David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the appropriation bills, Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2015-2016 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2015-2016. Before I proceed with that, I just want to correct the record. A bit of scuttlebutt has been spread by those on the other side about the so-called cuts to education. Cuts mean that you would be getting less next year from what you were getting this year. That is so far from the truth. We in the coalition are committed to improving teacher quality—that is the first and most important thing; everyone remembers their great teachers—and supporting school autonomy. When schools are in charge of their own qualities and standards, things get better. Engaging parents in education is the important thing that is forgotten. Enhancing parental engagement equates with better student outcomes. We are committed to improving the curriculum and literacy testing of teacher graduates. As you know from the press, these have been documented to be sorely lacking. Also, we have a commitment to more language being taught in our schools.

Down to tin tacks of funding, what has happened since we were given responsibility of governing the country at the 2013 election? Across New South Wales, my state, there has been a 25.4 per cent increase in Commonwealth funding to schools. What the former member, the member for Kingston, was alluding to were hypothetical reductions in blue-sky forward estimates well beyond any budget forward estimates. There will be increases. There is no cut to the quantum of funds. What is going into New South Wales schools has been established, and it will grow by CPI and population growth. So that is not a cut. But I just think we need to put on the record the truth on this matter. It is really quite scurrilous that the members of the opposition keep talking about hypothetical cuts, or calling them 'cuts', whereas, really, they are increases—just not unrealistic, unfunded, blue-sky, promised increases. We are delivering real money—money that has increased 25.4 per cent—to New South Wales schools, including schools in my electorate of Lyne, during this period of the Abbott-Truss government and now the Turnbull-Joyce government.

Getting back to the appropriation bills, these two bills facilitate special transfers of funds to fund, first of all, the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development for a very important program well known to everyone in regional Australia—that is, the Roads to Recovery Program. A signature National Party initiative from over a decade ago, it has delivered the goods across the country both in metro and, particularly, regional areas. There is $385 million appropriated to give additional funding to Roads to Recovery. That means that, in the Lyne electorate, they are now getting $7½ million in the Manning. That is almost a 300 per cent increase from what they were getting under Roads to Recovery before we came into the responsibility of Treasury and of managing the government in 2013. For Port Macquarie-Hastings, there is $11.4 million over 2014-18 now allocated to Roads to Recovery. Again, that is almost a 300 per cent increase.

Secondly, the appropriations bills allow the Department of Health to receive $125 million for capital to establish and deliver the Biomedical Translation Fund. This is all part of a manifestation of the Medical Research Future Fund. Translation funding is when you get raw science and you translate it into a therapeutic application. A lot of this development of medical and biomedical intellectual property requires more research. This will be really well used, because we have such good researchers in this country. They have a track record of delivering on funds in this space—way above their weight. We develop so many medical technologies and do really important research. We are renowned around the world as being really high-class researchers. This money will put that research into a real treatment.

Lastly, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) provides $74 million to bring into action our single-touch payroll reporting system to make it easier for people to interact with the Australian Taxation Office. It also allows the Australian Taxation Office much greater data and analytics infrastructure. There are also funds to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection—of just over $447 million. As you know, the coalition government is committed to strong borders and maintaining control of our immigration program, unlike the disaster befalling Europe.

The social services portfolio also has funds allocated—just over $277 million. The Department of Social Services will get $102 million of that to provide settlement services to over 12,000 refugees from that horrible conflict in Syria, Jordan and nearby Turkey in the Middle East. There are many refugees who cannot go anywhere and cannot go back, and we are choosing those families and people who will never be able to go back into that homeland of theirs, because they are threatened by ISIL.

That department will also receive $11 million for addressing welfare reliance in remote communities, which is a big problem. It is something that has to be addressed, because being on welfare for generations or for the duration of young, working-age adults' lives is soul-destroying and, if we can get programs through the department that address that, it will be great.

It will also allow $186 million to go to the Department of Defence to cope with all the extra transport, logistics and exchange movements that have been so prominent in the recent two years with the conflict in the Middle East.

