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

I want to talk about the impact of Tuesday night's federal budget on my electorate of Franklin. I would say to my constituents that this has been our most ambitious budget yet. This is a budget about resilience and dealing with the uncertain times which we face with global uncertainty and the war in the Middle East. But it's also a budget for sustainability in the future and reform for the future. It's really important for the young people of my electorate, particularly in terms of some of the housing reforms that we are doing in this budget, particularly around tax.

Importantly, it's also a cost-of-living budget for so many of my constituents in the electorate of Franklin. It means more tax cuts for more working people in my electorate. It means more cheaper medicines in terms of the investments we're making in the PBS. It means our urgent care clinics, one at Kingston in particular that has opened recently, will be there permanently, as well as those other seven clinics across Tasmania, as a permanent part of Medicare,. This is really important for my electorate, and I know that my electorate really values having an urgent care clinic and indeed the cheaper medicines.

The tax relief for working Tasmanians will be $250 in the working Australians tax offset and, of course, the $1,000 tax deduction. This means that the average worker in the country will be, with our three stages of tax cuts, this offset and the deduction, on average around $2,000 a year better off because of action that our government has taken. Of course, they might not feel it, but they are certainly getting relief at the bowser with the fuel excise cut. We know that that has had a big impact on the budget, with a cost of around $3 billion, but we're providing that support to households because we know that the war in the Middle East is indeed impacting them at this point in time. Importantly, of course, the budget also has investments for the future in terms of Australia's security when it comes to things like fertiliser, when it comes to things like fuel and when it comes to things like the supply chain and sovereign capability, which is really important to make sure that we're not in this position again and that we can shield Australians as much as possible as a government from some of the impacts of the current global instability.

In terms of the additional $2 billion for housing investments, Tasmania is eligible for another $50 million. We've already invested now over $860 million into new housing in Tasmania since the federal Labor government was elected, and we can see homes are starting to come out of the ground in Tasmania because of the investments that we made as a federal government. I must say, as a former minister for housing, I'm incredibly proud of those investments. We've seen around 600 people in Franklin purchase their first home through the five per cent deposit scheme since we've come to office, and I know first-hand from talking to local constituents that the increase in the Commonwealth Rent Assistance of almost 50 per cent since we've come to government is also helping renters.

We're tackling the health system in terms of investments into the hospitals, with around $1 billion a year going into our hospital system in Tasmania, and there is around $900 million a year going into education as well.

Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to stand up for local government right across Australia. As a former mayor of a New South Wales regional town, as a former board member of Local Government New South Wales and as a former chairman of the Country Mayors Association of New South Wales, I know the challenges of local government. I have lived with the struggle of stretching limited dollars further than they were ever meant to go. Councils provide essential services Australians can't do without—water services, waste services, animal services—and they are responsible for the roads, for the planning, for the sporting fields, the public pools, the libraries, the playgrounds, weed control, sometimes even aged care, child care and disaster planning and resilience and much, much more.

Now, as shadow assistant minister for local government and territories, I know that the struggle to make ends meet is real for our councils, and I know that this federal budget has left councils right across Australia devastated. After fighting for the financial assistance grants they rely on so much to be increased to one per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue, they have been cut instead. This week the Albanese Labor government announced a financial assistance grants that are now currently sitting at 0.51 per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue will now drop to 0.49 per cent. This is absolute proof that councils have not been heard—or, even worse, that they've been totally ignored by this Labor government. Despite shifting costs and responsibilities onto the tier of government that can least afford it, the federal government is asking them to do more with less.

The statistics show that councils are struggling financially. They are forced to resort to seeking special rate variations or other methods to raise more funds for their communities, with massive increases of up to 100 per cent. No-one can afford that massive bill shock. Once again, it is the local ratepayer who ends up footing the bill; cuts to councils are cuts to our ratepayers.

There are almost 10 million Australians who choose to live in regional Australia. That's 10 million Australians who have been left out in the cold with this budget. Alongside the cuts to financial assistance grants, there is minimal spending in regional infrastructure. The Inland Rail project north of Parkes was cut, leaving my regional communities shell-shocked. Communities, businesses and families have factored this project into their life decisions for the last 10 years. The Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program has gone, under this budget, and there's no new funding for the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program either, in the years to come.

This budget is a nail in the coffin for local government's trust, is the final blow for local government's respect and is the latest in a litany of broken promises. This government needs to remember that state governments can't deliver without local government and that the federal government can't deliver without local government. Councils should be our trusted partners to deliver the services Australians need.