Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians, including in my electorate of North Sydney, are struggling. In the lead up to the 2022-23 federal budget, many spoke to me about their struggles to find a place to live or having to choose between groceries or paying bills. At first glance this budget indicates the government recognises these struggles. It was reassuring to see some positive movements in areas where my community advocated for reform, with single parents and families with children under 16 now able to access additional support, and others benefiting from cheaper energy as we push to electrification.

But look more deeply and there is little in this budget to be inspired by. We need long-term structural economic reform which focuses on driving activity, productivity and managing cost, and we need a vision, neither of which were clear in this budget. When I asked the people of North Sydney what they would have delivered if they were Treasurer, they were clear. They wanted increased support for vulnerable Australians. They wanted adequately resourced climate action. They wanted to drive tax and revenue reform. And they wanted to address intergenerational inequity.

At the centre of this government's budget, however, was investment in our healthcare system, one that is overburdened, underfunded and under-resourced. I welcome the boost to Medicare, offering the opportunity for more children under 16, pensioners and concession card holders to see a doctor. But I call on Minister for Health and Aged Care to ensure these measures increase the number of GP clinics bulk-billing, as in North Sydney currently just 14 of 44 do. The greater investment in health protection and prevention measures, including the investment in the Australian Centre for Disease Control, is also good news. National prevention and infectious disease management rely on national coordination, and I look forward to seeing this centre develop.

Much was made of the six million Australians with chronic conditions being able to access their medication at a lower cost under the 60-day dispensing changes, and a number of chronically ill North Sydney residents have told me they believe this will help them. But this policy cuts two ways, and both sides must be acknowledged. Pharmacists in North Sydney have left me in no doubt that they believe the impacts are far more complex than the government is acknowledging, and many of their concerns are shared by those in general practice. While the government has indicated they will reinvest the money into community pharmacy, pharmacists in North Sydney are concerned this will not compensate them for the direct losses faced as a small business. I asked the government to listen closely to community pharmacists and work to get more than the headline right when delivering a policy change like this.

Separately, the lack of investment in mental health support or services was disappointing. At a time when three out of five young Australians have experienced a mental health distress in the last 12 months, the lack of funding to address this shadow pandemic is frustrating. An increased focus on elevating lived experience, funding digital tools and investment in workforce training is welcome but amounts to fiddling around the edges. Support for the most vulnerable was addressed via moderate, focused cost-of-living relief measures, but, at a time when households are doing it tough, we were hoping for more than just snappy headlines. In a post-budget survey across North Sydney, almost 60 per cent of people said these measures would make no difference to them.

And then this is the missing middle: those who, through their work efforts, continue to prop up our economy but see little reprieve in sight. Cost-of-living struggles are compounded by housing unavailability and unaffordability. And while a 15 per cent increase in rest assistance for the most vulnerable is welcome, it will barely touch the sides. Median rent in Sydney has increased by 24 per cent in the last 12 months. Homes in my electorate are renting for more than $1,000 a week, whilst units rent for more than $650. The build-to-rent incentives may eventually reduce pressure. However, they will not help people who are currently homeless and need immediate relief, and they will not ultimately get people into their own homes, as there is no support for rent to own.

For low-income earners and those reliant on government income support the struggle to cope with inadequate income is ironic, given this government's focus on fair pay for all. There are currently 3.3 million Australians living in poverty, and that number is growing. This is particularly true for single parents, the majority of whom are women. The extension of parenting payment single until a child is 14 is better than the current cut-off at eight, but there will be those who struggle through the transition. I call on the government to account for how it will support these families in the short term so as to minimise financial distress. There were also welcome announcements for families and women's safety, but the funding allocated is well short of the billion dollars needed to fully address women's safety in Australia. With crisis shelters overflowing, women and children have never been more vulnerable. Ultimately, parenting payments, JobSeeker and youth allowance payments simply are far from adequate. The JobSeeker increase of $20 a week and expansion of eligibility to those over 55, down from 60, provided fodder for headlines but is far below what is required to lift Australians out of poverty.

Ultimately, the focus on reducing the cost of living through electrification is a win in this budget, and the community of North Sydney can take pride in the role we have played in advocating for it. With cheaper renewable energy solutions becoming more reliable and efficient, we are seeing the beginning of much of what North Sydney has called for. Ultimately, however, the $1.3 billion in the government budget falls well short of the $12 billion needed to finance electrification for all suitable households, and it pales into insignificance when you look at the subsidies for fossil fuels, which sit at $41 billion over the next four years.

Climate and finance experts say the measures in this budget do not meet the scale of the climate emergency we are facing. We must move faster to secure our energy independence and leverage our opportunity for global leadership in zero emissions trade and investment. The establishment of the Net Zero Authority is good news, as is the scale-up of green hydrogen production, and I was pleased to see the modest investment in fuel efficiency standards, but there's no funding for the more immediate fix the minister could have pursued, which would have been to clean up our dirty petrol.

When looking at revenue, I believe the Treasurer's decision to pay down debt was responsible, but we need to address the fact that much was made of a surplus which was built on the back of individual income tax. It accounted for 48 per cent of total revenue. This overreliance on personal income tax is unsustainable, especially as the number of workers per retiree is rapidly decreasing. I call on the government to lead us through a process of comprehensive tax reform, to reduce reliance on personal active income and to review opportunities that are fairer to future generations by looking at how significant passive income is taxed. While I welcome the 15 per cent minimum tax for multinationals, it's time for us to get serious about rapidly implementing country-level accounting. The attempt to sell us on the modest changes to the petroleum resource rent tax has left us all extremely disappointed. The government has made no effort to wind back fossil fuel subsidies like the fuel tax credit, which will cost us over $41 billion over the next four years. Subsidies for dying industries only forestall their eventual demise.

When it comes to support for small business, the government is offering a sugar hit but no long-term reprieve. Another year of instant asset write-off won't drive long-term productivity. Almost all the respondents in my post-budget survey said the government should consider structural long-term reform for our economy. They suggested closing loopholes for multinational tax avoidance, higher taxes on oil and gas, scrapping fossil fuel subsidies and introducing windfall profits taxes on booming industries. Through it all, they acknowledged that most often it's actually young Australians who feel financial distress most acutely.

Ultimately, there was very little in this budget for those who have finished studying and started paying their taxes. There was no relief from rising university debts, little support for those struggling with their mental health and underwhelming action to meet the challenge of climate change. Tackling intergenerational inequity requires a whole-of-system approach, addressing activity, productivity and wages, and will require the government to do some heavy lifting. Instead we've been given a budget that has done little to offend but even less to drive a future-focused economy through reform.

In closing, I can't help but think one North Sydney resident summed it up perfectly: 'While this budget has set out in the right direction, I believe structural reform is needed for long-term prosperity. This budget is underwhelming and should be much more ambitious.'

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

STANLEY (—) (): The history of DNA is complex. It's a discovery that can be traced back to the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher in 1869. Come forward almost a century: Francis Crick and James Watson started working together at the Cavendish Laboratory within the University of Cambridge. This work led to the famous scene at the Eagle pub on 28 February 1953 when Crick interrupted lunchtime activities and announced to all assembled that he and Watson had discovered the secret of life. One can only imagine the reaction from the assembled group.

Budgets are much like DNA. If DNA tells us the secrets of life then budgets tell us about the heart and soul of a government. Indeed, budgets reveal more than almost anything else about a government's priorities, hopes and aspirations. They are direction-setting documents, and they matter. The DNA of the previous Liberal government was clear to see. Who could forget the image, in 2014, of the then Treasurer and finance minister smoking a cigar in the lead-up to that year's horror budget; or, in 2020, the quick disappearance of the infamous $35 'back in black' mugs when it became obvious that a budget surplus was nothing more than a pipe dream; or the blatant pork-barrelling of hundreds of millions of dollars in sports rorts, regional jobs, investment rorts, road funding rorts and pool rorts? It would take days to detail them all.

I'm proud to state that this year's budget is very much built on the Labor Party's DNA. And what is the Labor Party's DNA? Qualities such as fairness, equity and justice. Colloquially, you might say that Labor's DNA stands for a fair go to all, a helping hand for those who need it, and no-one left behind. It is for those reasons and values that I joined the ALP all those years ago, and it's for the very same reasons that I'm proud to speak about this year's budget, for, in every way, this year's statement by the Treasurer is a truly Labor budget—unmistakably so and proudly so—grounded in helping the lives of Australians who need help the most and dealing with the global economic headwinds—and they are significant headwinds. The after-effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine are being felt with high inflation and weak global economic growth. But Labor governments don't make excuses. Labor governments have guided Australia through uncertain times, from world wars to global financial crises. It's in our DNA.

The Albanese government recognises the challenges ahead of us, and this budget continues the recalibration of our national priorities that began with the October budget last year. The budget recognises the pressure Australians are under, and that's why it delivers fair and targeted relief. What can be fairer than helping millions of Australians pay their electricity bills? That's exactly what this budget does: six million households and one million small businesses getting a direct reduction in their power bills. Those opposite would like to pretend that they are all for reducing the pressure on family budgets, claiming to support this measure, yet they voted against the measure last year. Those opposite can't help themselves. They are continuing to say no—so much so that they're beginning to oppose themselves. They can't have it both ways. The Australian people can see the contradiction between their rhetoric and their actions. In one breath, those opposite claim to support cost-of-living measures in the budget, yet they have not guaranteed support for the increase in social security payments, and the Australian people will judge them for it.

What can be fairer than helping millions of Australians pay for their medicines? Earlier this year, the Albanese government reduced the maximum co-pay Australians pay for PBS medications, and this budget will continue to reduce the cost of medicines. Six million Australians will be eligible to receive two months supply of eligible medications at once, saving them up to $180 a year per script.

What can be fairer than strengthening Medicare, especially bulk-billing? For years Australians have been telling this parliament our healthcare system is in need of significant investment. The previous government not only did nothing; they froze the Medicare rebate, ripping billions of dollars out of the healthcare system. I'm proud that this budget invests a historic $5.7 billion into Medicare—and this will include a tripling of the bulk-billing incentive, helping GPs provide bulk-billed consultations to up to a million Australians. That means more than 100,000 people in Werriwa will benefit. The importance of this investment to our communities cannot be understated, and it comes as a huge relief to doctors and patients.

The Albanese government is also supporting our small businesses because we understand how important they are to our economy and our local communities. The measure will be in the energy bill relief that may apply to approximately 322,000 small businesses in New South Wales who will automatically get up to $650 off their power bill from 1 July. Additionally, there will be a temporary increase in the instant asset write-off to $20,000 for up to 1.18 million small businesses in New South Wales. The government is also supporting small and medium businesses to electrify, improve their energy efficiency and reduce emissions, with a 20 per cent tax deduction for eligible investments. That's how a good government can support small businesses—reducing power bills and then reducing our emissions. The budget delivers $1.6 billion for energy saving upgrades to homes, businesses and social housing, helping people with older homes and appliances.

The list of measures in this budget goes on. There's help for single parents, help for renters, help for aged-care workers by delivering a 15 per cent pay rise, help for veterans, and help for supporting quality training and addressing skill needs.

This budget ensures that government services will continue to be adequately funded. The previous government left the budget filled with underfunded and unfunded programs and services. It made the budget bottom line look better while hurting Australians that rely on critical government services. In this budget, $7.5 billion of spending was needed to ensure these services were working.

Whilst we provide funding for government services, we are continuing to invest in growing our economy for the benefit of all Australians. There will be 300,000 fee-free TAFE places made available to help Australians train in critical sectors of our economy, helping to fix the skills shortage and upskill our workforce for secure and well-paying jobs.

The global economy is experiencing a rapid energy transition, and Australia is at risk of losing out on these huge opportunities. Australia should not miss out on these opportunities, and the Albanese Labor government is determined to ensure this doesn't happen. Additional funding in this budget will bring the government's total investment in making Australia a renewable energy superpower to $40 billion. The world is moving, and we shouldn't be following; we should be the ones leading.

If this budget is grounded in the Labor DNA of fairness and equity, it's also grounded in the Labor DNA of sustainability. This budget delivers lower deficits and debts and forecasts a surplus in 2022-23. It produces better-quality spending and a fairer tax and super system, and it builds a sustainable aged-care system. More than anything else, this is a responsible budget. It delivers to see Australians through this difficult and challenging time as well as setting our country up for lasting success.

