Kay Hull (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was a four catch-up program, as my learned colleague the member for Hinkler rightly determines. This was not the Commonwealth being responsible for dental health. This was the Keating government deciding at the time that it would offer a four-year catch-up program, but that would be it; it had a sunset clause. It was not in the forward estimates. It had no intention of being continued. This was not the Commonwealth’s responsibility and the former Prime Minister, for the Labor Party, recognised that. So there was no money in the budget for that to continue.

The government, in 1996, inherited a $96 billion debt. How was it to introduce further spending that was not allocated by the former Labor government when it was faced with significant cutting of expenditure in order to get out of the significant debt that was left by a financially deficient Labor government? I dispute the discussion and the allegations that have been made during many speeches in the House on who cut dental funding and whose responsibility it is. I was really pleased to see that the appropriate area of Commonwealth expense on dental is the supply side; it is the education side. That is what the federal government, the Howard-Vaile government, has continued to do: it has continued to provide the supply side. The supply side is something that they have never turned their backs on. I really felt that I needed to reinforce that issue here today. By addressing the supply side you will start to address the issues that are confronting people right across Australia.

In addition to that supply side, there was additional Medicare funding of $378 million over four years announced for those patients whose dental health is impacting on a chronic medical condition. There will be a Medicare benefit of up to $2,125 for dental treatment in the private sector when referred by a doctor. So there has been significant treatment and I am extremely pleased to see that the Commonwealth government, which within its guidelines has responsibility for the training of dental practitioners, has been very proactive in providing that.

In addition, we have had significant benefits to our schools. I particularly welcome the commitment, for those children who have not achieved national literacy and numeracy benchmarks in years 3, 5 and 7, to the provision of a voucher for parents to get those children extra tuition outside of school. This voucher will be for $700. It can only be used for tuition and it is designed to give these children who need it specialised personal assistance. Furthermore, in 2008 there will be a bonus of up to $50,000 available to schools that make significant improvements in the literacy and numeracy standards in their schools. This will reward school excellence. There is significant money in the budget—around $102 million—for establishing summer schools for teachers to undertake professional development for teaching in those areas of literacy and numeracy, Australian history, maths, science and English. And those teachers, who will be attending those schools in their own time, will receive a $5,000 bonus from the Australian government on completing their course. We also get more practical experience for those training to be teachers—in fact, from 2008 an additional $77 million. You will pay institutions to provide a minimum of 120 days experience in schools for trainee teachers who are doing three- and four-year degrees.

There will also be—which is very welcome—an estimated $60 million for the Assistance for Isolated Children Scheme. This scheme is extremely important, particularly in rural and remote areas. It helps the families of primary, secondary and tertiary students under 16 years of age who are unable to attend an appropriate government school on a daily basis primarily because of their location. This scheme will assist students who have no choice other than to board away from home at a school, hostel or private home. I have seen that in my own electorate. I have seen children who have no other form of access to education being able to live in Claughton House in Hay to attend any form of school, whether it be private or public, through a benefit paid to their families in order for them to have access to a school gate.

With our Investing in Our Schools Program, we have seen over a period of time dollars invested in excellent outcomes. I turn to Investing in Our Schools in the Riverina, where over $7 million has been put into both private and public schools—the majority, of course, into public schools. It has been extremely welcome and there have been fabulous projects. There have been projects involving shade shelters, air conditioning, playground equipment and soft fall surfaces, enhancing the quality of the learning environment of our young students. It is a fabulous program and one that has been so popularly received and so welcome. It is an absolute pleasure to visit schools and be involved when they are celebrating their new facilities.

I move on to the area that was covered by our previous speaker, and that is vocational education. I interjected that you can have a retention rate in year 12 that has been at the absolute expense of those people who wanted to enter into a trade or profession but who were forced to go into an education environment that they neither wanted nor were suited for. They were discouraged and treated as second-class citizens if they wanted to move from a school certificate year 10 level to an apprenticeship to be a panelbeater, a spray painter, a mechanic, a bricklayer, a house builder, a concreter or an electrician. You could name any of the trades and services.

In the era of Labor, under Knowledge Nation—or ‘noodle nation’, if you want to enter into that debate—parents who had let their children leave school and enter into a trade were almost discriminated against. Peer pressure was enormous. The view was that you had allowed your child to enter what was then classed as a second-rate opportunity in life as a career—that is, a trade. This is one parent who stands here today committed to trades and services. I suffered extreme peer pressure. The view was that the intelligence of my children was being wasted by going into a trade and service. That was the mentality. The government have resurrected trade training. We have now changed the focus to encourage our youth and our students of today to enter into a trade and to assure them that if they decide to enter into the service sector then their qualification is every bit as valuable and as important to society and to them as a university degree.

That is no disrespect to a university degree. There is significant importance placed on university degrees, but they are not for every child in the Australian education system. We have now paid particular attention to rectifying the wrong and the injustice that was carried out over all those years. The skills shortage has been a result of a very long period of Labor being in government, when you were certainly not encouraged to do a trade or service or to leave school in order to enter into a trades or services apprenticeship.

We have an additional commitment to Australian apprentices under 30 in trades where there are skills shortages. They will be able to access a tax-free payment of $1,000 per year for the first and second year of their apprenticeship. This really does recognise that there is still a financial burden faced by apprentices during their early years of training and it aims to encourage them to enter into trades and complete their very valuable qualifications.

I turn now to the apprenticeship training voucher. Again, from 1 July 2007, Australian apprentices in trades where there is a skills shortage will be entitled to a voucher valued at up to $500 to help pay for their course fees. The voucher will be available in the first and second years of their apprenticeship to encourage them to participate and complete their trade qualifications. We have also moved on to work skills vouchers. The government is providing $80.5 million in 2007-08 for work skills vouchers. These vouchers will provide value of up to $3,000 to people aged 25 years and over who do not have formal qualifications in order that they can undertake year 12, or equivalent, or vocational certificate II qualifications. These vouchers can be used at a public, private or community training provider service. Once this has been fully implemented, there will be 30,000 vouchers available each year. That is a significant encouragement for people to retrain and reskill in order to move forward into the very lucrative trades and services era that we now find ourselves in.

We also have our business skills vouchers, which mean that businesses will be able to provide up to $500 to apprentices in traditional trades or newly qualified tradespeople to undertake accredited business skills training. Once that is fully implemented, you will have up to 6,300 vouchers that will be available each year.

I was extremely pleased because this was a sensibly managed budget. There was something for everybody in this budget. I was particularly keen to look at the way in which the Treasurer, over a series of years, has balanced our tax cuts. The one that I was most pleased about was the 30 per cent tax rate that only applies to income over $30,000, which is up from the current threshold of $25,000, and that is from 1 July. So, for a person on the average wage, the tax cut is around $16 a week. But in 1999, taxpayers earning $30,000 paid $6,222 in income tax. From 1 July those same taxpayers will pay only $2,850. This is a reduction of around 54 per cent. There is an ongoing effect, and ongoing cumulative benefits have been provided year in and year out by a very competent Treasurer. It is a very competent budget.

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