Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the 2025-26 additional estimates appropriations bills known as AEs. These bills, Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2025-2026, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2025-2026 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026, are appropriations that are necessary for the operation of government. They underpin the Albanese Labor government's expenditure decisions made since the 2025-26 budget that relate to that financial year, including decisions made in the MYEFO.

Firstly, Appropriation Bill (No. 3) provides funding to support a range of important measures. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water received $2.9 billion, predominantly to continue to support the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, which cuts the cost of solar home batteries by 30 per cent so that more people can access it. This is because the program has been a roaring success with huge take-up, especially in outer suburban and regional areas like mine. In fact, as of yesterday, 250,000 home batteries have been installed across the country since the program started in July last year. In my electorate alone, around 2,000 households, small businesses and community groups have installed solar batteries—the fourth highest take-up in Queensland—to lower their emissions and their power bills. This has doubled the battery capacity of our grid, which is good for household power bills and cost of living, and good for the stability of the entire energy system as well.

In the Climate Change and Energy portfolio, we have also committed $1.1 billion for the Cleaner Fuels Program, amongst other measures supporting the government's Net Zero Plan. In the environment space, the legislation provides funding for the government's Local Environmental Projects Program, which is protecting and improving our environment and heritage. One of those projects is the $1.2 million Chuwar Koala and Native Fauna Conservation Park, which will establish a koala rehabilitation centre and outdoor education hub in Ipswich, in my electorate. This is one of the local commitments I made during the 2025 election campaign. It will allow local charity Goodness Enterprises to partner with koala carers, university researchers and experts to rehabilitate injured koalas and release them into the wild. It's a fantastic initiative that will support local koala health and education and protect this iconic species for years to come in our local area.

In addition, Appropriation Bill (No. 3) allocates $1.5 billion to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing for various programs to improve the wellbeing and social and economic participation of people with a disability; continue to ensure access to medicines; deliver evidence-based health policy; improve access to comprehensive and coordinated healthcare; and protect the health and safety of the Australian community. The department will also receive $101 million to support the government's strengthening Medicare reforms, where bulk-billing incentives are now paid to GPs for every patient they bulk-bill and fully bulk-billed practices will receive an additional payment.

Building on our record $8.5 billion investment in Medicare last year, this has been a gamechanger in my community and around the country. In just three months, the bulk-billing rates for all Australians have jumped to 81.4 per cent nationwide, the largest quarterly jump in 20 years outside the pandemic. Australians can now access 3,400 Medicare bulk-billing practices across the country, and the numbers continue to grow every week. Almost 1,300 of these practices were previously mixed billing, and, thanks to the government's delivery, around 96 per cent of Australians are now living within 20 minutes drive of a registered Medicare bulk-billing practice. In my electorate of Blair, new figures show the number of bulk-billing and GP practices has almost doubled to 23, from 13, since November. This is not just about access to health care; it's a vital cost-of-living issue for many people in my community.

The appropriations bills provide funding in 2025-26 for other key Medicare election commitments made during the 2025 federal election, including 1800MEDICARE. This is a $204.5 million investment to provide a free 24/7 health advice line and afterhours GP telehealth service, backed by Medicare, which was launched on 1 January this year. It builds on the former Healthdirect services, expands them to every state and territory and, like our local Medicare urgent care clinics in Ipswich and Goodna, will further take pressure off our hospitals. This is great for my home state of Queensland, where all Healthdirect services were not previously available.

The AEs funding in these bills also supports the government's latest cheaper medicines reforms. As of 1 January general patients now pay no more than $25 for a PBS script. The last time a PBS medicine cost no more than $25 was in 2004, over 20 years ago. This is a more than 20 per cent cut in the maximum cost of PBS medicines, and, for patients in my electorate, it means more than 42,000 additional cheaper scripts are expected to be dispensed on average each year, saving locals in my community more than $1.5 million. Pensioners and concession cardholders will continue to benefit from the freeze to the cost of their PBS medicines, with the cost frozen at its current level of $7.70 until 2030. This builds on previous reforms, which have allowed residents in Blair to save around $9.5 million on cheaper medicines on more than 1.3 million scripts, with savings set to grow following the expansion of medicines eligible for a 60-day script, a fantastic outcome.

