Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Oxley for his question. Of course he and the area he represents were very much affected by floodwaters; indeed, the member for Oxley’s electorate office was flooded, meaning that he needed to keep working, representing his community and assisting them during this natural disaster, whilst dealing with a natural disaster in his own electorate office. I am sure everybody wishes him well as he recovers from that. I think we can all imagine what it would be like to have our office cut off and full of floodwaters as we were trying to go about assisting our community at the same time.

To the member for Oxley I can say the following: we have the right plan to rebuild the nation as it recovers from this devastating summer. We have found savings within the budget and we have taken the tough decisions we need in order to make those savings available to support rebuilding. The rest we are asking Australians to share. We are asking Australians to share through a one-off temporary levy. I do note—and people should—that the levy is one-off and temporary. It will last for one year and one year precisely. The vast majority of Australian taxpayers will be asked for less than a dollar a week. People with income of $50,000 and under will not be asked to contribute at all. We have also rephased infrastructure. We have done that in consultation with state governments because we need to make sure that, as well as having the money to rebuild, we have the skills necessary to rebuild—the necessary skilled workers available to get out there and do the construction that we need. Consequently, rephasing infrastructure is not just about government expenditure. It is also about capacity constraints and making sure that we are making available the skilled labour we need. We have also taken some decisions in relation to skilled migration and in relation to unemployed Australians and getting them where they can get a job rebuilding from these devastating natural disasters around the country.

I am asked about value for money, and I want to make sure that every taxpayer dollar gets value for money and does the most work. That is why we are ensuring that at every level there is clear accountability and value for money. First, we are creating a reconstruction inspectorate, and I thank former New South Wales Premier and former federal Minister for Finance and Administration John Fahey for taking my invitation to chair that reconstruction inspectorate.

See this speech in context