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

As the Prime Minister has suggested with due caution in recent weeks, Australia’s economic numbers through this global recession are holding up remarkably well. The stimulus package is working. Australian consumer spending is up and, most importantly, far fewer Australian jobs have been lost than had been widely predicted over a very difficult time for just about everybody in the community. While no-one is about to get complacent, bold policies, resolute implementation and, above all, courageous economic leadership have provided a much needed buffer against the worst effects of the recession.

This presents an opportunity to reflect on a particular aspect of the government’s broad range of nation-building initiatives. We know that 70 per cent of the stimulus package is invested in infrastructure and that these investments are providing jobs for Australians at a time when they need them most. These investments are also in the best long-term interests of Australia, serving our needs across education, across capacity constraints existing in our current economic infrastructure and, very importantly, investing in a high-bandwidth network that will serve us well into the next century.

But there is another priority that I would like to address tonight that the Prime Minister has made clear, and that is the national capital. As we are all aware, the city of Canberra is heading towards its 100th birthday, on 12 March 2013. The reason for the celebration on that date is that on 12 March 1913 Labor Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, along with Governor-General Lord Denman and Minister for Home Affairs King O’Malley, laid the first foundation stones of the capital with golden trowels. Prime Minister Fisher had an expansive vision for the nation’s capital back then, and the modern Labor Party, under the leadership of Mr Rudd, is determined to build on Andrew Fisher’s dream.

Just last month Prime Minister Rudd, in an important speech to the John Curtin Medical School, confirmed the government’s intention to ‘refresh’ a historic commitment to the primary ‘seat of learning’ in Canberra, the Australian National University. ‘We intend to recognise,’ the Prime Minister stated, ‘the ANU’s unique place in the national firmament.’ The Prime Minister went on to say:

In the intensely competitive and globalised world of tertiary institutions, the ANU will need to fight hard to hold its place and advance its reputation in the months ahead. But as it does that, it will have the support of the national government.

The ANU’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Chubb, welcomed this commitment as ‘a significant turnaround’ on the recent past. It is worth noting that under the former Howard government there was neither adequate government funding nor any understanding of the tertiary sector’s task in very demanding and rapidly changing times.

The ANU, from its beginnings in the Ben Chifley years, has always had a unique brief, through its specially designated research schools, to engage in cutting-edge inquiry. This government, the Rudd Labor government, intends to further strengthen the original visionary pledge. In the recently announced 2009-10 budget, some $150 million of capital funding was allocated to create over 5,000 university related local jobs, with the bulk of this funding directed towards research. I would like to list a few of those initiatives. Stage 2 of the ANU’s chemical sciences hub will be allocated $90 million; the Australian phonemics project will get $15 million; collaborative facilities for urban resource use and management—a project shared by several universities and led by the ANU—has been allocated $20 million; the National Plasma Fusion Facility has been allocated $10 million; and the National Ion Accelerators project, led jointly by the ANU and the University of Melbourne, has also been allocated $10 million. As a result of these and other investments in the tertiary education sector, this ‘refresh’ of our internationally acclaimed national university has well and truly begun.

The Labor government is acutely aware that the ANU is one of a significant group of national institutions. I am certainly of the view, as are many of my colleagues, that more attention, preferably accompanied by funds, to shore up and, when economic circumstances permit, enhance and expand the intellectual and cultural infrastructure of the national capital is now required. I imagine that it cannot have been easy for the Treasurer, Mr Swan, to frame arguably one of the most complex budgets in a generation. So I was very pleased to see that funds were allocated specifically to national institutions in great need. Questacon, the National Science and Technology Centre—so loved by visiting school students from right around the country—is to receive $7.6 million to build on its national science outreach programs, such as the early childhood and Indigenous programs, and the very popular Invention Convention. An additional $3.7 million was also allocated in the budget to allow Questacon to carry out urgent maintenance and repair works.

The National Library of Australia will share $800,000 with the National Archives of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive for the next phase of the joint Digital Deluge project to find strategies to digitise the vast amount of information in those collections so they will be able to preserved effectively and accessed in a sustainable manner in the future. The High Court of Australia at last receives a funding boost—again, desperately needed—of $9 million over four years, with over $5 million of that to be allocated to urgently needed capital funding to resolve maintenance issues there. I also note that $1.5 million for a sustainable water solution for the Botanic Gardens is on the way, as is half a million dollars to contribute to the restoration of the Albert Hall—a very important historic civic centre here in the national capital.

The capacity of the national capital to serve the citizens of this nation is obviously something that is not only on the mind of the Prime Minister; it is a task that is being tackled with some creativity by a number of ministers in the Rudd Labor government. The Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson, is well aware that travellers worldwide have less money in their pockets to travel to distant locations, including Australia. Now, with tourism amounting to 3.7 per cent of Australia’s GDP and with nearly half a million Australians employed in the industry, the tourism sector cannot afford to falter. Minister Ferguson knows this and, accordingly, a couple of months ago he responded with some imagination to the volatile times and launched a new and exciting program that is certain to prove a turning point in the development of the tourism industry. The TQUAL Grants program will supersede and build on the Australian Tourism Development Program. A program that was given a mere $2.2 million in recent years has been beefed up substantially to a much healthier $8.5 million in the new financial year. In broad terms, this program aims to develop products and services within the industry, to contribute directly to long-term economic development in the designated host regions, and to assist in the development of high-quality visitor services and experiences. The minister is seeking a refreshed, versatile industry that is intent on responding to the global climate with innovative programs that can be ultracompetitive in difficult days and in high demand when better times return.

How does this relate to the national capital? The TQUAL Grants program is a carefully targeted program and it is one that the national capital, if they are clever about it, will be able to access. This is a very exciting time for Canberra, because in the past it has been extremely difficult—in fact impossible—for a combination of ACT government, Australian Capital Tourism and our national institutions to access Commonwealth tourism funding. But the TQUAL Grants program invites such an opportunity to move forward. When launching the TQUAL program, Minister Ferguson referred to his affection for Canberra. He wants to see the city play a more energetic and engaged role in the tourism industry here in Australia. For this reason, he made particular mention of a very successful recent advertising campaign called Culture Shock. Culture Shock brought together a number of our national institutions and showcased four separate treasure house institutions. The upshot of the minister’s comments was that he was encouraging our national institutions to work closely with the ACT government to access Commonwealth tourism funding, to help promote Canberra and to make our national capital more accessible to the citizens of this country.