Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Turnbull government's continuing economic plan for a stronger economy includes tax relief for hardworking Australians, backing business to invest and create even more jobs, guaranteeing essential services, keeping Australians safe and ensuring that the government lives within its means. For those reasons, there are now over one million extra jobs in the economy since the government was first selected. Whether it's the $75 billion infrastructure spend outlined in the budget, the $24.5 billion more being invested in schools right across the country—$24.5 billion more based on genuine need—or the $78.8 billion in this budget that the government is investing in the nation's health system, they are all really critical parts of our strong economic plan.

In my electorate of Forrest and across the south-west, the specific story is one of a once-in-a-generation type of investment. I'm very proud of this. I've fought hard for my community and, because of the government's strong economic policies, we're in a position to be able to invest in rural and regional areas like my own, in projects like the Bunbury Outer Ring Road. This is a $560 million investment. You can only do that, Mr Deputy Speaker, with sound economic policies to get you to the point where you can invest in this type of critical infrastructure. The RAC in my state listed this road as 'critical infrastructure', given the amount of traffic that is there and expected in the years ahead. I fought for this for many years. I know that stages 2 and 3 will be completed, and this will be a massive boon in the south-west. It will help improve road safety and travelling time, and it will also facilitate the development and the expansion, in time, of the Bunbury Port and south-west industry.

The other project that I'm particularly pleased about is the funding for the Myalup-Wellington water project. Given the dry nature of south-west Western Australia, water, as we know, is one of the most precious commodities we have. This project will divert high saline inflows upstream from the Wellington Dam for desalination. It will improve the quality of the water stored in and released from the dam for agriculture and industry and other purposes. This is a real major project, and another one that I've worked on for some time.

With the Bunbury Outer Ring Road, the efficiencies in the supply chain are critical—as we know on our side of politics—especially with the number of free trade agreements that the government has completed. This is a very sound investment. We also need to connect to the other investment we've made in the Busselton-Margaret River airport. These are a critical part of our freight networks, and we have invested nearly $10 million into that airport, to get it up to international freight standard and to be able to take tourists. Everybody wants to come to the Busselton-Margaret River region, but, equally, the amazing produce that comes out of the region needs to get to the rest of the world as well.

The Myalup-Wellington project will actually create jobs as well. It'll provide economic uplift in what is the underdeveloped Collie River Irrigation District and further out to the broader region. Anyone who understands irrigation understands the capabilities of irrigated agriculture. Currently, just 6,500 hectares of the available 34,600 hectares of the Collie River, Harvey and Waroona districts are irrigated. This project is an industry-led initiative. It will see saline water from the east branch diverted from the Wellington Dam into a mine void, and it will be desalinated. A new, smaller Burekup Weir will be built upstream to enable environmentally sound, gravity-fed water to be delivered. The irrigation channels will be replaced with new pressurised pipe networks. It's a simple concept: it's about desalination, it's about piping, it's about a delivery network with fit-for-purpose uses.

When I look back on the history of the dam, it was built in 1933—with Commonwealth funding. This particular upgrade is very important, and a real key part of the history of what this dam has provided right throughout the region. When you seriously look at it, each year the east branch is delivering between 60,000 and 110,000 tonnes of salt into the Wellington Dam. That's really a key part of this project—that is, the desalination—and it is so important to the quality of what can be grown beneath the dam. There is a proportion of farmers who don't actually irrigate their properties, or irrigate as much of their land as they could or should, because the productivity just isn't there. As a result, the quality of their pasture and production is different to that further north in the irrigation sector. This piping system will make a huge difference, and I can see greater production and greater productivity coming out of the region. Around 10 gigalitres a year of potable water from the desal plant will be sold to Water Corp's Great Southern Towns Water Supply Scheme and stored in the Harris Dam. This is a really good, sound result. This is a fantastic irrigation system: a series of dams in the hills with water delivered in a gravity-fed pipe and channel system. It's simple, it's effective, it works, it delivers, and we're going to see more development with the $190 million between a grant and a concessional loan. It is a very sound investment.

I also want to talk about the very good investment—$175.3 million—in new listings on the PBS and the Medicare Benefits Schedule, guaranteeing the essential services that everyone around Australia relies on. This means that new life-saving drugs and services are going to be provided for thousands of Australians. Since October 2013, when we were elected, 1,741 new or amended PBS items have been, or soon will be, listed at an overall cost of around $9 billion. That is an extraordinary commitment by this government—

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