Lastly in the health space, Appropriations Bill (No. 3) 2025-2026 commits $1.1 billion for more free mental health services and additional training places. For example, this supports the government's new Medicare Mental Health Check In, which launched in January, offering a free online tool for Australians experiencing mild mental health challenges. This is part of our commitment to ensure Australians can receive free mental health care when they need it and will complement great local services in my community like the Ipswich Medicare Mental Health Centre in the Ipswich CBD, which I visited recently with the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. As part of our $1 billion mental health commitment, we'll deliver a new headspace centre in Redbank Plains, the biggest suburb in Ipswich, to assist the growing numbers of people aged 12 to 25 years in an area seeking assistance. It's a very multicultural area in Ipswich. This was an important shared local commitment of mine at the last election with the Speaker, the member for Oxley, and I'm very proud of it.

In the wake of the horrific Bondi terrorist attack in December, the Albanese government is doing everything possible to keep Australians safe and strengthen social cohesion. As part of the additional estimates process, the Department of Home Affairs will receive $881 million to implement various programs to ensure Australia's security, prosperity and unity by safeguarding our domestic interests from crises and threats, supporting the government's response to the antisemitic Bondi attack and delivering on the government's 2025 election commitment to maintain Australia's cohesive, multicultural society.

As part of this, we've committed $25 million for community language schools, to help students to stay connected to language and culture—including for the Vedanta Centre in Springfield Lakes in my electorate, to support free community Hindi classes. And a shout-out to the Ripley Nepalese community and the Nepalese Association of Queensland—I was there last Sunday for the launch of the Nepalese language class's first session in Ripley Central State School, and I look forward to the Ripley Nepalese community applying for funding under this particular program in the future.

As part of the joint local commitment at the last election with the Speaker and member for Oxley, the Albanese government is investing $5.5 million for a House of India community and cultural centre in the booming Greater Springfield area. This will provide a home for the growing Indian community in Queensland and also serve as a common community asset for the Ipswich and West Moreton region. On top of this, we've committed $700,000 to upgrade the YMCA Springfield Central Community Centre, which will have shared community spaces for multicultural groups to utilise for everything from religious services to sporting activities.

Appropriation Bill (No. 4) provides Treasury with over $325 million to provide loans to Housing Australia to support social and affordable housing projects as part of the Housing Australia Future Fund, or HAFF, including HAFF round 3, which was announced in the 2025-26 MYEFO. This is the largest HAFF round yet and will see more than 21,000 new social and affordable homes delivered across the country. It's a really important part of our $45 billion plan to build more homes, get Australians into homeownership and give renters a better deal. That's why I've encouraged community housing providers operating across the Ipswich and Somerset region in my electorate to apply for funding through this opportunity so we can meet the housing needs of one of the fastest-growing regions in the country.

We're also supporting first home buyers in the MYEFO, with $10 billion to deliver up to 100,000 homes for sale only to first home buyers, and there is $98 million to fast-track the qualifications of 6,000 tradies and establish a new national training centre in new energy skills—a great initiative. These measures build on our other initiatives to support housing supply and affordability, including expanding the Home Guarantee Scheme, which has been hugely popular in my electorate and has already helped many people into homeownership. Since the Albanese government came to power, almost 5,000 locals in Blair have been helped into homeownership thanks to this scheme—one of the highest rates of take-up across the country. Now we're helping more young people and first home buyers to achieve their dream of homeownership sooner, through our five per cent deposit scheme, through Help to Buy and by reserving 100,000 homes for first home buyers.

Looking ahead, the government is working hard to put together our fifth budget. There will be a major focus on inflation in the near term and on productivity over the medium term, and also on making our economy more resilient at a time of extreme global uncertainty—and we only have to see the media reports from the last few days. Developments in the Middle East are an important reminder of the volatility in the global economy right now, and we're closely monitoring the implications for oil prices and our produce.

