Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

Well, there is a real concern that foreign aid is well below the millennium goal of 0.7 per cent, and that is something that we are concerned about. We need to lift foreign aid because that is what we should do as a wealthy nation, and it builds resilience in our near neighbours and is a bulwark against fundamentalism and extremism. It makes good sense.

As to the Medicare levy, we will consider that. We think we need to fund the NDIS adequately, but we want to look at the details of that. Also, we believe that the deficit levy for those who earn more than $180,000 ought to be kept in place. We welcome the housing affordability measures in this budget, but we believe more needs to be done. And, when it comes to our institutions being strong and robust, we will continue to pursue reforms to whistleblower protection laws which we believe would lead to better governance and government, both in our corporate and public sectors.

I just want to finish off with a long-forgotten piece written for The West Australian in 1950 by Bertrand Russell, one of the greatest philosophers of the last two centuries. Bertrand Russell had visited Australia and made good friends here in 1950, and he spoke of a country whose future would surely be better than its past and which had greatness in its grasp. This is what Russell wrote, in a warning to his new-found Australian friends—a warning that has even more force today. He said:

Perhaps you are all to comfortable to take so much trouble. Perhaps you will be content with a moderate and humdrum success, but I hope not. I hope that the more adventurous and enterprising spirits among you will be inspired by a golden vision of a possible future, and will be content to take the risks involved in aiming at a great success rather than acquiesce in the comfortable certainty of a modest competence.

We share Russell's hope for Australia, particularly for my home state of South Australia, and we hope that the vision and noble aspiration of Russell is something that, in a sense, will guide us in the decisions we make on this budget, because we want the very best for our nation and for our home state.