I'm only too aware of the cost-of-living pressures my constituents are facing. Times are tough. Inflation has been and is a challenge. Prices everywhere are rising. While there are no quick fixes and certainly no slogans on coffee mugs that will do the trick, I am equally aware that in these challenging times thousands in my electorate will directly benefit because of this year's budget. It will help them pay their bills, it will help them keep their heater on in winter, it will help keep them healthy and it will help them and their families manage and plan for the future—real solutions, real assistance for real Australians doing it tough. It is a budget that delivers, a budget that keeps faith with Labor's DNA and election commitments of 12 months ago.

It seems that every week new discoveries are being made in the world of DNA. These incremental discoveries are helping improve the quality of millions of lives. Discoveries are leading to wonderful innovations. Watson and Crick would be proud and amazed. Similarly, this budget improves the lives of millions of Australians, not in a way that the DNA discoveries do but in a way that allows Australians to live their lives to the maximum. For the elderly, those who are unwell and those who for whatever reason find themselves in need of a helping hand it is helping, assisting, affording dignity, lending a hand and building for the future. It is helping the elderly, the sick, single parents, small business people and so on.

No-one is left behind, and ever may it be the case. This is the Albanese Labor government's way. This is why I'm a proud member of this party. This is why the people of Australia voted overwhelmingly for a change last year. I'm proud of this budget, but I know that there is more to do. We will continue working with the Australian people to make sure that they are better for it. I commend the budget and appropriation bills to the House.

Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since the last budget was handed down a little over seven months ago we've seen interest rates continue to rise and have had cost-of-living pressures we have not experienced in recent memory. While inflation may have seen a small drop over the last month, it's still a volatile situation and nowhere near what we need it to be. The government has a very fine line to walk between supporting the needs of Australians, particularly as we face unprecedented cost-of-living challenges, and addressing inflation. While there may be a modest surplus, it is expected that the economy will begin to slow down at a rate not seen since the height of the pandemic, driven by consumers tightening their spending.

We know that the cost of living is being driven by a range of factors, including supply shocks and adverse weather events. Domestic policy is also a significant factor. I am acutely aware of the struggles facing many in our community. It is something I witness first-hand through the sheer number of visits or calls to my office from far too many who are struggling to make ends meet or, worse, to find a suitable place to live. When I talk about the housing crisis, it is not hyperbole. I've had far too many conversations than I can count with parents who are living with their children in cars.

I welcome the increase in rent assistance of $31 a fortnight, but I'm cautious, as I do hope that this does not then lead to another increase for those who can least afford it, making the increase negligible. It's for this reason that I supported Labor's recent housing policy. Although I may have views on how the policy will be funded, I simply cannot stand in the way of delivering more housing to our state, which I know so desperately needs it.

Over the April break from parliament I caught up with several local charity organisations that are witnessing unprecedented demand for their services, particularly from households where one or even both parents are working and still struggling to keep up with rising costs. This of course has a flow-on effect. As demand for charitable services increases we also see a parallel downturn in the ability of these organisations to meet the demand due to increased overheads and lower levels of charitable giving.

Of course, we must look at JobSeeker. As co-chair of the bipartisan Parliamentary Friends of Ending Poverty with the Labor member for Canberra, I've been continuing my lobbying to increase the rate of JobSeeker, as I did when the coalition was in government. Whilst noting that the government must get the budget balance right, it's hugely disappointing that they have committed to raising the rate of the allowance by just $40 a fortnight. This is less than the rate raised by the coalition in 2021 and it still falls chronically below the poverty line.

I do question whether they are living their own values. When you have a Labor government that has talked about putting people first and went to an election saying that nobody will be left behind, this is not yet hitting the mark. Lifting our communities out of poverty should be beyond political lines, as it benefits all of us in the long run. Just a few weeks ago I was speaking to a young man who said, 'How do you realise aspiration if you never get an opportunity?' Equality of opportunity is critical to boosting productivity and more must be done to equal the playing field.

I'm pleased that as we head into winter there will be support for pensioners and people on other income support payments. They will receive up to $500 off their electricity bills this year. I'm also supportive of the government reversing its own cuts to single parenting support that it implemented back in 2009, with the cut-off age for receiving support for children raised from eight years of age to 14 years of age I acknowledge the government for providing temporary electricity bill relief and for partly tackling the bulk billing issue, where GPs will see an increased incentive to bulk bill pensioners, concession card holders and children on top of their rebate. However, this doesn't go far enough to address the retention and recruitment of doctors in our local practices. This is an ongoing conversation that I am continuing to have with health professionals in my community. Also cheaper child care is welcomed, but more reform is needed to ensure that places are available when and where they are needed for working parents. Cost means little if you can't access the service.

But it's where the government has chosen not to put its money that has me puzzled. Cutting the successful Entrepreneurship Facilitator Program is just one. The intent of the program is to promote and encourage self-employment and entrepreneurship, and it has been running in my region for a number of years, with Taz Devadass as one of the key facilitators of the program since its inception in 2017. In my electorate of Bass, several successful local businesses have started through the support of the program, including Method Plus Action, the Tasmanian Hazara Market in Launceston, Launceston Snake Catcher, Launceston Paint the Town Red and HYPE Disability disco just to name a few. As of July last year, the program in northern Tasmania has been facilitated by Taz and Em Rigby from Futures Isle.

In just the past nine months they have impacted over 1,500 people directly through the service, with the overwhelming majority of their participants engaging with the service on multiple occasions. They have led collaborative ecosystem building activities and events with a focus on collaboration and stakeholder engagement, holding more than 300 stakeholder meetings and discussions. In fact, they have held 332 stakeholder meetings and discussions. They have collaborated with the City of Launceston on a series of events promoting small-business pathways for people living in our northern suburbs, with over 77 people attending those events alone. They have hosted 78 varied events and workshops covering topics as vast as time management, financial literacy and social media strategy. They have made 266 formal referrals to other service providers such as Workforce Australia, accounting specialists, mental health professionals and relevant state based business supports.

In a region like northern Tasmania, whose economy is built on the back of small businesses and entrepreneurs, programs like this fill a gap in services available to assist those who want to have a go at creating their own future. It's a proven program that costs very, very little, and to cut the program without any warning or consultation, and with a few years left on the local contract, is unconscionable. 'We were devastated to hear of the scrapping of this program, because of the significant community value we see for this service in our region,' Taz and Em told me in the days following the budget.

Then there is support to veterans provided through the independent not-for-profit organisation Soldier On, which delivers holistic support for veterans, from health and wellbeing programs to employment support and learning and education assistance, enabling current and former ADF personnel and their families to lead meaningful civilian lives. For the past few years I have supported a local group of veterans as they've raised money for suicide prevention programs for Soldier On by walking 96 kilometres, the length of the Kokoda Trail, in less than 24 hours. This year I joined the team on their walk, completing just under 50 kilometres, and I am committed to joining them for the full distance next year. From my discussions on the walk and my involvement with the team over the past few years, I have seen how committed they are to the organisation and to raising funds for suicide prevention programs. This year they raised over $20,000. To see a $1½ million funding cut to this veterans' organisation at a time when we know veterans need more assistance makes me again question whether Labor is truly living their own values.

It is when I look at where infrastructure development is heading that leaves me with the most cause for concern. For councils, the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program has provided the opportunity to deliver priority local road and community infrastructure projects in their region, creating jobs and long-lasting benefits for communities. Across my electorate, this has delivered a new skate park for youth in Bridport, new roads in Grindelwald and an all-access beach ramp at East Beach in my local area of George Town, just to name a few. The phasing out of this program that is delivering demonstrably better outcomes for communities, particularly in rural and regional areas, is concerning.

It's the future of the Launceston City Deal which has me particularly concerned. The city deal was first launched in 2017, with the goal of bringing the three levels of government—federal government, state government and the local City of Launceston council—together to work collaboratively on a number of projects to position Launceston as one of the most livable and innovative regional cities. The coalition's investment of just over $250 million has paved the way to ensuring much-needed and long-awaited projects could get off the ground, creating a future for our city that is creative, vibrant and livable and will attract further investment in the region.

Some of the highlights of the city deal include $130 million for the relocation of the University of Tasmania's Launceston campus from Newnham to Inveresk, closer to the CBD; $49 million to improve the health of the Tamar Estuary through infrastructure upgrades and catchment management actions; $30 million to develop a defence and maritime innovation and design precinct at the University of Tasmania's Australian Maritime College; $15 million to support the development of a purpose-built community hub in the northern suburbs of Launceston, which will help to address some of the dire sports court shortages that our region is currently experiencing; $10 million to contribute towards the Albert Hall renewal project; $7½ million to rejuvenate Launceston CBD through the Launceston City Heart Project; and $4½ million through the Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.

This deal is delivering on the objectives set out in the deal, and to see Labor let it die a slow death without any funding certainty beyond 2025, and no commitment to implementing something in its place, is concerning to me when you weigh up the investment and deliverables from the Launceston City Deal and compare it to the $240 million the federal government has thrown at developing a third stadium in Hobart. I'm not anti progress, anti AFL or anti development in the south, and I think it's absolutely terrific that Tasmania will have its own team. I also welcome the $65 million announced for UTAS Stadium not because it's in the north but because it is a step towards redeveloping a facility that already exists.

I come at this from the point of view of there being more pressing needs in our community where these funds could be effective, particularly from the perspective of supporting grassroots sport. We have netball, basketball, soccer and hockey in the north bursting at the seams and unable to meet the demand of growth in all of these sports, while also battling with current infrastructure that's not fit for purpose. If we want to talk about sport at the elite level, we need to provide our communities with the facilities that create the pathways towards competing at a high level. By doing that, we can attract the national and international tournaments that would be a boon for our region. Also, again bringing it back to housing, homelessness and general cost-of-living pressures, funding a third stadium is just way off the mark—no pun intended.

I do acknowledge that the stadium is part of a longer term vision for our state and that the argument shouldn't be distilled to an either/or situation, but currently we're not seeing any evidence of that. There is an expectation in our community that, if money can be found to support a stadium, there must be money made available for the 'or', so to speak, and I haven't seen a whole lot of evidence of that in the recent budget. As someone who has worked closely with key community stakeholders over the past few years to advocate for their worthy projects, I'm also keen to see Labor begin to deliver on their key election promises—the George Town aquatic centre, the relocation of the medical research innovation facility and the establishment of a standalone palliative care facility—to meet the needs and the expectations of my Northern Tasmanian community.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No budget in the past decade has done more to reduce inequality than the 2023 budget. In that budget we brought down initiatives that make medicines cheaper for Australians with long-term health conditions. We funded a pay rise for aged-care workers. We are delivering nearly 500,000 fee-free TAFE places and 20,000 new university places directed primarily at those who are the first in their family to attend university. We have established 10 days family and domestic violence leave. And we have extended eligibility for the parenting payment single to a single principal carer with a youngest child aged under 14.

In the last budget we increased the rates of JobSeeker, youth allowance, parenting payment partnered, Austudy, Abstudy, the youth disability support pension and special benefit. We've extended eligibility for JobSeeker to single recipients aged 55 and over. And we've increased Commonwealth rental assistance by the largest amount in the last 30 years. These changes to payments will help around 580,000 women, 318,000 young people, 150,000 First Nations Australians and 245,000 mature-age Australians. The budget will also provide additional support for people currently in supported employment with greater employment stability. It includes funding for pilots to develop evidence based approaches for early intervention for infants with early signs of autism and includes an exciting new initiative, partnering with philanthropy on an investment dialogue for Australia's children, a whole-of-government framework to address community disadvantage. One of the main reasons why I got into politics was to make a difference on issues of inequality, and the Albanese government and our latest budget are delivering on that.

I'd like to acknowledge too the Swaminarayan Sanstha organisation, BAPS, the Hindu sociospiritual organisation affiliated in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. BAPS strives to care for the world by caring for societies, families and individuals. BAPS has millions of followers around the world. During his visit to Australia in 2018, the current spiritual leader of BAPS, Mahant Swami Maharaj, shared his vision that, as he put it, 'The capital of Australia will put up a temple to match the capital.'

BAPS is now in the process of building a Hindu mandir, a temple, and community centre in the ACT, in Taylor, in my electorate. Construction for the temple began in April 2022 and is set to be completed in August this year. I was pleased to visit the construction of the temple last week and to see the important work that is being done. The aspiration of the community is to create not just a place of worship but also a place for Canberrans to come together and celebrate Canberra's diversity. Ours is a city where the National Multicultural Festival is our largest festival and where Canberrans acknowledge the benefits of ethnic and religious diversity.

