Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will start by congratulating you, Deputy Speaker. You were the deputy chair in the House of Representatives just a little while ago when those appropriation bills were going through. It was a very busy time and I thought you handled it well and with much aplomb. I want to update the House on what has been happening within my local electorate since the election last year not only on some things that we said we would do nationally but also on some things that have been happening in different local government areas within my community. I have five LGAs within Page and I would just like to give the House and them an update about what has been going on for them nationally and within their LGAs and about some initiatives that we have been looking into.

With all of them—and you would be well aware of this, Mr Deputy Speaker—there were four major themes that we took to the election that we said that we would do if we won government. One of them was to build the infrastructure of the 21st century. A big one in every LGA in my community is Pacific Highway. We have set aside $5.6 billion for the dual track duplication of the Pacific Highway and a lot of what is remaining is in the electorate of Page. So that has been quarantined. Also, we said we would repair the budget and we are in the process of that. We said we would stop the boats. The reason we wanted to do that was not least the loss of life that we were seeing. There were over 1,100 deaths due to the people-smuggling business and that tragedy has now stopped, which is wonderful.

We had said that we would repeal the carbon tax and instead deal with climate change with our direct action policy, and, importantly, in repealing the carbon tax, that we would put $550 back into the pockets of households. Within the five LGAs, that is relevant, but I would also like to look within the five LGA's in my area at some of the things that we are delivering and working on. Within Richmond Valley LGA are wonderful communities such as Casino, Coraki, and down to the beach of Evans Head. It is a wonderful and a very productive valley. It has probably one of the biggest private employers in my electorate. The Northern Cooperative Meat Works Company employs over 1,000 people and is a very important part of our economy. Some of the things that we have delivered there are $3 million for the Casino hospital emergency upgrade; $1 million upgrade of the hospitality section of Evans River K-12 Community School, one of our campaign promises; nearly $500,000 for CCTV cameras within the Casino CBD; and free-trade agreements are obviously very important for this community, with Korea and Japan, and we are working on one now with China. Simon Stahl, the CEO of the Northern Cooperative Meat Works Company described those free-trade agreements as 'very important' because their competitors, which are global, as you would understand Mr Deputy Speaker, were getting a bit of a head start in some of those countries and their tariffs were being lowered on beef quicker than ours. That was an important step for us. We have set aside $185,000 for the Bellman Hangar which has F111 in it. Mr Deputy Speaker, I encourage you to visit and have a look at that. It is a very great tourist attraction. There are many other grants for the Mid-Richmond Neighbourhood Centre. That community were also very concerned. They have a removable home. They obviously wanted the GST not to be changed on that, which we did as well. Also, the NBN is starting to roll out there, which is important for them as well.

When you move up, out of the Richmond Valley, you get to Kyogle—a beautiful part of the world—all the way up into places like Woodenbong, up on the Queensland border, and over the beautiful countryside to Bonalbo. Again, what I said about those four standards that we are delivering are all very true for them. They are very excited about our wooden bridge programs. It is quite a small local LGA in terms of population, but they have hundreds of wooden bridges, which are really beyond their financial capacity to maintain. Each of those bridges can cost up to $2 million and one can understand the cost of those bridges when you have a few hundred of them. They are very excited that we are going to get our Bridges Renewal Program under way and they will be an applicant for that. We are giving them more money into local roads under the Roads to Recovery program. We are doubling that in one year and over a couple of years. There are many grants for Kyogle District Care Connection and Kyogle-based Real Art Works as well as others. I just wanted to give a few highlights of those because we have given out so many grants that it is impossible to cover them all.

For the Lismore LGA also the free-trade agreement is important to them. Norco dairy cooperative is based in Lismore. There is very exciting news for them. They have recently started to export fresh milk into China. That will really help them break the nexus with the duopoly of the major supermarkets which have a lot of power in the milk market. Lismore have a variation approved of $5 million for local road works, with affordable housing and new block developments.

Over $1 million has gone towards Trinity Catholic College for a new hospitality centre. Over $1 million has gone to Southern Cross University for research. Southern Cross University is a very important part of our local economy in the region. There have been many grants to the Red Cross, Norpa's Bundjalung Ngahri project, Friends of the Koala, Richmond River Historical Society and the Child Aware Initiative.

When you go south in my electorate you come across what can only be described as the 'magnificent Clarence'—they call it the 'mighty Clarence' for a very good reason—and places such as Nymboida, Grafton, Iluka, Lawrence, Yamba down on the coast. It is a beautiful part of the world. Again, the Pacific Highway is very important to them. Fatalities are unfortunately still too high on the Pacific Highway. So they are very excited about the $5.6 billion set aside for that, giving them a big boost in Roads to Recovery funding. They have a big area, so doubling that is a big help to them in the coming years.

There are three skills training centre grants there: Grafton High School, South Grafton High School and Acmena—over $2 million total. There is over $800,000 for disadvantaged Clarence Valley High School students to help them start university. There is nearly $600,000 for the Grafton Hockey Club. We have given money to Grafton district Meals on Wheels and Clarence Valley Home Modification and Maintenance Service. We have stopped the GST on removable homes. There are the goal posts in McKittrick Park, and the Iluka Woombah Men's Shed got a grant as well as. There are quite a few more there that I will not read out. The Clarence River Historical Society, Iluka Public School, the Yamba Historical Society, the Clarence Environment Centre, the Vietnam Veterans Association—just to name a few.

The last LGA in my electorate is the Ballina LGA, and again the Pacific Highway is massive for Ballina. The duplication for that is very important. In fact, one of the first things I did as member for Page was announce the winning tender for the section near Pimlico; we turned the sod there. It is for the preconstruction and planning for 155 kilometres of divided four-lane highway between Woolgoolga and Ballina, which is the next main focus of it.

I am also very happy to talk about the $4.5 million that we announced during the campaign for the stage 12 upgrade of Ballina Hospital. It includes a second operating theatre, improved surgical services and constructions jobs. There is $1 million for Alstonville High School for a skills training centre and $100,000 for Heartfelt House who deal with victims of childhood sexual abuse. Vicky there does fantastic work in our community. There are also grants for Wetland Care and for Emmanuel Anglican College.

This week I am also sending a letter to everyone over 55 in my electorate just to update them on the budget in relation to pensions. There has been a lot of information, some of it a bit misleading, about the pensions. The one thing I am assuring all pensioners about is that the age pension will continue to rise every six months. It went up by $15.70 a fortnight for a single and $11.90 for a couple in March and it will increase again this September. Pensioners will continue to receive the pension supplement which will also continue to be indexed twice a year. This supplement is currently $1,635 a year for singles and $2,464 for couples. The next index increase will be in September. There are no changes for the pensioner concession cards, and recipients will continue to receive all the benefits currently attached to the card. Pensioners will also benefit from the abolition of the carbon tax. From 2017 the pension will continue to rise in line with the CPI measurement.