Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With the parliamentary year drawing to a close I would like to reflect on some of the significant issues that have been across my desk during the year, and to join with Senator Nash and associate myself with some of her comments relating to the staff who have served us so well. The year began for me when I introduced my animal protection bill, a private senator's bill, into this place. It was subsequently referred to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee and, following an inquiry and report, it was recommended that that bill be passed. The Security of Bills Committee, quite rightly, asked a number of questions, which have been responded to. I look forward in 2016 to that legislation finding its way onto the Notice Paper and to it being debated.

Secondly, I reflect on local government. We know very well that, officially, it does not exist under our Constitution, and is serviced by states. We also know that local government is closest to the people. This time last week I reflected on the awful bushfires near the town of Esperance and, subsequently, we have had them north of Adelaide. Again, it goes to show the important role of local government in coordinating emergency services in communities, and prevention and preparedness and then response and recovery. But all too rarely do we actually congratulate those who have excelled in local government, and I want do that now.

I advise the chamber of an Australian Organisational Excellence Award gold award to a very close friend and associate Dr Shayne Silcox, the chief executive of the City of Melville, where I reside in Western Australia. The Australian Organisational Excellence Foundation sets very high international standards. I am pleased to advise that recently the City of Melville became the first Western Australian local government and only the third Western Australian organisation to have won this gold award. The assessment tests require participating organisations to undergo a rigorous and unique evaluation process of the business excellence principles that are embedded in an organisation, embraced across the organisation, as well as its commitment to innovation and sustainable performance, stakeholder value, quality and service, philanthropic ideals and ethical performance.

Since I do not spend much time in my home in Mount Pleasant in the City of Melville, I do not have the opportunity to enjoy many of those services. But I am delighted that the mayor of Melville, Russell Aubrey, a very close friend, made this comment the other day on receiving the award on behalf of the city, congratulating the CEO, management and staff of this achievement and the reflection of their shared commitment to business and dedicated focus. I make that point because we know that there is excellence in all levels of government and all too often it is ignored or not appreciated and not celebrated. I am very pleased this evening to be able to do that on behalf of the City of Melville and its CEO.

Another area with which I have had association this year is in an innovative idea related to payment of HECS or HELP debts and superannuation. We all know that people, especially in their 20s and 30s at the moment, are experiencing very heavy demands on costs—buying their first home, raising a family; we have all been there. Housing affordability and the cost of child care are areas that we continue to discuss and debate in this chamber. We know the level of personal debt is rising and, according to the Reserve Bank's website, household debt as a proportion of disposable income is now exceeding 180 per cent. That is unacceptable.

An associate Mr John Adams, an accountant, who has worked previously for a senator in this place has come up with the concept that a young person between the age of 25 and 40 years of age, perhaps one who never had the opportunity to go to university and now sees the benefits of a university education but perhaps might not be able to afford it or a graduate who has a HECS debt at a time when they are meeting other expenses should be to draw on their super fund to pay down their HECS debt. It would be a win for that person because either they do not have the debt ahead of them or they do not have the repayments each payday, a win for government because the ever-increasing HELP or HECS debt is of concern to us all and to the budget, and a benefit to somebody who might otherwise not have been able to afford or take the step to go to university. We all know, and it is said often enough in this place, that if you have a university degree you will earn a million dollars more in your career than you might otherwise have earnt. At retirement, we would expect that person to be better off.

The last essential element of this proposal is that once that person has got themselves over their level of indebtedness and they are in a more comfortable position, they would then be able to repay into their super fund over time the amount of money plus interest that they have taken out. Let's imagine at 40 years of age, they still have 25 years of earning capacity ahead of them and, say, they have a $50,000 HECS debt. In the final 20 years of working life, they have the chance to put $2,000 a year back in. The original fund is then protected. It is an idea that I think has merit. It is one we are taking through the various processes—the Parliamentary Budget Office—hoping that Treasury will look at it. It is not a proposal that will erode super. It is a proposal that will allow a young person who has accumulated a super fund to use it more effectively at the early stage of their professional life when they need it, on the basis that by the time they retire that original fund will be restored. I do commend that concept.

I now want to briefly address the question of industrial wind turbines. These have been the subject this year of a Senate inquiry. I am very pleased to see my colleague Senator Anne Urquhart in the chamber who was a member of that committee. I have three main concerns with this technology. They are ethics, economics and health effects. The ethics, regrettably, of the some of the proponents and operators of these wind farms are to be questioned. If I need to provide evidence of that, I need go no further than the concept of $2 shell companies that run the wind farms. Why is that of interest? If anybody feels aggrieved at any time in the future and they decide they want to litigate because a fire has been caused by a burning gearbox or they have an adverse health effect or a local government needs to decommission a wind farm at the end of its useful, they will find the operating organisation is a $2 shell company.

The other area that concerns me is a gross unwillingness to ever supply data—and of course I have spoken in this place before about some of the questionable contracts and the clauses within them. On the economic side, Mr Acting Deputy President Gallacher, your state of South Australia has the highest cost of electricity in Australia and the reason for that largely is that you have the highest proportion of wind farms. The highest electricity in Europe is Denmark, which has the highest proportion of wind farms.

The fact that the Australian consumer pays out half a million dollars per turbine per year in subsidies is an issue that most of the community do not understand. In fact the day will come when people are paying for electricity three times: they will pay for their electricity; they will pay for the subsidy to the wind farm and the turbines; and then they will be subsiding baseload generating capacity simply because, of itself, it will not be sufficiently able to meet its costs.

The third area in the few seconds available to me is health. There is great conjecture on this: is there is an issue with health? The only question I ask is: why do people leave their properties? Why do they leave their farms, if they are not suffering any adverse health effects? There is no compensation down the line. Their land values have gone; they cannot live on the farm.

I wish to conclude by thanking the staff that assist us so ably in this place. I wish my colleagues the best for Christmas and hope that we see you back fit and well for the new year. (Time expired)