Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to rise and speak on the appropriation bills 2021-22. As we've seen from the Treasurer's speech in the House, the appropriation bills this year cover an enormous range of facets of our economy. We see the range of issues that we are seeking to deal with as we come out of the impacts of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, yet today, as we stand here in this House, we see more new cases in Victoria. We know how fragile this recovery can be until we actually defeat coronavirus over the long term. Despite that, over the past 12 or 18 months we as a country have outperformed the world in our health and economic response, and that's seen, particularly into this year, a very strong recovery in our economy. The budget is designed to ensure that economic recovery continues.

JobKeeper ensured that unemployment remained low over the past 12 months. I know from speaking to any number of businesses across my electorate the importance of JobKeeper in helping those businesses keep their doors open and keep their employees engaged. In the latest unemployment figures, a low of 5.5 per cent tells some of the story of this extraordinary achievement.

When I was at Struddys sports last week with the Prime Minister at Loganholme, the CEO, Ross Strudwick, very clearly said to us that it was JobKeeper that kept the business afloat during the coronavirus pandemic last year but now they've started to turn the corner and turn the corner so well, in fact, that they've put an additional 10 staff on. What's important in this is that every business I talk to around my electorate is actually struggling to get staff. It's a terrific problem to have.

The people across the electorate of Forde are benefiting from this budget and previous budgets as well. I will go through some of the highlights for this budget in my electorate of Forde. Nearly 75,000 taxpayers in Forde will benefit from tax relief of up to $2,745 this year. This is the result of the decision to extend the low- and middle-income tax offset to 2021-22 and the decision to bring forward stage 2 of the government's tax relief plan. The government's tax plan has already benefited nearly79,000 people across my electorate of Forde. The extended and expanded JobTrainer Fund will support some 450,000 new places to upskill jobseekers and young people. We've already seen nearly 2½ thousand apprentices in Forde. And these new measures will only lead to more opportunities for apprentices and trainees, with the expanded wage subsidies. I know any number of my manufacturing businesses are looking to put on apprentices and trainees to fill the gap they have in trying to find additional staff.

The tax incentives that the Morrison government has provided for around 18½ thousand businesses in Forde to write-off the full value of any eligible asset they purchase has been very well received. Additionally, around 5,900 businesses will be able to use the extended loss carry-back measure to support cashflow and confidence. This has helped many businesses invest more in building the capability of their business and their efficiency—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives

Sitting suspended from 10:05 to 10:22

I'm very pleased, as I said in my earlier remarks, to be speaking on the appropriations bill 2021 and talking about the benefits it is providing to the electorate of Forde. But I know the measures that are providing these benefits to the electorate of Forde are also providing benefits right across this country. The cashflow boost has helped around 4,800 small and medium businesses across the electorate of Forde to stay afloat in addition to many of the other measures.

But I'd like to use most of my time today to talk about the extensive infrastructure investments that have occurred from the north to the south, from the east to the west, from Upper Coomera in the south to Carbrook and Cornubia in the north, out to Park Ridge in the west, North Maclean in the west and to Beenleigh and surrounds and Yatala in the east. If we start with our investments on the M1, in our term of government we have completed the M1 M3 Gateway merge upgrade between Eight Mile Plains and Springwood Road.

We are now working on the Sports Drive north upgrade on the M1 to the Gateway. It's a $750 million project, funded in part by $510 million of Commonwealth investment. This is a critical lifeline between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, but also between the city of Logan and Brisbane and the city of Logan and the Gold Coast. It carries some 140,000 to 150,000 traffic movements per day. This work is critically important to ensuring that this lifeline continues to flow throughout the day.

In addition, we are investing in a range of upgrades of the Mount Lindesay Highway. And we've already completed a $20 million project at North Maclean, improving the safety of that stretch between Chambers Flat Road and Greenbank Road. Where the service road has been extended down to Greenbank Road, a new set of traffic lights has been put in. The Mount Lindesay Highway has been separated out from the service road to improve the safety along that section, which was particularly crash prone.

I'm pleased to say we're now entering into the next major upgrade of the Mount Lindesay Highway, and that is a $75 million project of duplicating the highway between Stoney Camp Road and Chambers Flat Road. The federal government is funding 50 per cent of that—$37½ million. I have been talking to the community in the area of Park Ridge, North Maclean and Munruben. I share that particular piece of road with the member for Wright, and I know he, too, is very pleased to see that work on this upgrade is now well underway.

