to survive as an irrigator in the Murray-Darling Basin, but it gets worse. We also have a constraints strategy. This was a political solution thrown together by Julia Gillard's government in its dying days when they coupled with Greens to say, 'How can we get the South Australian Premier, Mr Weatherill, onside to sign up to the Murray-Darling Basin agreement?' Weatherill had said, 'I'm going to take you to the High Court. I'm going to challenge your right to have a Murray-Darling Basin plan unless you give South Australia more water.' So thrown into the House in around November or December 2012 was the Water Amendment (Water for the Environment Special Account) Act 2013. This was an extraordinary act. It said that, for another 450 gigalitres—somehow got out of the irrigators' pockets—the mouth of the Murray would be flowing for 95 per cent of the time, without the aid of dredging, and there would be higher levels in the Lower Lakes and less salinity. But then they acknowledged that there was a catch. The rivers—the Murrumbidgee, the Goulburn, the Gwydir and especially the Murray—simply could not take that extra volume of water pushed down to keep the mouth of the Murray flowing. It could not be done. It would overflow and flood everybody out, which is environmentally a very bad thing to do besides being economically devastating for the towns and cities like Wagga Wagga, Shepparton, Mildura, Albury-Wodonga, Corowa, Cobram—and the list goes on.

So the Gillard government said, 'Oh dear. Yes, this is a problem. We'll put $1.77 billion aside over about five years and we'll use that money to remove the constraints in the system. We'll build the levies higher. We'll buy easements and we'll put covenants on places. We will build up the railway bridges and the ordinary bridges, so that when all the flooding occurs—about every 2½ years—there'll be less damage done to the human settlements.' Then they tried to con us with their constraints management strategy. In their report, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority said, 'Of course, people don't tend to build near the rivers and streams. It is mostly forests. So not that many people will be hurt.' Do you know that, in my part of the world, in the Mid- and Upper Murray, we have all built and developed along the rivers and streams because that is where the water was and still is, that is where the best soils are and that is the best way to make a living.

We now have the constraints strategy, which would be laughable if it were not so terrifying. We have to put a halt on it because, as the authority itself says, 'We just don't know what will happen. We don't know the full costs. We don't know how to ameliorate the damage which we acknowledge will happen. But it might be okay because waterlogged soils are good.' No, they are not. We get salinity problems, you know. We have a very serious problem of potentially high saline water tables throughout the Upper and Mid-Murray. If you waterlog that country, you will bring death to your magnificent native species—the beautiful river gums, box trees and various other endangered things. We have to stop this nonsense as soon as possible. (Time expired)

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just want to touch upon a couple of issues that have significant impact in my electorate in relation to decisions by the government to provide particular services. In particular, I want to raise the issue of the headspace centres, which has been, in the main, a bipartisan approach. The former minister, the member for Port Adelaide, is at the table and was someone who, on behalf of the former government, enhanced—indeed, multiplied—headspace locations around the country to the point where we reached about 90 headspace centres, providing really important services for young people who are in need of such services. Providing services, whether it be in large urban centres or in regions, has to happen over time, but the concern I have as a local member is that there has been a very credible and compelling submission made by organisations in my electorate, in the municipality of Melton and, indeed, the municipality of Moorabool. Unfortunately, there was a response from the government to not provide support for the construction of a centre.

As a result of the engagements by those organisations with the government and, indeed, my own letter to the former Minister for Health, the honourable Peter Dutton, we believe we had a very good chance to see a positive response from the government. The reasons we put forward included that other headspace centres were quite far away from the growing community of Melton. The closest was in Werribee or Sunshine in Melbourne or they would have to go to Ballarat in the case of Moorabool, and we believe that this is just too far for many young people to travel, particularly those in need of headspace services. Like other areas of the country, there is a pressing need for a headspace located in Melton as the area, as I said, is rapidly increasing in population and is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Unfortunately, with this expansion, the area is also seeing increasingly high levels of social disadvantage and its young people are experiencing significant mental health distress. We certainly made submissions to the minister and to the government. Some of that information substantiated the fact that Melton was also, on top of the things I have just raised, an area of low socioeconomic status. Young people in Melton are less likely to finish school than in other areas of the country. Youth unemployment is relatively high. There is an above-average rate of alcohol and substance abuse among young people. All of these factors contribute to mental health issues in young people of the area. We put our case to the government, to the former Minister for Health.

On top of that, we also indicated that Melton is a prime place for headspace because there was already the fiscal space and established services ready to proceed with a headspace centre. In other words, in terms of co-contribution or being able to quickly establish a centre, we thought Melton and the organisations that were making submissions to create a centre were providing the groundwork, if you like, for such a centre. Key local service providers and two local councils have joined together in a consortium with a view to providing an integrated response to the issue and working cohesively together. A lot of work was done locally. So it was disappointing to see the response by the incoming Minister for Health, the Honourable Sussan Ley, indicating that, in reply to my letter to Minister Dutton, there would not be a centre established. I will quote some of the letter: 'The Australian government is committed to improving the lives of Australians with a mental illness and their families. On 8 October 2014 Minister Dutton announced the locations of the final 15 headspace centres, bringing the total number of announced headspace locations to 100 across Australia.' The previous Labor government increased it to 90. It doubled the budget of the centres and, in the main, we would say that these matters were done in a bipartisan way. The minister went on to say:

Young people in communities that do not have a headspace centre are encouraged to use eheadspace, which provides free, confidential and anonymous telephone and web-based support services to young people between the ages of 12-25 …

The response was very disappointing from my constituency and the organisations that had made very comprehensive submissions and very compelling arguments. Through their actions and their words, they showed why Melton was an appropriate place. It would be fair to say that disappointment turned to anger and frustration with the government when it was disclosed in Senate estimates that 15 locations were determined by the minister and only one of those 15 sites was within an electorate not held by a coalition MP.

I want to make it very clear that I am not suggesting that those 15 sites do not have a reason to have a centre, though it does seem very odd that only one site was identified in a non-government seat. It beggars belief that it was purely down to the meritorious submissions made by local communities. We would like to get an answer on why Melton was not considered good enough and why the government could not provide resources to Melton, to the two councils involved and to the organisations which provide services to the community. We would like to examine the reasoning behind the government's decision. If there is even a perception that something as important as providing such services to young people is done in a partisan manner—given the history of Headspace and given the historical bipartisan approach—I think it sets a very low bar and it taints what has been a great initiative.

It is fair to say that the inception of Headspace occurred under a coalition government and we continued that work. We are happy to see an extension of Headspace into 100 localities; and we would like to think that all young people have access such services. To think that, since the election, 15 sites have been identified and only one of those is in an electorate not held by the government does call into question the integrity of the decision making of the minister and the government. It is a very disappointing outcome. I do think that my constituency deserves an explanation as to why they were not sufficiently placed and why they do not have a compelling case just have resources provided to them—given all the things we outlined in our submission. Melton is an area that faces significant challenges and where youth unemployment is relatively high. It has an increasing population—it is one of the fastest-growing municipalities in the nation, not just Victoria. Given all that and given that it does not receive any support and then to learn that only one of 15 sites is in a non-government constituency, then the government should review its decision.

The incoming health minister has taken a different tack on the significant issue of the GP tax. There are probably many reasons for that. Given that there has been a change of minister and given that the government is seeking to re-engage, or perhaps engage, with the Australian people, this may be the opportunity for the incoming minister to review the decision of allocating the sites made by her predecessor. Was due diligence done in determining the sites? Was that decision based on merit? Are there sufficient resources within the portfolio spend either to increase the allocations to include a Headspace centre from Melton or to give some undertaking that the proposed centre for Melton might happen sometime soon? These are some of the things that the incoming minister might contemplate. I would ask her to do so because there is a very disappointed community that feels it has been ignored by this government. It is a community that deserves support; it is a great community to represent; it has great people. All they are asking for is a centre that will enable young people to get mental health support when it is needed.

At this point I cannot accept the reasoning of the government in denying Melton this very important resource, for all the reasons I have outlined,. I do not believe there is anything more important than providing support for young people who might be dealing with such challenges. As the shadow minister for employment, I would also make the point that there is a correlation on occasion between marginalisation, disengagement and not earning or learning and compounding problems that young men and women might face. It is very disappointing that we have not been able to convince the government. I will write again to the incoming minister outlining my concerns about the way in which these decisions have been made, raising the questions about the efficacy of the decision making of the previous minister in relation to the 15 new sites for Headspace centres. I would hope to get full and frank answer. Hopefully, upon examination of this issue, a rethink by the incoming minister on what she might be able to do to provide services and support to young people in this great part of Melbourne. If indeed the minister is not in a position to do that, then I think it is incumbent upon the opposition to continue to pursue the basis for the decision making of establishing these centres when it was so skewed towards government constituencies vis-a-vis those held by opposition, or independent members of parliament. Because the last thing anybody would want—I would hope—is that something as important as providing mental health services to young people in need will be tainted by the notion that it is determined by who holds the seat—not on who needs such care, how many might need such care and why they are deprived of such services.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always a pleasure to rise in this place and talk about not only the achievements of this government but also more importantly the achievements of some of our local community leaders and volunteers. Before I speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2014-2015, as I would ultimately like to reflect on some of the achievements of this government over the past 18 months, I would firstly like to take a few minutes to reflect on the achievements of some of the wonderful members of our community, because without their efforts our communities would not be what they are today.

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Enable Dux Dinner. Now for those unfamiliar with this term, I am not speaking about the quacking kind, but rather the strategic leadership coalition of 13 state high schools in the Logan Albert Beaudesert and Boonah areas—otherwise known as Queensland's fastest improving educational region. I represent six of the 13 schools making up the coalition; including Beenleigh, Loganlea, Marsden, Shailer Park, Park Ridge and Windaroo Valley state high schools. Founded in 2007, Enable has grown into a dynamic educational network supporting educational leadership, research and best practice. Through working in different layers of collaboration, the Enable coalition is able to consistently provide professional development opportunities and deliver high quality programs to various school leaders, teachers, auxiliary staff members and most importantly students. Their efforts have resulted in a number of milestones, including significant improvements in academic performance of students; increased student retention and completion rates; as well as a sharp rise in the number of students graduating with vocational qualifications, their QCE and entries into tertiary education. I am very proud to support the Enable coalition and would like to acknowledge the Forde high schools duxes for their involvement; including Cecelia Liu, Maia Hokianga, Madison Elliot-Hicks, Joel Forrest, Amy Wigan, Lorenzo AH Siu, Taylah Magee and Nicholas Alcorn for their wonderful efforts.

Another event I recently attended was the Soroptimist annual changeover dinner in Beenleigh. Soroptimist's are one of our wonderful community organisations, along with Rotary, Lions and Quota International. The members of Soroptimist International in Beenleigh are one of our busiest organisations in Forde and are an absolute credit to our local community. A snapshot of some of the activities and events that the members participated in during 2014 include: raising awareness of settling genuine refugees into the local community, working on increasing awareness of domestic violence in the community through their Walk the Talk event, the Dating Game bookmarks and their photo exhibition. They started a reading program at Beenleigh Primary School, which initially was held once a month and has subsequently increased to a regular fortnightly basis. They have been assisting the Beenleigh ASDAN students with some funding work towards their travels to Canberra and helping state TAFE students with bursaries. They also introduced a sewing program last year for the grade 7 girls and they shared with me how much success and enjoyment those students got out of learning how to sew.

Sadly, last year, one of Soroptimist's oldest members, Stella Richoff, passed away at age 93. In her memory, Soroptimists will be giving out an award in her honour to a local woman within the Beenleigh community—a person who is an unsung hero. This person will be presented with this award at their next changeover dinner. Until then, I have no doubt I will be catching up with Soroptimists regularly through one of their many events that they have planned for the next 12 months.

