I present the 26th report of the Petitions Committee for the 46th parliament together with 46 petitions and 18 ministerial responses to the petitions previously presented.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PETITIONS COMMITTEE
REPORT No. 26
Petitions and Ministerial Responses
24 May 2021
MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE
Chair Mr Ken O'Dowd MP
Deputy Chair Hon Justine Elliot MP
Mrs Bridget Archer MP
Ms Lisa Chesters MP
Ms Gladys Liu MP
Mr Julian Simmonds MP
Mr James Stevens MP
Ms Susan Templeman MP
Report summarising the petitions and Ministerial responses being presented.
The committee met in private session on 21 April 2021
1. The committee resolved to present the following petitions in accordance with standing order 207:
Petitions certified on 21 April 2021
From 10 petitioners - requesting the Australian Broadcasting Corporation be defunded (EN2511)
From 4 petitioners - regarding a royal commission into suicide and depression (EN2515)
From 5551 petitioners - requesting changes to the means testing for parental leave pay (EN2516)
From 31 petitioners - regarding the category of 'special witness' in court proceedings (EN2521)
From 13 petitioners - regarding healthcare funding (EN2523)
From 4 petitioners - requesting the removal of 'Basic Religious Charity' category from legislation administered by the Australian Charities and Not- for-profits Commission (EN2526)
From 1578 petitioners - requesting an extension of the JobKeeper support for people working in the travel industry (EN2527)
From 36 petitioners - regarding funding of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (EN2530)
From 101 petitioners - regarding transgender and non-binary rights (EN2533)
From 47 petitioners - regarding visa rules for permanent residents (EN2540)
From 6274 petitioners - regarding travel ban exemptions for parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents (EN2543)
From 1009 petitioners - regarding a federal election (EN2544)
From 6 petitioners - regarding the Migration Act (EN2545)
From 72 petitioners - requesting the cashless debit card trial and rollout be halted (EN2548)
From 837 petitioners - regarding the travel ban for international students (EN2556)
From 248 petitioners - regarding veterans' exposure to carcinogenic dioxins during the Vietnam War (EN2557)
From 73 petitioners - regarding the security of the Jetstar booking system (EN2558)
From 144 petitioners - regarding the reclassification of homeopathic medications under the Agvet code (EN2559)
From 2 petitioners - regarding copyright law amendments (EN2561)
From 28 petitioners - regarding amendments to the Veterans' Entitlement Act and its definition of evidence (EN2562)
From 2 petitioners - regarding aged care funding (EN2564)
From 10 petitioners - regarding the regulation of house prices (EN2566)
From 18 petitioners - regarding amendments to the Veterans' Entitlement Act and its treatment of obesity (EN2567)
From 13 petitioners - requesting a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games (EN2572)
From 7 petitioners - requesting mandatory identification for voters (EN2574)
From 28 petitioners - regarding amendments to the Veterans' Entitlement Act (EN2581)
From 1 petitioner - regarding overpopulation impacts on Australian Government Bond returns (EN2582)
From 1 petitioner - regarding overpopulation impacts on superannuation returns (EN2583)
From 3 petitioners - regarding the national health and physical education curriculum (EN2584)
From 268 petitioners - requesting changes to the Defence-related Claims Act to mirror supports provided under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act (EN2585)
From 199 petitioners - requesting amendments to the Interactive Gambling Act to legalise online poker (EN2592)
From 270 petitioners - requesting all forms of gambling advertisements be banned (EN2593)
From 54 petitioners - regarding foreign ownership of land (EN2594)
From 22 petitioners - regarding a ban on advertising gambling at sport events (EN2595)
From 17 petitioners - regarding a code of conduct for Members of Parliament (EN2597)
From 27 petitioners - regarding influenza vaccinations (EN2598)
From 87 petitioners - requesting the House remove prayers from the standing orders (EN2599)
From 8 petitioners - requesting the cost of land be included in the consumer price index (EN2600)
From 8 petitioners - regarding the restriction of childcare benefits (EN2602)
From 6 petitioners - regarding the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (EN2603)
From 39 petitioners - requesting National Relay Service registration be made optional (EN2604)
From 33 petitioners - regarding the Veterans' Entitlement Act (EN2605)
From 441 petitioners - requesting legislation on equal employment (EN2607)
From 77 petitioners - requesting the distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine be paused and subject to further research (EN2609)
From 1837 petitioners - requesting a partial reopening of international borders (EN2611)
From 83 petitioners - regarding the introduction of a Halal certification body (EN2612)
The following ministerial responses to petitions were received:
Ministerial responses received by the Committee on 12 May 2021
From the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development - to a petition regarding the Perth Airport banksia woodlands, wetlands and Aboriginal heritage sites (EN1823)
From the Attorney General - to a petition regarding the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (EN1856)
From the Attorney-General - to a petition requesting majority consent on determining state of disasters or emergencies and for international treaties (EN1916)
From the Attorney-General - to a petition requesting a Royal Commission into Australia's news media (EN1980)
From the Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters - to a petition requesting an independent federal anti-corruption body (EN1982)
From the Minister for Government Services - to a petition regarding a universal basic income program (EN2045)
From the Attorney General - to a petition requesting a stop to employers demanding a criminal history check (EN2071)
From the Minister for Families and Social Services - to a petition regarding changes to the Coronavirus Supplement, Carer Payments, Disability Support Pension and Temporary visas (EN2087)
From the Attorney General - to a petition requesting a royal commission into the treatment of people with disability (EN2113)
From the Minister for Veterans' Affairs - to a petition regarding reparation payments for instances of serious abuse (EN2128)
From the Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management - to a petition regarding a uniformed recycling industry in Australia (EN2158)
From the Minister for Health and Aged Care - to a petition requesting Medicare to cover emergency ambulance transportation (EN2164)
From the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment - to a petition requesting an increase in tariffs and continued economic sanctions against China (EN2269)
From the Minister for Health and Aged Care - to a petition requesting an Australian Centre for Disease Control (EN2274)
From the Minister for Health and Aged Care - to a petition regarding legislation preventing the Australian Government from enacting mandatory COVID-19 vaccines (EN2314)
From the Attorney-General - to a petition requesting a royal commission into the Federation of Australia (EN2349)
From the Assistant Treasurer - to a petition regarding the Australian Government's interference in the property market (EN2379)
From the Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs - to a petition regarding airsoft gun parts and accessories (EN2400)
Mr Ken O'Dowd
Chair - Petitions Committee
I present the following ministerial responses to petitions previously presented:
The petitions I present today focus on a broad range of issues important to the Australian public. These include, of course, COVID-19, alongside other longstanding and important issues such as veterans' affairs, the environment, parental leave, aged care, travel and health. The diversity of petitions the committee receives is representative of the importance of the petitioning process, and the opportunity this provides the public to have a direct voice to parliament.
On related note, I am able to advise the House that the committee continues its inquiry into aspects of the House petitioning system pertaining to security and accessibility. The committee has received 13 submissions, which include several from parliaments from across Australia as well as the parliaments of New Zealand and Scotland. We thank all inquiry participants for their time in putting forward a submission. The committee continues to analyse the evidence as it considers how to best balance the security and accessibility arrangements of the petitioning system. Thank you Mr Speaker, I look forward to further updating the House on the work of the Petitions Committee and the progress of this inquiry.
I move:
That this bill be now read a second time.
They knew. The big coal, oil and gas corporations knew, in some cases as far back as the 1970s, that their product was causing damage and could kill people, but they went ahead and did it anyway. But, just as the law caught up with the asbestos corporations and the tobacco corporations, who knowingly caused harm, so now must the law catch up with these big coal, oil and gas corporations. And that's what this bill will do.
This is a bill for every tourism business that depends on the beauty of nature—unburnt forests, clean rivers free from algal blooms, a healthy ocean not overrun with acidification, and a Great Barrier Reef absent of deathly white bleaching.
It is a bill for every farmer that will again suffer through drought and everyone who lost their home in raging infernos during the fires of 2019 and 2020 or the floods of our last summer.
This is a chance for justice for everyone bearing the brunt of the climate crisis and a chance to make the polluters pay for some of the costs of their pollution. The polluters knew decades ago the economic harm they would cause to businesses, families and communities everywhere, but they went ahead and did it. And, just as the law caught up with asbestos and tobacco companies, now it is catching up with the climate polluters too.
COVID has occupied our recent memories, but we cannot forget the megafires that were of a scale we'd never seen before, flipping over eight-tonne fire trucks and tearing through 13 million hectares. It was made possible because of a prolonged deep drought. Over two long months we lived through dust storms, heatwaves, floods, hailstorms and smoke over our two biggest cities and our capital city, for days on end.
Estimates of the damages from these disasters ranged from $4.4 billion, if we narrowly define 'damage' to physical assets and infrastructure, up to a more credible $100 billion, if we include tourism losses, human health and ecological destruction.
The climate crisis will cause many multiples more damage than the recession that COVID inflicted, and it will permanently impair or destroy businesses. But, unlike COVID, with climate damage we know exactly who is to blame. We know who is pillaging profits at the expense of every single one of us who cherishes our children's future.
The answer is coal, oil and gas corporations. Their business of mining, fracking, burning and exporting their products has turbocharged these natural disasters. They have been profiting from their pollution. With the brief exception of two years during the carbon price, they have never had to pay a cent for the damage that they are inflicting on our society.
Minister Hunt and Minister Dutton and former Ministers O'Dwyer, Brough and Pyne are famously photographed in this chamber celebrating the legislation that abandoned these polluters having to pick up some of the tab for their carnage, instead pushing the cost onto taxpayers.
This latest budget saw a government funded insurance scheme for natural disasters in northern Queensland and multiple new funding streams for natural disasters, but, in the very same budget, a staggering $1.1 billion in new funding for coal, oil and gas companies was revealed. Then, the very next week, the government committed a further $600 million for a new gas generator and $2.3 billion in subsidies for oil. It is crazy.
People feel helpless. They feel anxious and they feel frustrated at politicians who are protecting their political donors—the big corporations—and are not doing what is needed to keep the Australian community safe.
The Prime Minister often says it's the first responsibility of government to keep people safe, but, when it comes to climate damage, he is putting us all in harm's way so that his corporate and billionaire donors and supporters can keep making a buck.
This bill, the Liability for Climate Change Damage (Make the Polluters Pay) Bill 2021, will ensure that victims of the bushfire crisis and victims of other climate impacts will have a pathway to hold big corporations responsible for the damage that they have helped cause.
In October 2016, Noel Hutley SC issued a legal advice on climate change and the responsibilities on company directors. He said that, in his opinion, section 181 of the Corporations Act—which puts a duty of care and diligence on directors—extends to them a responsibility to consider the risks of climate change.
The advice that climate change is a fiduciary duty has since been cited approvingly by our major regulators—ASIC, APRA and the Reserve Bank—who are all now working on their own regulatory frameworks to manage climate risk.
This bill will clarify the situation under Australian law. What this bill does is put it beyond doubt that the coal, oil and gas companies are liable for the climate damage they have contributed to.
This will give survivors of natural disasters the legal right to bring an action against these corporations for damages. It will allow businesses who have been hurt by the climate crisis to bring action against those big corporations who've contributed to it. It will allow farmers affected by the record drought to bring actions against those who have contributed to it.
It will allow the Federal Court to determine the amount of damages that the major emitters are liable for. When deciding, the court may assume that the major emitter's share of the climate change damage is at least the same as their proportion of greenhouse gas emissions, to total global greenhouse gas emissions, and may even apportion a higher share of damages if that's appropriate, especially taking into account what the corporations actually knew.
It will also give state and federal governments the right to seek reimbursement for the damage to public infrastructure, the expenses involved in responding to climate induced disasters, and the cost of analysing, monitoring and researching weather systems and our rapidly changing climate systems. This is fair. The message to the big corporations is very simple: if you broke it, you buy it. You are liable for contributing to the cost of the damages that people are suffering.
These companies have known what they have been doing and the damage they are causing, just like with big tobacco, who knew their cigarettes caused cancer for decades but kept on selling their product, and just like with asbestos. It is time to hold these big corporations to account.
We know that at least since 1990, when the world was put on notice by the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, every corporation knew, from that day onwards, that their product, wherever it was burnt, was contributing to this damage. This bill will make them liable from at least that day onwards. But some knew even earlier.
In an internal memo from 15 May 1981, the President of ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Co. was briefed that, at predicted rates of fossil fuel growth, within 100 years there would likely be a three-degree Celsius rise in global average temperatures and a 10-degree Celsius rise in temperature at the poles. These corporations knew, sometimes as far back as the 1970s.
The law caught up with the asbestos companies and the tobacco companies when it was proved that they knew. We know these big corporations knew at least as late as 1990 but possibly in the 1980s and possibly in the 1970s, and so they should be liable for the damage that they have knowingly caused. This bill will make them liable. In my remaining time, I'd like the seconder of this bill, the member for Clark, to make some comments.
Is the motion seconded?
I second the bill. Climate change will obviously alter every aspect of life in our country, including our health and wellbeing, public safety and prosperity, because climate directly affects every aspect of our environment, society and economy. And there's no question that we're starting to see those impacts already, as the country has been swept by bushfires, unprecedented in their extent and intensity, and battered by record storms, floods and cyclones. No wonder ecosystems are on the verge of collapse and countless species are under threat. Indeed, with a predicted temperature rise of over 4½ degrees in the next 80 years, there will be no 'new normal'. Instead there will only be continually broken records and increasingly unpredictable weather.
Of course, none of this should come as a surprise, considering the 1977 internal ExxonMobil report which stated, with remarkable accuracy, that doubling CO2 in the atmosphere will produce a temperature increase of two to three degrees Celsius. In other words, fossil fuel corporations not only knew about climate change decades ago, but they conducted their own research which showed that burning coal, oil and gas would result in a rapidly heating world. That is why this bill is so important—to hold such brazen and wilful polluters to account, to finally make them pay for the real cost of their doing business. It's also another test for the government and opposition—to support the bill and be a part of the solution or to again look away and remain a part of the problem.
The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
I move:
That this bill be now read a second time.
This bill establishes an independent Commonwealth statutory authority, called the Office of Animal Welfare, that is responsible for protecting animal welfare in Commonwealth regulated activities; for providing leadership on animal welfare matters at the national level, with responsibility for development of animal welfare policy in Australia; and for independently holding the government to account, looking specifically at the activities and decisions of the agriculture minister and the department as they relate to compliance with, and enforcement and effectiveness of, Commonwealth animal welfare laws.
The office will be headed up by an independent CEO, who will be assisted in their functions by an advisory committee made up of members drawn from animal welfare organisations and various professions, with a cross disciplinary focus on animal welfare.
Importantly, strict conflict of interest rules will apply to both the CEO and advisory committee.
The establishment of an independent statutory authority is vitally important, not least because there's been a lack of leadership at the national level ever since the Abbott government withdrew funding from the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy and disbanded the entire animal welfare unit within the department of agriculture.
Moreover conflict of interest concerns have been raised multiple times about the development of policy and the oversight of regulation in the agriculture department, for example in the 2018 Moss review into live export, and in the 2017 Productivity Commission report on agriculture regulation.
Indeed the Productivity Commission recommended a similar model to the office proposed in this bill, citing failures of independence, transparency and communication in the regulation of agriculture in Australia, a lack of scientific basis for regulatory standards and pointing to a conflict of interest in the federal department of agriculture in managing animal welfare responsibilities.
Among other duties the office will have responsibility for reviewing and monitoring the export of live animals, including treatment of animals exported from Australia at foreign abattoirs and any breaches of animal welfare laws along the live export chain.
This is necessary and important, because while the government did install an Inspector-General of Live Animal Exports in early 2019, that role is limited to high level reviews of the sector broadly. But no such restriction would apply to an Independent Office of Animal Welfare, which could inquire into specific breaches.
In fact, the actions of the Office would actually compliment the inspector-general's role because the Office of Animal Welfare could examine specific concerns, like when in June 2020 the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment granted an exemption to the northern summer live export ban, allowing approximately 35,000 sheep to be shipped into the Middle Eastern summer on the vessel Al Kuwait.
This of course was a shocking failure of regulatory oversight, considering the government's own after-voyage report stated that 1,000 sheep on that voyage were exposed to score 4 on the heat stress scale, which is the highest level on the scale. This means the sheep were panting with open mouths and tongues protruding. Score 4 has never before been recorded in one of these reports.
The Office could also have investigated, for example, the August 2020 breaches of export rules in Jordan when footage taken by local investigators for Animals Australia showed sheep with Australian national livestock identification ear tags being forced to jump off the backs of trucks and then being dragged by one leg and bundled into cars for home slaughter, which is banned under Australian animal welfare rules.
Other ways this bill will better protect animal welfare in Australia include that the office will undertake inquiries, commission research and prepare reports into not only live animal export but also research and education on animal welfare, commercial use of kangaroos, importation of animals and introduced species. The office will also oversee the development and transition from the model codes of practice for the welfare of animals to the Australian Welfare Standards and Guidelines.
Currently, of course, this process is being managed by Animal Health Australia, a body comprised of 34 member organisations, none of which are animal protection organisations and most of which represent animal use industries—for example, the Australian Chicken Meat Federation, Australian Dairy Farmers and Australian Pork. In other words, industries are essentially writing their own regulations. No wonder animal organisations like the RSPCA believe the new standards are at risk of just mirroring industry practice, not best welfare outcomes, due to the current development process.
It's worth noting here that this bill is similar to the one proposed by Senator Lee Rhiannon in 2015, which received broad support from the RSPCA, lawyers and veterinarians groups. Moreover, there are similar national animal welfare advisory committees and offices in other developed countries, including New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Regrettably, though, the independent office of animal welfare I propose here today would necessarily be limited to those matters the Constitution allows the Commonwealth to act on, which makes the office, as important as it would be, but a start in addressing the animal welfare crisis confronting our country. And a crisis it is when you tally up all of the issues. Sure, the issue of live animal exports gets much attention, as it should, but what about all of the other animal welfare problems in this country?
For example, steeplechase or jump racing is still legal in South Australia and Victoria, where at least 74 horse deaths occurred between 2009 and 2020. Greyhound racing is legal everywhere, in every jurisdiction, except the ACT, despite the well-documented cruelty in that industry. Whips are legal in horseracing in every jurisdiction in the country. Sow stores are still used by 20 per cent of pork producers, and farrowing crates are still used throughout the country. Then there's the free-range hen standard—10,000 hens a hectare when it should be as little as 1,500 hens per hectare or less if we are to be fair dinkum about animal welfare. There are puppy farms everywhere, although some meaningful regulation has occurred, to their credit, in Victoria and here in the ACT. Then, of course, there's aquaculture. We know very clearly that fish and crustaceans are sentient beings, but yet we're seeing an increasing amount of farmed fish in this country, despite all of the well-documented problems in that industry, including what's happening to the poor seals that dare to interfere with the trade.
We have an animal welfare crisis in this country, but this bill will go some meaningful way to address that. Again, this is another test for the government and the opposition: to support the bill and to be a part of the solution or, again, to look the other way, to pretend there isn't an animal welfare crisis in the country and to remain a part of the problem. I now invite the member for Melbourne, who's seconding the bill, to offer some comments in my remaining time.
Is the motion seconded?
I second the motion. If parliament doesn't act to put in place strong laws to protect animal welfare then no-one else will, because too much of our economy and our society at the moment is premised on the suffering of animals, and too often we only find out about it when brave activists, whistleblowers or journalists expose wrongdoing. We've seen that in many areas. We've seen it in the racing industry and, of course, we've seen it in the live export industry, an area which I've been proud, together with the member for Clark, to come in here and introduce several bills to ultimately phase out over time-out. But what we see time and time again are promises that things will get better but then they don't and the suffering continues. That is why what we have to do is not leave it up to brave activists, whistleblowers and journalists to continue to do their excellent work but, instead, put in place some strong standards to protect the welfare of animals in this country. That would start by having an independent office of animal welfare.
This is something that the Greens have been doing for some time. It has been our policy for some time to have an independent office. It cannot be an office that is subsumed to the whims of the department of agriculture, because that would just put in place a conflict of interest. It needs to be an independent office that reports directly to the parliament so that everyone in this country can have confidence that we are treating our animals properly and we are looking after animal welfare. There needs to an independent office that has some teeth, because we are sick of the scandals, and we need new laws to make sure that animals' suffering is reduced and eliminated. I commend the member for Clark for introducing this bill.
The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
I move:
That this House:
(1) recognises the important work being carried out in Australian businesses to research and commercialise new ideas;
(2) acknowledges that the Government has supported those efforts in many ongoing ways, including:
(a) fostering business collaboration with the CSIRO;
(b) the research and development tax incentive; and
(c) Accelerating Commercialisation grants under the Entrepreneurs Programme; and
(3) congratulates Australian companies that are developing and commercialising new ideas, including Naturo Pty Ltd, which has developed a way to extend the shelf life of fresh milk up to 60 days and is creating a pilot manufacturing facility as a result of its recent Accelerating Commercialisation grant.
I think the Australian people are very clear when it comes to this government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic that it has been a pragmatic one, not an ideological one. It has been pragmatic and it has been successful. The Australian people are very accustomed now to hearing the key principles upon which government measures have been based, principles that include the need for measures to be targeted, to be temporary and to be commensurate or proportionate.
What has been less accentuated are some of the ideals that have underpinned the government's response. One such ideal is the importance of the business sector: the importance of private enterprise and the Australian workers who are part of the private system. Such is the strength of the faith that we have in business that the key measures to ensure that the Australian economy and its supply chain are maintained throughout the pandemic have relied principally on the business sector. Of course, people are familiar with the JobKeeper program. It was a program that was not established as some shiny new mechanism creating something completely afresh with new IT systems. It was not a system that sought to ensure that government was at the centre of what was fundamentally a welfare program. Rather, this government adopted a job keeper program that ensured that existing systems, from the tax office through to the payroll systems of individual businesses, were leveraged. We introduced a system that ensured that the relationship between employer and employees remained. This really goes to the ideal of ensuring that businesses are put at the centre. So too does the motion on which we are speaking now recognise the importance of the Australian business community, in particular its work in research and development and the commercialisation of new ideas.
As somebody who spent much of his 20-plus years before politics in business overseas in foreign markets, I can assure members that there is something truly pioneering and entrepreneurial in the Australian DNA. In many cross-cultural workgroups it will often be the Australian who is able to work through problems, working collaboratively with people from different cultures and different markets. There is something fundamental in our DNA as a nation, which is why we as a government need to continue to support businesses with their own research and development to unleash their entrepreneurial spirit, and with that enhance the productivity of our nation and also the jobs that come with it.
In this budget we have seen $475 million to drive industry growth and scientific development, in particular focusing on an increase in workforce skills when it comes to cybersecurity; a boost for university scholarships, particularly to assist women enter the research realm around STEM; and a new global science and technology diplomacy fund. We also introduced a patent box with competitive tax rates for commercialisation.
These new measures build on existing schemes and programs through the CSIRO, the R&D Tax Incentive scheme, the Entrepreneurs' Program, the Business Research and Innovation Initiative, and the CRCs—the Cooperative Research Centres. Today I want to emphasise the entrepreneurship program in particular, because it has helped over 20,000 businesses receive customised advice and support, and 531 businesses have received Accelerating Commercialisation Grants. Those grants are critical to ensuring world-class technology continues to be led from Australia. I want acknowledge in particular Naturo, a company based out of my electorate in Coolum, which received a $1 million Accelerating Commercialisation Grant. Naturo are building a pilot manufacturing plant that will allow a world-first patented technology for processing milk that not only is superior from a nutritional point of view but has the capacity for 60-days shelf life. That's innovation, that's Australia and that's what this government supports.
Is the motion seconded?
I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
I appreciate the member for Fairfax's intent in bringing this motion, I really do. But I do believe the member needs to acknowledge that it his government that has presided over successive cuts to the CSIRO that have—and that continue to—impact on its capacity to foster innovation and research. Under former Prime Minister Abbott, this Liberal-National government cut $111 million from CSIRO in 2014, leading to the loss of 11 per cent of its research staff and an overall loss of 12 per cent of its total workforce. In the five years or so since then, the CSIRO now has 215 fewer research staff than when this LNP government first took office. The 2015 staffing cap on the Public Service has left the CSIRO, the institution responsible for the invention of technologies like washing liquid, Aerogard and wi-fi, unable to keep up with the demands of its own scientific capacity.
The member also needs to acknowledge that most research and commercialisation happens at universities, and this government has brought universities to their knees, with funding cuts of around 10 per cent in last week's budget alone. The Vice-Chancellor of the ANU, Professor Brian Schmidt, said universities had been 'left to bleed' in one of history's biggest spending budgets for other parts of society. He said:
There is nothing of note for our universities, except for $1.1m to support industry PhDs and additional flexibility for student visa holders when it comes to working hours. This is not only a real shame but a missed opportunity; universities are vital to our future prosperity.
I want to illustrate the real impact of this government's decimation of research capacity in Australia with a WA example—ClearVue technologies. ClearVue originally developed their technology with Edith Cowan University, my alma mater. They developed a prototype of clear glass solar panels that can be applied across a range of sectors—in building, agriculture and renewable energy. They are now trialling it with another university in Western Australia, Murdoch University, and last month launched the world's first clear solar greenhouse, located at the university and constructed with their patented, innovative, energy efficient and energy generating photovoltaic glazing panels. It's a mouthful! The greenhouse will be used to conduct agricultural research aimed at addressing the current drive for renewable energy and global food security. The Treasurer said in his budget speech last week that this government wants to see more innovation commercialised in Australia. To me, those words are empty. They are completely empty when their new patent box announcement excludes the clean energy sector and innovations like those of ClearVue. You cannot say you support research and innovation and exclude an entire sector in which Australia has the potential to lead the world.
Our country lags well behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to investing in research and development. As a result, Australia ranks 22nd in the world on the Global Innovation Index, and we're going backwards. It's a real shame and a real kick in the teeth to all of those smart, inventive researchers in Australia who are having to look elsewhere for ways to commercialise their innovations.
This government likes to talk about innovation. It likes to use words like commercialisation, but they've failed over eight long years to ensure adequate funding for fundamental research that is essential for applied research and commercialisation. It is simply the case that this government's talk about research and commercialisation is just that—talk. Empty words, announcements and media opportunities are all shadowed by a long history, an eight year history, of successive cuts to the institutions that generate research and commercialisation. While I respect the members putting forward this motion, they really need to understand exactly what they are doing to decimate research and commercialisation in Australia.
It's always a privilege to follow the member for Cowan, because it's always the opportunity to hear directly of the talking points from the Labor Party and their latest grievance. But, of course, as we know with this motion that's being moved that it's all talk and no actual substance from the opposition in comparison to the practical action this government is delivering.
I agree with the spirit. We do talk about commercialisation a lot and we do talk about innovation a lot, because the focus of this government is how do we build the Australian economy of the future. When it comes to not just innovation but making sure that innovation is utilised in a practical way to deliver outcomes for people, you do need things like development and you do need things like commercialisation to take it through the full life cycle to make sure that we create products and innovations and services that improve the lives of not just of Australians but people all around the world. That's something we should be proud of, because—I'm afraid I'm going to have to go back to basic economics—when you create goods and services that are innovative and in demand that improve people's lives, you actually improve people's economic, social and human welfare, So we're are very proud of that.
That is the focus of this government: How do we do it to make people's lives better? How do we make sure the future is going to be awesome? There are practical measures we take at every step, including in this budget where there is significant investment in scientific research and development. In fact, there was $475 million to drive industry growth and scientific development. But the practical reality is that we as a government don't focus solely on what the government can do to drive innovation, because, politely, Deputy Speaker, as you may know I'm not a particularly big believer that government is the answer to all of our societal or economic woes but actually it's how do we mobilise private capital to invest in the future of building and the sustainable development of this country and develop research and development. We have a very proud record in that space. That's why we focus so much on what it is we need to do to drive innovation and mobilise private capital to be able to invest in new products and new innovations. That was what the focus of the patent box announced in this budget did. It's a trial mechanism, which the member for Cowan has outlined, limited to what we need to do in the medical research space. But, let's face it: what it could do is provide an innovative regulatory framework and tax framework which might then be able to be replicated elsewhere. Do you know why, Deputy Speaker? It's because we're cutting taxes for those companies. If we cut taxes for companies, you get more innovation, more capital, more commercialisation and more outcomes.
We know the members of the opposition oppose tax cuts to drive growth, whereas this government is very proud of the fact that, if you want to have patents based in Australia, if you want innovation and research in Australia, we'll cut your taxes so we can grow jobs, so we can employ scientists, so we can employ people who develop products and commercialise them to get to them to the market. That's because a simple understanding of the life cycle of what drives economic behaviour and job creation is at the heart of the government's budget to deliver improvement.
So we're immensely proud of out patent box. We talk about it all the time. We're so proud of our patent box and we hope, and I as the member for Goldstein certainly hope, that we can cut more taxes for more businesses into the future, and I make no apologies for that. It's good to finally hear the member for Cowan arguing for massive tax cuts for companies that want to invest in the future of this country, because the basis of her complaint is that it the patent box isn't broad enough. Well, I kind of agree with that. I'd like to see it go bigger and broader to create an environment that fosters jobs and growth.
Of course, there is also huge support for other agencies within the government, like the CSIRO and cooperative research centres, with R&D tax incentives across the board because we know that innovation does not come from monopoly government. We know it doesn't come from one institution harbouring all the wealth and knowledge of the country to drive innovation. We understand that it's through a decentralised model, to make sure that we have a thousand different innovative projects because some will succeed and some will fail, and the more you create and foster an environment for growth the more likely you are to have an innovative future Australia.
This issue we're debating is not something that has just popped up out of the blue. The nation has been focused on this for years, for decades—countless reports, one after the other. In fact, this government has not had just one report done on commercialisation, under its minister Alan Tudge; it had another one done under the former industry minister. They've had two reports in the same government. This is like children playing together in parallel. They are doing the work and not talking and they're not able to find a way to get this issue sorted out.
The issue itself is big. Australia keeps lagging in, falling down, the Global Innovation Index. Why? We have tremendous talent in this country—the human capital side, fantastic; the translation side, terrible. This has been going on for years. Remember that thing they used to call NISA, the National Innovation and Science Agenda—or, as I like to call it, NISA one-point-only, because it never ever came back. It disappeared.
So this is a big issue. It needs dedicated thought. It needs effort. It needs an ability to coordinate portfolios to make it happen, it needs coordination in the broader community to make it happen and it needs an industry minister that is actually focused on it. Where's the industry minister? Even that side is asking where he is. Where's the industry minister in terms of focusing on this? He is not focused on this. This is not his day job. Industry is not his day job. His day job is a legal defence. That's what he's focused on. But he's not focused on the stuff that matters. Hello, Christian! Where are you, Christian? Because he's nowhere—
Order! The member for Chifley refer members by their proper titles.
Well, he's got the title, he accepts the salary but he doesn't do the job. Last year alone, 50,000 manufacturing workers—50,000—lost their jobs, and he's only focused on his defence. That's the only thing he's focused on. So we will not see—I bet you any money, because the shelf life of industry ministers under a coalition government is less than a year. This guy's just mailing it in. The industry minister's just mailing it in. He's not serious about coming up with ways in which to deal with these hard issues of commercialisation. He's not interested in protecting manufacturing workers' jobs—always slow to the party because he ain't fixed on the job.
I'll give you another example. Whyalla steelworkers were under pressure because they were wondering what was going to happen to Sanjeev Gupta's empire because Greensill collapsed—Greensill, which soaked up all these spivs from the Liberal side; any time they wanted a job or a donation, they were right next to Lex Greensill. There was a concern he'd cause a collapse in the steelworks. I write to the industry minister. I say to the industry minister, 'What's plan B for the steelworkers? What's plan B? What is your government going to do to make sure that, if this falls over, people are going to be protected?' I hear nothing from him—nothing at all. Then, just to let you know, Sanjeev Gupta, to the massive relief of steelworkers everywhere, got the refinancing. Guess when Christian Porter writes to me? The same day—he comes back to me then. You're not doing the day job, Christian—I mean industry minister; apologies, Deputy Speaker. If he is focused on that, I'll actually concede. I get it's a big issue for him personally, but he should do the right thing, step back and let someone else focus on protecting the jobs of Australian workers instead of taking the money and not being there when Australians need him.
The government have all these programs. They've just announced this patent box. We'll see if it stacks up. I'm not convinced yet. Let's see if it stacks up, because the thing about the government is that they move on to the next shiny thing to distract you from the last thing that didn't work. If you go through the litany of different things these people were doing in this space, claiming it was innovation, nothing actually came out of them. But they thought, 'Got to distract them with a new idea!' Josh Frydenberg, the Treasurer, goes to the UK a few years ago, sees a patent box and says, 'We're going to do this.' We wait. Years later, they announce it in the budget. Let's see if it stacks up. Call me a cynic; I reckon it won't. But that's just me. I'm happy to see if the gurus on the other side make it work or if it's just another example of a flash announcement waiting for a poor delivery.
It's a pleasure to speak to this motion about something that's incredibly important to the economic future and prosperity of Australia. This is really about innovation and making sure Australia remains competitive in a world that is increasingly driven by ideas rather than physical goods. This is because the nature of value creation in a modern economy is changing.
Increasingly value resides in data produced rather than in physical goods, increasingly services rather than products dominate economic and commercial activity in our countries and increasingly spaces, often virtual spaces rather than physical places, are the marketplace for a huge amount of economic activity in this country and, indeed, around the world. If you look at the biggest companies by market capitalisation in the world these days, they're all companies that basically deal in information and data. They're quite light on physical infrastructure but very heavy on the use of data.
In 1967 in the United States, the largest companies by market capitalisation were General Motors, Standard Oil, Kodak, AT&T and IBM. If you look at the United States today, a little over 50 years later, none of those companies would feature in the top 20 companies by market capitalisation in the United States. Instead it's companies like Apple; companies like Alphabet, which owns Google; companies like Microsoft; companies like Facebook; and companies like Amazon. In our own region, we've got companies like Tencent in China and also technology related companies in Japan and Korea. I think that tells us something: if we in Australia want to remain a high-skill, high-wage economy that's able to provide a generous social safety net, we need to make sure that we're at the edge of that value creation too. You'd have to say that, at this point, we're not. If you look at the ASX 20, the only genuine technology company that I think you could highlight is CSL, which is a genuinely competitive, world-class Australian company. But most of the rest of the ASX 20 is still dominated by quite traditional industries—banking, telecommunications and insurance as well as natural resources.
Australia have a lot of the ingredients, I think, to be a very competitive, knowledge-intensive economy. We have a highly skilled workforce, we have great research institutions and universities, and we have deep and sophisticated capital markets. But up until this point—and it's true—we haven't been great succeeders at commercialising some of these ideas and turning what is an incredible raw product into a marketable product that can drive economic activity.
If you look at our universities, for instance—and I think this is really one of the missing pieces in Australia's commercialisation challenge—we've got some of the greatest minds in our country in our large research institutes. We've got 80,000 research staff employed altogether in Australia. Twelve years ago our universities spent $2.8 billion on research and we produced 23,000 publications. Today, 12 years later, the corresponding figures are $12.2 billion being spent on research, almost a fourfold increase, and over 100,000 publications, so the output, if you like, of research in our universities has grown fourfold in the last 12 years. But has that had an impact on our universities? Have we seen more commercialisable ideas come out of our universities? Have we seen new businesses, new companies, new enterprises come out of our universities in the last 12 years? I wouldn't say that there's been a quantum leap anywhere commensurate with the research activity inputs that have gone into producing our research. I think in part—and I know the minister has touched upon this—it's because the focus of the universities has been on international rankings, which has led to a drive for international students to fund the larger research volumes and publications that allow universities to drive up the rankings, and neglecting a bit the production of ideas, which can not only improve society and better our economy but lead to commercial outcomes as well.
I believe we've taken important first steps in the budget to begin to address this. We already spend significantly on the R & D tax incentive in Australia, and that is one of the largest single items we do to support R & D. We've also announced, of course, the patent box in this budget, which will initially focus on biomedical and biotech industries and over time, I hope, will grow to other areas. We've also assembled a task force of some of the best minds in our country to provide advice. The task force's consultation paper, which is about raising our level of research commercialisation, has now been released. This is an important challenge for Australia, and it's important we get it right for our economic future and the prosperity of our children and their children.
It's great to see that members of the government are allowed to use the word 'innovation' again because, for quite some time, it was clearly banned on that side of the parliament. But it's a shame, really, that the debate about innovation seems to be held in a vacuum of understanding what it really is, and against a backdrop of, according to the Global Innovation Index, Australia having fallen three places since 2018, from 20 to 23. That's because the government doesn't understand innovation. Much of the debate about commercialisation that we see coming from the government falls back on some sort of linear model of innovation and doesn't appreciate what the evidence says. It would be worthwhile, members of this chamber, looking to innovation economists like Keith Smith and Jonathan West who make the point that perhaps the most important result of modern innovation research is the rejection of the so-called linear model of innovation—namely, the idea that the innovation process is essentially based on processes of scientific or technological discovery and that the innovation process consists of translating research into new products.
We have a government that is now trying to talk about research commercialisation, but doing so against a backdrop of the massive economic impact on our universities of not just COVID but this government's ongoing attack on higher education: its failure to support universities through COVID; its so-called 'reforms', which will actually lead to fewer students studying the sorts of subjects that are needed to be innovative researchers and scientists and, most importantly, innovative thinkers. So, no matter how many times this government and members of the government start to use the word 'innovation', we know that universities are really going to struggle to provide graduates with the skills relevant to today's and tomorrow's labour market under the conditions that this government sets.
This government, as the member for Chifley pointed out, has had a number of reviews of the R & D tax incentive—in addition to trying to get rid of the entire thing, mind you—including the Industry Innovation and Science Australia review and the review by John Fraser, Alan Finkel and Bill Ferris. These reviews pointed to what, really, the world has been arguing for some time: Australia has an imbalance between its direct funding for innovation and indirect tax incentives. The independent reviews that the government itself asked for proposed a new agenda that was rejected, which is really modus operandi for this government, isn't it? 'Got a problem, got an area you don't know what to do with?', which is most areas. 'Ask for an independent review and then ignore the recommendations.' The government now has chopped and changed all over the place, when it comes to innovation policy, and pretended it didn't exist for a while post Turnbull. And it's now possibly even going in the opposite direction. There should be more collaboration between research and industry, but this government hasn't done anything to make that happen.
Since the cuts to the innovation programs in the 2014 budget—when the industry innovation precincts were cut and rebranded 'Industry Growth Centres', when successful commercialisation programs were cut and rebranded 'Accelerating Commercialisation', when Enterprise Connect, which supported the mass of SMEs to innovate and adopt, was abolished—there has been a total absence of a coherent industry and innovation policy for this country. Whilst I admire the intent of the member who put this motion forward, to include this government's support for CSIRO is, quite frankly, mind-boggling. This is a government that sought to destroy the credibility of our national science agency not just with budget cuts but with longstanding denial of the important work of mitigating climate change. To suggest that this government is a friend of the CSIRO is unbelievable. Other countries invest serious resources in industry and innovation ecosystems, but we aren't doing it properly in Australia. The government is not dealing with the big structural economic shifts to skills and technology, to the clean economy, to the caring economy. We need to do this in order to have an economy that is innovative, sustainable and inclusive. That's the economy that will provide Australians with opportunities in the years ahead, not the economy that this government is working on.
I want to end my contribution with a shout-out to a local innovator and entrepreneur, Nat Stratos, whose jewellery I am wearing today, who uses 3D patterning, zero-waste design, compostable and upgradable materials and a closed-loop program to ensure artefacts, beautiful jewellery, can be reinvented, recycled and regenerated. Her mission is to create circular, responsible and ethical design by innovative technique and a commitment to renewable products—and it's beautiful jewellery as well. That's what manufacturing locally looks like in my community.
Order! The honourable member's time has expired—and I hope you're not getting a commission, although you deserve one after that!
It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak on the motion by the member for Fairfax recognising the importance of innovation but, more importantly, the ecosystem that this government has put around supporting business right across our economy. Australia's broad based R&D tax incentive seeks to encourage industries to undertake research and development in Australia. We have a tremendous track record in this country of research, development and innovation. There are any number of inventions over the past 100 years that we could point to, such as the black box flight recorder, various vaccines and a whole range of things. We know our country does very, very well in solving problems.
One of the problems we have had traditionally, though, is commercialising many of those things. But, importantly, the ecosystem is there in the first instance, through supports such as the R&D tax incentive, to support businesses to research and innovate. In 2021, it's estimated, some $2.6 billion of support will be provided through that. This comes on the back of the government's $2 billion investment in R&D in the 2021 budget to enhance the R&D tax incentive and another $1.2 billion which we've invested through the Digital Economy Strategy, which seeks to build digital skills and capabilities, encourage business investment and transform government services.
But I'd like to take this opportunity to recognise and congratulate some of those businesses in my electorate of Forde who are doing tremendous work in developing new ideas and bringing them to market. It is these businesses who drive our economy and who will be a key part of securing our economic recovery as we come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. I had the fortune recently to visit a number of these businesses and see firsthand what innovation and product development look like. The first business was Lithium Battery Systems at Loganholme, who have benefited from the R&D tax incentives over many years. I had the honour of opening their new factory. They have done research into the development of battery management systems for lithium batteries, known as BMS, and a unique design developing an aluminium enclosure or a heat sink. Fifty-five per cent of the aluminium procured is from recycled sources and is sourced from within Australia. Using that recycled material provides flow-on benefits to the economy. The incentive has encouraged them to continue to develop their ideas, build their business and take on new market opportunities.
I was also fortunate recently to visit Frosty Boy in my electorate. Their slogan for their ice creams is: 'Often licked, never beaten!' and they've demonstrated that through COVID-19. They rose to the challenge. When they saw their market disappear, as people stopped eating soft-serve ice creams because they couldn't visit their local shops, they went on and developed their new slow-melt ice creams and an enriched protein-shake product range. The beauty of the slow-melt ice creams is that you can order them through home delivery businesses like Uber Eats and they can be delivered to your home without melting all over the place. Frosty Boy also have a strong export market for their products, which now accounts for 75 per cent of their business as they export to over 65 countries.
In addition to this, all of these businesses that I've spoken about have seen the benefit of a range of other supports that this government has provided, such as JobKeeper or the extended instant asset write-off, all of which, in conjunction with the R&D tax incentive, go to support business to continue to grow and prosper. Whether it's Frosty Boy, or Lithium Battery Systems, or Holmwood Highgate and their new defence product range and their constant innovation with their range of road fuel tankers and liquid tankers, we continue to see, right across my electorate of Forde, the use of the R&D tax incentive by many, many businesses to grow their business, take opportunities and continue to build our economy.
I'm so glad to see that the member for Fairfax, who moved this motion, is back in the chamber, because, when I saw this motion arrive on the Notice Paper, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and part of me was just a little bit angry. But what I've settled on is that I think the crux of what is being done here is in paragraph 3: the support for Naturo and their research and development. What's important about this business is that I think the government might have finally settled upon a route to helping new homebuyers in Australia, because one of the prime technologies that has been developed by this business is one to keep avocados fresh for longer, which no doubt will bring down the price of avocado on toast for all of those inner-city millennials looking to save for their first home deposit in these increasing home-price environments! That is, indeed, a genuine innovation when it comes to research and development in this country—one that spreads much further than just the keeping fresh of fruit in this country. So I commend the member for Fairfax for bringing this to the attention of all of us.
But, when we turn to the real focus of this motion, which is the support for research and development in this country, that is where I really am concerned about whether I should laugh or cry. The second point that the member makes about how this government supports research and innovation is the research and development tax incentive. Despite the fact that Australia has record low levels of investment in research and development compared to our OECD comparator nations, despite the fact that we're not very good at actually commercialising any of this and despite the fact that we need to increase investment in research and development in this country, this is the government that wanted to reduce the investment in research and development by changing that very tax incentive to make it less available to support innovation in the Australian economy. In fact, they wanted to change it to such an extent that—for businesses in Australia doing research and development, employing Australians and growing our manufacturing industry, which has been in terminal decline under this government—it was driving those businesses offshore because it would've been uncompetitive to remain, with the government's changes to that tax incentive.
We're glad that the government decided to pull that idea. The government finally saw the sense in what was being said to it, not just by Labor but by every other industry and every stakeholder in this area, and pulled it. Now they're even trumpeting that they've kept something they were trying to abolish. So congratulations to the government for investing in research and development. But it is important, as the first paragraph of this motion mentions, that we recognise the great work being done by Australian businesses in research and in commercialising new ideas.
It is serendipitous that the Minister for Defence Industry is at the table right now, because some of the best areas in which we can commercialise and bring to fruition the great research and development work being done by Australian businesses here in Australia, using Australian IP, is in the area of defence industry. Yet time and time again I am told by so many of these businesses that they find it too difficult to get access to defence industry work here in Australia—their technologies are put forward, and they hit the roadblock that is the CDIC. This is a government agency that has now had to move departments; it is a government agency that, as was found in the review, didn't actually know the full extent of our capability for defence industry here in Australia. Businesses would love to be able to share with our Australian defence forces the new capability that they have developed but are cut out at the ground level because decisions were made by a prime contractor about the nature of the capability that should be offered to our defence forces, capability that doesn't include the innovations being made right here in Australia.
The loss that comes from that is that we in Australia don't own, as a sovereign capability, the IP. We don't have the development of the know-how here in Australia to present new technology and new capability, to innovate beyond that which is offered to us by foreign defence primes. That is something we need to do more of. We need to make sure we invest in those businesses, not just through tax credits and not just through accelerating commercialisation grants but by giving these businesses actual business opportunity in the biggest budget area that the government spends money on—defence.
This is an important contribution today from both sides, and I commend the member for bringing this motion forward. We know how incredibly important it is for the rapidly transitioning Australian economy, but it's also important to acknowledge where Australia has come from. I think, over the last 10 years, we've been very tough on ourselves about the degree of commercialisation in Australia. It's quite frequently quoted as being among the bottom two in the OECD, which I think is quite an unfair measure, to be honest. If you look at exactly how commercialisation is calculated by the OECD, in many cases there is some consistency lacking. But you also need to remember that, for many decades, Australia has been an agrarian and commodity driven economy. It does mean that some of those sectors, particularly in agriculture and in the heavy trades in outer-metro Australia, didn't have CEOs and business leaders who were absolutely committed to commercialisation in the way that northern European and American businesses in medium- to high-tech manufacture almost automatically are. We have a different economic profile, and that probably explains why we're slightly lower than many other economies in the OECD on that commercialisation rate. It's not a lot lower and it's not a hurdle that can't be cleared over time. And over the last three years, as there has been recognition of that lower rate of commercialisation, a whole lot of programs that are in place now have been delivering results.
Let's be honest: anyone placed in the quite invidious position of trying to pick a winner in areas of commercialisation would realise just how fraught it is. I remember talking to an engineer in this space, who said: we can't even work out how many engineers we'll need in two years, let alone expect a government entity like CSIRO to be getting a 100 per cent strike rate with who it commercialises and who it doesn't. We have always said this is taxpayers' money and we want it to be spent responsibly.
As Daniel Kahneman points out in Thinking, fast and slow, there is a combination of the founder effect and the optimism bias, which means that in many cases across this sector there is a belief that we can be successful in commercialisation or getting a new entity going, when in reality we know that those numbers are actually far lower. There is often a complete dissonance between the views and the optimism of founders and the reality that they're moving into a space where they tend to overestimate their own skills, downplay the likelihood of luck and other factors, and not fully understand that there is not a consistent environment upon which you can pin how well you're performing. You simply don't know if rival technology is evolving, in some other part of the world, which makes what you're doing potentially obsolete. It is very challenging then for taxpayer dollars to be appropriately directed. All we can do is look at the money that is invested, particularly through CSIRO, and see what measures of success they can show. That may well be in market cap. It could be in jobs created. In all of those measures, Australia is doing very well.
In today's motion, I have some sympathy for the other side, who are absolutely right to demand the best possible results for Australia's commercialisation. It must feel for them today, after the weekend's election results, a bit like we are halfway through the movie Hangover, so to haul themselves back into this chamber to give it a mighty red-hot crack at Australia's commercialisation risk is, indeed, quite bold of them. They have done their level best but are not overly convincing as they delivered those concerns.
Australia is doing very well. There is no better than AstraZeneca's work, CSL's work. Even as recently as this week, there has been an announcement that we will be looking at manufacturing onshore a second vaccine candidate. While that, again, will be accelerated, it is not likely to start until the end of the year. As we look at all of these timelines, they are proving way faster than anyone could have thought of five years ago. Australia is agile enough to be able to meet those timelines and to be able to respond. That is really all you can ask from a commercialisation process.
Very briefly, because I know some of them have not been mentioned, there is nearly half a billion dollars in this year's budget for a range of innovation funds. The R&D tax incentive is obviously the backbone of what Australia does to make it as attractive as possible for businesses and entities to invest in commercialisation. Of course, every corner of this country has really good examples of it. Linda Paterson of Gutbiome Synbiotics, has a small operation but is a mum who has had a successful Boosting Female Founders Initiative grant out of the current government that will see her propel, we believe, into her next level with her very important work out of Birkdale Queensland. There is a range of those businesses around Australia. Australia's Modern Manufacturing Strategy as part of the recognition that, while we have always thought that manufacturing was on its last legs, we can absolutely see that, as a proportion of the economy, it may have declined slightly but its net size is still holding firm in a nation where our wages make it particularly hard to manufacture efficiently and competitively.
Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
I move:
That this House:
(1) notes the devastating effects of extreme rainfall that caused extensive flooding across areas of New South Wales in March 2021, resulting in disaster declarations in 63 local government areas by the NSW Government and causing more than $1 billion in damage;
(2) acknowledges the work of emergency services and other groups in assisting throughout the emergency and subsequent clean-up, with particular reference to:
(a) volunteer-based organisations such as the NSW State Emergency Service, NSW Rural Fire Service, Rapid Relief Team, and various charities;
(b) supermarket operators that loaded supplies on to helicopters and barges to restock shelves at stores cut off by flood water and landslides; and
(c) community members who assisted with distribution of supplies and relief efforts during and in the aftermath of the floods; and
(3) calls on the Government to:
(a) provide the support needed to allow businesses reliant on working waterways such as the Hawkesbury River (including turf growers, vegetable farmers and caravan parks) to get back to work;
(b) act to fix the disastrous environmental damage by announcing specific funding to help address silt and debris build up, erosion and collapsing riverbanks; and
(c) immediately access the $4 billion Emergency Response Fund, announced two years ago but never spent, for this recovery which can provide up to $200 million per financial year to be spent nationally on natural disaster recovery and mitigation.
The impact that the March floods have left in the Hawkesbury is as psychologically and economically as brutal as the bushfires we faced a mere 18 months ago. This is my first opportunity to place on the parliamentary record my thanks for the extraordinary efforts of so many people, from the SES and emergency services, who worked tirelessly as the waters rose and fell—airlifting or boating people to safety, getting food and medical supplies across the river—through to the initial clean-up, where the RFS and ADF led their teams into war scenes at caravan parks and inside homes, and the volunteers at Rapid Relief Team, Hawkesbury's Helping Hands, members of Lions and Rotary clubs and people who flew their own supplies to the marooned north-west of the river. I am reluctant to single out individual people because so many made a huge effort, from shopkeepers to elected officials, neighbourhood centres like Bligh Park. Anglicare, Red Cross, Samaritans all did what they could to support hungry, evacuated and scared people.
But I am grateful to Karen Stuttle from the food charity, Mountain of Joy, who messaged me to highlight the sense of panic gripping the community when supermarket shelves were unexpectedly bare on her side of the river, when every bridge was closed and a landslide on Bells Line of Road cut off the last road access. Her message ultimately led to Coles and IGA recognising that the only option was to work with the SES and local residents to load up helicopters and barges with supplies. Seeing a steady flow of food made a really big difference for those stranded communities.
All of this was part of a huge operation of neighbour helping neighbour, and I have seen that in every single community I have spent time with since the floods, from Windsor up to St Albans and everywhere in between. What we're left with is a lot of distress and financial stress. When insurance jumps from $30,000 to $50,000 to $80,000 a year, it becomes absolutely unaffordable for homeowners, and renters are also affected. The amount of money charities have received so far pales into insignificance to the bushfire donations.
While there's been enormous generosity by individuals and local businesses and there are grants for agriculture and directly affected businesses and community groups to replace equipment and structures, unfortunately, many people, sporting clubs and community groups slip through the criteria cracks, and the scale of this disaster means that much more is needed. I'll continue to support Turf Australia, vegetable growers, caravan parks and other property owners who were left with extraordinary damage to their riverbanks. This is an environmental disaster as well, and everyone has a common interest in wanting to ensure that the next flood doesn't have an even greater impact.
I'll also support the residents of Greens Road in Lower Portland, whose road is washed away. They face a 30 kilometre detour indefinitely while Hawkesbury Council decides what to do. They need fast, interim arrangements so that they can get on with their lives. Right now, they've had about nine weeks of limbo, as have parts of Cornwallis, where the road has gone. Residents of Upper Colo, whose community is now divided by a destroyed historic timber bridge, need a short-term measure. One example of the impact is that, instead of popping across the bridge on a 20-minute drive, NDIS carer Alice now has to drive an extra 100 kilometres to provide support to her client, Pete. It's hard to see why providing temporary access for this often-forgotten community isn't an absolute priority.
