Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk on last night's budget and, particularly, some of the issues from the budget that will directly impact rural and regional parts of Australia, particularly in my home state of WA. We've seen some tough economic times in the last few years: the impact of the global financial crisis; the end of the mining construction boom in Western Australia; significant volatility in commodity prices; and, of course, the large debt that we inherited from the previous government. We've come through those difficult economic times by sticking to a strong plan to turn the economy around. We're on track to deliver on this to continue to grow the economy and provide benefits to all Australians. I congratulate the Treasurer, Scott Morrison, and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, on their hard work in steering our economy through these tough times and delivering another strong budget.

What this budget does is build a stronger and more robust economy. It creates jobs, it invests in infrastructure and it seeks to attract even greater investment into our business community. This allows the government to guarantee those essential services that Australians need to get ahead to provide for their families. We've already heard a lot about significant tax relief. The government's economic plan will encourage and benefit working Australians with a lower, fairer and simpler tax system, starting with low- and middle-income earners. In the next year alone we will provide important relief to 10 million Australians, with about 4.4 million Australians receiving the maximum relief of $530 per year. In my home state of WA, the income tax relief will benefit over 1.1 million working Western Australians—that is, 1.1 million working Western Australians who get to keep more of their hard-earned income.

The government will also provide significant support to Western Australia in recognition of its low GST share. This budget will encourage and enable business to invest, create more jobs, increase access to global markets to maximise the benefits to Australian companies and deliver infrastructure that the business community can depend upon.

The plan for a stronger economy will support more jobs for Australian families and their children, and set Australians up for greater prosperity. In Western Australia alone there are over 20,000 more people who have gotten jobs since the coalition was elected. We've seen the creation of a total of a million jobs since coming to office in September 2013, with around 1,000 net new jobs per day over the last year alone. Total employment and total full-time employment are both at record highs. We're also ensuring that older Australians have additional support to assess their skills and adapt to the changing economy so they can participate in the workforce and in the record number of jobs being created.

We've got a very significant infrastructure investment package, worth $75 billion, designed to connect our regions and cities, to bust congestion, to set business up to operate more efficiently, to get the goods that we produce to market more quickly and to keep our roads and our drivers safe. In Western Australia we've got $2.8 billion in new major projects, including the $944 million Perth congestion package which includes, most significantly, linking the Tonkin Highway down to the South Western Highway. This is in the electorate of my good friend Andrew Hastie, who has been a champion of this project for a long time. It will serve the Byford growth corridor very well into the future. It will also be a boon to the agricultural producers in the Waroona-Pinjarra-Harvey region, who will use this as part of their corridor to get their products to market.

We also see $560 million for the Bunbury Outer Ring Road, a project championed by the local member, Nola Marino, for many years. It's a very important investment for Bunbury, one that will help both the City of Bunbury in its growth and allow the region that supports that city to continue to grow.

Again, in the rural and regional space we've got a very significant commitment of $224 million of new funding for agriculture over five years. Importantly, we have $121 million for biosecurity. This is keeping our agricultural industry safe and making sure we protect it from pests and diseases that aren't currently present in Australia, and making sure that, when there is an outbreak of something, we will have the resources and capacity to deal with that.

Another part of the budget that I'm very pleased to see is over $50 million for the growing Australian agricultural exports program, which is about reducing those non-tariff barriers to trade in key markets, particularly in those markets that are now starting to open up and that we are starting to see significant growth in thanks to the various free trade agreements that this government has been responsible for.

We are also continuing work with the Indonesia-Australia red meat and cattle partnership. It is building on the good work that's already been done in that space, and helping that industry to continue to grow and to recover from the disastrous ban on live exports that occurred in 2011.

We've also seen a commitment of $6.3 million, over two years, to improve access to agricultural and veterinary chemicals—again, very important—and $6.6 million to target pest animals and weed management.

So, in all, this is a very significant budget that does deliver for agriculture and allows agriculture, particularly in my home state of WA, to continue to thrive and grow.

In terms of other significant programs that will assist rural and regional Australia, of course, there's the $200 million to deliver the third round of the Building Better Regions Fund. That brings the total commitment in this program to $641 million. These deliver very important projects on the ground in our regional communities and are of vital importance.

A few of the projects that've already been funded in this program are things like the Busselton jetty tourist precinct and the Busselton foreshore redevelopment, with a total commitment of $1.5 million, in a project worth $4.5 million—again, championed by the local member, Nola Marino.

In Canning, championed by Andrew Hastie, we see the Waroona Housing Options Village. It is affordable accommodation for the aged—$1.7 million out of a total $3.3 million project. This includes construction of accommodation for nine modified disability units for older people and a community hub, gardens, grounds and pathways.

In the O'Connor electorate, championed by my good friend Rick Wilson, we see things like the South West Energy Experience—$2.7 million out of a total $6 million project. This is the construction of a multipurpose facility, including a retail space, function spaces, a museum, a workshop and a collection of old plant and equipment.

These are very important. They're small amounts of money for each individual project, but they are very important to each of those local communities.

On a more practical note, in Melissa Price's electorate of Durack, there is the Pilbara waste management facility with a commitment of $9 million in a $13 million project. It is very important to the town of Onslow and surrounding regions.

In my remaining minute, I'll touch on rural health. Obviously, getting doctors, nurses and other parts of the rural workforce out into rural and regional Western Australia, and the rest of Australia, is vitally important and something that has always proved to be a challenge. So a Stronger Rural Health Strategy, with a $550 million commitment, is looking to transform rural and regional health delivery by strengthening local health services and delivering more doctors to rural and regional Australia. It means 3,000 additional doctors for rural Australia and 3,000 additional nurses. This is a very significant commitment to the bush, and comes on top of the commitment to the Royal Flying Doctor Service of $84 million to increase the availability of various services and to start to provide mental health services.

In all, this is a very significant budget for rural and regional Australia and a very good budget for rural and regional Western Australia, and, in fact, it delivers for all Australians.