Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a load of nonsense. What a load of hot air we have just heard from the member for Hunter. I was sitting here wondering why he would be going on about things completely irrelevant to the debate on the appropriations bills before us here today, and I began to realise that I know why. We today have released the Intergenerationalreport. It is funny; back in 2010, the Labor Party released the 2010 Intergenerational report, and Wayne Swan had this to say about it on radio:

The first thing we need to do is to make sure we invest in the drivers of productivity so we can grow our economy faster and have the revenue that comes with that to support an ageing population, and also … we need to have Budget discipline.

He then proceeded to deliver a deficit of $47.5 billion. So the member for Hunter has come in here and talked about everything else other than appropriations because the Labor Party had no record in government to be able to discuss this. That is why we heard that diatribe. I say to the member for Hunter: if you want to hunt us down in the lead-up to the next election on regional and rural issues, you had better come up with some policies because you have no track record to speak of when it comes to delivering for regional and rural Australia—no track record at all. As a matter of fact, the only record you have is one of debacle.

I could spend my 15 minutes talking about how unfit Labor is to govern, especially for regional and rural Australia, but I do not want to do that. I actually want to talk about what the coalition government is doing for my electorate and then for the nation. I want to start by talking about what the government has been able to do through its fiscal management to deliver for the electorate of Wannon.

In the 2013 election campaign, I made some significant commitments to the electorate of Wannon. Through our first budget, those commitments are being delivered upon. I want to just detail a few of those here today. We have $25 million for the Great Ocean Road upgrade. I know that the member for Corangamite—the Great Ocean Road runs through her electorate as well—has also been a beneficiary of this. That $25 million is already being rolled out to improve that road.

We have the integrated cancer care centre for south-west Victoria. Ten million dollars was given by the federal government to combine with $15 million from the state government and $5 million, in a remarkable fundraising effort, from the local community to build this $30 million integrated cancer care centre. Planning for that is underway, and the first sod should be turned this year.

We have the Cobden Technical School and trade training centre, with $4.4 million delivered. That is already beginning. The foundations are being laid for that new trade training centre, which will be spread around Cobden Technical School, Camperdown College, Derrinallum P-12 College, the Hampden Specialist School and the Terang College campus.

We have the Condah-Hotspur road, with $2.5 million. That money is already available to the Glenelg Shire Council to deliver on improving that bit of road. We will then reduce the freight task, especially when it comes to delivering timber to one of our most important mills and then on to the Port of Portland.

We have the Maryborough Education Centre trade training centre, another $1 million commitment to go into Maryborough to make sure our young people get the necessary skills they need to go on and be job ready.

We have $125,000 for the Melville Oval lights. I must say that I was incredibly privileged to be at Melville Oval last week with the new president of the footy club, Johnny Pepper, a terrific fellow, to announce that the lights should be built and be ready by the middle of the year. There are two fantastic outcomes from that investment. The first is that our footballers and netballers will be able to train at night in safety. The lights there were in such poor condition that there were serious worries about OH&S issues in the conditions for them training at night, especially in the winter. So it will be much safer for them to train. But also we will now be able to have special events under lights, whether it be on Anzac Day or finals played on a Friday night under lights, which will just be terrific for the local community.

We have CCTV cameras which are going into Maryborough in the main street. That is a $100,000 commitment to help keep that community safe and to fight crime in a very effective way.

We have some significant environmental initiatives that we are rolling out as well. We have the Whale Trail going into Portland, with $25,000 committed by the Minister for the Environment—a great initiative. We will have the National Whale Trail right up the eastern seaboard of Australia. Portland was one of the first sights to be named to be part of the National Whale Trail.

We also have some great Green Army initiatives being rolled out. We have one in Corangamite shire involving a community trail and reserve, which will be upgraded. We have the Heytesbury District Landcare Network with their biofund application and we have the Basalt to Bay Landcare Network. I have already been down to see some of the outstanding work that Basalt to Bay have been doing with their Green Army. Not only have they been improving some wonderful national park areas; they have also discovered two insects, which up until now no-one knew existed in south-west Victoria. There have been some significant findings as part of the Green Army project that Basalt to Bay have been overseeing. And we have a Green Army project for the Goldfields Employment and Learning Centre, which has been delivered and I am looking forward to seeing it implemented in the coming months.