I've just come from a meeting with Dean Goode, the CEO of Kilcoy Global Foods, and he was telling me about the issues they're going to face not just with the potential increase in energy costs but with getting their produce into the Middle East. They're a big company—one of the biggest meat-processing companies in the country—and they've got two centres in my electorate: one in Kilcoy and one in Coominya. They employ over 2,000 people across the region, so this has a big, big implication for my electorate.

Annual inflation was steady in January—much lower than we inherited, but already higher than we would like because of a combination of temporary and more persistent pressures on our economy. That's why we're helping with the cost of living in many ways that those opposite don't support. That's why we've improved the budget in ways that they're incapable of. We found $114 billion in savings, we've delivered two budget surpluses, we've got our debt down by $176 billion and we improved the budget position in the MYEFO in December.

We know there's a lot more work to be done. We're strengthening the budget at the same time as we're cutting income taxes for 14 million Australians, including 80,000 taxpayers in my electorate of Blair. Because of our combined tax cuts, the average taxpayer will keep an extra $50 a week to help with the cost of living. Of course, if the new leader of the opposition had his way, Australians would not be getting this tax cut this year or next year, and the deficits would be bigger in both years as well. We saw that in the policies of the coalition at the last federal election. I think he was the worst minister in the Morrison government—the worst shadow treasurer in living memory. Fancy going to an election pledging to increase the size of the deficit and opposing tax cuts for average Australians! That is an extraordinary collection of policy failures, and we've seen that recently with their non-released review into the election outcome—quite an astonishing level of failure. But, of course, he's been promoted up, and it goes to show just how incompetent the Liberal and National parties are.

In closing, I want to thank the Treasurer, the Minister for Finance, the Assistant Treasurer and the whole government economic team for the work they've done on these appropriations bills and for their ongoing work through the budget process. The appropriations bills back in my electorate of Blair and support many of my local election commitments and our record of delivery in our region, including my own personally. I'm going to continue to deliver vital cost-of-living relief in my electorate, and these budgets go a long way towards that.

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and Pacific Island Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a great honour, under the Morrison government and also under the former leader of the opposition Peter Dutton, to be looking after the multicultural communities. It was great to meet so many multicultural communities and, in particular, have funding which we put forward regarding making places of worship much safer.

I have my adviser Karthik Arasu here. I want to give Karthik a shout-out because it's his last week here in parliament. He's just had some great news too, with his wife Ankita just having a baby, Kyra. We wish you all the best on that new journey. Karthik, can I just say, first came to my office from the western suburbs and told me about issues in the multicultural community where temples were being damaged. Then he took me out there to meet the relevant people and arrange various meetings. I'd go to other multicultural events and, lo and behold, Karthik, you would be there. Eventually, after three or four months, I thought, 'Well, if he's going to every event, I may as well put him on the staff.' He did a fantastic job. Thank you for everything you did. We look forward to your future working for Jess Wilson, who is, hopefully, the next premier of Victoria. I wish you all the best. Thank you for giving us allowance, Madam Deputy Speaker Scrymgour.

On that note, I'll now talk about infrastructure projects in the seat of La Trobe. Can I just say again that, when it comes to infrastructure funding, it is so important in electorates, especially those like La Trobe. At one stage it was actually the fastest growing growth corridor in Australia. We took former prime minister Morrison out to Racecourse Road, and he made a great announcement there. When it came to Racecourse and McGregor roads, those road project proposals were put forward by Cardinia council—their engineering team. They estimated those projects to be $82 million. That's what we committed and, lo and behold, under state Labor, came back and said, 'Take it or leave it—$398 million,' which is quite a hefty change.