I would also like to recognise the wonderful efforts of Queenslander of the year, and Braveheart's founder, Hetty Johnson, who is a constituent of the electorate of Forde and who was recently honoured with the highest local accolade for Logan residents, becoming the 16th inductee on the Logan City Council's Wall of Acclaim. The Wall of Acclaim recognises outstanding achievement, or a demonstrated commitment to excellence and outstanding contribution to our community. Hetty is a most worthy recipient of this recognition and a credit to not only the wider Logan community but also the entire country for the advocacy she has shown in championing on behalf of the most vulnerable in our society.

I would also like to take this opportunity to commend two of Logan's biggest advocates who were recently named Logan City Council Goodwill Ambassadors. Local businessman, Barry Lane and school principal and Rotarian, Tim Keeler, were both recognised for their commitment to our local community. Barry is a longstanding Logan businessman. He was recognised for his contribution to the local economy and his commitment to local schools, charities and community organisations and, in particular, his beloved Logan Chamber of Commerce, where is recognised there as a life member. Tim was recognised for his development and promotion of Logan through his roles in the Logan Rotary and the Logan Refugee Welfare Committee.

I think all of us in this place would reflect that one of the honours here is to be able to stand in this place and speak about the achievements and successes of those who contribute so positively to our local communities. I have been able to mention just a few today, but there are plenty more positives stories that I will have the privilege of continuing to share in this House in the future.

At the outset I mentioned that I would like to reflect on some of the achievements of the coalition over our 18 months in government. Firstly, I would like to reflect on some of our local achievements. This is particularly important because we made a number of local commitments during the election campaign that I can now proudly say have been fully funded and delivered or are in the process of being delivered.

Firstly, we committed $83 million to an upgrade of the Beenleigh CBD in conjunction with funding from the Logan City Council and the state government. This project is well underway, with about six months to go before reaching completion. We committed $1 million in funding for CCTV cameras in Beenleigh, Loganlea, Waterford West and Shailer Park. That project is also underway. The project at Beenleigh is being done in conjunction with the CBD redevelopment. We also committed $20,000 towards grants for our local SES to upgrade GPS units and education and recruitment resources. I had the pleasure before Christmas of attending a function to celebrate the receipt of those funds and that new equipment.

We also had a Green Army project on the Pimpama River, which I visited last week. The people taking part in that project actually graduated last Thursday. They thoroughly enjoyed the project that they undertook on the Pimpama River and should be thoroughly congratulated for the work that they did. In addition, they lost a member along the way because he picked up a full-time job as a result of his involvement in that particular Green Army project.

Additionally, we announced during the recent state election that we would partner with the Queensland state government to provide $10 million in funding towards an upgrade of Exit 54 in Upper Coomera. This is one of the biggest issues facing residents living in the southern part of Forde on the northern Gold Coast. But unfortunately the interchange at Exit 54 is not the only problem. There are a number of interchanges along the M1 between the Albert River and the Coomera River—Exits 38, 41, 54 and 57—which will need to be upgraded to deal with the increasing population growth on the northern Gold Coast using the Upper Coomera-to-Beenleigh corridor.

In addition to these interchanges, I have been working with my government colleagues and the Queensland state government to find a solution to the single biggest issue in the Forde electorate—and that is the congestion on the M1 between Loganholme and Daisy Hill. I have held a number of meetings with stakeholders in relation to securing the funding needed to widen the motorway. It is an issue that will continue to be at the top of my list of infrastructure projects. With a change of government in Queensland, I hope to establish a positive relationship with the minister responsible at the state level to ensure this project continues to be given the priority it deserves not only for people living in Forde but for the many thousands of commuters from the Gold Coast and other parts who travel that section of road every day.

It is fair to say that the bulk of the issues in the Forde electorate are centred around infrastructure failing to keep pace with the growing population. In order to address these infrastructure needs in the future, we need to fix the budget. That is what this government has spent the past 18 months been focused on. I think it is worth reminding the House of the problem that we inherited when we came into government. Labor's legacy to Australia was some 200,000 more unemployed, gross debt projected to rise to some $667 billion, $123 billion in cumulative deficits over their six years in government, more than 50,000 illegal arrivals by boat and the world's biggest carbon tax.

Labor's debt, which we inherited, has resulted in us being left with an interest bill of $1 billion a month. That $1 billion a month could be used for the upgrade of the M1 between Loganholme and Daisy Hill four times over let alone pay for many other infrastructure projects around this great country. No country can go on paying the mortgage from the credit card.

In that vein, I think it is also worthwhile looking at some of the other government achievements and plans that we have in place for the future of this great country. We all well know that we worked assiduously to get rid of that world's biggest carbon tax. We had the work that Scott Morrison did when he was immigration minister. That work and the work of the government as a whole succeeded in dealing with the issue of people arriving illegally by boat, thereby preventing deaths at sea and saving significant costs in the budget.

We scrapped the mining tax. Importantly, in view of my recent comments about infrastructure, we sought as a key plank of our budget last year to create the largest infrastructure package in this country's history. Part of that is being invested in Queensland with significant upgrades to the Bruce Highway and the Gateway Motorway and a number of other large projects. All of these will go directly towards our primary goal as a government, which is to create jobs, create investment and improve productivity so that we can compete in the global marketplace that we now face. Additionally, in approving over $1 trillion worth of major projects in terms of environmental approvals, we have started to create the opportunity for business to get on and do what it does best—that is, build the future of this country, free from government interference, red tape and roadblocks. We have cut some $2 billion of red tape to further enhance that.

For our business sector, we have succeeded, after 10 years, in achieving free trade agreements with our three largest export partners, who represent over 50 per cent of our exports—Japan, Korea and China. This means the opportunity for Australian businesses to compete in Asia, lower prices for consumers and better markets for our producers, such as our farmers and manufacturers. We continue to work towards dealing with environmental issues through our Green Army projects but also through our Direct Action Plan.

We are a government that is focused on the future of this great country. We recognise that we need to leave this country in a better environmental and economic shape for the future generations because that is an important responsibility of the current generation.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to add to the debate on the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2014-2015. I am entering now my 17th year in this place, and I am quite frightened about that—when I say that number I am not quite sure where they have all gone. Having just got off the phone with my 15-year-old, I am reminded that all of her life I have been in this parliament. I was also trying to add up how many appropriation bills over that period I may have spoken on, but really could not do the sum because there are lots of them. But this would have to be, without doubt, the first time in those 17 years that we are going into a budget cycle still talking about the last budget. Never in my time in this place have we still been discussing the previous budget, going into the next budget cycle, nor have we ever seen a budget that has not been passed in this amazing fashion in those 17 years. Usually, a budget has about a six-week cycle and then it is gone, done and dusted—as Keating would say, 'The dogs have barked and the caravans have moved on'—but we are still talking about the last budget.

These appropriation bills are another shining example of the Abbott government's continued deceitfulness and disregard for the basic notion of fairness, which is hurting the community in my electorate and across the country. The focus of the government's cuts has been the most vulnerable and those least able to afford it, and that is why we are still discussing this budget and why it has not been able to progress. Members opposite ran a deceitful election campaign, promising to improve living standards and fix the so-called 'budget emergency' simply by delivering 'no cuts to education, no cuts to health' and 'no cuts to the ABC or SBS', and also promising 'no new taxes'. They also promised adult government and no chaos. When is that good government going to start? When are we going to actually see the adults in charge?

Now, almost 18 months into the life of this government, with one leadership spill down, a leaking cabinet and a backbench in open revolt, we are still debating over the stalled measures of an almost one-year-old budget and additional appropriations of $1.7 billion to pay for the government's election promises and economic mismanagement. It is no wonder that the community has completely lost faith.

After waging a fear campaign of debt and deficit during the election, the first act of the Abbott government in office was to borrow more money and increase the deficit by tens of billions of dollars—almost $9 billion for a Reserve Bank loan that the bank did not request or need. Before the election, the 2014-15 deficit was projected to be $24 billion and net debt to be $212.1 billion. As a result of the policies and actions of the Abbott government, the 2014-15 deficit is $40.4 billion—almost a doubling of the deficit—and the net debt stands at $244.8 billion, an increase of more than 15 per cent.

Every dollar is the responsibility of those opposite—the government of this day—and caused by broken promises and the sheer chaos and dysfunction they created by pursuing a strategy of axing revenue raising measures such as the price on carbon and the mining tax, increasing spending measures and then pursuing ideologically motivated, savage and brutal cuts.

They have cut $11.3 billion from the foreign aid budget in an act of base politics that robs money from the world's poorest people and reduces Australia's commitment to foreign aid to a measly 0.2 percent of GDP—a mammoth way away from the Millennium Development Goal of 0.5 per cent. It will be to our eternal shame that we clearly have not reached a bipartisan consensus on quarantining the foreign aid budget, as other successful democracies have—ones who are actually facing economic crises in their countries. That shame will be borne out in our neighbouring Pacific regions on the faces of the 2.2 million children who may not get to enrol in school, the 3.7 million who may not be vaccinated and the 4.7 million who may not be able to access safe drinking water. This government has cut foreign aid at every opportunity, and now we stand here debating an increase of $1.7 billion in government expenditure, because robbing the world's poorest people has not been enough.

But this government has not just taken from the poorest people overseas to fund its broken promises; $270 million has been ripped from community organisations across the country. I have spoken previously in this place about the government's rank hypocrisy of lauding Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty, and her campaign to end domestic violence while also cutting vital funding to the community legal services, which are the primary defenders of women and children experiencing domestic violence.

Sadly, they are not the only worthy organisations to be hit with extreme cuts—organisations who are doing important work in our community to improve lives and help those in need, such as the Mirabel Foundation. Rather than simply paraphrase, I would like to share with those opposite an email I received from a resident in Mount Waverley, in my electorate, about her devastation at the government's cut to Mirabel. She writes:

This is the first time that I've felt the need to write to you and bring your attention to a matter that is of utmost importance to the residents of Chisholm. I have lived in your electorate for more than 15 years and have worked for the highly respected children's charity, The Mirabel Foundation (Mirabel), for 11 of these years. As a resident, I have benefited directly from the many community services available in Mt Waverley for individuals and families in need. I am, however, alarmed that one of these essential services, provided by Mirabel, will no longer receive financial support from the Australian Government.

Mirabel is a children's charity that assists the innocent victims of parental drug use. Mirabel provides essential support and a wide range of programs for children who have been orphaned or abandoned and are now living with their extended family. These families, who are usually grandparents, give up everything so that they can help raise these children in a stable and loving environment.

The need for Mirabel continues to grow with 9 new children being referred for urgent help every week. To date, Mirabel has assisted more than 3000 children and their 5000 grandparent carers.

The loss of federal funding totalling $234,000 will have a crippling effect on Mirabel and a dramatic impact on the disadvantaged families in our neighbourhood. It is incomprehensible that such a decision would be made at a time when our community is faced with rising child abuse notifications and a worrying surge in ICE use.

I want to thank my constituent for being so brave and for writing to me for the first time on an issue that is of great concern. I have had interactions with Mirabel over the years, dealing with some of the children that they have supported and assisted, and I know that this is a phenomenal organisation and it would be devastating to see these cuts progressed. It is astounding that any government or any member of this place could think that such a funding cut is acceptable or that the immense damage it does to our society could ever be equal to the relatively small amount of money that is being taken away. This is an insignificant amount of money in a budget overall but a massive amount to this organisation and the children and families it assists.