The former spiritual leader of BAPS, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, lived by the ethos 'In the joy of others lies our own'. Taking his inspiration, BAPS volunteers engage in regular blood donation drives, raising funds for charitable organisations like the Canberra Hospital Foundation, providing hot meals and food packs through the COVID-19 crisis, especially to international students, and participating in clean-up days and tree plantation drives. They've also been involved in promoting peace and harmony through an interfaith forum for the Royal Canberra Show and Gungahlin community event, holding weekly assemblies and celebrating Hindu festivals at various locations. They're now in the Ngunnawal Primary School, for when their new temple opens they will be moving there.

The principle of volunteering is important to BAPS volunteers and, indeed, the kids who attend the temple have been given a goal to raise $26,000, including by selling cookies, making handmade craft items and through tin collections. I want to thank, in particular, those who showed me around the temple site: Vivek Brahmbhatt, Kunai Patel, Harshita Kakkad, Drashti Patel and Parag Shah. I really appreciated their generosity and the time that they took to tell me about the temple and the role that they hope it will play.

The Community Council for Australia provides an important platform for Australia's charities and not-for-profits. It aims to promote the values of the sector, to improve the way people invest in the sector, to build collaboration in sector efficiency and to educate organisations. As its chair, Tim Costello, puts it:

Imagine an Australia where your postcode or cultural identity does not define your chance of getting an education or a job or living a long life? Imagine an Australia where creativity drives real innovation and achievement, not just in our arts, but in the schools and local communities? Imagine a humane and sustainable Australia, where people are more connected and engaged in the communities they live and work in, and where this involvement is reflected in the ways we form policies and laws? Imagine a generous and kind Australia where we take pride in supporting the less fortunate in their own communities, in our region and beyond? … Imagine the Australia we want.

I want to thank the important role the Community Council for Australia has played, particularly under the leadership of Tim Costello and David Crosbie. They met, to hold their annual general meeting, here in Parliament House last week.

I was pleased to welcome to the building Carol Bennett and Kate Seselja from the Alliance for Gambling Reform; Nicola Stokes from the AMP Foundation; Marc Purcell from the Australian Council for International Development; Susan Pascoe from ACFID; Chris Kwong from the Australian Red Cross; Deirdre Cheers from Barnardos Australia; Alison Brook from Carers Australia; Jon Bisset from the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia; David Crosbie, Deborah Smith and Nick Nguyen from the Community Council for Australia; Caterina Georgio from FARE; Claire Robbs from Life Without Barriers; Ben Gathercole from Menslink; Anne-Marie Baker from Mission Australia; Anna Draffin from the Public Interest Journalism Initiative; Richard Mussell from RSPCA Australia; Paul Porteous from the Social Leadership Foundation; Suzie Riddell from Social Ventures Australia; Dane Moores from Settlement Services International; Amanda Power from St John Ambulance Australia; and Louise Baxter from the Starlight Foundation. I've held the charities portfolio for my party since 2013 and have benefited greatly from the wisdom and insights of the Community Council for Australia.

I want to acknowledge Rob Eakin, an extraordinary Australian who passed away earlier this month. Rob died the day after the budget, which is significant because he was an extraordinary Labor stalwart. Rob and his wife Robin were two of the people who were among my earliest supporters when I first got into politics. I always felt that whatever I did, they would have my back. They were the best of volunteers: hardworking, altruistic, generous and funny. They were a real delight to be around, and every conversation with Rob and Robin left me feeling better about the world.

Rob was kind towards others, but always willing to show others how to do things a little better. His techniques of ensuring that our roadside signs stayed on their stakes are second to none! We knew that if Rob put a roadside sign up, then the only way it was going to come down was if some naughty conservative was to drive over the top of it. Sadly, that happened to not a small number of Rob's signs. They hit the ground not because of any deficit in Rob's hard work, but because of shenanigans.

But Rob taught us so much more. He was there at volunteer barbecues; he was there at budget reply drinks. As his daughter Jane wrote to me:

dad … was a man who had a generous spirit. He would share the bounty from his garden with anyone.

He was happy to support people and let them achieve greatness, without ego.

He turned his skills to repairing musical instruments, and did it with love—for the joy it brought others, not for profit.

And he knew the value of listening. Hearing people out and adding his view with quiet humour.

Jane reminded me and the other elected members who were at Rob's memorial service—Tara Cheyne, Alicia Payne, former MLA Gordon Ramsay—that to be a part of the Labor Party is to be a part of a movement—a movement that is enriched by our extraordinary volunteers. We are a party that has been inspired and bettered by Rob Eakin. My condolences to his widow, Robin, and to his children. May he rest in peace.

Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2023-2024. It gives me a chance to reflect on the contributions to the Longman community of the previous coalition government, and to highlight the lack of contribution that the current government is making to the people of Longman and to the people of Australia generally. There are many misleading, untrue statements and downright lies said in this place, and I would like to correct the record on one that has been bandied around—that is, the untruthful statement of $1 trillion of coalition debt.

The facts are these. Fact 1: the debt, as at April 2022, just before the federal election, was $885.5 billion, which is not $1 trillion, so by saying this Labor are simply lying. Fact 2: almost two-thirds of the debt was baked in from the previous Labor government before the coalition assumed office in 2013.

Fact 3: before the pandemic, the debt was $534.4 billion in March 2019, and the pandemic measures increased the debt to $885.5 billion by April 2022, which, again, is not $1 trillion. On this point, I want to point out that every person I speak to in the street agrees that money had to be spent over and above the normal during the pandemic. We can debate how much that should have been and how it was spent, but the bottom line is that extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures, and the Australians I speak to understand and accept that fact. Let me point out as well that Labor supported all these measures and in fact wanted additional measures and spending that would have added an extra $81 billion to the deficit. It smacks of absolute hypocrisy to criticise the debt after you supported it in opposition and in fact said it didn't go far enough. But what else would you expect?

Longman is one of Australia's fastest growing communities, with just over 25,000 people having moved to the area since I was first elected to the seat just over four years ago. The projection is that Longman will grow by at least 100,000 people in the next 15 to 20 years. The coalition government recognised this, and we proudly invested in the infrastructure that the community so desperately needs now and will need in the future. That's infrastructure like the $150 million overpass at New Settlement Road, Narangba; the $660 million upgrade to the Bruce Highway, where a third lane is being added between the Bribie Island Road exit and Steve Irwin Way; $30 million for Bribie Island Road; and $15.2 million for the D'Aguilar Highway. That's as well as numerous upgrades to local roads in partnership with the Moreton Bay Regional Council, including $320,000 for William Berry Drive in Caboolture South; $915,000 for upgrades around Gympie Road, starting at Alma Road and Marsden Road in Dakabin; and $2 million for McKean Street in Caboolture, just to mention a few.

I was also proud that, through advocating with ministers and regular meetings with telcos, thanks to the previous coalition government, the people of Longman have an additional eight mobile towers now operational, plus three more underway, under the Peri-Urban Mobile Program. This is in contrast to the zero delivered for the Longman community under the previous Labor government. One of the highlights for me was being involved in the development of the Peri-Urban Mobile Program, which allowed partial funding by the Commonwealth of mobile phone towers in those communities around the country, like Longman, where the city meets the bush and the population density is too low for telcos to invest in infrastructure but too high to receive regional black spot funding. Under this program, Longman received funding for three towers, located in Bellmere and Caboolture South. Sadly, the contracts were not prepared by the department before we entered caretaker mode before the last election, and my information tells me that at this moment, over 12 months since the election, the sign-off from the minister is still yet to occur. This has delayed these much-needed towers for at least another 12 months, which is simply not good enough.

The previous government also partnered with the local council, community groups, sporting clubs and the like for smaller but just as important projects under such programs as the Stronger Communities grants program, the Capital Grants Program, the Bushfire Recovery for Wildlife and Habitat Community Grants Program, the MUSTER grants program, Volunteer Grants, Powering Communities, the Building Better Regions Fund, the Safer Communities Fund, the Roads to Recovery fund, the Community Development Grants Program and the Regionalisation Fund program, which delivered practical items—everything from new carpets for sporting clubs to solar panels for community halls and petrol vouchers for volunteers. They funded programs for youth at risk and so much more. In all, the community of Longman received over $23 million for 238 projects. Sadly, this government has made the decision to scrap the Community Development Grants Program and Regionalisation Fund program, which means that these organisations that rely on government support will no longer receive that support, in tough times when these groups so desperately need it.

I waited with anticipation on budget night and in the ensuing days to find out when the commitments that Labor made during the election would be delivered for the Longman community. There were promises of $3 million for a new clubhouse for the Caboolture Snakes rugby league club; $3 million for the new clubhouse at the Narangba Eagles Football Club; $3 million for the water park at Centenary Lakes; $300,000 for lights at the Narangba Demons Baseball Clubs; and road projects totalling $589 million, which included increasing the Bruce Highway from six to eight lanes between Anzac Avenue and Uhlmann Road. There was not a mention of these things in the budget. They were just another broken Labor promise to go along with the other broken promises, including the promise of a $275 reduction in power prices, the promise of cheaper mortgages under a Labor government—yet there have been 10 interest rate rises in just the first 12 months—the promise that, under Labor, families would be better off and there would be a lift in real wages—not gross wages but real wages, the measure that actually matters—the promise that there would be a 24/7 nurse in every aged-care facility—all lies; it never happens—and the promise that there would be no changes to super—a broken promise again. The list goes on and on. How can Australians ever trust this Labor government? They promise a lot and they deliver nothing. They can't even keep their election promises.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know that, when it comes to housing, the kids are not okay. My kids and their friends are facing huge struggles to find and afford a rental property right across Greater Sydney, and it isn't just our adult children. It's not only students, single mums and older women. We're also talking about full-time working Australians: teachers, aged-care workers, early educators, and ambos and others in emergency services, like police officers. When I look at so many of the properties people queue up to see—the crumbling walls, the mould, collapsing ceilings, the light fittings barely hanging on, rarely a flyscreen in sight and draughts from gaps in doors and windows, let alone any decent heating or cooling—it really is a crisis. Then you look at what people are asked to pay for these places, and it's a scandal. The data backs the lived experience, and these are some of the things that in this budget we're taking steps to start to tackle.

In Sydney and Melbourne, rental markets are extremely tight, with the number of available properties falling rapidly over the past year, driving advertised rents increasingly high. Almost 95 per cent of new tenants who signed leases in February 2023 were charged more rent than the previous tenant at the same property had paid, with close to 70 per cent of new tenants copping more than a 10 per cent rent increase. About 70 per cent of existing tenants whose leases came up for renewal in February were hit with a rent rise, up from just 14 per cent a couple of years before. Many who are struggling to hang on in the rental market are the people who kept us going during the pandemic and who worked so hard for us day in and day out. I know from my local food charities that the numbers are increasing, that increases in both mortgages and rent have stretched budgets to breaking point and that, if you want to keep the payments going, you need to be able to access cheap food from somewhere. More than ever we need places full of volunteers like Junction 142, Hawkesbury's Helping Hands, the Salvos and the many, many church and community groups.

So we do know things are not okay, and that's why this budget is doing things to tackle them. Unlike previous governments, we're not going to gaslight people and pretend that everything is fine. We're going to talk about these issues. We take seriously the circumstances we've inherited and the consequences of decisions made over many years to ignore the issue of housing. I remember that in 2013, before he was elected Prime Minister, the then opposition leader, Tony Abbott, made no mention of homelessness or housing affordability as an issue, nor did he have a housing and homelessness minister, nor did his successor. It wasn't until 2019 that the Liberals even bothered to appoint a minister to the housing portfolio.

Back in 2013, the then Minister for Housing, Brendan O'Connor, now the Minister for Skills and Training, highlighted the investment Labor had made in its two terms in office: $20 billion in housing affordability and homelessness services and programs, and a direct financial contribution to one in every 20 homes built, including 21,000 social housing homes and 11,000 affordable rental homes, with another 30,000 in the pipeline when we left office. Why is that relevant? Well, what it shows is Labor's long-term commitment to housing and home affordability, whether it's renting or buying. It shows this is not an issue we ignore when we're in government. It's not a problem we leave until it's a crisis. It's not something we choose to sweep under the carpet. As we did in previous governments, we are taking it seriously now and pulling all the levers in our power to bring change to something that was a crisis some time ago.

