Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

As this 2015 appropriations debate draws to a close, I want particularly to summarise some of the highlights and features of this budget, especially in my own portfolio area, for regional Australia and my electorate of Wide Bay. This year's budget certainly delivers a wide range of initiatives that support families, promote small business and create jobs, while continuing the budget repair after the wasteful and reckless spending of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government.

The coalition's Jobs for Families package will provide $4.4 billion to make it easier for working families to access child care. The package also includes $840 million to extend preschool education for all. The budget recognises that small business is the powerhouse of our economy and the 2015 budget contains tax cuts to small business and improvements to depreciation so small businesses can keep more of the money that they earn. Jobs are a priority for the government and the budget contains initiatives to strengthen the economy and encourage jobs growth, especially in areas of high unemployment.

The 2015-16 budget is good for all Australians, but it is especially poised to deliver better outcomes for rural and regional Australia with the coalition government committed to driving growth in the infrastructure, employment and small business sectors. The initiatives contained in the budget are the second step in the coalition government's economic strategy to build a strong, prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. The federal government's new jobs package is an important initiative for electorates like Wide Bay where the unemployment rates are traditionally higher than other parts of the country. It contains wage subsidies for older and younger unemployed people to encourage businesses to create more jobs to give older and younger job seekers more opportunities to work. The Work for the Dole scheme will also be expanded to help keep job seekers active and learning while providing them with experience and encouragement to find work.

Small businesses will receive a major boost from accelerated depreciation for items under $15,000, freeing up more money to invest in new equipment and to increase their efficiency and productivity, and there will be a tax cut for all small businesses to stimulate growth and job creation and encourage entrepreneurship. The federal budget contains a wide range of initiatives to help ensure that our tax system is fairer—including cracking down on multinational companies and ensuring that they pay their fair share of tax. GST will be imposed on imported services to create a more level playing field for Australian-based businesses. An extra $603 million has been provided to fund new PBS listings, allowing people to access new pharmaceuticals for the treatment and alleviation of diseases. Especially of interest to people in country areas like my own, around 450 communities will find it easier to attract doctors under an overhauled General Practice Rural Incentives Program. Under the previous government's scheme, around $50 million a year was being used to pay incentives for doctors to live in large regional centres—regional centres that are able to offer their own attractions without the need for this additional support. By concentrating the assistance on needy small rural communities, the provision of rural medical services across the country will become more balanced, and it will ensure that some smaller country communities, including many in my electorate, will be able to attract and maintain and keep a doctor for a long period of time.

The government has saved $278 million by closing immigration detention centres because the government's Operation Sovereign Borders has been successful in stopping illegal boat arrivals. Our regional and rural areas are also certainly benefiting from our record $50 billion infrastructure investment program, the biggest in Australia's history. It is creating tens of thousands of jobs, it is working on eliminating congestion in our capital cities, and it is increasing the economic capacity of our freight routes and improving safety for all road users. In my electorate of Wide Bay, the budget commits funding to progress the Cooroy to Curra four-lane upgrade of the Bruce Highway. It delivers funding to complete section A of the Cooroy to Curra project and to start work on section C between Traveston and Gympie. When sections A and C are completed, there will be a four-lane highway all the way from Melbourne to Gympie. This is an investment that will have an enormous benefit for the local community and for industry as the highway is a part of the lifeblood—it is the lifeline—of our communities. The upgrade will deliver a faster, safer road and one that is less prone to flooding.

Some are concerned that the new Queensland government may not support funding of regional roads, or may seek to walk away from some of the projects that were committed to in the Commonwealth-state road rail partnership agreement. I have received assurances from the new state minister that the new government is indeed committed to that contractual program, so we look forward to their cooperation in ensuring that the upgrade of the Bruce Highway will continue. I acknowledge that there has been a slowdown in some of these projects with the election of a new government; perhaps that is to be expected with the new government still endeavouring to find their way. But I hope that there will be early approval of the various projects that have been committed to, so that there will not be any delays in the job creation and in the work that is currently underway, and so that this exciting and visionary project can be seen promptly through to fruition.

There are lots of other projects on the Bruce Highway, including some in my electorate which have been committed to as part of the government's $8.5 billion Bruce Highway Upgrade Programme. For instance, $16 million is being provided to commence the reconstruction of the Tinana interchange, which will deliver a safer and more welcoming entrance to Maryborough and the Fraser Coast. There is also additional money for passing lanes and for safety improvements to the highway. These kinds of projects are very important for the future of my region, but upgraded roads and rail will also make a difference to the efficiency of our nation. The program also includes a wide range of new initiatives in that regard: there is funding for black spots; and there is funding, also in my electorate, for the heavy vehicle upgrading program to ensure that roads are able to carry the new heavy vehicles that are on our roads and to do it more safely.

