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

No, I am not actually. There was a lot of denial and a complete lack of action on any of it. There was denial that affordable, accessible child care was an increasing problem for many. We heard, of course, that working families had never been better off and that inflation was exactly where the government of the day wanted it. We saw denial on major capacity constraints such as infrastructure and skill shortages. At last that time is over. The days of denial, the days of inaction and the blame game are in the past.

It is not possible to compensate for 11 years of neglect, but this budget begins the work. It is a nation-building budget. It is my hope also that it is a budget that begins to rebuild the people’s trust in this House. As unheard of as it has been over the last decade, this budget actually delivers on all of our election promises. I have had quite a time in my electorate, both before and since the budget, convincing people that we really would deliver on all of our election promises, and I think even now that we have done it there are many that are still looking for the gaps because it is such a rare thing, unfortunately, in Australian politics.

So we find ourselves coming out of an era where government denied so much and did so little, where expectations were so low, to a new era of nation building where we see our strengths, acknowledge weaknesses and work to address them. Suddenly we are now having a debate. We are recognising underlying issues that need addressing if we are to secure our future. We are acknowledging them as a community and debating possible paths forward. There are new debates on housing affordability, interest rates, inflation, skill shortages, infrastructure, climate change, homelessness, carers, people with disabilities and education. It is a particularly interesting time to be in the electorate.

Just wonder for a moment where the debate would be if we had not changed government. Would we even be talking about interest rates or would we still be denying the issue? Would we still be denying there is a skills problem or an infrastructure crisis with productivity slipping below par compared to other OECD countries? Would we be saying that there was no problem and that mortgage and rental stress were not real, even though interest rates caused repossessions to double in the six months leading up to the election in the suburbs of Northmead and Blacktown in my electorate, if we still had a government saying that there was no problem? Even now, the opposition claims that we on this side of the House are making much of it up and that things are really just fine.

Fortunately the people of Australia do know better and recognise not only the need for urgent action in so many areas but also the need for strong fiscal management. The Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 delivers on both. We will be providing a strong surplus of 1.8 per cent of GDP and every dollar of new spending in 2008-09 is more than matched by spending cuts. The growth in real spending will be 1.1 per cent in 2008-09, the lowest rate in nine years. Over the next four years we will make savings of $33.3 billion. We have reduced the tax share of GDP from 24.7 per cent in 2007-08 to 23.8 per cent in 2008-09.

All of these are measures designed to keep downward pressure on inflation. But it is equally important that we recognise that working families have been under increasing pressure for several years. While the previous government was liberal with tax cuts for the better paid in the community, there was little relief for those on more modest incomes. We have delivered with a $55 billion Working Families Support Package that delivers for families, recognising and rewarding their efforts and providing essential relief from cost pressures. At the heart of the package is $46.7 billion worth of tax relief, over the next four years, directed at low- and middle-income earners. From the first round of tax cuts on 1 July 2008, a family on a single income of $40,000 will be $20.19 better off, increasing to $34.62 by 1 July 2010. Perhaps even more significantly for many people in my electorate, the government’s tax cuts will allow Australians to earn up to $14,900 in 2008-09 without incurring a net tax liability, up from $11,000 this financial year. By 2010-11, a typical second income earner will be able to work 14 hours per week before paying any tax. This is an important measure for families seeking to improve their circumstances, and for us all as it will encourage greater workforce participation.

We are also providing real support for families using child care. This is really needed. There are some areas in my electorate, including Westmead and Girraween, where we could build three or four new childcare centres, each with a hundred places, and still not meet the unmet demand—that is, the demand we know of. We have also committed to building 260 new childcare centres in priority areas and introducing a new quality control rating system that will provide parents with the information they need to choose the right centre for them. We are also lifting the rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent and increasing the cap from $4,354 to $7,500 per child. Again, this is a measure that assists families with their daily costs. Rather than paying that rebate annually, we will be paying it quarterly, closer to when families need it.

Nationally, we are investing in an education revolution that will improve the quality of and access to education. But to further assist families directly, we are introducing a 50 per cent education tax refund for help with educational expenses, providing up to $375 a year for each child in primary school and $750 for each child at high school. Recognising the rising costs of housing, we are also introducing the first home saver accounts to help families save for their first home. For low-income earners, we will be delivering 50,000 new rental properties by 2011-12 at rents at least 20 per cent below market rates.

