Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I put this to you: write to all the people who you would deny their tax cut or their pension increase. Write to them and tell them why. Write to them and say, ‘We don’t support these spending measures.’ If this lot opposite come in here and, as they say they will, make noises about not supporting this budget, this is the letter that they will need to write to Australians whom they will deprive.

Another area that I would like to touch on is the investment in a critical piece of infrastructure: the National Broadband Network. The National Broadband Network is economic infrastructure. I have watched for many, many years the former Howard government play with this piece of public policy to the detriment of just about every Australian business and every Australian person who has tried to get decent internet access and is still paying far too much for it—the legacy of the Howard government’s policies. The National Broadband Network has such foresight and vision. I have to say, and I have said it many times lately, that I did not think I would ever see such a fine policy that got it so right with respect to a fibre-to-the-home network. I am very proud of Labor for making that investment.

The other thing I would like to mention is very future orientated: clean energy. Federal Labor are very clever for investing in renewable energy and clean energy initiatives through both the stimulus packages and now the budget. These are truly future orientated policies. If we are going to be investing in industries of the future, what better industry to invest in than one that will help us provide clean energy. This will help us lighten the carbon print.

As we now know, and this has been reinforced today in every debate like this, Labor are the only party that have the capacity in government to deliver real climate change initiatives. The opposition cannot even work out where they stand on this issue. It must be very awkward for them over there because they are so confused on this. They do not have a substantive position on the very important issue of climate change. They find themselves writhing around, changing their position at regular intervals. In fact, I have seen an excellent document which tracks the contortions that Mr Turnbull finds himself in almost on a weekly basis when it comes to the opposition’s position on climate change and emissions trading schemes and so forth. So it will be very interesting to see where the opposition end up on that critical issue when it comes before the parliament.

Finally, I would like to say a few words about what is going on in my own electorate. I think that is a very important issue for all of us, and I know all of my colleagues in this house understand it very well. This is about real initiatives—real initiatives for all of the primary schools, the secondary schools, our hospitals, our community facilities, our relatively humble investment in the Albert Hall, a wonderful place of civic celebration here in the national capital, and our national capital institutions. Problems are being solved through this budget. In that sense, the investment through the various measures is very welcome in my own electorate of the ACT. There are road chokes and problem areas that are being resolved, and that infrastructure investment will serve the purpose of maintaining a dynamism in our construction industry, which, of course, is on a trend to falling flat as a result of the recession. So we have a clever budget designed for the times, and they are very tough times. It is only the Labor government that has got the measure right, got the balance right and got a budget that is right for the times.