Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about this government's unfair budget, which was handed down just 24 hours ago and is already drawing much criticism by the everyday working people that I proudly come here to represent. It is a budget that hands millionaires a tax cut worth $16,400 but hits ordinary working men and women earning just $65,000 a year with a tax increase. It is a budget that the government claims is fair but fundamentally falls short of the things that matter, including by failing the basic fairness test. It is a budget that completely ignores the things that we desperately need in Western Sydney like education funding and investment in our Nepean Hospital. Instead it gives us a $5 billion white elephant of an airport at Badgerys Creek.

As the shadow Treasurer, the member for McMahon, said in this chamber during the MPI this afternoon, a budget tells you a lot about the values and priorities of a government. It was very familiar to me because I said similar things when I made my very first speech in this place. It gives you a pretty clear idea of a government's competence, how they connect and engage with the broader population and what they want a country's future to look like. A budget is about choices, and last night this government led by the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, made it crystal clear that they chose big business over middle- and working-class families, many of whom I have the absolute privilege to represent in this place.

We cannot just look at this budget in isolation. There is a broader context that feeds this government's incompetence when it comes to fairness and their absolute competence in disappointment, and it has been inflicted on our nation for the past four years. This morning we had government members sneak in here quietly and try to get away with reversing some of the most unfair measures ever inflicted on Australian people. They did this without even a word of remorse or contrition, not a breath of apology and certainly no explanation as to why this government spent four long years telling Australian people their unfair policies were the only way.

Every single member opposite has voted for these unfair policies because fundamentally they believe in them. Every single member opposite has spent time in their electorate and here in the parliament defending the policies they now seek to quietly see disappear. Australians will not forget what this government tried to do when they thought they could get away with it. No amount of pretending can undo the narrative of this government spending four years attacking those who could least afford it yet looking after their big business mates through unaffordable corporate tax cuts.

There has been a lot of commentary since last night saying this budget is in some way a white flag, with the government finally agreeing that their terrible policies do not have the support of the Australian people, because the Australian people are not mugs and can work out when someone or a government is a dud. But I do not agree. This budget is no surrender; it is a desperate ploy to postpone their devastating policies for the time being only.

But they cannot even get that right. When you dig into these budget papers, it is pretty clear that they have not really listened at all beyond the focus group. For our community Turnbull and co have committed over $5 billion—

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Lindsay will refer to members by their title or she will sit down.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you; I apologise. For our community, the Prime Minister has committed over $5 billion in taxpayer funds to build a second airport after the Sydney Airport Corporation has labelled the project not feasible. If Sydney Airport says it is not feasible, how will this government, with its proven incompetence with big projects like the NBN or even the comparatively simple task of a census, not to mention the robodebt scandal, manage a $5 billion project? I have to say this airport and funding commitment will do nothing to reduce our hospital waiting periods, which are the longest in New South Wales, and nothing to contribute to the education of the young people in my community who most need it. It will not provide skilled jobs for the community it will impact most negatively on.

An airport will do nothing to reduce the congestion on our roads in Lindsay and will do nothing to ease the pain of the public transport disaster. It will do nothing to make houses more affordable for my local families. Yet again the things we actually need in Western Sydney are being neglected and ignored. Instead of delivering on services and supporting the working families, we have a government tone-deaf to the things that actually matter.

On top of this, the budget confirms the $22 billion being ripped out of Australian schools—this from a government that promised to match Labor's school funding plan dollar for dollar at the last election. It is an absolute disgrace for this Prime Minister and his unfair government to try and pass off their new plan as better for Australian kids. It is a $22 billion cut, and that is according to their own briefing documents. Far from matching our plan, now they are cutting funding and reducing standards. That is their plan. It is shameful and harmful to our kids, and we will fight it every single step of the way.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise today in support of the 2017 budget and report on the positive impact it will have on my electorate of Berowra. This budget includes vital measures to ease the pressure on housing affordability. It will provide investment in infrastructure and education; the National Disability Insurance Scheme; and help to small business owners.

I hear every day about homebuyers struggling to afford a house in my electorate. I have been contacted by many residents on this issue, especially young families looking to enter the housing market. I welcome the plans the Treasurer announced last night to help first home buyers save for a home deposit sooner by allowing them to make voluntary contributions into their superannuation accounts at lower tax rates. I am particularly pleased to see the release of Commonwealth land for the construction of new houses as part of this package, as it is something I previously advocated for to the responsible minister.