The government is also committing $3.2 billion for health and hospital reform, including $600 million to slash elective surgery waiting lists and $1 billion to relieve the pressure on public hospitals. We have allocated $491 million for the new Teen Dental Plan. That will allow parents to claim up to $150 per year for a preventative dental check for each of their teenage children. We have also made the Medicare levy fairer by raising the threshold below which people will not have to pay the surcharge if they do not take out private health insurance to $100,000 for singles and $150,000 for couples. Through this measure, families can save up to $1,500 per year, or more if they have more than one child. It is a good, strong package for working families; it is one that I am proud of and one that I know will assist the families in my community.

I also know that my community is pleased with the creation of three new funds to invest in nation building. The i-word, as I call it—infrastructure—is one that I have heard frequently, particularly as it relates to the development of our cities and their public transport, water, hospitals, educational institutions and recreational facilities and spaces. The community expects governments to take responsibility in these areas and provide them with the services that they need.

I think most people in this House know that I doorknock regularly. I have doorknocked over 45,000 houses since I first ran for parliament four years ago. Last month I knocked on the doors of 800 houses and held nine mobile offices in local shopping centres, as I do every month up until December. That was the week before the budget. I am looking forward to doing it in the first week of the next break after the budget. Overwhelmingly, infrastructure was the key issue that was raised. Nobody out there cares anymore whether it is a state or a federal issue, they just want it fixed. If the state-federal relationship is problematic then they want that fixed too. They look to us to do it because they cannot. Only we can do that. The 150-odd people in this place and the few hundred around the states are the only people in the country who can actually achieve this. I am also proud to be part of a government that takes this responsibility so seriously and that puts the challenge of infrastructure and state-federal relations at the heart of government. It is a challenge, particularly with such a backlog to tackle at both state and federal levels.

The budget establishes three national building funds that will put us in a stronger position to tackle future challenges: a Building Australia Fund for infrastructure, an Education Investment Fund for education and a Health and Hospitals Fund. Between the three, the budget provides in the order of $40 billion for capital investment in infrastructure, higher and vocational education and health to modernise and reinvigorate the economy. The impact on future generations of Australians that these funds will provide cannot be underestimated. If we are to move forward as a nation and face the challenges that await us head-on then we need to modernise, rejuvenate, re-think and build for the century. These funds are the beginning and we will build on them in future budgets.

Labor is the party of building. All the great infrastructure projects throughout our federation’s history have come from a time when Labor was in government. The Building Australia Fund will provide $20 billion toward infrastructure projects—rail, roads, ports and, just as important in this new digital age, broadband that will enable all Australians access to the latest technology and information systems available. Infrastructure underpins efficiency and it not only allows an economy to operate effectively but it also allows communities to function. I am continually shocked when people call me or when I am doorknocking and I find houses, even in Parramatta—the geographic centre of Sydney—that are in black spots. This is a major issue for our future, and one that this government is more than willing to tackle.

In Parramatta, the government is providing funds for a study into a metro rail project from Parramatta to the city that will create more options for commuters—an extremely important project given that the rail lines from Parramatta to the city are now running at close to capacity. Kevin Rudd has promised an education revolution and this budget delivers the first down payment. During the election campaign the then opposition leader, now Prime Minister, visited a local school in Parramatta, Arthur Phillip High School, that runs an innovative program that ensures every student in the senior years has access to a computer. It has been an incredibly successful project, and when you go to that school you can see the engagement of the young men and women with their laptops, even in their lunch hour. This budget delivers $1.2 billion over five years to deliver computers and communications technologies to all students from years 9 through to 12. Again, this is an overdue investment in infrastructure if we are to see our education system well set up for the next decades.

There is $2.5 billion over 10 years to put a trades training centre in every single high school in the country, helping to address the chronic skills shortages we are facing at this time and that we will continue to face in future years if we do not act now. There is an additional $1.9 billion to deliver up to 630,000 new training places as well, with many of those training places already delivered. If you are young and new to the workforce, there will be training available. If you are mid-career and need to sharpen your skills, there will be training available. And if you are changing your career and moving into new fields there will be training available. It is very much an education revolution.

