Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to make some comments in response to the delivery of the budget by the Treasurer last night, but before I do I would like to acknowledge in the chamber today my very good friend and Senator elect Bridget McKenzie from Victoria. The budget delivery last night by the Treasurer indicated to us that the government has a complete lack of strategy and a complete lack of substance when it comes to the future sustainability of this nation. The other things it highlighted were the opportunities that have been missed because of this government's waste and mismanagement.

But, firstly, some of the significant announcements last night in the budget were, of course, the announcements around the deficit: $49.4 billion this year, the second-largest since World War II and $8.6 billion worse than was forecast in last year's budget. We have a forecast for the budget deficit in 2011-12 blown out by $9.6 billion to $22.6 billion. We have a net government debt increasing to a record $107 billion in 2011-12. Remember: when we came to government back in 1996, there was $96 billion worth of debt, and that took us 10 years to pay off. The government has managed to rack that up in just a few short years.

Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We just had a world recession.

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note government senators on the other side are already starting to spark up. I am not surprised that they are a little bit tender when things are pointed out about this budget that they really will not like at all. This government is borrowing $135 million a day. What I think will really interest families and people working—indeed, everyone around this country—is the interest on that government debt, which is going to cost $20 million a day. That is, to put it in context for people around Australia who may or may not be listening, $4,700 debt a day for every single Australian. When you look at those figures, how can you possibly consider that this is a good budget for the Australian people?

Interestingly, the Treasurer is keeping the focus, as I am sure he would like to do, on this wafer-thin, $3.5 billion surplus that we are apparently going to get in 2012-13. I say don't hold your breath. The chances of that happening—they may well—are about as thin as the figure that has been presented to us. The Treasurer, you can see very clearly, is using this as a distraction. He is jumping straight to 2012-13, saying: 'Look at this surplus. Isn't this fantastic? We're on track to get the surplus.' What he is not mentioning nearly as often is the almost $50 billion deficit we have this year and the almost $23 billion deficit we have for the next financial year. It is extraordinary.

This budget has no inclusion whatsoever of the carbon tax. That has serious implications for the veracity of the budget. There is no doubt about that. And this is a carbon tax, I might add, that what seems to be a very few short months ago—just before the last election—the Prime Minister promised the Australian people we would not have. This was a carbon tax we would not have.

There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

That is what the Prime Minister said. It did not take long before we had the government—I am sorry: the Labor-Greens-Independents government—which meant that apparently Australia was now going to get a carbon tax. I can tell you right now the Nationals and Liberals will be doing everything we possibly can to stop that. But, having promised not to have a carbon tax and then telling the Australian people they were now going to have one, there is no inclusion of it in this budget. There is nothing. They have completely ignored the importance of one of the most important issues for this country over the years to come.

I want to move on to what this budget has for regional Australia, and I have to say it is precious little. There is no plan, there is no strategy and that is not surprising at all from what is a weak and indecisive government. There is no vision. Where is the vision? Where is the plan for regional Australia from this government? The commitment to regional education in the budget is very big on talk but very short on detail. The attention to agriculture is nothing short of pitiful. There is not much more than empty promises for regional development. There are a whole range of areas, but they are the ones I will particularly focus on today.

What we have seen in regional education is something called the Regional Priorities Round of the Education Investment Fund. What this is is a $500 million raid of the Education Investment Fund for some priorities round that has absolutely no detail behind it—remembering, of course, that that funding was there because of the coalition in the first place. But there is no detail at all on how this will work. What is particularly curious is the fact that in Budget Paper No. 2, where this particular measure for the Education Investment Fund Regional Priorities Round is put forward, it has the rather extraordinary sentence at the bottom saying:

This measure delivers on the Government's agreement with the Member for Lyne, and the Member for New England.

It is unprecedented that in a budget paper there should be a reference to a particular member of parliament. That is extraordinary. It just shows the depth to which this government has had to go because of this Labor-Greens-Independent government. That is what it is: it is a Labor-Greens-Indepen­dent government. The thing here is: who is in charge of this country? This country is like a ship without a captain. We have no idea where it is headed because we never know when the next thing is going to come from the Greens or the Independents that is going to shunt the Prime Minister off in another direction. We simply do not have a clue. It should not be a budget paper; it should be BS propaganda. This is extraordinary stuff from a government that has no idea about strategy and a plan for the future of this country.