But it is symptomatic of everything that is wrong with this government which has cut $878 million out of science and research funding, cut $80 billion from our schools and hospitals and cut the Newstart payment for anybody under the age of 30. These cuts are having a devastating impact on my electorate, particularly on the largest employers in my electorate, who are Monash University; Deakin University; CSIRO Clayton, one of the largest of the CSIRO sites; and Box Hill Hospital. All these institutions are facing enormous cuts and uncertainty. And it is not just devastating to those who work and study in these places; it is devastating to our future because these are the engine rooms of our future: science, research, medical research. These are the drivers of the jobs of the future. Taking money out of them now is sheer short-sightedness. It is just nonsensical.

This is a government who manufactured a budget crisis when in opposition and attempted to use that dishonest crisis as a cover for an ideological crusade. Even today, as the health minister finally—finally—dumped one of the worst measures in the failed, unfair 2014 budget, the GP tax, she defended it, unambiguously stating, 'The policy intent was and remains a good one.' So, despite all the evidence and the vocal concern of the entire medical community, this government is determined to attack the fundamental universality of Medicare. It does not accept the objective evidence that increasing the out-of-pocket costs of accessing primary health care is just bad policy, plain and simple. Instead, all we have is an acknowledgement of the obvious reality that nobody supports the policy. There was not even a glimmer of recognition by the health minister or this government of the reason why nobody supports their attempt to destroy the foundation of Medicare. Instead, the minister is opting to destroy universal access by a thousand cuts, cutting $1.3 billion by freezing indexation of the Medicare rebate and threatening doctors to come up with alternative cuts or endure the freeze permanently.

The government's attacks on Medicare have nothing to do with saving the budget bottom line. They are motivated purely by a desire to permanently and irrevocably degrade the principles of universal access to health care. Medicare is sustainable without cuts. Its costs have not spiralled out of control. In fact, health spending is at record low levels. Health expenditure in Australia was 9.5 per cent of GDP in 2011-12, compared to 17.9 per cent in the United States—a country with an expensive and inequitable health system that this government is so desperately keen to emulate. A decade ago, expenditure on GP services accounted for 0.3 per cent of GDP; today it accounts for only 0.4 per cent of GDP, and that is with a considerably higher bulk-billing rate. But this higher rate is not because people are abusing going to the doctor but because we have had an increase in our population. Indeed, actual attendance at the doctor is not at a high rate. Universal health care is a service that we can afford, it is sustainable as it stands, and we cannot allow any erosion of or increase in out-of-pocket costs for patients.

If this government were actually serious about addressing our long-term societal and economic issues, it would recognise that increased investment in primary health would help reduce the more expensive hospital costs by ensuring that we have a healthier population. By investing in preventative care, in primary care up-front, we can be ensure people do not end up in hospital. It is hospital costs that are spiralling out of control, not GP visits.

There are many, many avenues that can be explored in this space. But that would take time, energy and a bit of intelligence, which the other side seems to be wanting in! Such a policy would require a level of understanding of the value of fairness and equality that those opposite seem unable to achieve. They demand that families 'stop leaning and start lifting', while continuing to allow large corporations to exploit tax loopholes and shirk their responsibilities, pandering to the interests of the big end of town. They cut funding from the poorest people in our society and remove services from the most vulnerable, while they cut taxes for the most profitable corporations and quietly mull over the next plan to slash penalty rates and erode the rights of workers.

They bleat: what would the opposition do? The Labor Party will defend Medicare, as it always has done. We will protect the rights of workers and we will not restore a budget to surplus by attacking the family budget.

I am pleased to be a member of a party that will close the loopholes exploited by multinational corporations to avoid paying tax in this country and send their money overseas. This measure will recoup $1.9 billion to the budget and do so without cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from essential community services and legal aid, without cutting billions from foreign aid, with no $1.3 billion cut to Medicare, without pushing up the price of a university degree to $100,000 and without cutting funding to our schools.

The government is forever talking about intergenerational debt and theft from the future. What greater theft from the future is there than denying people the ability to see a doctor, the ability to get a university education and an environment to live in in the future? That is what this government is doing, now.

The government has spent almost a year trying to sell and implement its budget, and it has done so because every measure in it, every single one, is unfair and unjustified. It has also had the effect of making our economy worse. Consumer confidence is at its lowest ebb and unemployment is at 6.4 per cent, higher than at any time under Labor. Sadly, these bills offer no plan to fix these problems or signal any intent by the Abbott government to govern fairly and in the best interests of the community. We need to better. We can do better.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In speaking to these important pieces of legislation, it is important to see them in the overall context of our budgetary and policy agenda. Many here would recall the six years of week-in and week-out chaos of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments as one of the worst periods of budget and economic management in our nation's history.

At the end of 2007, when the coalition left office, the previous Labor government's debt had been repaid. There was $25 billion in the bank and a $75 billion Future Fund had been established, along with multibillion dollar perpetual funds for communications and higher education. The Howard coalition government was also able to deliver record investment in infrastructure and regular tax cuts and created families and seniors initiatives.

By the time the Australian people threw out the Labor-Greens-Independent government in 2013, the money in the bank had been spent and debt was forecast to grow to $667 billion, based on Labor's spending trajectory. The task for the incoming coalition government therefore was to fix the mess that the Labor Party had created and begin implementing policy decisions that delivered greater efficiencies within government, reduced red tape and delivered overall confidence in the economy, so that businesses could grow and more jobs could be created.

As we anticipated the changes in the Senate in the lead up to the first budget, there was an expectation that, with a change in the Senate composition with a few more people who had actually had some life and business experience, there would be a greater understanding of the risk and of the task confronting the government on behalf of the people of Australia. The risk being the huge debt that we had inherited.

It was with this expectation that the government pursued the passage of a legislative program necessary to rein in the budget deficit as part of the overall plan to repay Labor's debt and eliminate the projected $20 billion annual interest bill on that debt. There are varying degrees on how we could implement such a program, but through critical analysis and through discussion with senators there is the ability to deliver good policies and reform to get our country moving.

We have succeeded in abolishing the carbon tax and the mining tax. We have stopped the people-smuggling racket which saw hundreds, probably at least 1,200, of people die at sea. We have begun rolling out our $50 billion infrastructure package. We are fixing the initial botched rollout of the NBN and are actually delivering it. We have opened up many new business opportunities for Australia in securing three new free trade agreements. We have so far abolished up to $2 billion worth of red tape. We have already been able to achieve some significant savings in the budget through the passage of over 80 per cent of our budget measures, but there is still much more to be done, and this legislation is important to the overall task.

Recently, the Prime Minister announced a plan to build on our efforts to deliver growth and jobs, and this year's budget will assist in that process. Coalition MPs are working on a range of policy initiatives throughout the 15 portfolio committees to address many of the challenges confronting the budget. These policies will be announced and implemented throughout the remainder of this term. The Abbott-Truss coalition government is also focused on developing a broader strategic plan for growth in key regional areas. These strategies will be based on sound, evidence based policies informed by a broad suite of white papers, including: the White Paper on Developing Northern Australia, the Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper, the Energy White Paper, the tax reform white paper and the White Paper on the Reform of the Federation.

There is so much to be done. Just as it did under the Howard coalition government, our policy agenda will take time to implement, but I am confident that, as our policy work continues in tandem with our budget work, we will see significant improvement to our economy, delivering hope, reward and opportunity for all Australians.

In my electorate of Lyne, since the election, we have had a number of local achievements, with the federal coalition government delivering funding for a range of projects, including $10 million towards the replacement Dyers Crossing Bridge on Wallanbah Road and Dickenson Bridge on the Moto Road, and upgrades to Manning Point Road from Old Bar Road to Bohnock Bridge and Gloucester Road from Boundary Road to Dollys Flat Road, Killawarra Station Road to Killawarra Bridge and Bo-Bo Creek Bridge for one kilometre south. Over $17 million towards the Bucketts Way upgrade between Taree and Gloucester. This year, Greater Taree City Council will receive $7.45 million, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council will receive $8.89 million, Gloucester Shire Council will receive $2.21 million and Kempsey Shire Council will receive $5.62 million for local infrastructure and services in the Manning Valley under the federal Financial Assistance Grant scheme. A further $7.1 million has been secured for the Manning, $7.4 million has been secured for Port Macquarie-Hastings, $2.4 million has been secured for the Gloucester Shire and $4.9 million has been secured for the Macleay Valley in Roads to Recovery funding to improve the local road network between 2014-15 and 2018-19.

The Gloucester High School Metal Industries Trades Skills Centre received $920,000 in federal funding, which will help to give students qualifications including the certificate I in Manufacturing Pathways and the certificate I in Engineering.

The federal coalition government is delivering on its plan to improve the rollout of the NBN. We are rolling it out cheaper and faster than the previous timetable. Many areas in my electorate of Lyne would have been waiting for at least 10 years under the old plan. But since the election, and over the course of the next 18 months, a further 15,000 premises will be able to access the NBN throughout the Manning Valley, Gloucester and parts of the Hastings Valley—in particular, Camden Haven, Wauchope and Harrington.

Wingham Scout Hall has received $50,000 towards its refurbishment.

There is $820 million for the upgrade of the Pacific Highway between the Oxley Highway and Kundabung and another $230 million for the section between Kundabung and Kempsey. That will improve travel times and safety. It will reduce the travel time from the Manning to Brisbane and bring new tourists and trade to our area more cheaply. There will be 1,000 direct jobs created by the civil works and 3,000 indirect jobs created in the region as a result of this $1 billion in spending.

The Cundletown Soccer Club has received $25,000 towards the upgrade of its facilities, which has already been achieved. The federal government has directed $75,000 towards the upgrade of Taree Motorcycle Club's complex.

In black spot funding for safety improvements, $300,000 has been spent from The Lakes Way to Seven Mile Road on the Pacific Highway.

The federal government has spent $2.97 million as part of a $4.25 million upgrade at St Paul's High School in Port Macquarie. We have spent $1.05 million on the operations and training centre of Surf Life Saving New South Wales. There has been $15 million of federal money contributed to the $30 million spent on the Sancrox Interchange and $2.8 million has been allocated to the Port Macquarie Regional Indoor Stadium upgrade, which I am looking forward to being delivered.

We have supported a new aged-care complex in Gloucester, which sorely needs this development. Nambucca Valley Care is progressing with plans to build the new complex. NSW Health currently holds many of the federally funded aged-care places and has recently put out an expression of interest for the places. I am hoping that Nambucca Valley Care, which has the same aspirations, will be successful in negotiating for those places.

Wherrol Flat Hall is the recipient of $4,600 to improve its honour board. There is funding for a number of other important veterans' and Centenary of Anzac projects, including $11,550 for the Wingham RSL Sub Branch, $6,920 for the Manning Valley Historical Society, $8,295 for the Friends of Wingham Town Hall, $4,000 for the Taree RSL Sub Branch to improve the Taree War Memorial Clock, $3,900 for the Harrington Crowdy Head RSL Sub Branch and $12,585 for the Taree RSL Sub Branch.

In the electorate of Lyne we have a local Work for the Dole program being rolled out in a number of community projects. There has been $2.4 million spent on the Wauchope Hospital palliative care unit. There has been $3,612 allocated to restore the Harrington Memorial Hall and Literary Institute's First World War honour board and install a Centenary of Anzac commemorative sign. There has been $75,000 allocated to the upgrade of the Tinonee Memorial School of Arts Hall. There has been $292,000 allocated for closed-circuit television in Taree's central business district—throughout Victoria Street and to the cenotaph east of Macquarie Street. There has been $9,500 allocated towards the construction of new, accessible paths and handrails for a classroom building at the Manning Valley Anglican College.

A number of Green Army projects have been announced in the Lyne electorate, with $22,000 going towards the Crowdy Bay National Park post bushfire Bitou Bush Control Landcare project and to undertake environmental restoration at the Cattai Wetlands in a weed control project. The Green Army Healthy Kooloonbung Creek project has been announced for Port Macquarie.