Let's look at the whole suite of things our most recent budget contains to tackle the multiple elements of what people are facing. For a start, we want to see more homes built. One way we will do this is the Housing Australia Future Fund. That's being held up in the Senate right now. It's a $10 billion fund which is the single-biggest investment in social and affordable housing by a federal government in more than a decade, and it will build 30,000 new rental homes in the first five years. But it is dependent on support, and the opposition won't support it and, to date, there is not enough support in the Senate to pass that bill.

But that is just one of a number of big initiatives that are included in the recent budget. There is $2 billion for more affordable rental housing through the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, which provides low-cost, longer-term loans to registered community housing providers to support the provision of more social and affordable housing. It offers concessional loans, grants and equity funding for housing development. That adds to the $575 million of funding that we took last year, that was just sitting unused by the former government. That means there are now projects under construction because of that funding. These are homes that will be owned in perpetuity by state governments or registered community providers and will be provided to key workers and people who need them most, at concessional rates.

That is in addition to the negotiation of a new housing accord, which is allocated $350 million to deliver an additional 10,000 affordable rental homes over five years from 2024, and the increase to the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator, which will support another 7,000 homes. If you add the housing fund to this, it is twice as much as was delivered between 2011 and 2021 from all tiers of government combined. We have big ambitions for this, and the work is already starting to happen on the ground, but we know there is so much more to do. That's why these funds and the work we do with them is so important.

We also have tax incentives to increase the supply of rental housing by improving the taxation arrangements for investments in build-to-rent housing. Increasing the depreciation rate from 2.5 per cent to four per cent per year for eligible new build-to-rent projects where construction commences after 9 May 2023 might not be the most exciting thing for people to hear, but if you're looking at the numbers that's an increased incentive to be part of build-to-rent investment—as is reducing the withholding tax for eligible fund payments from managed investment trusts to foreign residents on income from newly constructed residential build-to-rent properties, which will kick in after 1 July 2024, from 30 per cent to 15 per cent subject to further consultation—and there will be an eligibility criteria to it. Those things are not going to make headlines; they're not going to be on the front page of the Daily Telegraph. But they are really practical steps to incentivise private investment into this market so that we're building long-term sustainable housing from a variety of sources.

We know that housing isn't something we do alone at the federal level. The minister has brought the states and territories together to agree to expedite zoning, planning and land release for social and affordable housing. Local governments have agreed to deliver planning reforms and free up land holdings. Institutional investors have agreed to leverage investment, and the construction sector peak bodies have discussed agreeing to support high-energy efficiency rating construction, the training of more apprentices under an extended Australian Skills Guarantee and working to make housing more responsive to demand.

We are leading the push for reforms to support renters' rights, with states and territories committing to work to strengthen renters' rights. We're also helping those who need it most desperately with the largest increase in rent assistance in more than 30 years, with an extra $67 million to states and territories to help tackle homelessness as part of the $1.6 billion that is the one new extension of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement.

Of course, we want to see people buy their own homes, and so far, in the 12 months since the election, we've helped more than 50,000 Australians into homeownership. This includes more than 6,000 through the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee since it was launched in October, three months ahead of schedule. Places are still available under the Home Guarantee Scheme before the end of the financial year. The budget expands eligibility for the scheme from 1 July to allow friends or siblings and other family members to make joint applications. The criteria for the Family Home Guarantee are being expanded to recognise single legal guardians of children, such as aunts, uncles and grandparents, and that means that from 1 July more people will have the opportunity to own a home sooner. So they're the key things that we've done—the decisions and actions we've taken—in the first 12 months of being in government. We know there is more to do, and we will continue doing it.

I want to turn to another key initiative in the budget: fee-free TAFE. More than 65,000 students in New South Wales have enrolled in fee-free TAFE so far this year. The joint Commonwealth-state initiative is encouraging a wide range of applicants, especially women, who make up up to 60 per cent of all enrolments. Some are studying in traditionally male dominated fields. Enrollees also include young people, jobseekers, people living with disabilities and First Nations people. Almost a third of enrolments have been in courses related to the care sector: child care, aged care, nursing and disability support care—all areas of high priority. But we're also seeing cybersecurity and construction being taken up in large numbers.

This uptake is part of the 180,000 fee-free places we delivered for 2023, recognising last year the urgency of the skills crisis that we'd been left with, and we'll keep doing it, to broaden access to education and to fix skills shortages. There are another 300,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places available in high-skill-needs areas from next year, and I would really urge young people and people who want to retrain to go and look at what is available. We have incredible TAFEs in Wentworth Falls and Katoomba in the Blue Mountains and in Richmond in the Hawkesbury. Between them, they offer a wide range of courses, but we're also close to so many of the other TAFE campuses.

TAFE is an area that is fundamental to developing the skill set that we need in our future workers. It's a very different way of studying from what I know kids experience at school, and I really commend my local schools, who work hard to encourage students to investigate TAFE. For some people in my community, it's an easy step to take. They have family members who've been to TAFE and done VET studies. For others, it's something different for their families. But what I see when I look at what's available, whether it's on our campuses or on neighbouring campuses, is a whole range of professional qualifications that put you in really good stead for the jobs of the future, and that's the sort of focus that this government has. We want to look at people accessing that fee-free TAFE.

We also want people to think about the university courses where we've identified that there are opportunities. One of the things I'm working hard to see is greater collaboration between the Western Sydney University campus we have locally and the TAFE students. A perfect example of where the skills provided by both are needed is the agribusiness tech hub that we are building there. This was one of my election commitments. It's being delivered in the budget. The funding is in the budget. What it means is that we need people—some with science qualifications, as well as engineers and the people who can construct these big glasshouses to be able to do incredible work. So bringing together the range of skills we have is going to be the key to moving forward, and certainly, on the Hawkesbury campuses of Western Sydney University and the TAFE, we're very well placed to do that. I commend the budget to the House.

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2023-2024 and related bills. On 9 May 2023, when the Treasurer delivered his budget speech, it was clear it would do little to address the issues in my electorate of Dawson. When analysing the budget, it's important to listen to not what is said but what is missing. The Treasurer never mentioned the word 'infrastructure', nor 'roads', and could not even muster the word 'coal'. The Treasurer referred to commodities as 'things'. This is unbelievable given the fact that iron ore, coal, gas and agricultural exports are the only reason there is a surplus.

The Dawson electorate contributes so much to our nation's wealth through our resources industry, our agricultural industry, our METS industry and our engineering industry. It's estimated that Dawson contributes $1.8 billion to GDP through our resources industry alone—yes, $1.8 billion. So it's extremely disappointing to see the Treasurer bypass our region when it comes to much-needed infrastructure—the very same region that has contributed a significant portion to the budget. As I mentioned before, the Treasurer was delighted to tell Australia of the budget surplus, but that surplus hasn't come from work or solid decisions by the Labor government. No, no, no, no, no. It was our hard-working coal, gas, iron ore, sugar and beef industries that contributed to the profits in the budget.

The Albanese Labor government has once again forgotten regional, rural and remote Australians. This is the demographic that creates the wealth for Australia, growing our food and fibre, but not only have they ripped billions of dollars out of infrastructure but they have raised our taxes, all the while in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. As I travel around my electorate, I constantly hear how the cost of living is affecting our families. While the Albanese Labor government did try to address cost-of-living pressures by increasing rent assistance and the JobSeeker allowance, extending the single parenting payment and tripling the Medicare rebate, it only reaches a minority of Australians and it falls short of the mark. Rising interest rates are putting pressure not only on mortgage holders but also on renters. This pressure on homeowners naturally pushes up rents, and it actively pushes people out of accommodation and onto the streets.

Rising fuel and grocery costs are an area of great concern in my electorate, but the government hasn't listened to these concerns; they have created a truckie tax and a fresh food tax. Adding these extra costs to our agriculture industry just does not make sense. Farmers are already under pressure with labour shortages, and this creates uncertainty as to whether or not the farmers are going to plant crops and how much to plant for fear of not having enough workers to be able to harvest these crops. How does this affect the people of Australia? It adds to the total cost of groceries and fruits and vegetables. It adds to their bill at the checkout.

There are other numerous taxes announced in this budget. Oil and gas companies will be taxed $2.4 billion over four years. Cigarettes will be taxed at five per cent more over the next three years. The superannuation tax will increase from 15 to 30 per cent for people with accounts over $3 million. The low- and middle-income tax offset has been scrapped. The safeguard mechanism, which is pretty much a carbon tax 2.0, will hit our resources industry and affect investment and jobs. These increased taxes will affect all of us in some way and will add to the cost-of-living crisis which is almost at breaking point for some people. This budget proves that Labor cannot manage their money. And when they can't manage their money, they come after yours. And all this to pay for 10,000 new bureaucrats in Canberra.

As I mentioned earlier, I was disappointed to see that infrastructure funding for Dawson was non-existent in the Treasurer's budget. We all know that the regions struggled with a lack of essential services that those in the city take as luxuries and for granted, such as mobile phone service and functional roads. Both are needed. These are a necessity to keep our families safe and sound. We've seen water funding infrastructure cut by $872½ million. Investing in water infrastructure is so important. Australia is a dry continent, and water security is a real issue. It needs to be addressed and planned for. Any cuts to water infrastructure are simply outrageous.

The already committed funding for Mackay Ring Road stage 2 has been put on hold, and our regional veterans have been turned away again. In Mackay the RSL and Kinchant Dam wellness centre funding was nowhere to be seen. It was good to see eight other veterans wellness facilities funded but extremely disappointing that all eight facilities are being constructed in Labor held seats, and that the one furthest north is in Brisbane. $17.9 million was also cut from the veterans studying program, and this affected veterans in my electorate. I had a veteran, John, contact my office who has six months to go before he graduates with a law degree. His course was subsidised through the veterans studying program. Unfortunately, he's now left in a situation where he cannot financially afford to complete his degree. As a sufferer of PTSD, this degree was giving John a sense of purpose and hope, something to look forward to, a personal achievement to be proud of. Now John is left devastated and is reeling in disbelief from the actions of this Labor government. Veteran support services and funding should not be meddled with, and I'm truly appalled by this particular funding cut from the budget. I've said it many times and I will continue to say it: if our service men and women are willing to put their bodies on the line and put their lives on the line for our country then surely they should be provided support when they come back to our shores.

Labor's election promise of $586.4 million towards Queensland's highway, the Bruce, is now being delayed until after the next federal election, in 2025—unbelievable! Local projects identified as needed by the coalition government which should have been started, like the $176 Goorganga Plains flood upgrade and the $38.4 million Burdekin deviation, are now up in the air and are now under review. The new Haughton River Bridge and flood mitigation, part of the Bruce Highway in the Dawson electorate, was delivered under the coalition government and upon completion was opened by the state Labor government. My invite to this opening, as the federal member for the region and a member of the coalition, which contributed 80 per cent of the funding, must have got lost in the mail, or maybe it couldn't reach my online inbox, due to the mobile black spot funding being cut—yes, you guessed it: by the Albanese Labor government.

We all know the Labor government is rethinking and reviewing Commonwealth infrastructure projects right across the country in its 90-day review, leaving programs like the road safety Black Spot Program and the Roads to Recovery Program up in the air. Effectively, the Albanese Labor government has the residents of Dawson's lives and safety on hold and under review. In this budget we see no new infrastructure for Dawson and existing funding cut. In fact, this budget has seen $5.5 billion—yes, you heard that right—cut from infrastructure investment across the country.

The Labor government also coldly slashed community grant programs. These programs boost our community organisations, making life easier for our volunteers and enhancing facilities for our community users. Now, at the hands of the Treasurer, they are all gone. The stronger communities grants program—a coalition initiative which for eight years funded upgrades for local community and sporting organisations—is no longer continuing under the Labor government.

Funding to our local councils for things like upgrading our local roads, parks and services has been, disappointingly, cut. Small business completely missed out in this budget. On budget night the Treasurer was proud to showcase his so-called 'fiscal responsibility' and 'budget restraint'. However, this smelt like a Labor excuse to rip funding out of what's needed where it's needed the most—in the regions—because in the same breath the Treasurer had no problem splurging $240 million for a brand-new stadium in Tasmania and $2½ billion for the Gabba redevelopment. Funding to improve regional mental health services, closing the gap between metro and regional health or creating an urgent plan for the housing crisis would be much better ways to spend our taxpayers' dollars. A good budget is all about priorities, but this government has the priorities all wrong.

