Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to make some comments about last night's incredibly disappointing budget. The core of this budget will have an enormous impact on the electorate of Lalor. People are waking up this morning to pick up their newspapers and find that this government is going to give a tax cut worth thousands to millionaires, while people earning under $80,000 a year will get absolutely zero in relief from tax from this government. On top of that it has backed in the 2014 cuts to the family tax benefit which will leave some families in my electorate $4,500 a year worse off. Waking this morning to this budget is bad news for many in my community. In fact, the median income in the suburb of Werribee is $52,000, so there will be very few people in that area who will be getting any tax relief from this budget.

More importantly and most disturbingly was about infrastructure in the budget papers last night which confirms that this Prime Minister and this Treasurer do not know that Victoria exists, that they do not go south very often and that they need to start to pay attention. Again, we have Victoria short changed. Estimates say that 9.7 per cent is the share Victoria will have from the infrastructure budget compared to 31 per cent for New South Wales and 28 per cent for Queensland. I know that locals in the electorate of Lalor, particularly the Werribee South growers, will be waking this morning and, like me, pouring through the documents to see if our state government's work with the Commonwealth had bought any relief, any funding, to assist in the modernisation of the Werribee and Bacchus Marsh irrigation districts. They will be bitterly disappointed. There is no money for the modernisation of the irrigation system for our growers.

Of course, there is one thing in the infrastructure space that this government is very keen for and that is a gift for the member for Higgins, which is a new station. The Victorian state government estimates it will cost $1 billion and this federal government would like to say, 'Well, we want to give you $857 million,' but the state government has already said that they want to go it alone. The Assistant Treasurer thinks there should be a new station in her seat where a station already exists, yet this government does not want to fully fund infrastructure anywhere in Victoria.

There are a lot of things in this budget that are on the never-never—childcare and higher education—and we are going to an election without policies in either space for the public to judge this government. It is a very disappointing morning in Canberra.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great morning in Canberra and it is certainly a great morning in the Riverina following last night's federal budget. The Riverina's key role in the plan for inland rail and Roads to Recovery funding has featured highly, prominently, in last night's federal budget. The budget is a plan to back hardworking people and small businesses right throughout the Riverina and the Central West regions of New South Wales wanting to make most of Australia's natural advantages in the future. The Riverina and Central West's rich agricultural industries are set to benefit enormously from the government's recently negotiated trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea. Part of delivering the jobs and growth of these new markets and opportunities is ensuring that we can get that product to market as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The Australian Rail Track Corporation plan for a Brisbane to Melbourne freight route has the Riverina and Central West as its most critical artery in New South Wales. Last night's budget delivers on the key role our region will play in getting high-quality, local produce to market by investing an additional $593.7 million to acquire land and for preconstruction activities. Now, that commits the government and that commits the nation to this vital rail corridor, to this vital transport link.

Whilst the plan for inland rail delivers a wholesale freight route along the eastern seaboard, last night's budget also helps deliver the critical final mile, which is very vital, within regional communities with timely boosts to the nation's road budget. I know how happy local governments were when we increased the Roads to Recovery funding. Those black spot areas are fixed up under the coalition government's commitment to roads funding, commitment to that last vital mile. We have invested an additional $400 million nationwide, and the Riverina and Central West will benefit from that, in the successful Roads to Recovery program to ensure that trucks and other industry can load, cart and freight locally. Roads to Recovery empowers local councils to make decisions on behalf of local people where they know, because they are best placed to do it, where these roads are required and where these upgrades are needed.

Many Riverina people own or work in a small and medium business and they will see the benefits of a 2.5 per cent tax cut delivering yet another injection into the engine room of regional communities. I am so pleased, as the Assistant Minister for Defence, that the $960 million—that is right, nearly $1 billion—to help RAAF Wagga Wagga and Kapooka Army base is going forward. It is going to create jobs, it is going to create enterprise and it is going to put more uniformed personnel in my city of Wagga Wagga.

It is a great budget.