In addition, there has been a range of safety upgrades on local roads. Beenleigh Redland Bay Road has benefited from a $15 million investment in road safety upgrades by the Commonwealth government. There have been new safety barriers, the removal of roadside vegetation and upgrading of the surface of the road in patches. I know that was done in conjunction with a safety upgrade by the state government near one of our schools, in terms of installing traffic lights on a very busy intersection where three schools are located very closely together. That has benefited the community in Carbrook, Cornubia and Shailer Park and all the families who use the three great schools of Calvary Christian College, Kimberley College and Carbrook State School.

In the southern part of my electorate there has been a $1 million investment, in partnership with the council of the City of Gold Coast, in the upgrade of the intersection of Days Road and Williamson Road. This, again, is an intersection which was incredibly dangerous, particularly at school time—it is surrounded by two schools, Coomera Anglican College and Assisi Catholic College—because of the sheer volume of traffic moving through that intersection. That intersection has now been signalised, and when I was speaking recently with Mark Sly, the principal of Coomera Anglican College, he said to me that, in the couple of months since that work has been completed, it has undoubtedly already saved lives.

The reason these projects are so important is that the area I, along with the member for Fadden and the member for Wright, represent is one of the fastest-growing areas in Australia. Wherever you look, there is development continuing apace, whether it's through Upper Coomera, Pimpama and Ormeau or in the west in Yarrabilba, Flagstone—in the member for Wright's electorate—Park Ridge and Logan Reserve in my electorate. These areas are growing exponentially.

There are other terrific projects coming online over the next few years that will help improve the infrastructure in our local communities. There is the Chambers Flat Road upgrade, a $23 million project, to which the Commonwealth government is putting in $11½ million, in conjunction with Logan City Council. We are also partnering with Logan City Council to upgrade the High Road-Easterley Road structure around Canterbury College.

But, as I've already touched on, our business community is also critically important, and that is why we are spending nearly $100 million in upgrades to duplicate exits 41 and 49 on the M1. In addition, we're spending another $10 million on upgrades to exit 45. But exits 41 and 49 are particularly important. Exit 49 services the Pimpama community on both sides of the highway. That is a major bottleneck now, predominantly for residential traffic. It is creating issues of tailback onto the M1 in peak hours, which creates a major safety issue when you have traffic going past at 110 kilometres an hour. Exit 41, which, in conjunction with exit 38 a little bit further north, services the Yatala and Stapylton industrial areas, is being duplicated because, again, there are issues there, in terms of the volume of traffic now using exit 41 to go to those industrial areas. If you go past there in the morning the traffic both northbound and southbound is banked well back onto the M1 for at least half a kilometre, and maybe longer. Again, this is a major safety issue, because the traffic that is on the highway proper is going past at 110 kilometres per hour.

In addition, not only are we building the road infrastructure that our growing communities need but we are building the rail infrastructure that our growing communities need. Announced during the budget was a $178 million investment by the Commonwealth government for the upgrade of the Brisbane to Gold Coast rail line between Kuraby and Beenleigh to facilitate, in time, faster rail. That's a critically important investment in improving the speed of rail between Brisbane and the Gold Coast and making it more attractive for people to use public transport to get to work in Brisbane, in particular, rather than driving.

As part of that, too, we had previously announced a $50 million investment in the relocation of Loganlea train station, which is a key part of that upgrade plan. The station will be relocated further east so it will be much more adjacent to the Logan Hospital, which is our major hospital serving the city of Logan and the broader community. In addition to that $50 million investment for the station relocation, there was a $15 million investment in commuter car parking, because one of the issues that we have at all of our train stations, particularly the ones where the Gold Coast to Brisbane express train stops, is car parking. If the car parking spaces aren't there, the incentive is not there for people to use the train; they prefer to drive. Not only are we doing that at Loganlea train station but Beenleigh train station will also benefit from a $15 million upgrade to its car-parking arrangements, and we are looking to do that in conjunction with the relocation of Beenleigh train station, depending on what we're doing with the bigger rail upgrade that I just mentioned. Coomera train station is also benefiting from a $15 million upgrade to its parking facilities which will commence shortly.

I look at all of these things that are critical to the provision of services and getting people home sooner and safer. This includes getting tradies to work sooner and allowing them to get on the job when they need to be, and that is critically important because, as I talk to the tradespeople across my electorate, all of them are flat-chat, and the reason they are flat-chat is the government's support of the housing and construction industry, particularly through our HomeBuilder program. We have seen an enormous amount of growth, and I have talked to any number of first home owners who have now had the opportunity, through the HomeBuilder program, for the first time to look realistically at getting into their own home. I was also pleased to see in the budget a focus on helping single parents get into their first home through our support of that package.

All of these measures show that the Morrison government continues to deliver for the Australian people each and every day. I commend this bill in its unamended form to the House.

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