Community pharmacies are set to be $3½ billion out of pocket with the Albanese Labor government's new changes to the PBS that allow 60-day dispensing instead of 30-day dispensing. This change will affect rural medicine supplies and result in a reduction in services and opening hours for small, rural and remote pharmacies. These are our small businesses. Sixty-day dispensing has been portrayed as freeing up the healthcare system and time needed to be spent with a GP, but this will not be the case. It will only add to the pressure, as pharmacists will no longer be in a position where they can support their patients with free service offerings. The dispensing fee helps cover services like consultation time, home delivery, medications support and even taking a patient's blood pressure.

As each month goes by under the leadership of the Albanese Labor government we are all losing confidence. We are seeing reckless policy changes, unnecessary taxes driving up the cost of living, more broken promises than you can poke a stick at and even more backflipping. We can see that this government has no plan, has no vision and is not using any common sense. We all know that this country needs a strong economy with lower taxes, but the Albanese Labor government seem to have no understanding of what the people need. They rob Peter to pay Paul—or should I say they rob the regions to prop up the cities? This budget proves that all Australians are always worse off under Labor.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government has handed down a budget that not only is responsible but addresses the pressing concerns of everyday Australians, providing support and assistance whilst also alleviating the burdens of the cost-of-living crisis we're in at the moment. This budget focuses on supporting all Australians as they navigate through strain on their household budgets, while delivering on the things that are important to our nation. It's a budget that delivers on the environment, a budget that delivers on health and, yes, a budget that delivers on small-business relief while also having a heart, showing social support, but also having economic forethought and responsibility. It's a responsible budget.

This budget reflects our commitment to driving down energy costs, making homes and businesses more efficient and positioning Australia as a global leader in renewable energy. We understand that rising energy prices have burdened households across the nation, and businesses as well. That's why this government is taking decisive action to alleviate pressure and make homes and businesses cheaper to run. By investing more than $1.6 billion in energy-saving upgrades for homes, including social housing, and businesses, we're empowering individuals and communities to reduce their energy bills and contribute to an emissions-free future.

Furthermore, we're establishing a Household Energy Upgrades Fund, which will help finance options for energy upgrades, ensuring that no Australian is left behind. Through our Household Energy Upgrades Fund, with a budget of $1.3 billion, we're providing financial resources for households to embrace energy efficiency. This fund will support upgrades such as solar panels, batteries and heat pumps for hot water systems, enabling homes to become more sustainable and reducing bills.

In New South Wales alone, 1.6 million households will benefit from a $500 rebate to lower their energy bills, with both the Commonwealth and New South Wales governments contributing to this measure. On top of that, we're investing $36.7 million to expand and upgrade the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme to apply to existing homes. Many older homes in Australia do not meet modern energy efficiency standards, and it's essential for Australians to have access to information about their homes' energy efficiency. This investment ensures that Australians can make informed choices regarding energy upgrades when renting or purchasing homes, enabling them to save money on energy bills and also reduce their carbon footprint.

Our commitment to renewable energy and its opportunity is unwavering. We believe Australia has the potential to become a renewable energy superpower. That's why we've allocated $2 billion to the Hydrogen Headstart program. We're scaling up the development of Australia's renewable hydrogen industry. This critical investment positions us as a global leader in green hydrogen, attracting clean energy investments from around the world. Our government recognises that the transition to net zero is the most significant change and opportunity since the Industrial Revolution, and, after years of policy inaction, we're investing billions of dollars to make sure that Australia becomes that renewable energy superpower, because we know that, by reducing energy costs, promoting energy efficiency and investing in renewable energy, we're securing a brighter and more sustainable future for generations to come.

Not only will this government make Australia a leader in environmental protection, but we are further strengthening our support of Medicare. Australia has long been recognised as a global leader in healthcare outcomes and equity, surpassing other OECD nations for decades. This budget reflects our unwavering commitment to providing accessible and high-quality healthcare services to every individual, regardless of their postcode or financial circumstances. For far too long, Medicare has endured years of neglect and budget cuts by the Liberals, but Labor built Medicare, and the Albanese government will deliver historic investments to health care in our nation, ensuring that Australians can access doctors and support with their Medicare card, not their credit card.

This budget signifies the single largest increase in bulk-billing incentives in the history of Medicare. We're committed to strengthening the very heart of Medicare, bulk-billing, by investing $3½ billion and providing immediate support to patients and general practice alike. These substantial incentives will triple benefits for the most common consultations, specifically targeting children under 16, pensioners and other Commonwealth concession card holders. These represent about 60 per cent of all presentations to general practice. This means cheaper doctor appointments for about 66,000 individuals in my community of Bennelong.

We're breaking down barriers to healthcare access and making it easier for our communities to seek the medical attention they require not only at the doctor's but also in purchasing their medications. We are making over 300 common medicines more affordable for all Australians. By allowing individuals to purchase two months worth of medicine for the price of one single subscription we're, effectively, halving the cost of up to 300 medicines. It will empower 36,000 members of the public, in Bennelong, to purchase two months worth of medicine for the price of a single subscription. This will save patients up to $180 annually, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, but it will also decrease the number of visitors needed to doctors, which will also present a saving.

These savings to the public amount to an astounding $1.6 billion across the nation, enabling Australians to prioritise their health without breaking the bank. The savings to the Commonwealth of around $1.2 billion will be reinvested into community pharmacies, supporting them to enhance the range of services they provide, further benefiting communities, ensuring accessible healthcare services for all. We believe that health care is a fundamental right, and we're all determined to break down the barriers, strengthen outcomes and strengthen access.

Small business is an area close to my heart. I've been running a small business almost my entire life, and I'm proud to be part of a government that sees the potential that small business can bring to our economy. They play a crucial role in driving growth, creating jobs and fostering innovation, and that's why we're so happy to support small business through this budget. We are committed to providing targeted and responsible support to small business, improving the overall business operating environment, whilst also alleviating pressures on energy prices, because we understand the challenges faced by small business. We're taking decisive action to empower them and enable their success.

To stimulate investment and support small business across the country, the government is temporarily increasing the instant asset write-off threshold to $20,000. This will mean that 1.18 million small businesses with a turnover of up to $10 million will be able to instantly write off eligible assets that are first used or installed, ready for use, between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. This measure will provide a much-needed boost to small businesses, allowing them to invest in essential equipment and infrastructure to drive growth and productivity. About 322,000 small businesses in New South Wales will receive an automatic $650 bill rebate from 1 July, alleviating the burden of energy prices and providing much-needed financial relief to small businesses.

In addition to reducing energy costs, we are committed to supporting small and medium businesses in electrifying their operations. It will help improve energy efficiency, it will lower their power bills and, of course, it will reduce emissions. The Small Business Energy Incentive is a temporary, but, importantly, a bonus, 20 per cent tax deduction for eligible investments for small businesses. Businesses will be able to make meaningful savings on their power bills by investing in things like heat pumps, batteries and solar panels, spending up to $100,000 and getting that $20,000 bonus reduction as a maximum.

This budget is not only supporting small businesses, it's not only responsible, but it's a budget with a heart and it's a budget that is providing support to those who need it most. That's why we're increasing working-age and student payments as well as Commonwealth rent assistance. We're increasing rates of JobSeeker payment, youth allowance, parenting payment, Austudy, Abstudy and youth disability support pension, and, a special benefit, these measures will all receive a fortnightly increase. This much-needed boost will provide individuals with the means to meet their basic needs and navigate the challenges of daily life more comfortably.

In our commitment to fostering a more inclusive society, the Albanese government is dedicated to helping low-income households facing rising rental costs. The 15 per cent boost to maximum rates of Commonwealth rent assistance will support 5,925 households in Bennelong and a total of 1.1 million low-income households nationwide. The eligibility for the higher existing rate of JobSeeker will be extended to single Australians aged 55 to 59, ensuring that they receive the support they need for their job search as they transition into new opportunities. To tackle entrenched disadvantage, we'll partner with philanthropists and empower communities. This budget allocates nearly $200 million to this ambitious package, which will bring meaningful and significant reforms in addressing inequality and promoting social mobility.

We will also deliver the biggest expansion to paid parental leave since its introduction in 2011, with a half-a-billion-dollar investment over four years and $619 million annually thereafter. We are progressively scaling up the scheme so parents will receive six months of paid parental leave by 2026.

The budget that was handed down just a few weeks ago is testament to this government's commitment to building a fairer and stronger country and economy. It's a budget that focuses on the fundamental pillars of our society while showing economic restraint and responsibility. This budget is not just a financial document; it's a reflection of Labor values and aspirations, and a commitment to a better future. It's a budget that places the wellbeing of our people, the protection of our environment and the strength of our economy at the forefront. With these measures, we are forging a path towards a more inclusive, sustainable and prosperous Australia.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the appropriation bills. I want to particularly address the portfolio areas for which I hold shadow responsibility—the arts, science, the digital economy and government services. This is a budget which fails to meet the needs of Australians and Australia in macroeconomic terms, in failing to address the inflation challenge we face—indeed, on the contrary, making the inflation challenge worse. It also fails to meet the needs of the nation across individual portfolios, including those for which I have responsibility.

I turn, firstly, to the Arts portfolio. Certainly all who believe that the Australian arts sector needs more Commonwealth arts officials and more Commonwealth bureaucrats will greet this budget with delight. But that's not something the coalition thinks is a wonderful idea. We believe a good principle when it comes to arts funding is getting as much of the money as possible to the front line, where shows are delivered, where audiences get to see performers. That principle is, sadly, very largely absent from this budget when it comes to arts funding.

We welcome continued funding support for the national collecting institutions, but this very much continues the work of the previous coalition government. On top of business-as-usual funding, we delivered $22 million for the new gallery at Bundanon in 2019; $20 million to the National Gallery for lighting upgrades in 2020; and $28.6 million for capital works at the National Gallery in May 2021. At the National Library we delivered nearly $30 million for Trove between 2016 and 2023, and in 2021 we delivered $47 million for digitising and the preservation of works held across eight national collecting institutions.

Similarly, the continuing support for attracting global screen productions, belatedly announced in this budget after Labor equivocated for quite some time, builds on the coalition's work. The Morrison government committed $540 million towards the location incentive program, which delivered an effective 30 per cent level of support to production budgets, matching globally competitive levels.

This budget, predictably, saw the Albanese government congratulating itself on its support for the arts, with the word 'record' being thrown around a lot. Actually, the fact is that annual Commonwealth arts funding reached a record level of $1 billion in 2021-22, under a coalition government. Nothing announced in Labor's budget changes that fact.

We also saw the provision of funding for the new Creative Australia. It is what used to be known as the Australia Council, which has been abolished and replaced by Creative Australia, although its board will be called the Australia Council board—crystal clear! What's also crystal clear is $199 million of funding over four years for more Commonwealth arts officials; we know that around Australia that is what people are crying out for! This funding has been redirected from a number of places, with the government having cancelled several programs funded under the previous coalition government—including the temporary support fund, which supported Australian made and scripted movies and television productions, and the balance of the location incentive program. Again, we see this fundamental approach—cut money going to frontline delivery of arts activity and shift money to add more bureaucrats in Canberra. Every dollar which goes to fund more bureaucrats is a dollar that cannot go to artists, performers and people in the arts sector who deliver actual arts activities.

Let me turn to the Science portfolio, where, again, there has been a lamentable lack of focus from this government. There's not much new money for science in this budget. There's a fair bit of repackaging and rebadging. For example, the measure for enhanced support of small and medium-sized businesses and startups in Budget Paper No. 2 on page 163 predominantly repurposes and expands funding that was previously supporting small and medium enterprises through the entrepreneurs program. It's additionally offset by redirecting funding from within the Industry, Science and Resources portfolio. The measure for growing Australia's critical technologies industries in Budget Paper No. 2 on page 164 will be fully offset by redirecting funding from within the Industry, Science and Resources portfolio. We did see the release of the National Quantum Strategy, but there was no new funding associated with the announcement and no detail of how those words on the page will be translated into deliverable action. There was no new funding for artificial intelligence in this budget; instead there was roughly $20 million per year over five years to be funded by 'redirecting funding' from within the industry portfolio. It is perhaps no great surprise that the reaction from stakeholders has been less than overwhelming. The CEO of Sapia.ai, Barb Hyman, said:

This is a massive missed opportunity from the Federal Government to surge ahead in what is fast becoming the race to not only pioneer but leverage new AI technologies.

