Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not hear him; I block him out. The opposition continue to describe the temporary flood levy as a tax. But once again, with contradiction, Mr Abbott said his own paid parental leave scheme would be funded by a levy not a tax. He said:

The difference between a levy and a tax is that a levy is for a specific purpose and this is for a specific purpose.

Isn’t a flood levy, which is only going to be charged in the 2011-12 financial year and which is to be raised solely to help rebuild infrastructure, for a specific purpose?

Last year Joe Hockey was asked when does a levy become a tax and he replied, ‘When it becomes permanent.’ I understand, the word ‘temporary’ does not mean ‘permanent’. This is the coalition’s definition and is not defined in English. The flood levy has received support from third parties who believe it is necessary to help with rebuilding these affected areas. Agforce president Brent Finlay said, ‘Nobody likes a levy or a tax, but given the enormity of what’s happened with this natural disaster, anything that can help to get rural and regional Queensland back up and running, we would support ... but this is a huge task to rebuild after what has happened.’ Australian Council of Social Services CEO, Cassandra Goldie, said:

Overall we are pleased that the Federal Government has acted quickly to support the vital reconstruction efforts of the Queensland Government and support the idea that all Australians with the means to contribute to this effort do so through a flood disaster levy.

The Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, has also given her support for the levy to help rebuild our state and has pleaded with the opposition to see that Queenslanders are just as important as all those industries which need assistance. She said:

… when it comes to the levy I understand that no one wants to pay more but the people of Queensland didn’t want this disaster either. And we as a nation have come together in the past and put on one-off levies for many reasons; the buyback of guns, helping out the Ansett collapse, in relation to the milk and the sugar industry. So as a nation we have come together in the past to help out the milk industry, the sugar industry, the workers of Ansett and to buyback guns after the Port Arthur tragedy. I think the people of Queensland are at least as important as all of those other levies in the past.

The Gillard Labor government is committed to getting the budget back into surplus by 2012-13. By being in the black we can ensure that we have the fiscal means to fight back if we have to face another battle. Our swift action and fiscal discipline to get the budget back into surplus is described by Treasurer Wayne Swan as ‘the biggest positive turnaround in the budget’s position since the 1960s’. Our spending discipline will keep our economy as one of the strongest in the developed world. In January Mr Swan revealed labour force figures showing that unemployment fell from 5.2 per cent to five per cent in December and last year was a record high for job creation, with 364,000 new positions, 80 per cent of them full-time.

The opposition keeps calling for the government to stop our stimulus funding, but already 99.9 per cent of Building the Education Revolution projects have been completed or had construction commence. This project, which was a key aspect of our $42 billion Nation Building and Jobs Plan, helped keep people employed during the global financial crisis and has given our students and teachers new facilities which they never ever thought they would have. I have been to around 30 BER openings since the program commenced and it has been good to see my opposition colleagues as special guests at many of those events, even posing for photographs.

The coalition has also called for a cut to the GP Super Clinics Program. This again is an example of the opposition not being interested in fixing our health system. As Minister for Health and Ageing, the now Leader of the Opposition had no problem with stripping $1 billion out of health. Now that the Labor government is providing facilities for mums and dads and their families to access GPs at extended hours, have blood tests, see specialists, see a diabetes educator or see a physiotherapist, with all Medicare Benefits Scheme items bulk-billed, why would you want to take all of that away or prevent other communities accessing quality health care?

In my duty electorate of Dickson, superclinic nominees have successfully established the Strathpine GP superclinic. Since its first day of operation, on 11 January 2010, the clinic has had 71,176 appointments/consultations for 92,190 items of care. The clinic employs 15 GPs and nine nurses, including an Indigenous health nurse, and provides a whole range of healthcare services for its clientele. The opposition wants to cut this program completely.

The opposition also claims that this levy will push up the cost of living. From memory I recall that the highest tax rate in history honour went to the Howard government and was supported by Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb. In fact, it was 24.1 per cent—