Then we also had Clyde Road. That was $70 million, and it blew out to $250 million—and that's only 900 metres of road from the train line over to the Monash Freeway. I spoke to Casey council. Casey council is a very big council; it's nearly like the size of Tasmania. When I spoke to their team of engineers, I said, 'How could this possibly cost in the vicinity of $250 million?' They just said clearly to me, 'It's the CFMEU.' Then you look around at these projects, and I noticed recently they've taken the CFMEU flags down, but when we have $15 billion of rorted funding from the CFMEU—and can I say, state Labor has allowed this to happen—that really puts pressure when it comes to inflation. People may say, 'Does it really matter because they're getting the money?' But it also puts huge pressure in private industry. When I've spoken to those in construction, they say they now must compete with the CFMEU worksites where they're getting these ridiculous amounts of money, so, for those other construction workers, their costs go up. When it comes to mums and dads buying houses or a commercial project, it just becomes so very expensive.

Another example was the Berwicktrain station. I know the Labor Party doesn't like us talking about train stations and upgrades, but I do note that the state Labor members went and tried to claim the glory for the train station carpark. It was opposed at a federal level, but they tried to celebrate it at the state Labor level. Again, that blew out from $15 million to $64 million of taxpayers' money. I do note that that included a bus drop off and pick up, but that is still an incredible amount. When you went to Maroondah Council, I believe it would be, the Mitcham carpark was constructed for under $15 million. Why? Because the council built it and didn't have all the CFMEU et cetera involved.

Some other great projects we did get involved in are upgrading 36 kilometres in each direction of the Monash Freeway, which is so important, and also other upgrades right across the La Trobe electorate. There's one, though, that was really disappointing, and that was Wellington Road. I first committed funding to the duplication of Wellington Road from Clematis going right back into Glen Fern Road—can I just say, it's a single lane in each direction. There have been so many serious car accidents over the years, and I actually lost my seat in 2010. My last letter was to the now Prime Minister Albanese, when he was transport minister, and it said, 'Do not allow this funding to go away.' It was for overtaking lanes there. Guess what? He diverted the funding. I must admit, it was at the request of Yarra Ranges Shire Council, but that funding should never have been diverted.

Again, back under the Morrison government, we recommitted $110 million for the duplication of the entire freeway. I shouldn't say freeway. It's one lane in each direction. In say that, too, this time we had the cost estimates put together by Knox City Council, Casey City Council, Cardinia Shire Council and Yarra Ranges Shire Council. Knox City Council worked on costs if you're trying to duplicate the road in a high impact area where it's got traffic lights and telephone poles, but it had none of that. Most of it's just bush. That blew out amazingly from $110 million under state Labor to $900 million, and, to my great annoyance, the Albanese government removed that entire $110 million because they said the project couldn't go ahead.

So we are going to have serious accidents and fatal accidents for years to come, but my biggest concern—and I've said this so many times—is that there's going to be a bushfire out that way. People may not be aware, but in 1983 we had the Ash Wednesday bushfires where the township of Cockatoo was decimated as were many parts of the Dandenong Ranges and also down at the Belgrave South area, which is no longer in La Trobe but in Casey. For residents living in areas in La Trobe like Cockatoo, Emerald and Gembrook, their major escape route away would be Wellington Road. If there's a car accident while people are trying to leave—and there's probably 15,000 residents—there are two directions they can go. They can either go south towards Pakenham or go east. It obviously depends on what way a fire's going, but if a fire comes from Bunyip Way, and there's a crash on that freeway—also, the Ash Wednesday fires devastated Belgrave South—residents would be trapped in that area. We saw that in the Black Saturday fires with those residents escaping Kinglake West where they had one car and ended up having a crash. The other cars went in behind and, tragically, a number of people died. So, again, eventually there will be a fire there and, sadly, if there's an accident and the road is blocked off there'll be a lot of casualties there.

When it comes to residents in La Trobe, they've been doing it very tough. We announced back in 2019 work on the children's emergency department at Casey Hospital. It still isn't finished. I think it's started and the work is now supposed to be completed in another two years. I make this point. I spoke to Rob Evans today. Sadly, his daughter Liv took her life. She suffered from an eating disorder. That was the point he was making to me—to make sure hospitals in the south-east are treating children for eating disorders so that what occurred with his daughter, Liv, never occurs to any other children. So, again, we obviously support the bill when it comes to the appropriation.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whilst we have good news on the economy with our national accounts coming out today, our government has been diligently making sure that we're doing what we can to help Australians who have been doing it tough whilst also putting that downward pressure on inflation. It's a privilege to speak on these appropriation bills—the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2025-2026, the Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2025-2026 and the Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026.

