Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on some of the first appropriation bills of the new government: Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2007-2008 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2007-2008. I look back to the night of the election when it was becoming clear that Labor would win the election and Kevin Rudd’s remark that we could all have an Iced Vo Vo and then go back to work. I thought at the time that he might be referring to the length of the break but I realise now, having watched the Prime Minister in government for a few months, that he was talking about the amount of sugar we would need to keep up the pace of legislation and action in rolling out the election commitments. In these bills today we have delivery of quite a few more election commitments: the beginning of the rebuilding of infrastructure and skills of the nation, reinstating fairness and restraining government spending—all themes through the long election campaign that are being delivered very early in the first term of this new government.

In Australia I think we have gotten used to assuming that promises made by politicians, particularly during election campaigns, are not to be believed, are not promises at all. During the campaign and shortly after it a number of people did say to me, ‘But how much of this are you really going to deliver?’ I repeated to them the words that Kevin Rudd had said both publicly and behind closed doors several times, ‘Everything we promise we will deliver.’ I do not think there would have been many people who expected action to come so quickly. These bills are another illustration of promises made over the last year and promises being met.

These bills will make a real difference to the lives of people around the country and in my electorate of Parramatta. They demonstrate the government’s approach to growing the economy while keeping a rein on inflation and to reinstating fairness—both themes that have been there through the last year and are demonstrated on a daily basis by this government through the policies that it implements and the bills it introduces into this parliament. There is a very real commitment in these bills to restrain government expenditure through delivery of some of the promised cuts made in the election campaign and some identified since. There is a real commitment in these bills to investing in the productive capacity of the nation—in skills, in infrastructure and in innovation. And there is a real commitment in these bills to reinstating fairness—one of the most important values that underpin this nation—through immediate assistance to some of the most disadvantaged in our communities, those people living good lives under difficult circumstances while they care for the wellbeing of others.

The government is hitting the ground running. It is delivering on commitments every day and getting on with the business of government. We can do this because the policies that we announced well before the election were real policies, developed through listening to many, many people and underpinned by sound principles of economic management and fairness. Also underpinning the approach by this government is the fundamental fact that we do not stand here spending our own money. When a government has been in power for a long time, this is something that it risks forgetting. I hope that it is something that we do not ever forget. We do not spend our own money here. Not one dollar belongs to us. It is given to us by the taxpayers—individuals, families and businesses—and is spent on their behalf for their benefit. One of the ways that we show that respect today is by reining in government spending.

With all the talk of boom times in recent years, it occurred to me late last year that one of the real beneficiaries of the boom was government itself, with more advertising, more staff, more legal advice and more consultancies—generally, more, more and more. It was a boom time for the re-election prospects of the government but not for the vulnerable or for those with the least bargaining power and certainly not for the many hardworking Australians. In the last 16 months of office, the previous government spent $470 million of taxpayers’ money on advertising alone, promoting policies such as the flawed Work Choices. In the last few days, we have seen in this parliament the amount of propaganda material, which was stored for many months, now finally being destroyed. We have also seen many grant programs that were more about photo opportunities than for the benefit of the local communities.

One of the real illustrations of the boom in government has been the boom in staff. This bill begins to roll that back by bringing in a 30 per cent reduction in ministerial and opposition staff numbers. There are some, I would suspect, who would think it odd that one of the first things a government does in office is reduce its staff numbers. But staff numbers had grown well and truly out of control in the last years of the Howard government. The promise made by Labor in the election campaign is delivered in these bills. While there were already real indications that inflation was beginning to move beyond the recommended band of the Reserve Bank, spending under the previous government had grown out of control, with growth rates as high as 4.5 per cent in real terms in the later years.

These bills also begin to roll back some of the extraordinary growth in costs from the flawed Work Choices legislation. Administrative efficiencies arising from the transition from Australian workplace agreements to collective enterprise agreements and statutory individual contracts will reduce the funding required by the Workplace Authority by $30 million in 2007-08 alone. We would all remember during the last years of the Howard government how the administration of Work Choices grew so dramatically, with hundreds of additional members of the Public Service employed to implement the so-called fairness test. This is a reduction of $30 million in 2007-08 alone.

