Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to be able to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2015-2016 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2015-2016. It gives us all an opportunity to talk about a number of things. We can talk about the overall economic standing of this great nation of which we are all so proud. Also, we can talk about the economic conditions in our states and, in particular, as House of Representative members, in our seats.

I will just make a couple of overarching comments in relation to these bills. Obviously, when we talk about appropriation, we talk about money. It is great opportunity just to remind the people of Braddon—thankfully, many of whom follow me on Facebook and YouTube—that this government is in the business of repairing the budget. We are in the business of moving the budget back into a more positive position where we actually spend less than we earn. It would be a very good start if we could get back to that point. It is going to be a long way back, given what we inherited, but we are committed to it.

I feel nauseous every morning, but not for the obvious reasons, when I wake and I realise that, ka-ching, today we are spending another $100 million more than we are earning. I will wake up again tomorrow, and there it will be again. It is a bit like Groundhog Day—every morning that we wake up we are spending $100 million more of taxpayers' money than we are earning. Any idiot or any clown in any circus could tell you that that is unsustainable and that it must come to an end. With that as the backdrop to this bill, this government remains committed—absolutely committed—to reducing expenditure and getting the budget back into a repaired state where we are at least balancing the budget and, obviously, moving to a surplus so that we can pay off much of the mountain of debt that was left to us in 2013.

I must take the opportunity to say that when we left office under the direction of Prime Minister Howard and Treasurer Costello there were billions of dollars in the bank and the budget was $20 billion annually in surplus. That was the condition we left the books in in that year of 2007. The people spoke—democracy is a great thing—and they decided to elect a new government full of great ideas and, apparently, fiscal conservatives, according to the Prime Minister elected, Mr Rudd. We were only to find that, after six to seven very short but very long years, we had come back to a position where the budget was in absolute disrepair, we had ratcheted up borrowings over $300 billion and we were paying over $12 billion a year just in interest—no capital. Just imagine if that was your mortgage: no capital, just the interest. One billion dollars—that is one thousand million dollars every month just for the interest. As I said, while we are doing that, we are waking up today and spending $100 million more than we are going to earn. So that is the backdrop to this bill.

I would now much prefer to talk about some of the positive things that this government is doing and the impact of those decisions on my electorate of Braddon in North West Tasmania—of course, complete with King Island. They always get a little touchy over there, my good friends on King Island, when I say, 'North West Tasmania, plus King Island.' It is a great place. I had the privilege just recently to visit. I will be going over to be a part of an official launch of two new golf courses on King Island that are going to be ranked on the top 15 best-links golf courses in the world. If you add those golf courses to the best beef in the world and the best cheese, you are in for a pretty good couple of days on King Island if you want to take your clubs.

I do want to report to the people of Braddon some of those things that I have had the honour and privilege of leading in the last 2½ years. The people of Braddon elected me to be an advocate in this place and to be a part of the government at a macro level to get the budget back into repair, but at a micro level they want a member who is prepared to stand up and fight for them on the issues that are important and they also want a member who is not prepared to always promise the world for the sake of popularity, only to disappoint. They want a member they can not necessarily like all the time but a member they least respect for consistency, telling the truth and being honest with people. When someone says, 'Can you do this?' it is far better to say, 'Well, I doubt that I can.'

Having said that, I was thrilled—as one of the first duties as the newly elected member of Braddon—to be able to be a part of the Centenary of Anzac, the government local program of grants for the Centenary of Anzac. We had 12 projects in Braddon, totalling well over $120,000. It was a thrill in the early stages of my being the member to guide particularly RSL clubs through that process: the Devonport RSL; the Latrobe RSL; the Tullah Progress Association; the Wynyard RSL; the Gunns Plains Community Centre Association, a very small community; and the Ulverstone RSL.

We were able to buy uniforms for a group called Historical Military Reenactments, who are now making the very ridgy-didge uniforms of 1915 available at each of the local communities in my electorate for people to march in and be seen in. The younger people can identify what those men and women—but particularly the men, of course—looked like in 1915 in those uniforms. The grant program went right down to the west coast mining town of Queenstown; the Burnie Regional Museum, who put on a magnificent display; the Smithton RSL; Spreyton Primary School, where the kids came up with a tremendous mural in their school to commemorate the great sacrifice of the great war; and—not to forget—the little town of Penguin, who were also recipients.

Or on top of that, we have been able to have a tremendous program of addressing black spots on our roads. We have funded nine or 10 in my electorate since I was elected. Nearly $2 million worth of funding has been contributed by the federal government to improve the safety of our roads. Those are just little improvements in small areas with black spots that have become dangerous for travelling motorists.

I look back now over three years, and I am sure all of us in this House will remember that, about this time three years ago, we were always treading the boards, out on the doors, hustling for votes, listening to communities about what was important to them and making sure that we were advocating for them. It was a thrill to be able to have a number of projects—some of which I will go through now—that were a part of my election campaign, if I can call it that. As the successful candidate, I have been able to deliver on each and every one of those projects.