One of the things that we've been doing to help with the cost of living for Australians and Tasmanians, particularly in my electorate, has been cheaper medicines, which has been extremely well received. When we came to office in 2022 some people were paying $42 a script. That's now down to $25 on the PBS. It's an extraordinary cost-of-living measure for those people who require regular, or irregular, medications that are really expensive. I know that I get lots of thankyous from people in my electorate when I go out and have a chat to them about how much impact cheaper medicines is having. It's particularly terrific when you have a chat to a pharmacist about how many more people are able to fill those scripts and are not making some of those really tough decisions about whether or not they can afford to fill their script or do some other things that are essential and necessary. The cheaper medicines policy, I think, has gone down incredibly well in my local electorate and around Tasmania.

Of course, many people are looking forward to their tax cuts on 1 July this year and next year. That builds on the tax cuts and the reshaping of the tax cuts that we've provided. I am also speaking to students about the HECS debt cut. Even today, I met with some cattle leaders in my office, who came to talk to me about the cattle industry. They were talking about how we get people involved in the agriculture industry in the future. We had a bit of a chat about education and the additional funds we're putting into school education with our additional funding being provided to the states for free TAFE, where agriculture is going incredibly well, and how many people are taking up agriculture. The discussion, though, was also about how grateful they were to receive their HECS cuts and how much of a difference that is making to them. Whether it be the cattle farmers from across the country, people in my electorate or students who have just recently left school and are in the jobs market, that HECS debt cut has really made a difference to so many people.

Home batteries is another area where we're helping people out with the cost of living. There's been particularly strong uptake in my electorate in Tassie. Certainly I know that many Tasmanians are getting a combination of solar panels and batteries to reduce their energy bills in the future.

There are also a lot of low-paid workers in my electorate in both aged care and child care who are very appreciative of the work that our government has done in relation to providing additional wages, including making sure that people on the minimum wage don't go backwards and that they are able to keep up with inflation. That has resulted in people who rely on the minimum wage now being $9,000 a year better off than they were when we came to office. We know that people on the minimum wage are still doing it tough, but this is certainly making a big difference for them.

The $10,000 for apprentices was also really warmly received, particularly with the shortage of tradies that we have and on making sure that our apprentices complete and the difference that that can make. When you talk about free TAFE and when you talk about the 10K for apprentices—there are certainly a lot of skills that we need in that area to build the homes that we need for Australians. Given the fact that we haven't built enough homes over the last 20 to 30 years and we need to build more homes more quickly, these tradies are going to be critical. They're also critical in terms of the transition, when it comes, to cleaner energy and in our economy and making sure that we have that clean energy.

I've also been chatting to some people who have been taking advantage of the five per cent home deposit scheme and the expansion of that—young people who are getting into the housing market for the first time. But even some people that I know quite well, family members, are saying that, for the first time, they'll be able to get into the housing market because of our decision to expand that program. So I know that that's also been well received.

On paid parental leave—we heard from our Minister for Social Services today—we're also getting that expanded. It's currently 24 weeks. We're expanding it to 26, and we're going to pay superannuation on it. What a difference that makes to young families. It will encourage young people to have children, and they'll be able to pay their bills at the same time. We know how important that has been.

I also want to talk a little bit about the paid prac and how important that is to, in particular, get people into the health services areas where we need those professionals. Paid prac is making a big difference, from talking to some of the students who are completing university and need to go into a placement. Some of them are telling me that, without the paid prac, they wouldn't have been able to transfer their qualification into working in the health system, so that is terrific news indeed.

