Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2009-2010, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2009-2010 and the related bill. The Rudd government acknowledges that these are complex times, and the 2009-10 budget reflects these complex times. As we all know, the world’s major economies have gone into recession. Other nations have been overwhelmed and unprepared for the scope and sheer ferocity of the biggest global downturn since the Great Depression. Australia’s economy is well placed above those of other nations. This budget will see Australia emerging more productive than before. This budget’s task is one of nation building—nation building for recovery.

The opposition would like to talk down the economy and this budget, yet they talk about the lack of infrastructure in their own electorates. For 12 years they could have put in place the infrastructure that was needed, but they did not. In fact, they still refuse to recognise the Rudd government’s strategy in these times of need. The economic circumstances that we find confronting ourselves are so severe that we need a strategy that is going to take us forward and help us recover in the future.

In the electorate of Forde there was previously a severe gap in infrastructure rollout, and I do not think anyone in this House needs to be reminded of the disastrous Beaudesert rail project under the former flawed Regional Partnerships program, a program that put money into the community but that was unsuccessful, with major losses to government and to many private providers. However, in the real infrastructure rollout, particularly in the seat of Forde, the Rudd government has committed to a $55 million upgrade for the rail line from Acacia Ridge through to Bromelton which has recently been announced. Added to that is another $45 million for a project across the state border in New South Wales, through the area known as the Kyogle loop. This is a $100 million investment in rail infrastructure.

The Rudd government talks about Nation Building for Recovery, about road, rail and even our shipping networks and about how we build our productivity for the future. In fact, 70 per cent of this budget is about infrastructure investment. A large amount of funds, as we know, are going into the stimulus package of cash payments to people, essentially to stimulate the economy while we prepare ourselves for the rollout of infrastructure.

A large part of the infrastructure will go to schools. In fact, all the schools in my electorate welcomed this funding for nation building. I have met with many principals since the Building the Education Revolution program was announced and they are happy that the funding is finally coming to their schools and to the region. The electorate of Forde, as I have said many times in this House, was certainly not on the map in the past. The former federal member for Forde, a great member, was also frustrated about her own government and its inability to provide essential funding for some of the basic infrastructure needs. If you look at the building and infrastructure projects in my electorate, they are much larger than in the other electorates around it, simply because Forde missed out on basic funding for such a long time.

In the first round of funding for Primary Schools for the 21st Century, there are 20 schools in my electorate that are recipients. There is almost $30 million being injected into schools in the Forde electorate. The previous government did not invest well in education or in facilities, and it is the Rudd government that believes that if we as a nation are to prosper we need to invest in our future, and education is a significant part of that future.

This will see building sites at every school in my electorate. I have had many people contact my office asking how to get work on these projects and as a strategy recently—in fact the week after the budget—I, the member for Bonner and the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy, who is the member for Rankin, held a forum for independent contractors, a tradies forum. This was very much to inform tradies of the tender process and how they could engage with government to get the benefits of our stimulus package through the building program.

However, the opposition would like to blame state governments for all the problems of the past. In fact, I was intrigued when I heard the member for Menzies mention Queensland and excessive borrowings. On other occasions in this House I have spoken about the Queensland government’s understanding some time ago that infrastructure was very important, to the point that the Queensland government took on a lot of debt in recent years to fund infrastructure, which goes well now with the federal money as the state government have their projects lined up and they will certainly involve direct funding as to infrastructure programs. That gets away from what we always knew in Queensland as the Howard government’s cost shifting. This has meant that as a community and as a state—and certainly for the electorate of Forde—the nation-building program can continue. When you start to coordinate and put together all of the projects and when you look at the business community being involved and how we roll out private sector investment, it all fits very well for my electorate. As I have said in this House before, the development of areas of Bromelton will see the largest inland port in this country when it is finally established.

Social infrastructure and social inclusion is also a major plank of this budget. The government recognises that carers play an important part in our society. I was pleased to see that carers as well as pensioners would see significant changes through this year’s budget. In fact, I spoke in this chamber only a couple of weeks ago about the report on carers by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth called Who cares…? After 12 months and 1,200 submissions we finally identified some major issues, issues that we were largely aware of but which we were able to get documentation on from the evidence that we took at that inquiry. We understand that carers do it very hard.

We understand the carer’s job being a tough job. If you are caring for a family member it is even tougher. Many people who care for their children do it voluntarily. There are also a substantial number of people who care for many other family members or friends of family. Carers wear many hats. Some are mothers, some have full-time or part-time work and some are young people who are still at high school. In fact, one of the people we interviewed at our inquiry was 15 years of age and looking after a parent. It was a quite amazing story, particularly when you understand about the people in our community who have that caring role.

The Rudd government, through this budget, has recognised the need to help and look after carers. The Treasurer announced a supplement of $600 for carer payment recipients. Recipients of carer allowance will also receive $600 per person they are caring for. Carers Australia’s CEO said that the $600 per year supplement for those receiving the carer payment and the $600 per year in carer allowance per eligible recipient were ‘very welcome’ because their status was assured in future budgets. I have mentioned the issue of pensioners. There is the fact that we have finally been able to index pensioner payments at 27 per cent of average male weekly earnings, a great initiative. After 100 years of benefits to age pension recipients we have finally been able to index something that will keep up with the current costs of living.

In my electorate of Forde we have identified over 3½ thousand carers. Those who receive the carer payment will also receive a pension increase of $32.49 a week for singles on a full pension rate. As well, a permanent carer supplement of $600 a year will be introduced for carer payment recipients, with an extra $600 a year for carer allowance recipients for each person they care for. This supplement will replace the government’s one-off bonuses. The first payment to carers will be made at the end of June this year.