There has been a federal government contribution of $969,000 for the expansion and redevelopment of St Peter's Primary School in Port Macquarie.

This year, in the aged-care sector, there have been 10 extra residential aged-care places allocated to Old Bar's Banyula Lodge and 11 home-care places for Taree's Storm Retirement Village.

We are cutting the small-business tax burden on 1 July this year from 30 per cent down to 28½ per cent. Axing Labor's carbon tax is saving average households $550 a year.

The Gloucester High School P&C Association has received $45,000 in federal funds for the purchase of a new bus. There has been $90,000 contributed from the federal government towards the $125,000 upgrade of the Port Macquarie Tennis Club fencing and lighting, as well as access pathways and ramps. Eighty-five thousand dollars has been allocated for the Birpai men's shed in Port Macquarie.

One point five million dollars of federal funds has been used very wisely at the Port Macquarie Private Hospital, in Lake Road, where Ramsay Health Care have delivered a $4½ million project to multiply the effects of the $1.5 million grant. The Gloucester Project has received $4,000 to assist in its work in Gloucester.

Five thousand, seven hundred and thirty-one dollars has been allocated to the War Veterans' Remembrance Drive project. The association is going to install memorial plaques for 12 local schools along the Wingham to Wauchope Remembrance Drive. There are so many other things that I would like to announce. (Time expired)

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2014-2015, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2014-2015 and the Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2014-2015. Let me start off by correcting some of the conjecture we have seen from the other side, trying to put this budget debate in history. We have seen some glowing tributes to the performance of the Howard government, including their ability to pay down debt. The simple fact is that, yes, they paid down $96 billion of public debt, but they did it by selling $100 billion of assets. It is the equivalent of selling your house to pay off your mortgage. That is fine; your mortgage is gone, but so is your house.

Most of the contributions from the other side also forget about the global financial crisis, the most significant period of economic turmoil around the world since the Great Depression of the 1930s. They also omit the fact that, since coming into government in September 2013, the Liberal-National coalition government have doubled the deficit. They have seen a massive deterioration of the budget. Despite the bluster and shiftiness of the Treasurer, you must treat all assessments of the budget position by using the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook as the key baseline. That is a document signed off by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Department of Finance, and that is the key document that you must compare everything through.

These bills constitute the next pieces of legislation continuing the budget process from this government, and they build on the budget of broken promises and lies that we saw delivered in May last year, which represented a gross betrayal of the Australian people. These bills propose $1.7 billion in appropriation funds and reflect decisions made by the government in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook as well as the machinery-of-government changes. MYEFO shows a $44 billion blow-out in the budget deficit over the forward estimates, compared to the May 2014 budget. It is a budget bottom line that has blown out despite some of the most harsh and cruel savings measures seen in recent times.

This is a government that has embarked on a suite of savings measures that will disrupt and harm many people for very little economic gain. This is a government and a leader that are less concerned about enacting lasting and responsible changes to the structure of our economy and more concerned about a program of reform based on pure ideology. It is an ideology that favours the big end of town over the vulnerable and the voiceless, an ideology that places a higher tax burden on workers than multinational companies, an ideology that destroys equity in our health system and our education system and, above all, an ideology that is incredibly short sighted.

I turn to unemployment, which is the most significant concern for my electorate of Charlton and, I would submit, the nation as a whole. The most recent labour force statistics show that we have an unemployment rate of 6.4 per cent nationally. To put this in perspective, that is the highest rate since the middle of 2002, higher than at any point of the last Labor government, despite the challenges associated with the global financial crisis. Seven hundred and ninety-five thousand, two hundred people in this country are now unemployed, and in January alone around 34,500 people joined the jobless queue. All up, around 100,000 people have become unemployed since this government was elected, and around a third of those were young people. Whilst in New South Wales the figure is marginally better than the national average, at 6.3 per cent, unemployment in the Hunter region, my home region, is an alarming eight per cent.

However, it is those under the age of 24 years that are the most affected, with the jobless rate amongst young people in the Hunter region at a shockingly high 18 per cent. There can be no misunderstanding about this. With around 300,000 young people out of work, Australia is in the midst of a youth unemployment crisis. This is particularly pronounced in the area I represent, where the future opportunities of young people are being undermined through a combination of cuts by the federal and state Liberal governments.

I turn to education. This government cut $30 billion from education in the budget. This represents the biggest cut in school funding in Australia's history. The government abandoned the Gonski reforms by dumping the funding for years 5 and 6 of the program and refusing to guarantee funding for years 2, 3 and 4, and the state Liberal governments have done nothing to save it. Despite professing his support for Gonski, and despite being a personal friend and surfing buddy of Tony Abbott, Premier Mike Baird has failed to influence the Prime Minister in any way and have this decision reversed—a fact that voters will be likely to remember when it comes to the New South Wales election this month.

The Hunter Valley Research Foundation's most recent research paper shows that, whilst year 12 completion rates in the Hunter have steadily improved over the past decade or so, as have postschool qualification rates, we still lag behind the state and the nation in both areas. This may go part of the way to explaining why the youth unemployment rate is higher in the Hunter than elsewhere and why young people as a subset are finding it more difficult to find work.

As policymakers, we should be doing more, not less, to encourage young people in the region to obtain higher qualifications. This has been made harder by this government's heartless cut to the trade training centre program, which means that seven schools in the electorate of Charlton will now miss out on this kind of support to incorporate trade skills into their learning programs.

I recently opened the trade training centre at the Yula-Punaal Education and Healing Aboriginal Corporation in Mandalong, which offers pre-trade courses in hospitality, horticulture and land management. This is a fantastic facility and, through their tailored mentoring program for Indigenous students, the centre is catering for young Aboriginal people from across the Hunter and Central Coast who find themselves disengaged at school or unable to succeed in mainstream learning environments.

I am also looking forward to seeing the new trade training centre in engineering and metal fabrication being built at Lake Macquarie High School—a trade training centre that will replace a metal workshop that is 50 to 60 years old. When I visited it last year I saw metal anvils still being used. This kind of initiative—the opening of trade training centres—does not fit into the Liberals' agenda, and so no more funding will be forthcoming to support trades training.

I will turn to higher education. This government will also punish those young people who seek higher education. With their plan to deregulate universities, the Prime Minister and the government are making it abundantly clear that they do not believe in a fair and accessible university system. Despite their failure to pass the reforms through the parliament already, last week they reintroduced legislation to cut university funding by 20 per cent and deregulate fees to allow universities to charge whatever they want. Worse still, they have also embarked on a $15 million ad campaign to spruik it.

If these cuts go ahead the University of Newcastle, for example, in my home region, will have almost $160 million ripped out of its budget over the next four years. All the evidence suggests course costs will increase significantly as a result of this deregulation policy, and there remains a very real prospect of fees in the order of $100,000 for some degrees.

Of course, higher university fees mean more student debt, and this is a particularly disturbing prospect for rural and regional graduates, where income levels are lower across the board than in metropolitan areas. More than 6,000 students graduate from the University of Newcastle each year, and it is an unfortunate fact that most will move out of the region to pursue meaningful career options. Policies such as this are counterintuitive when it comes to addressing this so-called brain drain, and will do little to drive the economic growth necessary for the region to respond to the mining downturn.

Of course, not every student wants to go to university, but this government has proposed similarly severe cuts to trades and skills training. The vocational education and training sector is vital to our community, and TAFE continues to play an important role in ensuring we have the skilled workforce for the jobs of today and of the future.

Over a quarter of residents in Charlton have a TAFE qualification, ranking us in the top five in New South Wales for this kind of participation. And that makes the government's cut of over $1 billion-worth of skills programs even worse. This is a massive blow to young people wanting a trade or workers looking to learn new skills, and will of course have an adverse effect on young people.

Among the cuts are cuts to the popular Tools for Your Trade program, leaving apprentices to either find extra money or go into debt to cover the cost of the tools they need for their work. The Australian Apprenticeships Access Program, which helped people find a career that suits them and helped to get people ready to work has been cut. The Australian Apprenticeship Mentoring Program, which provided help and support for apprentices and employers, has also been cut.

In New South Wales there is a perfect storm brewing. The state Liberal government has taken an axe to TAFE, with funding cuts, mass sackings, cuts to courses and massive fee increases. Glendale TAFE, in my electorate, has had cuts to the tourism, hospitality, welding and metal fabrication courses, and students enrolling this year are paying up to $1,000 more in tuition fees. Soon, our TAFE system will be unrecognisable. It is being systematically undermined by a Liberal government that favours private providers over the needs of students or industry. I welcome New South Wales Labor's plan to cap fees and limit the level of privatisation in TAFE, and I remain hopeful that Labor will be elected to government in New South Wales later this month and can enact this recovery plan.

The government has also scrapped support for low-income workers. The government is planning on scrapping the low income superannuation contribution from 1 July 2017, and this will see over three million low-paid workers lose a yearly tax refund of up to $500. The government will also further delay the increase of the superannuation guarantee for seven years, which would have seen a person aged 30 today, on average full-time earnings, retire with an extra $127,000 in superannuation savings. This hits those who are working part-time—which many young people do—at a time when every extra cent invested in superannuation has the greatest impact on their retirement savings.

Unemployment is increasing, despite the Prime Minister's promise to create a million new jobs in five years, and there is no doubt this is as a result of the government's short-sighted approach to industry and innovation policy in general. These appropriation bills include $188.5 million in funding to establish the Industry Growth Centres program. While this is a paltry amount compared to the $500 million innovation precinct policy of the former government, I support this initiative because it aims to lift competitiveness and productivity, and I continue to call on the government to establish an industry growth centre in the Hunter region.

My region is built on manufacturing and mining, but it is no secret that the economy is in transition. Cost-cutting in the mining sector is resulting in high redundancy rates and, alongside this, the opportunity for apprenticeships in these traditional industries has also declined. The Hunter's manufacturing industry is well placed to exploit supply-chain networks and to incorporate innovative processes. And whilst the lower Australian dollar is helping, and will continue to help, manufacturers, this will be of no consequence if the industry is not in a position to compete. I have spoken at length in this place about the 'valley of death' in the shipbuilding sector, which is one area where the government can, and should, intervene.

The previous, Labor government set in place a defence acquisition program that would have seen continued employment in the shipbuilding sector, including supporting the 900 jobs at Forgacs in Tomago. It is completely indefensible that this current government has refused to bring forward the construction of naval supply ships, which would have saved hundreds of jobs in the Hunter and thousands across the country.

And it is utterly shameful that the government continues to fuel uncertainty around the construction of our defence submarines, despite the latest ABS statistics demonstrating that the biggest increase in unemployment was in South Australia. This government gave a cast iron promise before the last election to build these submarines in Adelaide, with accompanying work being supported by shipbuilders around the country, including in my region. This broken promise is another betrayal of the Australian people, a betrayal that was cemented two months into their government by their wilful destruction of the automotive industry—a wilful killing by withdrawing $500 million of funding for the automotive industry that will result in a direct termination of 50,000 jobs and an impact on another 200,000 jobs in the downstream and upstream industries.

The truth is that this government is all rhetoric about industry support. It is all rhetoric about supporting jobs. I have serious doubts about whether they will get even close to their stated aim of creating one million jobs in five years. We are already experiencing a decade-high unemployment rate of 6.4 per cent. We are experiencing a very high youth unemployment rate—a youth unemployment rate that is in danger of producing a generation of young people who are excluded from the labour force, a generation excluded from the rewards of full-time work, the rewards of safe and secure work and the rewards of work whereby they can take out a mortgage, have a family and plan for their future. I am deeply worried about this impact. I am deeply worried about the future of young people around the country and in my region in particular, and the government needs to and should do more about this.

