Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm excited today to talk about what this budget means for the electorate of Dunkley. Firstly, we have budgeted $225 million to see the electrification and duplication of the Frankston rail line to Baxter become a reality. This is a project I've advocated since 2016. It means job creation and connectivity to jobs, education and community. I said in my maiden speech that we shouldn't be disadvantaged by where we live, and with this commitment we are delivering. It means the potential for stations servicing Frankston Hospital, Monash uni, Karingal, Langwarrin and Baxter. It means 'park and ride' closer to people's homes. It means the opportunity for Baxter stabling instead of Seaford stabling, to stop 200 jobs being taken if the state government chooses to go with our project. It means freeing up parking around Frankston, Kananook and Seaford stations as well as Frankston Hospital and the uni. We already have on the table $3 million of federal funding for the business plan that the state government recently commenced. We are calling for the state to now co-contribute $225 million in matching funds. They have put in zero dollars so far. We're also calling for them to complete the business plan by November and work together on topping up funding, depending on the overall cost.

I'd also like to talk about what this budget means for many families, particularly those who are struggling with cost-of-living pressures, paying for things for their kids and so forth. Most workers in Dunkley will each receive tax relief of $530 per year, which means an extra $1,060 for a working couple. We'll be eliminating bracket creep so that most workers will now be on the top bracket of 32½ per cent. This means school books, fuel, food and more for families. It also means reduced childcare costs for 6,500 local families, with a subsidy of up to 85 per cent, depending on income, and an elimination of caps.

For the 27,800 people who are aged over 65 and their families who live in Dunkley, we have policies to help retirees and those in aged care. We have 14,000 more home-care packages so that people can stay at home longer. There are 27,819 people aged over 65 who will benefit. We won't be taking the retirees' franking credits and savings, as Labor intends to do. The pension work bonus will be increased so that age pensioners can earn an extra $50 per fortnight up to $300 per fortnight. And the pension loan scheme will be expanded to give Australians on age pensions the option to boost their income by up to $17,700 for a couple. We're also recognising our growing community by extending the Stronger Communities Program and recognising volunteers and small businesses with our tax cuts.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The budget has been delivered. They've had five years to get it right, and again we see that they have got it wrong—again and again and again. We've seen $80 billion going to big business and corporations. Actually, we don't even know whether it's $80 billion, because yesterday during question time we asked the Prime Minister a number of times how much money this was actually going to cost, how much money was going to go to the big end of town, and the Prime Minister simply shrugged his shoulders and said he had no idea. He was asked that question, and the Treasurer was asked, and not once were we given a definitive answer. He's asking us to vote for a tax cut that he doesn't even know the cost of. Well, I've got to tell you: the Australian community are not mugs. They are not going to be fooled or tricked into taking $10 a week—which, for those of you who don't know or who don't live in the real world, for a single person is not really going to cover the apple bill, the bread bill or the weekly milk bill in a family home.

I asked my community yesterday what they would like the government to do with their $10—because there's this thing called the general public, who have a better idea of what this government could be doing to support families a little bit better. Effie Thiveos said, 'Keep my $10 and fund the NDIS accordingly, and help people like me who are raising a special needs child.' Mr Deputy Speaker Andrews, I know that you and I have done great work on the NDIS, and we have a huge issue around the NDIS. Scottey Hickson said, 'You can keep my $10 and give workers back their penalty rates.' Anybody who was earning penalty rates has had $77 ripped away, and now they're getting $10 back. He said: 'Give schools and hospitals back the money that they were promised. And even though I earn too much to get your stupid $10, what do you think a family is actually going to spend it on? My tolls cost me 17 times more than the $10 tax break that they are being offered.'

Mandy said that you should do something to assist in the aged-care space and pay workers more than $22 an hour. Allison Major suggested that housing affordability could be something that her $10 might be better spent on. Tim Haynes said that he actually couldn't say what he thought the government should do with his $10, because he might be banned from Facebook if he told Scott Morrison what he though of this $10. Oliver Pocock said that he'd spend it on active and engaging policy with young Australians—who I note are sitting in the gallery here today. Another good suggestion was to fund public service, and I note that the member who spoke before me was talking about the cuts to Centrelink and the privatisation of public services.

