Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia is battling a global recession that is pushing up unemployment as a result of falling growth. The Rudd Labor government has taken decisive action through the economic stimulus package to protect Australia from the worst effects of this global recession. In addition to the $42 billion stimulus package, the government has announced a range of measures to assist job seekers and redundant workers and will continue to act as necessary. There is $300 million to ensure redundant workers receive intensive assistance and support immediately rather than having to wait up to three months, 20,000 training places have been made available for people made redundant, $145.6 million is allocated to support out-of-trade apprentices and trainees, and there is a $950 learning and training bonus for income assistance recipients undertaking a structured training course.

These are all very specific measures to help with the specific problems we are facing and enduring during particularly difficult times for many Australians. However, I am confident that with the Rudd Labor government working with other governments around the country we will emerge from the global financial crisis stronger than ever. There is perhaps no program more specific than the broad-ranging $42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan that has been put in place to prime the pump of the economic activity and above all to protect and provide Australian jobs. It points to the sense of responsibility that the Rudd Labor government carries into this economic crisis.

It is worth highlighting the key elements of this package, because they are indeed significant. There is of course the building an education revolution, which I will go into a little more detail about; the energy-efficient homes program; the household stimulus package; housing construction measures; regional and roads measures; small business and general tax breaks; and support for pensioners. The immense project that is destined to at last expand and invigorate the education sector is the $14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution, which I would argue is singularly the most important element. Canberra schools, like many other schools around the country, have benefited from this investment. Large-scale infrastructure such as libraries and multipurpose facilities will be built or upgraded. Minor infrastructure will benefit from the same renewal processes. A billion dollars overall will be provided to build around 500 new science and language laboratories in Australia, and indeed in Canberra’s schools.

I think the value of such an aggressive, proactive approach has limited some of the worst effects to date of the global economic turmoil. They are also effective measures, and we are starting to see the evidence of that. We are also trying to reverse the disastrous deterioration in public infrastructure that has occurred as a result of 10 lazy years of the Howard government. I cannot help recalling and reflecting on the opportunity that the then Treasurer, Mr Costello, had to convert what were good times in the productive mines of Australia to good sources of revenue for the Australian government—and reflecting on why they completely neglected the opportunity to invest those good times into public infrastructure. I think history will judge such timid, self-satisfied squandering as reckless at best and destructive at worst.

The shock of recent economic developments has, as part of a sophisticated employment stimulus, made certain the community infrastructure will be refreshed and renewed. This is infrastructure that Australia knew was taking a battering under the Liberals. It is social infrastructure that Labor knows forms the physical framework within which the community survives and thrives, and the Labor Party’s robust course of action is no more evident than in the crucial field of education, with today’s schoolchildren being tomorrow’s leaders. Education is a civic minded, sophisticated, engaged community’s investment in the future through the next generation.

If you drill down into the detail of the package, there is $955 million under the early education package. There are a number of quality programs. One example here in the ACT is that we will receive some $13 million over the next five years to help ensure that every ACT child can access early childhood education in the year before school. Research tells us that disadvantaged kids benefit disproportionately from high-quality preschool and kindergarten education, and the Rudd and Stanhope governments intend to ensure that the demonstrated importance of this early stimulus is appropriately addressed. We know that 30 per cent of Australian four-year-olds, including about half of all Indigenous children, do not go to preschools. Whilst the statistics for the ACT are not as dire as that, we all acknowledge that these statistics need reversing, and our measures will help commence that process.

It is through the national partnership that the Australian, state and territory governments have confirmed their commitment that by 2013 every child in the country will have access to 15 hours of affordable, meaningful early childhood education per week for 40 weeks a year, delivered by university trained early childhood teachers. As part of this vital partnership, all spheres of government have similarly confirmed a set of performance indicators to assess and report on progress to ensure that this data on development and evaluation is accumulated accurately and effectively, and additional funding of $15 million over five years has been provided.

Again drilling down into other aspects of the plan, we find that some 15,600 families will get a back-to-school bonus of $950 to help with the cost of kids returning to school, and 6,700 students seeking work will receive a training and learning bonus of $950 to support their study costs. The education area is finally receiving the attention it deserves, but the initiatives of this government to alleviate the worst economic effects of the moment have been applied in a number of other areas as well. Another excellent example is the establishment of a new innovation fund. This panel is to help Australia’s most disadvantaged job seekers find work. ACT organisations appointed to the panel will be able to apply for the funding, success being contingent on the capacity to demonstrate new and innovative ways to connect disadvantaged job seekers to training and jobs.

Another aspect of the package is the Rudd government’s commitment to funding the construction of 20,000 new homes, a number of which will, of course, be here in the ACT, thus providing our local builders, carpenters, electricians, plumbers and other tradespeople with the chance to gain valuable work in difficult times. Most of these homes will be completed by the end of this year, so the program will provide work in the immediate future. Smaller, but no less meaningful for those affected, is the welcome extra federal funding for the Personal Helpers and Mentors Program. Here in the ACT, the program boost will exceed $1.2 million—good news for those in this often marginalised area of the community.

Having outlined just a selection of the ways in which the stimulus package is helping the ACT, I want to commend my colleagues for the timely and, above all, courageous programs that are accruing to assist Australia through very difficult times. For the community that I represent in this place, this is a most welcome input. Tough times demand clear heads and bold policies, as the Labor governments of the 1940s under Prime Ministers John Curtin and Ben Chifley knew and understood only too well, and the present economic crisis is bringing out the best in the Labor Party. Thankfully, it is a Labor government that is in government in this turbulent global climate. It is the compassion and depth of knowledge and understanding of the economy that will serve Australia so well during this period. I note with interest the thoughtfulness with which the stimulus packages have been put together, with an eye not only to providing jobs where they are most needed but also to looking after some of the broader social infrastructure challenges that we know we have been facing now for well over a decade. I would like to finish by reinforcing the importance of the investment in social infrastructure, such as schools and community facilities—the sorts of places that people spend the vast majority of their lives; they form the heart of our community and will continue to do so for a long time.