Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will continue from where I left off last night when I was speaking about the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2015-2016 and cognate debate, and what a wonderful budget this was. At that time I was particularly quoting Mr Behrens, of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland, who said the budget:

… will materially benefit the State's 403,000 small businesses that employ more than one million Queenslanders …

He went on:

The budget will benefit many small businesses through boosting confidence rather than detracting from it, as occurred last year.

When coupled with the range of stimulus measures small business is obviously the biggest winner from this budget. In 20 years I cannot recall such a small business friendly federal budget.

Mr Behrens also said that the budget recognised the imperative to tackle the embedded structure deficit that existed and to commence paying down the debt. The CCIQ also sounded a warning to the opposition on these budget measures and, in so doing, he had this to say:

The Senate and Opposition needs to avoid holding the Budget to ransom with a populist, negative campaign.

The Senate has struck fear into the business community and the general lack of collaboration between the Federal Government and independent Senators has unquestionably undermined business confidence and in turn investment.

This Budget, in our view, strikes the right balance in trimming government spending, but also in securing sensible tax reform and, in turn, economic growth and job creation.

Getting Australia and Queensland back on a strong growth footing must be the top priority. We cannot afford another year of reform gridlock.

So my message to Labor is this: simply listen. Listen to your small business constituency out there. Get on board and get out of the way. They want to grow. They want to employ people. They want to improve and add to the economic growth of this country.

In terms of infrastructure for Brisbane and Queensland, the government is investing some $13.4 billion to build infrastructure, with $1.6 billion to be funded in the 2015-16 period, with a further $16,170,607 being provided to the Brisbane City Council in the Roads to Recovery program. This is a very good program. It funds roads at a grassroots level and it has had an enormous impact in communities in Brisbane.

Under the Stronger Communities program, Brisbane also will receive $150,000 per year over two years for small capital projects. A number of community groups, schools and sporting organisations will benefit enormously. It will make a big difference to the many hundreds of volunteers who roll up on Saturday mornings during the week, who contribute to our local society and who are an important part of the fabric of our everyday communities. Under the Community Development Grants program, the Brisbane Broncos will receive $5 million in 2015-16, $250,000 will go to the Jeeps Rugby Club for a facilities upgrade and $750,000 will go to the Brisbane inner north sporting community to develop a community centre at Hickey Park.

I am absolutely delighted by a smaller amount—while it is only $125,000, it is fantastic—that is going to OzHarvest, which has expanded into Queensland. They have a really valuable program to help the homeless. The grant will fund a new van that will help them distribute food to shelters and groups that provide assistance to homeless people. I will be launching that program and its new funding next week. Matt Moran, one of our country's most famous chefs, will also be on board—he is an ambassador for OzHarvest—along with Ronni Kahn, who was one of Australia's Local Heroes a few years back. She won that much coveted award for her work in starting OzHarvest. I am delighted to be joining them at the formal ceremony to hand over the money to buy that much needed van. I commend the excellent work that OzHarvest does around this country.

I want to make special reference to those measures in the budget that impact on women. We need to get the country out of debt, we need to ensure the economy is strong and we need to ensure that services are targeted to those in need. There is a simple fact here that seems to completely elude Labor and the Greens: no woman can be better off in a country that spends beyond its means. That is a recipe for long-term disaster. The good news is that under this budget Australian women and their families will be better off. The budget supports women in achieving that better balance between their work and family life, as well as helping them to improve their economic security while contributing to a strong economic future for Australia.

That is what is in this budget. We are delivering $4.4 billion to make our childcare system much more affordable, accessible and flexible. This will help bring more women into work. The families package will provide greater choice to more than 1.2 million families by delivering affordable access to quality child care and early childhood learning, particularly to low-income families. It was a pleasure to have the Hon. Scott Morrison visit the Lyndhurst childcare centre last week.

The Jobs and Small Business package will provide tax relief and other incentives to encourage investment and grow small business. This will help the 480,000 women who are small business owners, as well as entrepreneurs and job seekers. We have designed wage subsidies, including a new subsidy for parents on income support who register with Job Active and have been dealing with employment services for six months or more. This will particularly help young mothers.

I am excited about the additional investment of more than $63 million in new and existing microfinance initiatives that will also help to build the financial resilience of women and ensure the wellbeing of their families, as well as the $600 million investment in better access to medicine, in supporting women affected by late stage breast cancer and in providing more effective cervical cancer screening that will save the lives of 140 women a year. In addition to these very important initiatives, there is $25 million of additional funding to deliver front-line legal support to women and children experiencing domestic and family violence and there is $230 million for a two-year extension of the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, which will prioritise those victims of domestic violence facing homelessness.

The budget will help shiftworkers. The pilot program that will provide $246 million for the nanny trial is very well thought of, and it will help nurses, police and other emergency services in my electorate in particular, so I am absolutely delighted by that. I am also delighted by the opportunity for women to participate more fully in the workforce. They are the most underutilised source of skills and entrepreneurship. Every woman that participates in the workforce contributes to our GDP; and, if we had six per cent more women participating in work, it has been shown that GDP would increase to $25 billion a year. These are staggering figures.

I am particularly impressed by the Green Army spending in the budget, $179 million over the four years. We will have the largest on-the-ground environmental Green Army program and it will continue with funding of $704 million over the forward estimates. It was great to see Green Army projects in my electorate funded: the Banks Street Reserve, Kedron Brook catchment and Ithaca Creek. These are fantastic local projects that will be delivered this year.

I thank the Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, for the investment in the Great Barrier Reef and all that he is doing to protect our waters. We are investing $100 million in the Reef Trust, in addition to our election commitment and initial contribution of $40 million. There has been much improvement through water quality and coastal habitation initiatives, as well as the protection of threatened and migratory species, especially dugongs and turtles. I also applaud Minister Hunt for the UNESCO result the other day and I thank him very much. Since coming into government, we have taken unprecedented steps to address the concerns of the World Heritage committee which were raised while Labor were in government, so I was very pleased to see that Barrier Reef result the other day.

In the short time left for me to speak, I also want to commend the allocation of $10.2 million to be spent on the Enhanced Land Force stage 2 project at Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera. Queensland is home to 22,000 Defence Force personnel, and I thank them for all they do for our country. (Time expired)

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