Unfortunately, the opposition seems to be stuck in the past, certainly as to the rollout of infrastructure and the concerns about borrowings. We have explained many times in these chambers of the House of Representatives, particularly in question time, the strategy of the Rudd government and why we are investing so heavily through this current budget. As the seat of Forde is considered to take in the Gold Coast Hinterland, it does have a number of coalition seats that touch its borders. It is very interesting that, as I said before, some of the coalition members lacked major infrastructure in their regions. In fact, they find it almost unbelievable that a government could consider such a major investment in a region like the Gold Coast. As I have said in this chamber, people consider that the Gold Coast is a very prosperous region, and generally it is, during good times, but it is heavily dependent on tourism and construction. So it is an area that, in a time of slowdown, really does feel the full brunt.

I will give you an example of one of the major manufacturing sectors—the marine sector. The Gold Coast produces and manufactures over 80 per cent of the boats that are made in Australia, and sold in Australia and overseas. The effect of the global financial crisis means that in that industry alone there have been nearly 2,000 job losses. People consider the Gold Coast is rather prosperous yet those areas of construction and manufacturing are hard hit. So it always amazes me to hear opposition to the government putting so much money into building infrastructure and stimulating job growth within the region. In fact, I will quote an opposition member who said:

A lot has been said by Mr Rudd about our bottom line compared to the rest of the world. When the coalition were in government we made it our aim to be the best in the world. World leaders show the others how it is done, as the coalition did in the past … and Mr Rudd and Mr Swan, the Treasurer, have squandered the hard work of the coalition under John Howard and Peter Costello.

Those are very bold words, of course, but the reality is that although the opposition talk about squandering we have a government that has been presented with unprecedented global economic issues. Yet, when we had money coming into this economy through the resources boom—in the Treasurer’s words, ‘when it was raining gold bars’—that money was squandered. There were no significant pieces of infrastructure or outcomes from that era, particularly in regions like the Gold Coast.

For those who are not aware of the Gold Coast and the lack of infrastructure there I will give you an idea. We have a city that developed very much as a tourist location. When I was a child, housing prices in the Gold Coast were half of that of Brisbane; it was where the holiday villages and weekenders were. It is a city that has grown in an ad hoc fashion. It is a city that had no major infrastructure for transport.

There was an announcement made just recently of funding of $365 million to put in a light rail transit system, in cooperation with the state government. We are talking currently in this House about carbon reduction. To give you an idea of how beneficial infrastructure investment is, I can tell you that this piece of infrastructure will not only create lots of jobs but, when this project is completed, take 40,000 cars a day off the roads of the Gold Coast. So it really does amaze me that coalition members would be so against the budget. In fact, I do not know whether they are necessarily against the spending of the money or whether they cannot believe that the government would invest in an area like the Gold Coast to that level.

This government is investing in infrastructure. We are investing in jobs and investing in education. In fact, on the Gold Coast there are equity arrangements with the private sector, and a particular member said that it was a smoke and mirrors announcement. On the reasoning of this particular member, the announcement would mean a further equity contribution and the private sector would have to get involved. Isn’t that amazing? Essentially, that is what we are saying: whatever the rollout is, public and private partnerships are certainly a way we can pull together. Government resources—state and federal—and the private sector can pull together. The private sector need to be major players in any of this investment.

I mentioned earlier in this speech that the area of Bromelton is a major development area, with 8,000 jobs within 10 years. It is an area that will be developed by federal and state governments and the private sector. It is an area that will roll out jobs and opportunities for the future and that will bring productivity to the electorate of Forde.

It was interesting to hear the opposition say that the government is about smoke and mirrors. We are putting money on the table at great expense. That has been stated over and over by the coalition. My interests over many years have been many and varied but property development has been an area of interest to me personally. Consider the example of what we are doing as a government. Every now and then in the property market a developer has to come along, take the risk and invest. And as those developments go ahead you have property managers who come along and manage those properties—considering the sinking funds, the maintenance and a whole lot of ongoing expenditure. But it is the initial investment that is the risk.

That is essentially what the current Rudd government is about: it is about taking that risk and investing. The previous coalition government, during some very good times financially, were able to be the property managers. It was commonly said—certainly when I was at university—about the economic periods of the past that the Menzies era was an era of great results for this country, albeit on the back of primary industries. The Prime Minister could look out the window and say, ‘The economy’s going well; we don’t really need to do anything.’ Things have changed significantly.

The member for Menzies mentioned in his speech the great years of Howard. It was an interesting period. We all know and can talk about many things that occurred during that period of time. But when I was a young businessman back in 1980-81 and Howard was Treasurer I was paying 22 per cent interest for business loans. The economy got worse for me as a small businessman in the manufacturing sector. I had to deal with financial issues and the inability to employ people simply because the economy had fallen so much that I had to pay a horrendously high rate of 22 per cent. And we had a Treasurer who did not have the solutions. That Treasurer was Treasurer Howard, who later became the Prime Minister. The Howard years can be recorded as an era of great revenue streams for this country. But, as I said earlier in this speech, that money was squandered. There are no major pieces of infrastructure that we can point to and say, ‘That was a major project rolled out by that previous government.’

I will mention the Gold Coast. It is part of my region, and I have taken a certain level of responsibility for it. Not only did we get announcements on the light rail but those people who are involved with the Australian Football League will know that there has been an announcement that there will be an AFL stadium built on the Gold Coast, because there will be a new Gold Coast team.

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