So there are a couple of great suggestions from the good people of Lindsay, the community that I'm incredibly proud to represent. I have just one suggestion—maybe I could have back the $98 million that this government has ripped out of my university, the $5 million that it's taken out of my hospital and the $21 million it has taken from my public schools.

Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week's budget has been a great budget for Brisbane. More than 75,000 people in the electorate of Brisbane will receive tax relief in 50 days time. Hardworking people around Brisbane will be keeping more of their own money, their own hard-earned money, as reward for their efforts, because this government's strong economic plan is starting to pay dividends for Australia. A year ago, speaking here on last year's budget, I predicted why supporting Australia's small and medium businesses would pay these dividends. Now we see the evidence that the key planks of this government's strong economic plan are working—the tax relief for small and medium businesses, our innovation agenda, the new free trade agreements and the growth of our defence industry. We can see evidence of these policies working right across Brisbane.

Nationwide, these policies combined to help Australia's small and medium businesses create new jobs last year faster than jobs have ever been created before in Australia's history—a record 1,100 jobs a day in 2017. It means more Australians are being productive and paying taxes, and fewer Australians are relying on welfare. That's a powerful outcome, economically and morally. And it's enabling this government to guarantee essential services, to provide this new record help for seniors, to make a record investment this year in our environment and the Great Barrier Reef, and finally, with certainty, to fully fund the NDIS out of consolidated revenue, all at the same time as being able to give tax relief to the Australians whose hard work and success have made this happen. That's the power of supporting Australia's small and medium businesses. That's the power of supporting hardworking Australians.

A year ago, the Treasurer mentioned the Brisbane Metro in his budget speech, and this week I was delighted that the Treasurer announced $300 million in funding to make the Brisbane Metro project a reality. There's been a lot of hard work put in between those two budget speeches to make that decision happen, and full accolades have to go to the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Graham Quirk, and his deputy, Adrian Schrinner, who built the compelling business case for this project. Infrastructure Australia got it right last month when they assessed the Brisbane Metro as an investment-ready, high-priority infrastructure project with a strong business case. Thank you to all the locals around Brisbane who answered my calls and signed the petitions to help prove how enthusiastic the grassroots community support is for the Brisbane Metro. Your voice has been heard.

Brisbane is becoming more prosperous as this budget builds on last year's budget, as we support our small and medium businesses and hardworking people right across Brisbane. And it's becoming better because of the support we're then able to provide in this budget for the environment, for seniors, for the NDIS and for so many other worthwhile projects. This is a great budget for Brisbane.

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

I'll take the opportunity in the speeches that follow the budget being handed down on Tuesday night to talk more broadly about the budget, but there's one aspect of it that has made me really angry, and I want to take this short opportunity to put it on the public record. In December last year, I went public in the local Illawarra media about the great frustration, indeed, distress, being caused to older people in my community and their families and also the service providers who work with them. The reason for that was that we'd hit 950 people on the aged-care home care package waiting list in our region—950 people who had been assessed as needing home care support who were trying to sustain themselves in their own homes and needed the support that is provided by these packages, which are important not only to them but also to their families. I have had people in tears on the phone talking about the struggles that families are having as they wait for up to a year—some for more than a year—to get the package that they have already been assessed as needing. I was very frustrated and, on behalf of those older people, their families and our service providers, I went public about that particular issue.

Then in March we got a new, updated report on the state of the packages across the nation. In my area of the Illawarra we'd seen about a 10 per cent increase in that waiting list again. We'd gone from 950 to over 1,000 people. The table in the report makes it clear that this is only people who were not in or assigned an interim level package, so it hides the number of people who need, for example, a level 4 package who've been put on an interim level 2 package. That means the service providers are left having to say to people: 'We're not funded to provide you with the additional support you've been assessed as needing. We're only funded to provide this level.' Many of those providers, out of their own budgets and their own resources, are trying to provide additional support.

Not surprisingly, I was quite encouraged when I saw the speculation before the budget that the government was going to make a major investment in this space. That is not what we got on Tuesday night. What we got was 14,000 places over four years, when the national waiting list is over 100,000, and that's funded by taking funding out of residential aged care. This is a terrible con on people. It's cruel and unfair. Across my region, there are many families who want to see the government take real action on this crisis in aged care. It's appalling that they were encouraged to think that that was about to happen and it has not.