John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2009-2010 and cognate bills. It is interesting to listen to the ideological spin that comes from the other side of this House. It is centred around trying to justify the incompetence of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and it has no regard whatsoever for the intelligence of the Australian people, who will very shortly show the government just what they think about the incompetence they now confront. Having said that, this budget reveals the high price all Australians will pay for Labor’s reckless spending spree over the past 18 months. As someone who has been involved in politics at state and federal levels over 21 years, I have seen all this before. The one thing that I have learnt in that 21 years is that the Australian people are sometimes a little slow to work out what a bad decision they have made in relation to the government they have elected. I can tell you that they are learning very quickly and reacting very spontaneously to the incompetence that has been shown by this reckless-spending government headed by Kevin Rudd.

Having said that, the one positive thing to have come from the budget papers is that the government has finally recognised, albeit 12 months after we told them about it, that the pensioners of Australia are doing it tough and it has given them a well-deserved rise. It is interesting to note, however, that the rise of $32 has been given to single age pensioners only. Pensioner couples have only received $10. I have received many calls to my electorate office asking why couples only received $10 when they have the same expenses as singles when it comes to utilities, petrol and the like. But that is where the good news stops.

As a consequence of this budget, unemployment in Australia will reach the one million mark by 2010-11. The government has managed to turn a $22 billion surplus into a $58 billion deficit, a figure the Treasurer, as we all know, could not even bring himself to utter during his half-hour budget speech in the parliament. It has also managed to take the country from being debt free to having a record net government debt of $188 billion by 2012-13, and is allowing itself to borrow upwards of $300 billion on the Rudd credit card.

Two-thirds of the debt owed by taxpayers in 2012-13 will be due to spending decisions taken by the Rudd Labor government over the past 18 months. Since the November 2007 election, the Rudd Labor government has announced measures which have increased Commonwealth spending by $124 billion. That is an average of $225 million in new spending per day. Labor would have us and, more importantly, the community out there in Australia believe that the destruction of our nation’s balance sheet is an unavoidable consequence of the global recession. In reality, Labor has lost control of the public finances.

The government’s failure to deliver a credible plan for recovery has lumped an extra $9,000 of debt onto every man, woman and child in Australia. The interest that will accrue on that $9,000 is a further $500 per year. The 2009-10 budget delivers a dismal trifecta: record spending—29 per cent of GDP; a record deficit of five per cent of GDP; and a further increase in the jobless rate of 8.5 per cent.

Labor’s out of control, undisciplined and reckless fiscal management does not end at spending. Over the same 18 months since the last election, Labor has introduced tax hikes which increase revenue by $26 billion. Taken together, these decisions represent the biggest tax and spending binge in Australia’s peacetime history, driving an expansion in the size and scope of the public sector not seen since the Whitlam years.

By 2013, net public debt will surge to $188 billion—double the previous record peak under Paul Keating—and could even reach $300 billion-plus. It took the coalition and the Australian people more than a decade to pay off the previous debt left behind by Labor. It would appear that the Rudd government debt will not only take 12-plus years to pay off but be compounded by an increase in the level of taxes and charges unsurpassed in this great country’s history. The annual interest bill paid by the Australian people in 2012-13 will be in excess of $8 billion, more than the Commonwealth spends each year on infrastructure and housing combined.

The decisions of this government and its recklessness are to be felt by Australians for years to come. Like many people on this side of the House, I worry from my children and my grandchildren. In the electorate of Hume, the areas of health, superannuation and pensions, infrastructure, small business, education and training, taxes and rural Australia will be directly affected.

The 41,865 people aged over 18 in the Hume electorate who currently have private health cover will pay a heavy price for the Rudd Labor government’s sustained attack on health insurance. This represents 46 per cent of the voting public in the electorate of Hume, but it will affect a total of 58,929 people who are currently covered by private health cover. These people will be faced with higher insurance premiums after the Prime Minister broke his election promise not to change health insurance rebates. In a letter to the Chief Executive of the Australian Health Insurance Association, Dr Michael Armitage, dated 20 November 2007, Kevin Rudd, then opposition leader, said:

Both my shadow minister for health, Nicola Roxon, and I have made clear on many occasions this year that Federal Labor is committed to retaining the existing private health insurance rebates, including the 30 per cent general rebate and the 35 and 40 per cent rebates for older Australians.