The bills also deliver on a number of other promises made during the campaign but they also seek appropriation from parliament for the additional expenditure of money from the consolidated revenue fund to meet the requirements of a number of initiatives, most of which were promised during the election campaign. These appropriation bills, in delivering on those promises, will make real differences and deliver real things for a diverse range of stakeholders.

Appropriation Bill (No. 3) seeks a total appropriation of $2.4 billion, including a number of election commitments and changes in the estimates of existing program expenditure. It includes $242.1 million to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to tackle Australia’s skills deficit. We all know that the skills shortage in Australia is one of the issues which impact so seriously on inflation in this nation. The bill delivers $100 million to establish the National Secondary School Computer Fund. This is part of a much bigger project, but this initial $100 million moves very quickly to provide schools that have the capacity with computers and computer access for years 9 to 12. I visited several schools in my electorate at the end of last year and early this year and talked to them about this issue. It is, of course, a much bigger issue that involves not just the computers themselves but the infrastructure that supports the use of those computers—power supply, cabling and skills of teachers. Improving the capacity of our schools to deliver the kind of education our children will need over the next decade and beyond is a major undertaking for this government—one not undertaken by the previous government. We can safely say that the deficit of equipment, infrastructure and skills at our schools at the moment is a result of neglect over the last decade. This $100 million is a significant first step which will give results where results can be delivered most quickly. Long-term solutions will, of course, require more time and much more consultation with our state counterparts.

These bills also deliver $33.3 million for the government’s Skilling Australia for the Future program, funding which in 2007-08 alone will deliver 20,000 vocational education and training places that are aimed at people currently outside the workforce. Again, that is a very speedy delivery of 20,000 vocational education and training places, in stark contrast to the previous government, which was denying that we even had a skills shortage right up until the election.

This program will commence at the beginning of April 2008. That is next month. And this is just the start. During the election campaign, we announced that our Skilling Australia for the Future policy will deliver 450,000 training places over four years, including 65,000 apprenticeships, and will cost $1.3 billion. This first instalment of $33.3 million is a rapid delivery of the first 20,000 of those vocational education and training places. This demonstrates once again the government’s absolute commitment to reining in inflation through developing the productive capacity of the economy through delivery of skills and infrastructure.

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government will be provided with $2.5 million to establish Infrastructure Australia. When in opposition, we on this side of the House talked about the need for infrastructure development for several years, again against silence from the then government. Infrastructure Australia will allow us as a nation to independently determine the needs of the country—no more rorts; no pork-barrelling. It will consider long-term needs to fuel the productive capacity of the nation and not just the short-term political needs of local members in marginal seats. The building of a nation’s infrastructure is incredibly important. It is something that we used to do very well but failed to do over the last decade. It is incredibly important because only governments can do this. Only governments can drive the major infrastructure that links the nation, that strengthens our ports and that provides transport for people and goods. The $2.5 million to establish Infrastructure Australia begins the setting up of a system for the independent planning of that process.

The Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research will be provided with $15.2 million to introduce the Enterprise Connect program, replacing the previous government’s Australian industry productivity centres. Innovation is a key driver of productivity and growth, again an area neglected over the last 10 years. In fact, it is very sad that so much of the work done by the previous Hawke and Keating governments was left to degrade over the last decade. This government aims to foster a culture of innovation by strengthening investment in creativity and knowledge—something that this country has historically been very good at. As a nation, we punch well above our weight when it comes to new ideas. We are a nation which really only requires the incentive to do so and we go forth and create in the most profound way. The Enterprise Connect network will link businesses with new ideas and technology and provide incentives for business research and development to focus on lifting investment and competitiveness.