I am often contacted by residents with concerns about traffic congestion and the quality of roads in our communities. Our government has pledged significant investments in several key infrastructure projects in Berowra. This year will see the continued funding of NorthConnex, linking the M1 and M2 motorways and taking 5,000 cars and trucks off Pennant Hills Road every day. Pennant Hills Road is the worst road in Australia. This year, $50 million of Commonwealth funds will be spent on NorthConnex. This budget pledges a further $1.1 million to road infrastructure investment in Berowra, including over $167,000 in construction on Citrus Avenue in Asquith, $750,000 on four sections of Annangrove Road in Kenthurst and Annangrove, $200,000 in resurfacing of Cattai Ridge Road and Old Northern Road, and almost $70,000 on road pavement patching on Kenthurst Road. Each of these upgrades will improve safety and will reduce the cost of maintenance of our local roads.

One of the biggest assets in Berowra is the quality of our schools and the education they provide our children. Total federal government funding for all schools in my electorate amounts to almost $1.12 billion over the next decade, supporting the 51 government, Catholic and independent primary and secondary schools and the over 26,000 students that attend Berowra schools. But 2027, the 35 government schools in my electorate will receive more than $514 million in funding. The 12 independent schools will receive more than $467 million in Commonwealth funding. And over $137 million will be contributed to the Catholic education system on behalf of the four systemic schools in my electorate.

I acknowledge there are two schools in my electorate that will receive less funding than they have under previous arrangements: Mount St Benedict at Pennant Hills, and Oakhill College. Following the Minister for Education's announcement last week, I reached out to both of these schools to discuss the changes and to see if there was anything I could do to assist them. I thank the principal, the acting principal and the council chairs of both schools for the constructive approach they adopted. I am a strong supporter of the schools and school communities in my electorate and I have been advocating to the Minister for Education on behalf of all Berowra schools to ensure that he understands the needs of our schools. I look forward to continuing to work with schools as the funding program is implemented.

The idea of the fair go is an important part of being an Australian. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is currently being rolled out across Australia, and there is a huge amount of support for it in my community. The program will help nearly 2,000 people living with a disability in Berowra. I have spoken to several organisations who do great work in this space, including Northcott, Studio Artes, Inala, Clark Road School and Warrah School, which I will visit next week. I have also met with constituents who are seeking assistance from the NDIA. It is clear how important the NDIS will be to participants, their families and carers. On 20 March 2013, the Leader of the Opposition posted on his Facebook wall:

NDIS passed the Senate today – a reality that is long overdue and a testament that good government can change lives for the better.

Yet by the end of their disastrous term in government the Labor Party had left us with an unfunded promise and a $4.1 billion funding gap in the NDIS in 2019-20, the first full year of the operation of the scheme.

It is all very well to devise a program like the NDIS, but it is another thing to actually come up with a way to fund it. If that is what the Leader of the Opposition does when he is responsible for one program, imagine what he would do if he had control of the whole of the Commonwealth's purse strings. The modest increase to the Medicare levy announced last night will ensure the full funding of the NDIS into the future and is an appropriate contribution to pay for a program that will support some of the most vulnerable members of our Australian community.

In addition to the recently legislated tax cuts, this budget will deliver additional support for the nearly 17,000 small businesses in my electorate. By extending the instant asset write-off, Berowra small businesses with a turnover of up to $10 million will continue to be able to immediately write-off expenditure up to $20,000 for a further year. (Time expired)

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Judging by this year's budget, there is likely to be one particular group of people that is more disappointed than anyone else. That is the Liberal MPs, both state and federal, representing South Australia. That is because they need to go back to their electorates and explain why this Liberal coalition government completely ignored South Australia in the budget last night. If there was ever any doubt, the 2017 budget has confirmed this government's utter contempt for South Australians. There is absolutely no contribution for South Australian infrastructure projects. There is $70 billion for roads, rail, ports and airports across the country, but not one single dollar for South Australia. This means there is nothing for our roads and certainly nothing for the roads in my electorate—like Marion Road, which prior to the 2016 election the Prime Minister and the then member spruiked as one of their big developments. There is no money for South Road and certainly not for Oaklands Crossing.