But unfortunately this is a government that bases policy decisions on pure ideology. The government is embarking on an agenda that is particularly harmful to young people. The Prime Minister says that young people must 'earn or learn', but he will not provide any support for employment or training that is meaningful. He is giving up on young people, especially those in the Hunter, at a time when they need responsible decisions from the government and more support to shape their future success. It is myopia that will have a long-lasting impact, and the government must be condemned for it.

Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always a great pleasure to follow my good friend and comrade the member for Charlton. Tonight he seems like a glass-half-full sort of bloke, so I might try to inject some optimism back into the appropriations debate, which is always a great opportunity to paint a vision or a picture of the important things that are happening locally in the electorate and the great things that the federal coalition government is delivering in my local community. And I thought there was no better place to start than with the fact that, when you drive around our local community, everywhere you go you can see NBN workers out there putting in fibre so that locals in my community can have superfast broadband. This is happening a year sooner than it would have happened under the Labor government. By the middle of this year there will be 37,000 premises across the electorate of Longman—in Caboolture, in Caboolture South, in Upper Caboolture, in the northern part of Morayfield, in Elimbah, in Wamuran, in Bellmere, in Bribie Island, in Woorim, in Bongaree, in Banksia Beach, in Bellara, and in White Patch—that will all have superfast broadband, a year sooner than they would have had it under the Labor government.

We have also announced the second tranche of the rollout, which means that the good people of Beachmere, of Godwin Beach, of Ningi, and of Sandstone Point are all allocated to have the construction of the NBN start by June next year. Those 37,000 premises, plus the other ones I identified to start by the middle of next year, will have speeds of up to 100 megabytes download and 40 megabytes upload, which is about 25 times faster than current ADSL. It is fast enough internet to stream 10 high-definition TV shows into your home at once and upload a three-minute YouTube video in about 42 seconds. These are areas that had some of the worst internet connections in the country and that by the middle of this year will have incredibly fast internet a year sooner than they otherwise would have had it.

I think the key difference on the NBN between this side of politics and that side of politics is that we want to see the people who had the worst connections in the country have access to at least decent internet, while the Labor Party spent billions of dollars ensuring that people who had good internet had really, really good internet, at an extreme cost. And I want to commend my good friend the Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull. He has done an amazing job turning around the NBN. When he came to government, nobody who was delivering the NBN had any experience in the telecommunications sector. He changed that. He changed the board. He commissioned the myBroadband review, which went about measuring everybody's internet access speeds across the country, and that is where we identified the areas of highest need. We provided that review to NBN Co and said, 'Target the areas that have the worst access to the internet first and make sure they get the best possible upgrade as soon as possible. As part of that process we are trialling the construction techniques of fibre to the node. That is where we get our 37,000 premises locally. And the next step is that NBN Co, using that information, will develop the next rollout maps for the NBN and by the middle of this year we will see the next rollout strategy for the next three years and beyond. So, we are very much getting the NBN rollout back on track. It means that thousands and thousands of premises across our community will have access to incredibly fast internet years and years sooner than they otherwise would have. No matter where you live in the electorate of Longman, we will have incredibly fast internet years sooner, at a lower cost to taxpayers and more affordably for the customer. I think that is an enormous win.

One of the other local issues I want to talk about is the very important issue of Boundary Road at Narangba. This is a huge congestion hot spot in the electorate. In the last Queensland state election campaign I was really proud to go out to the Boundary Road overpass with my colleagues the member for Petrie, Luke Howarth, and the member for Dickson, Peter Dutton, and promise that if a coalition government or an LNP state government was elected the federal coalition government would put $84 million on the table, and the state LNP team was going to put $20 million on the table, funded through their Strong Choices plan. Unfortunately that was not to be. A Labor government has been elected in Queensland. Throughout the campaign, the Labor Party never made any commitment on this very important congestion hot spot locally. They made no funding commitment; they made no promise.

Since the government has been sworn in in Queensland I have been in contact with the Premier and with the local members and suggested that they might want to try to find this $20 million, because it is an incredibly important road. The coalition government in Canberra has $84 million sitting on the table. Our region really deserves this vital infrastructure upgrade, and I really worry that our good friends in the Queensland state Labor government have absolutely no plan to deal with not only this road but any infrastructure upgrades across Queensland. Effectively, as of today, we have an infrastructure freeze in Queensland and we cannot build these vital pieces of infrastructure, so I urge the Premier of Queensland, I urge the Labor state members of parliament, to pick up the phone, find the money, tell us how you are going to fund it, and get stuck into this vital piece of local infrastructure so that the residents in Narangba and North Lakes and everyone who uses the Bruce Highway can have a bit of relief and spend less time in their car. We have $84 million on the table from here in Canberra to help with that upgrade.

We do not always want to be so pessimistic, so let me talk about another overpass over the Bruce Highway, the Pumicestone Road upgrade. To the credit of the former government, they started some allocation of funding for the upgrade of Pumicestone Road. We came to government and increased that funding for the upgrade of the Pumicestone Road overpass, and I am proud to say that that has just opened up to traffic and people now have much easier access across the highway at Pumicestone Road. This is part of a much bigger package that the coalition government is delivering on the Bruce Highway. We are spending $195 million to upgrade the interchanges from Caboolture to the Sunshine Coast and we are spending just over $3 billion on the Bruce Highway from Pine Rivers all the way through to Gympie. We are spending over $8 billion on the entire Bruce Highway. For those commuters going south, we are putting over $1 billion into the Gateway Motorway. So we have upgrades on the Bruce and on the Gateway Motorway. From the strong action that the federal coalition government has taken, we will see very significant improvements on the Bruce Highway, which will make the life of so many commuters in my electorate so much easier. I am proud to be part of a coalition government that is delivering these very significant upgrades on the Bruce Highway.

With this next issue, again I am a bit worried about a Labor state government in Queensland—I think many people in my community are becoming very worried as well. At the last state election the then LNP MPs, Darren Grimwade, the member for Morayfield, and Lisa France, the member for Pumicestone, promised to upgrade the Caboolture hospital car park. As everyone who goes to the Caboolture hospital knows, there is a huge parking problem there. It is at crisis levels. The former state LNP government promised to deliver 100 extra parking spaces. At the state election Labor promised nothing, they had no plan, and unfortunately now, with the state Labor government in Queensland, there is a big question mark about what will happen with the Caboolture hospital car park. Again I have contacted the Queensland Premier, as well as local Labor members Rick Williams and Mark Ryan. I know they do not have any funding for this, I know they do not have a plan, but I urge them, please, in the interests of the community, to talk to the Premier of Queensland, find the funding and fix what is an absolute crisis at the Caboolture hospital car park. Our community has wanted this improvement for a very long time, and anybody who visits the hospital deserves better car parking. Come on guys, our community deserves this so let us see what you can deliver.

Another issue I want to talk about is the bridge across the Caboolture River on Morayfield Road. As many people in the community know, the bridge is over 90 years old and just about every time it rains the bridge floods. Morayfield Road is a completely state government road but at the last election the coalition government took a Bridges Renewal Program to the electorate to upgrade these really old bridges across the country. Even though the bridge on Morayfield Road across the Caboolture River is a state government road, we committed at the request of the former state LNP government $8½ million to upgrade that bridge—a bridge that must be upgraded because it is well over 90 years old. It is a fifty-fifty funding split—the coalition government is putting $8½ million on the table to upgrade the bridge and I have been in contact with the local state Labor MP, Mark Ryan, who to his great credit is very keen to work with us on this. But if we are to replace this bridge surely common sense would say to us let us not just replace it, let us upgrade it so that it does not flood every time it rains. I have spoken to the new director-general of transport and, as I said, I have spoken to Mark Ryan, the local member, and I would hope that the state government, given that the commonwealth government is putting on the table $8½ million that it would not usually give for a state government road upgrade, can find a little bit more money and make sure that we upgrade this bridge not just by replacing it but by making it flood proof so that we do not have to travel a different route every time it rains.

Another issue I want to talk about is the D'Aguilar Highway. This is a tragedy of a road. For years and years we have seen death after death, accident after accident, on the D'Aguilar Highway. Once again, this is a state government road—when I was elected in 2010 there was a state Labor government and I lobbied them to upgrade the road. They chose not to do that. The coalition was elected in 2013 here in Canberra and, despite this being a state government road, we committed $16 million for the upgrade of the D'Aguilar Highway. The design and geotechnical work has been almost completed and very soon we will see an upgrade worth $16 million, which will go after those worst black spots on the D'Aguilar Highway. This work is long overdue. It really should be the responsibility of the state government, but I want to thank my colleagues here in Canberra for stepping in and providing extra funds to ensure that this road is safer, and that will ultimately save lives. We will need further upgrades and I encourage the state Labor government to do something on this road but at the very least, thanks to the coalition government here and after years of lobbying, very shortly we will see work begin on that $16 million upgrade to the worst black spots on the D'Aguilar Highway.

The next issue is youth mental health in the electorate of Longman. It is an absolute tragedy that in my electorate we see rates of youth mental health issues that are much higher than the national average. Some social workers tell me that, tragically—I know this from talking to locals as well—we have youth suicide rates of twice the national average. Many of us have been affected by this, and many of us are affected by mental health issues—one in five Australians are affected by a mental health issue every year, and one in two are affected by a mental health issue during their lifetime.

After years of lobbying, I am really proud to say that the federal coalition government will build a headspace facility, or site, in Caboolture, which will provide an amazing opportunity and resource to young people across our community to go and get the help that makes such a big difference in their lives and to find the social worker or the youth worker, or the mental health clinician, who can make a very big difference in the lives of young people. It has been a long process to get to where we are today, but when I reflect on my time in this place delivering a headspace site for Caboolture is probably one of the best things that I could possibly do with my time here. I really want to thank my colleagues for helping to make our community a better place and for giving a new start to so many young people who are dealing with some very difficult issues.

One of the other things I want to talk about is remembering our veterans. I am very proud to say that, having never had a war memorial, the communities of Burpengary and Narangba will soon, in time for the centenary of Anzac commemorations this year, have their very own war memorial. This is a very dignified and special place to honour our men and women who have laid down the ultimate sacrifice for our country. As somebody who has gone to Afghanistan twice, and also to Iraq, I want to say that, as we approach the centenary of Anzac, we have really seen a century of sacrifice from our diggers. There is $80,000 on the table from the federal government to deliver this very moving war memorial. (Time expired)

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the member for Blair said when speaking on this appropriations debate, he was to speak widely and wisely. I am going to reflect on some expenditure that I will not say was deliberately misspent, but I do not think these monies were spent wisely by the Australian Federal Police, by the Department of Finance and by the courts. Some of the things I say will be unpopular, particularly with members of the government, but they have to be said.

In the ACT Supreme Court, on 25 February, Judge John Burns exonerated the former Speaker of this parliament. He said, quite rightly, that having lunch with staff could be considered parliamentary duties, given the definition was so wide. The failure to apply to former Speaker Slipper the mentioned protocols by which all of us in this place are able to repay taxi fares or travel expenses that are undertaken mistakenly or not properly noted is something that led to a whole series of misallocation of resources. These included the cost of Slipper's prosecution by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions over this $954, which cost him more than $150,000 personally, his reputation, his marriage, his life and his mental health. And it cost the Commonwealth, in its various manifestations, at least $400,000 to $500,000 to get one member's taxi receipts. Was this a wise expenditure of public money?

