Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to follow my Labor colleagues the member for Wakefield and the members for Bendigo and Charlton before him, who have all spoken of making the best of a very difficult situation—Labor coming to the table in support of this Excise Tariff Amendment (Fuel Indexation) Bill. We have agreed to this because, in the end, it means an additional $1.1 billion in funding for Roads to Recovery, and that is a really significant investment in regional economies and regional areas like Newcastle and the Hunter region.

That is part of the compromise that we have agreed to with the government in order to pass this reintroduced bill regarding the indexation of fuel excise. As speakers before have made abundantly clear, it would be unconscionable for those funds to be returned to the big multinational companies and deliver absolutely no benefits to the consumers who have paid this fuel excise. It needs to result in some kind of net benefit for the people that we represent here in the Australian parliament. This is a compromise that does not come lightly, but it is good news for regional and local roads, including those in my electorate of Newcastle. It is a difficult decision for Labor to come by, but the prospects of billions of dollars being returned to oil companies was clearly an unacceptable position for Labor and, I would suggest, a pretty unacceptable position for the Australian people. We would prefer this money to be spent on roads in regional and outer-suburban areas, rather than being handed back to those multinationals who, quite frankly, really do not need this money at all.

Regions like Newcastle have suffered under the Abbott Liberal government. Indeed, local governments, in particular, have really felt the shift in focus, having been very much a focus of the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments, where we saw a massive injection of funds delivered to local government. It was an unprecedented partnership that was so well crafted by the member for Grayndler, the then minister for local government, who really forged a very new kind of relationship between federal and local governments. Having been a councillor on Newcastle City Council prior to my coming to this parliament, I can assure this parliament that those funds that were delivered directly into councils were indeed very welcomed by councils like Newcastle City Council, which was at the time managing an infrastructure backlog of some $130 million following the report from Percy Allan which the former New South Wales Treasury secretary delivered. The commitment that the then minister for local government made in terms of providing some much-needed direct funding into programs like Roads to Recovery, black spot road funding and the direct regional infrastructure grants assisted during that really difficult time during the global financial crisis not only was invaluable but also saved so many local governments who were simply not able to meet the demands of those times.

This federal government's cuts to local government and the freezing of the financial assistance grants, in particular, have been a really savage blow to local councils right across Australia. It has had a devastating impact on economic activity in regional areas like Newcastle, where we have high unemployment, along with many other regions in Australia now experiencing youth unemployment of over 20 per cent. That is unacceptable for any community that I know of. In Newcastle, recent unemployment rates have peaked at levels not seen since the current Prime Minister was in fact the employment minister. Indeed, they are unemployment levels not seen even during the entire global financial crisis. That is the situation in Newcastle at the moment. Unemployment has touched double digits in Newcastle and this year has sat on an average of more than eight per cent, well above the national average, which is around six per cent—which in itself is too high, I should add.

This $1.1 billion that Labor has secured from the government to invest in Roads to Recovery funding will stimulate regional economies. It will generate much needed jobs and will be a boost for vital local infrastructure. Indeed, the Hunter Research Foundation's analysis, post budget, of the Newcastle and Hunter regional economies makes it really clear just how necessary an investment in infrastructure really is. This is not the Labor Party speaking here; this is the independent Hunter Research Foundation, who make very clear that the Hunter region is currently experiencing the worst economic conditions that it has faced in a generation—and that includes, as I said, really unacceptably high levels of unemployment. Shipbuilding and manufacturing in my home town of Newcastle tonight released news that another 160 jobs are to be lost from the Forgacs shipyard. That is a completely unacceptable position, but I will talk at length about that on another occasion.

It is this lack of investment into Australian jobs and Australian industries, the lack of a plan around that, that is making life so difficult for regions across Australia as well as, of course, near record low levels of business confidence. That is the situation that many regional economies like Newcastle and the Hunter region in particular are faced with. That is why it was so vital for Labor to be able to secure that the moneys generated from the fuel tax excise be spent in a profitable way that has some long-term social and economic benefits for those communities.

The regional economies are really doing it tough, and this money will go some way to helping address some of those difficulties. This government has really smashed confidence since coming into office and has undermined the transition that was going on in our economy in Newcastle. In Newcastle, the coal industry workforce is shrinking and local manufacturing is reeling from the stalling of federal government investment. I gave the example earlier tonight of another 160 job losses from Forgacs shipyards. The government has done nothing but stall on its investment in Australian jobs and Australian industries. It is costing thousands and thousands of jobs and the possible loss of an entire shipbuilding capacity in this nation, not just in Newcastle.

In the government's first budget, the Prime Minister froze local government assistance grants for three years, and that cut $925 million out of communities right across Australia—$925 million zapped out of those economies. My electorate touches four local government areas: Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland and Port Stephens. In total, the cuts from this government's freezing of the financial assistance grants left those four councils in my region $15 million worse off. These cuts were not flagged. No-one had any indication that this was on the government's radar, so they came as a very rude shock and were not at all welcome or appreciated, I can assure you, by the people of Newcastle.

Newcastle City Council alone has lost more than $4½ million and Lake Macquarie City Council more than $5½ million. These are two councils that are currently battling with the consequences of the savage storms that tore through our region last April and did massive damage to infrastructure. Yes, there will be some funds made available, as is right and proper, through national disaster payments, but there is always a shortfall. These councils already have infrastructure backlogs and are faced with extraordinary circumstances of cleaning up after massive storms and wind damage. There will be a shortfall; make no mistake. Having access to at least some assistance through these Roads to Recovery grants will mean a lot to the communities in my region.

I recall very well standing with the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Nuatali Nelmes, late last year on the steps of Newcastle City Council, where she outlined to the media the detrimental impact that freezing the indexation of the financial assistance grants would have in our community of Newcastle—what it meant to local swimming pools, pathways and maintenance projects that had to get pushed back in the time frames and job lists of Newcastle City Council. In an act of extraordinary duplicity earlier this year, despite these cuts, we saw the Deputy Prime Minister featured in local Newcastle media spouting that the government had handed out these fantastic 'no strings attached' grants to communities, failing to mention that these were not new dollars. This was not some new scheme or new project here. All the government was doing was handing out what remained in the financial assistance grants bucket, minus the additional dollars that should have been there for the indexation rise that, had this government not frozen it, my community would have had access to. There are currently some $15 billion worth of local government infrastructure deficits around the nation. This is a very welcome funding boost that Labor has managed to extract from the government. It is vital to the needs of regional communities, including Newcastle.

In government, Labor invested $4.2 million in Roads to Recovery programs in Newcastle City Council alone. It was a massive investment, at times a tripling of funding that had not been seen from previous non-Labor governments. It was extremely welcome. We were able to look at a large number of roads that had been sitting on a list for a very long time. But of course there are new problems with local roads in the region now. I held a community office just last week, where the residents of Woodberry brought to my attention problems with roads in their area at the moment. Whilst these are issues that I will take up with the Maitland City Council and the state government, they talked about the need for really significant upgrades of roads because of massive potholes—more than just storm damage but ongoing problems with these roads. Communities like those in Woodberry, Beresfield and Tarro—where people have talked to me about the Anderson Road problems and the Thornton Road problems—will really welcome the fact that their local government areas are going to be able to have access to this $1.1 billion of funding that Labor has extracted to boost the Roads to Recovery program. Money that can be spent directly on the ground, through local governments, is money very well spent. We know that from our time in government. I am very pleased to see this government taking up Labor's suggestion of investing in infrastructure again.

See this speech in context