I'll also continue to push for support for the businesses indirectly hit by this flood. The indirect small business grant I argued for for bushfire affected communities allowed many small businesses to hang on, and there are some who need it in this flood because of the significant fall in local trade and a drop in tourism, especially the more than two dozen flooded caravan parks on the river. I'll also push for improved phone and internet services because lives were at risk due to their failures.
So it isn't over. As people look at giant horseshoe-shaped gouges along the riverbanks, their land gone and old trees alongside the river washed away, it can feel overwhelming. The best psychological support we can give is to support the New South Wales government and the Hawkesbury Council to move fast with clear guidelines for landowners about what they can do to stabilise their banks. But it will come at a high price, and the federal government needs to be willing to step in. Many of us are left wondering why, when we voted in this chamber on a $4 billion disaster fund two years ago to fund $200 million of natural disaster recovery and mitigation each financial year, not a single cent had been spent, including in the Hawkesbury where this flood was always only a matter of time. (Time expired)
Is the motion seconded? Is the motion seconded?
I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
The Hawkesbury River communities in my electorate are unique—places like Wisemans Ferry, Lower Portland, Leets Vale, Sackville North, Cattai, Laughtondale and Singletons Mill. Although these communities are small, their spirit is great. The area is characterised by turf farms, orchards, caravan parks and water-ski parks. In these areas, many residents can trace their family connection back to the beginnings of European settlement. Since time immemorial, the Hawkesbury has been a major water and food source for the people of Sydney. But one of the challenges of living on the Hawkesbury is that, from time to time, the river floods. This is well understood by the residents, who acknowledge that it's one of the great risks of living on the banks of a great natural treasure. In fact, there've been over 130 floods since European settlement.
In March this year, the Hawkesbury River rose to levels not seen for 35 years, as a volume of rainfall across New South Wales led to natural disaster zones across the state. I want to acknowledge Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker from New South Wales Police, Hills RFS Superintendent Matt Smith, Michael Lathlean from Hills Shire Council, Malcolm Liston and Andrew Turner from the Hills SES and Major Mark Whitfield from the 5th Brigade Infantry Company of the Australian Defence Force for their leadership of the rescue and recovery effort.
The force of the river was so great that pontoons and wharves were twisted or washed away and fully stocked fridges turned up at Brooklyn, at the other end of the river. Sadly, the floods were not without fatalities. At Cattai Creek in Glenorie, my electorate, Ayaz Younas, a 25-year-old Pakistani, passed away as his car sank in the floodwaters. We send our condolences to his family. I saw firsthand the force of the river going out on a fireboat with Stan Montgomery and Ian Francis from the Wisemans Ferry RFS to personally deliver supplies to residents who were cut off and running out of essentials. RFS volunteers continued to work hard to clear debris and clean up after floodwaters receded. Australian Defence Force personnel were deployed to the Hawkesbury River region as part of the federal government's response, providing much-needed assistance to our community. I was able to meet and thank some of the members of the ADF who were helping our community.
I was also able to bring Minister Littleproud, the federal minister for emergency management, and the Emergency Management Australia director-general to survey devastation and understand the needs of our community firsthand. We visited the St George caravan park at Lower Portland, which looked like something out of a scene from Cyclone Tracy. Caravans had been flung into the air and sliced in half, and there was debris everywhere, with a solitary Australian flag standing in the rubble as a beacon of hope.
As the Hawkesbury rose, I heard of acts of heroism, care and support. In a number of river communities people have made their homes in caravan parks. As the river rose, vulnerable people living in those parks faced particular danger. During the night of 21 March, the water had risen unexpectedly and was waist deep in parts. Residents were under the impression that they still had 24 hours in which to evacuate, but that wasn't the case. In the early hours of that morning, Wisemans Ferry policeman Senior Constable Bill Andrews checked on a group of permanent residents in the local caravan park who he knew were vulnerable, some of whom had particular disabilities or were really frail. Constable Andrews assisted the residents to evacuate, moving them safely to dry ground. His initiative to check on these vulnerable residents at approximately 2 am almost certainly saved their lives. Many in the community are calling him a hero.
At times like this we see our community at its best. Many local organisations helped with the provision of food and essentials to those in need. The Wisemans Ferry Bowling Club coordinated donations of food and groceries coordinated by Margaret Pratt. Glenorie Public School, led by Andrea Pateman and Olivia Solomon, coordinated a food and clothing donation drive for their Wisemans Ferry and Lower Portland neighbours. The Wisemans Ferry Pharmacy and GPs at the Wisemans Ferry medical centre worked hard to ensure appropriate medical supplies were made available and delivered to those trapped by floodwaters for many days. The Glenorie Bakery arranged a series of significant food drops to the other side of the Hawkesbury, arranging helicopter charters from Annangrove. Hundreds of kilos of baked essentials were provided to the community centre in North Richmond. Unfortunately, some of the community organisations suffered significant loss. The Wisemans Ferry Men's Shed, one of the best in my community, was particularly waterlogged from the flooding. An organisation which does so much to serve our community, especially with the mental health needs of isolated men, now needs our help. Their president, Adrian Acheson, is appealing for donations as they attempt to replace tools and equipment lost in the floods. They should be eligible for some of the federal government's disaster assistance. The flood also highlighted the parlous state of telecommunications in my electorate, with many residents cut off by Telstra's inadequate service to those most vulnerable.
The Morrison government has provided assistance to flood affected communities and individuals through disaster recovery payments and disaster recovery grants for businesses, not-for-profits and primary producers. The government and I will continue to support our Hawkesbury communities as they get back on their feet and recover from the recent floods.
I rise enormously grateful to be able to speak on this resolution that was brought before the House before the member for Macquarie and that I'm very proud to have seconded. I want to recognise and put on the public record her enormous work with her community, which suffered so much. They've had their trials in Macquarie through bushfire and flood, and she has been indefatigable. She was there with her community, providing support and working. I know and she recognised in her contribution that the lion's share of the work was done by so many in her community to help others in need. It is important that the House have these moments to reflect on what we've gone through. We don't get to have those opportunities if people like the member for Macquarie aren't putting these resolutions forward.
These floods caused a billion dollars in damage and affected 63 local government areas, including Blacktown City, in which the federal seat of Chifley resides. They were massive. Sustained rainfall resulted in a once-in-50-years flood. Many Chifley residents had a nervous few days waiting to see how high the floodwaters would rise. Some of us were lucky that the floodwaters didn't reach our homes, but others weren't so fortunate. Residents from Shanes Park through to Mount Druitt and elsewhere across the LGA were hit very hard.
I pay my sincere gratitude to the men and women of the Mount Druitt and Blacktown SES, who gave up much of their own time to help others deal with this situation during the floods. For example, Blacktown SES received roughly 170 calls for assistance, conducted three flood rescues and sandbagged 50 premises, preventing further flooding, while Mount Druitt SES received 90 calls for help, carried out swift-water rescue in Shanes Park and helped with 79 leaky roofs and with countless reports of fallen trees, some of which were dangerously close to power lines.
Our SES volunteers didn't just help out people in their immediate area; they helped crews across the Hawkesbury with doorknocking, rescues and then helping late into the night. I want to thank SES Local Commander Alan Rollinson, and, at Blacktown, the Blacktown Unit Commander, Barry Wademan, and his unit which included Matthew Elliot, Terrence Siriwardena, Jonathon Giddey, Andrew Mottershead, Emily Zarb, Adrian Apalakis, Daniel Groom, Ryan Rewi and Anthony Featherstone, all of whom volunteered at least 90 hours each over the course of the floods. And, in Mount Druitt, I dropped in recently to personally extend my thanks to the Commander there, Sue Flynn; her Deputy Commander Jeff Hickson, who helped rescue two children from a capsized boat in the Hawkesbury; Sue's other Deputy Commander, Daniel Scavles, who led the unit when Sue was stuck in floodwaters; Patrick Lockman; Katrina Staples; Derek Read; Nathan Pearse; Wilkanya Burke; Anthony and Kellie Jarvis; Hannah Staples; Lyall Watts; Brad Bruen; Brad Wilson; Lamilo and Natalie Tauveve; John Alofi; Kevin and Cheryl Wing; and I'm sure there are a lot more—please forgive me if I've overlooked anyone. You all worked tirelessly. We all extend our thanks to you for what you did.
Now the waters have subsided, the recovery option is still ongoing—and was underway from the moment that things started to clear up. Obviously businesses along the Hawkesbury and the member for Macquarie's electorate are still reliant on working waterways to get back to work, but the damage to the environment through the debris build-up and corrosion has been prohibitive for businesses and residents living along the Hawkesbury.
In my own backyard, in particular what struck me was the number of leaky roofs in public and social housing dwellings. I think this has been unacceptable. The local state members' offices, both for Edmond Atalla and Prue Car, received a record number of calls from people in Housing NSW properties whose roofs couldn't hold up against the rain, and this shows you if the money's not there for maintenance people pay for this at times like this and this stuff needs to be sorted out. And what does it say about a New South Wales Liberal government? That those most vulnerable in our community didn't have a safe roof above their head at the time they needed it most.
Having said all that, the floods did remind us of the true force of nature. We do need people to be there at that point when it hits us, and the courageous actions of our SES and others in the community and what they did to help those most vulnerable will not be forgotten. And, if anyone in our area is still affected by that—we've been sorting out some issues as we've gone along, but—please don't sit back, please contact either myself or your local state members, and we'll be more than happy to assist.
Eighteen months on from the devastating bushfires, a wet Armageddon arrived into the houses, literally, of thousands of people in the Lyne electorate. The amount of flooding was of a staggering proportion. It was more than a one-in-a-hundred-year flood; it was the biggest flood on record, and records go back in some families who've been in these river valleys for five generations to the 1880s.
As the low-pressure system dwelled across the Mid North Coast, we saw towns and villages cut off, roads and bridges and even houses washed away, some of whom you may have seen floating down the Manning River on mainstream TV. But there were houses on the Pappinbarra River that were washed away—and on the Hastings—and it was absolutely devastating. Living on the Hastings River myself, I was isolated on a farm, fortunately about 20 metres above the floodwaters, but we couldn't get out for a couple of days at least.
Once the waters receded, the devastation was mind-boggling. Evacuation centres in Laurieton and Taree, at various clubs that popped up as emergency centres, had hundreds of people in them. People whose houses were on wheels in caravan parks or with low-lying houses were absolutely devastated. But many clubs and evacuation centres turned into medical centres, mental health centres, a roof and shelter with food. We also had all the support groups coming through—both people working in those clubs and volunteer centres as well as community groups and sets of individuals who gathered together to rescue people. I would like to acknowledge all of them and thank them for what they did spontaneously. In particular, I'd like to thank the councils, their staff and management, who worked across all the regions in the Port Macquarie-Hastings and MidCoast councils. I'd also like to thank the SES and the RFS and groups like the surf lifesaving clubs who, in their rubber duckies, were out rescuing people two farms across from me. The amount of help that came in after the floods was absolutely staggering. We had people coming down from Coffs Harbour, because there were so many people at risk all at once that all our formal volunteer groups couldn't cope with them all. There were 3,055 homes in the Hastings Valley that were flooded and 1,231 were seriously damaged by those devastating floods.
In the community of North Haven, for instance, on the Camden Haven River, street after street was inundated with water. I would like to particularly thank Mayor Peta Pinson and her husband, Craig, for being able to mobilise a number of trucks and bobcats from their own business and other businesses to help start the clean-up. I'd also like to thank the Governor-General and the Prime Minister for visiting my electorate to see firsthand the devastation and mobilise whatever Commonwealth support could be provided. Our government has been able to provide much support, in both the emergency response and the ongoing clean-up, and I think the federal, state and local government agencies are getting better at doing this together.
In Camden Haven, as well, there were a particular group of young men who, because the SES were overwhelmed and the surf lifesaving people were deployed elsewhere, got in their own tinnies and rescued about five elderly people. I wasn't there, I was stranded up on the Hastings River, but these young gentlemen deserve a medal. They just showed great initiative and foresight and got on and did it themselves. To the ministers involved in emergency services, all the admin and the people that you mobilised to come into our area to help was greatly appreciated.
It really was Armageddon for many dairy farmers on the Manning, the Hastings, the Pappinbarra, the Wilson and the Camden Haven rivers. Floods, by their very nature, are on some of the most fertile land, and some of the farms that have been devastated by this will take a couple of years, at least, to recover—both with the crops that feed the animals and with getting their dairy herds back into milk production. It will be a big effort. Our thoughts go out to them and our support continues. Thanks to everyone who helped.
In March this year, the entire New South Wales coast was drowned by between 200 and 400 millimetres of rainfall. Floods across New South Wales have put a renewed focus on the need for all levels of government to be proactive when crisis strikes. We must work fast and collectively to ensure the safety of our communities and to minimise the loss of property and livelihoods.
These once-in-100-year floods were chaotic and left many communities with damage and loss, but none were so incredibly impacted as those in the electorate of my friend Susan Templeman, who has worked so hard. She really was just incredible. If you want to learn something about Susan, have a listen to her first speech. She came to this place, and the first night I met her she said, 'I'm here; I've lost an election, my house has burnt down and I turned 50.' I knew instantly that I liked her. Not only has Susan had exposure to personal crisis; she works so hard for her community. It is remarkable what she has endured. We were both elected on 2 July, and since that time Susan has endured bushfire, drought and crippling flood. One of the most poignant images I've seen of Susan is not of her in her beautiful jackets, looking as on point as she always does, but of her in her jeans and her sloppy joe, boxing up groceries and loading them one by one into a helicopter to have them sent to members of her community. You would not get a harder working local member than Susan Templeman, so it is with great delight that I am speaking on this motion today. If we had more Susan Templemans in this parliament, there'd be a heck of a lot of work done.
My own community was also terribly impacted by not only drought and fire but also these recent floods. Across New South Wales we've got some terrific agencies, including the state SES, police, and Fire and Rescue. I want to take a special moment today to send my deepest condolences to Fire and Rescue New South Wales Station 454 Tarro. We lost the station captain very unexpectedly this weekend. Ian Smith joined Fire and Rescue back in 1982, and he has held the following positions: engine keeper, deputy captain and captain. He had been captain since 2017. He passed away very unexpectedly and very suddenly over the weekend. I send my dearest and deepest condolences to his friends and family and to his workmates and volunteer mates at Tarro. We didn't see it coming, and it's just a terrible loss. Ian was a terrific firefighter, a terrific leader and a great mate. As the people at Tarro have said, 'You will always ride with us in that truck,' and I am sure he will. It's people like Ian and those workers and volunteers at Tarro 454 who make such a difference in times of flood and in times of emergency.
I also want to convey my deep thanks to the members of our community who helped their neighbours. You'll never forget the stench of floods after about a couple of weeks. The smell in the thick of that mud is absolutely revolting. But thank you to everyone who lent a hand and who went that extra mile not only for people but also for our animals, trying to rescue cattle, horses, sheep and our wildlife. It has such an impact on every part of our lives and community, particularly when you see loss of life and livelihoods. So thank you to those people.
I also want to thank my state colleagues Kate Washington and Jenny Aitchison. As soon as this event happened in our community, the three of us worked together. We had an emergency declaration put in place so that our local councils, who did an enormous amount of work too, could set about cleaning up and getting things back on track and were able to know that they would be recompensed by the state government. They didn't have to wait and try to figure out how they were going to pay for all of the mess and the clean-up. Again, to Susan Templeman, I say thank you. To my community, I say thank you. Natural disasters are a terrible thing, but, when we all work together, we can clean up the mess.
I want to acknowledge my neighbour the member for Macquarie and everything that her community went through during the floods. We were both away from parliament that week. Both of our communities—particularly, I must say, the Hawkesbury—were damaged, and the work that Susan did is to be commended.
I was standing with my community on that Saturday, watching those floodwaters rise along the Nepean River. It was really quite a terrifying thing to see. A lot of new families had moved into the area. The people that had lived there for 50-plus years hadn't seen anything like this. At that time, we were talking about a one-in-100-year possibility of a flood, so people were packing their bags and their houses and getting ready to evacuate. On the Penrith side of the Nepean River, homes were already impacted. I visited those homes after the floods. Thankfully the worst of the damage was in the downstairs rooms in the backyards, and the river didn't peak at the levels that at one stage we thought it may.
There were other parts of my community that were really impacted around the Londonderry area. I acknowledge, again, the member for Macquarie. She would know this well, because it was due to the water that was backing up from the Hawkesbury. In these low-lying areas were families that had lived there for 40-plus years. Unfortunately, some of them didn't have insurance, so they were really impacted and they remain impacted now. So we have to ensure that we are doing our very best to support those families as they rebuild. Again, as the member for Macquarie also knows, coming from families who have been severely impacted by fires and losing everything, I know how long it takes and what an emotional journey it is to recover from events such as floods and fires.
In my community, as I said, we were standing on the river, but there were other people that were already working really hard in our community to secure it, and they were our local Penrith SES. I went up and visited them, and at that point in time we were running out of sandbags. There was a bit of a panic because the river was rising so fast, so we did a call-out to some local businesses and they were on board straightaway, finding sand and sandbags. Local volunteers came on board to pack those sandbags, and that continued throughout the week. The Rapid Relief Team also jumped on board to help out in packing and delivering sandbags across the community. Our SES did a tremendous job during that time, as did our RFS, in supporting the recovery efforts, particularly around Londonderry.
After I had an SES briefing at Silverwater, I came back to the community, and at that time Nepean Shores was being evacuated—the 144 residents there. I was speaking with those people and making sure they had everything they needed, with their families coming to picking them up or going to the evacuation centre. I want to again commend our local emergency services personnel, and the staff at Nepean Shores, for successfully getting everyone out of Nepean Shores so quickly and safely. Everyone was able to return over the next couple of days. It was really great to go back and see the residents there, with the Prime Minister and his wife, Jenny, a few days after and speak to the residents about their experiences. They were grateful that they were home and safe at Nepean Shores. One couple were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. It was a wonderful moment for them after such a stressful week.
I want to acknowledge the families that did lose their homes, and one family, which was one that I visited with the Prime Minister, is the Magnisalis family. I want to read a quick story from online:
Nick and Irene Magnisalis lost the home they built with their own hands more than four decades ago.
The Greek Australian couple, both retirees in their 70s and 80s, managed a last minute escape when flooding waters engulfed their property.
It goes on:
In the face of adversity, the family has remained true to their values. When visited by PM Morrison and wife—
along with me, the member for Lindsay—
in the aftermath of the flood devastation, they treated guests with a Greek hospitality welcoming.
They gave us lunch that day, with everything that they were going through—a beautiful family.
That really is the spirit of our community. We're there for each other in our times of need. We're there for the people who are still suffering now—I want to give them that message—and we'll be there for you every step of the way through this recovery.
What a great private member's motion moved by the wonderful member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman. I've known the member for Macquarie for many years, but, since coming to this place, we now share another bond—that is, our communities have both been through the most horrific disasters we could imagine. There were the bushfires and there is the ongoing bushfire recovery that will take years. Then there were floods—many floods. In fact, four different floods were disaster declared in my electorate, and there were seven flood events in the Eurobodalla. Then there was COVID. It's perhaps easy to say that, but the reality is that drought, bushfire, floods and COVID and the ongoing bushfire recovery are having a long-lasting impact on my community.
Take the last flood declaration in the Eurobodalla Shire Council area. It was just five months earlier that a previously disaster declared flood had occurred in 2020, causing massive damage to Araluen Road, just west of Moruya. This road, which has been hit by flooding again in May 2021, has very steep and difficult terrain, has suffered multiple significant landslides and is proving extremely difficult to fix. It has impacted and continues to impact local residents and businesses, who either are unable to access the road or have to take alternative routes that are significantly longer or just not feasible. It's a really difficult situation, and I am thankful community members have been contacting me to voice their concerns. I also want to thank Eurobodalla Shire Council for their efforts in investigating both temporary fixes for this road and examining a longer-term alternative route. I can assure residents that I will continue to advocate on this issue. But, given the gravity of the situation, I ask that the federal government extend the time available under the National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, so that Eurobodalla council can deal with Araluen Road and the now very real problem of secondary tree death from the bushfires along our local road network.
During the floods and, before them, the bushfires our emergency services volunteers and workers are simply our heroes. Our SES and RFS volunteers were working locally, contending with local flooding. But they were also sending teams to assist around New South Wales. They did this quietly; that's just what they do. Wherever there is disaster, our local HMAS Albatross Australian Navy members are never far away. They were there during the bushfires, rescuing people and dropping supplies. In the 2021 floods Defence members from 816 Squadron at HMAS Albatross at Nowra were providing aerial search and rescue support further north in the state, when and where needed. Our frontline workers, our supermarkets, our pharmacies, our charities, organisations—everyone played their part, and today I say thank you. Of course, to our local community members who assisted with the distribution of supplies and relief efforts during and in the aftermath of the floods, thank you.
I commend part (3) of this motion. The federal government does need to step up and provide more support where it's needed. The alternative fix for Araluen Road will not come cheap. I implore the government to assure adequate financial assistance is provided to Eurobodalla Shire Council for both temporary work and a proper longer-term fix for Araluen Road. I also implore the government to do more to provide funding to fix the disastrous environmental damage caused by flooding to our riverbanks, lakes and waterways. A few weeks ago I was knocking on doors and talking with residents at Lake Conjola, in the Shoalhaven local government area. Conjola Park, just up the road, lost a devastating 89 homes in the Currowan bushfire. Not long after, at Lake Conjola, there was a massive flood. The lake flooded again. The contrast between bushfires and looking like a bomb had gone off and then a massive flood is just too much to take. But residence at Lake Conjola have been faced with this for many years. Residents were angry. They didn't have any problems telling me how it really was.
Sometimes I think governments at all levels can lose perspective and forget what it's really like to live on a day-to-day basis: bushfires and flood over and over, they take their toll. So I ask the government again: where is the $4 billion Emergency Response Fund, announced two years ago but never spent? This fund can provide up to $200 million per financial year to be spent on natural disaster recovery and mitigation. Now is the chance for the government to provide residents, businesses and communities the disaster mitigation they so desperately need.
I thank the member for Macquarie for bringing forward this motion. A number of us in this House have forged a very common bond through bushfires and floods. This is the second time in the past six months that my electorate has been through devastating floods, the first ones up north and most recently the ones down the southern end in the Port Macquarie-Hastings area. Mr Acting Deputy Speaker Gillespie, I acknowledge that you are in the same position as there were perhaps more devastating floods at the top end of your electorate. It is important that we acknowledge not only the volunteers but how difficult it is for our farmers. Having been through the drought, then the fires, then the floods and coronavirus, and then floods again, we do lose perspective sometimes. I was at an evacuation centre—I won't say which one—and I was talking to an older farmer, a man in his eighties. He said he'd lost 33 head of cattle. Obviously, to a farmer, they're like children. He said to me, 'Pat, the rifle in the corner was looking pretty good over the last couple of days.' That really hit home. How tough. This big, still strapping tall man, crying over losing his 33 head of cattle and also half a kilometre of embankment on his property. So I sat down with him and had a long chat, and I made sure that the people from the mental health team came over and chatted with him, and I've followed him up since. But we do lose perspective on how tough life is as a farmer.
I went around the electorate, and this indeed was one of the worst floods in 100 years. I was talking to Phil Morton up at Rollands Plains, and he showed me a stretch of about 600 or 700 metres in diameter, and you could see 2½ to three metres in the trees where the debris was. He said: 'Pat, a wave came down there, 700 metres wide and three metres high.' It lifted the silo—I don't know how many tonnes that is—and shifted it downstream. It was just incredible. I'd like to acknowledge all the locals of Rollands Plains, Telegraph Point and North Shore, where they just got in and cleaned up and did such a wonderful job.
I will mention Dinesh Thakrani, who is the owner and operator of the Telegraph Point Service Station. He said that the water came so quickly in the front door that he had to go to the back room and smash his way through the fibro wall with a fire extinguisher to get out. He was telling the story and it was just remarkable. But two days later he had the store back open and was helping the locals to get through the recovery effort.
There are so many people that we should thank, not just the locals but also the thousand extra boots that ended up in the electorate through the ADF and extra SES. The clean-up happened almost instantly. Whilst I'm not a huge fan of insurance companies at times, I have to commend them. There have only been a couple of complaints that they haven't followed through with their payments. The assessors were on the ground very, very quickly. Those assessments were made and people are receiving their payments. So I do thank the insurance companies for doing the right thing.
I attended the disaster centre every day when I was up there. Commander Shane Cribb ran a seamless, faultless command centre there. All of the agencies—SES, RFS and indeed Surf Life Saving—did just a fantastic job. Matt Field from my office was out in a rubber duck making rescues for two days. So hats off to Surf Life Saving; Marine Rescue; the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment; the Department of Communities and Justice; Fire and Rescue; New South Wales Ambulance; Transport for New South Wales; and Public Works—fantastic job. Thank you for all your efforts.
I rise today in support of the motion moved by my good friend and colleague Susan Templeman, the member for Macquarie. My electorate—like those of Susan, Fiona, Ed, Meryl and many others in this place—has been hit very hard by concurrent natural disasters for years now. According to data from some of the local councils in my region, we've been impacted by at least 28 declared natural disasters over the last few years. In the Bega Valley, there have been 13 in the last three years, with eight of those being floods since February 2020. There have been six floods in Eurobodalla since July last year, three floods in Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council in the last year, three in the Snowy Valleys in the last year and a couple each in the Snowy Monaro and Yass Valley regions.
Every three to four months over the last few years, constituents in parts of my electorate have had to stop whatever they were doing and prepare for what was coming. They've had to sandbag properties and evacuate themselves and their livestock, often making painful decisions during evacuations about what to save and what to leave. And recently they have had to do all of that during a pandemic. These events take an immense toll on communities. Concurrent natural disasters have left us with no time to process the physical and mental toll that the events have on us. I regularly visit communities across my electorate that are still yet to recover from these disasters. Fires after floods after droughts after pandemic have meant that, when our communities are meant to be coming together, we have sometimes had to come apart.
The pain and the pressure that we've all been under for so many years are yet to be healed; yet some of our calls on this government have fallen on deaf ears. It was only two years ago that the government announced a $4 billion mitigation and recovery fund, which meant that $200 million a year was to be released for recovery and mitigation projects. Two years on, not a single dollar has been spent. In those two years, we've seen at least 20 declared natural disasters across the electorate of Eden-Monaro. We can only imagine what some of that money would have done in helping our communities. The announcement was great, but what we actually need is the follow-up, because our communities can't continue to be left behind and forgotten.
These local government regions do a lot with very little money. The national disaster recovery and relief time frames are too small to allow councils to actually get decent work done. The guidelines around them are too strict. What we know now, from all of these natural disasters, is that more assistance needs to be given to our local government areas. They are already pushed and have to scrape for every last cent. They only raise three per cent of taxation in Australia, yet they're responsible for over 85 per cent of infrastructure across Australia. When we see floods and fires, they're the people we're relying on to assist us to get our infrastructure back up and running.
In the Bega Valley, the upgrade of the Towamba and Burragate roads has long been a project held dear by many people and it's now in the process of being sealed. But, with this latest flooding disaster, all of the work that has gone into getting it sealed has now been washed away and they have to go back and start again with bank stabilisation before any of that sealing can take place. The member for Gilmore's talked about Araluen Road, which has had a number of landslides on it. We actually need to see work done, including on some of our major highways. The Snowy Mountains Highway over Brown Mountain has experienced landslips and is now only open two nights a week. For the other five nights of the week, it's closed for 12 hours. So let's see some money put in to major transport routes that actually allow people to get in and out. It was one of the only east-west corridors open for a small amount of time during the bushfires.
We have got communities that are struggling and businesses that are struggling. All of our regional communities are resilient—but, in some cases, they are over being resilient. They need some help, they need some extra money and they need this government to listen. We shouldn't have to be resilient out of necessity all the time.
The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
I wish to draw the attention of members to the current arrangements in this chamber and the Federation Chamber and for committee rooms. Any changes are of course in line with the current COVID-safe advice and will remain in place unless circumstances change. Arrangements for the operation of this chamber and the Federation Chamber will remain much as they were in budget week and the same arrangements will remain for the use of party rooms.
The easing of COVID restrictions means that committee rooms can now accommodate more people at any one time. Committee rooms will now have COVID QR codes at their entrances so that people can be contacted, if necessary, by COVID contact tracers. By now, we are all well practised in the use of QR codes. They are one of the precautions that allow us to increase the number of occupants in the committee rooms. All committee room occupants, including members, committee witnesses and staff, are strongly encouraged to scan into the rooms when they attend their meetings. Members and all other building occupants are reminded to continue to follow COVID-safe practices, including frequent use of hand sanitiser and handwashing.
The President of the Senate and I continue to take regular advice from the medical authorities on appropriate COVID procedures. Arrangements in the chambers and at Parliament House will be adjusted as required to reflect the expert advice, and I will continue to keep members up to date. I thank the House. I just thought members would want to hear that firsthand, with respect to committee rooms.
I move:
That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Griffith from moving the following motion immediately:
That the House:
(1) notes that:
(a) the member for Bowman is accused of stalking and abusing his own constituents online and taking an inappropriate photo of a woman at work, and he continues to defend these actions;
(b) the member for Bowman stated on 27 March that he would step down from all parliamentary roles, effective immediately, but has failed to relinquish his chairmanship of the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training;
(c) last sitting week, coalition members voted six times to keep the member for Bowman as chair of the committee, including the coalition members of that committee—the members for Moncrieff, Groom, Curtin, New England and Longman; and
(d) by voting to keep the member for Bowman as chair of this committee, the Prime Minister and everyone who sits behind him in this House is endorsing the member for Bowman's behaviour;
(2) and therefore calls on the Prime Minister to discharge the member for Bowman from the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training immediately.
The Prime Minister's failure to act on this matter is really incomprehensible. It is very clear that the member for Bowman, having said that he would relinquish all of his positions and step down from all of his parliamentary positions, was rightly expected by the Australian people to make good on that commitment. And yet we found last sitting week that he was still the chair of this standing committee. It's an important position and a responsible position. I think most of us were quite surprised to hear that he had not stepped away from that position.
Accordingly, once we had learned of that, we invited the member for Bowman and the Prime Minister to take action during the last sitting week. That did not occur, and it is a fact that, today, the member for Bowman remains the chair of that standing committee. It's surprising to all of us—
The member for Griffith will resume her seat. The minister is seeking the call.
I move:
That the member be no further heard.
The question is the member for Griffith be no further heard.
Is the motion seconded?
I second the motion. If you were really serious about doing better by Australian women then the member for Bowman would be gone! This protection racket goes on and on, and—
The member for Lilley will resume her seat.
I move:
That the member be no longer heard.
The Leader of the House has moved the member be no further heard.
The question is that the motion for the suspension of standing orders be disagreed to
This is our opportunity on this side here to speak about the appropriation bills and, of course, because of the long custom and tradition, we won't be holding up the appropriation bills but it does give colleagues the opportunity to address some of the real issues in the budget that was handed down from that dispatch box two weeks ago today. Deputy Speaker Gillespie, as you know, this is an eight-year-old government. It has handed down now eight budgets. By the time of the next election, it will be asking for 12 years, which is longer than Prime Minister Howard had in office.
One of the remarkable features of the budget that was handed down two weeks ago—the government's eighth budget—was that its primary purpose seemed to be to distract the Australian people from the failures of the first seven budgets. We saw, when it came to investment in mental health or investment in aged care or some of the other areas that have been crying out for this government to do something about for much of the last eight long years, the government finally came to the table with some investment in some of these areas.
If this government genuinely cared about some of the appropriations in this bill, if the government genuinely cared about aged care or child care or some of these other investments, they would have done something about them in the last eight years. In many instances—take skills and training, for example—the government has gone out of its way to make things worse. Even after some of these investments in skills and training, Australia still has 150,000 fewer apprentices than when the government came to office. If you think about aged care, some of the investment in aged care comes after the current Prime Minister, when he was Treasurer, putting out press releases claiming almost $2 billion in savings from the aged-care system, which has been part of the problem that the government now says they are uniquely placed to address.
So many of these problems that the government now says, for political reasons, they want to do something about are problems of their own making, messes of their own making and they now want the Australian people to think, having been the architect of eight years of under-investment in some of these key areas, that all of a sudden the same government, the same characters, can clean up that mess. I think that is an unreasonable request from the government.
The tragedy of this budget that was handed down two weeks ago is that after the Australian people rose to the occasion during COVID-19 this government fell back into its old habits. We see that in the way that taxpayer money is being used not to try and get good economic outcomes or good outcomes for real people and real communities like those that we represent in this place but instead to try and plug the government's political gaps. It is going back into the old habits of slush funds, waste, rorts and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. There were something like 21 different slush funds in the budget two Tuesdays ago—$9½ billion in decisions taken but not announced—to dole out on the eve of an election campaign. We know how this government goes about the wasting and the rorting of taxpayer money, because we've seen what's happened with sports rorts, with dodgy land deals, with community safety rorts and with a billion dollars spent on government advertising and all that money spent on marketing. This is how the government goes about managing and mismanaging taxpayers' money.
This was a budget of marketing and mismanagement and missed opportunities. It was a budget that delivered generational debt without a generational dividend. What it failed to recognise is that the recovery we are in now from the deepest recession in almost 100 years, while welcome, is a tribute not to the government but to the Australian people, who did the right thing by each other to limit the spread of this virus. So the recovery is underway, and that's a good thing, but it's patchy. It's patchy in predictable ways. In the labour market we saw last Thursday the jobs figures for April. There were 30,600 jobs lost in the month of April, the first full month after those opposite cut JobKeeper. There were 30,600 fewer jobs in April than in March. That shows just how patchy this recovery is. Almost two million people still can't find a job or enough hours to support their loved ones. So the recovery is patchy, but it's also hostage to the Prime Minister's incompetence when it comes to vaccinations and to quarantine. It says everything about this Prime Minister's unwillingness to take responsibility for things that are part of his job description—quarantine and vaccination rollout—in the budget. There was no new money for new facilities and nothing to fix the mess that the Prime Minister has made of the vaccination program. He flew into Queensland, into my home state, last week, supposedly to sell the budget. He said Toowoomba was a desert, which was news to farmers on some of the best agricultural land on the planet. He said that Toowoomba didn't have a health system or a hospital. He said that they didn't have a functioning airport. Toowoomba's got a functioning airport and a great hospital, and it sits amongst some of the best prime agricultural land not just in Australia but, I'm assuming, around the world. I think that general area speaks volumes. He's in such a rush to wash his hands of quarantine and also of vaccinations that he came in and said that about the proposal that has been made about the Toowoomba facility.
As I said earlier, this budget was designed to deal with political objectives and not economic objectives, with political problems, not economic challenges that have grown over the last eight years of economic mismanagement. If you don't want to take the word of this side of House about those failures, just look at the government's own numbers in their own budget. The forecasts in their own budget tell a stunning story—a stunning admission of failure—that, even after racking up a trillion dollars in debt and even after a hundred billion dollars in new spending two Tuesdays ago, the government's own budget still says growth will go back to below trend, business investment will go back to being weak and participation in the workforce will fall further, even after the implementation of the government's childcare package. It is a pretty damning indictment of a budget like this that, with money spraying around in all directions and all kinds of marketing and spin and all the rest of it, if you look at the numbers in the government's own budget, they say growth will go back to less than we need, participation will fall and business investment will be weak. All of these problems that we had in the economy even before COVID-19 are to return, despite all of this money that is spraying around.
I think where this is most damning and most stark is when it comes to wages. It beggars belief that the government can spend $100 billion and rack up $1 trillion in debt and, at the end of that, workers will have gone backwards, but that's what the government's own budget says will happen—a cut in real wages in the government's own budget. This is the thanks that the Australian people get for everything they've done to keep the wheels of the economy turning during this pandemic, to do the right thing by each other, to look out for each other and to look after each other. The government says that the thanks they get for that is a cut in their real wages, after eight years of penalty rate cuts and the government trying to make work less secure—not as an accidental outcome but as a deliberate design feature, as the former finance minister said of the government's economic policy agenda. The wages figures in here are a real reminder that, when the government say that their economic policy is succeeding, what they really mean is that deliberate design feature to keep wages screwed down so that ordinary working people don't get a slice of the action in this recovery. That's what they mean when they say that their plan is working.
Beyond wages, beyond the political fixes, beyond the waste and mismanagement, beyond the trillion dollars in debt, I think the other thing that's really noticeable about this budget is that there is a deficit of vision, a failure to understand the opportunity before this country, a failure to understand that the foundation that the Australian people have built together—to make sure that we can come out of this pandemic, that the economy can begin to recover and the labour market can begin to recover—requires the government to understand the gravity and the opportunity of this moment. They have failed to do that. We know that because so much of this budget is about plugging the holes over the next year or 18 months, trying to solve those political problems but failing to understand the moment, failing to understand that the country is crying out for a bit of vision, a bit of a long-term plan about how we make this economy stronger but also more inclusive and more sustainable so that ordinary working people get a slice of the action as the economy recovers, so that working people in this country aren't just talking about trying to get by, but we can help them to get ahead.
What is in this budget for the people of this country who want to get ahead? We've had two weeks now to go through it. We know about all the spending. We know about all the pork-barrelling. We know about all the political fixes. But still that question remains for the Australian people, and it's not an unreasonable question that they ask. What is this government's plan, not just to grow the economy but to grow the economy in the right way into the future as well? That deficit of vision and ambition is something that has characterised the last eight years of this government as well. The Australian people deserved much better than the budget that they got two Tuesdays ago. After all that they've been through, they deserve better than real wage cuts. They deserve better than that deficit of vision. They deserve better than all of those political fixes cobbled together. They deserve better than all that marketing, all that mismanagement and all those missed opportunities in the budget. I think one of the reasons why the Australian people have not gone out of their way to say how great this budget is, one of the reasons why we're not largely talking about it in public at the moment, is that the Australian people have become wary of a government that makes these big announcements and pats itself on the back and tells itself how good it is, but, at the end of the day, the delivery is lacking. That, I fear, is what we're going to see in the aftermath of this budget as well. I move the second reading amendment that has been circulated in my name:
That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:
"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes:
(1) the 2021 Budget includes nearly $100 billion in new spending and racks up one trillion dollars in debt, but still delivers a real wage cut for Australian workers;
(2) after eight long years of cuts to key services, increasing job insecurity, stagnant wages growth, weak business investment, weak productivity, waste and rorts, this Budget was designed to get through an election rather than outline a vision for Australia; and
(3) that the 2021 Budget is a missed opportunity to shape a better, stronger post-pandemic Australia where no one is held back and no one is left behind".
Obviously we're not going to hold up the appropriations bill, but we should see it not just in the light of just of the holes in the budget that was handed down two weeks ago but in the context of those eight years of missed opportunities, mismanagement, political fixes and all the rest of it.
Is the amendment seconded?
I second the amendment.
Australia has been through a lot in the past year. We've been through a once-in-a-century pandemic, which tragically cost the lives of 910 of our fellow citizens; we've been through lockdowns; we've been through social distancing; we've been through personal hygiene measures that have had no precedent in the modern era in Australia; we've had weddings cancelled; we've had attendees at funerals limited; we've had significant days of national occasion, such as Anzac Day, cancelled or restricted; we've had people unable to visit their elderly or disabled relatives in care facilities; and we've had families cut off from one another, both interstate and overseas.
Undoubtedly this COVID-19 pandemic has also had a big impact not just on our lifestyles but also on our economy. At the height of the pandemic, we had 3½ million Australians on JobKeeper. In April last year 1.3 million Australians either had lost their jobs or had their hours reduced to zero, and Treasury feared that unemployment could reach 15 per cent and that our economy could contract more than 20 per cent. It was a time of great fear and great uncertainty in Australia and around the world. But, one year later, Australia is emerging exceptionally well from this COVID induced economic crisis.
Unemployment is now down to 5.6 per cent. There are more Australians in work now, at over 13 million, than there were before this pandemic first hit. Consumer sentiment is at its highest level in 11 years, and business confidence is also at record highs. Over 3½ million Australians have now received their first COVID-19 vaccination, and, by the end of this year—by Christmas—everyone who wishes to receive the COVID-19 vaccination should receive at least their first dose. There has only been one death from COVID-19 in Australia so far this year, 2021. The travel bubble with New Zealand is open. In short, our economy is roaring back to life. As Steven Kennedy, the Secretary to the Department of the Treasury, said last week:
Australia's economic recovery from the pandemic has been stronger than we expected, stronger than we have seen from any downturn in recent history and ahead of any major advanced economy …
This budget, through the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022 and related bills, maps our continued pathway out of this COVID-19 recession.
The world has been through an economic crisis unseen in this generation. We have seen a global contraction of around 4½ per cent, with many major economies contracting by more than this. But in Australia we are starting from a strong position. Our economy has only contracted 2.5 per cent. Our employment numbers are already above where they were before the pandemic struck. Last month, the month that JobKeeper ended, we saw unemployment figures come down yet again. We've retained our AAA credit rating and we've got low net public debt. These appropriation bills will help secure Australia's economic recovery. They'll help create more jobs, they'll help protect our health, and they'll help guarantee our essential services.
These appropriation bills support household incomes through the extension of the low and middle income tax offset. Around 10 million low and middle income taxpayers across Australia will receive up to $1,080 per year if they're individuals or up to $2,160 if they're couples. In Wentworth, in my own electorate, this will benefit up to 60,000 taxpayers. These appropriation bills are also supporting small and medium businesses to invest and grow—important, because eight out of 10 jobs are in the private sector.
We've extended the expanded instant asset write-off, which means that over 99 per cent of businesses employing over 11 million workers altogether can write off in full the value of any eligible asset they purchase. This has seen spending on machinery and equipment increase at its fastest rate in nearly seven years. So whether it's for a new ute for a tradesperson, a new coffee machine for a barista or new hairdressing equipment for a salon, new small businesses can invest and fully write off the value of these purchases.
We're also extending our small business loan scheme, which has already helped more than 40,000 businesses access low-cost finance, and extending the loss carry-back provisions for a further 12 months. All up, some 33,000 small businesses in my own electorate of Wentworth are eligible for the expanded instant asset write-off or the loss carry-back provisions.
These appropriation bills also help improve access to child care by allocating an additional $1.7 billion to support an increase in the affordability of child care. Up to 250,000 families across Australia will be better off by an average of $2,200 per year. This will give parents, and especially working mothers, the choice to take on extra work without being penalised, supporting increased labour force participation and giving working families greater choice.
These appropriations bills are also supporting innovation. They recognise that the nature of value creation is changing and that digital infrastructure and digital skills will be critical for the competitiveness of our economy in the future. We're investing $1.2 billion in our Digital Economy Strategy, we're expanding our cybersecurity innovation fund, we're undertaking a digital skills cadetship trial and we're continuing record spending on our R & D tax incentive. As a new measure we're also launching a new patent box, allowing income earned from new patents to be taxed at a concessional rate of only 17 per cent. Initially, this will apply to patents in the medical and biotech sectors, but we will be consulting on expanding it to the clean energy sector as well. We're also simplifying our treatment of employee share ownership schemes to align with the rest of the world and allow early-stage and start-up businesses to reward their employees in this well recognised fashion without paying a tax penalty.
This budget also has important steps to boost home ownership. We're helping another 10,000 first-home buyers to buy a new home with only a five per cent deposit through our First Home Loan Deposit Scheme. We're allowing people to save more through their super for their first home by increasing the amount that can be released under the First Home Super Saver Scheme from $30,000 to $50,000. We're also supporting single parents to purchase a home with a two per cent deposit under the Family Home Guarantee. This budget also guarantees our essential services. We're looking after our senior Australians by investing $17.7 billion in new funding to improve the quality and safety of aged care in response to the recommendations of the aged-care royal commission. This will increase the time nurses and carers are required to spend with residents. It will provide an additional payment of $10 per resident per day to enhance the viability of the aged-care sector. It will provide for new training places for personal carers and retention bonuses to keep more nurses in aged care. It will also increase to 275,000 the number of new home-care packages available.
This budget will also continue the trend of listing more medicines on the PBS. Since coming to government, we've listed more than 2,600 medicines on the PBS, or an average of almost one per day. In this budget we have measures to list medicines to treat breast cancer, lung cancer, severe osteoporosis, asthma and migraines. In last year alone there were 1.5 million free or subsidised medicines that were delivered in Wentworth, my own electorate, through the PBS, and this number will grow in the years ahead. We're also allocating $13.2 billion over four years to meet the needs of people with disability through increased funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We're providing more funding for mental health services, including an expanded headspace network, increased funding for the treatment of eating disorders and greater access to psychiatrists and psychologists through Medicare, plus establishing a new national suicide prevention office. We've nearly doubled spending on mental health since coming to office, and this is an area that will continue to remain a focal point of this government.
These appropriations bills recognise we live in a more uncertain world, where Australia's strategic environment beyond our borders is changing and where we face new challenges to our sovereignty and our freedom of action within Australia. This budget continues our record investment of $270 billion over 10 years to engage in a once-in-a-generation upgrade of our defence capabilities, and it also provides an additional $1.9 billion over the next decade to strengthen our national security, law enforcement and intelligence agencies to deal with the threats of foreign interference here in Australia. The budget continues to allocate money to look after our environment, with $480 million in new funding including $100 million to protect our oceans. It will provide money to upgrade our recycling capabilities and reduce the waste that's being sent to landfill in Australia. It will support major energy storage projects like the Battery of the Nation and Snowy 2.0. It will also invest a further $1.6 billion to fund priority technologies, including clean hydrogen and energy storage, to continue Australia's pathway and, indeed, accelerate our pathway to net zero emissions.
This budget also contains important measures to improve the safety of women. One in four women in Australia experience violence from a current or former partner, and this number is unacceptably high. This budget will allocate $1.1 billion to measures to improve women's safety, delivering more emergency accommodation, more legal assistance, more counselling, more financial support, including cash payments for those escaping abusive relationships. This pandemic is far from over and, though we can see our way out, it's important to recognise that the journey on the way out may not be linear. Indeed, in Europe, we've seen a double-dip recession; in India, we've seen a terrible further wave of COVID infections hurting the population there. There could be further twists and turns in the road ahead and it's important that we be ready for this. While our recovery to date has been stronger and sooner than expected, we need to be prepared for uncertainty ahead.
Our economy, according to the Treasury, is forecast to grow by 1.25 per cent in this financial year, 2020-21, rising to 4.25 per cent in 2021-22. Our deficit this year is already going to be $52.7 billion lower than anticipated six months ago, mainly because the recovery has been stronger and sooner than expected. But, with that said, our deficit will still reach $161 billion this year, and our net debt will rise to $617 billion this year, or around 30 per cent of GDP. Our net debt will peak at $980 billion, or 40.9 per cent of GDP, in 2025 on current estimates. Whilst this is low by international standards—around half that in the United Kingdom and half that in the United States and one-third of that in Japan—it's important that we look at measures to address this over time.
We don't want to rush to austerity in this budget. Part of the lesson in the recovery from the global financial crisis, particularly in Europe and America, was that, when fiscal policy was tightened too soon, those economies suffered. The way we will get through this debt burden and reduce it over time is for the economy to grow faster. The measures in this budget will allow this to happen. Provided our nominal GDP is growing at a faster rate than nominal interest rates are, then debt as a percentage of GDP will shrink over time. This is how Australia reduced its debt servicing burden but also its net levels of debt in the wake of the Second World War—the last major economic shock.
These appropriation bills provide a way forward for Australia out of this economic crisis, the COVID pandemic. They support jobs. They look after health and critical services. They look after our most vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians, including the elderly, people with a disability and women, and they provide a pathway forward for our economic recovery. I commend these appropriation bills to the House.
In the budget handed down by the Treasurer this year, we saw, undoubtedly, huge spending. We also saw enormous slush funds, huge amounts of money, described as decisions taken but not announced, and we saw those accompanied by short-term marketing and spin. There is no doubt—as the shadow Treasurer said in his contribution before mine—that, in this budget, we've seen a conservative government hand down generational debt without generational reform. This is from a government that, over its eight years, has presided over not just stagnant wages growth but record low wages growth. Its budget predicts more of the same. This budget predicts economic growth to return to below trend, participation to fall and business investment to be soft. For all of the money that has been spent in areas which desperately need spending, there's a real feeling that this is just trying to paper over cracks and to replace money that has been taken out over the eight years of this government.
For all of the money that is being spent, for all of the announcements and the marketing, what is fundamentally missing from the budget handed down by the Morrison government this year is any sense of a vision for the future—any sense of a vision for the sort of country Australia wants to be. There is absolutely no doubt that economic prosperity, fairly shared, has to play a central role in the national agenda. But as I've contended before, for Australia and Australians to truly thrive it should be embedded in a larger story. As other democracies around the world have done, we should be embedding that economic story in Australia in a story of wellbeing—the wellbeing of people, the wellbeing of places and the wellbeing of the environment that we live in and that we love. But we don't do that in this country. So we've seen missed opportunities, again and again, for budgets to be vehicles for important structural reform in this country. We've had too many piecemeal and temporary reforms. We've had too many failures to build community support for a creative national vision, for a long-term agenda. We've had too many politicians willing to talk about that but, when they have their hands on the levers of power, not delivering it.
That hasn't always been the case in this country. Between 1901 and World War II, Australia built a thriving democracy based on a living wage, supplemented by an age pension, an interventionist state and a nearly universal franchise, which included votes for women—although not our First Nations people. After World War II, we renewed our Australian compact by committing to full employment, mass migration, a huge expansion of housing and the broadening of tertiary education. From the eighties, we introduced sweeping reforms that deregulated and opened our economy, while expanding the social wage—with Medicare, family support and superannuation—and better protecting our environment.
Times of profound national change came with crisis which threatened health, wealth and wellbeing, as we've experienced in 2020 and as we continue to deal with today. Times of profound change require leaders from across the political, social, business and civil spheres of society to work together—to achieve larger goals, to stand back, to agree to a simple, compelling narrative that the population could rally behind, to think larger and longer, to build a nation in which everyone could have a job, to open our nation to the world, to have a consistent frame and direction for the country. We did that over roughly 40-year intervals. We're at another 40-year interval today. We should be doing that now. Instead, we have announcements of COVID commissions. We have national cabinets that one minute are on a war footing and the next minute aren't meeting. We have ideas being floated without background work being done, and we have a lack of vision—national and local—for the future.
What is also strikingly absent from this budget, from a conservative government that likes to say it's a great economic manager, is any agenda for productivity growth. It has an absolute reliance on the unemployment rate apparently continuing to decline and that having an impact on wages growth, but no agenda for productivity and growth. Members of the government use words like 'industry', 'innovation' and 'skills', but there is no comprehensive and coordinated skills, industry and innovation agenda. This is a government that can spend $600 million on a new gas-fired power plant, which every economist in the country seems to say is the wrong course, but can't actually concentrate on a proper agenda for the skills and jobs of the future.
We have relied on the flow of capital and on people and ideas from abroad for our economic dynamism over the years. Things have changed now. Supply chains have been broken. We don't have international talent and students coming in at the moment. We can't have a government that just puts up the shutters on things like climate policy and on developing the Australian wherewithal to deal with those challenges. We need to have a future made in Australia, a future based on Australian capabilities, Australian strengths and Australian investment. It is the time to invest in the skills and opportunities of our people and the innovation of our businesses. It's time to have that as a huge part of an agenda, and a budget that measures the wellbeing of our people, our places and our environment.
We do have the highest debt in our nation's history to look forward to, and deficits for as far as the eye can see, but what will we have to show for it under this government? If it were to be re-elected, how long would it take before we saw this government revert to form and cut essential services at the expense of working and middle-class people? Future generations will have to pay this debt back, so we need to invest in the drivers of growth, productivity and wages. We need to invest in opportunities and skills for people and innovative capabilities of businesses. We have to recognise that there are huge economic shifts happening—not just in our country but around the world—towards a knowledge driven economy, a clean economy and a caring economy. These are areas where we are well placed to lead the world if we have a government with a vision and a plan.
This is a budget that did nothing about the gaps in public and social housing, that trumpeted reforms to child care which go nowhere near what is needed and don't come close to Labor's and Anthony Albanese's policies, that did nothing to help insecure work. A Deloitte survey released today indicated that 47 per cent of women are now dissatisfied with their work, 76 per cent of women have taken on more work since the outset of coronavirus and many are less optimistic about their careers. The budget does nothing to help them. Where is the investment in a vision for flexible working, for wellbeing, for reforms to paid parental leave, for men to have opportunities to do more with their families and women to have opportunities to do more in the workforce?
How long will we have to wait for a real focus from this government and for real action around reporting and dealing with non-inclusive and unacceptable behaviour in workplaces—as the Deloitte survey asked? Perhaps they could start in this workplace and actually do what they said they would do and deal with the member for Bowman.
