Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The 2020-21 federal budget is totally focused on getting Australians back to work. It will provide a huge boost right across the nation and certainly it will do so in the electorate of Grey. I'm very grateful for the investments that are being made there. It's an extraordinary budget for extraordinary times.

The government is backing business to reignite the prospects of Australians. It is supporting businesses through the crisis with the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments to individuals who have found themselves out of work. We've continued to support them. We're using taxpayer funds now as a lever to bring on investment and expansion from the private sector, and it's working. We hear today that consumer confidence in the nation is back to the level it was in March. It has lifted 11 per cent since the budget. That's a record. In fact, 2,000 jobs a day are being created around the nation, if you exclude Victoria. It is a net 800, but it's 2,000 a day around the rest of the nation. We dearly hope that Victoria now will join that rush and reverse the situation that has been happening there.

I expect various groups in my electorate will show great interest in the 50 per cent subsidy for new apprentices. We will be looking for people with trade skills in the electorate of Grey. We already have a number of businesses that require them, so the sooner the better. There will be great interest in the $4 billion JobMaker program to support youth unemployment. For people under the age of 30 there's a $200 a week subsidy and for those aged between 30 and 35 there will be $100 a week. I expect a number of jobs will be created in workplaces around both of those schemes.

With the instant asset write-off for business there will be some plant and machinery sold around the electorate. I understand that if you haven't made a profit it's not much of a hook, but plenty of places around have. Perhaps agricultural businesses are expecting a good year this year. They might well look at the opportunity to do that. Some of our manufacturing businesses will be doing the same.

The tax cuts dating back to 1 July will put more money into consumers' pockets and increase confidence again. The carry-back loss mechanisms for business are very important, particularly for those that have been smashed in the last eight or nine months because of COVID. They have paid taxes previously and have all of a sudden found themselves in a net loss position. They will be able to claw back some of the taxes that they paid last year. All of those things will excite business. They will join the rush around Australia to grow the economy and pass the levels we were at before.

The budget is funding a lot of important local infrastructure. Certainly in Grey we have not been passed by. There are incentives for people to invest in people and equipment. In May last year during the election campaign I was given the honour and privilege of announcing a $64 million commitment to begin the dual-laneing—I think I just turned a noun into a verb—of the Augusta Highway north of Port Wakefield. It is 200 kilometres to Port Augusta. It won't get all the way. There's $64 million on the table and there will be another $16 million from the state. It is an $80 million project. I sat down with the department of transport and industry in Adelaide a couple of weeks ago to talk about the advance planning process that they are getting underway at the moment. Boy, we're looking forward to that. It is a busy road that is becoming busier on the back of the resources growth in South Australia.

There's a special one for Rowan Ramsey. I'm pretty about happy about this. I've been doing some blogging on this. There's $100 million to seal the Strzelecki Track. This is a really big one. This is the route that goes from Lyndhurst, which is south of Marree, directly to Queensland. It goes through Innamincka up along the Cooper and to Burke's dig tree. It's sealed all the way from the South Australian border to Brisbane, but it's 50 per cent further than it is to Adelaide.

South Australia has lost a lot of the supply contracts to the Cooper Basin because the 372 kilometres to the turn-off at Gidgealpa takes 16 hours in a road train. That gives you some idea. I was talking to a truckie who was working up there the other day doing some roadworks. He had five trucks there. He is one of the best operators in the state with really good gear. He said, 'It's smashing my truck to bits.' That's why it's being avoided.

It will become one of the great tourist routes of Australia because you'll be able to drive down from Queensland to Cooper Creek and go out to Coongie Lakes, or vice versa. If you come 400 kilometres further south, you have a choice at the T-intersection to go to Lake Eyre or to the Flinders Ranges. It is going to provide a lot of opportunities. There will be a lot of excitement. People don't pull caravans down it now, unless they're a licensed welder. So that will be happening.

Councils are getting a $13 million boost through the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. I have 27 councils in Grey, plus a number of Indigenous councils. There's $5 million as well for the department of transport. I'm just getting warmed up, but I know you'll let me come back tomorrow, Mr Deputy Speaker.

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