In terms of my own electorate, the great people of Franklin gave me the privilege of returning me to this place at the last election. Since that time I've talked in here about some the investments that we have made in my electorate. I'm pleased to say the Kingston urgent care clinic has now been open for a week—actually two weeks, I think, now. I'm already getting some lovely emails from local residents who have utilised the clinic and the clinic's services. Of course, we'd rather people didn't need an urgent care clinic, but it's been desperately needed in my electorate, and it's terrific to hear that people are able to utilise that.

I also had the privilege of opening up a headspace in my electorate late last year, before Christmas, for the young people in my community. I had long been advocating for a headspace, and it's terrific to see the service up and running. It has taken quite a long time to find the right premises. It's been very difficult because the area is growing, and space on the ground has been really difficult to get. So I'm appreciative that that is up and running and now providing a terrific service to young people in my electorate.

A Medicare mental health centre is also going to be up and running soon, and for the first time Tasmania is going to get an early psychosis centre for young people with severe mental ill-health. We haven't got one of those. We're the only state or territory in the country that doesn't. This will be really well received in my home state of Tasmania, to help some of our young people who are just surviving and living with the challenges of severe mental ill-health. It's terrific that we've been able to do that.

We have also been investing in local infrastructure. The Mornington roundabout has to be one of the worst roundabouts in southern Tasmania. I have been talking to the state minister, a Liberal minister, who fully understands how difficult this is. Sadly, we have seen lives lost at this intersection of two very significant highways, with a roundabout in the middle and a whole range of other arterial roads. It's terrific that that funding is there, but I am concerned about the Tasmanian state government and the minister—how long this is taking to get progress. I have spoken to the minister repeatedly. I've also spoken to the local mayor and the council about how we can all work together to get this going and get the upgrades that are required. The roundabout will be removed and there will be signals put in place, but there is also a whole heap of other work—on and off ramps on the Tasman Highway to take pressure off that intersection as well, to give people more options. It is really important that this work gets done and gets done quickly. It will save lives, it will improve productivity and it will also remove a lot of headaches, particularly for young families—for parents picking up kids from schools in that area—and for tradies going to Bunnings on their way home. It's a very busy area in my electorate, so this work does need to be done with some haste.

It was also terrific to open the Hobart airport upgrades. Our government invested $60 million, and that means that Hobart airport in Tassie can now take wide-body aircraft for the first time. This will mean that we can work with airlines and we can actually get direct flights out of Tasmania—hopefully, into Asia. We currently now have seasonal flights direct into New Zealand. To have some international options direct from my hometown is huge for Tasmanians, but it's also really important, particularly for our primary producers, to get out some of our great Tasmanian produce direct to some of those Asian markets. I know that, if and when that happens, it will be because of the investments that we have made strategically into the Hobart Airport upgrade.

There have also been some very serious accidents on the Huon Highway in the south of my electorate, and our government is providing $40 million to the Tasmanian state government to do some work for some upgrades on that highway. This is also a really critical part of my electorate because it does take, again, a lot of produce. It takes a lot of aquaculture—so salmon—and a lot of forestry, and it is really important that this road receive these important upgrades. We've also been waiting for a really significant upgrade to the Tasman Bridge. The Tasman Bridge links Hobart's eastern and western shores. The eastern shore is the sunnier side, I say. It's where I live. Two degrees warmer—that's what I tell everybody. And it's true. If you're ever down in Hobart, the eastern shore is the place to go.

And there is the Tasman Bridge upgrade. These are significant safety upgrades. These are safety upgrades to make sure that we can protect people. This bridge, unfortunately, has been a suicide hot spot. I have in my entire time in this parliament been calling for significant safety upgrades to be done to this bridge, and I'm really pleased that $65 million has been provided by the federal government and, indeed, that the Tasmanian state government now have done some further design work. Some of this preparatory work has been underway over the summer. I obviously would like to see this work completed, but I understand it's a busy bridge and it needs to be done in a way that deals with the issue of it also being the busiest piece of infrastructure in Tasmania each and every day with traffic movements. I know that this is a complicated project, but these safety upgrades are really critical, and I don't think there's anybody in Hobart that doesn't want to see them done and done as quickly as they can be achieved.