In my community, we were looking for investment in Dunkley to help us get through the COVID recession, but also to help us build the sort of future that we want. We were looking for investment in social and affordable housing. I received an email just last week: 'Hello, Peta. What can we do to help the families facing homelessness due to being given notice so landlords can sell their properties vacant?' Sixty-days notice isn't working in this climate. There's a single mother in Langwarrin with two weeks left to move. She's spent months looking and applying for rentals and is having no luck. Our renters are suffering. They need help, protection from eviction, and available housing. I went onto the Langwarrin locals Facebook page. There's a post from a woman who says she's getting beyond desperate and running out of time. She's been given notice to vacate. She and her daughter can't find anywhere to live, despite attending eight to 11 inspections a week, one to three inspections every weekday after work, with 80 people at rental inspections. They can't afford the rent. Her daughter goes to a local school. They are two weeks away from being homeless.
There is no investment in social and affordable housing in the Morrison budget, but there is a massive commitment from a future Labor government, because we know it's important for society, we know it's important for the economy and we know it's important for jobs. That's a vision. That's a vision for a budget grounded in the wellbeing of our people as well as the economy.
In Dunkley, we looked for a comprehensive and properly funded local jobs plan, but we didn't see one in the budget. We looked for when car parking that was promised at Kananook and Seaford would be delivered, but instead we heard the money was being removed. We looked for delivery of Ballarto Road upgrades that we'd been promised, and we didn't receive them. We looked for an investment in the proposed Ballam Park athletics redevelopment that the council's been asking for. Nothing. We looked for investment in vital new pavilions at the Emil Madsen Reserve in Mount Eliza, or for the Mornington Peninsula Bay Trail, for cycling and walking. I've been asking the government for funding for that for 12 months. Nothing. We looked for the government to fulfil its 2019 election promise that it was building the extension of the metro line to Baxter with a station at Langwarrin by funding the shortfall. Nothing. We looked for investment in the exciting proposed expansion of buildings and programs at McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, for our cultural lives, for tourism, for jobs. Nothing. In fact, what McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery got was a rejection of their application for RISE funding. We looked for an investment in the buildings and the culture of the local Indigenous gathering place Nairm Marr Djambana. Nothing. We looked for a commitment to more capital funding for our local schools and for more capital funding for community programs. We didn't see it. We looked for investment in local manufacturing and a plan for local manufacturing in our area. We didn't see it. We looked for support for Monash University for the employees who have lost their jobs and the students who are now facing $50,000 worth of student fees to get a degree. We didn't get it. We looked for JobSeeker to be above the poverty line so that people in my community can live in dignity while looking for work and caring for their families. We didn't get it. We looked for targeted support for our local travel agents and for our arts and culture industries that are still struggling post JobKeeper. We didn't get it. We looked for action on aged care. We saw that there is some funding, and we're waiting with bated breath to see what it will actually deliver for our community.
We looked for a genuine commitment to reducing emissions and supporting renewable energy to make Australia a renewable energy powerhouse, to build our renewable energy economy and good, decent, secure jobs for the future. We looked for real action on climate change. We didn't see it. We looked for a strategy for electric vehicles so that Australia doesn't become, as was described in the paper on the weekend, 'the Cuba of the developed world' for cars to be dumped in our country because they don't meet the emissions standards anywhere else in the world. We didn't see it. We looked for an electric vehicles strategy for jobs for local mechanics and manufacturing. We didn't see it.
We didn't see a budget based on a vision for the future, on the pillars of the wellbeing of our community. We saw a budget to get a government through a political difficulty and a tight cycle, and that is selling the people of my community short today. It is absolutely selling the people of Australia short in the future. We want a good government. We want a responsible government. We need a new government.
This year is the coalition's eighth budget. Having finally balanced the nation's book—which was an amazing effort—before COVID, we had to deal with a one-in-a-hundred-year pandemic, and that's precisely what this budget is. The last budgetary cycle has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as the Treasurer highlighted, this budget is the next stage of our economic plan to secure the recovery that has commenced with a huge bang and make sure that it continues. We lock in this amazing recovery. It also guarantees the essential services, whether it's in childcare, aged care, schools, hospitals, mental health or the NDIS.
There are also personal income tax and business tax incentives, because we need our industries to get the latest equipment to improve our supply chains so that there can be big investments in plant and equipment. The low and middle income tax offset will allow that. It'll allow companies like James Strong, which runs a huge production facility making all pressure-packed cans for the whole Australian market, to upgrade that facility so we can produce more and get efficiencies, and to get a proper efficiency by processing the raw aluminium that comes from the other end of my electorate at the Tomago smelter rather than sending it up to Thailand and then bringing it back again. It will allow a lot of efficiency and growth. To do that, the instant expensing, or instant asset write-off facility, will mean that sort of investment is a whole lot easier, whether it's my small businesses like all the tradesmen that need new equipment or the farmers that really wanted to get all that new equipment so that they can do the latest techniques in carbon sequestration in our soils, or whether it means getting equipment on your dairy farm so that you can put in a biodigester and process all the dairy waste—or at your piggery—and turn that into pure water and really great fertiliser and get rid of all the waste. It's a win-win. These tax incentives for companies to invest in new plant and equipment are going to deliver huge dividends for many years to come.
The government are also investing in new apprenticeships. Apprentice subsidies have already delivered over 100,000 new positions around the nation, but we still need to increase our skills base. If we want to become an independent nation that has its own supply chain, we need skilled workers. We cannot have everyone at university, so we need to grow the trade and skills sector, and these subsidies, along with continued and expanded apprenticeship and training places, will do just that.
Also, the infrastructure the government has announced in this budget will deliver major dividends. For instance, on the Pacific Highway, even though it is duplicated, there are five high-risk intersections, where individuals in cars, people towing caravans, semitrailers, b-doubles all have to dice with death to cross the four lanes of the highway. When it was built, it was just duplicated. When the coalition came to power, we increased the funding for the Pacific Highway upgrade to the 80-20 split. Those sections in the south, north of Newcastle, were not built to motorway standard so they do not have flyovers. I was so pleased to see in the budget the funding for the Harrington- Coopernook flyover. Instead of playing dodgem cars and chicken with four lanes of traffic, when that is built, people between Harington and Coopernook will be able to travel on a grade-separated interchange. There are many more we have to do but this is the start.
The government have also increased our defence capability and expanded the capability of Newcastle airport, which is the major airport for people not only in my electorate but from the electorates around the Hunter, up the North Coast into the New England area. It means Newcastle airport or Williamtown Air Force Base will have an upgraded runway capability that can take Code E aircraft—that means, wide-bodied jets that can fly to the US, up to Singapore and Hong Kong or over to the Middle East in one go. It will truly make it an international airport.
The extra defence capability will mean our Air Force can have those big air tankers, the Joint Strike Fighters, the re-fuellers and re-tankers there as well because the airport runway upgrade will make that a possibility. It will also allow the commercial side of the Newcastle airport to expand. It is already an aerospace hub, but all of the businesses that support the defence capability will be able to expand. It will also have the capability of having hundreds of thousands more tourists when inbound tourism reopens, because we will be able to make it a truly international hub.
Also, all of the exporters from the Hunter and the New England and up and down the coast, such as an abattoir at Wingham that has to ship its exports up through Brisbane or down through Sydney, will now be able to put their products on these Code E aircraft out to the markets of Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, at the Hunter airport. It will be a fantastic initiative, and I am so proud that the coalition government is delivering on it.
We have come a long way in the past year, but I want to take this opportunity to congratulate all my constituents and all Australians. We have really banded together on this but we now have to move on. The pandemic is still far from over. As you can see, there are new variants emerging all the time. A pandemic means it is a rush of a virus or a bug to which the world has no immunity. We are slowly building immunity either through vaccines or exposure, but there will be variants, just like there is a flu variant every year that is slightly different. We have to have systems in place to cope with the antigenic drift that happens in all viruses. It is like a car with a new model: the headlights, the number plate and the grill change and it still looks like the last model but it has changed a bit. So vaccines have to change and treatments have to emerge. This health budget is funding huge capabilities of vaccines in this country.
It is securing our economic future as well as our health future. I mentioned the instant asset write-off but there are other tax announcements that are really important. I have 48,500 taxpayers in the Lyne electorate. To reward them for their hard work, continuing the low- and middle-income tax offset means that an individual in that bracket will get $1,080 more and, if they are a couple, it is $2,160 in their tax rebate at the end of the financial year. There are 15,900 businesses that will benefit from that instant asset write-off.
We have new home care packages. I have one of the oldest demographics in the country, and another 80,000 home care packages means that care will be able to be delivered a lot sooner. We will now bring the total to 275,000 home care packages. The aged-care changes and reforms will mean another $10 per resident per day to enhance the viability and sustainability of the residential aged-care sector. Their workforce is struggling to cope. We have huge spending on the NDIS, but one of the unintended consequences of this spending on the NDIS is that a lot of staff are leaving the aged-care sector to work in much easier jobs in personal care in the NDIS. Some of my aged-care facilities are actually having to shut wards because they cannot staff them. That is another piece of work that I will continue to work on. We are funding 33,000 new training places for personal carers and a new Indigenous workforce.
We have 1,500 apprentices in the Lyne electorate due to the extension of the JobTrainer Fund. This will lead to many more opportunities for young Australians, especially school leavers in Lyne. In the infrastructure space, the Harrington-Coopernook flyover is one of many projects. There is also extra money going to infrastructure to increase the safety along our major highways, and you can see the sound-warning edges to the edge of the Pacific Highway north and south across the Lyne electorate. We are doing so much.
Local health care has changed during the pandemic through telehealth facilities. That has really changed the dynamic for a lot of our patients who rely on their GP but are distance separated from them. During the pandemic it was a great lifesaver that you could have telehealth consultations. That innovation is now continuing across the nation. Just shy of 370,000 telehealth consultations have been delivered in the Lyne electorate since the start of the pandemic.
There are 920 families in the Lyne electorate who will benefit from the changes to our childcare system. It is a really great budget. It is a great outcome. People are getting tangible benefits that they can see. Their family's budget will be better off because of those tax cuts. If you are a young family with two children in child care you will see that benefit on the balances. It is funding upgrades to roads like Clarence Town Road and Bucketts Way; the Brig O'Johnston Bridge at Clarence Town; the Figtrees on the Manning project, the Forster civic precinct; and Taree Universities Campus. All these are funded through coalition budgets. We have committed in earlier budgets to the design, planning and upgrade of the Lorne Road.
The local roads and community infrastructure initiative means that the councils in my area will have the funds to do a lot of those sporting amenity upgrades that everyone has been clamouring for. I might just mention a few examples, starting with the Wauchope stadium, a great place where everyone plays basketball, but it's old and fading. This funding means the council will finally be able to improve the cladding. There's going to be a new netball court at the Laurieton Sports Complex. Kendall Tennis Club has hundreds of children involved with it and will be able to expand its courts. The other big improvement in the sporting space is at Tea Gardens, where disability access is being improved through extra local roads and community infrastructure funding in this budget. The Tuncurry water park, a design change for a really popular spot, will be delivered in the near future. Many people walk up and down the Forster boardwalk, and the council has been aiming to expand this walk for ages. It will become a reality because of this budget. The Wingham CBD upgrade has been planned for at least 10 years and is finally going to become a reality. The Taree Wildcats, whose sporting fields are looked after by the council and the club themselves, will finally get some improved drainage and field upgrades, as well as new change rooms and a canteen.
These upgrades sound small at the national level, but for people in my electorate they are literally going to be game changers. There's also the upgrade of the Gloucester netball courts. I have so many small towns and villages across the 16,000 square kilometres of my electorate, I could fill a whole speech with things that are going to benefit from these tangible initiatives by supporting local governments. I commend all these appropriation bills to the House.
We are seeing, post budget, two very different visions for Australia being put forward: on this side, not holding anyone back, not leaving anyone behind; on the government benches, the government has refused to be on the side of Australians stranded abroad, refused to be on the side of Australians stuck in India, refused to be on the side of Australians in the universities sector, refused to be on the side of Australians under 50 who cannot afford a home and cannot even register for a vaccine. This government has refused to be on the side of Australians who are looking for a place to call home. Labor has come up with a practical policy that the government should adopt tomorrow, creating a $10 billion Australian housing future fund to build more social housing, create jobs and change lives. We propose that 30,000 homes be built over five years, including 10,000 homes for frontline workers and 4,000 homes for women and children escaping domestic violence, veterans experiencing homelessness and older Australian women on low incomes. It will fix challenges in my electorate of Perth. For too many years now Stirling Towers has sat vacant, waiting for the funds required to build new homes in Highgate for low-income and essential workers. Orana House have continued to struggle with the challenges of helping women who have come to them at a point of crisis to get into long-term, secure accommodation.
When it comes to helping people find a home, we also need to talk about helping people come home. Every single Australian knows that we needed to get quarantine right, except for the Prime Minister. Australians expected on budget night the Prime Minister to finally show some leadership. Instead, again, this budget fails when it comes to quarantine. Not a single dollar was put forward for new quarantine measures in Western Australia. There was spending like never before, but nothing—not an extra dollar—for one of the most critical pieces of important infrastructure we need. There are 40,000 Australians on the waiting list. We know there are countless more who would get on the waiting list, but they know it's just not worth their time. What have we had since the crisis of COVID came out in another wave in India? Two repatriation flights—just two. This Prime Minister has failed his own citizens. The Perth electorate is housing all of Western Australia's hotel quarantine. That could be addressed if we just had some national infrastructure, some remote quarantine, so that it would be not just inner-city areas and the CBD and the businesses within being hardest hit every time a necessary lockdown came into place. We need more capacity and more quarantine locations.
The only solution we've seen in the last couple of weeks from the government is the vaccine passport. I'm sure this will go the way of every other thought bubble that the government have had. They wanted to open the borders, and then they wanted to close the borders. They opposed Clive Palmer and kicked him out of the LNP, and then they supported him in the High Court. They wanted to help Australians overseas, and then they wanted to lock them up for five years. They put the Liberal logo on their vaccine information, and then they stopped publishing any vaccine information or public information campaigns at all. They promised four million vaccinations by April, and then they said they never promised that. Now we have the vaccine passport, a passport you can get only if you're over 50 years old. Talk about intergenerational inequality! This government has failed young Australians time and time again during this pandemic, telling them to dip into their superannuation and telling them they're going to have to pay even more for their university fees. This is a government that doesn't really care who it attacks. Just ask the Premier of New South Wales. Maybe the Prime Minister just got tired of attacking Labor premiers, and so he decided to go to after one of his own. When the Prime Minister of New South Wales said what we all know to be true—that is, that the government's plans for the vaccine are not ambitious enough—the Prime Minister got personal. He said the Premier was being selfish, that she only cared about New South Wales. Well, speaking on behalf of people from Western Australia, often it seems like this Prime Minister only cares about New South Wales.
When we talk about the vaccine passport and how we've failed young Australians we need also to remember that, at the moment, this government has no plan for what to do with young people when it comes to COVID vaccinations. They talk about giving out a vaccine passport. What does that mean for children who don't have a vaccine? What does that mean for families who want to travel together? The truth is that while COVID, thankfully, does not affect children and young people in the same way, it does affect young people. As of 2 April 2021, 361 children in the United States have died from COVID. In Brazil, as of 15 April 2021, 1,300 babies have died from COVID. In the US, average daily cases for children have risen by over 200 per cent in the last few weeks. So we talk about vaccine passports and this never-ending rush to open up the economy without any plan about protecting people's health, but the reality is that we need to see a plan from the government about what they are going to be saying to young people, who seem to have been forgotten in the debate on COVID and the reopening of our international borders. We know that it will worsen mental health for children if they don't get vaccinated, can't get vaccinated and can't travel. We know that it will increase social isolation for children. We know that it will mean more families remain separated. And it means all these promises from some sort of a snap back to usual from this government will be false.
Younger Australians want a government that has an eye on the future and on the challenges we face in the future. Australia as a whole needs a government with its eye on the future. Instead we have a government that is obsessed with the past. We know that what is obsessing the Liberal Party base right now, including members of the backbench—the Prime Minister's own backbench—is a desire to walk away from the deal that finally secured a fair share of the GST for Western Australia.
As a Western Australian I worry that the federal government will come for a slice of WA's GST. We've already seen this flagged by the New South Wales Treasurer, a member of the Liberal Party. And, just two days after the budget was released, what was the Prime Minister's hand-picked chair of the Tax and Revenue Committee doing? He wasn't out selling the budget; he was out attacking Western Australia's share of the GST. Now, the Liberal Party might say, 'Don't worry about it. Trust us. It's going to be fine,' but as a Western Australian I have no doubt that a government that was willing to side with Clive Palmer against Western Australians in the High Court will have no problem ripping away money from Western Australia.
My message to the treasurers across this country is: hands off Western Australia's GST share. The federal Treasurer can't give in to his Victorian and New South Wales backbench, and state treasurers in Victoria and New South Wales can't see the WA economy and WA's GST as an easy fix to their problems.
The distribution of GST revenue amongst the states requires long-term thinking and a secure, certain approach—thinking beyond just the next boom. But we saw in the budget that the Morrison government is not capable of thinking about the long-term economic future. The budget showed us that. There were so many missed opportunities in this budget, but missed opportunities have become a sort of pattern in the economic and infrastructure statements that we see from this government. There is so much that this government could be doing right now. We should be using this opportunity to build up our tourism infrastructure assets for that time when we do once again welcome people to these shores.
One area where I was disappointed is that the government's Perth City Deal fails to make any headway on a revitalisation of the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. This is a piece of infrastructure that needs to be refreshed. The managers of the asset, the leaseholders of the asset, want to do the hard work. We know that the public want to see action on the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. It is more than 20 years old. It is becoming one of the oldest convention centres in Australia, and we should look to the opportunity to redevelop that centre so it can be a world-class convention and tourism asset in the heart of the Perth CBD, next to Elizabeth Quay. As they would say in Western Australia—because we fondly refer to the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre as 'the cockroach' because of its unique design—it's time to squash the cockroach and build something new for the 21st century.
The other thing about this budget that disappointed Western Australians was that it had no plan when it comes to wages. There was $100 billion of new spending announced in the budget, projecting that inflation in the 2021-22 financial year will be 1.75 per cent—and already we're seeing warnings that inflation may indeed be higher—but wage growth at just 1.5 per cent. That is a real wage cut next financial year for thousands of working Western Australians. If the government are able to do amazing backflips when it comes to debt, deficit and budget surpluses, maybe it's time they finally do a backflip when it comes to stagnant wages in this country.
I want to share the story of somebody who called my office the day after the budget. His name is Keith, and Keith is a pensioner who lives in the Perth electorate. This government, he says, just makes him a number, and not a number the government cares about. When Keith saw the budget, he was devastated. He said he's worried about winter. He reckons that, once he's paid for his medication, he won't have money left to pay for warm clothes. He asked, 'Why isn't the Prime Minister looking after older Australians?' I think we saw that in the way they threw money into the aged-care sector but require zero accountability that actually ensures higher quality care. We saw $3.2 billion injected into aged care, $10 a day per resident per bed, but no obligation about what is done with those funds. There is no obligation that it go to high-quality food or high-quality care or to a living wage for people who work in aged care—another huge disappointment and another huge missed opportunity by this government.
It's a government that misses out on the big challenges of our future. When it comes to renewable energy, again, the government are tying themselves in knots trying to say that they believe that they might get to net zero emissions by 2050—maybe, if Boris Johnson and Joe Biden make them. But the only reason they're actually doing it is to keep their friends abroad happy, not to protect the broader economic interests of their country here at home.
When Australians look at this parliament, they see one side who've had 20-something energy plans but haven't actually implemented any and a side that has a plan to tackle the big challenges of our future and grab the opportunity to make Australia the energy superpower of the world: transforming the national energy market by rebuilding the grid and modernising how people can pump renewables into our energy grid. Australia has the expertise to do this. We just need the right policy settings to get it done—using Australian steel and Australian workers to deliver cheap, reliable and clean energy. Our current grid was designed in the decades long passed now. We need to bring it into the future and we need to accept that the future lies in community batteries, electric cars and investing in renewables, not demonising them.
We are going to see a bit of a preview this weekend. We've seen the Prime Minister and the Treasurer outline their budget and say that they're now born-again, big-spending, big-government progressives who deliver women's budget statements—something they haven't done for the last seven years. But, of course, in the year before an election, we've gone from the back-in-black budget to the back-to-the-ballot-box budget. That is all this is. But we will see what the Liberal Party truly believes this weekend. The heart and soul of the Liberal Party is descending on Canberra for their federal council meeting this weekend. They are going to be here and they are going to tell us what they really think and how they really want to govern the country.
We know from their previous council meetings what they actually believe. It was only in 2018 when the Liberal Party's federal council passed a motion for the full privatisation of the ABC. It was in 2017 that the Liberal Party of Western Australia passed a motion to secede from the Commonwealth—because that's what they actually believed. They wanted to secede from the Commonwealth when they had a federal Liberal government in office. Life member of the Liberal Party, Clive Palmer, in 2012— (Time expired)
This speech on the appropriation bills being in two parts—one in continuation later on—I'd like to use the last couple of minutes to focus on one particular item in the budget, and that's education spending. Education for the regional city of Tamworth is vitally important. Tamworth has the lowest number of people in Australia currently in tertiary education and the lowest number of people in Australia who have a tertiary degree. So it is essential that we get a university campus in Tamworth.
I want to clarify that the UNE has been incredibly happy with the Commonwealth-funded places to satisfy the New South Wales government's requirement for a $10 million funded contribution to release the state's funds of $26.6 million committed to the UNE campus proposal. I want to commend the work that's been done by the committee, including Mitch Hanlon; vice-chancellor Brigid Heywood—and I'd like to commend her absolute focus on this project; Mayor Col Murray, who has been absolutely resolved to making sure that we bring this to fruition; and local Nationals state member, the Hon. Kevin Anderson. Between this group, we hope that we can land this project, because it's not a matter of whether; it is going to be a matter of when—and we want the 'when' to be as soon as possible.
If Armidale has a university campus, Orange has one, Wagga has one, Lismore has one, Port Macquarie has one, Albury has one, Dubbo has one, Wollongong has one, Newcastle has one and Coffs Harbour has one and, if you go up the coast, Bundaberg has one and Rockhampton has one, then Tamworth, one of the fastest-growing regional cities in Australia, also deserves to be able to make sure that their sons and daughters have the capacity to go to primary school, high school and university in the city that produces the largest amount of animal protein—whether that's eggs, poultry, beef or sheep—in Australia.
The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour. The member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.
I'm deeply saddened by the pressure mounting on the Sherwood Respite Service, a wonderful organisation in Moreton started by good hearted locals three decades ago. Back then, the local Meals on Wheels volunteers observed that many of the people they were visiting were lonely and isolated due to age and mobility issues. They formed the community based Sherwood Respite Service. They were gifted a stately old Queenslander in Thallon Street, and in 1996 its doors were opened for day respite. The Sherwood Respite Service has one mission: to support the aged to live independently in our local community.
In 2016 the volunteer run organisation agreed that PresCare, a ministry of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, would assume responsibility for the management services, assets and operations of the Sherwood Respite Service. PresCare committed to continuing the services at the Thallon Street house, and I have a letter confirming that. Local volunteers like Jan Kennedy, who'd been running the service for 20 years, thought they were doing the right thing by handing the service over to a more professional organisation. Now PresCare has just been placed in receivership. There's a 'for sale' sign out the front of the Thallon Street house. The donated building could be sold to pay PresCare's debts. So I call on the Liberal Brisbane City Council mayor to step up and stop such a sale. I call on the Minister for Health and Aged Care to preserve this wonderful service, started by my community to serve my community, as it has done so for decades. I'll be working with councillor Nicole Johnston and state member Mark Bailey to make sure we preserve this local asset.
Townsville's crime crisis is spiralling out of control, and the inaction from the state Labor government is becoming more increasingly obvious. We have stolen cars, carjackings and home invasions. We've had 366 thefts in the last few days. Our community is calling out for changes to the Youth Justice Act, such as removing detention as a last resort, making sure a breach of bail is a criminal offence and changing the holiday-like detention centre that we have in Townsville.
In the last two weeks we've had helicopters in the sky and spikes across the road. We've had stolen cars swerving in and out, nearly hitting children who are leaving school. Where have our state Labor MPs been when there's been hundreds of people protesting and upset about the high amount of crime in Townsville? I'll tell you where they've been: they've been at the NRL Magic Round in corporate boxes, eating lobsters and drinking champagne, when our community has been calling out and wondering where they've been. Where have these coward state MPs been? They've been in hiding. They're not allowed to speak out. We deserve MPs who can front up to community events and look our community in eyes and meet their expectations. They are failing, they have not done it, and they should be ashamed to call themselves representatives.
Never before in our Federation has it been illegal for Australians to come home, but a few weeks ago this government made it so for Australians stuck in India. It wasn't just wrong; it was outrageous and unprecedented. The fact is the Prime Minister has failed on his own promise: to have all Australians home by Christmas. He overpromised and underdelivered. It was a cynical distraction from the fact that he had over a year to deliver a federal quarantine system fit for purpose, and he botched it. Instead he cruelly abandoned thousands of Australians going through the most difficult time of their lives.
I welcome, of course, the decision to restart repatriation flights from India. But, while attention has been focused on the situation in India, next door, Nepal, has also experienced a huge surge in cases. The latest figures, released just yesterday, show 8,591 daily cases. Hospitals are overflowing. Beds and drugs are in short supply. There's not enough oxygen. We need to be doing more than just getting our citizens home. As a middle power with responsibility to lead in our region, our nation needs to support, step up and help our Indo-Pacific neighbours. So I welcome the government's support for PPE and testing kits for Nepal. But, if they didn't cut the foreign aid budget, maybe, during a time of global crisis, they'd actually be able to give more, support more and provide more leadership in the region.
One of the great organisations in Logan is YFS. They help many families in Logan struggling to overcome adversity and to thrive. I am delighted to report to the House that the government shares this vision and has supported YFS to the tune of $600,000 in funding from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's Women's Leadership and Development Program. This grant will provide two years' funding to deliver the Spark women's employment mentoring program in Logan and the Scenic Rim.
Domestic violence and homelessness cause trauma and disruption to women. When women are out of work and have no access to money, their situation is compounded and leaving an abusive relationship becomes even harder. Practical support to quickly re-engage in work helps women rebuild their economic independence, sense of purpose, social inclusion and confidence. YFS will use their grant funding to employ two skilled mentors to help women who are impacted by domestic violence back into the workforce and ensure they have the training and support necessary to achieve that. They will use that to build on relationships with local businesses and local employers. They will improve financial literacy, resilience and coping strategies. I commend this program and the work that YFS does to the House.
Deputy Speaker, I rise today to tell you a joke. It begins: the Morrison government will invest $600 million to build a new gas-fired power station in the Hunter Valley. The punchline: taxpayer dollars will be used to do it! It is not a very funny joke but it is a joke nonetheless. For a start, this was announced on the same day that the International Energy Agency said no more fossil fuel projects should be approved. The Liddell taskforce itself says that existing generation projects are more than sufficient to meet needs. And even Kurri Kurri gas plant proponents admit the government's taxpayer-funded plant will only be used two per cent of the time, so the government's own experts do not back it up. The private sector does not want a bar of it. So why invest in a project that the private sector will not touch? This would be hilarious if it wasn't $600 million of taxpayers' money being used to buy votes at a by-election. Instead of a future in fossil fuels, the Morrison government must invest in new jobs in clean energy. This is where jobs growth is taking place.
Last Friday, I stood with hundreds of young people as part of the School Strike 4 Climate. Like me, they are desperate for real action on climate change and for a 2050 net zero emissions target. I stand with young people in urging, demanding, the Morrison government get a plan and take real action on climate change.
I would like to touch on this complex area of arrival, biochemistry and COVID. A Sunday Telegraph article by James Campbell yesterday pointed out that rapid antigen testing would reduce from 13 per cent to one per cent the number of COVID-positive travellers coming to Australia. It would take a huge amount of pressure off hotel quarantine. So today to say that we need to expand our use of PCR to include rapid antigen testing, which has now been shown to be 100 per cent sensitive—99.86 per cent specific—in tests by the Doherty institute over the seven days post COVID symptoms.
More importantly, we need to look at antibody testing. This tells us whether people have been vaccinated effectively, whether they are able to fight COVID and whether they have been previously infected or vaccinated. That antibody testing is critical. Why are we letting arrivals in Australia not demonstrate that they are already covered and protected from vaccination? They come from countries where there is often 30, 40 or 50 per cent vaccination but we need to know if they are a reservoir of arrivals or potentially not protected from COVID. We need to be testing every arrival, not just using the antigen testing for are they currently infected but the antibody testing to show they have the antibodies to fight disease. Because many people, particularly high-risk demographics, get the vaccination—both shots—but are still unprotected. It is a very important area that Professor McLaws has identified, which affects between 18 to 25 or 30 per cent of people who are vaccinated. Let's use the technology. If you cannot land in China without testing, we need to do the same here in Australia and do the best testing we can for arrivals in this country.
Today we had another two likely cases of coronavirus in Melbourne. First of all, we thank them for all of their efforts in order to get their interviews and to isolate and to work with all of the Victorian health staff to try to make sure that this is contained as much as possible. But, it is yet another reminder that this pandemic is not over. This pandemic is raging around the world. In our neighbours in the Pacific and of course in India, this pandemic has been devastating in recent weeks.
The key to managing this across the world has been a vaccination rollout. We have seen countries which have been able to vaccinate their people manage with incoming cases and manage with coronavirus in the community with a reduction in severity of the disease and a reduction in the amount of people who are dying from it.
This government, instead of getting on and delivering a successful vaccination rollout, have now started to blame Australians for not getting a vaccine. This government promised that they would be vaccinating vulnerable Australians. It's now almost June, and our aged-care sector is not even finished. We've less than 1,000 people from the disability sector who have been vaccinated. There is one thing standing in the way of Australians getting out of this pandemic, and that is this federal government's incompetency and their minister for health's stubbornness in this slow vaccine rollout that could potentially lead to another lockdown.
Today I want to talk about something that isn't talked about in this House very much, and that's a little bit of romance. Just in the last week, Tripadvisor have announced the world's most romantic hotel was none other than the Narrows Escape in my great electorate of Fisher. I want to send a huge shout out to Ali Kahn and his wife, Xochi Lindholm, who have recently bought the Narrows Escape, which is an absolutely fantastic hotel—the world's most romantic hotel.
I visited there recently, and I can tell you I know why it won this award. I was swept away. It's an absolutely amazing place with six cabins with spa baths and forest views, and you can hear the creek running through—absolutely fantastic. I encourage everybody watching this to book in now, but you had better get in quick because it's near 100 per cent occupancy.
This week I also visited the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre for their Speak Up Now candlelight ceremony against domestic violence. This was a great night. It was very sad to have to have it, but it was a terrific night attended by many people in our community. It was a great show of support for those who suffer from domestic violence. With Andrew Powell, member for Glass House, and Winston Johnston, our local councillor, it was great to see so many people speaking up against it. (Time expired)
Ella Iaria is a 19-year-old country woman from Myrtleford in my electorate of Indi. She was one of this year's winner of the ABC's Heywire program. Heywire amplifies the voice of a new generation, and that's exactly what Ella did. She wrote eloquently of growing up in a small country town with pretty clear ideas of what boys do and what girls do. These gendered stereotypes did not sit well with Ella. She had a clear plan and her own passion. She donned her boots and signed up to do a certificate in building and construction. She followed her own dream and brought others along with her as she challenged preconceived beliefs. Ella's dad is a master cabinetmaker. Initially he wasn't keen for his young daughter to take on this role, but he was willing to give it a go, and now he realises she can do anything she puts her mind to. He is as proud as punch of Ella.
I recently met with Ella to congratulate her on her achievement in this program, which has given voice to young rural Australians for over 20 years. Ella's inspiring contribution to ABC Heywire told a great story of bucking the trend and has opened the door in her community for others to do the same. In Ella's words, 'Girls can do it, no matter what.'
Last week I was very pleased to welcome the Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business, the Honourable Stuart Robert, to my electorate of Robertson. We visited a number of outstanding Central Coast businesses to hear about their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and how the Morrison government's budget will help to boost jobs and economic activity in my local community.
One of these small businesses is Daily Dough Co., run by Emma, an incredible 19-year-old who started the business in April last year after she lost her part-time jobs as a result of the pandemic. Emma started by making doughnuts in her home kitchen, and she sold 18 on her first day, through Instagram. Her business has only grown from there, and she now sells over 2,000 delicious doughnuts a day, made from her factory in Wyong, and she employs around 38 people, including her mother, who does the accounting; and her brother and her father, who helped out with the construction and the fit-out of the shop. Emma's passionate about creating opportunities for young people on the coast and employs a number of former schoolfriends at the doughnut shop.
This is a great example of how local businesses are driving our economic growth, generating jobs and boosting recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Morrison government is supporting this through a number of measures announced in the recent budget, including the extension of full expensing to June 2023. This, with our other initiatives— (Time expired)
I rise to recognise the very powerful women from frontline domestic and family violence services in Newcastle who drove all the way to Canberra to make their voices heard by this government about the complete lack of action for women and children suffering domestic violence in Australia. On display on the lawns of Parliament House this morning were 150 'dresses of sorrow'. These dresses have been lovingly made to commemorate the women who have been murdered in senseless acts of violence in Australia. Each dress tells an individual story, but they are the lived experiences of too many women in Australia. Heart sickened from bearing the pain, trauma and grief of these deaths year after year, the Newcastle women brought these dresses to Canberra to transfer that burden to the Prime Minister and his government, to demand urgent, enduring and sustainable action. This morning, they gifted those 150 dresses to the Prime Minister. This is a precious gift, but it comes with a call to government to take responsibility, to take national leadership, and to increase dramatically the funding to domestic and family violence services and refuges for the homeless so that no woman is turned away, to immediately address the housing crisis in Australia and to address the gendered poverty that persists in this nation. Enough is enough, Prime Minister. (Time expired)
A strong nation doesn't leave vulnerable Australians behind. JDRF Australia is working tirelessly to improve the lives of people with type 1 diabetes and to discover a cure. It was inspiring to join JDRF to welcome home a group of JDRF Type 1 Challenge riders, including Goldstein's own Paul Tadich, Justin Hocevar and Trevor Wilson. The riders have been raising awareness and funds to support JDRF's important work. Their fundraising will help alleviate the financial and medical burdens experienced by thousands of Australians living with type 1 diabetes, including 750 Goldstein residents. It was great to see the compassionate hearts of our wonderful community on display, with people like Elisa Tranter, Stephen Smith, Daniel Smith, Sophia Smith, Ric Sharp, Nicky Sharp, Peter Wilson and Belinda Wilson on hand to support this important community event.
There is of course no limit to what we can achieve when we work together to pursue solutions. Thank you to all the volunteers at JDRF for offering your time to help improve the lives of those suffering from type 1 diabetes. Also, thank you to all the support staff who backed the ride and of course to the riders themselves, who tested their own endurance and their own capacity to support those in need and those who need medical support.
Last Thursday, I received my first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The sore arm has gone, four days later, and I can report no side effects. I say this in this place because I want a message to go to my community. There is only one way out of this, and that is through the vaccination program. What I want to say to my community is please ignore the mixed messaging coming from those opposite. Please ignore the mixed messages; we need to get vaccinated. The fact of the matter is that right now in Australia only one per cent of adults are fully vaccinated—only one per cent—after this government promised four million people would be vaccinated by March. Now we're hearing 'maybe by Christmas'. Please!
In my electorate, we took it hard. We had lots and lots of community transmission during the worst of it in Victoria and we cannot afford to go through that again. We cannot afford to lose aged people in our aged-care centres again. Like the member for Macnamara, I'd like to pause to say that we have two cases again in Victoria today. There is only one way through this, and we have to work around an incompetent federal government to get it done, people. So go out and get vaccinated as soon as you're eligible. I hear that in Melbourne under-50s can get AstraZeneca. I say to the young people in my community: go and get it.
A couple of weeks ago, I travelled to Horsham to meet with an innovative young farmer, Thomas Blair. Tom is a third-generation farmer and runs Blair Farms with his father and grandfather. Tom was born and bred into innovation. He also lived overseas, in Europe, for several years and brought back a passion for clean energy. Tom is pioneering a renewable energy project which could be a model to help farmers reduce carbon emissions, save on energy costs and contribute to the nation's transition to renewable energy technologies.
The multimillion dollar project aims to produce green hydrogen using solar energy to power the farm all year round. Tom showed me the massive roof line on his farm's sheds, where the new solar installation will be. The next step is to produce green hydrogen through electrolysis using solar energy. The long-term plan is to transition to hydrogen fuel cells for use in heavy agricultural machinery in order to cut out hundreds of thousands of litres of diesel every year. Tom enthusiastically told me about his intention to use contaminated water to produce hydrogen, which is an exciting opportunity for farmers to recycle contaminated water into energy.
The project has received broad support from industry, and the state government has backed it with a $250,000 grant. I'm eager to continue working with Tom to offer the full support of the federal government as the project continues to gain pace.
I want to acknowledge our Territory trainees and apprentices and the host businesses that they work in. I want to acknowledge all finalists and, of course, the category winners from the GTNT Awards Night on the weekend. David Hemopo won the David Beavington Most Outstanding Automotive Apprentice award, at Bridge Toyota. He's a great fella. Most Outstanding Shell Apprentice was Victoria Lang at Nilsen NT. School Based Apprentice of the Year was Taylah Mills at Gove District Hospital. Outstanding Apprentice of the Year Stage 1 went to Shane Greening at RK Diesel Services. Outstanding Apprentice of the Year Stage 2 went to Shannah Mudge at Aggreko. Outstanding Apprentice of the Year Stage 3 went to Matthew Cubis at Trace JV. Host Business of the Year was GEBIE Civil & Construction. Supervisor of the Year was Susan Turner. Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Apprentice/Trainee of the Year was Jahdai Vigona of Menzies School of Health Research, and Trainee of the Year was, again, Jahdai Vigona at Menzies. Apprentice of the Year was Joshua Zeimer at Power Water Corporation.
Congratulations to all the finalists and category winners, and thank you to all the support organisations. Under this government, we've lost 150,000 apprentices. Federal Labor will bring back apprentices. We care about young people and the jobs of the future.
The National Anzac Centre, in my home town of Albany, is an essential memorial to our Anzac heritage. Opened in 2014 by Prime Minister Abbott and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, the centre overlooks the majestic King George Sound, where the first convoys of Anzacs assembled before departing for World War I. Visiting Albany earlier this month, Minister for Defence Personnel and Minister for Veterans' Affairs Darren Chester said the centre stood on sacred ground, as it is the last part of Australia that many of our Anzacs ever saw.
Minister Chester expressed concern at the burden for the centre's recurrent costs resting with the city and the ratepayers of Albany. Unlike with the Australian War Memorial, in Canberra, entry to the National Anzac Centre is not free for all. For some time, Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington and I have argued that if there were funding to provide free entry it could service more school groups, particularly from my home state of Western Australia. This point is pertinent in the COVID era, when taking school groups across to Canberra is problematic.
After joining me at the centre in the week leading up to Anzac Day this year, Assistant Minister for Defence Andrew Hastie told returned service people at the Albany RSL that their city was a key piece of geography in the Anzac story. Mr Hastie, a veteran of Special Air Service Regiment, said we should make Australian history accessible to all at no cost. I thank Ministers Chester and Hastie for voicing their support for relieving the financial burden of this much-loved national monument for the people of Albany so it can be enjoyed by Australians, one and all.
Yesterday Dr Leela de Mel, known to those who loved and knew her simply as Leela, passed away peacefully at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, after a long and brave struggle. Many of the people here won't know who she is, but, among the public sector in Western Australia and multicultural communities, her bravery, her vision and her tenacity will be fondly remembered. Leela was the Executive Director of the Office of Multicultural Interests when I first started my career in public policy, in 2001. She gave me my first break into policy. She was my boss, but she became my friend, my mentor and my role model. She taught me so much about policy. Under her leadership and the leadership of the then Premier and minister for multiculturalism, Geoff Gallop, the multicultural portfolio in WA saw its best years. We developed the WA Charter of Multiculturalism, the language services policy and the substantive equality policy—all under her leadership. I was fortunate enough to be able to see her on Thursday, with my husband, David, and to say our final goodbyes. Though she wasn't lucid for most of the time, I still recognised that spark in her eyes when she looked up at me. To her husband, Michael O'Toole, her son, Yannick, and her extended family, I send my deepest condolences. Leela, may you rest in peace. We will always remember you with love in our hearts and a smile on our faces.
Today I would like to talk about a local charity in my electorate of Longman that literally gives you butterflies. I remember vividly the first time I stepped into the Bribie Island Butterfly House and took in this incredible sight of hundreds of butterflies around me. Some, with obviously impeccable taste, even landed on me! The variety of butterflies was incredible. There were butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colours. This wonderful organisation was started by Bribie Island residents Ray and Delphine Archer back in 2014. They had moved to Bribie Island only the year before, to fulfil their dream of retiring on the island. Ray and Delphine's work with butterflies and passion for breeding them began in 2009. The Bribie Island Butterfly House has since become so much more than just a place where you can see beautiful butterflies. This wonderful local volunteer organisation also helps the Bribie Island community by donating around $10,000 each month to other charities, both locally and globally. These funds are all raised through profits made from entrance fees, with an average of 2,000 people per month coming to say hello to the butterflies that live in the Bribie Island Butterfly House. The Bribie Island Butterfly House has many volunteers, who do a fantastic job maintaining the operation of the butterfly house and breeding laboratory. I would like to thank Ray and Delphine Archer and the volunteers at Bribie Island Butterfly House for their enormous contribution to the community. Who knows? Maybe one day Ray will get his dream of Bribie's second name being 'Butterfly Island' coming to fruition.
Ido Avigal, aged five; Nadine Awad, aged 16; Ahmad Tanani, aged two; nine-month-old Mohammad Dayyeh; Hoor al-Zamli, aged two; six-month-old Ibrahim al-Rantisi; nine-month-old Mohammad al-Attar; Buthaina Obaid, aged six; Yamen Hatab, aged five; Adam al-Qawlaq, aged three; Lana Ishkantna, aged five; Mina Sharir, aged two; three-month-old Yazan al-Masry—these are just some of the innocent Palestinian and Israeli children killed in recent fighting. Hamas's rocket attacks on civilians are ruthless and cruel. But so too are Israeli killings of Palestinian children. As Nicholas Kristof reminds us: 'If you oppose war crimes only by your enemies, it's not clear that you actually oppose war crimes.' The expansion of settlements by the Netanyahu government, discriminatory laws against Arab citizens, and the street fighting that Israeli President Reuven Rivlin calls 'a civil war' have made a two-state solution harder. Yes, Israel treats its Arab citizens better than some Middle Eastern countries treat their Arab citizens. But democracies should welcome being held to a higher standard. As David Ben-Gurion once noted, Israel cannot be Jewish, and Democratic, and occupy all the lands of greater Israel.
In accordance with standing order 43, the time for members' statements has concluded.
My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to an interview in which Australian of the Year Grace Tame has said that, after her powerful acceptance speech at the award ceremony, the Prime Minister went over and that: 'He leant over and right in my ear he goes: "Well, gee, I bet it felt good to get that out."' Can the Prime Minister confirm that that was his response to this brave woman's extraordinary speech?
I would agree: it was indeed a very brave speech. I can't recall the exact words I used, but I wouldn't seek to correct in any way, shape or form what Ms Tame has said. That is roughly my recollection. That was a very brave statement, and that's exactly what I meant when I said that to her on that occasion. It was a very proud moment for her and her great struggle and challenge over a long period of time, and what she did on that occasion was to speak with a very strong voice about what had occurred to her, and I think raising her voice in that way would have given great agency to so many victims of sexual abuse and harassment all around this country, and that is exactly what I meant—exactly what I meant—and I don't know why some other meaning may have been put upon those words.
My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please outline to the House how the Morrison government's plan for economic recovery is working, especially for regional communities across Australia like the New South Wales Central Coast and Hunter Valley?
I thank the member for Robertson for her question and her great advocacy for and championing of jobs on the Central Coast, and not just there but all up through the Central Coast and Hunter—her championing of small business on the Central Coast and the investments that they're making, and, importantly, her championing of seeing young families, especially, on the Central Coast, getting into their first home. That's why the member for Robertson has been so supportive of the policies that have seen all of those things occurring under this government.
First of all, on jobs: the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.5 per cent on the most recent figures, and we welcome the fact that unemployment is falling in this country. We particularly welcome the fact, also, that underemployment has fallen to its lowest level since 2014. We welcome the fact that youth unemployment has fallen to its lowest level in 12 years, with some 300,000 jobs and more coming back after those jobs were so terribly lost through the COVID-19 pandemic recession. We welcome the fact that 150,000 additional apprentices have been coming on as part of the new programs that we're putting in place to support apprentices around the country, which are particularly supporting apprenticeship places up in the Central Coast and the Hunter where I've had the opportunity to visit on so many occasions this year and to see those policies having their effect.
This has been made possible because we're supporting businesses small and large with lower taxes, which means that they can invest more, and with targeted programs, whether it be to develop new science and technology and new research and development, or simply with a lower tax rate and the instant asset write-off. We have seen people investing around the country. I was up at Star Scientific, where they're investing in new hydrogen technology. I've been up at Xtreme Engineering in Gladstone, where, as the member will know, they've spent $1.8 million on a new crane so they can implement their latest contract, working with the Bureau of Meteorology. There's Aquaterro out in Pakenham, defence contractors; Planet Innovation up in Box Hill, where they're investing in new medical equipment manufacturing capabilities—all being made possible by the instant asset write-off. Of course, in the Hunter, there's expanding the Newcastle airport and investing in a new gas-fired power plant in Kurri Kurri to keep electricity prices down and keep the Tomago Aluminium smelter open so the jobs in that smelter continue—just like the jobs in the smelter at Portland, where I was with the member, to ensure that this government is backing in jobs; they're backing in investment in regional parts of the country and particularly up on the Central Coast and the Hunter, where, I know, the member is most focused.
My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer confirm that more than 30,000 Australians lost their jobs in April, that 64,000 people gave up looking for work altogether and that, for those who were fortunate enough to keep their jobs, the budget papers confirmed that this government will deliver a cut to their real wages?
It is quite alarming to get a question from the shadow of a shadow Treasurer after he went into witness protection on the day the unemployment numbers came out—because the unemployment rate came down. It came down to 5.5 per cent, 33,800 new full-time jobs were created, the underemployment rate came down to its lowest level in seven years and the youth unemployment rate was the lowest level in 12 years. And the member for Rankin was nowhere to be seen, because he didn't read the ABS release. The ABS said in their statement on that day that the end of JobKeeper had no discernible impact on the employment numbers between March and April.
So the member for Rankin has shown himself to be the economic novice that we all know he is. He has no credibility. This is what the member for Rankin said would happen with the end of JobKeeper: 'Cutting JobKeeper will have diabolical consequences for workers and small businesses' and, wait for it—
Honourable members interjecting—
Wait for it; this is what the member for Rankin said—
The Treasurer will resume his seat. The member for Rankin on a point of order?
On relevance, Mr Speaker. The Treasurer was asked about the 30,000 people for whom this does have a discernible impact. Thirty thousand people lost their jobs and he's laughing about it.
I would say to the member for Rankin that the question asked about that and some other matters as well, and I think the Treasurer is being relevant on the policy topic. The Treasurer has the call.
Mr Speaker, we are laughing at the shadow of a shadow Treasurer, the member for Rankin. Not even the Leader of the Opposition has confidence in the shadow Treasurer, and he had to get the member for Corio to take on the new portfolio.
The reality is that, the day the unemployment numbers came out, the member for Rankin went into witness protection because he's embarrassed by his own words—'diabolical consequences'. The harsh reality for the member for Rankin is that his prophecies of doom did not eventuate. In the month of April, the unemployment rate came down to 5.5 per cent—came down—33,800 new full-time jobs were created, the underemployment rate fell to its lowest level in seven years and the youth unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in 20 years.
We on this side of the House are championing the cause of job creation. We on this side of the House are pleased when more Australians get into jobs. The only people who are commiserating with more people being in work is the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow of a shadow Treasurer, the member for Rankin.
My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia. Will the Deputy Prime Minister inform the House about the McCormack-Morrison government plans for economic recovery through the additional investment in local roads and community infrastructure programs and how it is working to drive jobs and economic activity across regional Australia, especially in the Hunter Valley where we had a spectacular win on the weekend?
I thank the member for New England for his question. He, like me, on Saturday would have had people coming up to him and talking about jobs, talking about resources, talking about agriculture, talking about all the things that we on this side of the House care about and that they on that side of the House don't care about.
Opposition members interjecting—
Members on my left!
Indeed, in the member for New England's electorate, under the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, his councils are benefiting, as are the other 527 councils right across Australia benefiting from that particular program. It's a very effective program making sure that we get the money out there for the roads, making sure that we get the money out there for that vital infrastructure which makes such a difference, particularly in the regions, particularly in the member for New England's electorate, particularly in the Hunter. Armidale Regional Council received $6 million under the LRCI program; Glen Innes, $3.4 million; Gwydir, $4.4 million; Inverell, $5.5 million; Liverpool Plains, $3.3 million; Tamworth, $11.3 million; Tenterfield $4 million; Uralla Shire Council, $2.3 million; Walcha, $2.2 million; and Upper Hunter Shire Council, $4.8 million. A total of $47.7 million is going to the member for New England's electorate, and he would have heard on the weekend how important that money is, what it's going to do to transform—
Opposition members interjecting—
Members on my left!
That's very right, on the left; they are very left, Mr Speaker, and that's the trouble. They are very left!
Deputy Prime Minister will not verbal me.
I will not, Mr Speaker, I would never think of doing such a thing! But don't just take my word for it, don't just take the member for New England's word for it. Let's hear from the Upper Hunter shire mayor, Maurie Collison, who said:
Council could not undertake these sort of community projects without financial backing. It's a big investment in Murrurundi sports and heritage, which are amongst the town's biggest attractions.
… … …
These are vital regional connections and working with the State and Federal Governments—
and I am pleased to say they are both coalition governments—
I am pleased to see our Council being able to undertake these much needed road upgrades.
Indeed, I am asked: what are the alternatives?
No, I say to the Deputy Prime Minister: you might have expected to be asked that, but you actually weren't.
Opposition members interjecting—
Well, Mr Speaker, the proof is in the pudding. We're backing those areas, we're backing those regions, we're backing those resources. To use the member for Hunter's own words, 'You lot need to wake up to yourselves!'
Honourable members interjecting—
Members on both sides! The Deputy Prime Minister will cease interjecting. The Leader of the Opposition has the call.
My question is to the Prime Minister. This morning Senate estimates was told that, more than two years after the reported sexual assault of Brittany Higgins in this building, there have been no changes in the way this building responds to serious incidents and none of the reviews that the Prime Minister ordered have concluded. Despite everything we've heard from Ms Higgins, how can that be so?
The member would be aware that, while it is not in the purview of the President of the Senate, what was initiated very soon after the reporting of these events was the new counselling service that operates for all members and senators of this place and expanded hours of access to those supports. That was in place, and I'm pleased to report that that service is being well used by staff members of this place, when they need to, and also by members of parliament and others who are seeking support from those services. I'm pleased that's in place; it was put in place very soon after. In addition, I am expecting very, very shortly a report from the deputy secretary, who I understand is very close to finalising her report to me. That matter will then be raised with cabinet, in terms of the recommendations that come forward, and I look forward to engaging with the opposition on the establishment of an independent complaints process. There is some significant work being done by my department, working closely with the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, to ensure that an independent complaints process won't have to wait until the end of this year, when the independent inquiry is completed, but we can get that independent process in place much sooner than that. I look forward to engaging with the opposition on those matters in the very near future.
My question is to the Prime Minister. Widespread COVID-19 vaccination is crucial to keeping Australians safe. I represent a border community that suffered enormously from the New South Wales and Victorian border closures last year. The Prime Minister's recent comments about a vaccine passport for interstate travel have alarmed my constituents. Such a passport would impose extraordinary hardship on our community once again. Can the Prime Minister give an ironclad guarantee that his government will not require vaccine passports for interstate travel?
I thank the member for her question. The proposal that has been raised in the media, and I look forward to—
Opposition members interjecting—
Members on my left!
I was responding to questions in the media about this matter, and I responded to those questions. A proposal will be discussed at the next meeting of national cabinet. But let me be very clear: the first task is to ensure we continue with the process of vaccinating Australians, and I was pleased last week that it was the first time we had reached half a million in week and 100,000 in a single day. Early this week, we expect to be over half—on first doses—of the population over 70. We welcome that and we will continue to press on.
But the proposal we are talking about is not that someone would require a passport to get from one state to another—not at all. The proposal actually was put to me by the president of the AMA, when I was in Western Australia. I was reconvening with him at the time, and he suggested to me that in the event that states put in place border restrictions—like the member would have experienced between Victoria and New South Wales—then it would be very helpful if people who had been fully vaccinated would be exempt from those restrictions and would be able to move across the borders. In the extreme circumstances where border restrictions were put in place, they would be able to move freely across those borders. I would have hoped that that would be a good suggestion, particularly for those living in border communities, where they have been fully vaccinated and, in the rather extreme situation where border arrangements were put in place by state governments—not by the federal government—but if it was the state government putting in place a border restriction, then it was suggested to me—
Honourable members interjecting—
The Prime Minister will resume his seat. Has the Prime Minister concluded his answer? The Prime Minister has concluded his answer.