When Peter Slipper accepted the speakership he insisted that he would not be party to maintaining Labor in office. He felt that the Labor government was going to stay in office whether he accepted the speakership or not. Slipper being made Speaker, of course, made it a little easier for Labor on the floor of the House, but the Labor government was able to survive when Mr Jenkins was Speaker before Slipper and with Ms Burke after Slipper. He was a very good Speaker. I remember, to the surprise of the coalition, he sat then Treasurer Wayne Swan down in his seat. There was praise for him in the media at the time as a person who knew the procedures and the rules. There was an article by Geoff Kitney in the Financial Review which was typical of this.

Also related to this miss-spending, in my view, of public moneys was the Federal Court's refusal on 9 February 2015 for Mr Ashley's applications for costs in this case. These costs are estimated at $3 million. The Federal Court added the Commonwealth's costs to Ashby's costs and his lawyer's costs. The Federal Court's judgement made clear that Ashby's sexual harassment claims were never vindicated, as he had claimed subsequent to the judgment of Justice Rares being invalidated by the Federal Court. When Ashby withdrew the sexual harassment case, on 14 June, he stated that he believed the Federal Court's decision to grant an appeal had indirectly suggested harassment had, in fact, occurred. The Federal Court judgement makes it explicitly clear that that was not the case. The final paragraph of its finding says:

But for the discontinuance of his claim, Ashby may well have been tested about why the primary proceeding was instituted in the terms it first appeared, and on a range of matters raised by Slipper arising in his summary dismissal application and in his defence of the claim.

It is true the Federal Court made a two-to-one decision to overturn Justice Rares, giving Ashby the benefit of the doubt—procedural fairness. They wanted to let him proceed with this case even though Justice Rares had made a very strong judgement against them.

Remember, these were allegations that transfixed Australia. They led to 12 front pages in The Daily Telegraph, including the former speaker being portrayed as a rat with drawings all around him. Lady Di only got nine front pages. Justice Rares, who examined the case most comprehensively, said it was an abuse of process. The judge skewered Mr Ashby's solicitors, Harmers, for a strategy that was designed to:

… to expose Mr Slipper to the maximum degree of vilification, opprobrium, sensation and scandal and to cause maximum damage to his reputation to the political advantage of the LNP and Mr Brough.

Mr Brough being his opponent in the electorate.

Harmers are an important solicitor for all of us members of parliament to remember because what happened to Slipper could happen to any of us. Sensational public allegations could be used by legal firms on a no win, no fee basis, as they did in the David Jones case, which is probably the reason Harmers were brought into this case against Slipper. This is a very dangerous precedent, a slippery slope. Legal firms interfering in the political process like this could, as I say, happen to any of us and to people more popular than the then Speaker.

Rares found the claim made by Ashby was an abuse of process. Judge Rares said:

… Ashby's predominant purpose for bringing these proceedings was to pursue a political attack against Mr Slipper and not to vindicate any legal claim he may have for which the right to bring proceedings exists.

He stole his employer's diary. I wonder if Mr Katter, who is in the chamber, would like one of his staff to steal his diary and give it to The Daily Telegraph. It is an absolutely unethical thing for any employee to do. To introduce the 2003 allegations about a sexual relationship and assertions about Cabcharges 'had no legitimate forensic purpose', the judge said.

They were not included in the originating application to advance any bona fide cause of action that Mr Ashby … had against … the Commonwealth or Mr Slipper. The effect of their inclusion and, I find, the purpose … was to further damage Mr Slipper in the public eye and politically and to attract to him significant adverse publicity …

After dropping his allegations in midyear, Ashby appeared on 60 Minutes. It was recently re-shown, in January. On that program, he claims to have been induced by Liberal MPs, prominent members of the government now, into making his sordid claims. What he told 60 Minutes about these alleged inducements directly contradicts what he put on oath in a sworn affidavit to the justices who overturned, in a 2-1 judgement, Rares's judgement. I wonder, if the judges had seen what Ashby said on 60 Minutes, whether they would have indeed overturned Rares's forensic view of Ashby's activities. I am sure they would not have.

Accordingly, after the program, I wrote to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, inviting him to investigate whether perjury had occurred and whether the appeal judges were misled by the affidavit. At the very least, Ashby's claim of inducements, made on national television twice now, in July and January, should have been available to the appeal judges when they reviewed Rares's judgement. Perhaps millions of dollars spent chasing Slipper's $900 taxi fares—the millions of dollars spent by the Department of Finance and in the courts—might never have had to have been contemplated if we had known this in the beginning. Regarding these Cabcharge fares, it was silly to go beyond the boundaries of Canberra for lunch with staff, but they were still ultimately found by a judge to be possibly parliamentary business. If we had known that, as Mr Ashby now claims on television, he was offered inducements, the judgement of Judge Rares would have been clearly vindicated.

I am reluctant to believe anything that Ashby says even if is politically convenient for my side of politics or me personally to believe. If he told the truth, however, to 60 Minutes, there is a powerful message to all MPs from this: the politics of personal destruction, even for a member as unpopular as Peter Slipper, engineered by the member for Warringah and the member for Sturt and carried through with the obscenely expensive royal commissions that they have now launched into prime ministers Rudd and Gillard, has no proper place in Australian public life. The admission by Mr Brough, the current member for Fisher, Mr Slipper's electorate, on 60 Minutes that he had directed a G Gordon Liddy style black-ops misappropriation of the Speaker's confidential diary is one that the Prime Minister has already reasons to carefully consider. The old warning 'Be careful what you become in pursuit of what you want' should be ringing in the ears of members of the government after this disturbing 60 Minutes broadcast.

I witnessed—and I want to record this for the Hansardon a daily basis, in the months of February, March and April 2012, what appeared to me when I went into the Speaker's office an entirely professional relationship between him and his constituent adviser. Strangely excluded from the 60 Minutes program was Extra Minutes, a special that they broadcast online. In Extra Minutes, it is very odd that Mr Ashby, who claims to have been repulsed by the Speaker's approaches, made it clear that the last straw for him in his betrayal of his employer was that the then Speaker would not take him on a first-class trip to Hungary. As David Marr argued in The Guardian:

A few days later, under Brough's direction, Ashby began scouring Slipper's office records for damaging details of travel expenses to be fed to Telegraph journalist Steve Lewis.

I will not go into all of the details, as I planned to, about the role of the Murdoch press in all of this, including The Daily Telegraph, or the securing of him in a safe house in Sydney. I just want to conclude with some points about how this was used for the destruction of the Gillard government and the terrible destruction of one individual. Slipper was a competent Speaker. Slipper is an eccentric character. Slipper probably said stupid things, sexist things, to his staff member. Let us all remember this: the texts that were introduced into this parliament by the member for Curtin were made between Ashby and Slipper two years before Ashby was in his employment. What would any of us think of a person who was a prospective employee of ours who recorded our conversations, personal texts between us, with a possible view to blackmail? You inveigle yourself. You try and become popular with the person.

I know the case of Slipper. He married a younger woman, Inge, a lovely person who convinced the then Speaker to take a more modern view of a gay man, Ashby. They took him into their bosom. They took him into their office, and their confidence and their trust were abused in the most foul play. I saw that man in his office all the time, working happily with the Speaker. Only when his overseas trips or the prospect of bringing down the government and getting vast amounts of cash suggested to him that he could take another course, did he betray the couple that had looked after him so well.

There are other people who have guilt in this matter too. The former Attorney-General, my friend Nicola Roxon, should never have made a different standard for the then Speaker than what had been made for all leading members of this parliament. He should have had a legal defence. Now, we all have insurance to protect ourselves, each of us, from an employee doing a similar thing to us. That is justified. The former Special Minister of State is an excellent person who foresaw this problem, not just for Labor but for all sides of politics, and introduced these insurance schemes.

It was also dishonourable that his solicitors, the firm of Maurice Blackburn, abandoned Slipper on the edge of court after the Commonwealth unwisely made its separate deal with Ashby for $50,000—a deal which, if it would have waited, Justice Rares would have invalidated. The Cabcharge thing has been invalidated in a Canberra court, and we would have known, via 60 Minutes, that this was all done because of prospective inducements.

Some people affectionately refer to me as the 'member for lost causes' in this parliament because of my support for Tibet, Darfur and the Baha'is and various other groups. I never imagined that I would become a friend or defender of a National Party member from Queensland, but this is not over. If the CDPP recommends, after advice from the Federal Police, that these inducements be looked at, this is not over.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of these appropriation bills and the amendments. Deputy Speaker Jones, you probably remember when we won government about 18 months ago that there were four basic premises that we said we would do, and I want to concentrate on one of them in this. We said we would cut the carbon tax—which we have done. We said we would stop the boats. We said we would repair the budget. The other thing we said, and one that would be one of our major focuses, is that we wanted to be an infrastructure government. I want to pick that point up at the start of what I am going to say, because the infrastructure government is exactly what we are proving to be.

I want to talk about one specific infrastructure project to begin with—that is, the dual duplication of the Pacific Highway. To complete the dual duplication—and it is obviously an important thoroughfare between Sydney and Brisbane, and there are about 140 kilometres still to go—will be very expensive. It is going to cost around $7½ billion to finish that dual duplication. Why is this a priority? It is a priority for many reasons, not least that the dual duplication of highways, as we know, saves on fatalities. There are still far too many fatalities on the highway, to the great distress of all in my community. The other reason, obviously, is that it is an economic boom while you are building it. At any particular point of time there could be up to 3,000 people working on that infrastructure project. When you add in the indirect jobs that that can create, it is an economic boom as it is being built. Thirdly, Deputy Speaker—as a man who I know understands commerce—when you build infrastructure like that it brings, once it is completed, an economic benefit. Already, where that highway has had a dual duplication it brings more tourism and it makes it easier for business to operate in those communities because of transport improvements and cost improvements, if they want to do that. There are many good reasons why you would want to do this.

But it was interesting, because at the last election, with these appropriation bills that we talk about where we are allocating this type of money, there was a vast distinction between the two major parties on this project. At the last election, the previous government wanted to revert to a 50-50 funding formula on this infrastructure funding. They were funding it at 80 per cent—for the projects that they had completed in the recent years. They then wanted to revert back to a 50-50 funding split, which, obviously, the state government did not necessarily agree with. What was going to happen if they had won government? There was going to be an argy-bargy contest and a fight over who should be funding what. And what would have been the ramifications of that? It would have been a political fight; the dual duplication would have been delayed, and we would have had to wait for all the benefits that I just spoke about.

I am very proud that our government, as an election commitment, said that we would maintain the 80-20 funding split. What that meant is that we put $2 billion more onto the table than the previous Labor government was going to. They were going to put on about $3 billion. They wanted the states to put that balance on. We said, 'No, we'll put on an extra $2 billion.' So we are going to put on over $5 billion to complete that dual duplication, and the state only has to pick up the rest. One of the first privileges I had in this job as the new member for Page was when we announced a contract, within weeks of winning government, to build a bridge over Emigrant Creek near Pimlico. We turned the sod on that within a couple of months of winning government, to complete this dual duplication.

Again, we are getting on with the job that we said we would. We wanted to be in infrastructure government, and we are. I have just been looking around at a few other things going on in the community, with this notion that we want to build and we want to be an infrastructure government. There are hospital upgrades going on that we announced—that we said we would do if we won government. There are $4.5 million for the Ballina hospital upgrade and $3 million for a new Casino emergency department. Southern Cross University, a very important institution in my electorate, has been successful in obtaining millions of dollars in grants from this government. There has been $5 million for different skill training centres across five high schools, which I announced early last year as well.

Very recently in Page we announced $5.5 million for new aged-care and in-home care places. Mr Deputy Speaker Jones, as a man who is in tune with your community, you would know that, with an ageing community, home care packages are especially important. It was with great pleasure that I went to Casino and announced a number of those, which mean that people can spend more time at home before they go to retirement villages. In Grafton we announced over 50 new residential care packages. One benefit of having more aged-care beds is that it creates a mini job boom. The construction of those facilities is creating, in one instance, 60 jobs in the construction phase. Once they are built, not only are there care places for nurses and aged-care workers; extra cooks, maintenance people, gardeners et cetera are needed on an ongoing basis.