The Civil Contractors Federation of South Australia's CEO, Mr Phil Sutherland, said today:

Make no mistake—despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, SA has been severely short changed on funding for major infrastructure projects needed in this state.

Other states have received billions of dollars in the budget, while SA—again, the poor relative—receives a pittance.

The state's peak transport industry lobby group, the South Australian Freight Council, today released a statement expressing their disappointment as well. Their statement says:

There is no new South Australian road infrastructure funding, no funding for SA freight rail projects, and no guaranteed funding for new passenger rail in SA—including the proposed AdeLINK tram network.

The AdeLINK network is a perfect example. It is proposed to go through the centre of my electorate, extending the tram to the beachside suburb of Henley Beach and, of course, to the Adelaide airport. This would create hundreds of jobs and boost the local economy, the local area and transport in the western suburbs. It is estimated that it would create 2,000 jobs over the life of the project. Clearly, we are now not important enough for the Turnbull government, because South Australia will have to jump through multiple hoops to have any chance of funding, while other states just get their projects funded. That does not seem fair at all.

There is also nothing in the budget for the Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Project within my electorate of Hindmarsh. This is despite the fact that doing nothing to address flooding puts residents and businesses in great danger. It is despite the fact that doing nothing could jeopardise important federal infrastructure, such as the Adelaide Airport and the Keswick rail interchange. It is despite the fact that addressing the flooding problems would yield over $240 million in community and economic benefits and jobs for the state of South Australia. It would create hundreds of jobs and secure, most importantly, 2,000 households and businesses in my electorate from flooding.

There is also absolutely nothing in the budget to help local industry and manufacturing. There is nothing in it for Whyalla and the steelworks. There is certainly nothing for Holden workers or associated automotive workers, and we all know how they were chased out by the then Treasurer, Mr Hockey, in 2013. And there is nothing for smaller manufacturers who are providing much-needed training and employment opportunities, like Rossi boots in my electorate of Hindmarsh. The federal government failed to give them a contract last year to locally produce boots for the defence forces, choosing instead a company that manufactures overseas—so much for jobs and growth, so much for the rhetoric we heard before the election. All we heard was 'jobs and growth' but here are some classic examples that could create jobs and growth for the economy. This budget adds insult to that injury and it hits Australians with higher taxes and cuts to schools. (Time expired)

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk about the very positive elements from last night's budget which are set to benefit my electorate of Farrer. There was quite a number of measures of which I am rightly proud. Improvement to counselling for Defence Force personnel has the capacity to greatly improve the lives of up to 1,180 veterans and their families living in Farrer. Fully funding the NDIS will directly help an estimated 3,484 people in my electorate. Our tax relief for small business will provide a tax cut for 20,713 local businesses, and a similar number will also be able to take advantage of the extension to the instant asset write-off for expenses of up to $20,000. And the lifting of an indexation freeze for financial assistance grants to local government will literally pump millions of dollars back into the hands of 14 local councils.

As good as these initiatives are—and they are good—by far the most important long-term proposal we announced last night is the confirmation and go-ahead for the Australian Rail Track Corporation to construct the inland Brisbane to Melbourne rail route. Last night was indeed a rail budget. There was: $100 million for the north-east line, which makes its way to Albury and is a vital public transport link between us and Melbourne; $20 million for the Murray Basin rail project; and $10 million to assess new passenger rail links. By also making inland rail a reality, we are committing $8.4 billion in new equity, which will benefit one of my most important constituencies—by that, I mean farmers. Not that the urban communities of Albury, Griffith, Corowa and Deniliquin are all farmers but in some way or form, each of us relies on agriculture for our existence and prosperity.

The inland rail route will encourage open access, providing the chance for primary producers as well as my local manufacturers and industries to put more freight on rail. The selected route, at least in my part of the world, will follow the existing line from Parkes down to Wagga through to Albury Wodonga and on to Melbourne. I acknowledge there was an alternate proposal by the National Trunk Rail, which would have followed the so-called food bowl route in southern New South Wales. This would have taken a more westerly alignment through Narrandera, crossing the Victorian border at Tocumwal on the way to Melbourne via Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley.