We have very good fiscal management which is leading to very good outcomes on the ground in my electorate of Wannon. I have mentioned a couple of road funding initiatives, but there are a couple of other significant ones which I want to highlight as well. We have the Western Highway duplication, which will involve $505 million in total duplicating the Western Highway from Ballarat through to Stawell, with $404 million of that being committed by the federal government. Last week, I was very privileged to be there for the opening of a brand new section of 23 kilometres of duplicated road on the Western Highway near Beaufort. It was wonderful to be there with the community for the opening because we had local school kids and mums and dads there. They understand the importance of proper road infrastructure for country areas and what it means not only for safety but also for increasing productivity.

We have also seen a significant increase in the Roads to Recovery funding. I know all regional and rural members in this place understand the importance of Roads to Recovery funding. I have been privileged to announce that we have just had an additional $55.9 million for my electorate, which will be distributed around local shires. I know that that will be welcome because keeping and maintaining the road networks in regional and rural areas is one of our biggest challenges. I say this to the member for Hunter: in your deliberations of putting policies together for the next election, understand how much you hurt our road networks last time you were in government. You did not care about regional and rural Australia, especially about delivering road funding for them. If you are going to be serious, make sure that your policy delivers when it comes to road infrastructure for regional and rural areas. The coalition are doing that and we are doing that significantly. Roads to Recovery funding next financial year will double. That is how important the coalition recognise that road funding is for our nation. We will see the Roads to Recovery funding double next financial year.

We have also seen the Bridges Renewal Program implemented. This is a new initiative of the coalition. Already, $2.23 million has been allocated to my electorate to restore two bridges that needed repair. One of those, the Castle Cary Road bridge, has been waiting for an investment like this for a very long time. It is fantastic to see $2.23 million already delivered to my electorate as part of this Bridges Renewal Program.

We are delivering when it comes to road funding. There is $1 million for the Princes Highway for Dartmoor rest areas and also $1 million for upgrades to the Terang intersection. There are another two important initiatives to help with the Princes Highway—$1 million near Dartmoor, $1 million for a key intersection in Terang. The coalition government are delivering when it comes to road funding across Australia and across the electorate of Wannon. Nothing makes me prouder than delivering road funding into my electorate. The importance of it can never, ever be underestimated.

The coalition also have a vision for regional and rural Australia, and the nation, which goes beyond individual electorates. While I am here, I would like to take the time to once again commend the Minister for Trade for what he has delivered for our areas—a trifecta of free trade agreements, the legacy of which will deliver for this nation for years to come. Importantly, it will deliver for regional and rural areas because agriculture and agricultural access has been one of the hardest parts of trying to liberalist markets globally. It will also deliver for the growth areas in our economy, in particular the services sector.

We have put in place three, almost, nation-changing free trade agreements. I look forward, especially when it comes to the China FAT, for the member for Hunter saying at the dispatch, loud and clear, his side's support for these free trade agreements. They have been a little silent on the China FAT. If they were serious about delivering for regional and rural Australia, they would know that that agreement, especially when it comes to the dairy sector, is vitally important. They seem to be a little quiet in that area and I am not quite sure what is going on behind the scenes. But I do look forward to the member for Hunter coming out as their agricultural spokesperson and saying, 'We've got to deliver on this because it is so important for regional and rural Australia.'

We have also delivered when it comes to fixing the budget. As we have seen through the Intergenerational report, we have started to seriously address Labor's mess. Everyone knows, particularly those in regional and rural areas, that, ultimately, whether you are a family or a business, you have to live within your means. This is what the government has started to do. It has started to address the financial mess which it has been left with. It will mean that in future years we will have the capability to continually invest in road funding, in health, in education and in the types of programs that will lead to young people being able to have the pathways to employment. We will have the capacity to deliver those much-needed services into communities, which are vital for those who are disabled or who are elderly. We will deliver where government is needed to step in and pave the way to make sure that everyone in this country receives the standard of living that they deserve and that we enjoy today. If we do not get our budget repair done then it will not happen. We recognise this. We have already acted in the first 16-17 months of government. And, as we will see in the lead-up to the next budget, we will continue to create the pathway to put the nation on a stable financial footing.

I am proud to be able to speak on this bill today because this government is not only delivering for the electorate of Wannon in significant ways, with significant initiatives; it is also delivering for the nation. It is setting the nation back on the right track, on the right course, to make sure that we will continue to grow in the right way—the way that benefits every single community across Australia.

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