…   …   …

… this innovation is time-sensitive. By the time it's a focus globally, it will be too late.

In the space sector, we have also seen a troubling lack of commitment from the Albanese government. In the October 2022 budget, there was $181 million dollars over the four-year forward estimates under the program for growing Australia's space industry. In this budget, nearly $70 million of that has simply been cut. In Budget Paper No. 2, page 166, under the measure for refocusing support for the Australian space industry, there has been $34.4 million removed from 2022-23, $9 million removed from 2023-24 and $8 million removed from 2024-25, with the savings being partially redirected to fund other government priorities. There it is in black and white: space is not a priority for this government.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17 : 37 to 18 : 05

The Australian space association fears for the future of the Moon to Mars initiative. Tenders were expected to have been opened by now, but by the time of the budget there had been no movement on the National Space Mission for Earth Observation. The previous government, the coalition, allocated $1.2 billion from 2021-22, with $38.5 million per year ongoing for this project. That would have seen Australia design, build and operate four new satellites. We also invested $48.9 million in the 2018-19 and the 2021-22 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlooks over five years in the Australian Space Agency. By contrast, Labor has committed just $34.2 million over three years from 2023-24. This comes at a time when developing sovereign space capability and sovereign satellite capability is key not only to business opportunities but also to strengthening our national security at a time when space is increasingly highly contested. It seems that the Prime Minister is happy to turn up at a photo opportunity at the remarkable Australian company Gilmour Space Technologies, but when it comes to maintaining the previous coalition government's substantial long-term funding commitments to growing Australia's space industry, the Prime Minister is nowhere to be seen.

In the digital economy sector, there is still no minister for the digital economy. The coalition government had such a minister. Leading nations around the world have such a minister. The United Kingdom, for example, has a Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, and Singapore does too. The coalition has a shadow minister for the digital economy, but curiously, this Labor government refuses to have such a portfolio, and neither has it produced a digital economy strategy. On the contrary, we have seen funding being cut in this area. The previous coalition government allocated more than $620 million over seven years to support a digital identity system, and we had developed draft legislation, with an exposure draft of the Trusted Digital Identity Bill being released in October 2021. In our 2022 election commitments we said we would expand the digital identity system; the Australian Labor Party did not announce a policy position on this issue. Labor does not appear to be progressing this legislation—certainly nothing has happened to date—and it has greatly reduced funding in this area. There was a mere $26.9 million allocated in this budget for the 2023-24 year to 'sustain and develop the next stage of the digital ID program'.

Under the previous coalition government some $60 million was invested in a Cyber Hubs program designed to deliver cybersecurity capability to Commonwealth entities. In the October budget, this government provided continued funding of $31.3 million. However, in the most recent budget, the decision has been taken to end the program. This budget allocates just $12.2 million to sustain cyber resilience of Commonwealth entities currently serviced by the Cyber Hubs pilot program. That means they're bringing this program to an end. At a time when the digital economy is of such critical importance, our advancement in the world and our national increase in productivity depend crucially on how we embrace technology and the digital economy. This government's lack of interest is a missed opportunity for Australia.

I turn now to the government services sector. The fact is that this government's failure to address the cost-of-living crisis means that more Australians are reaching for support from government. If ever there was a time to invest sensibly in ensuring the seamless, simple and safe delivery of government services it would be now, but this current government seems determined to miss the opportunity. This budget reveals a lamentable lack of vision for government services, particularly for the data and digital systems that today make up the backbone of Services Australia.

Under this budget, the minister has again failed to deliver a single new digital service delivery budget measure. The online government services portal, myGov, which connects Australians to Centrelink and Medicare, amongst other federal and state services, has received only a single year of funding under Labor's 2023-24 budget. Just think about that for a second, a single year's funding. Yet we have seen minister after minister, before this most recent budget, wheel out their standard talking points that it was somehow outrageous that the former coalition government had not locked in continued multiyear funding for every program in every portfolio across government. Apparently if you were to fund a program for only a year, that was a huge problem. And what is it that Labor have done with myGov? They've funded it for only a year.

Disturbingly, there has been no additional investment made to continue the transformation of myGov. Rather, the government says that its money is simply to 'sustain' the platform. That's code for funding that's designed to do no more than keep the lights on.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18 : 11 to 18 : 37

This is code for funding that is designed to do no more than keep the lights on, rather than enhance or improve myGov in any meaningful way. Labor's funding decision falls far short of the initial $138 million the independent, expert-led myGov user audit recommended. That user audit, led by respected former Telstra CEO David Thodey, made this recommendation following the thorough review of the myGov platform which reported earlier this year.

By contrast, the coalition when in government delivered sustainment funding alongside additional investments to upgrade the platform. In 2021-22 under our Digital Economy Strategy we delivered a $200.1 million myGov investment to deliver a simpler and more tailored experience for Australians. The coalition's investment in myGov was recently assessed by the user audit as being 'well crafted' and putting in place 'much-needed building blocks for a better myGov'.

But the coalition didn't just stop with myGov. For example, we also invested over $1.5 billion on the Welfare Payment Infrastructure Transformation project, upgrading vital IT infrastructure that underpins the payment system. Unfortunately, upgrading myGov and other digital systems will be more difficult in the future because under Labor over 1,200 specialist IT jobs at Services Australia have been cut, as this Labor government dances to the tune of its union masters and in this case the Community and Public Sector Union.

There were many good ideas raised in the recent myGov user audit—a standardised, open-source national digital and data design standard; a digital and data investment fund, modelled on the successful New South Wales government's Digital Restart Fund; and deeper cooperation with state, territory and local governments on key joint initiatives, such as the digital identity system. All of these were highlights of the recent myGov user audit. These recommendations, you would think, would be taken up by this government, but, sadly, there is nothing to be found in the budget papers demonstrating any commitment towards delivery of these important objectives. This is bad news for Australians who expect and deserve modern digital-led service delivery.

I conclude with the observation that this budget has left middle Australia behind with broken promises on energy prices and putting more pressure on inflation. It has also left behind important opportunities in the arts, in science, in space, for the digital economy and in government services. This has been an underwhelming budget and Australians will suffer on many fronts as a result.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2023-2024 and Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2023-2024, both of which clearly map out this government's and, indeed, this nation's priorities for the coming financial years.

After nearly a decade of waste and neglect, the Albanese Labor government is working hard to deliver that better future that Australians voted for on 21 May last year. This 2023-24 budget is responsible and practical and aimed very squarely at providing targeted relief to those most vulnerable Australians, whilst also easing pressure on families. In my electorate of Newcastle, there are many measures within the budget that will help Novocastrians who are under pressure while also building for that longer term future. Let me just step through some of those benefits that this budget will be bringing to the people of Newcastle.

Firstly, you would be very hard pressed to find a family anywhere in Newcastle that hasn't used the GP Access After Hours service. For more than 20 years, the hardworking GPs of the Newcastle region have worked after hours to ensure that Novocastrians have access to high-quality, bulk-billed primary health care. This was until Christmas Eve in 2021, when cuts to health care by the former Liberal government forced the after-hours service at the Calvary Mater hospital to close its doors permanently. Operating hours of the clinics at the John Hunter Hospital, the Maitland Hospital, the Belmont Hospital and the Toronto Polyclinic were also significantly reduced.

This was a devastating blow to our community. It was met with outrage, which quickly turned into action as more than 11,000 people in my electorate mobilised to sign a petition and to have those after-hours services restored. I made a commitment to the people of Newcastle then that, if we were to win government, a Labor Albanese government would restore the GP Access After Hours service at the Calvary Mater and, indeed, reinstate the full operating hours at the four remaining clinics.

Thanks to a record $28.7 million over six years from the Albanese Labor government, and the hard work of the local health practitioners, that promise is now coming to fruition. Indeed, $5.5 million from the government has ensured the after-hours clinic at the Calvary Mater hospital opened its doors on Monday this week. This news has been warmly welcomed by my community, with a number of people emailing me, phoning my office, and sending me notes and messages expressing their gratitude that this vital primary healthcare service has been reopened. And when fully operational across the five clinics, the after-hours service will deliver 55,000 appointments per year. The call centre is taking between 70,000 and 80,000 calls every year, and this means fewer presentations to emergency departments and less pressure on our hospital system. It's a great outcome for patients, it's a great outcome for GPs, who get to share the burden of that after-hours work, and it's a great outcome for our community as a whole.

Let me go now to the matter of bulk-billing. The Albanese Labor government is ensuring that the quality of health care depends on your Medicare card, not your credit card. I've just talked about the GP Access After Hours service. For many people they are now the only bulk-billing service in Newcastle. We are delivering in this budget the largest investment in the history of Medicare. We are tripling the bulk-billing incentives, which will see immediate benefits for more than 11 million Australians. In my electorate this measure benefits 70,982 Novocastrians, particularly pensioners, concession card holders and children under 16. Furthermore, the government is making hundreds of common medicines cheaper by allowing Australians to buy two months worth of medicines at the price of a single prescription. From 1 September, general patients will be able to save up to $180 a year, if their medicine is able to be prescribed for 60 days, and concession card holders will save up to $43.80 a year per medicine. Once fully implemented, the 60-day prescribing policy will provide doctors with the option to prescribe a two-month supply of more than 320 medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to Australians who have stable but ongoing health conditions. The current dispensing limit is for one month's supply only. Hundreds of medicines for conditions like heart disease, cholesterol, arthritis, Crohn's disease and hypertension will be so much cheaper. The change will benefit more than 40,000 Novocastrians, and it will bring Australia into line with New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France and Canada, where patients already have access to multiple-month medications on a single prescription.

Labor's investment in primary health care has received resounding support from the local primary health network and GPs in my region. Richard Nankervis, Chief Executive Officer of the Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network, said:

The Labor Government's substantial investment into primary care is a win for people residing in the Hunter, New England and Central Coast regions.

He said:

I thank the Government for recognising the significant challenges being faced in primary care and providing the necessary funding to ensure that we can begin addressing these concerns.

When it comes to aged-care workers, this budget delivers the single largest increase to aged-care pay in history. It is a record $11.3 billion going into the pay packets of aged-care workers. This is a historic 15 per cent pay increase to the minimum wage for aged-care workers, and it's going to support that incredible workforce in Newcastle, who worked tirelessly keeping older Novocastrians safe during COVID but are also now ensuring that people in aged care are provided with the dignity they so richly deserve in the latter part of their life. This is something that will help enormously with reducing the gender pay gap, because we know it is predominantly women who occupy those low-paid aged-care jobs.

Let's look at the single-parent payment. The Albanese government is committed to helping single parents balance their work and family responsibilities. The federal budget will expand access to financial support by raising the age cut off for parenting payment single of the youngest child from eight years to 14 years. Many single parents, overwhelmingly women, face difficulty balancing caring responsibilities and work, and these difficulties do not end when the child turns eight. We also know that many single mothers have experienced violence from a previous partner and are at greater risk of financial hardship. They need and deserve our support.

From 20 September this year, subject to the passage of legislation, single parents will no longer have to transfer to JobSeeker, the lower pay rate, when their youngest child turns eight. These parents will continue to receive the higher level of support with the current base rate of $922.10 per fortnight until their youngest child turns 14. For my community, that means 1,290 single parents in Newcastle will no longer have to transfer to the JobSeeker payment when their child turns eight, and will now continue to receive that high level of payment until their youngest child turns 14. That puts an extra $176.90 in your pocket every fortnight.

The Albanese Labor government also believes very much in a strong social safety net—a strong safety net in which people can transition into work. We want to make sure that people can access income support when they need it, and that's why we've increased the base rate for JobSeeker by $40 a fortnight along with allowing people who are aged 55 and over a higher rate of JobSeeker. From September there will be 7,665 Novocastrians who will receive a $40 increase in their fortnightly payment, and 480 jobseekers aged 55 to 59 who will have their payments increased by $92.10 per fortnight. Also in this budget, we're delivering the largest increase in rent assistance for more than 30 years. The budget includes $2.7 billion to increase the maximum rates of Commonwealth rent assistance by 15 per cent. There will be 6,300 renters in Newcastle who will benefit from that 15 per cent boost to their income support.

The Albanese Labor government recognises the importance of supporting young people in our community, and we are proud to announce that we will be providing $600,000 to headspace in Newcastle. This funding will enable our Newcastle headspace to continue their youth suicide, self-harm and waitlist management strategy, which has already proven to be an invaluable resource for young people. Through this initiative, we aim to further improve the ability of headspace to provide the care and support that our young people need, allowing them to receive the help they deserve.