My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer remind the House how the Morrison government's economic plan continues to generate more jobs for all Australians, especially young people and those living in rural and regional areas throughout Australia? Is the Treasurer aware of any alternative policies?
I thank the member for Bass for her question. The member for Bass is a former mayor of George Town and a farmer and very strong advocate for the people of Bass. The Prime Minister and I recently had the opportunity to go and join the member for Bass at Hillwood Berries in the member's electorate and to meet with the Dornauf family. Hillwood Berries is a family run business that employs 45 people. They are expanding their 40-hectare berry farm to over 50 hectares, with the advantage of the immediate expensing provisions that we put in the budget. It's a project that they said will help create more jobs, and that they would not have undertaken for up to another two years but for that immediate expensing provision.
The economic plan for Australia to create more jobs was laid out in the budget just a couple of weeks ago. That was an economic plan that has already seen half a million jobs be created since last October's budget and Australia be the first of any major advanced economy in the world to see more people employed today than there were at the start of the pandemic. And that plan includes tax cuts for more than 10 million Australian families. That plan includes immediate expensing provisions to allow businesses to write-off new plant, equipment and machinery. That plan also includes a 10-year, $110 billion infrastructure pipeline. That plan also includes $2.7 billion for 170,000 new apprentices. That plan will help create another 250,000 jobs. We saw the unemployment rate come down to 5.5 per cent, even with the end of JobKeeper. It showed the resilience in the Australian labour market, with 33,800 new full-time jobs being created.
While we on this side of the House had faith in the resilience and strength of the labour market and the ability to end JobKeeper, which was an emergency payment, the other side of politics, those of the other side of the House, wanted to keep extending that emergency spending measure. The member for Rankin, using his crystal ball, said that cutting JobKeeper:
… will have diabolical consequences for workers and small businesses, and the jobs that people rely on to feed their loved ones.
The member for Rankin thought there would be famine across Australia with the end of JobKeeper. Then you had the Leader of the Opposition, who said that the end of JobKeeper was the 'only support that was keeping the economic roof from crashing down'. The only thing that came crashing down with the end of JobKeeper was the Leader of the Opposition's economic credibility, or whatever he thought he had. The reality was that it was an emergency payment. It helped save millions of Australian jobs, but it had to come to an end. We held firm and brought it to an end.
My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, the government's own budget papers forecast a cut to real wages over the next four years. For a manufacturing worker, that amounts to a cut in real wages of about $7,800. How do you rack up $1 trillion of debt yet still cut workers' wages?
The Treasurer has the call.
I'm surprised to get a question from the member for Chifley about wages when real wages went down in Labor's last year in office. Wages are forecast to grow 1¼ per cent through the year to the June quarter. But, as I said to the House just two weeks ago, the CPI is expected to be 3½ per cent in the June quarter for 2021, the reason being that, in the previous year, we saw the steepest quarterly fall in the CPI since 1931 off the back of particular measures that were introduced in the middle of COVID, like free child care. We saw cheaper rents, and we also saw cheaper petrol. That was the reason why we saw inflation go negative in that year, and that is why we saw those results with respect to real wages. But we will see wages increase to 2¾ per cent over the forecast horizon period of 2024-25.
What we are seeking to do is allow Australians to keep more of their hard earned money. With our tax relief that we have put in the budget, more than 10 million Australians will get tax relief. We will drive policies that will see more Australians in work, that will help bring the unemployment rate lower and that will help drive real wages up. We are helping Australians get more of their hard earned money with the tax relief that we on this side of the House support, but the others on the other side of the House want a bet each way.
My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer remind the House how the Morrison government keeps delivering on its promises to cut taxes for hardworking Australians and their families to let them keep more of what they earn? Is the Treasurer aware of any alternative policies?
I thank the member for Sturt for his question and acknowledge his experience both in the private sector and working for the Marshall government. I had the opportunity to join the member for Sturt in his electorate recently to visit a great cheesemaking business, La Casa Del Formaggio. It was started 33 years ago by Claude and his mum and dad—just three of them—and today it employs more than 160 people. Claude is using the immediate expensing provisions to expand his business, like so many businesses across South Australia and, indeed, across the country.
In the budget just two weeks ago there were substantial measures to provide more tax relief to hardworking Australian families and to businesses, like the extension of the low and middle income tax offset for more than 10 million Australian families; like the extension of the immediate expensing provisions, which will cover around $320 billion of investment as well as the loss carry-back measures being extended for another year; and like the patent box. I had the opportunity to visit the member for Bennelong and to see how the patent box will help businesses, like Cochlear, with innovation and commercialisation in Australia.
Members on this side of the House are pleased to know that through policies we have supported the company tax rate for businesses with a turnover of under $50 million will be reduced to just 25 cents in the dollar from 1 July this year. We've also legislated through the parliament stage 3 of our tax relief, the three-stage tax plan, which will see the abolition of a full tax bracket, the 37 cents in the dollar tax bracket, and which will see 95 per cent of Australian taxpayers pay a marginal rate of no more than 30 cents in the dollar—one big tax bracket from $45,000 to $200,000. The Leader of the Opposition said in March that by the budget he would tell us their position on stage 3 tax cut. He said he had to see the state of the budget. He said he would tell us, but he hasn't.
The member for Rankin tells us that he's in no rush as he's no big fan of the legislated tax cuts. But then, to add to the confusion, we have the member for Corio out there saying on the weekend that Labor won't stand in the way of anyone and their tax cut. The member for Corio: 'Labor won't not stand in the way of anyone and their tax cut'! If they don't stand in the way of anyone and their tax cut, they will back stage 3 of the legislated tax cuts. The member for Hotham, out there on Insiders, had another idea about tax. There are so many policies from those opposite, but only this side of the House supports lower taxes for hardworking Australian families.
My question is to the Prime Minister. The government's own budget papers forecast a cut to real wages over the next four years. For a worker in education and training, that amounts to a cut in real wages of around $8,200. How do you rack up a trillion dollars of debt yet still cut workers' wages?
There are more people in work today than there were before the pandemic hit. This country has gone through the worst economic crisis we have seen since the Great Depression, but, unlike so many other countries around the world, Australia stands alone among so many advanced economies in being able to demonstrate the resurgence of our economy and of our labour market in particular as more and more Australians get back into work. It's not by accident, because we know that as more and more people get back into work then that creates tightness in the labour market, which ultimately ensures that wages can grow again.
It's not the only reason why wages will grow. When you encourage businesses to invest in productivity, when you encourage them through the instant asset write-off and when you encourage them with the multitude of tax incentives to invest in research and development, to invest in their manufacturing capabilities, as we are through the Modern Manufacturing Initiative, what that has shown in work that has been done by Ascentia, is that the tax rate on new investment in Australia today is not 30 per cent and it's not 25 per cent—it's 21 per cent. What that means is Australian businesses are investing in the plant and equipment which lifts the productivity of their workers, and it means that they can earn more.
It goes beyond that, because they won't just benefit from a growing economy and their own employees investing in their businesses so that they can earn more; they can keep more of what they earn under a Liberal-National government, because we've seen the cat belled down in Victoria—what's the first thing the Labor government wanted to do in Victoria? Increase taxes at the first opportunity. That's the Labor way. The coalition's way is to lower taxes, to keep taxes low so Australian businesses can invest, so Australians can keep more of what they earn, so they can save for their first home. We've got first-home ownership at the highest level in 11 years because we're allowing Australians to get ahead. We believe that if they have a go they'll get a go, and under our policies they are getting a go. The businesses who employ them are getting that go. What they'll get from those opposite, as we know, as is their form, is higher taxes, higher taxes and higher taxes.
My question is to the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison-McCormack government's plan for Australian families and businesses to have access to affordable, reliable energy that they rely on is working in our regions like the Hunter Valley, where David Layzell of the Nationals had a really good victory on the weekend? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?
I thank the member for Lyne for his important question and for his steadfast commitment to affordable, reliable energy for the households in his electorate. He knows, as we all do on this side of this place, that our plan is working. There has been an 11 per cent reduction in retail electricity prices across the last 12 months. They are the lowest prices we've seen since the removal of the carbon tax, which was put in place by those opposite alongside their mates in the Greens. The member for Lyne also knows how important it is to put downward pressure on prices for those 900,000 Australian workers working in the manufacturing sector, including at places like the Tomago Aluminium smelter just outside his electorate. That's why, when the Liddell power station in the Hunter Valley closes in 2023, we'll be replacing it with a 660 megawatt gas-fired generator at Kurri Kurri. We won't risk prices or reliability when Liddell leaves, because we know what happens without adequate replacement. That's good news for households and businesses right across the east coast. The Hunter power project will keep the lights on and drive prices down, and that's good news for jobs. It will create 600 direct construction jobs, 1,200 indirect jobs and, most important of all, the ongoing jobs of customers like the thousand people working at the Tomago smelter and the many thousands of others who are dependent on that operation.
There is plenty of support for this plan. The chief executive of Tomago says it's absolutely essential. The Australian Workers Union, no less: 'This announcement means the creation of hundreds of quality jobs.' The member for Hunter, who has been very busy over the last few days talking the project up, says, 'It's unequivocally a good idea'—good on him!—'the only way that we can fill the gap by Liddell.' The member for Paterson says, 'I'm not backing down on this one.'
I was asked about alternative approaches. The truth is Labor has no plan. It has no plan for energy and no plan for the replacement of the Liddell power station, and we saw what the people of the Hunter Valley over the weekend. The New South Wales Labor leader, Jodi McKay, asked a very important question. She said, 'Workers aren't voting for us. Why aren't workers voting for us?' The answer is just over there. The Leader of the Opposition, the member for Hindmarsh and now the member for McMahon—same old Labor.
My question is to the Prime Minister. The government's own budget papers forecast a cut to real wages over the next four years. For a worker in health care and social assistance, that amounts to a cut in real wages of around $6,900. How do you rack up a trillion dollar debt, yet still cut workers' wages?
This budget is about driving more people into work, creating more jobs, getting more competition for labour and therefore delivering higher real wages. The reality is that real wages under our government are higher than they were under Labor. Indeed, in Labor's last year in office, real wages fell. Today the unemployment rate, at 5.5 per cent, is lower than when we came to government. That is after a recession. I explained earlier, with respect to real wages in 2021, that that was a function of particular policies that helped drive better outcomes for Australian families—with free child care, lower rents, cheaper petrol. That saw the consumer price index have its steepest fall since 1931, which then meant that the inflation rate was higher in 2021. That has meant that the inflation rate has been above wages growth for that year. But, as I said, real wages continue to increase. While there are forecasts of 1¼ per cent through the year to the June quarter 2021, they are upgraded to 1½ per cent through the year to the June quarter 2022 and they reach 2¾ per cent over the forecast horizon, in 2024-25.
But the way to enable more Australians to keep more of their hard-earned money is to support the tax relief that we have legislated through this parliament. If the honourable member wants to support Australians keeping more of their hard-earned money, then they should support our stage 3 of the legislated tax plan, which will see somebody on $80,000 being $900 better off, somebody on $90,000 being $1,120 better off and someone on $100,000 being $1,370 better off. That will be the amount that Australians will be worse off if the Labor Party ever get their way and walk away from stage 3 of our tax plan.
My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison government's plan for our defence industry works by creating more jobs and backing Australian businesses, including in our regions? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?
I thank the member for Lindsay for her question and thank her for her support for the local defence industry but also, more broadly, her support for the manufacturing sector in her electorate.
The Morrison government is investing a record $270 billion in our defence capabilities, delivering jobs right across the nation. We say to the men and women in uniform, the men and women in our ADF: we have your back. Our record speaks for itself—ambitious shipbuilding in Henderson and in Adelaide; next-gen Army vehicles being built in Queensland, creating many jobs across the country; an F-35 sustainment hub in regional New South Wales; and record defence industry capabilities being built right across the nation. Our record speaks for itself.
Sadly, Labor's record also speaks for itself—shamefully gutting $18 billion from its defence budget. In stark contrast, we're not only delivering record investment in our Defence Force; we're delivering record opportunities for regional Australia to play a very, very important role in the defence of our nation. Nowhere is that clearer than in the Hunter Valley. On a recent trip to the Hunter, where I spoke at the annual Hunter Defence Conference, I had the great pleasure of launching the Defence Ready Pilot between Defence and HunterNet. Over the next 14 months, training courses will be offered free of charge to build up the skills of local Hunter SMEs in the region, to help better position them to be ready to be able to win those very important Defence contracts.
We've also announced to local contractors in the Hunter region that they will receive a boost of some $42.2 million worth of overhaul of facilities at the iconic Singleton military base. The Singleton mid-term facility refresh will improve amenities for the more than 1,000 ADF and civilian personnel at the base, with some 650 local Aussie jobs being supported during that construction period. Our investment in Singleton shows that defence industry is not just about the shipbuilders or the engineers that are building those very important ships and military vehicles. The local tradies, the local earthmoving contractors, those local family owned small SME building companies that are working on those major infrastructure projects, are also a critical part of Australia's growing defence industry, and we are very grateful to them.
Under Labor, investment in defence dropped to the lowest level that we'd seen since World War II. I think the result on the weekend in the Upper Hunter is hardly surprising, given that Labor is drifting away very, very quickly from regional Australia. On this side of the House, we're backing regional jobs—(Time expired)
My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that, as well as cutting real wages over the next four years, his government has also refused to back an increase to the minimum wage, has cut penalty rates and has also intervened in a High Court case to rip away pay from long-term workers in insecure work? How do you rack up $1 trillion of debt yet still be so determined to cut workers' wages?
I don't accept the assertions put forward by the member who came to the dispatch box on these issues. The submissions that were made by the government to the Fair Work process are the same as those that have been made by the government over many years. In fact, they reflect exactly the same submissions that were also put forward by the previous government, including during the GFC where they made similar observations regarding the impact on the labour market at a time of economic crisis. But I do note that it was the practice under the member for Maribyrnong when it related to those processes that the Labor Party would make submissions to that Fair Work process—not so under this Leader of the Opposition. This Leader of the Opposition is so keen to talk about these issues out there but, when it comes to actually submitting a case, once again, he has a bet each way.
My question is to the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology. Would the minister informed the House how the Morrison government's manufacturing plan is working to back regional manufacturers and helping to create secure jobs and, most importantly, is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?
Well, I wouldn't agree that's the most important thing, but I will hear from the minister.
I thank the member for his question. Of course, the member knows, as the government does, the special importance that manufacturing has in our regional and rural areas. In fact, as the member is well aware, there are 4,000 people in his electorate alone employed in manufacturing. It is our sixth-largest industry and employs over 900,000 people. That latest figure represents an increase of about 50,000 people since the COVID-induced challenges. So we are essentially back at parity in the manufacturing sector to what we were before COVID.
As the member knows, manufacturing as a percentage is actually higher in our regions. With up to 14 per cent of the workforce employed in manufacturing in some Australian regions and about 31 per cent of the manufacturing jobs, there are about 266,000 Australians employed in our regions. It was for that reason that in March of this year the Prime Minister was in the Hunter region visiting a really great Australian manufacturing business, Energy Renaissance. They are at the cutting edge with the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries. The reason the Prime Minister was there was to announce our resources technology and critical minerals processing road map.
This government has committed $1.5 billion to expand manufacturing activity and create jobs across six priority areas. We've also backed our manufacturing sector with the Modern Manufacturing Strategy, which is an additional $2 billion in R&D incentives. Under the first round of our Manufacturing Modernisation Fund, roughly one-quarter of the projects were in regional areas. A specific focus of that fund has been in resources, technology and critical minerals. One example of a recipient of the Manufacturing Modernisation Fund in round 1 was a company called Howard Mining Systems, in New South Wales. They received funding to purchase a 3D industrial printer, a water-jet cutter machine and a sheet-metal folding machine, which will allow them to develop an integrated one-stop-shop to design, prototype and manufacture technically advanced niche product solutions for mining and heavy industrial applications.
The global mining equipment market is expected to reach about $156 billion by 2027, and this government is committed to making sure that manufacturing grows, alongside our mineral resources industry, in secondary processing and production but also in the manufacturing of mining equipment.
I was asked whether there are any alternative approaches. One of the difficulties for members opposite is that it is actually very hard to grow secondary industries around mineral resources and mining or around mining equipment manufacture if you can't decide whether or not you actually support the minerals industry in the first place. If you can't decide whether or not you support taking the minerals out of the ground, it becomes very, very hard to support secondary processing and manufacturing.
My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister give a straight answer on when Australians will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19?
I thank the member for his question. As I said earlier during question time, last week, for the first time, we reached half a million vaccine doses delivered in a week. Last week we also saw 100,000 in a day, which is a marked improvement on where we've been in recent weeks. We've got two-thirds of those vaccine doses being administered by GPs. Early this week we expect more than half of the over-70s population to be vaccinated with their first dose.
As the minister for health indicated on the weekend, we anticipate, based on Pfizer contractual arrangements and the information they provided, that we should have sufficient doses in the third and fourth quarter of this year to be able to ramp up those processes to ensure that we make significant progress by the end of this year. We have a population of just over 20 million that is eligible for vaccination. I do note that, in other countries around the world, they're sitting around after many weeks—
The Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order?
I note we're halfway through—it goes to relevance. It was a very straight question which asked for a straight answer on when Australians will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. When?
The Leader of the House, on a point of order?
Again, this grandstanding continues from the Leader of the Opposition. He's been warned about it before. He gets up here to get a grab for the TV night—
Opposition members interjecting—
This may be a going-out-of-business sale for him; I don't know.
The Leader of the House will resume his seat.
Opposition members interjecting—
Members on my left aren't helping me rule on the point of order. I presume the Prime Minister has not finished his answer? No. So I'll just rule on the point of order. I just say to those opposite—you can keep arguing across the dispatch boxes, but it doesn't allow me to rule on the point of order. The Leader of the Opposition is quite right. It was a very specific question, without a preamble. The Prime Minister's been entitled to some context, which he had in the opening remarks, which is why I enabled him to do that, but it is now time to come to the specifics of the question to be relevant.
Based on what the health minister said on the weekend and what we understand to be the supplies when they're delivered, we hope to be in the position by the end of the year when all Australians who wish to be vaccinated would have had the opportunity for that first dose. But that is also subject to many variables that are outside the government's control, as those opposite would understand.
Opposition members interjecting—
I don't know what planet the Leader of the Opposition is living on—
The Prime Minister will pause for a second. Members on my left, the member for Kingston and others, are preventing me from hearing the Prime Minister's answer. The Prime Minister has the call.
I don't know what planet the Leader of the Opposition is living on, but it's not a planet where a pandemic rages around the world. This government is dealing with the realities of the global pandemic and the recession that it has caused, and in response to that, under our government's policies, this country has avoided 30,000 deaths, when you compare it to the experience of OECD countries around the world; and there are more Australians in work today than they were before the pandemic. Now, if the Leader of the Opposition wants to go to—
The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition's already taken a point of order on relevance. The Prime Minister needs to confine himself to the question—not about other things that have happened in the pandemic. The Prime Minister.
I have concluded my answer.
My question is the . Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison-McCormick government's plan to help Australians achieve their goal of owning their own home and create more jobs is working for our regions, and is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?
I thank the member for Mallee for her question. The Morrison government is a government of homeownership. Indeed, the Liberal and National parties have always been the parties of homeownership and the parties that fight for first home buyers. Because of the measures put in place by the Morrison government, we now see first home buyer levels at their highest for nearly 15 years. Indeed, the Housing Industry Association has said that, to March, we will have 155,000 first home buyers this year, in the middle of a pandemic, compared to the long-run average of 100,000. That doesn't happen by accident; it happens because of a concerted effort from the Morrison government, starting with the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, which enables Australians to purchase their first home with a five per cent deposit. It was, of course, built upon by the HomeBuilder program, which has seen more than 130,000 projects around Australia. It's ignited the residential construction industry in every city, every regional centre and every country town. In addition to helping the industry, it has meant first home buyers are able to get over that deposit hurdle.
I was very pleased indeed to be with the member for Mallee in Mildura not too long ago, where we met a couple, Jordan and Nick, who are very representative of young Australians around Australia looking to get into their first home. They told us there is no way they could have purchased their first home without the HomeBuilder grant. That's in contrast to the Leader of the Opposition, who said the Homebuilder program would be funding pearl taps and gold baths. I can assure the Leader of the Opposition that Jordan and Nick in Mildura don't have a gold bath; it's just a very, very great first home.
And I would say to members opposite that we have built on this great success we've had for first home buyers in the budget. We've put in place a number of additional measures. We've expanded the First Home Super Saver Scheme—another scheme opposed by those opposite—which enables people to save a deposit more quickly in superannuation. We expanded the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme with new home guarantees, and, of course, we put in place the Family Home Guarantee to help single parents purchase their first home with a deposit of two per cent. So our plan is working. Members opposite have opposed us every step of the way. The geniuses opposite opposed the HomeBuilder program. The hapless member for Blaxland opposed a program which has helped 130,000 people get into their first home. We are the party for first home buyers and will continue to be so.
My question is to the Prime Minister. The Commonwealth is receiving 1.4 million doses of COVID vaccine each week. How is it that the government is only putting 500,000 doses per week into people's arms, when they're receiving almost three times that number in supply?
I'm delighted to be able to respond to this question. In the last week what we have seen is as a record number of vaccinations, as the Prime Minister has said: 512,916 vaccinations. Two weeks ago it was 402,002. Last week it was 436,000. This week it was 512,000. So we distribute, and what we're seeing is that in the last week over 960,000 vaccines were distributed. What that will lead to is the ability of the states and GPs. We also had contingency. Contingency is for second doses. Where one dose is given, a second dose has to be given. Contingency is about provisioning for the second doses. That is actually how it operates. For every Pfizer dose, a second dose is provisioned. For every AstraZeneca dose, a significant proportion of doses are provisioned because we do know that, in the coming weeks, CSL will have line maintenance. So, at this point in time, we actually have 2.6 million in contingency to allow for AstraZeneca second doses, to allow for Pfizer second doses and to allow for the coming line maintenance which is being done by CSL with their AstraZeneca plant.
But, having said that, last week there were over 960,000 doses delivered. This week, we'll have a similar number of doses delivered. We have a 75 per cent utilisation rate. The Commonwealth aged-care rate is 100 per cent. We have, in the states and territories, approximately 75 per cent, as was announced just previously by Commodore Young. So we thank the states and territories. At this stage, they've delivered 1.27 million doses. The Commonwealth has delivered approximately 2.34 million doses, which includes our GPs, who have, in recent days, passed the two million mark—they have delivered 2,012,000 doses—and, in age and disability care, 326,000 doses.
So what we are seeing is that, on all of these fronts, people are stepping forward to be vaccinated, and we welcome that. Only prior to question time, Commodore Young, who is leading the Vaccine Operations Centre coordination, announced a further increase in the allocation to GPs, who are using more than 80 per cent of their doses, where we will go from 150 to 200 doses, or quadruple what it was recently; from 200 to 300 for medium-volume level, or triple what it was recently; or an increase for high-volume, high-throughput clinics from 400 to 600 doses a week. So, as those doses are being provided, as we expand to the over-50s, more Australians are being vaccinated every week.
My question is to the Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia. Will the minister outline how the Morrison government's plan for economic recovery is backing our minerals industry and its workers across regional Australia, including North Queensland, and is the minister aware of any alternatives?
I thank the honourable member for the question. We've got the bulldog from Flynn and we've got the terrier from Townsville—another supporter of the resources sector. And we know why: because over 7,000 jobs in the member's electorate rely on the resources sector—7,000. That's direct and indirect.
We know that nickel, copper and zinc head out through the Townsville port. They support our economy. We know the resources sector is on track for record exports in resources and energy: $296 billion. But we are not resting on our laurels. We intend to make sure there is a pipeline of projects coming through. To retain those projects, to retain those jobs in the resources sector, we committed $100 million in tax incentives through the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive in the budget two weeks ago. We've already got money in the Exploring for the Future Fund, and that is ensuring that Geoscience Australia is out there identifying the next Mount Isa, the next Mount Whaleback—the next big find—and that means more jobs inside the resources sector.
I was in the north-west last week, up at Mount Whaleback, one of Australia's oldest iron ore mines—one of the oldest iron ore mines in the country. What is that doing? It's $136 billion from the iron ore sector. That is a lot of money. It contributes some $8 billion to the WA state government's revenue. That is how we pay for the essential services that Australians rely on: hospitals, roads, schools and all of that other support. It's supporting 45,000 jobs in the west. At Mount Whaleback they tell me the iron ore is of such a high quality you can hold two rocks together and tack them with a welder—just incredible! It's been around for more than 50 years.
I am asked about alternatives. Well, we heard some alternatives from the member for Hunter this morning! I'd say to the member for Hunter: Stand up. Line up. Join up. We can help you with the New South Wales Nationals. I've got some guidance here on membership, if the member for Hunter wants to come on over! If you're serious, Joel, there's an opportunity!
But we know that there has been an attempt in recent weeks at a coal pivot from those opposite. The Leader of the Opposition sent out the shadow resources minister, attempting to convince resources workers that they would stand up for them. Well, no-one believes them. That was absolutely demonstrated on the weekend.
Coming back to those alternative options, it would be a shame to see the member for Hunter leave, and I say to the member for Hunter: there are some options here for you. If you can get across to the member for McMahon's, get your head in the wardrobe, wade through the suits and get to the skinny pile, get to the stack. It doesn't matter what colour it is—red, green, blue or yellow. I hear the Wiggles are regrouping—
I say to the minister—
I can see the catchline now: wake up, Albo; wake up!
No. The minister will refer to members by their correct titles.
I withdraw.
My question is to the Prime Minister. Page 36 of Budget Paper No. 1 states an assumption that most priority populations have been vaccinated, but the disability royal commission heard last week that less than one per cent of disability care residents—that's 127 people—were fully vaccinated against COVID. This situation has been described by counsel assisting as an abject failure. Why does the Prime Minister never take responsibility when he fails to deliver, in this case to people with a disability? (Time expired)
As I indicated in response to some questions on this matter over the course of the last few days, the initial estimate of the number of vaccinations completed for those in the NDIS has been revised based on directly contacting people within the NDIS program, which hadn't been picked up in the earlier reviews. So 8,440 doses have now been delivered to people on the NDIS. You don't want to know?
The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?
It's a point of order on direct relevance. The question refers specifically to disability care residents. That's who the question is about, not the NDIS generally.
Mr Hunt interjecting—
To the member's point of order, as the health minister was just interjecting across the chamber, this relates to NDIS participants in residential settings. That is 8,440 doses that have been delivered, and that is for some 5,855 people. I don't think we're making enough progress quickly here. I don't think we are, and the minister for the NDIS and I, together with the health minister, have met with the team oversighting these vaccinations to see that the in-reach services are better targeted. But what this number—being far higher than the figure that was quoted to the hearing—indicates is that people living with a disability find themselves able to access vaccinations in a range of different settings, and we are ensuring, by direct contact with those in these settings, that we can better target the delivery of those doses to them.
My question is to the Minister for Defence. Will the minister inform the House how the Morrison government's significant investment in defence is working in our regions to secure jobs and keep Australians safe? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?
I thank the honourable member for his question, and I thank him very much for his support of the members of the Australian Defence Force in his electorate, particularly at the air base.
Ms Burney interjecting—
Member for Barton!
It's great to be part of a government that is investing so significantly in our Defence Force—not only in our personnel but in the assets that they need to keep us safe and to make sure that we can put more and more money into the infrastructure that is utilised by defence. We have been able to deliver, particularly in regional Australia, including in the Hunter. We've put $1½ billion into the New Air Combat Capability Facilities Project. The RAAF Base Williamtown redevelopment, stage 2, is a $274 million project. We're investing $66 million to upgrade the Newcastle Airport runway.
These, of course, aren't investments that Labor was able to make. I recall when the member for Hunter was the defence minister, in the glorious Rudd years. You might remember them. The country has never forgotten those years. His reign as the Minister for Defence would have been a glorious reign but for the fact that Labour cut $18 billion from defence investment. So his frustration with the Labor Party has been long running.
The member for Hunter has been consistently frustrated by the Labor Party, including most recently. We know that. Imagine if he had been able to preside over the investment that we are making into the regions. We are supporting thousands of jobs in the Hunter and across regional and outer-metropolitan areas in this country, and the people who live there understand that. They know that, through the investment we are making, we're not only keeping Australia safe and secure but creating thousands and thousands of jobs. In regional areas and in outer-metropolitan suburbs, families know that somebody in their household is able to pay the bills because this government is supporting defence industry. We're supporting the primes. We're supporting those small businesses who are employing those individuals. We're employing those people who otherwise would not have a job, and, under Labor, they didn't have a job. Funding for defence was at its lowest level since 1938. You cannot keep Australia secure and safe if you rip money from the Defence Force, which is exactly what Labor did before and exactly what they would do again.
My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. Why did the health minister last week give Australians over 50 a wink and a nod that it was okay to wait for an mRNA vaccine later in the year? Were those comments based on health advice?
The statement is false. I'll read exactly the statement.
Opposition members interjecting—
Members on my left! The minister has the call.
Let me read exactly the statement. It is as we have done on every occasion.
Mr Dreyfus interjecting—
The member for Isaacs!
The question was:
… would over-50s concerned about the AstraZeneca jab be able to—
this is from the press—
get access to Pfizer or Moderna vaccines later in the year …
The answer was:
During the course of the year, we have said repeatedly that as there are larger numbers, over 20 million doses of Pfizer and now the Moderna supplies that could be available … then there is more than enough to vaccinate every Australian.
That's a factual statement that was made on 9 April, 13 May and again on 19 May. But the next statement, which seems to have been omitted, was:
But right now – and I was just speaking with Professor Brendan Murphy before coming to this – right now, we want to encourage everybody over 50 to be vaccinated as early as possible.
The message is very clear: if you are not vaccinated and you catch COVID, you could die. That's the message to all Australians. There could not be a clearer message. This is what we've said right through, because we know that we have vaccines now. We've provisioned for all circumstances and we are seeing an increase in the number of Australians who are coming forward to be vaccinated. We are seeing an increase—
In all circumstances?
Correct.
Mr Albanese interjecting—
The Leader of the Opposition, the minister has the call.
What we have done is make sure that we have a vaccination now for the over 50s. We have a vaccination to cover any circumstances where there is a supply disruption, and we have also adapted to ATAGI advice. We've been able to do this because we provisioned contingencies within the contracts last year. Significantly, what does this mean? It means that we've seen 512,000 Australians come forward for vaccination in the last week. It means that we have done everything we can to ensure support, encouragement and confidence in the vaccination program. I would hope that the opposition is going to support confidence in the vaccination program. I would hope that the opposition—
Opposition members interjecting—
Members on my left!
I would hope that the opposition is not going to—
Mr Dreyfus interjecting—
The minister will pause for a second. I've already asked the member for Isaacs to stop interjecting. He will leave under 94(a).
The member for Isaacs then left the chamber.
The minister has the call.
As I said last week and as we say now, right now we want to encourage everybody over 50 to be vaccinated as early as possible and we want to encourage everybody who is in a qualifying group to be vaccinated as early as possible.
My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. Will the minister update the House on how the Morrison government is securing Australia's future by investing in the mental health and wellbeing of Australian children and families?
I want to thank the member for Berowra, who, along with the member for Fenner, is the co-chair of Parliamentary Friends of Suicide Prevention. It is something that draws together all members of this House and all members in all parliaments right around Australia. One particular focus is on the mental health and wellbeing of young Australians, of children, because we know that, sadly, mental health and suicide are not confined to the adult population. So in that context, one of the central themes in the $2.3 billion National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, which the Treasurer and the Prime Minister put forward on budget night, is protection of children.
Last week I had the privilege of visiting yourtown in Brisbane with the member for Brisbane; yourtown runs Kids Helpline. Kids Helpline provides services to hundreds of thousands of young Australians between five and 25—it is extraordinary—every year. They played an incredible role during the pandemic, they kept going and they found ways through. We were pleased and privileged to be able to support them with $26.8 million for their work in protecting our children from mental ill health and providing suicide prevention support over the coming four years. Indeed, they have an urgent intervention approach, which literally saves and protects lives. There were approximately 2,000 urgent interventions where the triage was necessary and put in place, where they believed children were at imminent risk of grievous self-harm. Their work is just something extraordinary.
Equally, as part of this support, the government is developing a national network of mental health hubs around the country—40 adult Head to Health hubs. We are not only expanding Headspace to 164 Headspace hubs for youth but are also creating 15 Head to Health kids hubs, with a $54 million investment as part of an $820 million investment in treatment centres. This is a game changer. I hope but I believe that in years to come 'Head to Health Kids' will be known in the same way as Headspace as a trusted safe space for young Australians to go in times of extreme distress.
The government has backed that with support for families who are helping children face mental health challenges. There is $111 million provided by the Treasurer as part of the mental health package for MBS or Medicare items for families to go as groups to help children who are facing crisis so the families are engaged in that treatment. All of these things together are a fundamental part of our national task of saying every child matters, every life matters and we're going to fight for every one of those lives to help protect them and to save them. When we see Kids helpline, when we see Headspace, see Head to Health and see the work of our doctors, we say thank you.
on indulgence—I join with the minister on behalf of this side of the House, in welcoming the increased investment in mental health, particularly through organisations like Headspace, Head to Health and Kids Helpline, and I pay tribute with the minister for the incredible work that people on the front line of these services give. It is a really tough job to receive those calls and to put their own mental health at risk by helping others, and we thank them.
Mr Speaker, I ask that all further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.
In an earlier answer to a question from the member for Watson, I made reference to a previous government submission. In 2009, the Labor government made a submission on labour and the minimum wage: 'there is a risk that an excessive minimum wage increase at this time could have an adverse effect on labour market outcomes, particularly for the low-skilled and the low-paid'.
A document is tabled in accordance with the list circulated to honourable members earlier today. Full details of the document will be recorded in the Votes and Proceedings.
I present the Auditor-General's Performance Audit report No. 38 of 2020-21 entitled Defence's implementation of cultural reform: Department of Defence.
Document made a parliamentary paper in accordance with the resolution agreed to on 28 March 2018.
On Thursday 13 May, the Member for Hughes raised as a matter of privilege whether his banning by Facebook from its social media platforms constitutes an improper interference with the free performance of his duties as a member such as to amount to a contempt of the House. The member for Hughes refers to Facebook's action as impeding his ability to communicate with his constituents and his constituents' ability to communicate with him, thereby impeding his ability to represent their interests. The member for Hughes presented several documents as supporting information, including media articles and webpage printouts. Since the last sitting, I have reviewed the matter raised by the member for Hughes and the supporting information he provided. I accept that the matter has been raised at the earliest opportunity.
Acts which attempt to interfere with the free performance by a member of his or her duties as a member can be regarded as a contempt. Under section 4 of the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987, such acts must amount to or be intended or likely to amount to improper interference in the free performance of the member's duties as a member. While the action described by the member for Hughes does appear to have been directed specifically at him, and I acknowledge that the member for Hughes considers that the action taken has seriously impacted his ability to perform aspects of his role, on the information available to me I am not in a position to determine that this represents a prima facie case of an improper interference, as required by the act.
In the media reports presented to the House by the member, Facebook has stated that it removed the member's Facebook page because the member for Hughes repeatedly violated the site's policy of not allowing users to share misinformation about COVID-19 that had been refuted by public health officials. There is no evidence in the material to suggest that the particular action by Facebook was directed at the member in his capacity as a member.
I acknowledge that the member for Hughes considers that the action taken has impeded communications between himself and his constituents. I am aware also that the member would have other means of communicating with constituents available to him.
In the absence of more specific evidence, and given the consistently held view that the House's privileges and contempt powers should be exercised sparingly, I do not find that a prima facie case has been established such as would cause me to give precedence to a motion to refer the matter to the Standing Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests.
I have received a message from the Senate informing the House of the appointment of senators to certain joint committees. As the list of appointments is a lengthy one, I do not propose to read the list to the House. Details will be recorded in the Votes and Proceedings.
I declare that, unless otherwise ordered, at the adjournment of debate on the motion for the second reading of the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-22, the following bills stand referred to the Federation Chamber for further consideration: Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022, the Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2021-2022 and the Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022.
As we have heard said by many journalists and other contributors to this debate, the Morrison government's 2021-22 budget, presented to parliament just two weeks ago, was clearly an election budget solely driven by the political interests of the Prime Minister, who's looking to the next election and nothing else. It was, in fact, a budget of mixed messages, where, on one hand, the Treasurer was crowing about the strong economy and low unemployment, as we heard in question time again today, while, on the other hand, simultaneously spending big and promising more tax cuts to stimulate economic activity. Indeed, one wonders: if the economy is so strong, why is it that we are heading for a deficit of a quarter of a billion dollars over this year and next year? This budget is from a government that in the past has preached restraint and austerity and pursued those people who are reliant on welfare for every last dollar. Yet, under the coalition government, national debt will rise from $175 billion in 2013, when Labor left office, to a projected $617 billion this financial year and will reach nearly $1 trillion by 2025, with gross debt in 2025 projected to reach $1.2 trillion. Just as concerning is that, as a nation we have very little to show for all of that debt and, indeed, future generations will have to repay it. When interest rates rise, as inevitably they will, there will of course also be an annual interest bill of billions of dollars to be paid.
This is a government with no national vision and no economic strategy, but that is simply focused on an election campaign strategy. It is an incompetent government not only riddled with its own scandals and rorting of public funds but that has bungled every national project that it has been responsible for. It bungled the NBN rollout, where the cost nearly doubled and now the government is having to spend, on top of the doubling of the cost, billions of dollars to rectify its mistakes. The NDIS, after five years of this government, is not only being rorted but has become a constant source of complaints from and frustrations for recipients and their families. We also had the Morrison government highly embarrassed by its shameful and illegal robodebt debacle, which not only cost taxpayers billions of dollars but saw lives lost.
Then we have the replacement submarine contract, with costs already blown out from $50 billion to nearly $90 billion, but still with no clear indication of when work will commence, where it will be done or how much work it will create in Australia. With respect to that work, we have so many businesses and industries in this country that are quite capable of doing the work. Only last week I was pleased to see that Novafast, a family owned business that manufactures innovative composite pipes and fittings for the future frigates, has been awarded a Defence contract. Novafast is one of the many companies that would certainly be able to do the work required on those submarines, but which may well miss out because it seems that so much of the work will be done overseas. Indeed, the whole project is still under a cloud, as is the full-cycle docking maintenance of the Collins class submarines.
More recently, there was the COVID-19 vaccine rollout—again, we heard about that today—which the Morrison government has muddled through and is still struggling to methodically roll out. The cold, hard reality is that, after eight years of coalition governments in office, Australians are less secure, worse off and more concerned than ever before about their future, and that trend was evident before COVID-19 hit the country. It was a trend that had been caused by this government, which can no longer use COVID-19 as an excuse to hide behind.
The national health system is under stress. Homeownership is becoming increasingly out of reach for new entrants. Wages are flatlining. Jobs are becoming less secure. There is no national energy policy in this country, and even other overseas conservative governments are critical of Australia's woeful climate commitments. Indeed, in this budget there were no real climate commitments. It is a worry, because we know that, across the world, governments are responding to the genuine concerns they have about of the effects of climate change on humanity in this world. It is something that this government has ignored for the last eight years. It is something that the science is very clear about. And yet the government is happy to just plod along, claiming that it will meet its Kyoto targets. It's not prepared to do any more than that, simply claiming that meeting those targets is adequate. Well, it's not. The people that I speak to understand that and will judge the government accordingly.
This is also a government that had to be dragged kicking and screaming to address the real issues that concern the everyday lives of Australians. This government voted against a banking royal commission time and time again, over 20 times. We now see that we are going to have a veterans royal commission, and there has been public discussion about the terms of reference. I hope that this government listens to the voices of the veterans in establishing those terms of reference.
And of course there was the aged-care royal commission, a commission that was called for after some 22 other inquiries into the aged-care sector in recent times had clearly painted a picture for the government as to what was required and what was wrong with the system. The government knew what was wrong. They were simply trying to defer any response to what was wrong and kick the can down the road. That's exactly what they've done. Whilst the government has allocated some $18 billion over five years in response to the royal commission, the reality is that it is simply not enough. In addition, the money being committed does not guarantee that adequate staffing levels will be provided. It doesn't guarantee the ongoing and appropriate staff training that is required. It doesn't guarantee that there will be increased pay rates for aged-care staff, who are currently some of the lowest-paid workers in this country yet do some of the most demanding work in the country. Nor does it guarantee that aged-care residents themselves are going to get the care and nutrition that they should be getting, as was highlighted by the royal commission.
Indeed, the whole of the health system is under stress, and it has been for years. Across Australia, the situation is getting worse. Medical practices are struggling to recruit additional staff. Elective surgery waiting lists have blown out over the last eight years. Medical visits, dental treatment and prescription medications are being deferred simply because of costs, all of which results in additional demand on public hospitals right across the country. In my state of South Australia, ambulance ramping and waiting times for emergency treatment at public hospitals reach life-threatening levels on a regular basis, and the situation is not improving. Indeed, it's generally getting worse. At the same time, private health insurance rates are declining, having fallen from 47.4 per cent in 2015 to 44.2 per cent by the end of the March quarter this year. That comes as no surprise, since private health insurance rates have increased by an average of 36 per cent since the coalition took office in 2013. This year the rates again increased, by an average of 2.74 per cent. That figure is above CPI inflation rates. Even after the ACCC found that, in 2019-20, insurers paid out $500 million less in hospital and extra benefits compared to the previous year, the private health insurers have increased their fees. And I stress that those were average increases. In some cases, the increases were much higher than the figures are quoted.
Over recent months, I have been contacted by several people with concerns about the private health insurance cost increase, coupled with the diminishing cover that they now get for the extra money that they are paying. Indeed, one person who contacted me only a few weeks ago had this year's premium increased by nine per cent or $338 a year. In an email he sent to me he states, and I quote: 'This is a hefty increase, especially for pensioners like my wife and myself. I do not know how long we are going to be able to afford to have private health insurance, and like us there are so many others in the same situation.' Falling rates of private health insurance drive people into the public system and, therefore, the queues in the public system will continue to grow.
Once again, despite the government's big infrastructure spending announcements, I understand that, in my home state of South Australia, only $131 million will be spent over the next financial year on infrastructure. It is well below South Australia's fair share, and it has been year-on-year under this government. Any additional funding promised in the budget will come after the next federal election or possibly the election after that if this government is still in office—which, hopefully, will not be the case.
It has also been estimated that around $15 billion to $20 billion of COVID economic stimulus money paid under the JobKeeper program went to companies that simply did not need the money. In other words, around one in five dollars spent on JobKeeper went to firms whose earnings actually increased in the year 2020. This is another example of the government's incompetency in managing a program. This is a government that pursued pensioners, pursued unemployed people, pursued students and pursued single parents for every last dollar that they were being paid and yet has been prepared to pay not millions but billions of dollars in JobKeeper payments to companies that never needed the money and which, allegedly, in many cases, paid millions of dollars in bonuses to their executives.
It begs the question: if the government were so keen on pursuing what they referred to as their robo-debt overpayments, why is this government doing nothing about reclaiming the money overpaid to these companies? We're talking about billions of dollars that could otherwise be used to fund essential community services or infrastructure—billions of dollars that so many other sectors out there in the community are quite rightly and understandably screaming out for. It is an example of this government's priorities—priorities which are always driven by ideology.
While this government might appear to have handed down what I would generally refer to as a pretty generous budget, it is only doing so because it has an election in mind and it will be facing an election sometime in the months ahead. My real concern in respect to that is that, given this government's ideology and having handed down this year's budget and incurred such a debt, what will it do in future years if it is re-elected? It will, of course, bring back its austerity measures and seek to reclaim or to balance its budget again on the backs of those who can least afford it. That is why this budget, I believe, is actually nothing more than a con by this government to try and get it through the next election. Whilst I certainly welcome all of the money that has been committed to within it, and we won't oppose the budget, I understand that it is driven by one thing only. The flipside of that, in my view, is that a budget should be looking at the long term not the short term.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to continue my remarks.
Leave is granted. Before the member for New England continues, I remind the House it has been agreed that a general debate be allowed covering this bill and the two related appropriation bills. The question now before the House is that the words proposed to be omitted stand part of the question.
I'd like to acknowledge the member for Makin in allowing me to continue on. I apologise for being a little bit tardy. It's interesting to hear from the Labor Party about austerity. We've just heard the Treasurer from Victoria, the honourable Mr Pallas, say that they're going to have a new tax—basically, a tax on people—because, he says, the government has done their job and now the people have to pay. At the same time as they're proposing a tax, they've somehow managed to find $21 million for Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital for gender work with children. I don't quite know how that works. I imagine that, in the future, we will have some major problems with the psychology of these children who will have had their lives dramatically altered and who will also have, no doubt, some other medical issues that will follow on closely behind that. But that goes to show you the sometimes very confused—one might suggest, perverse—approaches that Labor Party economics has an inclination to follow.
We have only one role in this nation: It is to become as powerful as possible as quickly as possible.
They talk about things that are happening across the world in regard to climate policy. Well, across the world they don't have to deal with issues such as China just above their doorstep. Across the world, in Europe, it's a completely different world from here. What we have to do here is to understand where our strengths lie and how we need to build on them. And we need to build on them with a sense of realism.
Our exports and imports determine our terms of trade and underpin our standard of living. I note the member for Capricornia; I suspect those clothes are imported; I'd say the shoes are definitely imported. The member for Flynn is sitting beside me. That's a beautiful suit, Member for Flynn, but I'd bet you it's imported. I have a watch on; it's a Garmin; it's imported. I drove here in a car that's imported; the fuel in it was imported. There are terms of trade. And our biggest exports in this nation—as the member for Flynn would know better than anyone else, followed by the member for Capricornia—are fossil fuels, those being gas and coal. Those are our biggest exports. They're not the biggest exports of Denmark. They're not the biggest exports of the United Kingdom. They're not the biggest exports of Germany or Finland or Spain, or of all the other people across the planet. But they are our biggest exports. So our dynamics are completely different.
Second to fossil fuels is iron ore. As a unit, it's our biggest export. That's fact. As much as I love the beef industry, and I'm part of it, it is equivalent to 40 days of iron ore exports. As to our barley exports, it is equivalent to three days of iron ore exports. That's how strong that is. And iron ore exports are underwritten by the mining of metallurgical coal.
We, in becoming as powerful as possible as quickly as possible, have got to understand that our economy is basically made up of, as quoted in the paper the other day, black rocks, red rocks and shiny rocks. That's basically where the vast majority of our wealth comes from, and we have to have a budget that underpins the infrastructure that allows us to grow that section of our economy, because we don't have the Bavarian Motor Works, or BMW, cars, or Krups or Siemens. We don't have Microsoft. We don't have Boeing. We don't have those industries. We don't have Dell computers. We don't even have—in a funny way—the New Zealand dairy industry. In New Zealand, their biggest export is dairy. So we have to build on the reality of what is Australia. If we follow the policies of what is Europe, then we're going to be a country that moves away from the prosperity that it has enjoyed, almost taken as a birthright.
One of the fundamental pieces of infrastructure that would underpin the realities of our economy would be a coal-fired power station. If we're going to export this product to the world, one would suggest that we build a power plant to show the world how to use it in the most efficient and clean way—a step-down coal-fired power plant.
The Upper Hunter election was so essential for the Labor Party to win, to put on a good show. But, because of their religious fervour for the climate movement, often just climate socialism—an excuse for the socialisation of private assets and the diminution of people's capacity for private enterprise—and because their attachment to this religion is so affirmed, they were willing to sacrifice votes in the Upper Hunter. They were willing to throw the Upper Hunter under a political bus because they will not step an inch away from that zealotry—that zealotry that resides in the Manager of Opposition Business. It is so affirmed in him that, in a public broadcast, on Q&A, when he was given an opportunity to say, 'We'll support a power plant,' or even to avoid the question—he's a very astute political operator—he couldn't. It is one of their 'Ten Commandments': thou shalt always move towards the endorsement of climate zealotry and thou shalt not support any form of fossil fuel power. That's what he did and he did it in remarkable form. That was seen in the Upper Hunter.
You know the saying 'You can't get more Labor than Cessnock'? Well, you probably can now; it's probably Annandale. In Cessnock, the Labor Party got only one in five votes—one in five. One in five votes is catastrophic. But still—and maybe it's noble—they're attached to this zealotry, because they're going to catch up with people across the world! They're going to catch up to Denmark, they're going to catch up to Liechtenstein, they're going to give Monaco a run for their money—in climate policy. They're going to try and drag us to the realities of Europe, even though we live in Australia with the realities of Australia.
We live also with the paradox that our major trading partner has become rather overt in its foreign policy, and that is the regime—not the people; the regime—that runs the communist People's Republic of China. If the prospect is having in the same epoch a comparable reduction in US power and a possible sliding of overall US power and, most likely, by 2030, the supremacy of a regime in China and its power in both military and economic terms, then what is really the task before us? Is it to go down a policy structure which will have no effect on the climate whatsoever? It's merely tithing that won't even pay for the cloth of the tabernacle. But, if we have to move down that path, what would really be the great challenge of our time? Wouldn't it be the liberty and freedom of our children to live in a world that we live in—to live in a world where they could say what they liked, to live in a world where they could protect their foreign investment from people who would basically bully their way in, to live in a world where they wouldn't live in fear?
But if we were to move down that path, what would be the great challenge of our time? Wouldn't it be the liberties and freedoms of our children to live in a world that we lived in, to live in a world where they could say what they liked, to live in a world where they could protect their foreign investment from other people who would bully their way in, to live in a world where they wouldn't live in fear? The only way we can deliver that to our children is to make this nation as powerful as possible as quickly as possible, and the only way we can do that is with the most sober view of just what is before us. This budget builds on the infrastructure so we can bring that about—the money that is continuing to be spent on Dungowan Dam, the money that will be spent in the future has been allocated for Mole River dam and the money that has been spent on the roads. We heard the Deputy Prime Minister give a fair run down of that for the New England today, so I won't be repeating it. But the money has been spent across our nation to basically let our infrastructure work in a better form.
I would like to also remind people of the money that we, the coalition, put aside—that the National Party drove to put aside—for the study to take the Inland Rail from Toowoomba down to Gladstone and that is going to be vitally important, because for those exports of especially the black rocks but also the shining rocks—the gold—we are going to need to grow Gladstone. Gladstone Harbour is one of the great generators of wealth for this nation. I will give you a bigger generator of wealth: the biggest generator of wealth in this state is Newcastle Harbour. With the export of those cursed black rocks, it is the biggest exporter earner for New South Wales, which some sectors wish to close down. I acknowledge the member for Brand, who has arrived. But when they close them down, they never propose anything to take these people's places. They never propose anything for where these people's jobs are.
In closing, people can get fascinated in this mythical sort of policy approach, this sort of Fantasia of policy approach and the only thing that brings sobriety back in his policy approach is a thing called elections. Because at elections, they say, climate change is a bacon-and-eggs policy. Climate change is the egg—the passing interest—but the bacon is the election because that is when the posterior is on the line. So that by-election in Hunter Valley was an absolutely sobering call for those opposite to get their policy structure right or they will never be the government. And for our side: do not go wandering off into this butterfly-chasing approach or we will lose votes to other parties. It is as simple as that. People will vote for their jobs. And out there, overwhelmingly, I see a greater logic in the economics of this nation than resides in this building.
I would like to thank the Member for New England for his great speech. It is so important to listen to what he says about the economy of Australia. The resources industry and the agricultural industry mean so much to the Australian economy. We cannot forget it. We cannot push it aside as though it is not there, because, if we do, if we fall into that trap, we are gone as an Australian nation. Our forefathers fought so hard in World War I, World War II and in all the other conflicts to give Australia what it has now, and we can't fritter that away to nothing.
I am pleased to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022. The federal government has delivered a good package through this budget. It continues to protect Australians from COVID. We don't know how much longer we have to protect Australians against COVID. It's an unknown disease and virus that we hope to be on top of, but who knows? When we see what's happening in other countries, we know that it's worse now than it was 12 months ago.
But it's all about creating jobs. I might note that we have created more jobs that are in existence now than there were prior to COVID, in March last year. In fact, there are a lot of job vacancies out there now in the field that cannot be filled. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about skilled workers, semiskilled workers or unskilled workers, there are jobs galore out there that need to be filled. In fact, some establishments in the tourist industry have to be closed down because they cannot get workers to run their restaurants, run their accommodation and run their sightseeing tours. That's the situation we have today. We have relied so heavily on the Seasonal Workers Program, on backpackers and of course on immigration to take over these jobs, but of course we do not have the privilege of those workers coming into the country under COVID rules. Those rules are made to protect Australians.