Then, of course, there's $60 million for the upgrade to the Channel Highway in my electorate and also south of my electorate. This is the duplication of the Kingston bypass, which was actually the first piece of major infrastructure that I opened as the federal member quite some time ago. I think it must have been way back in around 2010, so quite a long time ago now. To see us now providing the money for the duplication shows just how much this area in my electorate has grown. It's still one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Tasmania, and I know that people along the Channel Highway from Algona Road in Kingston certainly want to see this highway upgraded as well.

Again, the Tasmanian state government has to get on with that job. They've got a lot of work to do in my electorate—hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure that needs to be provided and hurried along in my electorate.

At the last election, I was also really pleased with Red and Yellow Day. I note my colleague here who has been heavily involved in lifesaving. We have been able to secure upgrades to two surf lifesaving clubs in my electorate. These are very significant and growing clubs in my electorate, and I have been working with them for some time. I know that they're very excited to be able to get these surf club upgrades. The Clifton Beach Surf Life Saving Club will be getting $980,000, and the Kingston Beach Surf Life Saving Club is getting $910,000. It is really fantastic that they were able to get that. I know that this will have a great impact in those local communities.

We're also, of course, investing in new childcare centres in Tasmania. Tasmania has some of the worst waiting lists in the country for childcare access, and certainly something that I get everywhere I go is the lack of childcare places. We have been working with the Tasmanian state government—again, a Liberal state government who also understand how important it is that we actually get these childcare centres up. There will be $5 million towards a new childcare centre in Huonville. There will also be some funding from the Tasmanian state government, and obviously they are also looking at whether or not they can provide some land. There is $3½ million towards a new childcare centre on Bruny Island in my electorate. This has been needed for some time. Working with the Tasmanian state government, who are also providing in-kind support, we're hoping to get this childcare centre close to the local district school on the island. That will encourage locals to stay, letting them live and work on the island. At the moment it's a bit difficult for them; there are no childcare places on the island at all. This will be very significant for them, and we continue to do that work with the Tasmanian state government.

We also have been investing in Tasmania to get us ready for the possibility of the H5 bird flu, and I'm really pleased to be able to do this as the agriculture minister. It's been terrific to go around to some of the places that have some of our protected species—particularly Raptor Refuge, which has Australia's largest bird of prey, the wedgetail eagle—and to see it upgrade its facilities. It'll be able to do additional biosecurity to protect some of these really precious native species and make sure that, if we do get bird flu, we're able to have that protection.

What my speech here today shows is that we're investing in Tasmania and its local infrastructure. We're investing in my electorate, where it's greatly needed, because it had been abandoned by those opposite when they were in government. It's terrific to be able to do that and to also provide that cost-of-living support that I know is so important to so many Tasmanians.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2025-2026, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2025-2026 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026. For those watching, these bills are about appropriating funds for the government. These funds are for many worthy projects, no question about that. The coalition will be supporting the bills. However, there are some projects that we don't support and there are savings that do have to be made.

Before I start on government expenditure and fuelling inflation and fuelling higher interest rates—the other day I saw a timely newspaper article about the late, great Peter Walsh, the finance minister in the initial Hawke government years. Peter Walsh was a farmer from Doodlakine in the member for Durack's electorate. I was a young man in the 1990s—I would have been just out of school—when Peter Walsh released his book Confessions of a Failed Finance Minister. I remember reading that book and being amazed at the clarity he had about how important fiscal discipline is and how hard it is. And it is hard as a finance minister, particularly in a Labor government that's more inclined to spend money on social programs et cetera. It's an amazing read. I'd suggest that every member of parliament should read that book, because it really encapsulates what's happening to our economy at the moment and the government's mismanagement of the economy. Peter Walsh outlined what would happen without that fiscal discipline, and we're actually seeing that roll out here today.