I cannot help but compare the use of the Education Investment Fund for this. The coalition has been saying for months that the Education Investment Fund should be utilised to fix the problem of independent youth allowance for students in the inner regional areas. The government would not use the funding out of the Education Investment Fund to fix a problem right now that they have said that they cannot fix because of cost and they cannot possibly fix the Education Investment Fund for that. But what do we see here, Senator Mason? We see that they are quite happy to raid it for some funding that is going to appease the Independents. It is extraordinary stuff. Students across the country should quite rightly be absolutely furious that they have been left out in the cold by this government when there was a perfect funding measure available for this government to use to fix the problem and to treat regional students fairly regardless of where they live when it comes to independent youth allowance. It is shame on the government that they refuse and continue to refuse to fix that measure.

What there is in the budget for agriculture is pathetic. Of the 350 pages, 7½ pages are devoted to agriculture. Take out the five pages that are dedicated to the winding-up of drought assistance in EC, there are 2½ pages. Australian farming and the related sectors generate $155 billion a year in production. They underpin this nation. They contribute 12.1 per cent of GDP. And they get 2½ pages in the budget from this government. That shows more clearly than anything the complete disregard this government has for rural and regional Australia. There is no vision and there is no strategy. It is appalling. No wonder people across regional Australia are screaming out about the complete disregard and the complete disconnection from this government when it comes to the future for regional Australia.

In 2050 we are going to have a global population of around nine billion people, and the issue of food security is going to be huge. This government completely ignore it. They have absolutely no idea. The Treasurer, as we have seen through this budget, simply does not have a clue. He is clearly clueless. Not only did his budget not contain anything significant at all for the future of regional Australia, but we have also seen the Treasurer just recently, apparently, approve the sale of a significant proportion of our grain handling and storage facilities to a privately-held American company, Cargill. The Treasurer has not even gone on the record himself to say that he has done this; this has come from the company.

What this is potentially going to do to this country is extraordinary when we look at the issue of food security. We are potentially going to have a privately-held American company that is not subject to the same transparency as publicly-listed companies having a significant degree of control over our grain silos, through the system, through the rail system, and potentially having a 50 per cent ownership of Melbourne Port. And, in terms of competition, we are potentially going to have the Coles and Woolworths of the grain industry through GrainCorp and Cargill. And what is the Treasurer doing? He goes, 'Okay; that's fine. No problems.' There are no ideas about conditions or anything that should be placed on this. It is the perfect example of the fact that the Treasurer has no idea about what is needed for the future of food security in this nation.

Then we have regional development. This is really quite an extraordinary area. I will just run through a few of the issues. We have millions set aside for a website called MyRegion—which appears to be duplicating other websites and maybe even duplicating the local Yellow Pages, if you look at it closely enough. I think there is about $4.2 million going to that. We have got millions going to regional development committees to do things like funding forums, sitting fees, web engagements and interdepartmental agreements—millions of dollars on this sort of activity—but where are the things of real substance for regional?

I particularly like this one: $19 million on 34 regional strategists, who are actually going to tell regional people what they already know about problems faced with regional education and skills. Compare that to the fact that in the budget the government has failed to address the very important issue of attracting teachers to regional areas and retaining them. The government in its budget has completely failed to address that issue. Then we see that the Building Regions Fund is losing $100 million dollars; yet Sustainable Suburbs gets an extra $100 million allocated to metropolitan suburbs to support employment. This government are completely clueless as to what the strategy is for a sustainable regional Australia into the future. You only to have to look at the fact that they refused to acknowledge the unfairness for students in the inner regional zones when it comes to independent youth allowance to know that they simply do not understand the needs of regional Australia. et us just look at that in the context of the budget. Because of this government's debt, because we are running up to $107 billion worth of debt, this government has to pay $20 million a day. In just five days the government would have enough money to pay for an entire year for the changes that need to be made to the independent youth allowance so that all regional students can be treated fairly—just five days of interest. These regional students are being hung out to dry because this government refuses to fix the problem.

This is a budget that has precious little for regional Australia. This is a government that is clearly unable to understand what is needed in the regions. Where is the plan? Where is the plan that says: in 2020, 2030, 2050, this is how we want regional Australia to look? There is nothing in the budget for them. It is all just about the next election cycle—for the government and the Prime Minister, if she is indeed leading the government at the next election. The Australian people deserved better than that. They deserved a budget that was substantive and they deserved a budget that was going to deliver a strong future for the Australian people, which is what they would have got from a coalition government.

Sitting suspended from 13 : 38 to 14:00.