The people of the city of Burnie, which is the second biggest city in my electorate, were absolutely thrilled when we as a government promised $3 million to help build a new 25-metre indoor pool. I am pleased to report to the parliament that that is probably 70 or 75 per cent complete. I had a visit there a week or so ago. There will be a tremendous new facility linked in to the PCYC, giving much more access to the community and giving all-round weather access. That is pretty important in Tasmania, where we have a significant amount of the nation's rainfall.

We need to capture more of that rainfall, I must say, as I talk about that. We are going through a very dry spell. We need to be seeing more water infrastructure—dam and storage infrastructure—around the country, but particularly in Tasmania. I want to take the opportunity to thank the now Deputy Prime Minister, who has responsibility in that area, for his support and for his office's support with the cooperative partnership with the state government, Tasmanian Irrigation and the farmers. We are entering into a fund of well over $100 million for at least five new irrigation and dam water storage projects.

I will get back to the point: the aquatic centre is about to be opened soon. It was tremendous to be able to see the Devonport soccer club, who every week have about 600 young people playing on that in mud because of the weather—again, I come back to the weather in Tasmania—provided with some funding for synthetic surfaces for both of those fields. There were new turf replacements for the Meercroft Park hockey club. The list just goes on and on.

At election time obviously sporting facilities and community facilities do get a lot of attention, because during the term of a natural government the federal government in particular does not have any specific funding for sports infrastructure generally. It is not something that federal government's normally, through the course of their term, get involved with. That is normally left to local and state governments. Obviously federal election time gives the one and only opportunity through that three-year cycle to work with local governments and state governments to provide the sort of community infrastructure that our communities are desperate for.

We provided, through the first round of the National Stronger Regions Fund, $10 million to the city of Devonport for their quarter of a billion dollar vision to rebuild a living city. This is the city where the two big ships come in from Victoria, bringing hordes of tourists and an ever-increasing number of people visiting the great state of Tasmania. The Devonport City Council have a grand vision for the rebirthing of that city as the gateway to Tasmania. I was pleased to be able to lobby very hard last year to have them among the successful applicants of the National Stronger Regions Fund's grant. I will be turning the sod—in fact, a sod will be turning the sod!—next week for this $10 million grant.

We also had the Regional Development Australia Fund funding three projects in Braddon, including an upgrade to the King Island Airport. As I said before about the golf courses and charter flights that are now going into that island, it was important to make sure we got that airport upgraded. There was in fact over $8 million in that area. We have a whole heap of money for Roads to Recovery. We have mobile tower black spot funding, and the list, as I said, goes on and on.

I would also like to refer to a number of the other projects that we have been involved with. We are working with a number of industry groups with co-investment, which is really important—backing those people who want to back themselves, at least dollar for dollar if not two for one. One is Costa, growing an enormous new industry in horticulture and berry growth. It is not just Costa but other companies around the region that are now providing a huge number of jobs for locals, and I think that is amazing work that they are doing there. There was $9 million invested in a major irrigation scheme, the Dial Blythe Irrigation Scheme, which still has some water in it, and that shows how good it is. We have been working with the Haulmax, an advanced manufacturing business in the north-west, and they have $3 million to help them work on prototypes for a new mining truck. I talked about Hydrowood in this chamber before. They are taking cranes and backhoes out into the middle of old hydro dams to float out there on the water and pull up the older timber. They are pulling up the rich timbers of Huon pine, myrtle and blackwood. They are reaching into the depths of the dams and pulling them out and harvesting this timber for fine furniture projects and so on and so forth. We have been working with the dairy industry, investing in that major growth industry. I will be opening officially in the next few weeks a new pickled onion production facility in Ulverstone. You would be amazed at where the bottles of those pickled onions are going around the country and around the world. We have been working with the Ta Ann Tasmania plywood mill. Having another 50 or 60 jobs in a regional community like Smithton is so important.

Braddon is a very special part of the nation. It has had its challenges and continues to have its challenges. We have recently had to cop on the chin that Caterpillar, a major multinational company, has made a decision to move its manufacturing production to Thailand, leaving only its research and development. That has cost 300 to 400 jobs, which is a huge blow for a small community. But I can report today that there is still hope in the eyes of everyone in Braddon, including me, as the federal member for this great electorate. I am working really hard with the local business, the Elphinstone group. They are part of a significant bid that will hopefully be announced for down-selection in the next few weeks. We are putting in a bid for the new LAND 400 defence contract. I believe we have the competency and I believe we have the capacity and facilities to deliver on this as a part of the Team Sentinel bid. I wish them well, because this is the hope we have in our eyes, of the advanced manufacturing area and the advanced food production area. This is our hope; this is our future. I am pleased to be the federal representative for our place, Braddon, and I am pleased to dedicate myself to our future.

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