I spent the last week in my electorate, in places like Bundaberg, Gayndah, Monto and Gladstone, and spoke to a lot of people on the ground. I can tell you that most of them are very happy with the budget. There was not even one complaint that I heard from anyone regarding the budget. I spoke to Mary Sharp, who is the CEO of the Monto aged-care facility at Ridgehaven. She was ecstatic that the $10 a day per resident will mean about $130,000 a year to her. She is now redoing her budgets, looking at how she can make the staff's wages better and at how she can better service her clients with so many minutes a day that each staff member can spend with the clients in the base. So she was ecstatic. There are another 80,000 places in home-care packages to keep people in their homes longer and better before they go to the aged-care facilities where they get high-care treatment. So she was ecstatic, and I know her board was happy about the announcements. It's only the start, too. It's $17.8 billion over five years. It's a start to getting aged care back on the road to where it should be. It is not a diminishing problem; it's a growing problem. Future governments will have to pay a lot of attention to our aged care as we live longer and hopefully better in most cases.
Over 53,000 taxpayers in Flynn will be better off under the new tax regime. Ninety-five per cent of taxpayers will pay 30 per cent or less in tax. This is pretty incredible for the high-taxing country that we are. Those 53,000 people in Flynn are very happy. A tax cut is better than a wage rise. You get more in your pocket at the end of the day, and that should be evident to all people who think that a wage rise is everything. I can tell you what, a tax cut is better than a wage rise, if it's the same amount of dollars we're talking about.
Continuing the instant asset write-off is a great help to business investors. Over 23,000 businesses in my electorate will benefit from this. Whether you're a tradie or a doctor, whether you're a farmer trying to purchase a new harvester or a manufacturer trying to produce a production line, this is a great benefit. As they said to me only last week, 'Don't talk about tax cuts; having the write-off is better than tax cuts, because it's not only helping yourself by paying less tax but it's helping your fellow man and woman in your businesses and your towns.' These incentives will make the Australian economy keep ticking over.
There has been a problem in the last 12 to 13 months with the supply chain. What I mean by that is, because of COVID, which has reached out globally, there has been a lack of product coming into Australia, so, when you're looking for a tractor or a truck, or indeed a Toyota or a car or a quad bike, sometimes they're just not available. Under the taxation laws, you must have received the new equipment and be using it to claim it from your tax year, so that's why we have extended the instant cash write-off to the end of this year. It's a great thing, and people really appreciate it.
We all know we've got a lack of apprentices and people trained in the job. We have 2,500 apprentices in Flynn, and the extension of the JobTrainer Fund will lead to more opportunities for young Australians. Along with the 50 per cent wage subsidy, this will support more than 170,000 new apprentices across Australia. That's got to be a good thing.
There is $2 billion in Queensland for road projects. If we want agriculture to grow to $100 billion by the year 2030, we must give the farmers the roads and the water infrastructure they need to increase their business. We have the best farmers in the world, I believe, but we need to get behind them and support them with the roads to stop the bruising of product and the wasting of product on the trucks, and to get the product to the ports and to our airports as quickly as possible with the least damage.
The budget delivered, of course, $17.7 billion to aged care, but it's not only aged care that we concentrated on; it was mental health. We all know that mental health is a big issue, not only in our armed forces but, indeed, across the nation. To have over 3,000 suicides in one year, which is more than all the road and truck accidents we had in the nation, is a very, very sad state of affairs indeed. So we're looking at headspace, and we're looking at mental health issues. Hopefully it will come up with a success rate that will see our suicides greatly, greatly decreased in the next 12 months or so.
We are extending telehealth consultations with our doctors to the end of this year. This means that a person, especially in places in regional Queensland and regional Australia where it's sometimes hard to get a doctor's appointment—I know in Gladstone you've got to wait three weeks before you get a doctor's appointment—under these extended telehealth consultations, can phone their doctor and get their scripts et cetera through the mail or through to their chemist, and people are really happy about that.
Childcare reform will be a direct benefit to 880 families living in Flynn, through affordable and accessible child care. This will help women and men back into the workforce. Again, their services are needed to fill some of these vacant jobs.
Jobs are coming back. The economy is coming back. And Australia's on the road to recovery, and this budget will help a deal. Remember, resources and agriculture, including our crops in agriculture, will see us through these difficult times.
Wages have been flatlining for years, and this budget will make it worse, with the Treasury saying wages will actually go backwards and then flatline even further. This is supposed to be a recovery budget, but it is, in fact, a billionaire's budget that is full of handouts for the big corporations. How can the government talk about recovery when wages are going backwards in this budget? But, as the ACTU has said, low wages are, in fact, a policy of this government. It's not an accident; it's a policy. If the government were serious about raising wages, it would remove the salary cap on public service wages; it would stop fighting the minimum wage rise and instead support one; it would protect gig economy workers and it would fight insecure work; and it would have firm workplace laws to shift the balance back from the big corporations to the side of workers and their unions.
But, instead, we will have a budget with $62 billion in corporate welfare and tax cuts for billionaires. The billionaires and the big corporations have too much power and are not paying their fair share. Their fingerprints are all over this budget. While millions lost their jobs or were stood down during the pandemic, Australia's billionaires increased their wealth by a third, with some more than doubling their wealth. This is obscene.
If the Greens were putting forward these appropriation bills, we would put in place a six per cent tax on the wealth of billionaires, and we would force the billionaires to hand over half of the profiteering increases they made to their wealth during the course of the pandemic, while everyone else was doing it tough. But, instead, we have this government who, in this budget, is pushing on with its stage 3 tax cuts, when most of the benefits will go to the already super wealthy, including the billionaires. It's a budget that has tax cuts for billionaires while wages go backwards for workers and the unemployed live in poverty. That's what this budget is.
Meanwhile, one in three big corporations in this country do not pay any tax, and that includes some of the big corporations who have been on the receiving end of handouts from this government. Big corporations have been lining up and getting all sorts of handouts from this government, including JobKeeper payments. This government, in this bill and in this budget, is allowing big corporations—who have made giant profits and handed over bonuses to their super wealthy directors—to keep public money that was meant to be for workers' wages. The Greens say, very simply: if you're making enough money to buy a private jet or pay executive bonuses, then you can pay back JobKeeper.
The PBO, the Parliamentary Budget Office, the independent body, estimates over $1 billion has gone to just 65 big corporations, who then went on to make big profits and paid dividends or gave out executive bonuses. This is just the tip of the iceberg, because the government refuses to say just how much public money went in the form of handouts to billionaires and big corporations who were making out like bandits already.
Some commentators have been pleading with the billionaires and the big corporations to give it back. But it 's not enough to just ask them to pay back JobKeeper; the government and parliament have to make them do it. Simply appealing to these billionaires' better natures won't work, because they don't have better natures. Billionaire magnate Gerry Harvey, chairman of the Harvey Norman corporation, continues to refuse to pay back JobKeeper, despite the big profits made by the company—hundreds of millions of dollars. He had literally a captive audience during the lockdown. People were shovelling money through the front door, but he had his hand out for more money from the government, which this government was only too willing to give him. Many small businesses and many workers were able to stay afloat because of JobKeeper. Many businesses that went on to turn a profit have paid some or all of the JobKeeper they received back, but not billionaire Gerry Harvey and not the Harvey Norman corporation. No, they have pocketed the JobKeeper—millions of dollars—along with big profits, without even so much as a 'thank you very much'. In fact, Gerry was out last week complaining about having to contribute to a boost to mental health spending in Victoria. This guy has no shame.
That's why I will now move this amendment, an amendment to the second reading amendment moved by Dr Chalmers. I move:
That the following words be added after paragraph (3):
"(4) the 2020-21 Budget delivered the publicly-funded JobKeeper wage subsidy, that was received by many companies that enjoyed an increase in profits during the pandemic, resulting from changes in consumer spending; and
(5) the 2021-22 Budget does not include measures requiring such corporations to repay any JobKeeper payments they received as a windfall; and
calls on the Government to require companies with an annual turnover of more than $50 million that received windfall JobKeeper payments and in the last 12 months:
(1)made increased profits; or
(2)paid increased executive bonuses; or
(3)issued increased dividends;
to repay to the Commonwealth an amount equal to the amount of JobKeeper payments they received, up to the sum of increased profits made and increased executive bonuses paid".
I commend that amendment and I say again, very simply: at a time when the budget says workers are getting a wage cut and the unemployed are living in poverty, we should not be giving handouts to billionaires. Billionaires and big corporations who made profits and bought private jets do not need handouts from the government, including JobKeeper handouts. They should pay it back. There is at least $1 billion—billion with a B—there to be reclaimed. That could go into schools and hospitals. It could go into lifting people out of poverty and making education free. We could help fund all of that. You can do a lot with $1 billion. We do not need to be lining the pockets of already profitable billionaires and big corporations.
This is the problem with the billionaires and big corporations in this country. The billionaire class see this government as their plaything. When the government doesn't do what they want, they get angry. These billionaires and big corporations believe they've paid good money to the government and deserve handouts and tax cuts in return. That's what the millions in donations from big corporations and billionaires to the Liberals—and, indeed, to the Labor Party—are actually all about. It's about them buying special treatment, ensuring that taxes are kept low for billionaires and big corporations and that budgets spend big on them. Gina Rinehart more than doubled her wealth during the pandemic and is now worth $36 billion. Between them, Twiggy, Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer increased their personal wealth by 141 per cent during the pandemic. How did you go during the pandemic, Australia? How did everyone else go? Did you increase your wealth by 141 per cent? Well, the mining billionaires did. They're now lining up for another handout, and this budget is giving it to them.
This extreme generation of wealth is obscene. We are creating in this country a class of oligarchs who have too much power—including, as we saw in the last election, the power to buy elections. Do you remember the mining tax? Gina Rinehart led the charge by the mining billionaires against the mining tax, and, as a result, it was kiboshed. Recent analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Office, commissioned by the Greens, found that a proper mining tax, as originally crafted, could have raised $17 billion over the next two years and $112 billion by the start of the decade. The killing of the mining tax by Gina and other mining billionaires has cost the budget $69 billion since 2012—$69 billion. We could have got dental into Medicare for everyone in this country had we stuck with the original mining tax. Instead, the miners came along and said to the government: we want you to scrap it because it means the billionaires and big corporations paying their fair share, and so, as a result, everyone is left worse off. If you were to ask people, 'What would you rather: billionaires and big corporations paying their fair share so that we can get dental into Medicare, or more handouts for Gina and Clive and Twiggy?' I know what most people in this country would answer. But the problem is they're not giving the political donations to the Liberal Party and the Labor Party, and that's why we end up where we are at the moment.
The mining billionaires got their way, and they've got their way again in this budget, with massive handouts to fossil fuel interests right across the budget. In the middle of a climate crisis, Scott Morrison is giving $1.1 billion in new money to new coal and gas. With a total of $51 billion in public money for coal and gas corporations—the biggest in recent memory—this budget will fast-track climate collapse. This budget should have invested in renewables, in clean and green manufacturing, in improving people's livelihoods and building up our essential services. With this budget, Australia could have become a renewable energy superpower, putting us on the path to generate—and, indeed, export—clean energy to the world, but instead the Liberals are giving public money to coal and gas. But sadly, again, it's not just the Liberals.
Just one day after the Treasurer handed down the budget, Labor voted with the Liberals to ensure that $5 billion in the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility could go to new coal and gas projects. All this big talk from the opposition counts for nothing when they come into this chamber and vote for public money to go to more coal and gas. It seems that Labor has now officially backflipped on its position that taxpayer funds shouldn't go towards new coal projects. The Greens are taking on this terrible government, demanding that they take action on the climate crisis and stop giving public money that should be going to schools and hospitals to coal and gas. We would like Labor's help, but we find time and time again that, when it comes to handouts to billionaires and big corporations, Labor is backing the Liberals. Labor and Liberal are in climate lock step, using public money to speed up the climate crisis. Neither Liberal nor Labor have science based 2030 targets. They both support opening up new coal and gas projects, and both want to give these dangerous projects public funding. At a time when the rest of the world is telling Australia to do more, not less, this dirty deal between Liberal and Labor is a complete betrayal of climate action. The Greens will renew our push to kick the Liberals out and put the Greens in the balance of power, because it is clear that the next government will not act on climate unless the Greens make them do it.
At the end of last week, two announcements highlighted again how this billionaires' budget is burning our future. The same day that the International Energy Agency released a landmark report on how the world could stay below the dangerous 1½ degrees of global warming, the Morrison government announced $600 million in funding for a new gas-fired power plant at Kurri Kurri in New South Wales. The IEA made clear in their report that no new investments in coal, oil and gas can be made, but the government wants to put in place this white elephant, this junk investment. Again, the power of mining billionaires and big corporations is on display, with Santos's Narrabri gas field to feed the station. The Snowy board is now chaired by former Santos executive David Knox. It stinks to high heaven. The Greens will fight this dirty, toxic, gas-fired junk investment with everything we've got, and we call on the opposition not just to complain about the lack of a business case but to state their opposition to this project and join the Greens in fighting it.
Last week around this country, thousands of young people took to the streets in school climate strikes. I joined this inspiring rally in Melbourne. I want to put clearly on the record that these students are heroes. They deserve the unwavering support of not only everyone in this place but everyone across the country, because they are doing what the Prime Minister should be doing and calling on the government to protect the Australian people. They are protecting all of us by fighting the government's destructive gas fired and coal fuelled recovery. They are protecting us by stating clearly that gas is as dirty as coal and telling us that we must do everything in our power to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground. The Greens are listening. We will continue our solidarity with young people who want a future by fighting this billionaires' budget and the big corporations that continue to steal and burn our future.
At the next election, the Greens are on track to secure the balance of power in the House and in the Senate, but it is not guaranteed. That's why we're calling on everyone in this country, particularly young people, to join our movement to fight for the future.
Is the amendment seconded?
Although fundamentally disagreeing with the vast majority of the speech by the member for Melbourne, I second the amendment as it appears on the Notice Paper and reserve my right to speak.
I was just seeking some advice about the form of words that the member for Hughes used in seconding the amendment, but I'm assured that it is appropriate. In that case, I state the question is that the words proposed to be omitted stand part of the question.
I would like to take this opportunity in the debate on the appropriations bills to talk about the wonderful area that I represent. As part of the Liberal-National coalition, I represent this area in the knowledge that our government understands the needs of rural and regional Australia. It is an incredible honour to be a representative of this area and to look at huge investment projects like the Echuca-Moama Bridge. In recent months I've had the opportunity to travel to Echuca and Moama twice to look at the progress of that facility, once with my office and then to take the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, to look at this project. It is incredibly exciting to see the progress that is being made. It is the largest transport infrastructure project in northern Victoria and includes new bridges over both the Murray River and Campaspe and also additional flood relief bridges on either side of the Murray River and shared walking and cycling path over the length of the crossing.
As a major funding partner in this $324 million project, the federal government has a $125 million investment in this project and is very proud of the leading role that we have in getting this project to be a reality. Once complete, this bridge will provide a new vital link between Victoria and New South Wales, and the economic benefits will flow for decades to come. It is expected to be finished by the middle of next year, but the actual spans will be meeting sometime around September or October this year, which will be a very exciting time. This project has had over 400 direct jobs and 1,100 indirect jobs. It was great to see this project broken down into smaller contracts to enable some of the local subcontractors to actually bid for and win some of these earlier stages of the project. It's not just the Echuca-Moama Bridge. In Shepparton, the art museum is there for everybody to see. As you enter Shepparton, it's impossible to miss, a new and very impressive art museum. The building is now complete, with its fantastic view of Lake Victoria at the northern end of Shepparton. It will be officially opened later this year and the federal government was again the major funding partner here, with $15 million towards a $47 million project, with huge community intake as well.
We're starting to see a trend in regionalisation that we haven't seen before. The Nationals, in our coalition government with the Liberals, are investing in infrastructure that's needed to service the people and to connect growing communities that we need for a very vibrant future. As part of the government's rollout there's a $110 billion infrastructure pipeline, and our electorate of Nicholls is certainly very keen to see the $323 million for the funding of stage three of the rail upgrade. The Melbourne to Shepparton line will effectively be fixed up, so that we can get more services. We have a paltry 4½ services into Melbourne every day. It is an absolute joke, where the Victorian government has effectively taken Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong and given them over 20 services, and yet a major hub like Shepparton has been left with four. Anyway, we're getting some upgrades now and we will see some regular, faster, more reliable VLocity trains that will hopefully be on that Shepparton line. This investment is in addition to the $244 million that we have put into the North East line that heads up towards Wangaratta and Wodonga. The North East line also runs through Broadford, Seymour and Avenel. It will form part of the Inland Rail project. The $14.5 billion that this government has put into Inland Rail is getting thousands of trucks off the roads and ultimately is a most significant infrastructure project, not just here in Australia but possibly anywhere in the world.
The Goulburn Valley produces nearly $2 billion worth of goods and services each and every year. The region is a major warehousing and logistics service area for much of New South Wales. What is grown and cropped in New South Wales is often stored in and around Goulburn Valley and Shepparton. About 25 per cent of all trucks registered in Victoria are from the Goulburn Valley. At the junction of two very significant highways, it is very much a transport hub, and B-doubles make up a huge percentage of the vehicle traffic around Shepparton. That is why the Goulburn Valley bypass is such a critical project. We have had 80 per cent of our best guestimate on the table now for two years, but the state government have been unable to put their business case together. I understand that they have finally completed the business case after three years and that that is currently sitting with the department.
There has been a whole raft of other road and infrastructure projects around the Nicholls electorate: $10 million for the Murray Valley Highway between Echuca and Yarrawonga; $10 million for the Shepparton alternative route; $5 million for the Doyles Road intersection; $2.2 million for bridgework on the Goulburn Valley Highway; and $6.7 million for local government bridges, for their renewal and heavy vehicle safety programs. We certainly have seen an enormous amount of money go into the road structures around Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley—and even more so if we can get the Shepparton bypass to proceed.
We have also had a nice relationship, network, with the government in relation to the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages. We have seen some outstanding success in Nicholls, with all of the projects that we have seen in tourism, in manufacturing, in agriculture, in food processing, in health and in sport. The Museum of Vehicle Evolution, also in Shepparton, has received funding and is nearly completed. The Yarrawonga Tourism Trail has been completed. Murray River Paddle Steamers have also received funding from the government and have transformed a couple of their paddle steamers to take them to another level in their business.
Some manufacturing and engineering companies have received funding through the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages, including Furphy Engineering, JN&R Engineering in Kyabram, Aquatech and Rubicon. It is incredible to see the water-saving programs that Rubicon are installing around the world. This Australian company, based in Shepparton, is taking their water-saving technology programs right around the world. Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley should be incredibly proud of what this company does.
We have also seen investment in food processing: ACM in Girgarre; Wine by Sam at Seymour; Ryan's Meats in Nathalia, who have really done some fantastic work; advancements in fruit growing and packaging by FJ Lenny, Turnbull Brothers, Ky-D-Pak; and also the work that has been taken on board by Thompson in relation to the FRUITCo project, which is looking to be completed later this year. That will be an investment of over $50 million in the fruit industry, of which the Australian government has contributed $15 million to assist with its development. That will not only have an impact on one business but will also create a facility that other businesses will be able to use on a pay-for-use basis. We also have health providers, such as CA Group Services and Echuca Podiatry. This is what governments should do: work with local businesses, local governments and communities and target their investment to make sure that we create the jobs and grow these regional economies.
One of the most rewarding and satisfying parts of being elected is to see projects grow from the ideas that we have and to see these projects become a reality. One such projects is the Cobram Community Cinema. The previous cinema burnt down in 2010 and we saw a group of young high school students in Cobram start a fundraising campaign, ably helped by Rob Morry. What a fantastic project!
In the end, that community, mainly driven by young kids, raised over $700,000. The federal government chipped in over $520,000. But, to see the town of Cobram now have a couple of fantastic theatres for all of the movies that they want—a $1.3 million project in partnership with the Masonic Lodge—is fantastic, and I'm very, very proud to see the way that has worked out. By providing funding through the community and volunteer grants, we are able to reach out to many of the volunteer groups—men's sheds, lots of the service groups. The Morrison-McCormack government have been very keen to make sure that we stay very firmly attached to many of these community driven groups.
On the bigger picture of what this government is doing for the Australian people through the budget, I have to acknowledge what we have done so far through the pandemic with the funding that we've put out to businesses, through JobKeeper, to make sure that the workers can keep their bills paid. JobKeeper and JobSeeker have become absolute lifesavers for many businesses and many households. We're also seeing that the loss carry-back provisions have been taken advantage of by businesses that have paid some significant levels of tax over previous years and are now suffering losses. They are able to carry those losses back and use that tax that was paid in previous years. The childcare funding that we have put into the budget gives more young families, more young parents, the opportunity to make the choice: do we continue to stay at home a little bit longer because we can afford it or do we get back to work because we've now got more assistance from the federal government to put our children into child care?
There is also the extra money that we are putting into the aged-care sector—an extra $10 per day and 80,000 additional places for home-care packages. I think the vast majority of us, when we look forward to a time when we might need additional assistance and our family can no longer look after us, would like to stay at home as long as we possibly can. As our government has said time and time again, we have added so many more home-care packages. It's critically important. But in this budget we've also had to do something for those aged-care facilities that have been struggling, and we know that many of them have been struggling. Our paying $10 per bed per day is certainly going to give them an opportunity to get their facilities back to a stage where they can provide high-quality care in a sustainable fashion. That is incredibly important.
We have also continued to be all about trying to get people to keep as much of their money as they possibly can, with the most aggressive tax cuts and tax reforms that we can possibly introduce at this time. The instant asset write-off is in fact another form of tax relief for those businesses that would normally run a successful business. They're not only paying the wages and paying their own business tax but getting an opportunity to reinvest in their business in a way that will be able to be written off from tax but also trigger and stimulate the local economy through whatever machine or equipment it is that they purchase. The instant asset write-off has seen many businesses invest in their own business to an extent that it's going to put them in a very good space for the years ahead, because they're going to be working with the very best of equipment.
It is fantastic to be part of a government that is actually thinking about how we can keep people in work, how we can keep businesses in a realm where they are able to continue to employ people, continue to put people on their books. With the way the employment numbers have jumped back, we obviously are looking at a large-scale success when it comes to looking after these businesses. Our Treasurer, Mr Frydenberg, should be proud of what he has delivered.
From the conversations that I am having with my people back in Nicholls, they are incredibly grateful of JobKeeper and JobSeeker. They are incredibly grateful for what we would call a continued spending of the government at the moment to make sure that we get through this pandemic in a way where we take businesses with us and then they can take the workers with them. As we know, eight or nine out of 10 people are employed by the private sector, so I am just grateful this government has eight or nine out of 10 people in their sights to support them as we move forward.
I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022 and other bills. I want to firstly talk about a bit of overall context and then go to some very specific issues around the budget, the challenges facing the nation and how they are playing out in my own electorate. There are two great challenges facing the nation and have been for 18 months now. One, of course, has been the COVID pandemic and, along with that, the health response required of the nation—of governments, of the population, of businesses—as we dealt with the global pandemic. There is also the economic challenge, and the budget that was unveiled by the government the last time we were here should be an opportunity to address the economic challenges that we face and to set a forward plan for how we come out of what was a hit to our economy—there is no doubt about it—and build a stronger future for families and communities.
I have—unsurprisingly, probably to this chamber—some serious concerns about both of those strands of challenge in front of our nation. I want to acknowledge that they don't sit separately. They actually are intimately intertwined. How well we get the health response in place will have a direct effect on how the economy performs and so these are very, very significant issues. Just on the response to the COVID pandemic, I want to say first of all that I think this government really needs to step its game up. The mixed messaging that has been a consistent feature of this government's response to the COVID pandemic is causing confusion and hesitancy about vaccines in our community. It is not uncommon in any week, whether or not parliament is sitting, to see media conferences with different government ministers, including the Prime Minister, giving different messages to people about what the current situation is. People are saying to me in my community, 'What exactly am I supposed to be doing about vaccination?' because there is no consistent media information campaign running. There are no consistent, reliable, .ads on the TV and so forth. People are uncertain and then they see these mixed messages. Only in the last week, there have been mixed messages about the rollout and about what the new orders of Pfizer vaccines at the end of the year mean for people who are over 50. Then we're told, 'Oh, no, you heard wrong. The media reported wrong.' The amateur hour mixed messaging has a cost and that cost is the increasing hesitancy we are seeing in our communities about taking up the vaccine. We know that getting the mass vaccination of our population is one of the most significant things we can do, not only for our health but also for our economy. When I look over the record of the government—I have to say every now and then I get a notification on my phone saying the COVID app has updated itself—I wonder what the point is and how much was expended on that particular little project?
We really need to step up our game as a federal government in response to the challenges that COVID related health issues continue to put before us. I call on the government—the Prime Minister and the relevant ministers—to do exactly that.
On the economic side, it is a touch bemusing to see speaker after speaker from the government side get up and say, 'We've been so fantastic. JobKeeper was the saviour of jobs and economies in this country,' when we well remember the fact that we were told that it was a ridiculous notion. When Labor was first raising the idea of wage subsidies we were told that it was ludicrous, that there was no way that we were going to be doing anything like that. It was really only when we saw the huge lines outside Centrelink offices, and the government suddenly had a bit of a panic attack and thought that this would be very problematic for them, that we saw the formation of the national gathering of business, government and unions. Full credit to the ACTU, I have to say, who were the real ones who pushed for a wage-subsidy-based program. It was great. At the end of the day, I love a government that learns from its mistakes—
An opposition member interjecting—
It is a steep learning path indeed, as my colleague says—but it is a touch bemusing to see the JobKeeper initiative used time and time again by members of the government as an example of how competent they were in responding to the economic pressures of the COVID pandemic, when we know full well that if it hadn't been for Labor and then the business and union communities calling for a wage subsidy they would never have gone down that track at all. I would also make the point that, even when they did introduce JobKeeper, they knocked down amendments Labor put up, and we've been constantly campaigning to them, about the sectors and the workers that they left out. Now they think they deserve a pat on the back because they've sustained so many jobs. That is true, and that is good for those sectors where that happened, but in my area—as in so many other people's areas, I know—we lost a lot of people out of our universities. We had a lot of people in casual work who weren't eligible for any income support. I personally met workers in the travel industry who subsequent to the end of JobKeeper lost their jobs. There were women in their 50s, who will really struggle to get another job. So I think it's a miscall by the government to be demanding that they get a pat on the back. It is disrespectful to those sectors of our economy and communities who haven't come through stronger as a result of the government's intervention. Perhaps the government should be looking at more-specific and more-targeted programs and support. I will come back to one local business that I met last week to indicate that.
Don't even get me started on skills. If you want to talk about promising and massively under-delivering, look at the record of this government, since the Abbott government, on skills. They love to say they're a big supporter of apprentices: 'Come and let me get a photo with a tradie. Let me pretend I'm laying bricks with an apprentice.' They just love doing this stuff. Then they make these huge announcements and they never deliver. Every time we get the quarterly and then annual reports of the number of people in apprenticeships it's going backwards. It's the absolute epitome of what is so wrong with this government in terms of its great joy in making big announcements and splashing large amounts of money' and then having the capacity to rebank that money and re-announce it because they didn't actually deliver what it was they announced in the first place. I will remain extraordinarily cynical about the government's announcements in the skills area.
I do welcome the aged-care additional funding. There's no doubt, after the royal commission—which, I will say, they had to be dragged kicking and screaming to hold—that it is a blight on each and every one of us until we address how our most elderly citizens are being cared for in our aged-care system, whether that's in home care or in residential care. So I do welcome the additional support for that. But, again, we know that there are over 120,000 people on the waiting list for home-care packages, for example. People will continue to get older and become eligible, so the demand will continue to rise. The government has allocated 80,000, leaving a structured undersupply in there, and that's having real effects. I had a family in my office just last week. Mum is in hospital and rehab after a serious operation and 91-year-old Dad is at home, and that family is really struggling to continue to provide him with the support that he needs. So there's a big gap, as is always the case.
There's been a lot of backslapping and big announcements: 'We're throwing all this money at it. There's no problem with $1 trillion anymore. This is all really good.' In actual fact, the budget was a list of: where are our political pain points, what are our political problems and how can we throw something at each of them to tick it off to try and take the heat out of it? There was no structured reform agenda in that whatsoever. It's $1 trillion spent without a vision for any structured reforms to see us well into the future, post COVID.
In the few minutes that are left to me, in line with what I've been outlining in my general comments, I want to talk about a local business. This local business, sadly, as I said to them, are not alone in the concerns that they came to me with. I've had a number of local businesses in the travel and tourism sector in my local area who are still really struggling. Brad and Kylie Fussell from my area run Wanderers Australia. They run a program where they get young people from around the country into a sports team and take them overseas. They play sports against schools and other junior teams in whatever place they go, and then they also incorporate into that an educational program. For example, they go to France, play some games with local school teams and juniors teams, visit the battlefields and learn about the Australian participation in the war. It's a really great initiative, and they're passionate about what they do. They just love it. They love the ties and the friendships that they're creating and the knowledge that is such an important part of that program for young people.
Twenty-five years they've been doing this. Obviously, the COVID international closures had real implications for them. They said to me they wanted to acknowledge that they got JobKeeper, so that did provide some assistance. Of course, as a partnership, they weren't both entitled to JobKeeper. Only one of them was eligible for JobKeeper. They wanted me to pass on to the government that, although the payment has ended, the circumstance hasn't changed for them. They can't pivot to a domestic option. Young people are already playing their local teams locally and can travel in Australia with their families, so they can't pivot the business. They are still really struggling to keep their heads above water. The response of the government to say, 'We've dealt with all these issues, we don't need JobKeeper anymore, and Labor is ridiculous to be saying there are ongoing issues'—there actually are.
Members opposite must have businesses like this in the travel and tourism sector in their own electorates that still haven't been able to get back on their feet. They really do need some form of continued targeted assistance. The previous speaker talked about the loss carry-back tax option to support businesses. Well, a small business like this is not eligible for that either. So, I do think there are these really very small family businesses that I would encourage the government to have a look at, because, as I said, in the travel and tourism sector in my area, I continue to meet with local businesses, just like Brad and Kylie from Wanderers Australia, who are still really struggling. I know all of my colleagues would be like me: if you met this couple and saw their passion for education and their passion for the work they've done for 25 years, it would break your heart to think that that business is going to fall over when, I think, a government could look at some sensible, targeted programs that would support small businesses like theirs.
In the context of the budget, I've acknowledged locally some good initiatives. I've said to my local community that I'm going to watch this closely because there is always such a big gap between announcement-and-promise and actual delivery, and I do think there are areas the government could look to do better in still.
This budget is getting Australia back on track. As the Treasurer said in his budget night speech, Australia's economic engine is roaring back to life. Consumer sentiment is at its highest level in 11 years, meaning business conditions are at an all-time high and more Australians are in work than ever before. This budget is creating jobs, guaranteeing essential services and building a more resilient and secure Australia. The Morrison government's plan is working, and Australia is far better positioned than many countries throughout the world.
We've come a long way from where we were just seven months ago when the last budget was handed down, with almost half a million jobs created since October 2020. Unemployment rates have dropped to 5½ per cent and full-time employment is at a record high. Labor force figures released just last week show that there were more than 13 million Australians in work in April 2021, with the level of employment now 0.4 per cent above its pre-COVID level in March 2020 and 17.4 per cent higher than May last year when we were in the midst of the pandemic.
We've emerged out of the other side of the immediate response phase of the pandemic, thanks to unprecedented support from our government, including JobKeeper, which kept 3.8 million people in their jobs. This included 23,000 employees in my electorate of Stirling. People still come up to me and voice their appreciation of being able to remain connected to their jobs, or, for those who are employers, to be able to keep their employees employed. We also saw JobSeeker help around 1.5 million people without work and the cashflow boost which supported 800,000 businesses and not-for-profits.
We're now on the road to recovery, but we're not out of the woods yet when it comes to COVID-19. First and foremost, we need to keep Australians safe. This is why we see the investment of a further $1.9 billion allocated in this budget for the rollout of vaccines. We also see in this budget another $1.5 billion allocated for COVID related health services.
Over ten million hardworking Australian's are set to benefit from tax cuts. In my own electorate of Stirling, this sees more than 62,000 constituents who will have more money in their pockets thanks to that tax relief, comprising up to $2,745—and that will be this year. Ninety-nine per cent of businesses employing 11 million Australians will have more cash in their hands because they're able to write off the full value of eligible assets purchased. This will generate opportunities for small businesses to further continue to fill our nation's order books, not to mention more than 450,000 new training places created through the JobTrainer Fund, while 50 per cent wage subsidies will support over 170,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships.
But, it doesn't stop there. Despite being in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, the Morrison government gave Australians the chance to build a new home or to substantially renovate their existing home, through grants of up to $25,000 under the HomeBuilder program. In WA alone we've seen more than 17,700 applications, and this initiative is continuing to support both jobs and the construction sector.
This government's support for Australians, especially during the pandemic, has remained unwavering. But it still doesn't stop there. This budget invests in major road and rail projects, including across Western Australia, aimed at boosting road safety and enhancing community connectivity. There is $1.6 billion being committed in Western Australia for projects that ease congestion and connect communities, and $41.2 million of that has been committed in my electorate of Stirling. The Wanneroo Road and Morley Drive intersection in Balcatta has been flagged as the third worst intersection in Perth for congestion and for the frequency of crashes. The extra $2.5 million committed to this area in this budget will significantly bolster safety and traffic flow and will take our federal government's commitment to the improvement of this intersection to $10 million.
I recently visited the Erindale Road and Reid Highway intersection, along with our federal finance minister, Simon Birmingham. This intersection is one that many residents in my electorate of Stirling know only too well for its congestion and lack of safety, particularly during peak hours. I'm looking forward to seeing a business case for the upgrading of this intersection getting underway in the first quarter of next year, thanks to a $2 million funding injection by this federal government. These are two of the many projects that the Morrison government is helping to make a reality.
The proposed incorporation of a trackless tram from Glendalough Station through to Scarborough Beach is an innovative transport solution that will get cars off our roads and ease the heavy burden of beachside parking.
An opposition member interjecting—
I hear a question from those opposite about what a trackless tram is. Well, it's like a tram, carrying a similar capacity of 250 passengers, but it runs on electricity and doesn't require tracks, hence the term 'trackless'. It provides greater movement through that mobility corridor, and, in fact, that area has already been zoned for light development. This is able to be done at a fraction of the cost of traditional light rail. So I've been working closely with the City of Stirling mayor, Mark Irwin, to bring this bold vision to life and deliver a rapid transit system that will bust congestion and unlock development opportunities. Once again, it's the Morrison government that has helped facilitate this vision, with $2 million being provided to develop a business case to put this project on the right track—a project that will ultimately benefit businesses, residents and tourists.
Can I also mention the redevelopment of Yokine's Jewish Community Centre. This Morrison government has provided $6 million to rebuild the facility, which has been a hub for commemoration, work, sport and play since 1974. I note also that the redeveloped Jewish Community Centre will include an updated Holocaust museum, which will be a very welcome development indeed. I will also flag $4 million to build a new Surfing WA headquarters at Trigg, helping the next generation of Australians to stay fit, healthy and safe in the water.
These facilities are the lifeblood of our communities, and the Morrison government understands the importance of investing locally. There's more to be done, and I have no doubt that our government will continue to deliver for Australian families and businesses. Our plan is working, and Australia is coming back stronger than ever before.
I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022 and Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2021-2022, which allow the government to collect and spend public money as outlined in the budget. In the economic overview, I had hoped to see a road map for reopening the Australian economy, a phased approach to international borders, development of national quarantine and goals for the vaccine rollout. Sadly, all we saw was an ill-defined goal for vaccines, confusion from those defending it and a vague assumption that borders would reopen in mid-2022, far further in the future than many expected, and no road map or realistic time line on how that was going to happen.
There are also two main areas that were missed out in the October budget last year that I was looking for in this recent budget: environment and climate change, and gender equity measures. These two areas had been highlighted by events inside and outside Parliament House in the lead-up to the budget. The implementation of the response to the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements was clearly not a sufficient reminder of the cost of climate impacts, because we didn't see any evidence of that being seriously taken into account in this budget. And, while the revelations of sexual assault and harassment inside Parliament House also brought to the forefront the need for greater support for women and cultural change, we need a budget that is focused on futureproofing our country and culturally ensuring change happens.
The budget papers assume that Australia's international borders will remain closed until mid-2022. Many in my electorate were shocked by this prediction and questioned why a plan has not been developed to get them open sooner. Over 30 per cent of my electorate were born overseas, and I regularly hear from dual citizens trying to leave, long-term partners separated for more than a year due to visa issues, and families cut off from one another. There are many making a lot of decisions, and, whilst they accepted the imposition of the borders as an emergency measure, the lack of long-term planning is having serious impact. No other country in the OECD has outbound restrictions on its citizens. Businesses need people from overseas to come and work in the many jobs that they can't fill locally, and educational institutions need international students. We need a road map to reopening and what we need to do as a long-term solution to deal with COVID and live with it. Quarantine, as the experts keep telling us, is a key issue. It is our ring fence. Quarantine is likely to be a feature of international travel arrangements for some years to come, and yet we've maintained the status quo in the situation of hotel quarantine, where leaks have occurred, and it is a flaw in the system.
The urgency shown by Australia in initially suppressing and then locally eliminating COVID-19 now needs to be shown towards preparing the country for reopening its international borders. The University of Sydney policy institute argues that we need to move from the anxiety of last year to a more confident and outward-looking future. If we don't, it's no exaggeration to say that young people, in particular, will face a lost decade. If we sit and wait until mid-2022, the rest of the world will be reopening around us, leaving Australia behind economically, socially and psychologically. This budget didn't allow or account for any of that planning.
Whilst the budget had several positives, it was lacking in funds for environmental protection and climate change, issues that will eclipse any other before us. It's surprising because, throughout the budget speech, the Treasurer talked, boastfully, about being custodians of this continent. But those words weren't matched with any kind of commensurate action. We are facing interconnected crises. Biodiversity loss is compounding. Global heating is accelerating. Oceans are acidifying and overflowing with plastic. Alarmingly, the World Economic Forum has found that around $44 trillion of global GDP, more than half the world's GDP, is highly or moderately dependent on nature. Climate change alone will cause $2.7 trillion of economic losses by 2050 if we miss our Paris targets. It's hard to fathom. In a situation where we have record levels of public debt, we absolutely must engage with the biggest economic risk that our future generations will face. It's on top of the mountain of debt we've accrued through this COVID-19 pandemic. It's forecast to rise to over $980 billion net debt by 2024.
Further damage to the environment and our climate is simply unaffordable. Addressing the looming crisis is not a threat but rather an enormous opportunity for our economy and one I would argue the government has simply missed. We can create good, sustainable jobs through well-targeted policies. The Beyond Zero Emissions Million Jobs Plan proposes significant investments in battery manufacturing, green industry, renewable energy, electric vehicle infrastructure and more to create more than 1.8 million jobs. But where was any of that on budget night? Nowhere.
Independent economic analysis found the plan would boost private investment by some $25 billion annually, adding one to two per cent of GDP and would boost wages by one per cent. That's why it was so disappointing in this budget to see a lack of funding for the environment; it's a missed opportunity. Only 0.8 per cent of the $590 billion in budget expenses was given to environmental programs. In contrast, the EU has targeted over 30 per cent of its budget spend towards green measures. Total environmental spending has decreased by 39 per cent in Australia since this government came into office. That is not heading into ensuring a good economic outcome.
On climate change, we saw loose change for climate adaptation. Australia will get a new climate service to help government manage climate impacts, alongside a $600 million fund to help people prepare for natural disasters. But these measures are nowhere near enough for the scale of climate change impacts that are coming. Natural disasters alone will cost the economy $39 billion per year by 2050, so several hundred million for climate impacts is not going to cover it.
On energy, we saw hundreds of millions going to support a gas-fired recovery, including opening up further basins and gas fields. The Beetaloo Basin project is a carbon bomb of historic proportions. The Northern Territory government has said the basin could increase Australia's annual emissions by seven per cent. It must not be mined or we risk absolutely fouling our commitment to the Paris agreement. The International Energy Agency found for us to be on a pathway consistent with net zero by 2050, a target which the government agrees is preferable, then there can be no new oil or gas projects from now.
In the budget, quite shockingly, $9.5 billion was allocated to the decision taken but not yet announced slush fund, which can only be seen as for the next election. We learnt of an up to $2.4 billion support package for oil refineries. The minister claims this is to secure Australia's energy but there can be no security if we rely on imported oil. The only way to secure our energy is to invest in the transition to electric vehicles that will ensure that energy comes from Australian electricity generators and not Saudi oil plants.
Another part of the budget was a slush fund. Used from this was $600 million announced some days after the budget for a gas-fired plant at Kurri Kurri. This is a plant with absolutely no business case. Coming from a government that claims good economic management, it is essentially a plan to write off $600 million worth of public funds. The chair of the Energy Security Board, Kerry Schott, has said it doesn't stack up because it is expensive power. AMO has outlined there will be a minor shortfall when Liddell closes, but all projects financially committed will be sufficient. There is simply no market for this project. The government claims the plant will create 600 construction jobs. At $1 million per job, that's a terrible return on investment; worse still, there will only be 10 ongoing jobs. People have asked what would I do instead to promote jobs in the area? I would invest in renewables and batteries, as the market is doing. Nearby the site, the CEP energy will be building a record 1,200 megawatt battery. Energy Estate has also formed a consortium of energy developers to launch a project called the Hunter Hydrogen Network, which could be Australia's very first hydrogen valley. The first stage of the project aims to produce green hydrogen and associated green feed stock for mining, vehicles and other industrial uses in the Upper Hunter.
The government's energy measures don't stack up. They're very expensive interventions that go against good judgement and sound economic management. If we want a vision of what's possible for the next budget, we should turn to discussions of a $4 trillion infrastructure bill proposed by the Biden administration in the United States which centres around clean energy investments, electric vehicle infrastructure, energy efficiency and creating new industries of the future.
I welcomed the re-establishment of the women's budget impact statement. It was noteworthy, however, that, of the $1.8 billion dedicated to women's economic security, $1.7 billion was for child care, prompting many, including myself, to comment 'But aren't men parents, too?' It seems to be that anything to do with children is put on the balance sheet for women. But, ultimately, it is all in society that benefit from proper childcare policies. Despite the women's budget impact statement coming back, there is still only one woman among seven members of the Expenditure Review Committee. To that end, the government has missed the opportunity to address the inequalities of the paid parental leave scheme, such as removing the means testing or, at the minimum, means testing the family income rather than solely that of the primary career. There are enormous economic benefits in getting child care and parental leave right, as shown by the motion I tabled earlier this year. But we have underinvested yet again and we won't see a full return realised. The benefits of this strategy, if implemented, would be substantial, with the Australian parenting strategy report estimating an 8.7 boost to GDP by 2050.
I welcome the funding and implementation of the Respect@Work recommendations—$20.5 million for the implementation of the 55 recommendations is a good first step. I've met with the Attorney-General, who assured me that more funding would be forthcoming in collaboration with states and territories. But I urge the Attorney-General to rapidly action the response to Respect@Work and make general improvements in this space.
Domestic violence is an issue that we have to deal with all too often. It was good to see nearly $1 billion over four years for initiatives to reduce the number and support the victims of family, domestic and sexual violence. I welcomed the increase from $150 million announced in the COVID response package in March last year. We can't underestimate the impact violence against women ultimately has on Australia. It costs Australia an estimated $26 billion annually. We need to do more to address this.
There are still so many areas where there was an attempt at starting to address issues but they've become so big that it really isn't enough to just have a first go at it. This can be seen in terms of aged care and NDIS, where the full amounts recommended were not allocated, and so only a part addressing of the problem will occur. We need to increase care and staffing ratios in so many of our services to ensure that we are properly taking care of the more fragile and vulnerable in our society. We need to ensure that staff are adequately remunerated for their work and that they receive proper training and support to enable them to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
The budget had a little bit for everyone, but I would say that, overall, it missed a crucial vision for reopening Australia, for supporting the environment and for giving our young people a sense that this government has a vision for their future, has in mind the biggest intergenerational debt that is coming, recognises the costs that are coming and is actually investing wisely—that public money is being spent on infrastructure that will pay off in the long-term—and is not just following ideology. Sadly, that didn't happen, but I urge the government to use the $9.5 billion line item in this budget which is allocated but not announced towards measures that will actually ensure prosperity for future generations. You need to invest in our young people's future and not leave the biggest intergenerational debt we've ever seen.
It is with great pleasure that I stand up to support the government's Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022 and cognate bills tonight and, once again, bemoan the fact that Labor and the crossbenchers continue to play games with even this critical piece of legislation, moving nonsensical amendments that do no Australian any good and are a discredit to this parliament and this chamber.
What we need to remember when we look at the appropriation bills and this budget is the context in which they were made. This event was 30 times larger than the global financial crisis of 2008. This government was determined to not make the mistakes of Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan and Ken Henry by overspending, underinvesting and leaving this nation with an extraordinary debt—from which it took us almost seven years to get back to a balanced budget—while providing us and leaving us with nothing, other than pink batts that actually killed people and did no good, school halls that cost more to build per square metre than the Opera House and cash for Wayne's best friends' clunkers. And let us not forget the disaster that unfolded where 'the great moral challenge of our generation' got dumped at the first bad opinion poll.
I listened to the speaker just before me, who feels that this budget was not ideological enough but yet was too ideological, and that it didn't spend enough money but, at the same time, left us with too much debt. You have to love the collectivist left in this country! You have to love the regressive woke warriors of our political firmament who seem to not see a tax they don't want to put up, a program they don't want to fund or a debt they don't want to leave to the next generation, while bemoaning those of us who do the hard work of getting their budget deficits back into balance while, every step of the way, they fight it and mislead the Australian public by talking about cuts when all we are trying to do is to restore some fiscal rectitude to the Australian budget, this parliament and our nation.
The wasted debts of the Gillard-Rudd-Henry-Swan years will never happen under this government. More broadly, this budget avoids the ineptitude that we saw on the Labor side and the Greens' side and which seems to be what the member for Warringah wishes to continue. The point I wanted to make here was that this budget is about rebuilding Australia and building it back better, because what we are going to do is to fix the problems those on the other side left and that those on the other side would recreate. We want to make sure that the structural problems left by those opposite are not left for future generations. We also want to make sure that we seize the moment and this chance. This is Australia's moment.
We on this side and this nation have succeeded where other nations have not even begun to fail. The speaker before me said that we are the only nation in the OECD to have outbound restrictions—restrictions on Australians leaving. But we are also the only nation in the OECD to have a death rate under a thousand. In fact, we're the only nation in the OECD to have a death rate under 10,000. In fact, no other nation in the OECD has a death rate under 50,000, with the exception of New Zealand. In fact, we have done better than any other nation in the OECD. Yet there are those who would criticise those measures that we took to protect Australians.
We do not, in any shape, way or form, resile from those measures. Were they tough? Yes. Would we have preferred not to have taken them? Of course. We are the party of freedom, unlike those opposite. We want to make sure that the money that we have spent—that this nation has spent—to keep families safe does not keep families apart. The worst thing we could do is open our borders before it is safe to do so and inflict upon families the pain, misery, hurt and death that has been inflicted upon so many other families in so many other nations in the OECD. We do not step back from that.
We have spent $17.7 billion in this budget to create 80,000 home-care packages in Australia. We have done that because our tribal elders deserve to live a life of dignity in their retirement. We have invested in skills and training, creating 163,000 JobTrainer packages and 170,000 apprenticeships, because we believe the future belongs to those who have skills and who are educated. We have also invested $1.7 billion in child care, because we believe that families deserve to have the chance to ensure that every child in Australia, regardless of what circumstances they are born into, have all the same opportunities as a child born into the wealthiest family in Australia. We have also done this because we believe that no-one should have to choose between the education of their child and the prospect of giving back to this country by going back to work and using the skills and the education that they have spent so much time developing and acquiring, because they're not choices that any Australian should have to make. So this government has reversed the problems created by those opposite and the crossbench and invested $1.7 billion in a better childcare system.
We have also ensured that 10 million Australians will have improved incomes in their households this year by extending the low to medium income tax offset. This will directly impact those Australians who most need it when they go to work—those whose households are most in need of this income. Unlike those opposite, we have created a circumstance where Australians get to choose what sort of future they want. When we got rid of JobSeeker, those opposite said that Armageddon would follow and that job losses would be huge. What do we see instead? We saw youth unemployment at decade lows. We saw underemployment at a seven-year low. We saw participation rates high, we saw unemployment fall, we saw more permanent jobs being created, and we saw people leaving part-time work and moving into full-time work. Essentially, all their rhetoric has been shown for what it is: just a fancy hairdo, backed by 'Twitterarti' warriors. The opposite to everything that those opposite said would happen happened, again, and yet they have the gall to come in here, make amendments to this appropriation bill, lecture us on economic management and what debt levels should look like and criticise us for being ideological. It's just extraordinary.
There are organisations and people in my community whose businesses will have lower taxes—for example, Anthony Gualdi, who runs the Upper Crust pie shop in Collaroy. His business this year will have lower taxes. He will be able to invest through our changes to the tax system, which will allow him to immediately expense equipment. He has invested more money so his customers can get a better pie and better service. He may be looking at one of those customers here!
Mr Champion interjecting—
Indeed, Mr Champion. David Singer at Elanora Heights has the Frenchies Brasserie. David has made it clear that he is finding it hard to find workers that want to work in his restaurant, one of the finest restaurants in Sydney when it comes to French cuisine or cuisine generally.
Mr Champion interjecting—
Outside pies, of course!
May I just remind the member for Mackellar to address members by their correct title.
Thank you—the member for Wakefield; my apologies.
It's Spence now.
Sorry—Spence. Pardon me. See? I'm out of here for a while, and then everything changes! A principal from Elanora Heights, Leesa Martin, has taken the money that this government has created through grants to invest in STEM, in robots and in 3D printers. She has a robot club that has a list of students waiting to get in. How many schools do you know of that have students wanting to go into the classroom in lunchtime?
Leesa Martin and her excellent teachers at Elanora Heights have created that outcome. Then we have Pittwater House and Northern Beaches Christian School which this year sent four economics students to see the budget—by the way, unlike those opposite, they thought it was very good. They got to see how this place works and the great clearing house of ideas that this chamber presents. They are doing us proud, and I know that the future of this nation is in good hands with students like those.
Then we have the employee share scheme changes, which reverse out what the Labor Party so erroneously and egregiously did nine years ago by making people pay tax on shares they are yet to receive. The damage to our innovation, the damage to our start-up culture will never actually be recovered. But this government bit the bullet. We have made changes to employee share schemes. These changes will benefit innovative companies like PharmaCare and Blackmores, like John Bacon's Budburst, like Brett Crowther's Incat Crowther. Incat Crowther has not only built ferries for Sydney Harbour but has designed the next generation of landing vessels for the US Navy and scored a US$750 million project by doing that. These enterprising entrepreneurs will be able, for the first time, to sensibly offer their employees shares that mean that they can own and be part of the wealth that they are creating.
For Blackmores and PharmaCare, for Budburst, we have created a patent box that means that, when you create an invention that you can patent, you don't need to go overseas to raise those funds. You can stay here in Australia, and any income you derive from that patent is at a lower tax rate because that's what we believe in. We believe in empowering people right around Australia to do the best that they possibly can, so that they are encouraged and incentivised to innovate, to employ, to invest and to make a difference in our society. When you grow your economy, you have more resources to fund the essential services that ordinary Australians, the hardworking Australians, hardworking families, rely upon to get on with their lives.
My area is a great area. We single-handedly this year saved Christmas for the rest of Australia and we're very proud of that. But there are still some things, in the luckiest part of the luckiest country in the world, that we would like. One is road upgrades. Too many families spend too much time in traffic congestion trying to get to work and trying to get home to be with their loved ones. Upgrades to Wakehurst Parkway are essential. The commencement of the NorthConnex tunnel is essential. These are things that will make a real difference to families in my electorate, who are the ones that go to work, that pay the taxes, that fund all these essential services that so many Australians have come to rely on.
Also, housing prices on the northern beaches and right across Australia are too high. It is simply inexcusable, in a country with the highest minimum wage in the world, with the highest wages in the world, in the least densely populated continent in the world outside the penguins of the South Pacific, that we have housing prices more commensurate with Singapore and Hong Kong than with Kansas and Nebraska. The reason is clear: it is that too many state governments have too many restrictive planning laws. This is a regulatory failure of enormous proportions. I call on this parliament to start lobbying state governments to do more to create more houses, so that more Australians can have their fair share of the Australian dream. It is both unreasonable and unfair that we have not done this earlier. It is critical to the future of our nation that we achieve this outcome because, while ever people do not own their own homes then we own them, and that's not what Australia was built to do. It was built to empower people, to make families better off and to make the lives of ordinary Australians even better.
When I was preparing the Lilley budget submission, I had one question front and centre. It was: what infrastructure do northsiders need to make our community the best place in the world to live? As it turns out, the LNP do not prioritise the north side like I do. In fact, they did not present any vision or plan at all. Not a cent of new infrastructure funding was announced for Lilley in the federal budget a fortnight ago. When the Prime Minister decided to pop by for a photo op at Geebung the following week, the least he could have done was bring a construction crew to get the Beams Road upgrade underway, rather than a camera crew to take photos of an empty construction site. Overall, this lacklustre budget is a real slap in the face for Queenslanders. Less than half of the Morrison government's infrastructure spend in Queensland will be delivered in the next four years, with more than half of their budget spend being pushed off into the never-never beyond the forward estimates. They are all announcement and no delivery.