Last night's budget committed additional resources to help communities that will not be directly located on the main north-south corridor so they can also reap the benefits of inland rail. Additional use of existing connecting rail links to the proposed inland rail route will be encouraged, and there is an additional $10 million in works to boost rail connectivity to the Goulburn Valley. Currently, rail freight from Deniliquin and Tocumwal travels through this area to the Port of Melbourne and these routes will be included in a new study. Of course I welcome this commitment but I do suggest that we can go further. Food producers and council representatives from the southern food bowl route argue strongly this western option in our government's thinking must remain alive. We still have time to further investigate the option of fully linking the eastern and western options through southern New South Wales and northern Victoria.

To be blunt, the Australian Rail Track Corporation does not have high reputation in my part of the world. Remedial works done by the ARTC on the north-east track which services V/Line passenger rail between Seymour and Albury was, to quote my neighbour, the member for Indi, 'a shambles'. As a result, there is a crisis of confidence of the ARTC in my region and that needs to be addressed. Has full market testing and cost benefit ratio has been done to ensure we are collecting every piece of available freight to export? Does the route collect the right products and does it take it directly from port to port?

In the distance of the planned feeder rail lines to the main north-south route, is the distance short enough to actually encourage taking freight off-road? I am not sure that we have fully answered all of these questions. The ultimate aim is for inland rail to connect regional Australia to domestic and global markets, bringing Australian rail into the 21st century and building a stronger and more competitive nation. This is $8 billion in taxpayer funds and, as the government of the day, we owe it to everyone to make this project all that it can be. I will continue to work closely with those who support both inland route options to ensure that is exactly the outcome we achieve.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like most here last night, I went from the budget speech to the budget papers looking specifically for things that I thought I might find in this government's latest budget. The first thing I looked for was a commitment to the irrigators in my electorate, the Werribee South growers, to match the state contributions and the stakeholder contributions on an upgrade to the Bacchus Marsh and Werribee irrigation districts. I was sorely disappointed. A mere $11 million is required to ensure the completion of a complete upgrade, and the federal government should be prepared to make that contribution. But, no, it was not there.

To talk about our food bowl in Werribee South, we are 30 kilometres from Melbourne city centre. Our vegetable growers produce 85 per cent of the state's cauliflowers, 53 per cent of the broccoli and 34 per cent of the lettuce for major supermarket chains. This is a project that needs support from this federal government and yesterday they failed to deliver that support to the growers in my electorate—growers, I must say, that have done an enormous job for many years now, for decades now.

The growers do four crops a year in my electorate. It is fantastically resilient soil but it can only take high salinity levels for so long. The answer is in an upgrade to the irrigation channels; a replacement of concrete irrigation channels that are cracked and are losing 40 per cent of water through evaporation. They have put up with that, they have taken recycled water in a shandy mix and they have changed practices because of the high salinity levels. They need support now to get that upgraded. This government has it within its power to deliver for those growers and it needs to think about that. I did expect some commitments last night, given the national significance of our growing district. I am sorely disappointed, as I know our growers will be, that this government did not see fit to match its contribution and the state government's contribution to ensure that we continue to grow the vegetables, and that we continue to have the employment rates and the successful businesses in the area. There is a lot of talk today in this chamber about small businesses. Well the small business growers in my electorate would like some love from this government.

Obviously, I knew already of the $22 billion cut to education, to schools across the country, and I knew what that was going to mean to the 56 schools in my electorate. We were also already aware of the $3 billion cuts to universities. We were already aware that this government likes to kick kids while they are down and in the process was going to reduce the threshold for when loans would be repaid. It is just more sad news for people in my electorate.

What I was really expecting to see in last night's budget and what I am most bitterly disappointed about today is that they failed to deliver that centrepiece on housing affordability that they had teased the populace with over the last few months. They did not deliver on the federal levers that could impact positively on housing affordability. I represent a community that lives in a growth corridor, and we know a lot about housing affordability. We are one of the affordable areas of Melbourne's outer regions where people can still manage to put together some kind of a deposit and get themselves into some housing. But I laughed today at question time to hear that the Treasurer thinks that $30,000 will get you a deposit into the housing market in Melbourne, even in the outer western fringe. You cannot buy much for 300 grand in the outer west of Melbourne. I can only imagine what a $30,000 deposit would get you in Sydney.