There is much more. There will be major upgrades to the Grafton hockey clubhouse, which we funded under the Howard government. It was a two-storey building and we funded the downstairs part of it, but for six years the upstairs was just a shell. We said, 'If we win government, we will finish the upstairs for you.' That will be completed soon. We will have CCTV cameras in Casino, where there is a lot of crime. In conjunction with good lighting, CCTV cameras have been shown to improve crime statistics.

We have an $800,000 program to encourage disadvantaged high school students to attend university. This is a program that we are funding very much in the Clarence Valley, and it is already proving to be a great success. There is also a seat belts in school buses program and there are carer respite programs and a lot of cultural programs. So a lot is happening. We are an infrastructure government and we will continue to be a building government.

I also want to highlight the free trade agreements we have negotiated. There are two large private employers in my electorate. Northern Co-operative Meat Company employs over 1,100 people. Before the election they told me that they were at a competitive disadvantage with some of their competitors in exporting meat, especially into Asia. Some of those countries have free trade agreements. In one instance the US was exporting meat and their tariffs were being lowered more quickly than ours. We have signed three free trade agreements, with China, Japan and Korea. Eighteen months to two years ago, China was buying a negligible amount of chilled and frozen boxed beef from Casino. Upon completion of these free trade agreements, along with other measures, they are now the biggest customer of that product. The jobs of the workers at the meatworks in Casino have been secured by those free trade agreements. The meatworks are now as competitive, if not more, than their competitors exporting into Asia. It has been a great success.

The second biggest private employer in my region is a dairy cooperative called Norco, who employ around 600 people. They make a great ice-cream. I think it is public knowledge: the home brand product in Coles is probably made by Norco. It is a great ice-cream made with fresh milk. Because of these free trade agreements, they are now exporting fresh milk into China. The volumes are quite small at the moment. The product is obviously a clean product, and they are getting anything from $7 to $9 a litre, which is a great return for them. We have helped them with protocols so that they could get their export licences. There were a couple of issues with the first shipments, with storage and making sure the product got onto the shelves quickly enough. They have been ironing out those issues. They have good management, as does Northern Co-operative Meat Company, which I mentioned earlier. Because of the work this government has been doing, the two biggest private employers in my electorate are very happy.

There are others, like the macadamia nut industry. Do you like macadamia nuts, Mr Deputy Speaker? Most people do. My area is the home of macadamia nuts. Tariffs on macadamia nuts have been lowered as well. You might say, 'That is all fine and good, but you are just talking about agriculture—is there anything else?' Well, there is. You may have heard of Kimberley Kampers, based in Ballina, who make very high-value, high-end campervans. Because of the free trade agreement that we have signed with China and other countries, their campervans are now more competitive and they have started exporting them to many countries around the world. In fact they made their first sale the other day in the Middle East, in the United Arab Emirates. I saw the van before it went and it was very impressive—a bit more high quality than my Jayco that I take to the beach every year!

There is more. When I walk around my community, people are thankful for much of the work this government has been doing. Infrastructure projects have been creating real jobs—direct jobs and indirect jobs—in the community. The private employers in my community are happy because of the growing number of customers they are exporting to. Many people are coming up to me—I am sure you are hearing the same thing, Deputy Speaker—and saying, 'Thank God you have started to repeal the red tape, because red tape is real money and a real cost to our businesses.' Even those in the non-profit sector have been coming up to me and saying that. My local university have said they have noticed that. Some of the aged-care facilities have been saying that, as well as, obviously, small business. Somebody told me that they had a person who had been doing an administrative job but that half of their job has now been freed up. They can now do real things to make real wealth for that company, real money, rather than just filling out forms that really did not need to be filled out in such detail. So the things I have been talking about relate to infrastructure, red tape and free trade.

The other thing is we wanted to create a budget that was sustainable. We often talk about sustainability in many facets. Some people on the other side will often talk about—and with good merit—things in the environmental space, and they always mention the word 'sustainability'. We have to be sustainable—and they are right. We do have to be sustainable in agriculture, in farming and with our environment. But we also have to be sustainable economically—and what we are doing with our budget repair is making sure that is the case. You do not have to turn on the nightly news too often to see many cases of unsustainability, with the most recent being Greece—and there have been others.

It is very easy as a politician when you have money that you can hand out to projects or for infrastructure—and I have given you a few examples. It is wonderful to do that. But it has been proven that many, especially Western governments, have had a tendency to be a bit too giving—a bit too unsustainable. The easy road is to say: 'There you go. There is some money.' It might be very popular in the short term, but if you are not doing it in a balanced, sustainable way, you get unsustainability. Many countries in Europe, and elsewhere in the world, are now having austerity forced upon them by their creditors. The issue is: if you are running a debt or a deficit, you owe money to somebody. We all know, whether it is your own home or whether you run your own business—like I and many people on this side have—if you owe your bankers a lot of money, they then become your boss. As we see right now with many countries around the world who have been running unsustainable programs, their bosses are now their bankers. That is why we are focused on what we have to do so that Australia is always a sovereign nation in control of its own finances.

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2014-2015. I want to talk tonight about the budget in the context of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and what perhaps might be seen as some dishonesty in the budget in dealing with ARENA. I also want to talk more generally about the work that is being done with ARENA and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and how this government is fortunately being stymied in their attempts to destroy these very important institutions which are driving forward Australia's efforts in renewable energy and our capacity to participate in this very important 21st century industry.

It is incredible to note just how ARENA has been able to hang in there despite being under the Damoclean sword of the Abbott government. It is very interesting that the budget papers tell us that the government is going to save $1.3 billion over five years from 2017-18 by abolishing the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. However, as we know, they have not been able to convince the wise people in the Senate of the merit of this, so we have the ARENA surviving—and not only surviving. The legislation, the ARENA act, which was enacted as part of an arrangement made with the crossbenches, incorporates ARENA's entitlements for the five-year period that the budget claims it is making savings on. We have a piece of legislation which has enshrined in its text the fact that this agency is entitled and capable of spending over $1.3 billion, and yet the government is claiming in its budget that it is making savings of that sum.

We have had the budget. We then had the failure to be able to execute ARENA—and then we had MYEFO. But it is interesting that in MYEFO there is absolutely no mention of the fact that this $1.3 billion worth of savings has been unable to be delivered because of the legislated protection for ARENA. It calls into question the very basis and credibility of this budget. If such a very obvious saving has not been able to be delivered, because it has been subsequently enshrined in legislation that it will be forthcoming, how is it we can have the budget review process completely ignoring that fact? Yet this is what we have had.

I note in MYEFO there is a table on climate spending. It is acknowledged in the text accompanying the table that there has been an increase in climate spending, but not because of the ARENA. The ARENA expenditure is not mentioned and presumably was not taken into account. Again, the failure of the government to be able to deliver on another one of its destructive promises—that is, the dismantlement of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation—has budget consequences. There has been the acknowledgement that they have had to increase their climate spending because of that. I also want to acknowledge, on a positive note, that there is also an increase in that expenditure over the forward estimates because of the $200 million that was committed to the UN Green Climate Fund.

We know that the Prime Minister was not keen on this particular project and that he tried to stop the Minister for Foreign Affairs from attending the Lima conference. When she insisted that she attend, he sent the trade minister in to ride shotgun to ensure that she did not make any embarrassing statements that would have suggested that Australia was indeed part of the 21st century modern world. It appears that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has been able to extract a modest sum, which has contributed to that fund. We must acknowledge and celebrate when there is something good happening in this space because, by and large, what is happening or what the government is hoping to happen is very, very destructive.

Why anyone would celebrate wanting to destroy the Australian Renewable Energy Agency is beyond me. This agency, chaired by Greg Bourne, a very esteemed Australian, has been doing truly extraordinary work. At the moment it has over 200 projects on the go. Of those, 33 have been completed. The really interesting thing about ARENA is that it is a very flexible organisation. It can fund projects that are at one end pure research, and that probably constitutes a relatively small proportion of its funding, through to providing assistance for early commercialisation—what is generally described as the valley of death—right up to providing financing for generally smaller projects that are fully fledged and commercially ready to go. ARENA leverages an enormous amount of private sector funding in that process. It requires that all recipients have to be prepared to share the knowledge, so that all of the learnings that come from proceeding with a project which ARENA assists in is then fed back into the universities, the businesses and the industry generally to increase and enhance the intellectual property across the board and enhance the understandings of the commercial realities.

Some fantastic projects are being delivered. One that I have been involved in for a long time—and it is great to see that the first phase of this project has been completed—is the CETO Wave Energy project. This is a $32 million project which has delivered a Western Australian, an Australian and a world first—that is, it is the first wave power plant that is feeding energy into a grid. So on Garden Island we have a plant that is creating energy from wave power and that is being fed into the grid, and it has a power procurement program with the Department of Defence.

I first came across this project in around 2005 in its very early days, and it is fantastic to see it having come from that very early stage—building up from the demonstration level through the various phases of the project—to now, where it is actually out there and producing substantial quantities of power going into the south-west interconnected grid. That was given $13 million worth of assistance from ARENA. I think the price at the moment is coming in at around 25c per kilowatt hour. With the next phase of the project—when they go to the next stage of this technology—they believe they will be able to bring the price down very, very considerably, to a point where it is getting somewhere near commercial parity. But it is not going to happen if we do not provide that assistance.

Providing this early assistance and getting these projects off the ground enables us to keep ahead of the bell curve in terms of invention and development and commercialisation of the creativity. Unless we have agencies like ARENA—smart agencies seriously being able to assess, mentor and guide these projects and get them off the ground—we are going to be left being technology takers and not technology makers and we will lose any competitive advantage that we have been able to build up by being involved in this process early on. That would be a very, very great tragedy. Despite the government's best endeavours to kill off this very excellent organisation, it has managed to stay there battling on and being able to fund these projects.

Another very exciting project is the Supercritical solar project, which provides very temperature combined with high pressure solar functionality. There are other projects that get water up to the 520 degrees Celsius that we see in this supercritical, but the point here is that this is the first project that, at the same time, is able to get the very high pressures coinciding with that. That is a new frontier for power generation. It is really taking solar power into the next generation. To quote the CSIRO's energy director, Alex Wonhas:

It's like breaking the sound barrier; this step change proves solar has the potential to compete with the peak performance capabilities of fossil fuel sources.

I just wish that this stuff was more generally known. We had the member for Page here earlier talking about how renewable energy is nice, but it is never, ever going to be able to do the job of fossil fuels; it is never going to be able to have that calorific value, that power, that you get with fossil fuels. What we see in the work being done through our own agencies, through the CSIRO, the University of Newcastle and ably assisted by ARENA, is that we are rapidly getting to that point. Why would we not want our society, our community and our industry to be there at the forefront of this new generation of technology? Why would we want to try to dismantle the agency that is kicking such tremendous goals across the whole spectrum of renewable energy projects?

The budget papers show the government claiming that it is going to save $1.3 billion from axing this incredible agency. I am pleased to say that they cannot do that. These provisions, these allocations, have been included in the ARENA Act and the board and the organisation are working to that act. I want to place on record my admiration of Greg Bourne and the agency and the tremendous work that they are doing.

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also would like to talk on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2014-15 and related bills. In particular, I very much want to focus on my electorate of La Trobe. For those who do not know, La Trobe covers up to the Dandenong Ranges and down to Berwick, Officer, Boronia and the basin. It is a rather large electorate which covers both rural and residential areas. It is great to be a local representative in La Trobe. During the election campaign we made a number of commitments.