We have had massive interstate migration to Queensland in the past 12 months. We have had a net gain of 30,000 people move to our magnificent tropical north. We have the most decentralised population in the country, and in terms of land we are twice as big as New South Wales and seven times as big as Victoria. We are fighting to be the home of the summer Olympics in 2032, which has the potential to be a huge boost for local jobs and for our hospitality and tourism sectors, but we first need the infrastructure to support that growth. We are ripe for investment, yet the Morrison government gave New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia double the infrastructure funding that it gave Queensland in the federal budget a fortnight ago.
There are three sure-fire ways to generate economic growth and get Australia out of the recession: invest in infrastructure to lift capacity and boost productivity; invest in people through education and training; and ensure all infrastructure projects include a provision for the compulsory employment of Australian apprentices. There is a simple way to do all three: build here, create jobs and train apprentices. Reconstruct Australia in Australia. Australians need a plan that genuinely contributes to our national prosperity and the growth of new modern jobs for our local economies now and for generations to come. A robust local manufacturing sector ensures local workers have well-paid, permanent jobs that allow them to spend in our small businesses and stimulate our local economies. Manufacturing creates those jobs, provides that certainty and is in our national interest.
Using the power of government, we should be transforming our economy to power manufacturing in our industrial neighbourhoods, like Geebung and Nudgee in my electorate of Lilley. An Albanese Labor government will deliver national reconstruction that is focused squarely on jobs—good, secure jobs. We will establish a $15 billion fund to invest in local industry and business to put Australian jobs first. We will rebuild the nation's manufacturing industry with a comprehensive plan to create jobs, to boost vital skills and to bring industry expertise back onshore. We will develop sovereign industrial and research capabilities and build up the skills and expertise of the Australian workforce.
I recently had the pleasure of showcasing the Sanofi manufacturing plant in Virginia, another of our industrial hubs, with Labor's shadow minister for national reconstruction, employment, skills and small business and shadow minister for science, Richard Marles. Sanofi shows us what locals can achieve if we invest in manufacturing, science and research. Sanofi employs 350 locals to manufacture supplements in Virginia, which we sell in Australia and export abroad. Sanofi has recently announced that it will be investing $630 million over five years to create a unique vaccine production site in Singapore. The new site will provide Sanofi with the ability to produce innovative vaccines on a massive scale for Asia and quickly respond to future pandemic risks. We need to create an environment that incentivises Sanofi to build vaccine production sites right here in Australia. High-tech, high-quality, Australian made manufacturing is what we need more of on the north side.
The climate emergency presents Australia with an opportunity for significant economic growth. It presents an opportunity to train apprentices for the new energy jobs of the future.
The climate emergency presents Australia with an opportunity for significant economic growth. It presents an opportunity to train apprentices for the new energy jobs of the future. We want those jobs. We want them on our shores and we want them in our local economies. As a nation we have a significant competitive advantage in creating those jobs. Australia has some of the world's best natural assets—in solar, in wind and in minerals—that could power our new energy economy. We also have some of the smartest, hardest working people on earth, who want to work in a prosperous new industry like the renewables sector. We should view addressing the climate emergency as an opportunity to create good jobs and to put Australia in a strong position to realise our potential as a superpower in the great economic reset.
Locally, in my electorate of Lilley, there are renewable companies like GEM Energy, a solar power and battery company that started out in Emerald and now has offices on the north side of Brisbane and in Darwin. They've grown from a team of five to over 60 direct employees, whose jobs range from engineering and electrical to sales and administration. The story of GEM Energy proves that there is a bright future for Australian workers in renewable energy. Aaron, who was working in an insurance call centre and living near the poverty line, started his career in solar energy and moved up through that industry over the last 10 years to become a manager for GEM. Solar has allowed Aaron and his family to build a life on the north side. Young men have gone from casual workforce employment to completing electrical apprenticeships in solar. Older workers struggling to find work can retrain and find good permanent jobs in the solar industry. We need to support these jobs of the future for our young people in need of permanent and meaningful work and for our older workers who are looking for a new industry to utilise their skills and experience.
But, instead of securing those new energy jobs for Australians, the LNP have wasted eight years of opportunities by bickering amongst themselves over 22 different climate and energy policies. Just recently, the LNP squandered a $1 billion job opportunity in Brisbane. In partnership with the federal government, the Brisbane City Council is spending $1 billion on the Brisbane Metro. I welcome the decision to improve greater Brisbane transport network connectivity and especially the decision to upgrade Brisbane's bus fleet with 16 new all-electric vehicles with zero tailpipe emissions. But, if we are going to spend $1 billion of taxpayers' money on new infrastructure projects like this, we need to make sure that Brisbane taxpayers and ratepayers get a return on that investment, by supporting local jobs and by supporting Australian manufacturers.
We have the capacity and the capability to develop and build electric buses for the city's non-metro routes. Volgren, a Brisbane based company, builds our current bus fleet. The $19 million bus-building facility was built in 2009 at Eagle Farm, and it was designed to build three buses a week. But, instead of choosing Volgren be the primary supplier of the all-new electric fleet for Brisbane, backing local jobs and backing Australian manufacturing, the Brisbane City Council, in conjunction with this Morrison government, have decided to appoint a European company, HESS, to be the prime contractor in their supply contract partnership, alongside Swiss multinational company ABB—the largest investment any Australian government has ever made in electric mass transport road vehicles. It should be supporting Australian manufacturers and supporting local workers. Money provided by taxpayers should not be going to offshore multinational companies when we have a perfectly good manufacturing plant right here in Eagle Farm, already in use, flush with local workers. But the LNP Brisbane City Council has decided to hand out over $190 million of ratepayer money to a foreign owned company to build buses for Brisbane. Shame. Only the fit-out and the finishing of those buses will happen now at Eagle Farm. Brisbane workers will only be able to come in right at the end and finish off a job that they had every right to expect to be doing right from the start—a right denied by the LNP.
We should be growing our local capacity to build these buses, not putting it in the too-hard basket and importing it from overseas instead. We know it can be done. Volgren already manufactures electric buses in Melbourne, and those buses have just been delivered to Transdev Capalaba, they are operation and they are charged by solar energy. The Brisbane City Council has also decided not to renew its contract with Volgren for the ongoing supply of our city's bus fleet, instead awarding a new contract to Yutong Australia, who have imported their buses from China since 2012. Once again, an Australian manufacturer, local jobs and local opportunities are being neglected by an LNP council and an LNP government who are focused instead on helping out their mates, the large offshore multinational companies.
Australian universities and TAFEs are the home of Australian innovation and the pursuit of knowledge and skilled work. Education and training are the great equalisers, because they give all people of all backgrounds, no matter their postcode, an opportunity to skill up and to pursue their own aspiration. Our universities and TAFEs give aspiring Australians who are entering or re-entering the workforce the skills and the tools they need to find a job that they love and that allows them to build the life that they dream of. But the Morrison government's 2021-22 federal budget reduced funding for universities by 10 per cent over the next three years, while TAFE funding will be slashed by 24 per cent. They have also decided to finish an emergency $1 billion grant to Australian universities and research.
This is a pattern of behaviour that we have come to expect from this underwhelming eight-year coalition government. In 2014-15 they underspent on TAFE and training by $183 million. They spent $247 million less than promised in 2015-16, $118 million less in 2016-17, $202 million less in 2017-18 and $170 million less in 2018-19. In total that is $920 million less spent than they have promised in TAFE and training since 2014. Is it any wonder that we have 140,000 fewer Australians in apprenticeships now than when the LNP first came to office? By annually cutting funding to universities and to TAFE, the Morrison government are robbing both younger and older Australians of opportunities to retrain, to upskill and to seize job opportunities when they come along.
The skills and training sector can supercharge Australian ingenuity and spur on economic growth, but it seems only a Labor government understands the power of that possibility. Apprenticeships are the path to good jobs in trades. That is why Labor's plan will help more Australians take up the tools. An Albanese Labor government will train thousands of workers by ensuring one in 10 workers on major government projects are Australian apprentices. Labor will invest $10 million in a new energy skills program to tailor skills training to the specific needs of new energy industries like those emerging on the north side. The New Energy Skills Program will work with the states, with industry, with unions, to ensure workers have access to training pathways that are fit for purpose. Labor will pursue a similar approach in other government-supported industries, such as disability care, aged care and child care.
We talk about picking winners and losers in this budget. Future generations are the biggest losers. The Morrison government's Intergenerational report will be released soon and is set to lay bare huge levels of debt over the next 40 years, coupled with a less productive economy. This report should have been released a year ago but was delayed due to the COVID pandemic. But the delay of this report means that, for the past year, while making monumental policy decisions that will shift the trajectory of our economy and our society for decades to come, no-one in power—no-one on that side of the House, no-one in the Morrison government—was giving thought to what intergenerational impact that would have. While young people are the ones who will be saddled with solving this problem and paying off this debt, there is no vision and no plan in this budget to make sure that they are not financially crippled by the task.
This Morrison government seems completely hypnotised—or maybe, at this point, exhausted—by the complexity of intergenerational inequality. If that's the case, they should hand over the reins to someone who cares. Millennials deserve better. Gen Z deserves better. Children deserve better. It is time that Australia had a federal government who is actually on their side instead of a government led by an ad man with no plan or vision for Australian infrastructure, no plan for Australian manufacturing and no plan for Australian jobs. It is for all of us here in this House to be good ancestors and to make decisions that will benefit Australians for decades to come. We will be talking about the COVID pandemic for the next century, as a major change in our economy and in our society. Based on the federal budget that was handed down two weeks ago, there will be nothing to show for it. There will be no nation-building infrastructure. There will be no decades-long progression. There will be no hope or vision for the generations to come, just $100 billion in new spending and absolute pork-barrelling. You should be ashamed.
How good is Australia, how good are Australians and how good is the 2020-21 Morrison budget? The work that Australians did throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the sacrifices that they made and the commitment that they showed to their fellow Australians was truly remarkable. That has meant that we, Australia, Australians, are the envy of the world when it comes to managing the COVID-19 pandemic, and now we are on the road to recovery. The measures the Treasurer outlined in this year's budget show our plan has secured that recovery and cemented our future prosperity.
We just heard the contribution from the member for Lilley where she talked for a long time about the woes and ills of the Labor Party and the desire for us to hand over power to the Labor Party, never mind those pesky elections. The 2021 budget delivered by the Treasurer was all about Australians—what they have achieved, what they want to continue to achieve and the economic recovery, what they want to continue to achieve for their families and how we, as a government, can lock in the hard-fought gains that they have won.
I want to take this opportunity to thank my community, in particular in the electorate of Ryan, for the part that they played in helping to make sure we are in the great position that we are in today but also talk about how the Morrison government's budget is working with them to deliver the opportunities that I know they are working hard for.
Starting with the families in my electorate, I gave a commitment to them that I would work every day to make sure that they got ahead, and, as part of the Morrison government, we are delivering on this promise. Around 60,200 taxpayers in Ryan will benefit from tax relief of up to $2,745 this year, because we, on this side of the House, fundamentally believe to our bootstraps that you should get to keep more of what you earn and that you are best placed to make the choices for your family. And the best way to do that is you keep more of the money that you have worked so hard for in your pocket. It is a fundamental divide between us and the Labor Party. Do not be under any misapprehension: the MPs on the other side of the chamber from the Labor Party are hedging their bets about whether or not they will support the legislated tax cuts that will remove the 37 cent bracket. It's already legislated. It's there. The tax cut is on the way. Under this government, you will keep more of what you earn. But the Labor MPs are desperate to hang on to more of your money—
Opposition members interjecting—
and I hear them interjecting now such is their enthusiasm for it. They are so keen to keep more of your money, because they think they know how to spend it better than you do. They think that you are best to earn the money and then they are best placed to spend it on your behalf and on behalf of your families, and we fundamentally disagree with that proposition. Already over 75,000 people in Ryan have benefited from the tax cuts delivered by this government, and this next tax cut will again see them rewarded for their hard work.
Throughout COVID, the Morrison government's JobKeeper payment supported 6,100 businesses in our local area as well as supported more than 25,000 employees in the Ryan electorate. JobKeeper meant businesses could stay open and keep their employees connected to their business as they went through tough times. For employers and employees, JobKeeper has literally saved livelihoods. It's saved decades of hard-fought gains and work to create a business, to create a position and to create jobs. It has saved those jobs.
JobKeeper was always meant to be a temporary measure, and we've seen from JobKeeper being removed that none of the dire propositions that Labor MPs put forward—and there were plenty of them, including from the shadow Treasurer and the Leader of the Opposition—that the sky would fall in on the heads of Australians. That hasn't come to pass. That is, again, the fundamental danger and difference between us and the Labor Party. The fundamental danger of the Labor Party is that when it comes to a crisis, when it comes to things like COVID and the GFC, they would like to spend forever. We, on the other hand, would like to see targeted spending that does enormous good. JobKeeper has done that. It has achieved its aim, and we have seen from its withdrawal that the labour market is stronger than ever, with more jobs in the workplaces of Australia now than there were prior to the pandemic.
Although JobKeeper is finished, we're continuing to back local businesses. We're continuing the tax incentives that have allowed over 20,000 businesses in Ryan to write off the full value of eligible assets—for instance, a local cafe purchasing a new coffee machine or point-of-sale system. We are backing local businesses to create jobs and to continue to keep the economy firing. I've visited many of the local businesses that are taking advantage of the instant asset write-off. After a period of significant struggle, where they were unsure if they would even continue to exist, it has been amazing to see the transition in the minds and the ability of those small-business owners. They've shifted from survival mode, due to the insecurity of not knowing whether or not they would be around in the next couple of months, to now investing in creating jobs, because of the policies that this government has put in place to support them.
I also want to talk about the fact that every working parent understands what it is like to try to fit the costs of child care into the weekly family budget. We want to encourage families with young children to get back into the workforce, if that's the choice that they want to make. It is a significant cost, and it's one that the Morrison government is conscious of when we think about how we can reduce the cost of living for Australian families. We're increasing funding for kindies in Ryan and making child care more affordable and accessible. We're increasing the childcare subsidy for families with more than one child—and up to five—in childcare and removing the $10,560 cap on the childcare subsidy. These measures will help 250,000 Australian families, including 1,500 in my own community. This has been one of the most well-received measures of the recent budget, I have found. The families in my local community are particularly appreciative of the fact that we are working hard to reduce their cost of living and the cost of childcare.
I want to talk about my passion, and that is infrastructure for my area. Every resident in the Ryan electorate knows what it is like to be stuck in traffic, and they have been let down for decades by previous Labor governments, particular at the state level, when it comes to investing in roads. Quite simply, the Queensland Labor government's cupboard is bare after years of inappropriate spending. If it were not for the federal government doing the heavy lifting, we simply wouldn't have the investment in the roads and infrastructure in Queensland that we need.
I heard the member for Lilley's contribution, just before mine, where she tried to paint what I think was an inaccurate picture of infrastructure spending into Queensland by this federal government. The reality is it is significant. A significant proportion of the $100 billion infrastructure pipeline has gone into Queensland, including in my own electorate, which I will detail. She also neglected to mention the fact that we are the only state—and in fact Brisbane is the only city—in Australia to have a commitment from the federal government to fund 50 per cent of the infrastructure for an Olympic bid. There is billions waiting to be unlocked as part of that bid process. She spoke a little bit about the Metro project, which has got $500 million worth of spending from this federal government. Again, the member for Lilley neglected to mention the fact that this large infrastructure project—the largest infrastructure project occurring in the city of Brisbane, at over $1 billion—is entirely funded by Liberal and Nation Party governments, at the council level and at the federal level, with not a single brass razoo from the Queensland Labor government.
The Queensland Labor government has primary carriage of providing public transport in the city of Brisbane, but it is so broke and so unable to manage its spending priorities that it has not been able to put a single dollar towards it. Both the Brisbane City Council and the federal government, neither of whom have primary responsibility for providing public transport in Brisbane, have had to come up with the full funding of that $1 billion. We're happy to do so because the reality is that if we didn't it just wouldn't happen, and it would be Brisbane residents who would suffer. It's important to point out that it is in fact the LNP and the Morrison government that are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to infrastructure in Queensland, nowhere more so than in the electorate of Ryan.
At the last election I made a commitment to help fix local roads and to get federal funding to do so. We in the government want to get residents home to their families sooner and safer. We want them spending more time with their families, less time sitting in congestion, and we are getting on with the job of doing it. In just the last two years, $230 million has been poured into the electorate of Ryan, specifically to help upgrade and fix local roads and reduce congestion at notorious bottlenecks. That includes the key bottleneck at Indooroopilly roundabout, where during the last election I secured $50 million in federal funding that has been matched by the Brisbane City Council, so this is $100 million local intersection project. It is a three-lane roundabout. You would not get a traffic engineer in Australia who would sign off on a three-lane traffic roundabout anymore, such is their danger, but this has been a historical oddity that needed to be removed so that we could increase safety and reduce congestion. The $100 million between the Brisbane City Council and the Morrison government is getting the job done.
As soon as the 2019 federal election was over, having made that commitment of $50 million towards that project, we saw Brisbane City Council kick into gear. They undertook different designs. They put two different designs out to consultation with the community, and the community has chosen the design. They finished the detailed design of the residents' choice and they are about to begin work on site. That is how quickly a LNP government, federal and council, can work together to get it done.
Unfortunately, it contrasts very differently with the experience that we have had with the Labor state government, where, again, we have put $12.5 million towards a project to remove a roundabout at Kenmore, to reduce congestion and improve safety. Despite making that funding commitment two years ago and having the money sitting there in the budget ready to go, it has taken two years for the Queensland Labor government to even produce a concept design, which they thankfully are now doing consultation on. But it is a little more than a concept design. Two years it took them. It took us 1½ years just to get them to match the funding commitment but it took us two years just to get a concept design. I would love for that project to go a lot quicker for our local community. I commit to you that I will continue to, to be frank, to bash Mark Bailey around the head at every public opportunity I get, to try and get them moving on behalf of our local community.
We have also put $10 million into doing a scoping study for the Metroad 5. Anybody who travels through Baden-Auchenflower part of our electorate and Toowong, knows the trouble of the Metroad 5. The $10 million will go towards looking at how we upgrade this for the future. We hope to make further commitments on that shortly. We have $112 million to upgrade to the Centenary Bridge, another local chokepoint that anyone using the Western and Centenary freeways will know very well. The $112 million is, again, specifically targeted to a road that is entirely the responsibility of the Queensland Labor government but without the federal funding input that I have secured for the local area, it simply would not have occurred. It simply would not have started. It has been on their books for over a decade and they had no intention of starting it. It is because of the federal government's commitment of $112 million that we are now seeing significant movement on this project.
We are building retaining walls along School Road at the Gap. We are upgrading the Gretchen Circuit bridge which is another chokepoint for local residents that has needed to be done for some time. I would like to thank Councillor Steve Toomey for his contribution to that project as well. We are also fixing local blackspots in Sir Fred Schonell Drive and Coldridge Street in St Lucia, which is the entrance to UQ. I was lucky to have the Deputy Prime Minister out there to see that project firsthand and see that we are putting the infrastructure money to good use.
Also to the seniors of Ryan, who have made a significant contribution to our community, there is plenty in the 2021 budget for them as well. They deserve to be supported. Whether they are planning on retirement, whether they have already retired or whether they are looking at aged care, the Morrison government will be there to support them. For those preparing for retirement, we are allowing Australians over 62 contribute up to $300,000 to their super if they downsize their home. We have put a record investment into aged care, with $17.7 billion committed to improve our aged-care system as well.
It is clear from the measures contained in the 2021 budget that the Morrison government has had the backs of Australians throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and us all working together has put us in the miraculous place we are. The 2021 Morrison government budget has the back of Australians. It will continue to support them and lock in that economic recovery.
I would like to make a contribution to this debate on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022 and cognate bills. From the outset I think we should make it clear that what we have here is a government that's had an abundance of opportunities to take action to drive our economy forward and to help shape the future prosperity of this nation. But that is something we have not seen put materially into effect at all through this budget. Instead, what we have seen is eight years of mismanagement, eight years of Liberal neglect, eight years of flat wages but rising costs, eight years of ignoring the problems and cutting funding to essential services and eight years of holding people back. Simply put, people have been left behind. We've never seen a government that has spent so much to achieve so little. Those opposite can spend $100 billion in one night, rack up $1 trillion of debt and still have working people falling behind. We have a budget predicated on wage cuts. One phrase that none of those opposite have said for some time is 'debt and deficit', and I don't think they'll be saying it for the next 30-odd years. Only those opposite, as I said, could spend that amount of money and yet achieve little.
At a time when people are trying to rebuild from the economic ramifications of this pandemic, Australia needs and deserves far more than what this government is offering. People need a vision for the future: a vision for jobs and school creation, a plan to kickstart the economy not only to get us through this recession but to put us on a path to future prosperity for this nation. What this nation needs is a government that understands community, but more importantly a government that puts the needs of the community ahead of politics. I've heard a few speeches from those on the other side that have talked about how much money has been spent in their electorates, and they're right. Money is being spent in their electorates. There has been pork-barrelling out there. I've got to say that electorates like mine and others represented by members on this side of the House don't see much coming from this government in terms of furthering the interests of working Australians that we all have an interest in protecting. This government really does need to focus on the national interest.
What we've seen so far is a government that's riddled with corruption, with rort after rort in the way that taxpayers' money is being spent. You have to look no further than the sports rorts or the Safer Communities grants. What about dodgy land deals? Those on the other side must thank God that they don't have an integrity commission as yet. This style of mismanagement by an elected government is what an integrity commission would be designed to actually prosecute and bring to the public's attention. But it is easy to see where this government's priorities lie. Our economy was already struggling before the pandemic. We had high casualisation of employment, record high underemployment, stagnant wage growth, slow economic growth and low business investment. Rather than addressing these systemic problems, which have only been heightened during the pandemic, this government's response is short-term policy fixes. Their response has been short-term policy to get them through to the next election, rather than a policy that has long-term transformative benefits for our economy and our nation as a whole.
The biggest failing of the budget is no doubt the cut that we see to real wages. This has become a defining aspect of the Liberal's economic plan. It is right there for us all to see in the budget papers. As a matter of fact, the former finance minister actually indicated this was a design aspect of their economic plan. We know that the many Australians who are employed are not getting enough hours to pay their bills. They cannot count on regular employment to pay their bills. We know that many Australians are being exploited, underpaid or subject to unsafe work environments and are hostage to insecure work.
One thing that often strikes me in this place is that this government never misses an opportunity to undermine or to criticise trade unions, which are designed just by their very nature to look after workers in employment. That's probably not quite correct. I have heard them refer to Kathy Jackson as being a line of the union movement, holding her up on a pedestal. That was before she was done for corruption. She's facing other judicial issues at the moment. But that was the person that they would have thought was the epitome of a trade union official.
Just remember this: it was former finance minister Mathias Cormann who made really, really clear the economic plan that this government had set the course to follow. The former finance minister said that stagnant wage growth was a deliberate design of the Liberal's economic policy. They actually planned stagnant wage growth. What they didn't plan is that there would be a restraint in terms of cost of living or all those other things that working families have to deal with. It was stagnant wage growth that did this. This is a government that's happy to hold working people back, happy to drive down wages and happy to make life harder for working families. It has become such a problem that Australian families are now facing day-to-day pressures to pay for the basic necessities of life, including rent, childcare costs, fuel and groceries. These are things that weren't planned to be restrained by this government.
My electorate in Western Sydney has been found to be one of the most disadvantaged communities across the nation based on studies conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. As matter of fact, the average household income in my electorate is just a little over $60,000 a year. That's not the average income; that's the average household income. Clearly, my community is not rich. But, also clearly, my community can't afford to have this sort of downward pressure put on their household incomes. They are struggling to make ends meet as it is. What members of my community need and deserve—and, by the way, probably what all Australians need and deserve—is a government that is prepared to look at what's necessary to boost real wages. We on this side understand that it is about increasing the productivity of this nation. That's an integral aspect of economic growth. It seems to me that only a Labor government will stand up for secure jobs, safe workplaces and fair and decent wages.
Let's not forget the approach that this government took to child care. This is a government which failed to provide adequate support to families struggling with the cost of child care. Australians pay some of the highest childcare fees in the world, with fees increasing some 35 per cent under this government's watch. This issue was raised regularly with me by local parents, particularly those who are trying to have greater participation in the workplace and trying to make ends meet. Making child care more affordable is good not only for working families but also for our economy. That's the reason that Labor, business groups, economists and other experts have all agreed that we desperately need childcare reform.
While all would, to some extent, be happy that the government has taken some serious steps in at least identifying it as an issue and throwing some money at it now, by the same token, this is the same government that only last year downplayed the economic benefit of investing in child care. It is little wonder that the end result of all that was that they rushed through a half-baked policy in that regard. Under the policy that they have introduced through their budget, only one in four families will benefit from the new childcare policy, and the budget papers actually show that, under their plan, the workplace participation rate will continue to fall. Labor's childcare policy will not only deliver support to four times the number of families as provided by the government in this regard; it will boost the economic aspects substantially and move towards a universal provision of affordable child care. Not only would that good for all Australian families; that would be sensational for stimulating the Australian economy.
Just remember the mess that this government has made of our aged-care system. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly exposed the vulnerability of our aged-care system. Regrettably, we saw more than 670 people die in aged care during this pandemic. The final report of the aged-care royal commission found that our system of aged care failed to meet the needs of some of the most vulnerable in our community. The commission strongly expressed the need for fundamental change in our aged-care sector, making 148 recommendations for reform. While it is pleasing that those opposite have finally realised the need to take action on this very pressing issue, we must remember that this is the same government that, for the last eight years, with their relentless attacks and cuts, left the aged-care sector in crisis. This is the same Liberal government who ignored the warnings of over 20 major reports and ripped $1.7 billion out of the system.
Too many Australians have suffered after years of neglect. So how is that we're expected to trust the government will fix the aged-care crisis—a crisis that they are actually responsible for creating? This is a government that ignored all advice and recommendations about aged care, staffing levels and pay and conditions for the care workers, and now they want to be congratulated for providing additional home care packages—which, by the way, will not even cover the backlog. Regrettably, the fact is that people will still die waiting. Our elderly and vulnerable in our communities must be afforded the respect, care and dignity that they deserve and our aged-care workers must be afforded better pay and conditions.
In the time I have left, I want to briefly talk about the issues of homelessness and housing affordability, which unfortunately remain very real issues for many of our communities. These issues are particularly dire in my electorate, which is, as I have indicated before, overrepresented with people living with disadvantage and has a notably higher refugee population than most other electorates.
Research conducted by the University of New South Wales found that my electorate was one of the worst affected, and obviously during the pandemic that has been exacerbated. The idea of security and having a roof over one's head should be available to all Australians. It should be regarded as a basic human right. I'm proud that Labor will address that, just as we did during the global financial crisis. Australia needs to plan to not only get through this recession but to plan for the future. Australia needs and deserves better than what this government is offering.
Australians are rightly proud of their country. We look around the world, we see what other countries do, we see how other countries respond to things and we look at what Australia does, and I think at most times Australians feel proud of their country but so much more so over the last 12 months or so as we've looked at how this country has dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic compared to so many other countries. Whether it's been the health response or the economic response, Australians have so much to be proud of in the response of their government.
It's very easy to forget what the situation was a year ago and how much has changed over that time. A year ago, there were dire predictions as we went into lockdown as a country. We were staring down an unemployment rate of 15 per cent and we were looking at growth writedowns of 20 per cent—extraordinary figures in the history of our country and the history of the global economy. It's also worthwhile remembering the way in which COVID has affected and continues to affect hundreds of millions of people around the world. There have been 166 million cases and sadly 3.4 million deaths. In the US, more people died as a result of COVID than died in World War I, World War II and Vietnam combined. In the United Kingdom, they had the highest per capita death rate in the world. These are two countries that we regularly compare ourselves with in terms of public policy, and yet Australia's response to COVID has been so much stronger. We've had 30,000 cases and sadly lost 909 people.
One of the reasons why our response has been better has been the way in which we've approached the health issues and particularly the way in which we've looked very strongly at the importance of testing—17.9 million tests have been conducted here, and I think, particularly as a New South Welshman, the tracking and tracing system in our state has allowed us to identify and deal with COVID cases quickly.
COVID was always both a health challenge and an economic challenge, and we performed very well in relation to the health challenge. You see that by the fact that we've been able to open up our economy as much as we have. You see that in the amount of personal freedom and liberty that we have. You see that in the fact that we are sitting in this chamber during question time, just as we did before the pandemic. You see that in the fact that in Britain this week there was great celebrating because people could hug their elderly parents for the first time—this was something that we were able to do in large parts of Australia last year, and early last year too. It's just a demonstration of how differently we've done. So, on an economic front, while the economies of places like the UK, France and Italy have all contracted by more than eight per cent, Australia's strong health response has meant that our economy has only contracted by 2½ per cent.
The real economic dividend has been the unemployment figures. Employment is ultimately the translation of economic theoretical policy into something practical that all of us appreciate in our daily lives. The unemployment rate just announced last week is 5.5 per cent. Unemployment is now lower than it was when we went into the COVID-19 pandemic. No other country has had such a result as we have had in that regard, and that is because of the good economic management.
Those opposite were saying that we should keep on JobKeeper. JobKeeper has been a lifeline and a godsend to so many people across my electorate and across our community, and we knew it was the right policy to have. But it's easy to turn on the tap; it's much harder to turn it off. And if we had listened to those opposite, all we would be doing is spending money that would actually be a handbrake on our economy. We were right to draw down JobKeeper at the time we did, and the unemployment figures have shown the wisdom of that measure at that time.
The budget that was handed down a fortnight ago shows that we are doing the right thing and that we are pursuing with the COVID-19 economic recovery, securing Australia's economic future. This budget focuses not only on economic measures but also on a range of key service issues, and tonight I want to highlight a few that are particularly important to my community.
In Berowra we have 19,000 small and medium businesses, and there are a range of measures in the budget that will make those businesses better off and enable them to expand and to employ more people. At the heart of the measures announced in the budget is the extension of the instant asset write-off. That means a business can purchase a new piece of capital equipment and not wait several years until it depreciates but claim the tax deduction this year, putting more money in the hands of business, giving the business more money to further expand, further invest and further employ. The temporary loss carry-back scheme has also been extended another year, allowing businesses to better plan their balance sheet over several years. The SME Recovery Loan Scheme, available to businesses like those in my community that have been affected by the Hawkesbury River floods, also provides support to businesses like the turf farms in places like Lower Portland and Sackville North as they recover from the recent floods.
I think one of the best measures that we have introduced since COVID-19 has been the apprentice wage subsidy. You can see that in the way that people have adopted it with such great alacrity. We thought that the apprentice wage subsidy program, which we put in place last year, would take 12 months to be subscribed, but it was subscribed in only five months, with 100,000 new apprentices. This budget doubles down on that and provides for an extra 170,000 new apprentices to be subsidised by the 50 per cent wage subsidy, which is so important to businesses expanding and to giving people—young people and people who are looking to retrain—a go in a new area of the economy.
A specially focused business measure that has pleased at least two businesses in my electorate is the measure that was introduced for craft brewers. Craft brewers can now claim a refund on any excise they pay, up to an annual cap of $350,000. When I went to visit Ekim Brewing in Mount Kuring-gai recently, they talked about how this would improve their cash flow and enable them to expand their business. In fact, they are looking at expanding their operations as a result of this measure. That's a great practical instance of good measures in the budget that are making a real difference to people's lives, on the ground.
I think the measure in the budget that will affect most people in my community and make the greatest difference is the Peri-Urban Mobile Program, which will invest $16.4 million in peri-urban mobile solutions for people in communities, like mine, that are on the urban fringe of our capital cities, for whom mobile connectivity is appalling. I have spoken on many occasions, in this House and in my community, of the appalling service given to people in my community by Telstra. Telstra is the monopoly provider to large parts of my community. There are large parts of my community that are getting charged for a service they are not receiving. There are places in my community where Telstra says there is coverage but there is actually no coverage, except when you stand on a ladder in your backyard and point the coathanger in the right way while the wind is blowing in the right direction. This has got to stop. I'm very sympathetic to colleagues, like the member for Mallee, who represent rural constituencies. I understand the challenges that they face in the bush in relation to mobile telecommunications. But in an electorate like mine, which is in metropolitan Sydney, our mobile telecommunication is worse now than it was 20 years ago.
The Peri-Urban Mobile Program is going to be such a game changer for communities like mine. It will provide an avenue for telcos to invest money to address peri-urban mobile coverage issues. This is important for our emergency services personnel. It's important for people who are in critical sectors, like doctors. It's important for police and ambulance, and it's important in saving lives. I can't tell you the number of stories I've heard where people haven't been able to call 000, because they haven't been able to get reception on the mobile phone. I had an instance where someone in my electorate was bitten by a snake and their child had to email a relative in Melbourne to get them to call 000, because the mobile service in my electorate was so bad. I was speaking to a man the other day whose daughter has severe mental health issues. The phone cut out six times and he said, 'I'm going to drive 10 minutes away and stand under a tower in a park so I can make a phone call to you.' So he had to bundle his daughter up in the car and do that. This is appalling. This is 2021. This is metropolitan Sydney. Thank goodness the PUMP program will provide us with a way forward. I want to thank everyone in my community who has campaigned so hard for better telecommunications.
I mentioned the issue of mental health because it is an issue that is so important to me as the chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Suicide Prevention and as someone who has been bereaved by suicide. I think this budget is a real step-up in relation to mental health and suicide prevention. When the Prime Minister told me he was planning on announcing that we would have a target of zero suicides, I said to him, in a Sir Humphrey sense, 'That's a very courageous decision, Prime Minister.' But he said, quite rightly: 'How can we have any other figure? Suicide is not acceptable and we want to get that down to zero.' I think the single most important measure that will make an appreciable difference in relation to suicide prevention is aftercare.
Aftercare is something I have campaigned for the whole time I have been in here. If you go into hospital because you're having a hip replacement or a knee replacement, you don't get discharged into the night. You go to rehab. You learn to walk again; you learn to get your physical life back on track. But, if you've made an attempt on your own life, in too many of our jurisdictions, once you've been stabilised you get discharged into the night. What do we know? We know that the people who are most likely to die by suicide are those people who have attempted to take their own lives on a previous occasion. We know who they are and we know where they are. We've got their medical records.
What this initiative does is provide a targeted measure, properly funded aftercare—which we are seeing for the first time in this budget—to the tune of $158.6 million. It will see anybody who has been admitted to a mental health facility, such as a mental health unit in a hospital, not discharged into the night but discharged into an aftercare program, so that they will continue to get the services and support that they need, acknowledging that the acute event that might have occurred, that might have brought them in, is just one event on a journey that will get them back to health. I think this will have a real impact on the numbers of suicides that we have in this country. It is the only measure in the Productivity Commission report where there was a recommendation that actually put a number on the quantity of lives that you could save, and that's why I think this is such an important measure in the mental health space.
I also note the importance of Head to Health. There has been, rightly, a focus on the mental health of young people through the headspace program, but not everybody who has mental health challenges is young. There are many older people who have mental health challenges as well. The new Head to Health centres, that build on the concept of headspace, will help augment those services and help ensure that people are getting the support they need. I applaud the government for the $2.3 billion package of measures in relation to mental health and suicide, of which those two are absolutely key.
I want to say something about child care, because child care is a big issue for many families—the affordability of childcare and the ability of families to properly balance their budgets and to ensure that both mum and dad, should they choose, have the ability and capacity to work, and that they can make the family arrangements that are right for them. But child care is very expensive. It's expensive for families that have more than one child, and it's particularly expensive for families who haven't been able to get access to subsidies.
There are some really important measures in this budget dealing with childcare. The government are investing $1.7 billion more into child care in the budget. They're removing the $10,560 cap on the childcare subsidy, and this is a measure that will be very important for people in my electorate, where the cost of housing is very expensive and a large percentage of people's incomes is taken up with repaying mortgages and getting into the market in the first place. There will be increases in subsidies for families who have more than one child under five. The maximum subsidy used to be 85 per cent, but it will be increased to 95 per cent, and the taper rates will be adjusted. What this means for a family, like many that you would find in my electorate, with a combined income of $180,000 and with two children in childcare for four days, is that they will be $124.80 better off per week. That means more money they can put into their mortgage and into buying books and buying educational products for their children, and giving them richer experiences. The childcare reforms in this budget will directly benefit over 1,160 families in my electorate.
This budget has been well received because there is a lot of good news in there for Australians. It is a targeted budget, like so many of the measures that we have put forward over the past 12 months. It is targeted on giving lower and middle-income earners tax relief. It is targeted on helping small businesses. It is targeted on giving Australians the services that they need, whether it is mental health, whether it is childcare, whether it is any other area. I commend the bills to the House.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported this week that the Prime Minister has a premier state strategy. The Prime Minister intends to target 10 regional and marginal seats in New South Wales to win another term in government. Reading this headline, I had to smile. Not only has the Prime Minister shunted the responsibility of COVID-19 to the states but now he wants to ride on the coat-tails of Premier Berejiklian to win another term in government. Let me say this: the people of Paterson have long memories. They remember well before COVID and they know what is going on in their lives right now.
My community has some of the highest youth unemployment figures in the country. We have vast casualisation of workers and we have seen wage growth suppressed under this government. People, I feel, when they speak to me, know what is going on. They are not sure they are up for another three years like the eight that has preceded them. A classic example of short-sightedness of this government was when, after years of lobbying, they finally agreed to fund the strengthening of the runway at Newcastle Airport. My community has been completely united, from business groups to community groups to all levels of government, including me, beating the drum about how important it is for us to have a strengthened runway at Newcastle. And finally, to its credit, the government has come to the party on this $60 million spend through the Department of Defence. That is a good thing.
However, the craziness of this is that the M1, which is the last chokepoint between Sydney and Brisbane, needs to be upgraded as well. It is the vital piece in how we get people to and from the airport and that is still years away. Even though the government wants to say they have delivered it, all they did in the last budget—not the one we have just had, but the one before—was say that they would fund it to the tune of $1.6 billion. But they put it in the forwards; they put it off into the never-never. When is this road going to be built? Well, I caught up with Transport for NSW last week when we were away from Canberra and I was told that the government has no plans to commence works until 2024. By any measure, this is the height of incompetence. This is basically like building a new housing subdivision but the council comes along and says, 'There will be no roads, so you can have your house but you cannot get to it.' Honestly, this is a crazy situation. We have a liberal state government in New South Wales and a liberal federal government and they cannot collectively work together to fix this vital piece of infrastructure. We know it will create thousands of jobs. We know the money is there; it has been put aside. Why doesn't the state government get on and plan it and then have it built? It beggars belief, and everyone in the Hunter is talking about why this has not been done. A number of people in Sydney are talking about it too. In fact, I was at the Junction Inn at Raymond Terrace with my staff a week or so ago celebrating the announcement of the runway. Some people from Coffs Harbour were chatting to me. They said, 'Meryl, it's a nightmare, that Hexham Bridge. When is that going to get fixed up?' I said, 'Good luck! We're all trying to get that sorted out.' It is really ridiculous. It's not a cash flow problem and it's not because the workforce isn't available. It's just because these two governments cannot get on with it and do it.
My electorate also has one of the most extended waiting lists for aged-care packages. Many residents have packages available, but they can't get the vital support services that they need, because the government hasn't approved enough providers. Take Paula from Kurri, who was 91 this April and contacted by office after waiting two years for her aged-care package to be approved. When you're 91, two years can be an absolutely critical time frame, let me tell you. Paula has seen a few years and said, 'I'm not too happy about having to wait another two.' There's Delia, who turned 76 in March. All she wanted was some assistance with her home cleaning, but she was told all the funding had been exhausted and she'd just need to wait until July—is this really the standard that this government wants to set?—only to then learn that she can't access support for yard maintenance because this government hasn't approved enough local providers. This is at a time when we want people to age well at home, because heaven forbid they should need to go into a facility that can't help them or doesn't have enough nurses or staff to look after them adequately. We're saying, 'Age well at home,' but it's impossible for people to maintain their yards. In fact, that's one of the biggest complaints I hear. People are reasonably happy to try and stay in their home, but it's the maintenance. It's the yard. It's the upkeep. It's the physicality of those things that make it so much harder, and yet we're not providing that support, even though we want them to stay at home.
Let's look at phone reception. The government has some woeful gaps here. Indeed, the residents of Boat Harbour and much of Port Stephens, in my electorate, have been fighting this government to get some decent reception since the early 2000s. I told the story about a resident for whom phone reception was only possible if she got on a little stepladder and hopped onto her kitchen sink. She took phone calls up there on the sink, with her head tilted towards the window. Lucky we're agile in Port Stephens—seriously! Bob Baldwin, the former Liberal member, failed to deliver any of this infrastructure before I came along, and now my community is dragging the same old government kicking and screaming to get even the most basic funding for issues like mobile reception.
Port Stephens is a frequently visited holiday destination. In fact, just this week, we were named the No. 2 best holiday spot in Australia, so we know how good we are and we want people to come. We want people to experience our beautiful beaches. In winter, there are whales. Seeing a whale at sea is one of those rare and wonderful life experiences. But we've got terrible mobile phone reception, also at Boat Harbour, to the point where the locals are worried that, if someone gets into strife on the beach, they won't have the mobile phone service they need to be able to save them. This is a life or death reality. The government just has no credibility on this in the Hunter.
I'm proud of the hard-fought battles that my community and I have waged and won since I was elected in 2016, including the outcome for PFAS victims, who were most terribly done by in my electorate; the strengthening of the runway at the Newcastle Airport; and Testers Hollow. These are all good victories. I've encouraged and assisted countless individuals, schools, councils and community groups to apply for funds through the grants process, but, for every one I assist, there are many, many more in need. This recent caper by the government to outsource all the grants to the local member's office means we are overwhelmed by the need in our communities and the grants are incredibly oversubscribed. For one of the recent grant rounds, there was close to $800,000 worth of applications for $250,000 worth of funds. So the community are screaming out for assistance. The only people who will listen and take action are a Labor government.
Labor founded the NDIS and we will always ensure that the funding for that doesn't go backwards. Under this government, we see an attempt to reduce resources to the agency and to outsource vital decision-making. This minister was quoted as saying she believed public servants had too much natural empathy. I mean, honestly, is this the government's view—really? Maybe the government, rather than paying for empathy consultants, just need to go and work for the NDIA or Centrelink for a week and they might garner some empathy from the professionals who work in those organisations. Under the watch of this government, we have seen millions of dollars wasted on pork-barrelling, sports rorts, land acquisition, deals done for 10 times the value of the land like the Leppington Triangle. This is the government that has cut Medicare rebates, cut Centrelink staff and spent $10,000 per person on the trial of its Indue card scheme, which has proven not to be effective, created a stigma and traumatised some of our most vulnerable Australians. The government tried to hide the cost of this scheme because they felt ashamed that they had wasted 18.9 million taxpayers' dollars to vilify vulnerable Australians. Then they only spent $2.6 million on support services for the same vulnerable Australians, but gave $18.9 million to the company owned by their financial and banking industry mates. How does that even add up? Labor founded the NDIS and we will always make sure funding does not go backwards.
Since the 2019 election I've continued to campaign hard in my local area on the cuts to Medicare bulk-billing and the incentives that have literally driven GPs from my area. I've worked hard to hold this government to account for its commitment to match Labor's pledge to fund the M1 Raymond Terrace bypass and have continued to demand that this government fix our NBN. This Prime Minister can target all he likes, but still the track record of this government is appalling and the Prime Minister's inability to deliver is a shining example of how the Liberals don't understand the needs of regional communities like mine. Energy prices in New South Wales and, indeed, in my electorate of Paterson have continued to rise under this government. As Treasurer, Scott Morrison signed off on power privatisation and undermined investment in renewables, pushing up power bills for families and small business. Mr Morrison has been at the helm as Australians have seen more than 23 failed energy policies that have resulted in market instability and rising costs.
The Liberals have scared off private investment, so is it any wonder they're now trying to deliver a gas plant in my home town of Kurri Kurri? They've come up with a solution to a problem of their own making. They want to ride into town on a silver steed and say, 'We are the heroes of the day,' when, in fact, they've created all of the chaos that has proceeded this resolution. It's a problem of their own making. Only a Labor government will better regulate power prices to protect families and small business from price gouging by big energy companies. Also, it's only a Labor government that is going to upgrade the grid and is going to support manufacturers, like Tomago Aluminium in my electorate. One thing we've learned from COVID is that we need to continue to make things here in Australia. We've seen some incredible disruption to global supply chains. If we do not continue to manufacture in Australia, we know that we will be designated to be an economy that is not as rich and as diversified as it needs to be. We need to keep high-level manufacturing because it underpins all of the other manufacturing that comes around it. We need manufacturing in Australia, and this government isn't committed to it in the way it should be. Labor is committed to projects that stack up economically, environmentally and for the benefit of our people. We're going to work to reduce the cost of household energy bill and generate jobs in the energy and renewables sector. This government sold out Australian workers by supporting agreements that allow companies to bring in workers from overseas without even advertising their jobs.
This mob have seen the $1.2 billion robodebt disaster, our first recession in 20 years, the death of Australian manufacturing, no wage growth, $30 million paid for a $3 million property, water theft and shady deals, prime ministers with big foreign bank accounts, peaceful protesters told they were lucky not to be shot, vaccination rates amongst the lowest in the developed world, lies about vaccine supply and lies about the rollout, botched quarantine and endless amounts of scapegoating. Mr Deputy Speaker, we had a young woman raped in this building, and the Prime Minister couldn't even go down to meet with the women of Australia. The standards have never been lower. So, again, I say to you: it is laughable that this Prime Minister without a shred of credibility is coming after me and my community. Bring it on, I say!
I'm delighted to talk about the 2021 budget as a COVID-recovery budget for regional Australia—our plan to secure the future of our regional communities. Our plan will help boost our economic recovery from COVID-19 by creating local jobs and keeping local communities safe. There are five elements that I have been campaigning on and will continue to campaign on in the electorate of Mallee: firstly, health; secondly, infrastructure; thirdly, small business; fourthly, workforce; and, fifthly, the environment, and this budget speaks to each one of those.
Our health should not be determined by our postcode, and this budget means, for Mallee, that there are rewards for regional doctors, better access to health care, improved aged-care services and support for mental health. In Mallee, we have thin markets; we have few in our workforce, and we need so many more healthcare professionals to meet the needs across Mallee that, regardless of the healthcare sector that we're talking about, Mallee experiences shortfalls in healthcare services. Mental health has become a concern for many since the pandemic, and this budget displays our government's commitment to regional and remote health care.
For rural health we have $65.8 million to increase the rural bulk-billing incentive for doctors to work in rural and remote towns. While this is not necessarily going to mean doctors flooding from urban centres to our regions, it will reward our regional and remote and rural doctors. We are providing $9.6 million to add 90 workplace training packages through the allied health rural generalist pathway and $1.8 million to expand the trial of collaborative primary-care models into other states and territories, and I've been campaigning with the regional health minister and the minister for health on this very issue—for Mallee to be one of those pilot centres.
I'm really pleased to say that the telehealth extension is going to be made permanent. It has meant a great deal to people across Mallee who were not able to see a doctor during the COVID pandemic when there were restrictions and lockdowns, but also to those in rural and regional communities who've not been able to access a doctor in their local town. Telehealth, while it is not the be-all and end-all and does not replace face-to-face health sessions, nonetheless does go a long way to meeting the need. There's $204.6 million to extend telehealth. That brings the total investment, to date, to $3.6 billion. In Mallee there have been 417,879 telehealth consults through Medicare since the start of the pandemic, and this extension means better access to health care across Mallee.
Our aged-care sector is so precious, and, in our thin markets across rural and regional Australia, it has been problematic—again, largely as to workforce but also in the way that it has been set up. We are committing, in response to the royal commission, $17.7 billion on top of our existing investment into aged care. Our five-year, five-pillar aged-care reform plan commits to major reform for home care: the release of 80,000 more home-care packages over the next two years, bringing the total to 275,000 home-care packages all up.
On the weekend, in my electorate, I had the privilege of meeting Jean Robinson, who is 100 years old, a very sprightly lady who is absolutely connected to her family and her community. It was a delight to meet Jean and to pass on the regards of this government, of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, and of course, I had a card to give her from me personally. Jean is one of the few who has not only aspired to reach 100 but has reached it with glowing health. There aren't many who are in her shoes.
Across Mallee we have aged-care facilities such as the Sunnyside Lutheran facility in Horsham, Jacaranda Aged Care in Red Cliffs, Chaffey Aged Care in Merbein, Princess Court Homes in Mildura and others who will be very happy about the extension of funding for our aged-care services and sustainability, to increase the amount of face-to-face time for each resident in our residential aged-care facilities; for residential aged-care quality and safety, to improve access to GP led care for senior Australians; $652.1 million in workforce funding, including additional training places for aged-care workers through JobTrainer; and of course governance.
Our mental ill health has been exacerbated through COVID. The measures that our government is putting in place to increase funding to $2.3 billion for the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan for prevention, early intervention, treatment, support and workforce is welcomed in Mallee: $248.6 million for prevention and early intervention and $111.2 million for digital services, including the creation of a world-class single digital platform, under Head to Health, which will provide online counselling, peer support, clinical support and referrals. I think it is only when you are in a regional and rural setting where the workforce is so thin that you can really appreciate how this is such an important investment.
We will be providing $1.4 billion for treatment in the Head to Health adult mental health treatment centres and improved access to community-based mental health services, including through the initial establishment of eight new centres, 24 new satellite centres and ongoing funding for eight existing centres. We will also establish a dedicated phone service to support intake, assessment and referral, at a cost of $487 million. There is $202 million for strengthening our workforce and governance arrangements; $27.8 million to increase the number of nurses, psychologists and allied health practitioners in mental health settings through scholarships and clinical placements; and $11 million to grow the psychiatrist workforce, with more training places, supporting regional and remote training pathways and promoting it as a career pathway in itself. We are creating a landmark national network, including up to 57 additional mental health treatment centres and satellites for adults, as well as more centres for youth and children through the Head to Health and headspace programs.
I speak tonight about the budget recovery from COVID and from the economic shock that it brought. In Mallee we need better roads, infrastructure and connectivity, and I am pleased to say that our government is committing even more funding for these important measures. Every resident in Mallee deserves safe and efficient roads and rail and reliable telecommunications. The measures that we are implementing will mean safer roads, better infrastructure for our communities and more connectivity, making Mallee roads safer so people can get home to their families.
This government recognises that regional councils often do not have spare cash left over for important roadworks and infrastructure projects. This budget will improve regional communications and infrastructure. In the past couple of weeks I have announced that the Calder Highway will have a $15 million boost to its $60 million budget for upgrades to the Calder Highway—a major transit from Melbourne to Mildura. It is very welcomed in Mallee.
Under the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, under the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, we have a billion dollar extension. I have fought hard for this. The councils across Mallee have made it really clear to me that this untagged funding has made a world of difference for them to be able to choose the roads that they want to upgrade and to be able to choose which halls need refurbishment. Councils across Mallee will share in $37.7 million of the third round, more than round 1 and round 2 combined. Mallee has received $73.5 million through this program. Before the budget, I sent a list of projects to the Deputy Prime Minister and asked him to consider extending the program. Many of the projects can now be funded. Talking with the CEOs across Mallee, I found such a sense of support and encouragement. In fact, the LRCI funding has already delivered great projects across Mallee, including the Napier Street streetscape improvements in St Arnaud, a new clubroom for the Nhill tennis club and town hall improvements in Central Goldfields Shire, along with essential drainage works in Murrabit and several roadwork improvements across multiple councils.
The Building Better Regions Fund is now $250 million. It was $200 million. I have fought for it to be increased, and I am so pleased that the Deputy Prime Minister has increased the funding to $250 million. Last week in Mallee I had the pleasure of taking him, the Hon. Michael McCormack, to see just a handful of these projects. The Mildura South sports precinct is almost ready to open. In the Deputy Prime Minister's words, it's a world-class precinct. In fact, he knows that his electorate will be very jealous of what has been built through rounds 1 and 2 of BBRF. I took him to see the Horsham livestock exchange after a sale—we almost needed masks for other reasons—and the Woodbine Inc. disability accommodation, where we turned the sod last week. They are very exciting projects that have engaged the community and are built from the community's passion. Round 5 was incredibly oversubscribed, and many are anticipating further funding for Mallee as that is being announced.
There is an additional $1 billion for what is now our $3 billion Road Safety Program. This additional investment will deliver upgrades to thousands of kilometres of road in regional Australia and is expected to support around 4,500 jobs. The Regional Connectivity Program, which is so important, as the member for Berowra said, is providing $84.8 million for improved connectivity in the regions through round 2. Mallee received $5 million in the first round for projects to install new 4G base stations and to connect Hopetoun and Kaniva to fibre to the premises, the best technology NBN has to offer. There is so much more that this government has put in place for our regional communities to thrive following this budget.
