John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today, I would like to ask the minister about efficiency dividend policy, and as I do so I recognise how the coalition's responsible approach to the budget this year focuses on savings and efficiencies as a priority. As the Treasurer said, this is a sustainable budget that meets the service needs of Australians and focuses on government debt so as to lessen the burden on future generations, all while ensuring the government itself lives within its means.

As I move by way of background to address how this approach plays out in my electorate of Groom, it is important to note that the budget is projected to return to balance in 2021, the growth in payments has been restricted to less than two per cent per year and, that since coming to government, we have arrested growth in our debt by more than two-thirds. Again, as the Treasurer said, to respect future taxpayers every day spending should be funded from the first dollar we receive in taxes, not funded by debt and, accordingly, the government will no longer be borrowing to pay for our everyday expenses from 2018-19—that is just one year away.

As the second largest inland city in Australia behind Canberra, Toowoomba is the key regional centre for southern inland Queensland and northern inland New South Wales for health and education services. It is the leading agribusiness capital of Australia and a significant centre for mining and construction services. Given all of this, and our burgeoning population, we are also a significant service centre for the broader region, including federal government services. Medicare, Centrelink, the Australian Electoral Commission, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Australian Rail Track Corporation and CSIRO's Agricultural Production System Resources Unit, amongst many others, all maintain a very significant presence in our city, each with a focus on technology and management initiatives so as to improve efficiency and certainly service delivery.

I am particularly pleased about the government's focus on decentralisation. We have in our presence in our region now, as a result of that, the Grains Research and Development Corporation—very important in our part of the world, particularly in irrigated and dryland farming systems—and, of course, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority also now has a presence in Toowoomba. Again, this is very significant given that we, on the Condamine system in our part of Queensland, are at the headwaters of the whole Murray-Darling Basin system. The location of those two offices and other government services in our regional area is something that is typical of an issue that I very much look forward to concentrating on as a member of the new Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation. I look forward to working with colleagues across the parliament in efforts to look at best practice for regional development and decentralisation of not only government services and offices but those of the corporate world as well.

So I would like to ask the minister about the efficiencies achieved in this budget through the government's efficiency dividend policy—specifically: how is the government making sure that departmental spending is efficient and helps contribute towards budget repair? Can the minister also update the chamber on what the savings achieved by the government's functional and efficiency reviews are, including over the forward estimates and the medium term? What kinds of reforms do these reviews achieve? What is the government doing to ensure that Commonwealth departments and agencies have the technology and the capability that they need to respond to growing public demand and expectations? What are some of the more significant projects that the Modernisation Fund, in particular, will be supporting?

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