I was very pleased to work with the Emerald sporting clubs and in particular Bill and Robyn Kuys. I have known them since 2007. That is when I first made a commitment to fund $500,000 towards the Emerald sporting complex. It was only ever going to be a coalition government which would support this project as the Labor Party would never match this. The great news is that they have their $500,000. The funding has been delivered and now they are in the planning stage. I very much look forward to the opening. At the same time, the South Belgrave Football Club received $250,000 for a pavilion. This is a great asset for the local South Belgrave residents which will be widely used by the community.

The basketball centre at Emerald Primary School, with the Emerald Lakers, received $1 million. That is something I am very proud of. Again, the Labor Party did not match this funding in the last election campaign. It is so important for young people to be involved in sport. I congratulate the principal, Mark Carvar, for his dedication and perseverance in making this project a reality. I have already been at the opening of the lights at the Olinda Reserve. As a former player with the Olinda cricket club and football club, I was very proud to be involved—not that I was a good football player, but it was great to see the lights being used. I acknowledge the great work of Steve Scott from HillTop and all his committee. This facility is used by so many sporting areas in the hills. That is what this is about. It is making sure that we not only fund football but cricket and netball and get them all working together. Again, the focus is on young people.

The Rythdale-Officer netball club received $380,000. Again, that supports young people in sport. It is such a very valuable and important aspect of their lives while they grow up, but it also helps deal with issues such as depression and it builds teamwork. It is basically a great project to be involved with. Then there is the Upwey-Tecoma Community Recreation and Sporting Hub. We committed $500,000 towards that project. On Sunday morning I was out with Andrew Peterson and all the people from the Upwey community. It was a fantastic morning. We must have had 200 or 300 people there. I have a message for the Yarra Ranges Shire Council: we want to make sure that this project goes ahead with the agreed terms, where the club is looking at having a pavilion and toilets upstairs. We want to make sure that this project and this building last for 30 years, not 30 minutes.

We also had the building of the Toomah Centre in Officer—a very fantastic organisation in Windermere. I congratulate the CEO, Lynette Buoy, and her team. They do so much fantastic work in the local community, helping families in times of crisis. That is something I was very pleased that we announced under the coalition: to provide this funding. It is pretty tough out there on the ground and we want to make sure that we give our families the best services they can possibly receive in the local area.

Also, $500,000 went to the Ash Wednesday memorial at Cockatoo. This is one of the projects for which it looked like the funding would be cut, but I am so pleased that we are able to ensure that they receive that funding. For those who can go back in time to 1983 and the Ash Wednesday bushfires, Cockatoo was savaged in those fires, as were surrounding suburbs. I recall as a student at Ferntree Gully Technical School, at the age of 16 when the fire started that day, a large plume of smoke came from Belgrave South. This is the only memorial of its type in Victoria that recognises the tragedy of the Ash Wednesday bushfires. The Cockatoo kindergarten in particular was an area where so many people stayed during the fires. Those residents are very lucky to have survived. This is a way of not only remembering and honouring those who passed away but also recognising that CFA members put their lives on the line every bushfire season. That is what they do: they go in front of a large fire and tragically nearly every year a CFA member gives their life in protecting others. Again, it is another worthwhile project. Through the capital grants program, we upgraded the Dandenong Ranges Steiner School—a $500,000 commitment. We also built a general learning area and administration block for St Thomas Aquinas Primary School for $1.8 million. We made a contribution to three general learning blocks for Rivercrest Christian College for $600,00.

Minister Hunt has been a great friend to La Trobe and a great ambassador for the environment, and especially the Dandenong Ranges. There has been a wide range of projects, not only addressing weed management but also bushfire fuel reduction. This year we have been lucky in the Dandenong Ranges; to my knowledge there have not been any fires, but the danger is always that the next fire season is just around the corner. The Community Weeds Alliance received $5500. The southern Eastern Dandenong Ranges Protection program, which involves habitat protection and restoration on the significant biolink between Mount Dandenong and Bunyip, also received $5,500. The Community Weeds Alliance of the Southern Ranges Environmental Alliance's Green Tracks program—which involves habitat protection, restoration, vegetation management along the all-important Puffing Billy railway line—received $6000. Again I would like to acknowledge the volunteers at Puffing Billy who do such a tremendous job. If you are coming to Victoria, you must visit Puffing Billy—it is truly a fantastic Australian icon.

The Cardinia Creek Neighbourhood Restoration project by Landcare Australia received $20,000 from the coalition government. We are delivering 30,387 trees over three years through the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater to improve the habitats of the Helmeted Honeyeater and the Leadbeater Possum, which are endangered species. They received $99,000. Funding the eradication of wandering trad in conjunction with the CSIRO's study in biocontrol was an election commitment I made 2007, 2010 and finally a coalition government delivered funding of $450,000 for wandering trad. Back in 2007 Malcolm Turnbull, when he was environment minister, committed $450,000 to the eradication of wandering trad. For those who do not know, wandering trad is a weed that gets into creeks, sucks up all the water, stops the platypuses and basically clogs up entire creeks. The sad reality was that once Labor came to government, Peter Garrett, as environment minister, scrapped the funding, but now we finally have had that funding delivered. We are also working very closely with scientists at the CSIRO to beat wandering trad—it is doing enormous damage in New Zealand. The only real way to beat it is with a biological control, which is being developed at the moment.

The big one we have is the creating the Dandenong Ranges Environment and Bushfire Fuel Reduction program, worth $2 million. The reason the funding is so significant is that fire is a great danger to all the residents of the ranges. I am very proud we have made that commitment. The Bullen Bullen Bush Tours was granted $150,000 to develop its bush tucker and medicine tours. We are in the process of getting people involved to get the project off the ground. Through the Black Spot program we received $88,000 to paint the median strip island and raise reflective pavement markers on the notorious McNicol Road in Belgrave. All these projects are being delivered by the coalition government.

Through the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, the government has committed to upgrade the Wally Tew Reserve at a value of $69,000. For the Hills Hospitality Trade and Training Centre for Belgrave Heights Christian School—and what a fantastic school it is—we have committed $1.3 million. I always say to Andy Callow, the principal, and his fantastic team: 'Are you embarrassed by how much the government has given schools in La Trobe?' That is what it is all about: we really care about educating our students because they obviously are our future. The hospitality centre is so important because young people learn the skills so that they can walk straight out and get a job in hospitality. Instead of walking into a cafe or a restaurant and being asked about their experience and having to say they have none, they can say: 'Well, I've undertaken a program at Belgrave Heights Christian School in hospitality.' The owner will say, 'Well done. Come through the door.'

Another project I am so proud that the government has funded is the Insight Education Centre for the Blind and Vision Impaired. I must make special mention of Minister Greg Hunt and Senator Mitch Fifield here. This is the only blind and visually impaired school in Victoria. I was talking to some students here earlier today and said, 'Imagine being blind and going to school and not be able to read Braille.' Sadly, most teachers do not have that qualification. When Alan Lachman told me his daughter was blind, he asked how she could fit into a mainstream school. Like everyone else in this place would say, I had to say that it was totally wrong. I was so proud to be involved in the opening of that school and the commitment of funding the government made. That commitment was made on the Thursday night before the last election campaign. Why was that significant? It was one of those rare days when the media was not there. I must congratulate Prime Minister Tony Abbott because this project was ticked off by his office before the election. I am so pleased that that became a reality.

With the Anzac Centenary grants, we have had 12 local projects totalling $126,000 dollars. I am looking forward to next Wednesday, 11 March, when we will have the official opening of the Emerald RSL Anzac Walk by the Governor-General himself. I must congratulate Peter Maloney and all the guys up in the Emerald RSL for the fantastic work they have done. It has been a very good year for the residents of Latrobe with regard to the election commitments being honoured. Although, the one they are very frustrated with is the East West Link—it needs to be built. It makes no sense to pay up to $1 billion—

Mr Husic interjecting —

I hear the Labor Party member supporting that the money be paid in compensation—what a disgrace! He does not even live in Victoria. In the City of Casey, 72,000 residents per day use the road. The crying shame about the Labor Party is that they like throwing money away. You do not mind borrowing $100 million every day for interest to be paid by the Australian taxpayer. We want to see the roads in Victoria keep moving—not like the Labor Party. They do not mind if the residents get stuck in traffic. It is an absolute disgrace. Shame on Labor. We need this road to be built for all residents of Victoria.

Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In rising to speak this evening on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2014-15 and related bills, I would like to take the opportunity to add my voice to the conversation about fairness that we, as a country, must have and that must be heard at the highest levels and seep into the consciousness of every man and woman in Australia. Can I say how disappointing and frustrating it is that on Australia's budget situation it is the Labor clamour, the left-leaning media and the tweeting keyboard warriors that are drowning out the real and dire situation that we have here. The fact is that we must make changes if we want to have anything resembling our current standard of living in future years and for future generations. It has been said before, and I will say it again, that in 2007 I was a proud member of the Howard government and we had a very strong and sustainable budget with a $20 billion—

Mr Husic interjecting—

Listen to this, the member for Chifley: a $20 billion surplus and $50 billion in the bank. That is something that you guys on the other side would have no concept of what that really means. After six years in a Labor government the deficit has blown-out to $50 billion and gross debt was heading towards $660 billion. Yes, Labor faced the GFC in 2008, but they also had the massive benefit of a resources boom that could not last and it was squandered. They caused this debt with a mining tax that raised a minimal revenue but cost the budget $15 billion in kickbacks to voters. They caused this debt with the pink batts scheme that killed one of the installers, young Mitchell Sweeney, in Far North Queensland, which is up in my area. They caused it through the school halls that cost taxpayers $16 billion. They failed to meet value-for-money requirements. Also, let's not forget the digital set-top boxes for old TVs, which cost hundreds of dollars more than if they had been bought independently. And, of course, the introduction of the NBN blew out from $44.5 million to well over $43 billion, and it is still going northward.

Our problem now is that our taxes are too low and government spending is too high. Taxes are spent on interest payments rather than on the range of services that our communities expect, and there is nothing left for a rainy day when the next global economic shock inevitably occurs. When this happens, the solutions that we will have to undertake will be far worse than those that we are trying to undertake now. As the PM recently said, 'Standing still on reform means going backwards on living standards.' The public backlash against the government's reform attempts over the last nine months has been staggering, leading to our Treasurer and Prime Minister acknowledging that they tried too much too fast, despite the fact this government has tried to bring in far fewer budget reforms than the first budget of John Howard and Peter Costello, the former government of which I was a member in 1996.

It saddens me that this national conversation that we need to have about reform is being hijacked by the wilfully deceptive alliance of Labor, PUP and the Greens, and with a good dose of biased media coverage on the side. My colleague the member for Higgins, the new Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, made a very good speech last month to the Centre for Independent Studies on the concept of fairness. She acknowledges:

Much of the public conversation since the 2014 budget has been about fairness.

That is not surprising given that a fair go is a key part of the Australia psyche. Frustratingly, Labor and the Greens have turned this sophisticated concept into a one-word slogan. In their view, fair means that the budget measures should take more from those with higher incomes that they enjoyed prior to the budget and/or give more to those with lower incomes that they enjoyed prior to the budget. As the member for Higgins says:

We need to engage the Australian public in a conversation about the many other dimensions to fairness than the redistributive dimension. That will be critical to prosecuting economic and social policy reform successfully.

Thinking about fairness, let's look at some figures. ABS data show that households on the lowest income quintile rely on the government for around 55 per cent of their income. At the other end of the scale, households in the highest income quintile receive less than one per cent of their income from government. Looking at the income tax alone in 2011-12—

Debate interrupted.