There will be more apprentices for local businesses and more support for education and training. As the Minister for Housing, the Hon. Michael Sukkar, has stated, businesses are crying out for skilled workers. We are funding more apprentices and more traineeships. We need in Mallee the right people to fill those jobs to fulfil our potential and meet those ambitions. While 2,155 apprentices are already being supported in Mallee, this measure in the budget means there will be more apprentices for our businesses. There is $1.5 billion to further extend the boosting apprenticeships commencement wage subsidy for an additional six months, from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. This brings the government's investment in Australian apprentices to $2.7 billion. I recently visited businesses in Mallee. Bernie Casey at Casey's Truck and Tractor in St Arnaud, Anthony Dal Farra at the Mildura Truck Centre, Interlink Sprayers, Entegra Signature Structures, Polymaster, and Top Meats in Maryborough all desperately need apprentices. This measure will ensure that more young people, and even not-so-young people, will take up those apprenticeships and start a new career.
We're extending and expanding the JobTrainer fund as well. The government already has a successful $1 billion JobTrainer fund, but it will provide an additional $500 million in funding, matched by state and territory governments. This measure will deliver around 163,000 additional free or low-fee training places in areas of skills need, with around 33,000 of these places to support aged-care skills need and around 10,000 places for digital skills training.
There is so much more that this government has implemented in this budget to ensure that we recover from COVID and from the economic impact of COVID on Australia. I welcome this budget, and I know that many, many people across Mallee have commended it. We know that we will thrive following.
This budget is a marketing exercise. It is an attempt by the Morrison government to spend its way back to power after eight years of failed rule by the federal LNP government. It's a shameless fix. There's no fair dinkum reform. They'll leave no legacy should they lose the next election. The galling inconsistency and hypocrisy of this government is rife and rank. It spends $100 billion of taxpayers' money, racks up close to $1 trillion of debt and has the gall to spend most of question time criticising the Labor Party.
Where is the debt truck the coalition rolled out across the countryside in the lead up to the 2013 election? I guarantee it's in some wreckers yard somewhere, where the government's economic policies also are. This government has racked up an enormous debt that will leave generations to pay it off. When they criticised Labor on debt and deficit year after year, shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey promised there would be a budget surplus in the first year of the Abbott government and every year thereafter. But we saw the result of the 2014 budget, where they were cutting, slashing, burning and breaking every promise they could possibly find. Now we have a government led by their third Prime Minister.
This is a government which treats taxpayers' money as Liberal and National Party money. There are rorts, advertising and executive bonuses. They're tough on pensioners, robodebt and the poor, even though robodebt was an unlawful scheme and the government has had to pay more than $1 billion back to the Australian public, yet they are weak as water when it comes to big corporate companies. Two-thirds of the top companies in this country don't pay any tax at all, but the government is weak on them. Many cheerfully received JobKeeper, made good profits and kept taxpayer money as executive bonuses or gave it out in shareholder dividends and director fees. The member for Fenner should be commended for the great work he's done in revealing the rorts and rip-offs of JobKeeper. This was, of course, a wage subsidy, which the government thought was dangerous when we asked them about it in the first place. But the government implemented a blunt instrument. Up to $20 billion has been overspent on JobKeeper for companies that didn't qualify and shouldn't have qualified.
The budget was an opportunity for this government to deliver for workers, for women and for the economy. It was a real opportunity to secure skilled jobs, having cut or lost 90,000 manufacturing jobs and 150,000 apprenticeships in this country since they came to power. This was a chance for them to invest in skills, training, TAFE and schools. Instead, what does the tertiary sector get? The loss of 70,000 jobs and $400 million in funding. It's not a budget for a real recovery from a pandemic, and it's not a budget for the long-term challenges this country faces. Of course, in the last budget, we had JobMaker—450,000 jobs promised, 1,100 jobs delivered. Australians really can't and shouldn't believe the promises in this budget.
The government can't even tell us when Australians will be vaccinated when we ask question after question. The government have not secured enough vaccines, they do not come clean on the costs and the risks of any delay in the vaccination program and they will not take any responsibility for quarantine whatsoever, even though it is a constitutional responsibility of the Commonwealth government. They presided over crises everywhere—aged care, energy, housing, skills, education, health and veterans, of course, as well.
This is a government that talks about wanting to invest in infrastructure. On the front pages of the major newspapers around the country we saw project after project announced, saying, 'This is what's going to happen in the budget. It is coming to you in a couple of days' time.' But on average, this government has underspent $1.2 billion a year and has given up on its commitments because tucked away on page 84 of budget paper No. 1 the real story is revealed. Tucked away there, not talked about by this government, it actually reveals a cut in infrastructure spending of $3.3 billion over four years to 2023-24. Most, more than half, nearly 55 per cent of its actual spending, is beyond the forward estimates, so you can't believe those stories in the major newspapers that the government rolls out.
When it comes to workers and wages, this government has failed as well. Workers lose $1.35 billion annually to wage theft and exploitation. What's this government done? A tantrum in the Senate, withdrawing the industrial relations legislation because they couldn't get everything they wanted. They withdrew the legislation and are doing nothing about wage theft now across this country. They can't support wage rises in any submission to the Fair Work Commission. They won't do anything to lift wages despite the fact that the Reserve Bank, Treasury and every respected economist in the country says you need to raise wages to get consumption going to stimulate demand to then get economic activity and growth. Most Australian wage earners haven't received a real wage increase in eight years of this government, and the budget papers project no real wage increase at all for Australian wage earners to 2024. Nearly two million Australians are either unemployed or under employed, losing 30,600 jobs in the last month, in April. But when you listen to them in question time and listen to their speeches, they laugh about it. They laugh about it in question time. It is not good enough.
This is a government that criticises us on our side for tax and expenditure. The government with the biggest taxing and expenditure tax-to-GDP ratio in the history of Australia was the Howard government. The second biggest is this government over here. They can't stop spending but they don't spend it right. They don't invest in infrastructure, jobs, skills and training; they spend it in other ways. They back corporate subsidies, jobs for their mates and help for big business. They don't get the balance right. They will leave no legacy should they get beaten at the next election.
This is a government that doesn't invest in infrastructure and, in my home area, hasn't invested at all virtually. None of the projects that we talked about or even Ipswich City Council wanted funded have been funded whatsoever. The government has given out $4 million as part of a $5 million scoping study for the Mount Crosby Road interchange on the Warrego Highway. This is a project that I have described as inadequate and friendless. No-one believes that project in its current iteration at $22 million will achieve anything because it won't touch the bridge—will leave one lane each way—and won't touch the off ramps off the Warrego Highway. My meeting with Main Roads Queensland indicates they're going back to thoughts. That's about it; that's all the money we got. We got a bit of money for a scoping study on the Mount Crosby Road interchange for people on the north side of Ipswich and Ipswich Central and for those around Karana Downs and Mount Crosby but no money for the last section of Ipswich Motorway, between Darra to Rocklea; the Oxley roundabout to the Centenary interchange, no money at all; no money for the Cunningham Highway, no discussions with the Queensland government about upgrading the Cunningham Highway between Yamanto and Ebenezer Creek. They have been spending a billion dollars on the RAAF base at Amberley in the last decade and a half to upgrade it, but they haven't fixed the road outside.
I actually met with the Deputy Prime Minister and infrastructure minister and asked him to back in Ipswich City Council when they asked for $1 million towards a business case for a rail link between Ipswich and Springfield. Seventy per cent of the growth in the Ipswich area is going to be on the south side, around Redbank Plains, Springfield and the Ripley Valley. This is so crucial. There will be nine new stations built. It's absolutely vital. Ipswich's population is about 230,000. It will be about 550,000 in the next few decades. The growth is enormous. But there was no money for the Ipswich City Council. It has even got to the point where the Mayor of Ipswich, Teresa Harding, who ran against me for the LNP in 2013 and 2016—and I beat her both times—has come out and said:
As Queensland's fastest growing city, it was disappointing to see a lack of investment in this year's Federal Budget for essential transport and community infrastructure to support the growth of Ipswich.
I say, 'Amen, Teresa. I agree with you 100 per cent on that.' So their former candidate, the current Mayor of Ipswich, in the Fassifern Guardian & Tribune dated today, also criticises the Morrison government for their lack of infrastructure in the Ipswich region. I agree with her. But, of course, this is a government that can't fund our area. It almost needs Google Maps to actually find our region.
This is a government that has failed in the area of veterans affairs as well—my shadow portfolio—with marketing, mismanagement and missed opportunities. They've put some additional money into the Department of Veterans' Affairs to fix up the mistakes they made in the first place. There's a crisis in veteran mental health and suicide. Our chronically under-resourced Department of Veterans' Affairs is failing veterans in this area. There's some funding in the budget for a royal commission. The government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to have a royal commission. It took resolutions in this House and in the Senate for them to eventually put aside their obstinacy, truculence and stubbornness and call the royal commission. Now we are concerned in relation to how that will look.
I want to touch briefly on the Department of Veterans' Affairs. I agree with the CPSU that the royal commission should have a look at the Department of Veterans' Affairs and its staffing profile, because this government is privatising, labour hiring and outsourcing the department. Fifty per cent of the people who deal with veterans at the coalface are labour hire people, from the 46 companies that the Department of Veterans' Affairs engages. It costs the taxpayers more money, but you haven't got experienced public servants who understand veterans affairs; you've got labour hire people. This is not good enough. This department is more privatised, labour hired and outsourced than any other Commonwealth department. We've got waiting times and processing times blowing out all the time. The department can't even achieve its own targets in relation to this. I've done forums from Townsville to Tweed Heads, from Adelaide to Ipswich and all over the place in the last few months, and what I get in feedback again and again is: focus on the department. So the Department of Defence, government agencies and Veterans' Affairs should be a focus of this royal commission. We should be having a close look at that.
Veteran suicide is a tragedy, a shame and a national disgrace. It's a personal and individual tragedy for those who commit suicide and their families. More people have died at their own hands than in operational service in the last two years, and the number is probably far higher than the 500 that we know about and think about. The government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to establish a royal commission, which they announced on 19 April. It was about time, but we think the government has not undertaken the necessary consultation. We are concerned about narrow terms of reference. We are concerned about the independence of the commissioners.
Labor has had productive meetings with various people—people from sub-branches, individual families, people who've lost loved ones, ex-service organisations, experts and stakeholders. We had a very productive meeting last week at parliament with Julie-Ann Finney, who lost her son David to suicide two years ago, and a committee that she chaired, involving people like Karen Bird, who lost her son Jesse; veteran and lawyer Glenn Kolomeitz; military researcher Deborah Morris; sub-branch president Bill Westhead; and many others. The feedback we've got from them and other people is there needs to be systemic analysis, and not just individualised—don't blame the veteran, don't blame the individual.
If you look at what the government talks about in their themes, we are very concerned about that issue. We think the role of institutions needs to be looked at, and the transition issues from veteran employment and homelessness, the role and impact of support on Defence and veteran families, the support for veterans' families, and the impact of ADF anti-malarial drugs and prescribed medications on serving ADF personnel and veterans. We think there should be an examination on the merits of alternative therapies like medicinal cannabis, assistance dogs, art therapy and so many others.
The key transition issue of veteran employment and homelessness—there was nothing in the budget on veteran homelessness. But, the Labor leader Anthony Albanese, in his response made the point that a Labor government would do that as part of our Housing Australia Future Fund.
This government has also said that they don't believe the royal commission should make findings of wrongdoing in civil and criminal matters. That is exactly the wrong approach—it should do so. Labor has put in a comprehensive submission to help shape the inquiry. We ask the government to get this right. We ask for bipartisanship. The system is broken, not fit for purpose. Do the royal commission properly.
It is with pleasure that I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022 and others because a number of things that we have wanted to see in North Queensland have been delivered in this budget. Notably, the biggest win for North Queensland was the introduction of a northern Australian cyclone reinsurance pool, a $10 billion fund which will back our insurers to provide lower premium products to North Queenslanders—to North Queensland residents and North Queensland businesses. We've had the problem now for the better part of a decade of insurance premiums spiralling out of control in the north and, along with that, some insurers leaving the market so that residents and businesses alike are unable to get insurance. This measure will be something that restores the balance. It will drive down insurance premiums in North Queensland, and it will bring insurers back to the market in the north so that we can have what is essentially an essential service for homes and businesses in affordable insurance back in the north.
On top of that in my electorate was the welcome announcement of a $400 million extra investment in the Bruce Highway specifically earmarked to upgrades, including in the Mackay to Proserpine stretch of the Bruce. I have already said to the state government they should look at earmarking that funding to the dreaded Goorganga Plains flooding area, an area that floods very regularly and cuts off the Whitsunday Coast Airport from the Whitsundays, which is a really dumb thing to do with your highway, but we have this decrepit highway there that needs to be rebuilt. It needs to be built up, and hopefully with that $400 million in funding we can see that happen, but it's going to take the state government getting on board and ensuring that's where the money is spent.
The most significant in the budget though for the nation was the spend on our defence, and I'm reliably informed by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that, when they wrap all of the spending for defence together, what they get is $44.6 billion—$44.6 billion being spent on our defence. That's a 4.1 per cent increase in defence spending in real terms. It follows the plan that we set in place with the defence white paper in 2016. It also is keeping the commitment to have our defence spending at least two per cent of our gross domestic product. We've maintained that for the past two budgets. We're going to maintain it again.
It's important for one reason. As has been said by others, the drums of war are beating. They're not being beaten by anyone here in Australia. The percussion section is all in the Chinese Communist Party. Unfortunately, their illegal interventions in the South China Sea, or West Philippine Sea, are there for all to see. They're militarising areas where they shouldn't even be. On top of that, there have been the cyberattacks on Australia.
We're increasingly seeing this very dangerous, threatening behaviour from the Chinese Communist Party towards our country, and it will put our nation in very good stead to have this extra money spent on our defence forces so that we are ready if those drums of war keep beating, because, as I say over and over and over and over again, war is coming. We must be prepared. War is coming. If people in this place don't think it is, I suggest they go and read the history books about what happened in the 1930s and compare that to what is happening in the Asia-Pacific right now. War is coming, and we must be prepared.
In preparing for that situation, I would say to this parliament and to the government that we must also pivot economically away from Communist China. I note that there are some measures in the budget to help do that, with more funding to go into our trade situation, to open up more markets for our businesses. But I would say to the Australian government: look carefully at the pivot report that the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth, which I chair, released earlier this year. The report contained a bunch of recommendations. One that got a lot of headlines was to scrutinise the 99-year Chinese lease over the port of Darwin and, if—or, I would say, when—it's found not to be in the national interest, to bring that port back under Australian ownership, along with other ports or strategic infrastructure in the hands of foreigners, particularly state owned or state linked enterprises that have something to do with the Communist Party of China. We have that, indeed, in the port of Newcastle, as has been exposed in recent days. It is quite concerning given that out of that port comes so much of our resources.
I have also said to the government in that report that we have to apply a clear and consistent national interest test to all future foreign investment and, if it's not in the national interest, that investment has to be vetoed with abandon. We have to focus on trade diversification by expanding our trade with nations other than Communist China. India, Vietnam and Indonesia all come to mind. They provide a brilliant opportunity for Australian industry.
We need to boost manufacturing. The establishment of a national development bank would be welcomed by many businesses. We can refocus and incentivise superannuation to actually get back into investing in Australian industry, particularly agribusiness, instead of having the investment dollars constantly come from overseas. We can work with industry, unions and universities to build up manufacturing in this country. We should be looking at our universities as well, to ensure, No. 1, that any foreign funding that goes into our universities is disclosed to the public and, No. 2, that we don't take that funding if it's not in the national interest. I have to tell you I don't think the funding for Confucius Institutes and the like out of Communist China is in the national interest. We should be making sure that we always have sufficient fuel and medical supplies, and we have to get smarter at identifying national security and national interest risks in industry, particularly in sensitive and critical areas. That is very important for our future, for our sovereignty and for our national security. So I ask at this point in time that the government look carefully at those recommendations out of the pivot report and adopt them as government policy.
Moving away from Communist China and the threat that that poses to us, I will talk about some threats at home, particularly a threat to freedom. This idea of COVID vaccine passports is one that is anathema to freedom. It is anathema to freedom because no Australian should have to carry around papers in their own country to go to places. I understand there is concern about state premiers shutting borders if someone sneezes on the other side, but the answer to that is not a domestic COVID vaccine passport. The answer to that is the Commonwealth taking state premiers to the High Court for breach of the Constitution, which actually says that there is to be free and unfettered movement between states. We are one nation, after all, not a conglomerate of nations. We are one nation.
It is disgraceful that in this country the Prime Minister was stopped from going to a particular Australian state. I cannot understand that. Many Australians cannot understand that. But the answer is not to bring in something that will be, 'Your papers, please,' if you want to get to a certain area—and it will be used and abused in other circumstances. I am sure that businesses will actually say, 'Show us your papers if you want to come and dine in our place or if you want our service.' We've even had airlines saying that they will need to see some form of proof of vaccination. I just think that this is something beyond the pale. I quote US statesman Benjamin Franklin, who said: 'Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.' In the long run, he is right, because we will probably get neither if we keep moving down that path. The Wuhan coronavirus is going to be with us forever, just like the flu is. The question is: are we going to keep on locking down, masking up and shutting out forever and have a situation where Australians are going to have to present to someone a document when they say, 'Your papers, please'? It just seems like we are heading down a path that is going to be bereft of the freedoms that we once enjoyed in this nation.
Along with that, I want to take this opportunity to talk about another particular freedom which must be seen to in the time that we have left in this term of parliament, and that is religious freedom. The government, going into the last election, promised that they would legislate for religious freedom. I am saying right here, right now, that it will be a broken promise unless the government actually steps up and passes legislation that is in accord with all of the faith groups who backed us on that policy. So I am calling on the new Attorney-General to actually present that legislation to the House in an amended form that conforms to what the churches and other faith groups actually want, so that they have true protection under the law from discrimination—so we don't see a repeat of the situation when the Archbishop of Tasmania was actually dragged before the antidiscrimination tribunal for sending out a booklet to Catholic school students on the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage. It is insane that we have that situation in this country, but we do have it. That is why this legislation is needed—so we don't have pastors, Christians, Jews or anyone of faith hauled up before some jumped-up kangaroo court to answer for what they believe in. That is wrong.
Finally, I go from those freedoms—the freedom of choice around vaccines, freedom of movement and the freedom of faith—to a fundamental freedom, and that is the right to life. I am putting up a private members bill to this place and I intend to pursue it with vigour. That private member's bill has been drafted. It is called the Human Rights (Children Born Alive) Protection Bill 2021. It says that children who are viable, who are born alive as a result of an abortion in this country, should be afforded medical treatment. That is in line with our international obligations under the International Covenant on the Rights of the Child, which says two things. At article 6, it says that every child shall have the right to life, and it goes on to say that all state parties must provide services to ensure that right to life. Article 24 talks about the provision of health services and actually states that no child shall be deprived of the provision of health services because of the circumstances of their birth.
I have to tell you that, from the data I have seen, around this country, hundreds of children are born alive as a result of abortions every year and are simply left to die. Not all of them are unviable. I have testimony to that fact. Children who are viable, born alive, prematurely, as a result of an abortion, are left to die. That is not in accordance with the international obligations that we as a nation have signed up to under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. So I will pursue that legislation with vigour in this House while I remain in this parliament. The right to life is a fundamental freedom. The right to liberty and the right to movement are fundamental freedoms.
In summing up, I will state that we must protect these freedoms in this place because, if we don't, what then is the point of all the spending on defence? What are we actually protecting? We're protecting ourselves against other nations that might do us harm and bring in totalitarianism here. We've got to protect freedom here as well. That's why I'm supportive of the budget and it's defence spending. But I am also supportive of protecting the freedoms that many of our diggers fought so hard for and sacrificed their lives for.
I stand before you today to deliver a simple truth, laid bare by this federal budget, and that is that Scott Morrison cannot be trusted to look after the best interests of Tasmanians.
An honourable member: Point of order!
The Prime Minister. Time and again this Prime Minister and this government have demonstrated their appalling lack of respect for Tasmanians. That trillion-dollar-debt nothing-burger of a budget was the final straw. Our country is facing multiple crises. Wages are flat or going backwards. Aged-care residents and workers are being left behind. Australians with disabilities are being cast aside. Key industries are desperate for skilled workers, who are not there because of eight long years of cuts to training. This country has 140,000 fewer apprentices and trainees now than it had eight years ago when the Liberals came to power. Three billion dollars of cuts to training will do that. We are playing catch-up with the vaccine rollout.
These are issues that affect all Australians. But, when it comes to Tasmania, we are even further behind. Let's start off with housing. The public housing waiting list in Tasmania has increased by 75 per cent since the Liberals took government in Tasmania in 2014. It has gone up by 75 per cent. Over 2019-20, just five homes were added to social housing, and despite promising 80 new houses a year as a result of the Commonwealth housing debt waiver, we haven't seen a single one built this year—this when housing is less affordable than ever for many Tasmanians.
We know the Prime Minister cannot be trusted to look after the best interests of anyone except himself. This Prime Minister is only interested in one person, and that's the person in the mirror. Let's talk about infrastructure. Not less than a fortnight ago, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer got up to trumpet a $322 million investment in Tasmanian roads. Huge amounts of money for the Bass and Midland highways; a multimillion boost for the state—these were the headlines. They were effusive, and based on prebudget leaks. But, as we all know, with this government and this Prime Minister the devil is always in the detail. Just $4 million of the supposed $322 million package will be spent in the 2021-22 financial year. In the following year it will be $17 million and in the year after that it will be $20 million. In fact, just $96 million of the $322 million is budgeted to be spent over the next four years. Most of the headline amount is off in the never-never. It's yet another case of the Prime Minister's self-centred quest to feature on every news channel and in every paper in the country without ever having real news to share. It is all announcement, no delivery.
We've seen this Prime Minister demonstrate his inability to look after this country time and time again. This is a prime minister who is unwilling to take responsibility for his actions, and for his inaction. This is a prime minister whose instincts are always wrong. Every step of his error-riddled reign has been flat-footed, reactive and focused on one thing: getting his face in the news. Even then, he can't get it right. He was wrong to trumpet a successful vaccine rollout and set targets for positive press. We've seen over the year just how wrong he was.
Debate interrupted.
I have been horrified by the last few weeks of escalating violence that has left hundreds dead and thousands injured, particularly in Gaza. Recently, Queenslanders joined in commemorating the catastrophe of the Nakba, when 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee from their homeland during the 1948 Palestine war. Rallies everywhere throughout Australia remembered the brutal extinguishment and sacking of more than 400 Palestinian villages—the first steps in that long journey to the establishment of what would appear to be a semi-apartheid state between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. So, I stand with those Palestinians and their families who are still suffering from that catastrophe right now.
In the last fortnight, nearly 60,000 Palestinians have been displaced by Israeli air strikes. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, almost half of them children. There is never any righteousness in targeting children. The cycle of tension, escalation, provocation and then brutal destruction is all too familiar for Palestinians. The current escalation of violence, incitement of hate, destruction and loss of lives are tragic. It is totally unacceptable and, what's more, it is morally repugnant.
The United Nations Secretary-General has condemned the violence and urged:
… Israel to cease demolitions and evictions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, in line with its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.
Amnesty International has urged nations and the United Nations Security Council to openly hold Israel accountable for their violations of international law. Save the Children has condemned the violence, saying:
No child should be scared by air raids, sirens or woken up at night to the sounds of jets and shelling … Families in Gaza have told … how they spent a sleepless night fearing for their lives.
Save The Children's country director for the occupied Palestinian territories said before the ceasefire:
Children are already living in grave danger, and with every rocket or airstrike launched they are brutally reminded of this fact. We urgently need all parties to stop hostilities and bring an end to the fear and suffering children and families have endured for far too long. How many children have to die before the situation is brought to an end?
Irrespective of any ceasefire, Labor calls on the foreign minister to seek an immediate halt to all actions that increase tensions, including land appropriations, forced evictions, demolitions and settlement activity. Obviously we call on all leaders to maintain this ceasefire and prioritise the protection of civilians, particularly children.
Labor has always been a strong supporter of the rights of Palestinians to live within secure, sustainable and recognised borders. I'm proud that Labor's national platform makes clear the desire to recognise Palestine as a state, and hope that this will be a task for a future Labor government. An Albanese Labor government will ensure that any decision taken contributes to a peaceful resolution of the conflict and to progress towards a sustainable two-state solution. Labor is committed to a just and enduring two-state solution, based on respect for human rights and consistent with international law. It has consistently expressed the view that deliberate, cruel and systemic settlement building on occupied Palestinian land undermines a sustainable two-state solution. Such trickery, treachery, deception and theft are roadblocks to a real lasting peace. Labor calls on Israel to halt settlement expansion and to support renewed negotiations towards a sustainable peace.
I call on the Morrison government to ensure Australia is working constructively to support security and human rights in advance of a lasting peace in the Middle East. I hope there will not be a return to escalation of violence—this uneasy calm cannot be temporary—but I'm not overly optimistic.
Let's look at some of the people and politics involved. Prime Minister Netanyahu was formally indicted in November 2019, and could face up to 10 years in prison for bribery and a maximum of three years for fraud and breach of trust. A year ago Netanyahu was elected for his fifth term. He is a politician who knows every trick in the book, and how to divide. When bringing the indictment against Netanyahu, his own Israeli attorney-general said in a dramatic speech:
I am bringing an indictment on public corruption against the prime minister in three cases. It is sad for me personally and for the country.
For a national leader to provoke violence and division for short-term political gain is the ultimate act of political cowardice and bastardry. So I stand with the Palestinian people today and every day. I ask them and hope and urge that they will stay strong and stay proud. To quote a song—and I won't sing—'We are the people and this is the time to stand up and sing out for Palestine.' Let us hope that this is a lasting peace and that we can come to a resolution that involves a two-state solution that is peaceful. (Time expired)
The long arms of government bureaucracy do not create a community spirit. A community spirit is formed when people and organisations come together with a shared purpose and provide help and support to those in need. In Reid, we are fortunate to have so many great community organisations, groups and charities which I'm very proud to support. Eurella Community Services is a registered NDIS service provider which supports people of all ages with disability. Located in Burwood, its mission is to increase participation of people with a disability in Australia. Under the Powering Communities Program I have recently provided the organisation with a $12,000 grant for the installation of LED-lighting fans, split-system air conditioning and a new fridge, cooktop and oven. This project will help Eurella continue to provide vital services for the most vulnerable members of our community at the highest possible quality. I am proud to support them and look forward to visiting them soon.
Concord Occasional Child Care is a service which offers early childhood education and care. Their inclusive care settings mean children are not divided into age groups or separate rooms. The result is a learning environment where all children are connected, included and supported. Under the Powering Communities Program I am proud to have provided them with a grant of just over $6,000 to purchase a new fridge, microwave, dishwasher and washing machine.
As an educational and developmental psychologist, I know how incredibly important early education is for our younger Australians. As a government we are supporting families and education providers to offer the best-quality start in life for the youngest members of our community.
Part of my job as a member of parliament is to get out into the community and to listen to the concerns of my constituents. A topic which is frequently raised with me is climate change. Whether they are school students, parents or older Australians, people from all walks of life want to know what the government is doing on real climate action. This is why the federal government is investing in the most advanced technologies—to bring down our emissions without taxing Australians more.
The government's technology led plans includes investing in clean hydrogen, electricity storage, low-emission steel and aluminium production, carbon capture and storage, and soil carbon sequestration. This focus on technology complements our other policies, including the $3.5 billion climate solutions package. In 2019, Australia deployed new renewable energy 10 times faster per capita than the global average and four times faster per capita than in Europe, China, Japan and the United States. Australia has the world's highest per capita uptake of rooftop solar. Nearly one in four Australian homes have solar on their roof. St Paul's Anglican Church in Burwood are also doing their bit to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Under the powering communities fund they received $11,235 to go towards the installation of solar panels.
Wednesday 2 June is Italian Republic Day. The historical day commemorates the institutional referendum of 1946 when Italians were called to take a poll and decide the form of their government after World War II. It was through this referendum that Italians chose a republic with a constituent assembly and removed the old kingdom from power. Australia is fortunate to be home to a rich Italian community. There are over one million Australians of Italian descent and, in Reid, we have over 17,000 Italian Australians. Pre COVID, hundreds of thousands of Australians and Italians would travel between our two countries every year. I congratulate the Italian community on the 75th anniversary of the birth of the Republic of Italy and wish you a joyous Festa della Repubblica.
I rise to speak in this place tonight about an all too common and growing problem in my electorate on the New South Wales South Coast. Tonight, as we go home, hundreds of people—the elderly, the young, families and the vulnerable—will have nowhere to go. On the New South Wales South Coast, we have the most dedicated workers and volunteers working with the homeless and with people at risk of homelessness, trying desperately to help people find suitable housing. But when those dedicated people come to me, collaborating together, and pleading for help, you know we are at crisis point.
As the federal member for Gilmore, I find it reprehensible and beyond belief that we are even in this position. Eight long years of inaction by the Morrison government, and what does the government have to show for it? Skyrocketing house prices pushing long-term tenants out of their rental properties with nowhere to go. Many of these tenants are elderly or vulnerable and just cannot afford the exorbitant rent, making it difficult for young people to find a place to call home.
The New South Wales South Coast has the lowest rental vacancy rates in Australia. Try and find a place to rent or afford to buy. It's getting increasingly impossible, particularly for low-income earners, the unemployed and the vulnerable. When I was elected to this place, I had high hopes that government would be able to change things. Good governments bring in good policy, but this government has simply failed on the housing crisis on the New South Wales South Coast. I want to share the thoughts of the Shoalhaven Homelessness Interagency, who wrote to me recently: 'The strain on our services in being able to find alternative housing solutions is increasing exponentially and is simply untenable. The chronic shortage of housing has been compounded by increasing rents in the private rental market, the appallingly low rate of JobSeeker, which limits people's ability to access housing, and, of course, a shortage of stock available through public and community housing services.' They continue: 'As a forum, we support dozens people daily who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or living in unsafe or insecure housing. There are undoubtedly many more who are not known to our service. Our interagency works collaboratively to offer wraparound services for vulnerable clients. But, without affordable and available housing, our clients remain in a cycle of preventable homelessness and require more intensive and longer-term support.'
I have many people who contact my office desperate for help. One such case is a single mother from Ulladulla in the 35 to 40 age bracket with young children. They have been experiencing homelessness since August last year. Her private rental was sold, and they were unable to find any suitable and affordable rental properties through the private rental market in the area that she and her kids know. While being on the approved list for priority social housing, they were informed there was limited housing available in Ulladulla. This mum's temporary emergency housing was also running out—22 days of temporary accommodation, moving around different motels every three to four days and competing with tourists, which was difficult as well. I met with this brave mum and her kids. She is brave. While I can't mention her name, she has a voice. Like so many in this position, they are frightened to speak out. But she wants change. I wrote to the New South Wales minister for families and communities seeking what support could be provided, and also with my concerns about the lack of affordable and social housing, but the reply really just indicated further waits on the New South Wales housing register. Everybody needs and deserves to have a roof over their head. Sometimes in life, things don't work out as we planned. Things can change. As a government, we should be judged on how we treat our most vulnerable. Coastal communities like mine are crying out for help.
Labour's Housing Australia Future Fund, announced by the Leader of the Opposition in the budget reply, is welcome. This off-budget $10 billion fund will be invested, and the money it makes will build homes, create jobs and change lives. In the first five years, it will build 20,000 social housing homes, and 4,000 of them will be for women and children fleeing domestic violence. In the first five years, it will also build 10,000 affordable homes for our frontline workers and homeless veterans. This is a future fund that will begin to give people in my electorate more hope about the future. It's the sort of thing this tired, eight-year-old Liberal government should do and could do, but never will.
I rise tonight to add to the adjournment debate. I must admit, having been here for 13 years, eight years of which have been in government, I don't feel tired at all. The government is forging ahead with its economic recovery after the pandemic.
Last week I had the privilege of presenting a company called Epichem with a certificate on behalf of the Australian government and AusTrade, acknowledging their outstanding contribution to our community and to our economy. Epichem was one of the eight Australian businesses recognised from over 360 entries in the Australian Export & Investment Awards program's 2020 national recognition presentation, hosted by my colleague Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham, who was then the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment.
In 2020, with exporters facing unprecedented challenges, the traditional program of awarding winners was paused and reshaped to recognise the remarkable stories of resilience from Australian exporters. Epichem and seven other exporting businesses were identified as the most inspiring stories of resilience, as part of these awards. As Australia's leading provider of synthetic and medicinal chemistry services, Epichem met the challenges of COVID-19 head on by protecting its businesses and employees while supporting the community and launching new innovations.
Founded in 2003 in Perth, Epichem creates specialised products and provides technical expertise to customers in more than 40 countries in the pharmaceutical, mining, agricultural and animal health sectors. It exports 80 per cent of its products and services to the US and to Europe, so coronavirus has had a major impact on its business. In early 2020, when the pandemic hit, the company had to put around A$800,000 worth of international project work on hold indefinitely and halt many internal R&D projects. It faced shortages of essential supplies, and reduced income delayed critical equipment purchases, which threatened the business.
With international projects on hold, Epichem moved quickly to pivot the business and support their staff. In the community, Epichem stepped up by supplying community organisations with free hand sanitiser, highlighting the importance of the community coming together in such a difficult time. As well, Epichem worked with distillers to convert gin into ethanol and then into hand sanitiser. The company is also partnering with the WA government to develop dyed hand sanitisers that show which parts of your hands are not sanitised, and a 'smart surface' spray that destabilises the COVID-19 virus on hospital surfaces. My colleague Senator Michaelia Cash and I visited a health training foundation last year and we used the sanitiser that was developed out of gin and saw the effect of not washing your hands properly with sanitiser or with the necessary items. The company developed that sanitiser right in my electorate. The resilience of Epichem serves as an inspiration to other businesses and illustrates how their diversification allowed them to adapt quickly. It was a pleasure to check out Epichem's newly constructed, state-of-the-art laboratory during my visit and meet the team behind the success. I congratulate them again. Epichem is one of the many organisations based in Technology Park in my electorate of Swan. Located in the suburb of Bentley, Technology Park is home to more than 100 organisations, including technology based industry, research and development, academia, and support organisations.
Another organisation based in Technology Park doing extraordinary things, but in the space of scientific research, is the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. Only last month, during the Prime Minister's visit to my electorate of Swan, the government announced a $387 million investment in the world's largest radiotelescope, as part of the 2021 budget. The funding announced will help build the Square Kilometre Array radiotelescope, which will be based in Western Australia. This investment from the Morrison government will put Australia at the cutting edge of science and technology research whilst creating hundreds of new jobs during the construction phase. It is expected this announcement will support 350 new medium-term construction jobs between 2022 and 2030, with 130 permanent jobs being created in the SKA observatory and 20 additional jobs at the Australian SKA Regional Centre. Under this $387 million investment, $64.4 million is allocated to the data processing centre which is scheduled and expected to be at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre as well.
The month of Ramadan came to an end earlier this month. For many it was a joyous time, following the health restrictions of last year's Ramadan and COVID lockdown. Families, friends and colleagues were once again able to come together during the holiest month of the year for Muslims, including many in Werriwa.
I was honoured to receive so many invitations, and it was with immense pleasure that I attended iftars during the month. Thank you to all those who offered invitations that I was not able to accept because of other commitments. I would like to thank Mr Ayman Alwan, principal of Al Amanah College; the Islamic Charity Projects Association; Mr Aaron Boyd, principal of Unity Grammar; the Sydney Bangladeshi community and Selima Begum; May Jouni and principal Kylie Landrigan at Lurnea High School for inviting me to all of your events. These events highlight to me what is great about our community when it comes together. They are full of not only great hospitality and food but also genuine warmth and willingness to share information about customs and religion. Each of them had a spirit of inclusivity and were attended by a variety of people from all parts of our community. They shared stories of fasting and sacrifice. The iftars also celebrated the success of students with almost perfect HSC results and university degrees.
These events show that we have more in common than we think we do and that, when our community is built on respect, warmth, honour and tolerance, we are all better for it. Regardless of your politics, religion or culture, one of the truly great qualities of our democratic multicultural nation is that we are able to practise our beliefs peacefully and with each other. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for many places around the world. In recent years we've seen an escalation in conflict and persecution of peoples, particularly on religious grounds. Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes the freedom to practise and observe. Since my election, I have met with many people whose birthplaces are rocked by unrest: the Uighurs who have not heard from friends and family for many years, Cambodians who have been subject to threats in this country, Kurdish who have family in Turkey, and the Mandaeans whose family and friends have been persecuted for more than three decades.
The world has seen further escalation of violence with the bombing of al-Aqsa Mosque. I'm deeply concerned by the violence in Gaza, in Jerusalem and across Palestine and Israel. The escalation of violence, destruction and the loss of life is heartbreaking for many around the world; however, it is far too familiar for those experiencing it firsthand. I welcome the ceasefire between the two parties and will always endorse every call for de-escalation and a return to calm. However, the use of banned weapons, tear gas and guns fired at worshippers at one of Islam's holiest sites during the holiest month of the year is unsettling.
Labor condemns all acts of violence and all violations of human rights. Australia should be part of an effective multilateral response to all issues related to human rights. There is no justification for rocket attacks on civilians and no justification for using white phosphorus in artillery shells. My office has received hundreds of emails about the latest conflict. For over two weeks, there have been tens of thousands gathering in cities across the country and across the world. Protesters and activists are not unreasonable when they call for an end to the destruction and the end of forced evictions. I stand with Labor and Foreign Minister Payne in their calls for a halt in action that escalates tensions between Israel and Palestine, including land appropriations, forced evictions, demolitions and settlement activity. Labor has always believed in the rights of Palestinians and the Israelis to live with secure and recognised borders. It is committed to a two-state solution. Any lasting resolution to the Middle East conflict cannot be at the expense of either the Palestinians or the Israelis. The only way that a two-state solution can be achieved is through a negotiated outcome between the two parties based on human rights consistent with international law. I hope the incitement of hate and the cycle of tension, escalation and destruction comes to an end. My thoughts are with the Palestinian and Israeli people during this time.
Tardiness is next to godlessness, but what's more important than that is making sure that, with the Olympics coming up, we have the capacity to ensure that we have a fair competition, the capacity to ensure that men who have XY chromosomes will compete against men who have XY chromosomes and women who have XX chromosomes will compete against women who have XX chromosomes. The reason I bring this up is that we now have one of the greatest incursions into women's rights. I have four daughters and, to be honest, it is a political correctness absurdity that a man can decide that they're a woman and then insist on competing against other women. How does this work in weightlifting or in boxing? More and more my daughters are playing sports such as touch football and contact football. This is just not fair. This is not right. For us to make sure that this doesn't happen, we have to deal with such issues as one of the women weightlifters, who comes from New Zealand and who wants to compete as a woman. But the reality is her genetic make-up is XY. She is not a she, she is a bloke. She is a man.
Of course, this stirs people up. They think it is an outrageous statement that for once we want to rely on the science. When we talk about climate, we can never walk away from the science. But, apparently, when you talk about genetics, you can leave the science for dead. It's completely and utterly irrelevant. It is just how you feel about things on the day. Why is it seen to be somehow allowable that you get the absolute supremacy of male rights over women's rights because of the views of an incredibly small proportion of people who are born XY? Let's take away calling people women or men. Let's call them exactly what they are: born XY, born XX. But if you were born XY or you were born XX, there is nothing on God's earth that is going to change it and there is nothing on the non-God's earth that's going to change it. There is nothing in science that can possibly change it. There is nothing in the weather that will change it. It is just an absolute scientific fact.
What we have to work out is how we got ourselves into this position. We have been bullied, coerced, manipulated, guilt-tripped into a position where we have to say we cannot talk about that, it's another thing we just must accept. Who is the beneficiary of all of this? Who is the beneficiary when we actually go down this slippery slope of saying, 'That is yet another form of political correctness which we must never mention because inevitably it is right and it is just and it is scientifically and factually correct'? Of course the beneficiary is a small group of blokes. The actual number of people who would be genuinely of dual nature, I suppose, would be about one in 83,000. For that one in 83,000, obviously we have to give them the greatest sympathy possible. But we're not dealing with the one in 83,000. We are dealing with other people who have made their own choice about this.
The AIC and Sports Australia released the trans and gender diversity inclusion policy guidelines in June 2019. They prioritise gender identity over sex and promote the idea that a person can register to compete in the sports category of their choice, including accessing the toilets, change rooms and overnight accommodation of their choice. A person's transgender status is also to be kept confidential. When my daughters and my sons go to play sport as young people, they also have the right to be in a position which their parents deem safe and which I believe is safe for them. This means honesty in science. I hope as we go towards these Olympics we have honesty in the science of how people compete.
House adjourned at 19:59
While the Morrison government goes around the country spruiking its budget and talking up and self-congratulating themselves over the so-called economic recovery, there are significant parts of our community that are still struggling. In my electorate of Dunkley there are a number of organisations and programs which help those most in need who do not know whether or not they are going to get continued funding to be able to operate.
Community Support Frankston is one of the busiest providers of emergency relief in south-east Melbourne. It's been operating for 50 years out of Frankston. During the height of the pandemic, as with elsewhere, the work of Community Support Frankston escalated. Food, materials and financial aid were provided to members of my community by Community Support Frankston in their time of need. But it hasn't ended. In the first quarter of this year, from January to March, compared with the same period last year, there was a 528 per cent increase in demand for food and material relief and a 229 per cent increase in demand for financial aid. Community Support Frankston anticipates this demand increasing further this year. That's about 1,500 people from my community who accessed Community Support Frankston support in the first three months of this year alone.
I thank the federal government for the additional emergency funding that Community Support Frankston got last year. However, without this funding continuing this financial year, Community Support Frankston is at risk of falling back to pre-COVID funding levels, with one-third of the budget to cater for potentially more people than at the height of the pandemic.
We have a critical shortage of housing in Frankston, a high homeless population and significant unemployment, and the impact of the removal of JobKeeper and the reduction of JobSeeker is clearly being felt, as these numbers show, so I've written to the minister to implore her to continue that funding for Community Support Frankston for the sake of my community and I repeat that request today.
Similarly, the Babes Project in Frankston, which provides crisis pregnancy support to vulnerable women across the Mornington Peninsula—more than 350 pregnant women and new mothers since 2016—is facing closing its doors because its funding to date has not been continued. The Sudanese homework club, which operating out of Monterey Secondary College in my electorate, is facing having to shut down because they don't know whether their funding is going to continue. This homework club works for diversity, community and inclusion and is so important in Frankston North. And the Babes Project—I've met young mothers who have benefited from the support that they have been given, and it has the backing of the senior social worker at Peninsula Health. So I implore the minister and government to fund these projects.
I rise to acknowledge and congratulate the local sporting champions in my electorate of Wentworth—12 young, high-achieving sports champions who have risen in their chosen sport to compete at state and national competitions and who were recently awarded Sport Australia grants to assist with expenses associated with attending non-local competitions. Some of the recipients include Lola Anir, who received a grant to attend the Australian Youth Water Polo Championships; Claudia Quinn, also to attend the Australian Youth Water Polo Championships; Harrison Nixon, to attend the Youth Water Polo Championships—there are a lot of youth water polo people in my electorate—Erin Little, to attend the Youth Water Polo Championships; Flynn Vish, also for the Youth Water Polo Championships; Cynthia Baker-Barden, to attend the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships; Zara Hamilton, to attend the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships; Charles Appleyard, also for the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships; Finlay McDonald, for the Australian Junior Beach Volleyball Championships; Henrietta Robson, for the Australian Youth Water Polo Championships; Taylor Hamilton, for the Aussies 2021 surf life saving youth championships; and, finally, Nikki Collins, also to attend the Australian Youth Water Polo Championships.
I recently hosted an afternoon tea to meet and congratulate these award winners, or at least some of them, and to hear of their sporting pursuits and achievements. I congratulated Cynthia Baker-Barden, who received a gold medal for March Past in the surf lifesaving championships; Finlay Macdonald, who was several feet taller than me, for his volleyball achievements; Harrison Nixon, who is only 11 years old, who was selected for both the water polo and the surf life saving championships.
An honourable member interjecting—
He was only 11 years old so he wasn't quite as tall as me. And Claudia Quinn was selected for the national water polo championships. I also learned a little about the athletes' gruelling training schedules and their commitment to their sport. I was impressed with the commitment the dedication from such young people, and their parents, to the sport and to achieving their goals. Claudia Quinn, for instance, who was participating in the national Youth Water Polo Championships spoke of 4.20 am starts three times a week to travel from Paddington to Auburn for 5 am water training before school each day. I applaud all the young athletes for their commitment to sport and wish them every success as they continue to compete and pursue their sporting goals. Given the number of young people in my electorate who are participating in the Australian Youth Water Polo Championships, I expect us to field a very good side in the Olympics in years to come.
This weekend I was delighted to join with many members of Fraser's Vietnamese community to celebrate the 10th birthday of Australian Vietnamese Arts. The AVA is actually 11 years old but its 10th birthday was postponed due to COVID last year. The AVA was formed in 2010 by Brimbank councillor Thuy Dang, who has dedicated a huge amount of time to that organisation over the last decade. It brings together people from across the Fraser community to celebrate Vietnamese culture and to perform traditional and modern music and dance. The AVA has become an essential part of the fabric of Fraser's diverse and dynamic multicultural community. The group's performances have graced important local festivals and events such as the Lunar New Year and lantern festivals. It is always a pleasure to witness the beauty and deeply symbolic performances of the AVA artists. It was also a privilege to present the award for the AVA member of the year to Thoa Tran. Thoa was recognised for her extraordinary efforts helping others during the pandemic, which hit Fraser so hard last year, helping to manufacture and procure hundreds of pieces of vital PPE equipment.
The AVA's commitment to the Fraser community is exemplified by its role as a provider of Good Shepherd No Interest Loans or NILs. The NILs program provides individuals and families on low incomes with access to safe, fair and affordable credit. These no interest loans enable families to buy essential goods and services such as fridges, washing machines, car repairs and medical procedures for up to $1,500. I know how valuable this is for many families in my electorate, particularly given the alternatives offer such high interest rates. And I know how this government's plans to rip up responsible lending laws would cause so much harm for the people who rely on NILs.
I also acknowledge the outstanding work of Volunteer West, which provides empowering and engaging opportunities for residents of Fraser and Melbourne's broader west to volunteer their time, energies, passions and skills in worthwhile projects. A number of volunteering organisations, including the AVA, were present at the 10th birthday celebrations of the AVA last Friday night. Volunteer West recently launched VolConnect, a valuable new volunteer-to-job program enabled by $1 million in funding from the Victorian government's Working for Victoria initiative. This will help more people in Fraser and Melbourne's west to move into enduring paid work. As Volunteer West CEO Thu-Trang Tran said at the launch of VolConnect: 'volunteering is an act of social and economic participation that forges connections for social cohesion and economic prosperity'. Thanks to Volunteer West for all that you do to improve that cohesion and prosperity in Fraser and in Melbourne's broader west.
There is nothing like attending your local regional show and the recent Brookfield Show in my electorate of Ryan did not disappoint. The show has been a two-day event since 1910 and at that point was opened by the then Governor of Queensland Sir William McGregor. The now three-day event on average draws 20,000 people every year. This year I attended the show recently with my family and we had a fantastic time. The fireworks display was a particular hit. It was the first time my 11-month-old daughter, Isabelle, had seen fireworks and she was very impressed.
My community was very upset last year, as one of the many disappointments of the COVID period, when the show had to be cancelled and we were unable to come together and support local businesses and community groups, as we normally do during the Brookfield show. Like other regional shows, the Brookfield Show Society were hit especially hard by the cancellation. It's their biggest event in the calendar, of course, and, after running a show for 108 years, the Brookfield Show Society were unsure how they were going to recover from the refunds and loss of revenue in 2020.
Last year the Morrison government committed $39 million as part of the Supporting Agricultural Shows and Field Days program. This program was established for exactly this reason: to assist regional shows to cover the costs of cancellations and to ensure that their 2021 shows could go ahead. I pushed particularly strongly within the government for the Brookfield Show Society to be considered as part of this program; as a result, they received $70,000 to support them through this very tough COVID period. As a result, we were able to come together for this year's 110th Brookfield Show. In a way that is fitting for this particular milestone of 110 years, it was opened by our current governor, and it ensured that the show came back even better than before the pandemic. Across the three days of the show, people flocked to Brookfield from right across the state to enjoy the beautiful weather, the entertainment and the classic show food and, of course, to support their local businesses. I was able to hold my own stall there at the show and to see the thousands of people passing through every day and to engage with them.
I want to particularly thank show society president Catherine Fullerton for all of her work and, of course, I thank all of the volunteers. We know that a regional show of that magnitude doesn't come together without a lot of work from volunteers. I really want to express my heartfelt thanks that, after the disappointments of last year with COVID and the cancellation, they were able to put in the hard yards and bring the show back together. It is a wonderful icon of our local area, and I'm delighted that it can continue.
Likewise, of course, the other disappointment arising from COVID last year was the cancellation of a lot of school fetes. These are now coming back with a vengeance. I was able to attend the Ferny Grove State School festival on Saturday. I want to congratulate Ferny Grove State School, as well as Ashgrove State School whose fete I also attended—two fantastic local schools with great fetes. I thank the volunteers for putting those events together.
My electorate has some of the most beautiful spa country in the state with the towns of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs amongst the most popular. During the lockdowns of 2020, many Melburnians have decided to move to regional Victoria and now call Hepburn Shire and Ballarat home. With the increase in population, of course, has come skyrocketing house prices in the area. This might be fortunate for homeowners, but renters and first home buyers are finding it increasingly difficult to find affordable housing in the areas they've always called home. With many of the houses being purchased as weekenders, this makes it difficult for the next generations to purchase homes close to their families and within the communities that they've grown up in. Without these younger generations staying locally, it will affect many parts of the community: the viability of our schools, kindergartens and childcare centres; junior footballers and netballers who continue to keep the clubs going; and new volunteers for CFAs, as the longer-term volunteers step back from an active firefighting role. These are only a few examples of how essential the younger generations are to our small regional towns.
Along with an increase in population, the area has also seen an increase in tourism and daytrippers from Melbourne. Again, this is fantastic to see. With all the restaurants and shops overflowing with patrons, business owners are struggling to find workers, as many are leaving the area to seek affordable housing. That's why a Labor government will create a $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund to build social and affordable housing. In my electorate this will change lives. The building of affordable homes will encourage hospitality and tourism workers back into the areas that they've grown up in for work. With the hotels, restaurants, spas and shops fully staffed, it will allow the business owners to open longer hours and accommodate more patrons, allowing Hepburn Shire to thrive post pandemic.
The current government must do more to make regional housing more affordable across this country. These communities which rely on tourism in particular also rely on affordable housing to be able to keep and sustain their workforce. With the borders still closed and predicted to remain closed for another 12 months, they can no longer rely on international travellers to make up this workforce. Australians cannot afford to travel large distances from their affordable housing to work in hospitality when jobs are available closer to home. The Housing Australia Future Fund is not just good social policy; it's good economic policy. After eight long years of the coalition being in government, housing affordability has got even worse, and there are more homeless Australians than ever before. In regional Victoria and the electorate of Ballarat, we're very proud in our communities. We need affordable housing so these communities can continue to offer an amazing lifestyle.
It was a great pleasure to welcome the Treasurer to my electorate of Sturt last week, on Monday. Obviously, he is travelling the length and breadth of the country talking about the budget and what it means for real Australians—real people, real families and real business operators. We had two excellent visits in my seat.
The first was to an iconic local business, La Casa Del Formaggio—the house of cheese—in Glynde, just next to Firle in my electorate. It is a great second-generation family business, employing over 100 South Australians and making beautiful cheeses in the Italian style: mozzarella, bocconcini et cetera. The Treasurer enjoyed doing some tasting. He got a bit of coverage on The Project for that, in fact; all publicity is good publicity. They're a great business and are really looking forward to taking advantage of the instant asset write-off. They are expanding. It's a great story. They sell right across the country and want to export overseas, and thanks to measures in the budget, particularly the instant asset write-off, they're going to be investing in new plant and equipment, upgrading their facility and expanding their capacity to produce. That's going to mean employing more South Australians and making more money in the South Australian economy. So it was really exciting to go to that business, talk to them about what they're doing, take the Treasurer there and hear those stories about the practical impact of some of these important budget decisions that we have made for businesses in my electorate of Sturt.
Then we were able to go to the Kensington Gardens Reserve and inspect what is probably about the halfway mark of a project there that we're working on with the state government and the local Burnside council. It's an excellent upgrade of local recreational amenity and an excellent environment outcome. We have invested $3 million, the council have put $3 million in, and the state government, in their recent COVID stimulus round, added some more to round that project out. So it's a little over $7 million, right in the heart of my seat. It's going to be a great enhanced local asset, particularly for families in the area. Kensington Gardens Reserve is already an excellent local asset for sporting groups, to walk the dog, to do a park run or whatever it might be. But this investment is going to see that asset become even better for the local community and the surrounding areas. We are, of course, also achieving significant environmental outcomes from this investment thanks to the wetlands that are going to be installed there to replace the old static pond. The Treasurer really enjoyed his time there and all of his time in South Australia, and we are really appreciative of him for coming and also for the work he's done in this budget, which is making such a positive impact on businesses and local communities across the country, including in my electorate of Sturt.
