Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Does last night's budget confirm that in this financial year federal infrastructure funding has been cut by $1.6 billion to $7.6 billion and will continue to fall to $4.2 billion by 2021? Is this why the peak industry body, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, have said the budget cuts real budgeted capital funding to its lowest level in more than a decade, using a mix of underspend, reprofiling and narrative to cover this substantial drop in real capital expenditure? (Time expired)

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler has sprung out of the benches there full of vigour. He has been re-energised, and I do not think it is the infrastructure section in the budget papers that has done that. He knows that we are getting on with the big infrastructure projects Australia needs. He did not make the decision to build the Western Sydney Airport—oh, no. That was taken by the Abbott government and continued by the Turnbull government, and we are going to build it. We are actually going to build it. We are not talking about it and not arguing with colleagues in the party room about it; we are building it, and we are going to build the inland rail. We are committing $75 billion of infrastructure funding across 10 years. We are doing that, and there is more to come. We look forward to being able to reach agreement with New South Wales and Victoria to acquire their shares in Snowy Hydro, and that will release billions of dollars for priority infrastructure in both states. We are building the infrastructure future generations need to drive the economic growth and the opportunities they deserve. The honourable member knows that his side of politics failed on infrastructure. They failed on the airport. They failed on rail. They failed again and again. We are building. We are growing. We are developing the infrastructure Australia needs.

Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the minister update the House on the right choices the government has made in the budget to reform Australia's skilled migration program? How is the government supporting Australian jobs and Australian skills? Is the minister aware of any alternative approach?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and for his great interest in making sure that young Australians, particularly Western Australians, are able to get apprenticeships and go into jobs, because we know that that provides them with a greater future.

In this budget we confirmed the abolition of the 457 visa program, Labor's dodgy 457 visa program, that saw rorts from the west coast to the east coast. The reality was that when the Leader of the Opposition was the employment minister in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years he added 40,000 workers under the 457 visa program, who came into our country to take jobs that should have been directed to young Australians and to Australians who had found themselves made redundant toward the end of their working career. Whatever the case may have been, those jobs were given by the Leader of the Opposition in his then capacity as employment minister to people who came from overseas. We have tidied the program up, but in the budget last night we went further. We announced the introduction of the Skilling Australians Fund levy, which will be $1,200 for each applicant under the new arrangement. That $1,200 is for a small business and it is $1,800 for big businesses. It will raise in total a fund of about $1.5 billion. The important thing is what we are going to do with this money. We are going to put it into apprenticeships—300,000 apprentices will receive assistance under this fund: the trainees, pre-apprentices and those people who need assistance to upskill to move into another job.

This government has put Australians first for Australian jobs, and we make no apology about it. We came into this parliament with Labor having lost control of our borders. We have taken back control of our borders, we have put the government back in charge of who comes to this country and we have been determined from day one to make sure that we put Australian workers into Australian jobs. The Leader of the Opposition has a track record of having sold out Australian workers, not only as the employment minister in the Rudd years but also when he was a union leader. We have demonstrated time after time and in question time after question time the way in which the Leader of the Opposition has ripped off workers, whether it was when he was a union leader or when he was the employment minister.

This Leader of the Opposition is known to the Australian public as somebody who cannot be trusted. When the Australian public looks at the Leader of the Opposition—and I saw him on the Today show today—they know he cannot be trusted. They know in the backs of their minds that there is something not right about the Leader of the Opposition. He has one story for one audience and the complete opposite for the next audience that he attends. That is why the member for Grayndler is so excited about this budget. (Time expired)

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

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is it fair that on 1 July, the very same day that cuts to penalty rates become law, the Prime Minister is giving a $16,400 tax cut to millionaires?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I assume the honourable member is referring to the deficit levy, which honourable members opposite described as a 'deceit tax' when it was first introduced. I assume they are referring to the deficit levy, which had a term of three years, which members opposite voted for and which will expire at the end of this financial year.

Honourable members opposite should reflect that what we have done with this budget is demonstrate our commitment to fairness, consistent with what we did in our previous budget. The changes to superannuation are a very substantial $6 billion worth of savings over the forwards. The burden of those savings were borne by Australians on higher incomes and there were many complaints about that, as honourable members will recall.

We have ensured right across the system that burdens are borne equitably. We have imposed a levy on the major banks. We have ensured that we are giving support to people seeking support for disabilities. Parents of a disabled child will know that they are fully funded. We are asking all Australians from 2019 to share in that burden just as members opposite did, as the Treasurer reminded them, some years ago. The big difference in what we are doing is we are ensuring that all of our commitment to disability insurance is paid for. We are not going to do what the Labor Party did for years and mock Australians by pretending the National Disability Insurance Scheme was funded when it knew it was not.

We have faced up to reality in this parliament. We could not achieve all of our savings through the Senate. We accept the reality and we are working with the parliament the people elected. What we are doing is putting in place the measures that ensure we can pay for a national, consistent, needs based school funding system that is transparent and fair—unlike Labor's—that we can guarantee Medicare and the PBS and that we can fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme. That is fair. That is why this budget is about fairness and delivering the opportunity and security Australians deserve.

Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry, representing the Minister for Employment. Will the minister outline to the House how the government is making the right choices to secure better days ahead for South Australians? How does this budget demonstrate the government's commitment to create jobs and generate investment in South Australia and across the nation?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Barker for his question. As well as this budget being about guaranteeing essential services, putting downward pressure on cost of living prices and the government living within its means, it is also a budget for jobs—better-paying jobs at that—as the Treasurer has outlined.

A state like South Australia is a terrific case in point. I had the opportunity earlier in question time to mention some of the infrastructure investments that this government is making in this budget, like the proton therapy facility at SAHMRI 2 on North Terrace and like the solar thermal power plant at Port Augusta which, for the member for Wakefield, is actually in this budget.

There is more than that. I would like to congratulate the member for Barker, the member for Grey and the member for Boothby. Because of their work, South Australia has had restored $40 million in supplementary local roads funding, which we have been fighting for since the 2014 budget. That is a big win for South Australia and particularly regional South Australia, delivered by our members of parliament.

We have got the $100 million for advanced manufacturing for Victoria and South Australia, which builds on the last advanced manufacturing package of a couple of years ago to keep that transition from the automotive industry to other industries and export markets that has been going so successfully. There is also the feasibility study, of course, for pumped hydro at Cultana, creating potentially 200 megawatts of power. There is also the feasibility study for a gas pipeline linking the Northern Territory and South Australia to open up the enormous opportunities in the Cooper Basin—

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And Western Australia!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And Western Australia as well, as my honourable friend the member for Kooyong reminds me. There is also the opportunity, if the South Australian government can get its act together, for them to put together a business case to access the rail funding for the Adelaide link project across South Australia. All of this is underpinned by the $1.6 billion commitment to the North-South Corridor, the Darlington interchange, the Torrens Road project, the Northern Connector and the Flinders Link rail project, which is in the member for Boothby's electorate.

The Turnbull government is delivering yet again for South Australia in infrastructure in this budget to the tune of $3.1 billion. If I could just get a plug in for my particular area of defence industry, this government has committed more to South Australia in investment in defence industry and infrastructure than any government in the history of the Commonwealth. It is arguably the largest commitment in defence industry and defence of any state in the nation since 1901. There is $85 billion of naval shipbuilding and infrastructure going on at Osborne, creating 5,000 jobs directly and 20,000 jobs indirectly.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.