This snake oil induced election promise backflip will mean most people will face an automatic increase in insurance premiums of up to 42 per cent, for some, while those people who are forced to abandon their private health cover will face a tax increase through the Medicare surcharge levy of up to 50 per cent. Every Australian will eventually pay the price for the Rudd government’s reckless spending, because these budget changes will mean people will drop out of private health cover and join the queues of people waiting for treatment in public hospitals, while those who keep insurance will have to pay more.

Every Australian will work longer under the Rudd Labor government’s irresponsible changes to super. Superannuation has been taken backwards. Over $4 billion has been slashed from superannuation, which has removed incentives for Australians to save for their retirement. The government has coldheartedly cut by one-third the superannuation co-contribution scheme which bolsters the retirement savings of low- and middle-income earners. Low- and middle-income earners receive $1 instead of $1.50 for every dollar contributed. Over 1.4 million Australians received a co-contribution in 2007-08. Labor has made superannuation less affordable and less attractive for millions of Australians, including many on modest incomes. Yet, it is raising the pension age from 65 to 67.

The $12.6 billion infrastructure fund, set up in 2008-09, all funded from coalition surpluses, has been raided and only $250 million is left. In spite of all Labor’s rhetoric about nation-building, the total expenditure over the next six years on roads, rail and ports will be less than that committed by the former coalition government. The $13.8 billion spent in total from three infrastructure funds—$3.2 billion from health and hospitals, $3 billion from education investment and $7.6 billion from Building Australia—is less than two-thirds of the $22 billion spent on Labor’s cash splashes. Labor will spend $53.2 million to conduct an implementation study into the National Broadband Network, which will examine detailed engineering, commercial and structural issues, even though Mr Rudd has already announced he will spend $43 billion on this unproven scheme. This $43 billion could increase dramatically if the government does not attract the private investment it is seeking to help fund the rollout of the scheme.

We all know that small businesses are the engine room of a local economy. In Hume, that it is no different. Some 13,653 small businesses operate in the Hume electorate. After inheriting the strongest economy in the world, Mr Rudd is recklessly spending money and failing to properly assist these small businesses. While he trumpets the increase from 30 per cent to 50 per cent in the government’s small business investment allowance as a saviour for small business during this time of economic slowdown, the majority of small businesses in the electorate of Hume are telling me that in order to gain benefits from this initiative you must first have the cash available to spend.

Award modernisation also places undue stress on small businesses’ cash flow, especially in the restaurant, catering and hospitality industries where labour costs will be substantially increased, forcing small businesses to shed staff or shut their business. The coalition has listened to the concerns of small business about the need for less red tape and more effective incentives to keep apprentices on during this tough economic period, and our proposal provides the right incentives to help small businesses throughout the whole of Australia during this economic downturn.

The education revolution is over and it was a miserable failure. After the massive cost blowouts of computers in schools and the disappointing mismanagement of the school hall program the government is offering nothing new in this budget for schools. There are no new initiatives for schools. All programs were already announced at the COAG meeting in December and in the second stimulus package in February.

In higher education, after 18 months of inactivity and lack of interest in higher education policy, the government has finally responded to the Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education in this budget. However, it is a great disappointment. The Bradley review called for a large intake of new students based on a demand-driven system and argued increased spending to improve quality and scholarship. In total the recommendations of the Bradley review were costed at an estimated $7 billion. The majority of the expenditure recommended in the government’s own Bradley review has been ignored. Australian universities have been left out in favour of cash splashes and pink batts.

In a savage indication of the Rudd government’s ideological hatred for all things rural the government has also changed the eligibility criteria for youth allowance. This will leave thousands of rural students who would currently be eligible for this income support out in the cold. The changes to student income support directly impact on the children of middle Australia.

Let me tell the House what these changes mean. The tightening of the workforce participation criteria will mean that from January 2010 a student must now work full time for at least 30 hours per week for at least 18 months in the two years or more since leaving school before qualifying as independent for the youth allowance payment. The 30 hours per week mean that in order to complete the 18-month employment criteria future students will not be able to work part time while studying to try and gain independent status. Students are only able to defer their university place for one year and may lose this whilst having to work in the second year and try to reapply. Students may lose motivation to study if trying to return after a two-year gap from school. They may also find it difficult to gain full-time employment with no skills immediately after leaving school, particularly in a time of quickly rising unemployment. This move effectively spells the end of the gap year.