The government has committed to a range of measures under the Roads to Recovery Program. Local governments in my electorate and right across Australia will receive a double payment—an extra $350 million for local roads and streets in this budget. More than 2,300 projects have already been listed for funding under the 2014-19 program. These are projects that will make a real difference to local roads and streets.

The Black Spot Program will continue to reduce crashes on our roads, with $60 million allocated annually. We are almost tripling the black spot funding for the next two years, with an extra $100 million being allocated in 2015-16 and 2016-17 to accelerate road safety improvement. That work includes some projects in my own electorate that were announced quite recently. Projects to improve the intersection of Lennox and Albert streets in Maryborough, the intersection of Pilwera and Yerra roads at Yerra, and Sandy Creek Road at Victory Heights have all been funded as part of the Black Spot Program.

We are also working enthusiastically to deliver the Bridges Renewal Program, a commitment of the federal government at the last election—and, for that matter, the previous one at which we were not elected. We are providing $300 million over four years to help repair and replace some of the nation's dilapidated bridges. Applications for the second round of that program will be called fairly soon.

The government's new Stronger Communities Program will provide $45 million over two years to help fund small capital projects in local communities. In addition, the first 51 successful projects in our billion-dollar Strong Regions Program were announced on budget night. That starts the process of trying to provide some support and impetus to those parts of Australia which are disadvantaged—areas with high levels of unemployment and low socioeconomic profiles. These are projects that will make a difference, that will help redress the imbalance, help address the reasons those areas are disadvantaged and ensure there are opportunities.

Right across the nation our government is funding major projects, including in our capital cities. There is the Gateway North in Brisbane. There is the Toowoomba Range project, a truly visionary project to provide a new bypass around the city of Toowoomba. In Sydney there is WestConnex and NorthConnex and the magnificent work that will be done on the Pacific Highway. There is sufficient funding in this budget to complete the Pacific Highway at least a decade ahead of when it would have been completed by the previous government. There is funding in South Australia for the north-south corridor and for a range of projects in Perth, as well as for the rural roads and highways between Perth and Darwin and in other locations.

There was also funding in the budget for Victoria—substantial funding. But unfortunately the state government has chosen not to accept the funding for the biggest project in Melbourne. That is going to have a serious impact on the economy of Melbourne and will be a blow to the national road-building program. Victoria has no other projects that are ready to start that have anything like the scale of that east-west project. So several years are likely to be lost in Victoria.

I have been particularly amazed that the Labor opposition continues to make outrageous claims that somehow or other funding for roads has been cut in this budget. Labor throws the word 'cut' around with gay abandon, but they are being dishonest in those claims. Even the Leader of the Opposition in his budget reply made erroneous statements, presumably fed to him by the shadow minister, claiming that there was going to be a 17 per cent cut in the federal budget for road and rail.

That is completely wrong. If you go to the budget papers, it is absolutely clear that expenditure for road transport will increase from $4.214 billion in 2014-15 to $5.935 billion in 2015-16 and increase again to $8.401 billion in 2016-17. That is almost a doubling of the funding over that period. It is not a cut; it is a doubling of funding. Likewise, with rail transport, the funding will increase from $740 billion in 2014-15 to $1.079 billion in 2015-16 and up to $1.303 billion in 2016-17—again, not a cut; almost a doubling of funding over that period.

And we get similar stories about cuts to health funding and cuts to education funding, when in fact the budget papers make it absolutely clear that funding is increasing to the states for health and education. Indeed, the Queensland Minister for Health was commenting in my local newspaper just a few days ago about the improved performance of hospitals in my area. There is no question that the hospitals improved enormously under the term of the Newman government, and they deserve great credit for that. But the Queensland Minister for Health acknowledged that a significant part of the reason for the improvement in health was increased federal funding—increased federal funding—and yet the next day he was out complaining about cuts in funding. In fact, health funding for Queensland will go up by 27 per cent over the next four years—not cuts; increases by 27 per cent, way above the level of inflation.

The opposition needs to be honest about the budget. No, we cannot do everything that we would like to do, but this is a budget that is about building a better future for Australia, and it is about ensuring that we are able to live within our means. But we can do that by boosting the economy, making it stronger and giving opportunities to Australians, and they will be with us then in building a stronger nation. (Time expired)

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