Access to quality, affordable child care and early education is great for kids, great for parents and great for our economy, and that's why the Albanese Labor government has a cheaper-childcare policy. We will be delivering relief to 7,300 families in Newcastle who will end up being better off under our cheaper-childcare policy. For a family with a combined income of $80,000 or less, the childcare subsidy rates will lift to 90 per cent. The number of hours of subsidised care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children will also rise to a minimum of 36 hours per fortnight from July, benefiting around 6,600 families and encouraging more to use care.

The Albanese Labor government is also getting the NDIS back on track, improving outcomes and ensuring every dollar goes to benefit participants. The budget delivers $910 million over four years, with $73.4 million earmarked to better support participants to manage their plan within the budget so that they can access the support in a flexible way to better achieve their goals. This will help around 5,133 NDIS participants in Newcastle.

We are also simplifying Australia's superannuation system by requiring employers to pay super on pay day, which will mean 17,900 Novocastrians will be, on average, $2,000 better off at retirement. This is great news.

When we go to the NBN, we've got more than 39,000 premises in Newcastle who will now have access to higher internet speeds under the Albanese Labor government's $2.4 billion investment in the National Broadband Network. Households and businesses in Wallsend, Stockton, Shortland, North Lambton, New Lambton, Merewether, Maryland, Lambton, Kotara, Islington, Hamilton, Glendale, Elermore Vale, Cooks Hill, Cardiff, Broadmeadow, Adamstown Heights and Adamstown will be able to upgrade to a full fibre broadband connection as part of our better plan for the NBN.

There's $328.1 million to support more than 340,000 veterans and dependants, including 4,792 veterans in Newcastle. And of course, there's electricity bill relief. Newcastle households will be eligible for a rebate of up to $500 and small business for rebates up to $650. We know that people need energy price relief, and this will help enormously. Australians are doing it tough at the moment. The number of calls and emails to my office raising concerns about access to bulk-billing, Medicare and the cost of living proves this.

I want to reassure the people of Newcastle that the Albanese-Labor government has listened and we are now delivering.

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2023-2024 and to reflect on this government's first full-year budget. The budget had strengths. It put real resources into dealing with the challenges Australia is facing today and for which there is strong community support for change, and this is a credit to the government.

This was true in the health portfolio. One of the issues my community of Wentworth have raised with me is access to bulk-billing appointments with local GPs about prices rising and clinics closing. So I was pleased to see the government triple the bulk-billing incentives for GPs. I think that's absolutely critical. This will go a long way to ensuring that there are more bulk-billed appointments available and that we don't lose more GPs from our area.

The aged-care changes are important too. The pay rise for aged-care workers will firm up the workforce and provide more and better care for older Australians, which is a really important issue and of concern to my community. I was particularly pleased to see that the budget included significant funding for households that are managing the energy price shocks of recent years.

I have been calling for more support for household electrification since I was elected, and I was so pleased that the government decided to heed those calls. Providing $1 billion in low-interest loans for solar panels, electric hot water systems and energy efficiency will have a real impact on our emissions. Importantly, it will have a real impact on household power bills and inflation. I hope this turns out to be a cornerstone investment in electrification, one that is built on in future budgets and by future governments.

The budget also featured a commitment to fiscal management by insuring a significant portion of surplus was put towards budget repair. All this was welcome, and I acknowledge the hard work of the Treasurer and finance minister in making it happen. But this budget was also not without disappointment. So much of the budget was about dealing with the challenges facing us today, rather than intergenerational issues that we face today and will face in the years to come. These include housing, tax, productivity and climate and environment. These are issues we are failing to address or are not addressing significantly enough. These are issues that produce and perpetuate inequality and unfairness from one generation to the next. These are issues that we all ought to be working on to resolve once and for all.

I am sure there's not an issue that causes Australians more worry than housing affordability right now. People worry whether they'll be able to afford a home, particularly one close to their families, their communities and their work. The median Sydney home now costs more than 13 years of household income. It is the second most expensive housing market in the world. That is not a list we want to be at the top of, the second most expensive housing market in the world. With dwelling approvals falling to their lowest level in a decade, housing will become even less affordable. There are lots of changes that could make a difference, but the problem is ultimately one of supply. We can ration our housing stock by other means than price, but we cannot overcome a shortage without a supply.

If the government has a target of one million new homes in the next five years, this sounds impressive but it's only 20,000 more homes than we built in the last five years. We need to be more ambitious if we are going to ensure that the next generation is able to access affordable housing. If Australia had as many homes per person as the OECD average, we would have an additional 1.5 million homes right now. If we factor in population growth, we would be aiming to deliver two million homes by 2030. This is a big target. I'm not saying this has to be the target, but we need greater ambition. Greater ambition will require effort from every level of government. It will require the industry to grow, to innovate and to invest. I believe it is achievable, and, more than achievable, it is necessary. The budget didn't have enough in terms of driving housing supply. There could have been an opportunity for the government to use their significant budget heft to incentivise zoning in states and local governments in building more supply. That is what I hope to see in future budgets. I think that was the missed opportunity in this budget. We need to solve the problem of housing affordability before we lock an entire generation out of the housing market.

The second thing that I think was missing from the budget was significant tax reform. There are long-term challenges with our tax system. It is unfair, unstable, uncertain and doesn't drive business investment and innovation. More of our tax burden is falling on skilled workers, and this will rise in the coming years as more of our population age out of the workforce and become consumers of government services rather than funders of them. Forty years ago there were 6.5 workers per older Australian, today there are four and in 40 years time there will be 2.5. Without reform, the burden on workers will rise substantially. We must act today to rebalance our tax system to provide fairness, certainty and sustainability.

Sadly, I wasn't expecting major tax reform in the budget, but I hoped preparatory work would get underway. The fact that it wasn't included tells us that we won't get tax reform this year, the next year or probably during this parliament. Like housing supply, tax reform is a problem that is being kicked down the road. This means it has to be solved by a later parliament or a later government. But the longer you put it off the harder it gets to deal with. Tax reform isn't easier today than it was when Ken Henry wrapped up the last major tax review. It won't suddenly become an easy problem to solve. We may as well get on and do the work.

The third thing that was missing from the budget was a strong enough productivity agenda. Productivity has been languishing in Australia for many years, and we see the consequences of it in stagnant wage and economic growth. There are no silver bullets to restore productivity growth, but that doesn't mean there are no answers. The government has made some positive steps, such as skilled migration and their focus on skills and apprenticeships. I applaud the government for those actions, but it's not enough to raise productivity to where it needs to be.

One thing the government should do is respond to the Productivity Commission's five-year review published in March. They won't do everything the Productivity Commission has recommended, but they could tell us what's in, what's out and their reasons for it and lay out a productivity reform agenda. There's no reason why the government can't do this, other than a lack of desire to do so, so it is disappointing to see the government not take this up. Productivity growth sounds dry, but it is what leads us to better opportunities and more prosperous lives. Productivity growth raises incomes and lowers prices. It improves lives, which is exactly what parliament should be focused on.

Finally, I'd like to talk about climate and the environment. There were positive aspects in climate action in this budget. I applaud the government for starting key action on climate change. It is absolutely a critical issue that Australia is facing. As I said earlier, I support the work that the government has done on household electrification, a key area for us. But the budget was significantly lacking in terms of ambition on the environment in particular. I think that where the community was really expecting investment we were really sorely disappointed. At the same time, the government could have gone much further on issues such as household electrification to further drive our climate action as well as ensuring that we are providing the right investment environment for the clean energy revolution that we absolutely need. We need to raise our ambition in terms of climate action. While the budget was relatively positive on climate, it was not pushing us further than 43 per cent by 2030, and certainly the science shows that we need to go further, and certainly the economy shows that we need to go further, too.

To sum up: I welcome most of the changes announced by the government in this year's budget, but I was disappointed that there wasn't enough progress on solving some of those significant challenges facing Australia, particularly on the difference that this budget will make to future generations. The future generations, the ones that come after us, don't necessarily vote. They're still finding their political strength—even the ones who can vote now. But it is our job in parliament not just to look after the current generation but to look after the future generations. On housing, on tax, on productivity and on climate and the environment, this budget was not ambitious enough. We need to go further. These challenges will continue to be with us, parliament after parliament, unless we face them head-on and truly address them and have greater ambition in terms of what we are going to achieve. I think it is time for concerted government action, and I hope we see the start of that action before the year is out.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to contribute to the debate on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2023-2024, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2023-2024 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2023-2024. Budget week is just past, and what a great budget it was for those in my electorate in the Hunter Valley. We are delivering serious reforms and delivering real relief to those who need it. We know that people are doing it tough, but make no mistake: this budget will make a real impact for the better for real people. We are a government that cares about people, and I am proud of the investment in this budget for workers and the protection of workers' entitlements.

Coming into this place, I did not have the same background as a typical politician. I was a blue-collar worker, a miner. My whole life I've been a blue-collar worker, just like many members of my family and many of my mates. I am very proud to represent an electorate full of workers who all do their bit to keep our country running and, more importantly, to put food on the table for their families. So it's fair to say that my priorities and my motivations in this place have the protection of workers at the very core, and that's exactly what this government is doing in this budget: protecting workers by protecting their entitlements.

We have already passed some incredible legislation which will help workers all around Australia, including in my electorate in the Hunter. We made sure the first thing we did when we came to this place, a year ago now, was to fight for an increase to the wages of the workers and to fix our paid parental leave system to bring it in line with what will work for parents in 2023. Having a child is one of the most amazing times of someone's life, but it can also come with added pressures. Families in the Hunter and around Australia deserve to have the financial support that they need in place so they can focus on what's important: providing the best possible start in life to the newest member of their family.

We are continuing the work that we have already well and truly started, making sure that, after 10 years, workers in this country finally have a government that works for them and fights for their rights at work and for their lives as a whole to be better. Strong working conditions are vital for a strong economy. Among the workers that we need to protect are the migrant workers. We know that migrant workers are important for our economy. We saw the toll on the economy when we had limited migrant workers due to the pandemic. These workers deserve the same rights and conditions as any other worker in the economy, and we are delivering reforms that will mean that temporary migrant workers' status as employees or workers who are under the Fair Work Act and are entitled to its protections remains valid, even if they are working in breach of the Migration Act framework.

As I mentioned earlier, this government has done amazing work in reforming and modernising the paid parental leave system, but we also need to address unpaid parental leave. These changes will allow families greater choice and flexibility to share the work and caring responsibilities in the first 24 months after their child's birth or placement for adoption. As a father of two girls and a husband to my beautiful wife, Alex, I know how important this is, and I know much-increased flexibility will help parents.

We have been creating flexibility for parents in two ways. Firstly, we have increased the portion of unpaid parental leave that can be taken flexibly to 20 weeks, bringing this in line with the changes we made through our reforms to the Paid Parental Leave scheme. Secondly, we have removed restrictions which currently make it hard for families to access unpaid parental leave. That means parents will not be limited in how much unpaid leave they can take at the same time, and, if they request an extension of their leave, it won't be reduced by the amount of leave their other partner has taken.

I know how those opposite think that businesses are more important than families and that businesses should be prioritised over workers, but let me tell you that not only are these changes good for families; they are good for business. Flexibility means that experienced employees can gradually recommence work sooner. It also means employers only need to fill partial vacancies instead of full ones.

Superannuation is a proud legacy of the Labor Party. It would only be a Labor Party who introduced it, and it will only be a Labor Party who protects it. We are hoping to provide a new entitlement to superannuation contributions in the National Employment Standards. This will introduce a requirement for employers to make contribution to a superannuation fund for the benefit of an employee, which is what superannuation should always be for—benefiting those who work hard to make their money and supporting them when they hit their well-earned retirement.

This budget continues to deliver for workers. We have also announced steps to address employee authorised deductions. We have introduced measures that will allow employees to authorise their employers to make ongoing deductions from their pay for amounts that vary from time to time without requiring a written authorisation for each change. These variable deductions will only be allowed where they are for the employee's benefit. If there are any direct or indirect benefits to an employer arising from the arrangements, variable deductions will not be permitted.

Another key issue we are addressing in protecting workers entitlements in this budget is the action of underpayment of wages, which is unfortunately a widespread problem in Australia, with many workers being paid less than the minimum wage or having their entitlements withheld. Our reforms will provide greater protection for workers and ensure that they are able to claim their entitlements. I've heard plenty of stories from apprentices, boilermakers, fitters, childcare workers and hospitality workers who have had wages and entitlements withheld. I'm really pleased that we're addressing these very substandard practices.