The ability to adapt and the capacity to learn is how we build a stronger society, and education is the key. And education begins with early childhood learning. This budget delivers another election promise with $533.5 million to provide universal access to a preschool year—15 hours a week for 40 weeks—for all four-year-olds by 2013. That access to preschool education was also an issue that was raised quite strongly during my doorknocking in the week before the budget. I had to write quite a few letters to people once it was announced, confirming that we were honouring that election commitment that meant so much to them. There are measures for early childhood learning, an education tax refund, trades centres and computers in schools, more places for vocational education and training and, as well as that, $500 million of extra funding to be delivered before 30 June this year to help universities upgrade and maintain teaching and research facilities. That $500 million includes $15.9 million for the University of Western Sydney, which is only a small redress for their treatment at the hands of the previous government. In fact, I went to the launch of the new building about 18 months ago on the Parramatta campus to find that it was the only new building that had been funded in the previous nine years. The University of Western Sydney has a long way to go to recover from 10 years of neglect, as do many universities around the country. This, again, is only a first step, a down payment for the future. But in Western Sydney, it is an extremely important one. Our enrolment rates at university are just over half the Sydney-wide average—something we are well aware of and something that we know must be turned around.

In addition there is the Education Investment Fund, which is the second nation-building fund in the budget, providing $11 billion, the capital and earnings of which will be drawn down over time to invest in higher education and vocational education and training facilities—again, an extremely important development for Western Sydney. If we are to maintain world-class universities we must invest in them and allow them to grow and innovate. The previous government was the only one in the developed world to disinvest in universities over the past decade. It is a short-sightedness which is difficult to comprehend. The stark reality is that we need to be putting resources into universities and TAFEs, where the workers of today and tomorrow learn their craft. If we are to make a better tomorrow, we need to invest in education, and this budget does just that.

There are a number of Parramatta-specific projects in the budget. There is a tourism project that provides $500,000 for the development of Parramatta Stories. Parramatta has arguably the best heritage assets in the country. We have more heritage buildings in Parramatta than there are in The Rocks, yet we earn less than one per cent of our GDP from tourism compared to about five per cent Sydney wide. Most of those heritage assets are within walking distance from the river and we are well overdue to develop that tourism potential. At the moment, if you arrive in Parramatta, it is very difficult to know where to go. There are very few packaged tourism products. This $500,000 allows Parramatta council to begin the development of those first stories that guide people through the extraordinary heritage assets in the region. This project is extremely important to the local economy and one that should provide considerable return in the mid to long term.

We have also been given $1.5 million for a bike path between Parramatta and Blacktown. The Parramatta electorate sits almost entirely within the Upper Parramatta River Catchment Trust. There are more than 30 creeks in Parramatta that stretch through the electorate, from north to south and east to west. At the moment, if you had a machete, you could walk from Parramatta to Blacktown along Toongabbie Creek and then Blacktown Creek. I am not really suggesting that anybody get a machete. Along much of those creeks there are bike paths but there are significant gaps between the two. This $1.2 million will allow two local councils to bridge some of those gaps and create a very important piece of infrastructure that will link the two major CBDs in the area to the suburban areas between.

I also report back to the House the positive response that we have had to the homelessness strategy. Parramatta has the largest population of people sleeping rough outside the Sydney CBD in Australia, with over 500 every night sleeping rough. We are a CBD, so we do attract people into the area as well as creating quite a few of our own due to the rising housing prices that come with booms in major CBDs. So it is a very major issue in the area and there are some extraordinary organisations, including Street Level Community Centre and Parramatta Mission, doing some remarkable work with the homeless. The feedback that I get is not just about the budget allocation and how important that is to the work that they do but about the fact that it is now on the agenda and being debated at the forefront of government policy. People have worked largely under the radar and struggled for so long and given so much of their time, and we in this House should all acknowledge that we do not actually fund the work that is done for the homeless; it is done very much by people underpaid and overworked and by volunteers who contribute in that area. How appreciative they are of the support that they are being given should be matched by how appreciative we are in this House of the support they give.

It is a good strong budget that delivers for working families. It is a nation-building project that considers needs for the future and puts in place the structures and funds to tackle our long-term needs. It does not do everything; there is much more to be done. People expect so much more of a Labor government than they do of a conservative one. But we have delivered a responsible, caring budget that puts us in good stead to build the prosperity of this country. (Time expired)

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