The government is showing no restraint, and we're seeing expenditure reaching record levels. In the projected years we've seen expenditure as a percentage of GDP: 26.9 per cent in 2025-26; 26.9 per cent again in 2026-27; and 26.6 per cent in 2027-28. These are record-high levels of government spending to GDP outside of the worst of the pandemic years. We're seeing that starting to manifest itself in the runaway inflation that the Treasurer had assured us was back in the genie's bottle. Sadly, for Australian families, the genie has popped out of the bottle. Looking at the commentary of the Reserve Bank governor, that genie is going to run away from us.

As I said, this is all down to out-of-control government spending. I've got a list of quotes here—I'm going to run out of time, so I won't quote them all—where various economists are squarely pointing the finger at government expenditure fuelling inflation. I just want to run through some numbers that Australian families are all too aware of. After four years of Labor, we've got insurance up 39 per cent, energy prices up 38 per cent, rents are up 22 per cent, health costs are up 18 per cent, education costs are up 17 per cent and food prices are up 16 per cent. These are not luxuries; these are essentials of everyday life that Australian families are having to deal with. On top of that, we're about to see mortgage rates rise. They were quite high, and we did have a little bit of relief there for a few months. I think we've had 12 interest rate rises, and we had three cuts. Now we've had one rise, and we're back on the way up, which is very hard for Australian families to absorb into their budgets.

I want to talk about Western Australia for a minute—the great state of WA, which is the engine room of our economy—and I'll come to that in a minute. I'm so glad I've got my friend the member of Durack here.

In last Thursday's West Australian, under the headline 'Bill shock for WA families', it was reported that WA is experiencing some of the highest inflation rates in the nation. The West Australian reported that inflation in Western Australia was running at 4.9 per cent in January 2026, up from 4.4 per cent in December 2025. There are plenty of economists there who would point the finger at government spending as the cause of that. But what that means to families across Western Australia, particularly regional Western Australia, is that, in the past 12 months, child care is up 13 per cent and children's clothing is up nearly seven per cent. At the checkout, beef and lamb are up 12 and 14 per cent respectively. These are everyday costs that families are having to absorb, and they're very hard for those hardworking families to absorb.

I want to get a bit more local and talk about the electorates of O'Connor and Durack. As I said, it's great to have my friend the member for Durack here in the House. Fifty per cent of Western Australia's mercantile exports leave from Western Australia. Between our two electorates, I'll have to give most of the credit to the member for Durack. Much of that 50 per cent comes from those two electorates in regional WA. I've outlined the costs that our families are having to bear, but the lack of government investment and expenditure in our regions is appalling.

We just heard the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry talk about all the wonderful projects that have been announced and funded in her seat in Tasmania. If you live in the seats of O'Connor and Durack, there is no such thing as 24-hour GP clinics. When we checked a month ago—it may have changed—there were no bulk-billing GP services across my electorate in O'Connor. So, despite producing the bulk of the nation's wealth, we're missing out on all of the fruit of that labour. That might be politically expedient, but let me tell you, Deputy Speaker, that getting people to come and live in those small regional and remote towns, to work on the mines and to work on the farms which produce the wealth of this nation, is getting harder and harder. They're looking at the services that people in Labor held seats in the city are getting and thinking: 'Why am I living out here, where I can't get my children to see a doctor? Why wouldn't I go and live in the city and get access to all these services that are popping up all over the place?'

This is an issue that's more than just political expediency. We all understand that, when you're in government, you look after your people, your side. I'm sure there are a few whiteboards around the place. This is an important issue in terms of our country's economic wellbeing. You would know well, Madam Deputy Speaker, that we need services out in the regional areas so that people will live there and develop our nation.

There are a couple of programs that I'll mention in the last minute or so available to me. Last Friday night I joined Co-operative Bulk Handling and about 1,000 WA grain growers to celebrate a 27.2 million tonne grain crop. The problem now is getting that crop to port. There were two programs that the Morrison government were running to assist that enormous freight task. One was called the agricultural supply chain infrastructure fund, and the other one was called the Wheatbelt Secondary Freight Network. These were funds of well over $100 million that were investing in the infrastructure required to get that crop to port and to get billions of dollars of income in for the government. They have been cut under this government, and that is going to make the task for those amazing wheat growers even harder.

Debate interrupted.