Everyone is now aware of many of these appropriations, but I want to highlight to the House some of the other appropriations and what they have delivered in the Lyne electorate. First and foremost, the biggest infrastructure project in the country, the upgrade of the Pacific Highway, started at the Sancrox interchange outside Port Macquarie. I was very pleased to have fought for this since 2010. That $30 million project will facilitate and is critical in developing the employment precinct and industrial lands on the outskirts of Port Macquarie just adjacent to the Pacific Highway. The construction of the Pacific Highway is happening at the same time, and this Sancrox interchange project has delivered almost 1,000 direct jobs during this phase and 2,900 indirect jobs as a result of the project. There are 37 kilometres of dual-lane highway. There are about 56 bridges across several rivers and creeks. It is a massive undertaking and it is part of a $7 billion program that will duplicate the Pacific Highway all the way to the Queensland border by as soon as 2020. Work in the 37 kilometres in the Lyne electorate will, if all goes well, be there a year earlier.

There are many other achievements in the Lyne electorate during the first 2½ years of responsibility being given to me by the people of the Lyne electorate, and I want to put them on the record. We have got funds for schools, medical centres, roads and bridges in both the north and the south of the electorate. We have got extra aged-care funding. We have got extra funding for water supplies. We have got disability funding. We have had many projects that I campaigned for that have been delivered, and I will document some of them.

In the first instance, 25 local schools have had grants for the local Sporting Schools program. There have been an extra 252 disability places funded in the Hastings. As I mentioned, councils have had an increase in their federal financial assistance grants, and in the Hastings-Port Macquarie region that amounts to $43½ million over the four years. That includes the $11.5 million for Roads to Recovery that I mentioned earlier. We have had Green Army teams delivered. We have had bridges such as Potts Bridge on Comboyne Road. Two bridges down at Kendall were announced. We have had federal aged-care funding increased from $90 million up to $105 million across the Manning and the Hastings valleys. We have got many black spots for mobile phone telephony in the electorate but we secured for the Lyne electorate $3.5 million for black spot funding in the Manning and the upper Hastings. We have had environmental works done with Green Army teams and Landcare funding in both the Hastings and the Port Macquarie precinct. We have had Work for the Dole projects roll out. We have had expansion funding for Newman Senior Technical College. Wauchope District Memorial Hospital's palliative care unit completed its funding. We have had school funding for St Columba Anglican School, Heritage Christian School and St Paul's High School. So it is really rolling out infrastructure in the northern part of the electorate.

In terms of the previous member's contribution about cuts to health: we have had a plethora—almost $1 million—of funds into medical centres to allow for expansion and delivery of better services at local GPs. It has been so hard to get into a GP in these country towns, but these infrastructure grants will allow existing practices to expand and deliver more hands-on care. We have delivered the goods for Port Macquarie Surf Life Saving Club, which has done a really great job with the almost $100,000 they were granted. The tennis court upgrade likewise has been delivered. The Biripi Aboriginal Corporation Medical Centre Town Clinic has also had a contract which over the forward estimates will deliver $8½ million towards health care. So comments about cutting education and health are absolutely incorrect. We have delivered the goods in the Lyne electorate.

Down in the Manning the record of achievement is even greater. Sporting Schools grants I have mentioned. We have got $37½ million allocated to the Greater Taree City Council, a council that needs this sort of funding. It is untied, but it has also had over $7 million in Roads to Recovery which is tied to roads. We have had bridges at Dyers Crossing and Dickinson Bridge built. We have had the Gloucester Road upgrade. We have had the Bucketts Way delivered. There have been so many long-term infrastructure improvements. We have had three Green Army projects. We have had increases in the NBN rollout; that is another issue that I need to highlight.

When I was given the responsibility of representing Lyne there were areas in the north that were not even mentioned in the rollout plan for 10 years. Fortunately, they are moving through to Camden Haven and into the outskirts of Port Macquarie in the rollout planned for this year. And we just announced two huge new towers to deliver NBN services near Coopernook and over into Harrington and Moorland.

We have had Work for the Dole, as I mentioned. Biripi medical centre has also have expansion funds. We have had black spots for roads as well in the Manning—$2.5 million. All these appropriations are really significant. I have not been exhaustive, because there are just too many little ones to mention. The community grants that we are rolling out will also deliver the goods. I commend this bill to the House. (Time expired)

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