James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2008-2009 and cognate bill. This legislation seeks a total appropriation of $2.4 billion and includes a number of election commitments and changes in the estimates of existing program expenditures. We are a government that delivers on our election commitments. I am proud to be part of a government that is delivering for Dawson such things as the $150 million upgrade that was promised for the Bruce Highway between Mackay and Townsville. There is also $95 million for the port access road in southern Townsville—something which has not happened for 30 years. This government does have vision, it does have commitment and it does deliver on its promises. There is also a $110 million commitment for the junction in my electorate which is just south of Townsville, between the Van Tassel Highway and the Flinders Highway.

All together, we have $300 million worth of projects. That is substantial in itself. And there is not only that: these projects also create work and jobs. When people are employed, they can contribute back to the community in a number of ways—by the goods and the services they buy, the accommodation that they require while on these sites building this key infrastructure which will last for 50 or more years. These are major pieces of infrastructure which we need to help productivity in our region.

When people work on these projects, they contribute to the local community through the goods and services that they buy and also through the taxes that they pay to the government—and so the money goes around. When workers are busy working at their jobs and spending money on local goods and services, the money also goes around there, as well as being reinvested in the tourist economy between Townsville and Mackay, because people can save money to take their families on holidays. In my seat of Dawson, that is a key economy.

So we welcome the government’s commitment to invest in and deliver on these major infrastructure projects. We have major commitments for roads. We also have an $8 million commitment to the junior rugby league and a rugby league stadium in Mackay. At the two elections prior to the last one, the previous member for Dawson promised that she would deliver $8 million, but she failed. As a matter of fact, just prior to the last election she could not even promise $8 million. The best she could get was a promise for $6 million. We are delivering in full. Nothing has been cut out of the program. We are delivering what the sports people need to run that stadium properly.

Sport also means sporting tourism—again, a major asset to the region of Mackay, the Whitsundays, Bowen, Ayr and, obviously, Townsville. Having good sporting infrastructure is key for tournaments—tournaments where hundreds of people can come for long weekends. When they pay for the accommodation, goods and services they need, the money flows into the economy. This is what stimulating the economy is really about. This is vision. This is imagination. It is not just a flash in the pan thing; it is something that will last many decades.

Then there is the investment in industry. I am pleased to say that the Rudd Labor government made an election promise to establish the Mackay Mining Technology Innovation Centre. There will be a number of these centres around Australia, but a key one will be in Mackay. It is a $14 million commitment. I am pleased to say that the offices have just been refurbished and established, and I am looking forward to opening them in the coming months—again, a promise made, a promise delivered.

One thing you can say about the Rudd Labor government: if we say we are going to do it, we will do it. That is what we are doing. We are delivering the key infrastructure which the previous government failed to deliver in 11 years. Whether you like it or not, that is the truth. The infrastructure just is not there. They had the benefit of the mining boom, of billions and billions of dollars coming in from overseas buyers. Where did the money go? What did it build? There certainly were not millions of dollars spent on the Bruce Highway. There were not millions of dollars spent on the Port Access Road or the Vantassel Street to Flinders Highway stretch of highway. The money certainly was not spent on the stadium and it was not spent on a Mining Technology Innovation Centre which will help network and connect key innovations to help productivity in our mining industry—and Mackay is a key strategic service city for the mining fields of the Bowen Basin, Moranbah and Collinsville.

This bill also appropriates $242.1 million to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to tackle Australia’s skills deficit, including $100 million to establish the National Secondary School Computer Fund. I have been to many schools in my electorate. Just recently I went to the Milton Street Mackay State High School, a school with over 800 pupils. The principal of that school is over the moon that he is going to get a trade training centre, because until now he did not have the facility to build a training centre for the everyday working-class kids there. We are going to give those kids a trade. We have a great scheme that is going to operate there and also at Whitsunday Anglican school, which is coming together with Carlisle Christian College and Mackay Christian College to build a trade training centre for their pupils. Again, this could not have happened before. We are going to skill up the next generation. This is good news for industry. This is good news for business. Our students are going to be highly educated, highly trained and given the correct facilities to do the job. They will be well educated in trades and skills. What parent would not want that for their child? What parent would not want a good education, a good trade, for their child? That is the only thing you can give a child: the opportunity to develop their mind to its full potential.

The other side of politics did not get behind this; they voted against it. What they were saying was, ‘We are denying your children the right to develop their full potential.’ What does that mean? It means that they do not want everyday working-class kids to have a good education, to have good skills and to have good training—because without this money they will not get it. They will be poorer for it, this country will be poorer for it and businesses will be poorer for it, all because you voted against it. And we will not let you forget that—not once. We will take you all the way to the next election and we will remind you—and the people of Dawson and the people of Australia—every step of the way that you voted against developing the full potential of the education of the kids of this nation.

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