We have expanded the definition of an entitlement to include not only wages but also other employee benefits, such as superannuation, redundancy pay and annual leave. We will ensure workers are protected and have a legal right to claim these entitlements and that they cannot be denied.

I have stood in this place many times now to speak of how proud I am to represent an electorate home to many of the largest coalmining workforces in this country. When I first stood in parliament, I committed myself to fighting for the miners in my electorate, and I am very happy to say that this government is continuing to deliver for miners in the Hunter electorate. One key element of this is protecting long service leave for those in the coalmining industry.

Coalminers work hard hours in tough conditions. They deserve their long service leave. I know this as well as anyone, because I was one. But unfortunately, at the moment, there is a plague in the coalmining industry which is leaving some miners without the benefits of long service leave just because they're casual workers. They work just as long and just as hard as their mates who are alongside them as permanent workers do, but, because their employment is labelled as 'casual', they don't get the benefits of long service leave, while those whose employment is labelled as 'permanent' do. This is a disgrace, and it must end.

We have also made reforms to the coalmining long service leave scheme. This will help to ensure that casual employees working in the coalmining industry are treated no less favourably than permanent employees in the accrual, reporting and payment of their long service leave entitlements within the scheme. We have created a fairer way of calculating long service leave entitlements for casual employees, making sure that employees' accrual of their entitlements is not disadvantaged by roster cycles, which has been an ongoing issue in the industry. We're also making it very clear that the levy imposed on casual employees' wages within the scheme and the payment of their long service leave entitlements are included in casual loading. This will give certainty to employers and ensure that casual employees continue to receive their usual take-home pay when accessing their entitlements.

Every coalminer should receive the long service leave that they deserve. There should be no miner paid less at the end of the week because they received the long service leave they should have always been receiving. This government stood up for those in the mining industry when we committed to implementing recommendation 4 in Enhancing certainty and fairness: Independent review of the Coalmining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Scheme, which was published in February 2022.

I had the honour of welcoming the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, the member for Watson, to my electorate recently. On that visit, we visited my old workplace, Mount Thorley Warkworth, and spoke to coalminers there. Every miner we spoke to was excited to hear about our plans and changes to benefit workers. Thank you, Minister, for your visit. It was really appreciated. I hope you enjoyed the mighty Hunter and the burger we got to sneak in as well.

To the miners in my electorate: I would like to remind you once again that I have your back and the Labor government has your back. We always have, and we always will. I'm excited that the same job, same pay legislation is very close to being introduced into parliament. This will ensure that workers not just in the mining sector but across many industries are paid the same. We need jobs that are well paid and secure and aren't dominated by dodgy labour-hire arrangements. Put simply, whenever you're at work, if you're doing the same job as the person next to you, you should be paid the same. It's simple—same job, same pay. Mining is one of the few industries where casuals are paid less than permanent workers. We will close the loopholes that allow this and ensure workers are paid appropriately.

This budget also provides a much-needed pay rise for the group of workers who deserve it the most—aged-care workers. Aged-care workers are the best among us, and their patient, loving care for some of the most vulnerable Australians is nothing short of incredible. However, their work has been made more difficult owing to the sector's insufficient funding and the inadequate pay rates across the sector. For too long, those working in aged care have been asked to work harder or longer without adequate awards, but this budget changes that. It allocates $11.3 billion to fund the Fair Work Commission's interim decision for a 15 per cent increase to the minimum wage for many aged-care workers. This will benefit award aged-care workers in the Hunter electorate, who will earn between $129.20 and $341.24 more per week, if they are working more than 38 hours a week. It represents fairer pay for their hard and important work and creates more opportunities for those working in our care economy.

How good is it to have a government that cares about Australia, a government that cares about Australians and our future? Australia is the best country in the world, but the pandemic was a wake-up call. It showed us and the world that we aren't perfect. It showed us that our supply chains are vulnerable. It also showed us that when push comes to shove we can pull through. But we need to make sure that we are more self-sufficient more consistently. Along with the Buy Australia Plan and the Future Made in Australia Office, the National Reconstruction Fund is a part of this government's plan for Australia to be a strong and self-sufficient nation, and this fund will help our country to have a renewed basis to sell to the world.

The National Reconstruction Fund is about bringing Australia back to our glory days. I remember the days when Australia used to make things and make things that were of high quality. Our $15 billion fund will bring back Australian industry, and it will mean that we are a country that makes things again, and I can't wait to see what opportunities this will bring for the Hunter.

There is so much in this budget that I could speak about. We are supporting everyday people and businesses right across Australia, across the Hunter electorate and everywhere else we can talk about. Our budget is taking the pressure off families. It is making it easier to see a bulk-billing doctor. It is providing a much-needed pay rise for those who deserve it most. Most importantly, it is a responsible budget that understands how tough it is right now for people. That's why we are ensuring we are delivering a better future for everyone in this country.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on the appropriation bills. I'm not sure if this is the 15th or 16th appropriation speech that I have made in this place. I always like to start on a positive, so I commend the government on the bulk-billing increase for GPs. I think that was a positive thing to do. That's the positive bit out of the way.

I've heard other contributors in their speeches on these appropriation bills talk about the changes to the distribution priority areas. Members who live in periurban and areas close to capital cities were saying how good it is now that they have doctors because of the change to the distribution priority areas. Well, good on them—except I know where they came from. They came from regional Australia. I know that the week that that policy was announced Western Health lost six doctors out of towns in western New South Wales. The issue we confront is a lack of understanding around regional Australia.

We hear a lot about support for the Voice and our Aboriginal brothers and sisters, but at the same time we have policies that are taking away the services in those towns. It is good news that there is more money for parents with kids in child care—and it is good luck if you have a place—but in Mungindi there's no facility and no ability to get funds to build a facility so that the younger families that have moved back to make their life in the rural town of Mungindi actually have somewhere to send their kids. One thing the pandemic has shown us is that you can work remotely. We're seeing in particularly some of the farm families one partner, or both of them, running a business from the farm and working remotely, but they have to have somewhere that looks after the kids. While the extra money for parents for child care looks goods on the surface, if you haven't got a place to put that child that's a problem. I have a staff member in Broken Hill who wants to come back from maternity leave but can't find a place for her child to go, so that's an issue.

One of the concerns I have with the budget is that, because the minister has called for a review of major infrastructure projects, they have largely been pulled out of the picture, so it's very hard to get a clear picture of what's happening with infrastructure projects. With programs like Roads to Recovery, Roads of Strategic Importance, and Local Roads and Community Infrastructure—all these programs that are building roads to help the productivity of this nation—there is now a degree of uncertainty.

Roads of Strategic Importance has been a great program. The road that connects Coonamble and Tooraweenah provides access for people and produce. Produce can go to markets in the Hunter. Tourists can go through Warrumbungle and Coonamble up to Lightning Ridge and into Queensland without having to travel on a dangerous dirt road. The Roads of Strategic Importance is terrific for that. The County Boundary Road up near Croppa Creek connects high-producing grain farms. A safe all-weather road for high mass vehicles will increase productivity.

One of the things that concern me most in infrastructure is Inland Rail. Most of the funding for Inland Rail is off budget, okay, but some associated things were in the budget. A great example of that is the money that was there for grade separations. So where the railway line's coming through, a grade separation provides a safe interface between busy roads and the rail. Generally, you would have an overpass—sometimes it's rail over road, but it's mostly road over rail. Now that funding has been pushed off budget, has been pushed forward into future years. Has that been pushed forward onto the never-never because the project is in jeopardy?

There is a lack of understanding of what this project is. Basically, the Inland Rail is to provide an efficient connection between Melbourne and Brisbane for intermodal freight. A B-double goes up the Newell Highway, through Dubbo, every 70 seconds at the moment. That's increasing exponentially year on year on year, and it's not sustainable. The Inland Rail would take a lot of that freight off the highway. For those who are concerned about reducing our emissions, one train takes 150 trucks off the road. This reduces carbon emissions by millions of tonnes a year. And that's just the basic part of it. As well as that, grain producers, cotton producers et cetera along the way will have a more efficient and cheaper access to ports.

More importantly, it will be a catalyst for other industries to grow. While the uncertainty is there, you have to understand it's not just the rail project. In Moree we've got the special activation precinct where the New South Wales government has already put $300 million into the project. Local businesses are planning how to take advantage of that. Horticulture is looking to come and take advantage. Once again, with an Indigenous population of about 22 per cent, Moree getting permanent, well-paid jobs in those areas is empowering people, is giving them a future. When a family has a job, a lot of the other issues that they deal with fall away. A lot of the social issues fall away. This is the double standard we see when on the one hand we withdraw projects that employ local Aboriginal people while on the other hand we're espousing virtue of care.

If you go right down the rail line, there's the inland port at Narrabri with the potential to be connected to gas from the Pilliga gas field—the possibilities for what can be manufactured are endless. Our cities are now choked up and there's difficulty getting large-mass vehicles into those industrial areas of the city, and there is competition between industrial land and residential areas. It makes perfect sense to move a lot of that industry out into regional areas, grow those communities with the efficient connection of rail not only to the port, but to every capital city in Australia. The Inland Rail, for the first time in the history of this country, would have every capital city connected by a standard gauge railway. So to have the minister talk about this as a National Party 'vanity project', to talk about it as 'pork-barrelling'—this is the greatest piece of nation-building infrastructure we've seen in this country for the last 100 years. This is like the Harbour Bridge for regional Australia, and it has been treated as a political pawn.

What do you say to the younger person who's gone to the finance company, bought a truck and a couple of side tipping trailers to go on behind because they believed there was a project that was going to go on for the next four or five years? They were told that. They were told that by me, as a matter of fact, so you can imagine where we sit on that. What are they going to tell their finance company? They'll say, 'Well, the project's under a cloud at the moment. We're parked up. We thought we were going to go from one to the other to the other, and now we're parked up. What do we do?' What about the 40 or 50 Aboriginal people in Moree who had their first job for a long time who are now back on Newstart? What are you going to tell them? They thought that they had a career building railway lines that was going to last for some time. It is now under a cloud. I'm certainly hoping that it will continue. I am saying to Minister King: please come out with some positive messaging about this project. If she's going to knock it on the head, do it today, because the uncertainty is causing an enormous amount of grief in my part of the world.

We've got to look at regional Australia as servicing. We need to service the area that's actually carrying this country economically. We came through the pandemic because of our exports in minerals, gas and agricultural produce. All those things come from the Parkes electorate, as do the raw materials that are being developed for the cleaner, newer economy. Cobalt, lithium, rare earths—all of those things are there, but they need the infrastructure to actually be developed. Regional Australia isn't a place to be pitied. It's not a place to be ignored. It's not a place to be derided. It's the future of this country. It's the powerhouse that pays the bills. And this budget has, quite frankly, ignored regional Australia.

We've had the pharmacists in today, and the Prime Minister clearly had been speaking to them at his own pharmacy. The pharmacists in Rozelle are probably not at risk compared to the pharmacists at Bourke, Warialda or Brewarrina. In many cases, because of the transient nature of the doctors coming through, the pharmacist is the constant. The pharmacist at Bourke was telling me that some of the Aboriginal folk out there would come to him and ask them what their script meant, because the pharmacist was the person that had been there all the time and they could trust them and have that relationship with them. Forget the politicking. I know the campaign has upset members of the government, but we can't afford to lose our pharmacists.

I heard the previous member talk about aged care. I think the money going to paying aged-care workers is a good thing. I think they deserve it. They are unsung heroes, and I have got the greatest respect. But, once again, you've got to think things through. Saying you are going to have a registered nurse 24/7 when there is no-one there to do that on 1 July—we've got aged-care facilities in my electorate that are terrified they will be noncompliant, and they don't know what that will mean. They haven't been told what it means if they can't get an exemption. Some of the smaller towns can get an exemption, but I know it's a real concern to Southern Cross Care out at Broken Hill, because they are really struggling to get that certainty of having staff there.

I am happy to work with the government. Minister King has asked me to go on a bipartisan committee to help with regional funding, and I will do that. I think it's important that we try and work together as best we can. But I've got to say I can't hide my disappointment in the way that regional Australia has been treated by this budget.

Debate adjourned.

F ederation Chamber adjourned at 19 : 34