Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wanted to start by welcoming the members of the Inter-Parliamentary Study Program who have joined us for this riveting session this afternoon. I have to say it's that time of the day when the circadian cycle means that you may be feeling a bit drowsy and wanting a nap, but nothing in the Federation Chamber will ever disrupt that natural course of events, I'm afraid to tell you.

I wanted to ask the assistant minister about payment growths in the federal budget, but I want to put a bit of context around the question I pose to him. Like many members of this House, in the lead-up to the budget, we get a number of competing demands from our communities about what their expectations of the budget are, and I have to say that my electorate is no different to what the common trend is in that regard. Over the last six months, during the course of my work in the electorate, I have met many people who have spoken to me about their concerns for essential services and those important items of infrastructure which they expect government to deliver, and I know that those concerns have included funding for education and health care and what we're going to do to support the transport needs of a growing city like Sydney. Therefore, I think this budget has met a lot of the expectations that those residents have posed to me.

I particularly highlight the incredible commitment that we're giving to school education, with an extra $23½ billion over the next decade; the commitment to health which is reflected in the $30 billion extra that will flow to our public hospital system; all that we're doing to support drugs becoming cheaply available to those who need them through the PBS and the like; and of course what we're doing in the area of infrastructure. Unlike the member for Bruce, I'm delighted that we actually have a 10-year plan for infrastructure, which was reflected in the pipeline that was released in the lead-up to the budget by the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the Deputy Prime Minister. Having that type of 10-year funding pipeline is just so important for projects which obviously run over multiple years. It allows those developing the projects to plan properly and accordingly.

The commitment to that type of infrastructure is reflected in my own electorate, where I'm really pleased that this government has been able to deliver funds for important infrastructure projects like creating a major new public foreshore park on the former submarine base Platypus, in Neutral Bay, which opened a couple of weeks ago for the first time. We provided $20 million to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust for that, and it followed the $50 million that Defence spent on remediating the site. Similarly, we're investing almost $10 million in new sporting facilities at Gore Hill, which is a commitment to the sport and recreation needs of my community. I also know that, in relation to transport, through the Asset Recycling Initiative, we're continuing to provide something like $1.6 billion to help the New South Wales government build the Sydney Metro project, which is really great news.

The other area that my constituents raised with me is the need for tax relief. That's why I think this budget is so important, because not only are we delivering the company tax reductions that small and medium-size businesses so desperately need, company tax reductions which will maintain our international competitiveness, but also that personal income tax package which offers relief in the short term to low- and middle-income earners and in the long term will guarantee that 94 per cent of Australian taxpayers aren't paying any more than 32.5 per cent.

Another area that people do raise with me is obviously the issue of government debt and how the government is going in relation to coming back into surplus. What is pleasing about the budget, of course, is the commitment to bring the budget back into surplus a year earlier, to reduce debt by $30 billion over the current four years and to constrain the debt blowout that was created by the last Labor government when it went on its reckless spending program. That's a great achievement of this government. In part we've been able to do that because revenues are increasing, but I'm conscious of the fact that the success of the government's fiscal strategy has not just been about relying on revenue; it's also been about relying on spending restraint. Therefore I wanted to ask the assistant minister whether he might be able to provide the House with an update on how we're going in our efforts to balance the budget by reining in spending and making sure it's sustainable, and particularly how that compares with the efforts of previous governments.

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