Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Okay, I will keep going. I also have a graph that shows the financial position of the Australian economy compared to other economies in terms of the percentage of GDP. I seek leave to table that graph.

Leave granted.

Thank you. That stimulus package certainly worked. As I go around my electorate and talk to small and large businesses and to contractors that are building the social housing in my electorate, they are all saying that the stimulus funding was really important in helping them keep their workers on and in providing ongoing work for them. We need to continue to roll out this stimulus to its completion. The stimulus was designed to peak and then to taper off and that is what it is doing. It is working well in local communities.

I want to touch on some of the things that are happening in my electorate that are in this budget and also some which were funded through the stimulus. It is quite an extensive list. The Kingston bypass is underway in my electorate. Major construction is underway now as we speak. I know that the local community and the Kingston bypass action group are really pleased to see that construction, after 12 years of inaction from those on the other side. It was promised by the Howard government late in the 2007 election and was also committed to by Labor. But it is the Rudd Labor government that have actually gotten on with building this bypass. Those opposite kept promising but we are the ones actually delivering on the ground. I think that is really an important distinction.

We have the Huon Valley regional water scheme, which we hope to be launching in just a few weeks. We have the South East Tasmania Recycled Water Scheme, which is well and truly underway. We have my GP superclinic, which I talked about earlier. We have our green TEA environmental audit program, which has been successful. It was a pilot program for a year and they are looking at extending that now and making it self-sustaining—that is a fantastic program. We have the redevelopment of the Dennes Point community centre, the Cygnet gymnasium, the Kingborough Lions United Soccer Club, the installation of some nets at the Rokeby Cricket Club and the Port Huon Sports Centre, which I visited just recently to see how the $10,000 worth of sports equipment is being used. They all received funds. We have, obviously, the community infrastructure program, which is supporting a lot of smaller community local government sporting facilities and recreational facilities.

Just a few weeks ago I opened the Lymington Walkway at Cygnet in my electorate. We have some defence housing, some social housing and of course the Building the Education Revolution projects in my electorate. I have already been to quite a few openings, and we have some coming up. One which I am particularly looking forward to in just a few weeks is at my children’s school, where they have had an extension to their GP room and library. My son is actually being educated in one of the new classrooms, and I can certainly tell you that the parents at that school do not believe it has been a waste of money at all and are very pleased with their new facilities.

As you can see, there has been a lot of investment and activity in local communities in my electorate of Franklin, as there has been in other electorates around the country. Certainly we have had our fair share of these projects and they are really going down well with the local businesses. The construction industry in my electorate has been doing a great job of delivering these projects on the ground.

One of the things that I am hearing from local businesses is that they are concerned about the economic unrest in Europe and about what might happen should the stimulus funding be withdrawn. They are also concerned about what might happen should an Abbott government get elected. One of the things that they are particularly concerned about in Tasmania is the national broadband rollout. Minister Conroy was in Tasmania today at Midway Point with an announcement in relation to the National Broadband Network rollout. We have people in Tasmania who are extraordinarily concerned that the National Broadband Network rollout will be ceased under an Abbott government. The local community in the 10 suburbs in my electorate that are expecting to get the rollout in stage 3 of the project in Tasmania are very concerned indeed about the National Broadband Network rollout.

The rollout is currently supporting quite a few jobs in Tasmania, and in the next few years it is expected to support thousands more. It is really critical for the Tasmanian economy in terms of jobs now, and obviously in terms of technology and jobs for the future it is really important for Tasmania. I know that Tasmanian businesses, schools, hospitals and mums and dads are concerned about whether or not the National Broadband Network will reach them under an Abbott government, should they get in. It is causing a great lot of concern in my local community.

We also have great unrest in my local community about Abbott’s proposed cuts to the trade training centres. My local community in Huonville and the Huon Valley is down for a round 2 trade training centre of $6.5 million. I talked to people in my local community and to the principal of the school last week and they are very concerned about their trade training centre. They are very concerned that those opposite do not understand how important the trade training centre is to their local community, and they are particularly concerned because this trade training centre was going to incorporate aquaculture. In Tasmania at present there are no students training in aquaculture. In my electorate we have two of the largest aquaculture businesses in Tasmania with Huon Aquaculture and Tassal, who are two very large salmon producers and salmon growers. To not have local young people in the community train in this trade is quite a significant impediment to future workforce needs of those large companies.

I think it is short sighted of those opposite to say that they are going to cut the trade training centres. I would particularly ask them to reconsider cutting the trade training centre in the Huon Valley. I know that the Huon Valley community are very concerned about their trade training centre and they have asked me what they can do about it. I am looking into that to see what we can do for the Huon Valley community to ensure that their trade training centre will be built no matter what, because that is what they are after and that is what they deserve.

I put a lot of time and effort into supporting this application, talking to the local community and talking to the schools in that community about why this trade training centre was needed. I know that the state government also did a lot of work putting together the submission for this trade training centre facility. It is much needed by the local community.

I also want to talk briefly about the computers in schools rollout. In schools that I have visited in my electorate, the computers in schools program has been very well received, although some schools are yet to receive their full complement. They are saying: ‘What will happen? Won’t we get our computers? The schools next to us have all their computers. Won’t we get our fair share of computers?’ I think that those opposite need to revisit their desire to cut this program. It is very popular in schools. The students want those computers and they need them to deal with current technologies and to keep up with what is happening in society. Having access to that type of technology is really important for some of these students.

We heard in the House just yesterday from Minister Gillard about the importance of computers to some students in particular who require them to be able to produce work. I think it is really important and those opposite are completely underestimating the value of the computers in schools program. We also heard about the cuts to the Productivity Places Programs. The cuts just go on and on. They want to cut the Renewable Energy Future Fund and Green Start. They want to cancel the smarter schools teacher quality program. I talked about the GP superclinics and e-health. There is just so much that they want to cut, and it is all because they want to support the mining companies rather than wanting to support Australians getting a fairer share of superprofits from mining companies. I think we really should be explaining to all Australians why they deserve their fairer share. I think that those opposite are again underestimating Australians and their views on whether or not mining companies can afford to contribute more to Australian society and whether it is fairer that they should. I think we need to start having a truthful debate from those opposite about what is actually going on here. These campaigns, particularly some of the comments from the other side, are not completely honest. (Time expired)

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