So they have failed to do what they could have done, which is to use those federal levers to really have a positive impact. They have failed to put the plans that Labor put forward at the last election into this budget, and in so doing they have let down millions of young Australians who can no longer look forward to being part of the Australian dream and who now have to make a choice between their superannuation, a university degree and the increased cost there, and a deposit for a house. They have dreadfully failed the young people in this country in this budget—as they have failed women.

The last thing I looked for last night about which I thought we might see a glimmer of hope was a report somewhere in the budget about the impacts on women. Again this government failed in an area that had been highlighted for them to address. (Time expired)

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to speak about last night's budget and the benefits that it has given to the electorate of Maranoa, which I proudly represent. I think we as a government should be very proud of the fact that we have put in place a budget that gives real focus to rural and regional Australia, real focus around infrastructure and environment for those people in regional and rural Australia to prosper. That is what our job is as a federal government. It is not to get involved in the daily lives of people but to put in place the infrastructure and environment to allow them to innovate, to grow, to build their businesses and to build their communities. That is what this budget has done.

I think one of the proudest things for which we as a government should stand tall is the $8.4 billion that we committed to inland rail. This is no longer a pipe dream. This is not something that has been sitting out there for 20 years and will never happen again. This is now real and happening, and it is because our government has made a serious commitment, understanding that it will be a corridor of commerce that will open up inland Australia. It adds to the $894 million that we have already spent on this, and, no matter the outcome of the next federal election, no government of any persuasion will be able to turn back this great decision that our government has acted on in this budget. This is a forward step for the people of rural and regional Australia and a forward step for the nation because, if you have healthy regions, you have a healthy nation.

But it also complements the infrastructure that we have already put in place, particularly around my electorate and my good friend John McVeigh's electorate, which I border. There is $1.6 billion that we have put in place for the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing and $550 million for the Warrego Highway. The investments that our government has made have attracted private enterprise to go and invest. The Wagner family out of Toowoomba have created an export hub at an airport that they have created there in Toowoomba that is opening up my community to those trade agreements that each one of us in this government have put in place over the last three or four years. We can proudly look our people in the eye and say they are getting real value for the hard work that they do for the commodities that they produce in Maranoa. The story of Maranoa is 'just add rain'. If we get the rain, the people of Maranoa will be some of the wealthiest people in this nation because we have what the world wants and we have been allowed to open that up through the work that our government has done through the trade agreements.

But we have also understood that we need to invest in our communities, and the extension of the $200 million in the Building Better Regions Fund is just an example of that. We spent over $1 billion in this program that has invested in communities. It is not just about growing wealth for the individual; it is also about us putting back into local communities, building their resilience. I was in Winton only two weeks ago to turn the first sod on the rebuild of the Waltzing Matilda Centre. We have put $8 million into that project to rebuild what is a national icon that we as a nation should be proud and fiercely protective of to ensure that that is preserved as our nation's history.

But I also have to congratulate Senator Nash for reintroducing the Stronger Communities Program, which also allows those smaller organisations right across regional and rural Australia and metropolitan Australia to take advantage of a funding program that will help them do the things that they probably would not have the capacity to do. In Warra, a little community of 200 people, in this last round of this Stronger Communities Program we were able to get them money to invest into their local hall—a hall that brings people together two or three times a year. It is their social event. It holds the fabric of their community together.

We have also done a great job of setting the environment for our youth. I am proud to say that we are now investing in every school across Maranoa—all 167 schools across Maranoa and all 25,000 students across Maranoa—with an additional $391 million in funding over the next 10 years. Couple that with our investment in the NBN and dedicated data plans for distance education children. We should be proud of the fact that we are investing in the young people of regional and rural Australia, because, if we have good education facilities in electorates like Maranoa and in regional and rural Australia, we will keep the human capital that we need to remain in electorates like Maranoa to invest in and to build this nation, to build regional and rural Australia and to drive the nation's economy.

We should be proud of the fact that we have done this to ensure that those communities get the infrastructure and investment coupled with the tax cuts that we have done. We have set the right environment for the people of Australia.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being 8 pm, the debate is interrupted.

House adjourned at 20:00