Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week's budget contains much good news for many of my constituents in Menzies. Up to 60,000 taxpayers in Menzies will benefit from the low- and middle-income tax relief in this upcoming 2018-19 financial year. Some 4,000 families will benefit from the new childcare system in operation from 2 July. Victorian public hospitals will receive a 30 per cent increase in funding. The 14,000 new aged-care places will assist many older people, including people in my electorate of Menzies and my neighbouring electorates of Chisholm and Deakin as well, to stay in their own homes. An estimated 1,600 people with disabilities and their families in Menzies will benefit from the guaranteed funding for the NDIS. And, of course, a preschool funding boost will ensure that almost 2,000 children in Menzies can access 15 hours of quality early learning in the year before school. But, in addition to that, my constituents and those in surrounding areas who are suffering from congestion on the roads, particularly in the north-east parts of Melbourne, will benefit from the ultimate building of two major pieces of infrastructure—the East West Link, which the money remains there to build, and the North East Link to ease those choke points across the Yarra River between my electorate and suburbs to the north.