There is also something for health—again, as promised during the election campaign. Additional funding is proposed for the Department of Health and Ageing, including $33.1 million to provide upfront capital grants and recurrent funding for the establishment of 31 GP superclinics around Australia and to provide incentive payments to GPs and allied health providers to relocate to these clinics. This was a policy announced during the election campaign which perhaps will not have an immediate impact in my electorate. We have a major hospital, Westmead Hospital, in the electorate and, perhaps because of that, there are extensive health services in the electorate and our bulk-billing rates are very high. But this is a policy which impacts generally on the capacity of our hospitals to serve communities, and that certainly does impact on my electorate in a real way.

Over the past decade we have seen increasing blame-shifting between state and federal governments on health, with various aspects funded by the federal government and hospitals essentially funded by the state governments. It is certainly true that hospitals bear the brunt of any failure in the surrounding services. If we do not have enough aged-care beds, the hospitals bear the brunt. If we do not have enough community nurses, the hospitals bear the brunt. If we do not have enough GPs in the area, or enough GPs bulk-billing, then emergency departments bear the brunt. If we do not have 24-hour GP services, then emergency departments bear the brunt. And if we do not invest enough in keeping people healthy in the first place, in preventative health, then our hospitals bear the brunt. So any policy which begins to develop the services around hospitals that deal with the early stages of illness and provide real benefits to preventative health—anything that reduces the impact on our hospitals—must be applauded. For many communities around Australia, the introduction of these GP superclinics will provide real services in the local community and significantly lessen the demand in our emergency departments. We have also committed $31.6 billion for investing in hospitals and community health under the Better Outcomes for Hospitals and Community Health program.

The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts will receive additional funding as well, with $50.8 million in additional funding for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park structural adjustment package and an additional $31.8 million to deliver on the election commitment to provide rebates to households for installing solar hot-water heaters to encourage improved energy efficiency in homes.

The environment is also an area which was neglected over 10 years of the preceding government and an area, like so many others, in which the community was well ahead of the government in its thinking. I believe that even in 2004 the people in my electorate were already rating the environment as a major issue, but the level of debate on the environment in the government was so low at that point that they did not really have the language to express that view. But in the 2004 door-knocking experience of mine the issue of water in particular was raised perhaps more often than any other—even, at that stage, ahead of health and education. In the election of November last year, of course, it was a major issue, with the community expressing quite sophisticated views and in many ways pulling the government along—not fast enough, unfortunately. But we on this side of the House, we in government now, do recognise that the environment is one of the most significant economic and social issues facing this country and needs immediate action. In our second week of government, here is the beginning of the delivery of those election commitments.

We have also committed an additional $50.8 million for the National Solar Schools program to encourage improved energy and water efficiency in schools. Government cannot expect private householders and businesses to lead the way. It really needs to lead the way itself. All levels need to do it. We as individuals need to do it. Our businesses need to do it. But also our governments need to ensure that our government assets—our schools, our hospitals, our community centres, our local council buildings and our state government offices—lead the way in improving energy and water efficiency, and this $50.8 million begins the process of ensuring that our schools, our state assets, are leaders in this area.

We have also committed an additional $15.2 million to take early action on the National Plan for Water Security, which will accelerate investment in water savings infrastructure and the purchase of water allocations by bringing forward spending from 2011-12. That is three years away, of course, and the environment is an urgent issue.

The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs will be provided with $189.8 million to assist people with disabilities, their families and carers. This includes an annual tax-free payment of $1,000 for each child under the age of 16 with a disability for whom the carer is receiving carer allowance. It also includes $9 million to increase the support available to people in disability business services. This is something that I am particularly pleased about. I know there are many, many people in my electorate of Parramatta who are struggling on a daily basis to provide care for people in their families who suffer from a disability or illness. This $1,000 for each child under the age of 16 will provide very real and immediate assistance. Of course, that is not the end of the story. We have much more work to do to provide support for these people who fill one of the most important roles in our community—that of caring for people who are unable to care for themselves and providing lives with dignity for them in their own homes. (Time expired)

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