This path to independence has been one of the only ways rural and regional students have been able to access university. I would like to read a comment I received from a young lady who comes from the electorate of Hume. Her parents are on a farm. She said:

Dear Mr Schultz

I am just writing to express my concerns in regards to the recent cuts to Youth Allowance in the 2009 Budget. Let me give you a bit of background information: I have always lived on a farm (initially near Carrathool, NSW and then from 1999 Boorowa NSW). My father is a grazier and we own a farm about 10km from Boorowa. I attended Boorowa Central School until halfway through year 10 when I became a boarder at Canberra Girls Grammar. My parents believed that it would be a good opportunity for me to broaden my horizons. I loved my time at CGGS. I finished year 12 last year and, after deferring a place at ANU, I am taking a GAP year. I am currently working full time at Blumers Lawyers as a legal assistant and I also work at Country Road on the weekend.

Moving to Canberra has meant that I have become financially independent. I also believed that it would mean I would be eligible to receive Youth Allowance after I had been out of school for 18 months. The thing is, I always expected that I would be financially independent for my time at university. The last nine years have been tough for my family and my parents still have my three younger siblings to educate (14, 12 and al most 10).

I am just enquiring about your views on the cuts as I believe that they will have great repercussions on rural students.

I will not go on but it gives you an indication of just how hard these heartless decisions are affecting rural students.

The Rudd Labor government has attacked the ability of many employees to participate in employee share agreements by forcing them to pay upfront tax before they can receive equity entitlements. Employees will have to find cash to pay or decline to participate. The modest cost of extending and almost doubling this tax break for small business investment shows that this tax break, despite being increased once before, is not being taken up by cash constrained businesses, just as the coalition warned. And you can go on and on talking about very important issues centred around rural and regional farming communities of Australia.

Let me now talk about some councils that have contacted me in the last week. Every council in the Hume electorate has received or is due to receive the first round of funding that was handed out by the government in the first stimulus package last year. However, every council in the electorate that applied—and they have all applied—for major infrastructure funding from Infrastructure Australia has had their funding submissions declined, all with the standard line that Infrastructure Australia was overwhelmed with funding applications from local government, receiving applications for over four times the amount that was allocated. There was no thought whatsoever for these worthwhile programs: delivery of new bridges over rivers; $2 million for a new community swimming pool at Goulburn-Mulwaree Council; Palerang Council applied for $6.8 million for an equestrian centre; Wingecarribee Shire Council applied for $2.7 million for upgrades to their waste recovery system; Yass Valley Council applied for $7.5 million to raise the height of the wall of Yass’s main water supply dam so that they could have some water through debilitating drought periods; and it goes on. It is just a classic illustration of how the Rudd government hates rural communities.

It is more poignant than that. It is about governments picking winners and losers and propping up marginal seats in their electorates rather than responsibly using taxpayers’ funds to look after the people of Australia. That is what I get angry about. I do not care whether programs do not meet the merits or the standards that are put before them and are rejected. What I do care about, and it happened in the previous government as well, is legitimate projects being ignored simply because of the politics that is played in certain seats throughout this great nation of ours. That is what is wrong about the whole system of allocation of money. So, for the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government to get up in this parliament on a day-to-day basis ridiculing members of parliament because they have a real, deep concern for their communities—particularly the rural members who know what it is like for their rural communities to struggle through the difficult years—indicates to me and to the public, who are waking up to it, just what this government runs on: arrogant disregard for the people in need in this great country of ours.

In a direct blow to the rural and regional farming community of Australia, we see the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry hit with an efficiency dividend, stripping away $12 million through identifying lower priority programs that can cease. That means 312 staff will be dismissed. Land and Water Australia is being abolished and another $12 million will be taken from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. This is great for a country still recovering and, in some areas of my electorate, still suffering from the effects of the worst drought in a hundred years!

In summary, the 2009-10 budget is a classic tax-and-spend Labor exercise but on a far more reckless scale than ever seen before. The Australian people will pay a high price in terms of high future taxes. (Time expired)

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