I'd like to take this opportunity to share the concerns of a local worker in my electorate. A few weeks back, I spoke with an abalone diver who told me he was struggling, and he told me it was not just him. Every abalone diver he knew was finding it hard to make ends meet. These are hardworking men and women. They spend long days on the water and longer nights at home trying to square the books. The point he raised was this: our abalone quota system is not working for our divers and it's not working for our regional communities.
Quite rightly, abalone stocks are sustainably managed with limits on what can be taken. The Tasmanian government has created quotas—each one is worth about 238 kilograms of abalone—and it sells the right to harvest these quotas on the open market. The problem is that wealthy interstate and overseas investors are buying up the quotas and they essentially lease the fishing rights back to divers. The quota holders are raking it in, while the blokes who do the work are barely keeping their heads above water. In 2021, the beach price for a 238-kilo quota unit of abalone was $11,650. That's what the market paid the quota owners. For collecting that 238 kilos, divers were paid $2,380, or $10 per kilo, and out of that they have to pay all their fixed costs, as well as wages and fuel.
The Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment commissioned a major report, the Knuckey report, that found that divers' yearly fixed expenses are around $48,000. When you add deckhand wages and fuel, you are talking around $80,000 a year, and that's without the diver taking a decent wage for themselves. For a diver just to meet their basic expenses, they have to win a contract for 33 quotas, allowing them to haul in eight tonnes of abalone. The diver gets $78,000 from that, every cent of it going on bills, while the quota owner hauls in $384,450, most of it clear profit. And, if it doesn't sound fair, you're right: it's not. The system works for quota owners, not divers.
We do need quotas to ensure that our fish are sustainably managed, but the quotas should be owned by the people who do the work. If someone wants to own a fishing quota, they should get on a boat and haul the fish, not sit in an office and pay someone else to take on the risk and do the work. If quotas were owned by divers and not investors, we would rejuvenate our fishing towns. Divers would be able to afford to pay deckhands higher wages, offer more secure employment and run safer, more modern vessels. They'd be getting the full benefit of the market price of the quota. Their hard work deserves reward. We need to see more money poured back into local economies and not stay in the big cities.
I want to give a snapshot of the budget and what it means for Townsville and to talk about some of the numbers. Sixty-eight thousand of the 108,000 people in the electorate of Herbert will be getting up to $2,745 back on their tax bill, which is more of their money that they can keep to do whatever they want with. Ten thousand six hundred is the number of businesses in Herbert that will be able to continue to write off the full value of any eligible asset that they purchase. We have over 30,000 defence veterans and their families located in Townsville, and their voice has been able to see an injection of $460 million into the Department of Veterans' Affairs to ensure that the outrageous waiting times for the processing of claims are tackled and lowered. We know that these times have blown out, and it's simply not good enough. One thousand seven hundred and forty families will get cheaper childcare in the electorate of Herbert.
Some announcements are harder to quantify with numbers, like the $10 billion reinsurance pool that we've just announced. This means that you will have lower insurance premiums, whether it's for your house, business or strata. We have seen market failure of this essential service, insurance. If you want to own a house, a business or a strata, you must have insurance. It's as essential as water and electricity. This reinsurance pool will take a lot of the risk from the insurer, which will mean cheaper premiums for the people of Townsville.
We are making it even easier for locals to get into the housing market. The Family Home Guarantee will allow single parents with dependent children to buy a home with a deposit of as little as two per cent. I was brought up by a single parent, my mum. She raised me and my brother and sister, and this would have been a game changer for us and would have changed the life of our family. So I hope the Family Home Guarantee is taken up and that it can change the lives of many people around the country.
More homes mean more tradies and more builds, and we will see a massive increase in new building approvals. We're building on momentum by extending the JobTrainer Fund, creating 170,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships. That means free or low-fee courses, particularly targeting jobseekers and young people, including school leavers. While we train up new apprentices, our local businesses will be able to fill the many job vacancies they have. As they do that, they will be able to write off the cost of new equipment, which will help them expand their business and create even more new jobs.
This government has had eight years to fix the problem of housing affordability on the coast, which is just getting worse. It's harder to rent than ever before and it's harder to buy than ever before. There are more people, especially women and young people, couch surfing or living in their cars. That's why I invited Jason Clare, shadow minister for housing and homelessness, back to the coast to hear firsthand from locals about the growing housing affordability crisis. Vacancy rates are as low as 0.1 per cent in parts of the coast, and rents have climbed by over $100 a week in just the last few months. In some cases, renters are paying $430 a week for a small studio apartment. When a local family of two police officers and three kids can't get a start in the housing market, we've got a problem. Homelessness on the coast is growing, but often hidden are the women or young people who couch surf or live in their car—people like Sarah, who I met in Tuggerah recently and who had been living between the homes of her friends.
Last year, 10,000 women and children across Australia were turned away from refuges because there wasn't a bed. Finding a safe place to live is even tougher for those most at risk: people living with major mental ill health discharged from a hospital without a place to go. Working in the mental health units at Wyong Hospital, I saw people discharged to couches, to caravans and to caves. I heard people making call after call from the inpatient unit. They were desperate, struggling to get a roof over their head in a highly competitive rental market. The shortfall in social housing has climbed to 3,500, leaving many people waiting up to 10 years for a roof over their head.
Mr Deputy Speaker, fixing these problems won't be easy, but in this year's budget the government missed the opportunity to help renters and buyers and people living in housing stress on the coast. A future Labor government will create the Housing Australia Future Fund. This will change lives and create jobs. Over the first five years, the future fund will build 30,000 new social housing properties, including homes for women and children fleeing family violence, and older women on low fixed incomes, who are most at risk of homelessness. The fund will build affordable homes for the heroes of the pandemic: the frontline workers, like police, nurses and cleaners, who kept us all safe. This housing plan is good for jobs too. It will create over 21,500 full-time jobs each year, and one in 10 construction jobs created will be for apprentices. It is a plan to help more Aussies buy a home, to help Australians who rent, and to put a roof over the heads of more people living in homelessness across Australia.
I recently met with Brad. After 20 years of shifting back and forth from prison to a couch or to the back of a car, he finally had a place to live in affordable social housing with Pacific Link Housing in Toukley. Brad spoke to Jason and me about how the stability and security of a roof over his head had turned his life around. It had given him a fresh start, one that he hadn't expected. Now he's hopeful about the future. Mr Deputy Speaker, everyone deserves that hope.
Today I rise to pay tribute to the youth who live, study and work in the Calare electorate. Their infectious enthusiasm and the amazing things these achievers are doing in the community offer an inspiring example for us all to follow.
Zoe Peters is a perfect example. Zoe is the captain of Denison College's Bathurst High campus and Bathurst Regional Youth Council's Youth Mayor. Zoe recently won the Lions Australia Youth of the Year quest from club level all the way through to the national final. She is already a wonderful advocate for positive outcomes for young people, so congratulations, Zoe. She was up against students from all over Australia, including the big cities. It's an outstanding achievement from an outstanding young woman.
I've had the privilege of mentoring Claire Wright from Canowindra High through Regional Development Australia's TEN4TEN mentoring program. I've been constantly impressed by the example she sets and the enthusiasm she brings to being a champion for her community and country Australia. This year's TEN4TEN program continues to demonstrate the leadership potential of the young people of Calare. I'd like to congratulate the 10 students who were selected to take part. Bonnie Murphy, of James Sheahan Catholic High, wants to give a voice to the voiceless. Charlotte Crome, from Blayney High, plans to become a teacher. Eliza Ward, from Kinross Wolaroi School, hopes to study the performing arts. Ellie Crawford, also from Kinross, wants to provide greater representation for regional communities—and I'm proud to be mentoring Ellie as part of this year's program. Gian Wynn, from Kinross, hopes to build the diversity of country communities. Hayden Bliss, from Molong Central School, wants to serve his country by becoming an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force. Narayani Pathak, from Orange High, plans to study medicine, to give back to our community. Ryan Ellis, from Canowindra High, wants to play an active role in leading and developing our community in the Central West. Sophia Bayada, from James Sheahan Catholic High, hopes to address inequality in society, perhaps through pursuing a career in politics. And Tyler Morris, from Anson Street School, is passionate about helping those with disabilities.
Finally, I'd like to pay tribute to another outstanding young person from our community, Scott Vandenberg. Scott uses a wheelchair due to a degenerative genetic condition, yet he lives life to the full and has many passions, including skydiving, raising alpacas and photography—and also DJ'ing, Mr Deputy Speaker!
Scott and I recently tackled the virtual reality rollercoaster at Orange Show together. He is a very good friend and truly an example to us all. Well done, Scott, for everything that you do in our community.
All of the young Australians I have referred to in this Chamber today have the admiration and thanks of our communities for the wonderful work they are doing and the example they are all setting. Our future is truly in great hands.
In accordance with standing order 193 the time for members' constituency statements has concluded.
I move:
That this House:
(1) notes that:
(a) the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997 (known as the Andrews Bill) amended the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 and the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 to deprive these two legislative assemblies of the power to make laws relating to euthanasia;
(b) the Government of Prime Minister Howard justified this at the time as a constraint on young jurisdictions that were seen to be moving ahead of the broader public mood;
(c) when the Andrews Bill curtailed the right of territories to make laws relating to euthanasia, no other state or territory legislature had conducted a debate on similar laws;
(d) polls of public attitudes to doctor-led voluntary assisted dying suggest that support was in the high sixties in the 1980s, in the mid to high seventies in the 1990s, and in the low eighties in the past two decades;
(e) in recent years all state legislatures have debated legislation around voluntary assisted dying, with Victoria and Western Australia legalising voluntary assisted dying, and New South Wales and South Australia rejecting legalisation, while Queensland and Tasmania have processes ongoing;
(f) the anachronistic Andrews Bill means that a quarter of a century since it was passed, 700,000 Australians who live in the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory are still unable to participate in a democratic process to resolve community approaches to euthanasia;
(g) repealing the Andrews Bill would return to territories legal powers that are held by other Australian jurisdictions; and
(h) restoring territory rights does not direct that either territory legislature should consider legislating on euthanasia, it merely allows them to do so if their properly elected representatives decide it appropriate;
(2) acknowledges that:
(a) in each of the last two terms of parliament the Government has blocked debate on private Members' bills that would restore territory rights; and
(b) while senators have debated and voted on related legislation, members of the House of Representatives have been prevented from expressing their views on this issue; and
(3) calls on the Government to:
(a) explain why, in 2021, two mature legislative jurisdictions are still singled out as unworthy of legislative self-determination;
(b) commit to introduce legislation into the House of Representatives that would grant territorians legislative equality with Australians in other jurisdictions; and
(c) restore the right of territories to determine their own laws on euthanasia.
Yesterday I met with Katarina Knowles, who lost her father, Nebojsa Pavkovic, to Parkinson's disease. At the end of his life, he knew he was going to go, but he was unable to avail himself of voluntary assisted dying in the ACT, so he went through the extremely painful process of a five-week hunger strike. It was agonising for him and for his family. But Katarina isn't alone; many other families have seen their loved ones suffer at the end of their lives unnecessarily.
Voluntary assisted dying is now supported by 87 per cent of Australians, including 79 per cent of coalition voters, 77 per cent of Catholics and 78 per cent of protestants. It has been legalised in three of the six states—Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania—and is being considered in other jurisdictions. Many European nations have legalised voluntary assisted dying. At least eight US states and the District of Columbia have also legalised voluntary assisted dying.
The world is a very different place from when in 1997 this parliament determined to take away the power to legislate over euthanasia from the ACT and the Northern Territory. Those jurisdictions were young then; they are mature assemblies now. Back then, no state had moved. Now, half the states have moved. This is an important point, as it goes to some of the arguments that were made for retaining the Andrews bill. Frank Brennan asked the rhetorical question, 'Should the Commonwealth parliament overturn a territory law?' and said, 'Only in very rare circumstances: where no state has similarly legislated'. That is now palpably no longer the case. As the editors of the NT News have said, 'Give us back our rights'.
Territorians should have the right to have this issue debated by their parliamentarians. In the ACT, Mary Porter has led much of the work around the safeguards that would be necessary for voluntary assisted dying laws. That work has been picked up by Tara Cheyne in recent times. I'm pleased to see the entire Liberal caucus within the assembly has supported overturning the Andrews bill so that the ACT Legislative Assembly can debate voluntary assisted dying. But not all elected Liberals in the ACT support removing this undemocratic bar. Shamefully, when the issue was debated in the Senate, Senator Zed Seselja did not vote to remove the bar on the ACT legislating on euthanasia. Gary Humphries, his predecessor, would have done so. Zed Seselja chose not to, and that speaks volumes about his inability to stand up for Canberrans.
We know that this is a challenging topic for many, but regardless of where you stand on the merits of euthanasia, it is untenable that the territories should be prevented from debating an issue which is being debated in every Australian state. There have been multiple attempts to change the law within Australian states—some successful, some unsuccessful. They've been allowed to have that conversation, guided by thoughtful advocates such as Andrew Denton from Go Gentle and guided by the stories of many people, such as Katarina Knowles, about suffering at end of life.
I remember a good family friend who had the experience, when her husband was suffering a terminal illness, of getting assistance to administer drugs which were not at that stage legal. She administered the drugs. He asked her then to go home, so she wouldn't be there when he died. She came back the next morning; he had vomited them back up and they had to go through the entire process all over again. It was deeply painful for both of them. This is not a choice that should be faced by people at the end of their lives. All of us should have the autonomy, if we are faced with a terminal illness, to set in place euthanasia, guided by the appropriate safeguards. The repeal of the Andrews bill shouldn't re-enliven the Northern Territory law, as it then was, but the Northern Territory parliament should be required to re-enact a law that contains appropriate safeguards. The Andrews bill must go. The territories must have their democratic rights to debate euthanasia, as the states already can do.
Is the motion seconded?
I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
I have great respect for my friend the member for Fenner, but I could not disagree with him more fundamentally on a more fundamental issue than the issue of territory euthanasia laws. The Constitution gives the Commonwealth parliament the plenary power to make laws about territories, whether they are island territories or mainland territories. They are not states, and we regularly use the territories power in a whole range of things. The Northern Territory had a referendum on whether to be a state some years ago, and they voted against it.
I am a federalist, but, for me, matters of life and death trump all concerns of constitutional questions, and I believe that euthanasia laws have no place on the statute books of any parliament in this country. My only criticism of the Andrews law is not that it overrides territory laws, but that we didn't, at that stage, find a way to override state laws as well in relation to these matters. I think some thought needs to be put into that, because I regard the euthanasia laws that exist in our states as bad and as an attack on some fundamental values that underpin our society as a whole.
I want to acknowledge that there are people in our country that are in pain and are not getting the level of care that they require. There was a very good, but not heralded enough, publication that came out from the PM Glynn Institute of the Australian Catholic University recently called A snapshot of palliative care services in Australia. Its author Dr Chris Abbu found a number of key things. First, the number of people being hospitalised for palliative care is growing at an average rate of five per cent a year, and services are not keeping pace. Second, the rate of palliative care hospitalisations for children under 15 has increased by more than 10 per cent annually since 2012-13, but palliative care is not a well-regarded specialty that students are choosing to go into. And, third, models of palliative care that give people not just the chance to experience end-of-life care in hospitals, but to do so in homes, are not well advanced enough in this country, and I think about the palliative care in the home model that is pioneered by the San, just outside my electorate, which I've spoken about previously in this chamber.
Why is palliative care important? Because properly funded palliative care must be a national priority. I note that in the recent federal budget we announced an additional $58.7 million of measures for palliative care. But let me quote Dr Michael Casey, the chief executive of the PM Glynn Institute, in relation to the report. He said:
People say voluntary-assisted dying is about giving patients a choice but if dying patients cannot access the palliative care services they need, they don't really have a free choice …
We need to do more to ensure that everyone who needs good quality palliative care can access it, wherever they are and whatever their circumstances, before considering a momentous step like—
euthanasia. I should say that the report also found the ACT has the best access to public palliative care of any jurisdiction: 22 palliative care hospitalisations per 10,000, and they've seen an annual increase of 13.6 per cent between 2013-14 and 2017-18.
The member for Fenner also mentioned the Northern Territory laws. I remember the woman who was the poster child of the Northern Territory laws advertised on television saying: 'Please, let me die. Please, let me die.' Well, she got better. She lived, and she became an opponent of those same laws. The nature of euthanasia is that it ends lives and that it is so fundamental. We know that people have different responses to treatment over time. We also hear that euthanasia laws won't affect that many people. In Victoria, they predicted that only 12 people would die by euthanasia in the first year, and yet there were 272 eligible applications and 124 deaths. We often think about euthanasia in the context of very old people, but the youngest person to die by euthanasia in Victoria was 36. Is that what we really want in our community and in our country? The latest statistics from Victoria show that 94 people died by euthanasia in the six months to the end of 2020, and this in a state where the increase in mental health presentations rose 23 per cent.
Is it any wonder that the AMA in every jurisdiction in which euthanasia laws have been proposed have been a trenchant opponent? Is it any wonder that in Western Australia our colleagues and friends Minister Wyatt and Senator Dodson so strongly opposed those laws there because of the disproportionate effect on vulnerable Indigenous people? When Andrew Denton cannot rule out the application of these laws to people with dementia, I think we are on a very slippery slope. I very strongly oppose this motion.
I rise to speak in strong support of the member for Fenner's motion today, and I thank him for bringing this motion to the parliament. I want to acknowledge his long-term advocacy on the issue of territory rights. I also want to acknowledge the long-term advocacy of my other ACT Labor colleagues, the member for Bean, who will speak on this motion, and Senator Katy Gallagher. The other representative of the ACT, of course, is Senator Zed Seselja, and he voted against territory rights.
This is such a simple issue. Why should people who live in territories not have the same rights as everyone else in this country? It seems very clear that our territory parliament should be able to debate issues in the same way our states do. But the Andrews bill of 1997 restricts the rights of the residents of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. The fact is that the ACT did not even want self-government. In the 1978 plebiscite, almost 64 per cent of residents rejected proposals for a legislative body or a council body, opting instead to continue under the administration of the federal parliament. But, nonetheless, self-government was forced upon the residents of Canberra in 1988 by this parliament. I in no way want to say that that was not a great thing, because we now have a very mature government that has 32 years of decision-making that aligns with our citizens and represents our community in Canberra.
I am so proud to be a resident of Canberra and of the things that our ACT government has done. We are the first Australian jurisdiction to have 100 per cent renewable energy. We have a net-zero-by-2045 target. We have the second cleanest air of any capital city in the world after Wellington and we were the first jurisdiction to have equal marriage, which then the Abbott government took away before the coalition caught up five years later under Malcolm Turnbull's leadership.
Mr Tim Wilson interjecting—
Member for Goldstein, this is the only warning you're getting.
It's a perfect example of where our territory should have been able to make decisions for itself, and voluntary assisted dying is another such example. Three states around the country already have laws in place to enable people to have voluntary assisted dying and more states have debates on this coming up this year.
The argument that was made at the time of the Andrews bill was that the territories would be ahead of the states, as the member for Fenner has rightly pointed out. But, instead, we're being held back. In fact, we are being denied the same rights that other people around the country have. I'm very interested to hear the member for Goldstein speak because I would have thought he was all about people having freedoms and equal rights. So I look forward to it. I think there is no reason that people in the ACT should not have the same rights. This is a broader issue than just that around euthanasia. This is about democracy. This is about us having parliaments that can represent us in the ACT and the Northern Territory in the same way as parliaments do in New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. As I said, the ACT government is leading the way on many issues, and I would like to see us have the right to lead in other ways as well.
I will touch on voluntary assisted dying, although, as I said, it is not the only thing that this issue is about. Equal marriage would have happened much earlier in the ACT if we'd had the right to legislate so. But, as the member for Fenner has pointed out, at the moment people with a loved one who is dying are faced with incredibly hard decisions. I agree with the member for Berowra that palliative care should be as well funded as possible, and that is an incredibly important issue that we don't talk about enough. But the fact of the matter is that many families are already facing these decisions, and things are happening in very painful ways and in less humane ways than they should. For example, anyone who has had an experience with aged care would know that there is a common question as someone is nearing the end of their life: 'Should we call the ambulance?' You know that they will try to save your loved one. That is a disgusting situation for people to be put in, and it is terrible that people are making these decisions. So I stand as an advocate for territory rights, joining my Labor ACT colleagues in doing so, and I ask that this parliament please deliver us the same rights as other citizens around the country.
It is a pleasure to be able to speak on this motion, put forward by the member for Fenner. As he knows, I share in the spirit of the sentiment of the motion, not just in the philosophy, though I do, but also in the practice, which I also do. Let me outline the basis upon which I do so. I believe that government should be as close to the people it seeks to serve as humanly possible. I do not want monopoly Canberra, because government by its nature ultimately bullies people. It does not matter who's in government. It does not matter the nature or the intent or the spirit. In the end that is what it does, because it is based on coercion and force. If you are to have coercion and force, you must make sure that control of government is as close to people as possible, because that enables people to be in the best position to change the outcome if they do not like how that force is being utilised.
It is upon this basis that I am a staunch federalist, and one of the things that disturbs me most—again, regardless of who's in power—is how much of a tendency there has been to centralise into this place, this chamber and this city, at the expense of citizens. While I am sure the member for Canberra and member for Fenner like to wax lyrical, in the end the Labor Party is a critical part of this drift of power away from citizens, families and communities—and even away from state capitals—and to Canberra. I agree: we need to take it back. And we need to take it back every step of the way and fight for it every step of the way, because, in practice, that's what this resolution is about. A territory is not a state, but the people who live in the ACT are sovereign and able to determine their own lives and their own destinies. While the Commonwealth may, under the Constitution, have the power to override it, this should not be in a framework of competition of laws which gives citizens choice about where they live.
Of course, this issue is one of many that the federal parliament has overruled. The reality is that it is not correct that, as the member for Canberra outlined, the fastest way to marriage equality was to allow the ACT the power to legislate; they don't have that power to legislate. We know full well the High Court actually overruled them and found that to be a misgiving or a misdeed. The reality is that it was a decision of the federal parliament, and the fastest way to marriage equality was actually for the opposition to stop blocking a pathway, taken to an election, for people to have their say. That was then respected by the parliament of this country. So we can effect any outline we want; that is the reality.
Regardless, we're not talking about that issue; we're talking about the right of the people of the Australian Capital Territory to decide their own destiny. As I've said already, I took it to my preselection. When I was asked what my view was of people's right to die with dignity, I said I was in favour of it. When I have been asked in the community what my view is, it has been consistent and exactly the same. The question to me has only ever been about the safeguards and the mechanisms by which it is achieved, and that is not a decision for this parliament; it is a decision for the Australian Capital Territory, whether or not I agree with their legislation. If their legislation is wrong, it is their decision to fix it, not our job to override it. I make no bones about that.
Just to continue on with the point of this not being just a philosophy but in practice, I will share a speech from the member for Mornington, David Morris, that was made in the debate in the Victorian parliament. It reflects the sentiment and the attitude that I believe. In the discussion on 18 October 2017 on their voluntary assisted dying bill, he said:
If the bill actually proposed a legal framework for suicide — suicide on demand, as some people have characterised it — then I would dismiss the bill out of hand. But that is not what is proposed.
What is proposed is that terminally ill patients — patients who will, without question, die within months, potentially suffer enormous pain and suffer undoubted indignities — be given the choice to depart this world on their own terms and in their own time. Should the bill pass the second-reading stage there will be ample opportunity to consider the minutiae, but in this debate I think there is one central decision to be made: to what extent does the Parliament believe an individual should be able to determine their own destiny?
I believe in freedom of the individual. I believe in freedom of religion, freedom of speech, free assembly, freedom of the press and, of course, free markets. I also believe that it is not tenable to claim to support individual freedoms and then to presume to impose through the law your own moral and ethical code. Those are matters for the individual, not for the Parliament.
Paternalism once had its place in this state—
meaning Victoria. It should not in the future.
It's not often you have the opportunity to speak on the same issue in both chambers. At its essence, this motion is about whether citizens living in the territories should have the same right through their logical legislatures as citizens in the states to make their own laws. In my view, there can be no doubt the answer to that question is yes.
The grant of self-government to Australia's two populous territories recognised that the people of the territories deserve the same democratic rights as people living in the states. There were exceptions to the powers of the Legislative Assembly, but these reflected for the most part either limitations that the Constitution itself placed on the states or matters that the states had agreed should be dealt with by the Commonwealth. For example, the Legislative Assembly was not to have the power to laws with regard to the raising or maintaining of any naval, military or air force or with regard to the coining of money, despite being home to the Royal Australian Mint.
Similarly, the act excluded the power to make laws with respect to the classification of materials for the purposes of censorship, which is already the subject of a national scheme under which classification was the responsibility of the Commonwealth. In each case, common sense dictated that these matters should be solely in the domain of the parliament of Australia. In effect, the ACT was not being placed in a position any different to that of the states.
That leaves two further original exceptions: the acquisition of property other than on just terms and the provision by the AFP of police services in relation to the territories. The first of these was based on a limitation imposed on parliament by the Constitution, while the second reflected the fact that the AFP are under the direction of the Commonwealth minister and policing services in the ACT are the subject of an agreement between the Commonwealth and the territory. That bill was passed with bipartisan support. While there was some discussion around the detail, the record is clear that across the political spectrum there was agreement that the lawmaking powers of the ACT Legislative Assembly and the Northern Territory assembly should be equivalent to those of a state parliament.
This remained the case until the passage of the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997, which removed from the ACT Legislative Assembly and the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly the power to make laws with regard to euthanasia or voluntary assisted dying. In doing so, that act introduced in that it remained completely open to any state parliament to pass such laws.
The motion before us supports restoring the constitutional position that existed from the time self-government was introduced into each of the territories until the passage of the Euthanasia Laws Act. It will be a matter for each of the territories to decide whether and in what form any laws should be passed in this area, just as it is and has always been for each of the states. Of course, there are some who may object that the ACT and the Northern Territory are not states and that their legislatures should not have the same powers as state parliaments. Of course it's true that self-government exists only because of acts of this parliament, not by way of constitutional right, and it's within the powers of this parliament to amend the self-government acts if it sees fit. However, parliament, having made its decision on the general principle that self-government ought to be granted to the people of the ACT and Northern Territory, would be wrong to pick and choose matters for which we would deny citizens in the territories the right to govern themselves. Some of us may be unhappy with the decisions made by the people of the territory, but, if we support the principle of self-determination, we accept their decisions and do not seek to substitute our own any more than we would where the same decision is made by the parliament of a state. Former Senator Humphries said in 2006, when he crossed the floor to oppose the Howard government's disallowance of the ACT Civil Unions Act:
… we may not agree with the ACT's legislative choices, but we have an obligation to respect them where they are democratically made
I acknowledge that the legislation on euthanasia, or voluntary assisted dying, is an issue that provokes strong passions, with firmly held opinions from opposing points of view. That's understandable, since the issues relate to matters of life and death and pain and suffering, and because we have a critical role to ensure we protect the vulnerable. My own personal view is not in support of the legalisation of euthanasia. However, with all its gravity, this is not something that should be restricted from consideration by the ACT and Northern Territory legislative assemblies.
We in the territories have been fighting to restore our rights for a long time. For a quarter of a century, we've been barred from fully enjoying the same democratic rights as Australians living in the states. It's ridiculous that we're still forced to explain why people living in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are worthy of having rights equal to those of other Australians, yet here we are.
It was in 1997 that Kevin Andrews, the member for Menzies, decided to stop the NT and the ACT from legislating on euthanasia, and there's still quite a bit of anger today in the Territory about the passing of that Andrews bill. This recent front page from the NT News says it all: 'Give us back our rights'. The Northern Territory was the first jurisdiction in the world to legislate for euthanasia. For nine months, the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act was law, during which time four people chose to die with medical assistance. Honourable members may remember a movie called Last Cab to Darwin that explained what was happening at that time. The member for Menzies was successfully in inserting a clause into the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 to prevent the NT from making laws in respect of euthanasia. The vast majority of Territorians would like to see that clause overturned. There are almost three-quarters of a million people living across our two territories—three-quarters of a million who have been told for 24 years that they don't get to participate in the same kind of democracy as all other Australians.
So why is this coalition government, those opposite, so afraid to let Australians in the territories have their say on the issue? This isn't about right to die legislation; it's about equal rights for our citizens. Overturning the Andrews bill doesn't mean that the NT or the ACT will be forced into legislating on euthanasia; all it means is that the elected representatives of the territories may choose to consider the matter, taking on board the arguments and feelings for and against the issue by their constituents. For the past 20 years, about four in five Australians have supported doctor-led voluntary assisted dying. The public mood has shifted to the point where it is now being legalised in Victoria and WA; it was rejected by New South Wales and SA and is being considered by Queensland and Tasmania. This is exactly as it should be. Australians should be able to reflect on this matter and decide if they support it or not.
Three years ago, my colleague and friend Andrew Leigh, the member for Fenner, and I brought forward a bill to restore the rights of the territories. We were seeking to restore the democratic rights of citizens in the territories by removing a constraint on the legislative authority of their elected representatives which does not exist anywhere else in Australia. I want to put on the record my thanks to all the elected members, at least on our side, who supported that movement for this change. However, the government blocked debate on that bill. They did the same thing in the previous term.
Senators in this place have been debating and voting on related legislation, but those of us on this side of the building in the House of Representatives have been prevented from expressing our views. Australians deserve a government that will consider such matters in a mature and considered way, no matter where they live. Those opposite must explain to all Australians and to territorians in particular why they are viewed as second-class citizens in our nation. As long as the Andrews bill remains in force, the government is explicitly telling territorians, whether it is here in the ACT or in our Northern Territory, that they are less than the rest. This government is telling territorians that their rights are not important. This government is telling all Australians that discrimination of this sort against certain groups of its own citizens is acceptable. I don't think that will stand up in the court of public opinion. The government must immediately commit to overturning the Andrews bill and must send a clear message to territorians that it hears their concerns and values them equally to all other Australian citizens.
Debate adjourned.
I move:
That this House:
(1) acknowledges that under the Government, we have seen:
(a) a record eight consecutive quarters of year-on-year consumer price index reductions in retail electricity prices; and
(b) wholesale electricity prices fall for 17 months in a row; and
(2) welcomes the Government's strong action to ensure that Australian households and businesses have access to affordable, reliable and secure electricity.
The government is focusing on delivering affordable, reliable and secure electricity for Australian households and businesses while at the same time reducing emissions. This is central to our ongoing economic recovery and will support jobs, productivity and economic growth. We are investing $215.4 million in the delivery of affordable, reliable power across Australia. This plan is working. We have seen a record nine consecutive quarters of year-on-year CPI reductions in retail electricity prices, with household electricity costs falling by 11. 2 per cent compared to the same time last year. We have seen wholesale electricity prices fall for 19 months in a row from when we introduced the big-stick legislation in September 2019 through to the end of March this year. Quarterly prices are now at their lowest level in nine years, averaging $34 per megawatt hour across the National Electricity Market in the March quarter. That's more than 48 per cent lower than the same quarter in 2020, 74 per cent lower than in 2019 and the lowest March quarter wholesale price since 2012. In comparison, under Labor we saw 23 consecutive quarters of year-on-year increases. Our default market offer reforms mean that an average residential customer that was on the highest standing offers prior to the introduction of the DMO could now be up to $780 a year better off, while average small-business customers could be up to $3,105 a year better off.
In my home state of Tasmania, energy customers look set to see a four per cent drop in their electricity bills over the next three years, paying $70 less in 2023 than today. The Australian Energy Market Commission Residential electricity price trends report released at the end of 2020 shows that lower wholesale and environmental costs are behind the shift. Ninety eight per cent of Tasmanians are on regulated standing offers set each year by the Office of the Tasmanian Economic Regulator, with a cap set by the state government reflecting the Hobart consumer price index. The report showed that the costs were falling across two drivers of Tasmanian consumer bills over the period from the financial year 2020 to 2023. Wholesale costs are expected to go down by nearly 19 per cent or about $140 over the reporting period. This is an annual average drop of 6.6 per cent and is driven by new generation supply entering the National Electricity Market and lower gas prices. Environmental costs are also expected to drop by 11 per cent, or nearly $20, an annual average decrease of 3.8 per cent. This result is due to a decrease in large scale Renewable Energy Target costs as more renewable generation comes online.
Falls in electricity prices and ensuring our communities have access to reliable power sources is significantly helped by investment into areas such as renewable power. In our state, the Marinus Link and Battery of the Nation pumped hydro projects are great examples of what federal government investment can do through the $1 billion Grid Reliability Fund. This fund will not only ensure that our nation's world-leading deployment of renewables is integrated and backed up; it's ensuring jobs for Australian workers, lower emissions, a more reliable and secure energy market and lower prices for consumers.
Marinus Link will provide a second Bass interconnector between Tasmania and Victoria, which will increase energy exchange throughout the National Electricity Market as Australia continues to transition to cleaner energy. The project has also been assessed to be commercially viable and could deliver a $1 billion boost to Tasmania's economy through construction and operation. It's an incredible opportunity for our state as we look to invest in technologies to create a cleaner, sustainable energy market which will also benefit mainland energy users.
Battery of the Nation is a Hydro Tasmania project that's investigating and building our island's capacity as a hydro battery. It's about making better use of existing hydro power and power stations, while enhancing our ability to support the National Electricity Market with new infrastructure like pumped hydro power stations. Battery of the Nation is a key part of the solution needed to support a national energy market in transition. It will deliver multiple benefits to our state, giving Tasmanians the lowest possible power prices, creating much-needed jobs in regional areas and bringing broad economic benefit to Tasmania. This will ensure a safe, reliable, low-cost energy supply for all Tasmanians and thousands of megawatts of clean power to the mainland for a sustainable future we can all enjoy. On this side of the House, we're delivering the affordable, reliable power that Australians rely on.
Is the motion seconded?
I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
This motion proves how out of touch the Morrison government is with the lives of Australian households and small businesses. In this motion the government are congratulating themselves, saying that the Australian people should be grateful to them for a reduction in electricity prices. They are congratulating themselves, claiming that Australian households' and small businesses' electricity costs—
Honourable members interjecting—
The member will pause for a moment. I'm not going to tolerate that level of noise while somebody is trying to speak to the chamber.
That's not what households and small businesses that I talk to are telling me. For the last eight years, small businesses' and consumers' electricity costs have kept going up and up. Australia now has some of the highest electricity costs in the world. Couple that with the fact that, for households, wages aren't increasing, and there is pressure on family budgets associated with the cost of child care, health insurance and transport, particularly with all the tolls in New South Wales. Small businesses are struggling, with electricity costs being the major reason they are struggling.
Why is all this happening? It's happening because the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has no plan for the electricity industry. They've tried to develop one—they've tried on several occasions—but they keep getting knocked off. Remember the National Energy Guarantee or the big stick policies? All of those have hit the fence, like many of the prime ministers that tried to introduce them. Electricity assets are owned by the private sector, who have not been investing in new generation assets due to a lack of certainty from this government about the policy direction it was going to put in place for the nation.
In recent years the private sector has basically said: 'We're not going to wait for government anymore; they are completely hopeless. We're just going to invest ourselves.' They've started investing in renewable energy projects—in solar, in wind, in hydrogen and in batteries. Why are they doing this? Because the people that invest in these companies, that own these companies, know that fossil fuels are a bad investment. They know that fossil fuels are the way of the past and that the future is in technology and in renewables, to produce more energy more cheaply. And that is what is occurring. That's why you're seeing many more solar and wind farm projects getting up, but no-one is investing in fossil fuel technology, because it's becoming outdated technology. The private sector also knows that investing in fossil fuels is a very risky investment now. Firstly, financial institutions won't finance them, and, secondly, government regulation is reducing the use of fossil fuels, to meet international commitments to reduce carbon pollution. So governments are positioning themselves to take advantage of the shift to new technology and to renewable energy.
The question for this government is: How do we position Australia to take advantage of the shift in international energy markets that's occurring to renewables? How do we make a gradual shift to renewable energy to encourage investment in this new technology that is renewable to create jobs? This is why Labor has instituted a policy of new energy apprenticeships to provide a pathway for training in new skills and new technology that will be the jobs of the future. How do we reduce electricity and other energy costs? The way to do that is to invest in the cheapest technology possible, and that cheap technology is in renewables. But this government continues to ignore that trend internationally and swim against the tide. We've seen that with their recent announcement of an investment in a new gas-fired plant at Kurri Kurri. The government is going to build an asset that the private sector says there's no need for. If there were a need for this, don't you think that the private sector would build it? Of course they would. But they're not going to because there's no need for it. This is going to be a $600 million investment by this government that will be used two per cent of the time. And this government want to congratulate themselves for saying that they've reduced the electricity costs when their lack of a plan has, in reality, meant that electricity prices for small businesses in particular and for households have just kept going up and up and up. Because the government don't have a plan and because the government ignore the reality, Australians are continuing to pay too much for their electricity.
The question before the chair is that the motion be agreed to. Before the member for Grey takes his time to speak, I will again reiterate: I'm not going to have members be shouted down by both sides of the chamber having a conversation with each other. The member for Grey.
I'm amazed by the last speaker's comments, which, on the one hand are decrying the lack of government policy and the lack of investment in electricity and then on the other hand shouting from the rooftops how magnificent it is that all these people are investing in renewable electricity.
Sometimes we learn from history, and we should learn from history. In South Australia, we've had quite a long and painful history in the provision of electricity prices. When I say 'long', the last seven or eight years have been quite problematic. I did some quick research this morning before rising to speak here. In February 2015, the wholesale electricity price in South Australia was $44. A month later it was $33. This is an average price for the month. In February 2016, it was $40, and then in March, it was $55. Then, in May 2016, the Northern Power Station closed. It closed because it was no longer economical, with a price of production of around $65 or $70 a megawatt hour. It was becoming increasingly unprofitable for them to supply electricity on a reduced number of days of the year because the renewable energy market had undermined that access to the market. So that closed and, by February 2017, the average price of electricity in South Australia was $179. In March, it was $122, so it had gone up by $80 a megawatt hour—by 130 per cent. In February 2018, it was $109. and then it was down to $80 in March. Perhaps the worst was over. In February 2019, it was $110, and then in March, it was $131. Then the federal government waved a big stick at the gas companies and said: 'You must produce more gas. You are restricting flow to the market.' That had a remarkable effect. By February the next year, it was back down to $64 and then $47 in March. Then this year, it was $22 a megawatt hour in February and $68 in March. It just cannot be that these two events are completely separate. Waving the big stick has made gas more available in Australia and has brought down the price of electricity, which is why we have now seen 18 consecutive months of a drop in retail prices for Australians, at least in the south-eastern electricity market.
There are some very important points in this. In that time in South Australia, there have been other things happen. There have been some good things happen. There has been a big investment in renewables and there has been investment in a couple of batteries. One is called the 'big battery'. That does a very good job in frequency modulation, but it doesn't supply base-load electricity. It doesn't supply that momentum to the electricity grid that it needs to sustain reliable supply of electricity. Only two months ago in South Australia, AEMO was moved to shut down rooftop supply. It was supplying 70 per cent of a thin market. It just becomes unstable on the grid.
We've got over 2,000 megawatts of installed capacity of wind in South Australia but AEMO limits those wind farms to 1,200 megawatts, because they know to bring on any more than that is too unstable for the grid. The point I'm making here is that renewables are the way forward but they cannot be the way forward unless there is an underlying strength in the generation market that enables them to survive. I am talking about my understanding of the electricity market and where the electrons have to be when you turn the switch on in Melbourne so your lights work. That is what needs to be understood in this game. And that can be provided by batteries, but at this stage batteries are very good for frequency modulation and about 10 times too expensive for deep storage. They're very fine if you want electricity on demand for an hour but an absolute disaster if you need it for three days.
Where can we find enough energy to be able to turn on, in the short term, for three, five, seven days when we are becalmed, as we often are in southern Australia through February, March and April? You find it in gas. That's where the answer is. And that's why the federal government's moves, firstly, in waving the big stick and now in ensuring that we will have a gas underlying insurance to the market, which is so important to the advancement of the renewable electricity grid. Renewables cannot keep expanding unless they have back-up technologies. We need to go to the cheapest, most useable forms of those back-up technologies for them to work. That's why electricity prices in Australia have come down over the last 18 months.
It is always good get up to talk about energy, energy prices and renewable energy under this government, because every time you get up and speak they give you new material, new things, to just shake your head at in disbelief. The record of those opposite is an absolute cluster of mess, policy tangents and ridiculous ideology in slowing down the development of renewable energy in this country. It is not just me saying that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy in this country. It's actually the government's own energy agency, AEMO. In all of their reports AEMO says the cheapest form of energy in this country is solar and wind, backed and firmed by some form of dispatchable power, some form of storage. But the cheapest form of firmed energy also included in batteries or hydro or whatever—yes, there are other forms of firming power that the government can use that are still cheaper than developing new coal-fired power stations.
But the government wasted $4 million on the Collinsville coal-fired power station. That thing is not going to get built. To the people of Collinsville: you have been sold a complete dud, a lemon, by this government willing to appease the extreme Right of their party, who doesn't even believe in climate change, in order to come up with these ridiculous economic proposals like that. Four million dollars for the Collinsville coal-fired power station is just absurd. If they actually build it it's going to drive up power prices. If they were actually to go through it, it would cause $17 billion of government liability, because that would be the only customer that that plant would have when the rest of the market will be using the much cheaper form of renewable energy.
But it doesn't end there. Last week we had the minister for energy—he's put aside his wars with Clover Moore. He's decided he's going to stop downloading documents off the City of Sydney website and he is going to concentrate on his portfolio. He's not going to bring in a national energy policy—no, no, no. That would be far too difficult for this energy minister. We're not going bring in something that's going to encourage the private sector to invest in the Australian market, to bring forward the amount of renewable energy capacity and potential in this country, to bring down power prices—no, no, no. That would be too difficult for the minister in charge of the energy portfolio. What does our minister for energy decide to do?
He decides to spend $600 million to build a gas-fired power station that, it is estimated, would run around two per cent of the time and, once it is constructed, would employ 10 people, and he pretends that this is some sort of brilliant solution to our energy needs. This is a colossal waste of money.
But the kicker is that, as always with this energy minister, you've got to look one layer deeper. What's the actual story behind this? Well, surprise, surprise: this piece of land is owned by a gentleman who is a Liberal Party donor. I'm not going to do him the honour of putting his name in Hansard, but you can google this fellow. There have been well-documented involvements and dealings, and there have been financial benefits to the Liberal Party thanks to this fellow. So they're going to spend $600 million building a gas-fired power station that's not going to deliver jobs for the region, on land owned by a guy who donates significant amounts of money to the Liberal Party. This stinks.
This isn't even going to the fact to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation bill has completely disappeared off our shelves. This is the very government organisation that is designed to stimulate renewable energy, bring down electricity prices and give the Australian public more investment in good, financially viable clean energy projects. What did the government try to do? They tried to gut the act, and then, of course, the member for New England, the gift that keeps on giving, decided to bring forward amendments that were so unpalatable, so far beyond the realm of reasonableness, that not even his own government could support them. So they've completely ripped out that bill from the parliament.
This government is a joke when it comes to energy prices. This government is a joke when it comes to energy policy. All they are interested in doing is supporting their Liberal mates, and the Australian people are going to be paying for it. The Australian people will be paying higher energy prices, and we won't be tackling climate change as we should.
There's much I could say in response to that, but I shan't waste my time. I would much rather talk about what the government is actually doing for Australians and, more importantly, for the constituents of my electorate of Forde. I'm very pleased to speak on this motion, because the Australian government has, through its policies over the past few years, succeeded in seeing electricity prices come down. There are more affordable electricity prices for households and, importantly, more affordable electricity prices for businesses so that they can continue to grow and prosper and employ Australians, all whilst reducing our emissions and meeting our targets in that space. Household electricity prices are some 11.2 per cent lower than they were a year ago, and wholesale prices on the national energy market are at their lowest levels in six years. Keeping electricity prices low has been central to our ongoing economic recovery and will support jobs, productivity and economic growth.
I note, Madam Deputy Speaker Bird, that, as you well know, when you were last in government we had the carbon tax. One of the first acts of this government after we came into power in 2013 was to get rid of things like the carbon tax, and that assisted in reducing the cost of living for everyday Australians. Our default market offer reforms mean that average residential customers who were on the highest standing offers prior to the introduction of the default market offer will now be some $780 a year better off, while the average small business customer could be up to $3,105 a year better off. These are direct savings to households and to businesses.
I want to congratulate the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction and the government for the work that we are continuing to do to find ways to reduce electricity prices, because we know that, when we have an economy that's based on affordable, reliable power, business in this country can grow and prosper, and that is exactly what we need to occur in this country as we come out of the coronavirus pandemic and the impacts of that. When I have a look at businesses like Stoddart at Ormeau, ATP Science at Loganholme, Holmwood Highgate—a large manufacturing businesses that does a lot of welding, with high energy use—and many other such businesses across my electorate of Forde, I see that the importance of lower electricity prices cannot be overstated.
But it's not just those big businesses; small businesses—our cafes, our restaurants—also benefit from lower electricity prices. Cheaper electricity is also supported by a range of other measures in the budget, and over the past 12 months during the coronavirus pandemic. Measures such as JobKeeper, the extended loss carry back and the instant asset write-off: all of those things assist businesses to grow and prosper and employ Australians. And, as we've seen, it has been a tremendous success. We know that energy, and affordable energy, is critical to ensuring that we have a sustainable economy moving forward.
In addition, we're providing $49.3 million for battery and microgrid projects. Recently, I was pleased to officially open the new factory for Lithium Battery Systems, a battery manufacturer who are doing excellent work in my electorate. They design lithium batteries for marine equipment, motor homes, camper trailers, boats, golf carts—supporting a whole range of activities that allow people to go and enjoy a holiday, go and enjoy time away and get off the grid. One of their really interesting projects, which they did a couple of years ago, was fitting out a bus, called Sleepbus, in Melbourne. Sleepbus allows people who are homeless to sleep in the bus overnight and have a safe, warm place to sleep. It was through their work with that company that they developed a lithium battery system to ensure that Sleepbus can provide a warm, safe, comfortable bed for those who need it. It's just another example of what this government is doing. (Time expired)
I'm pleased to have this opportunity to speak to the motion moved by the member for Bass, because, personally, I find it a bit rich that the Morrison government is congratulating itself on its so-called strong action on electricity prices. In the past 12 months, energy consumption in Australian households rose 15 per cent to 20 per cent due to the pandemic. Australians were hit with a double-whammy of winter heating bills combined with higher energy usage due to spending more time at home. In June last year, the average household increased power use by 105 per cent. That effectively doubled power bills. The only choices for households are to dramatically reduce power, and that means less heating in a cold winter; spend less on other essentials in order to pay the higher power bill; or go into energy debt, effectively putting power bills on the credit card. The Australian Energy Regulator did in fact report a steep rise in energy debt over 2020. Residential debts to energy retailers rose 32 per cent, and, since March last year, small-business debt to retailers increased 22 per cent. Australians now owe almost $200 million to energy retailers as a result of power prices.
In Tasmania, the Economic Regulator's Energy in Tasmania 2019-20 report shows the proportion of residential and small-business customers repaying a power bill debt in Tasmania has doubled since the last reporting period. At the end of June 2020, 7,655 Tasmanian households and 404 small businesses were struggling to pay their electricity bills. In the 2019-20 financial year Tasmanian retailer Aurora Energy, a government business enterprise, had 500 customers enrolled in its hardship program. Inexplicably, $3.6 million of Aurora's $5 million COVID customer support fund to assist people with power bills during a pandemic remains unspent. So, the Morrison government's self-love and boasting about a fall in wholesale electricity prices does not mean much when you're still struggling to pay your bill every month. If things are so great, why is life still so hard for so many Australians: young families trying to keep ahead of mounting bills; pensioners literally scraping pennies together? And we know that the protections established to protect customers from disconnection are coming to an end, despite the pandemic still being with us.
Disconnection isn't just a matter of turning the lights off; poor people lose the food in their freezer, there is no warm shower for the kids before school and there is no hot meal at the end of the day. The fact that people can't afford to pay their power bill tells you what sort of financial stress they are already in. Disconnection makes life so much harder—harder to raise the kids, harder to get a job, harder to get to and from work. It's just not good enough for the member for Bass to boast about her government's record on electricity when for the past eight long years the Liberal government has hurt Tasmania's interests by delaying the inevitable move to renewable energy production and storage. After 22 attempts, this government still has no energy policy. All we have is a slogan about a big stick from a minister who is considered a running joke.
In December 2020 the Australian Energy Market Commission published its annual residential electricity price trends report. This report notes that 'residential electricity prices and bills are expected to decrease until 2021-22'. But what it also says, and what the member for Bass fails to mention in her motion, is that residential electricity prices and bills are expected to rise again in the 2022-23 reporting year, following the closure of the Liddell power station. That's because this government has failed to show leadership on energy policy. At the same time as the International Energy Agency is calling for an end to the construction of fossil fuel projects, this backward government is announcing it will spend $600 billion of Australian taxpayers' money building a fossil fuel fired plant to run two per cent of the time—a power plant that the private energy market won't touch.
Welcome to Scotty's soviet republic of 1974, where sound economics and expertise are considered politically incorrect. What's next? A factory to build Morrison's Moscovitch automobiles? The Prime Minister's hand-picked chair of the Energy Security Board says the gas-fired project does not stack up because it's expensive power. This nation demands leadership, and that means an acknowledgement that Australia's energy future is in renewable energy production and storage like Tasmania will provide.
I take pleasure in supporting the member for Bass's motion. If I talk about Queensland, Queensland still has eight coal-fired power stations operating in the state. Callide B has a 700-megawatt capacity; Callide C is 810 megawatts; and Gladstone, the only privately owned power station in Queensland, is the biggest, with 1680 megawatts. It's owned by Rio Tinto 42 per cent, an American company 30 per cent and a consortium of other owners. This power station was sold by the Labor Queensland government to private enterprise some 20 years ago. This power station has probably at least another—
A division having been called in the House of Representatives—
Sitting suspended from 12 : 03 to 12 : 19
I was listing the number of coal-fired power stations in Queensland and I got as far as Gladstone, which is the only privately owned power station in Queensland. It is partly owned, 42 per cent, by Rio Tinto, and 30 per cent by NRG, an American company. The rest is owned by a consortium of owners. This power station was built in the late 1970s and unless upgrades are put in by Rio and its partners its life is due to expire in about 2028. But Rio assures me that this power station will keep going well into the 2048 period. Kogan Creek is the latest power station to be built in Queensland. It's the closest we have to an HELE plant. It's a 750-watt power station. Millmerran is another one. Stanwell, just outside of Rockhampton, is 1,445 megawatts, Tarong is 1,400 and Tarong North is 443.
Because of these coal-fired power stations, we are sending power into New South Wales. If you look at the chart, today 740 megs are going across the border. What happened three weeks ago? New South Wales threatened to run out of power. The Tomago Aluminium plant had to shut down three times. Now, I'm not knocking—
An honourable member interjecting—
Yes, and they had to cut back their cells. The point is I'm not knocking renewables—I think there's a place for renewables—but that does not displace coal-fired dispatchable energy. It cannot take the place of coal-fired power stations. Gas is an alternative, but coal is still the king when it comes to coal-fired power stations. That's why we're seeing that 742 megawatts going to New South Wales today.
There is another thing our consumers have to contend with, and I'll quote from the Biggenden abattoir in my electorate. His bill is about $20,000 a month. Half of that, 50 per cent, $10,000, is electricity used. The other $10,000 goes to fixed costs, and that is to pay for the poles and wires. He pays that every month. That is $10,000 of network charges for his power. That's half his bill. When it came to putting power on to his abattoir, he had to doze his own line and put in about three power poles from the main source. Yet, for the effort he put in to hook that up to the main line, it's costing him $10,000 a month, and that has gone on for many years, with no sign of CS Energy or the power grid giving up that charge. So he's faced with network charges of $10,000 a month, which is $120,000 a year. That's the point I'd like to make about that. He's got some of his own solar on the roof— (Time expired)
There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
I thank the member for Macnamara for moving this very important motion and for the opportunity to add my voice to this pressing issue. Is it really too much to ask that every Australian have a home or that every Australian have a roof over their head? Is it too much to ask that every Australian be afforded the right to provide shelter for their family? Safety and shelter are fundamental human rights, yet they have been increasingly commodified. You can have them only if you can afford them, and affording shelter in Australia is becoming more and more expensive.
Australia is in the grip of a national housing crisis. It affects our cities and our regions. In Dodges Ferry, a town in my electorate that used to be an affordable weekend getaway village of shacks, the median price is $460,000. That's a 79.7 per cent increase in five years. In New Norfolk, a town of forestry and factory workers, the median price has risen by 22.8 per cent to now sit above $350,000. On the face of it, this is good news for homeowners. We all get excited when we see our homes rise in value—it increases our equity. But what happens when you want to sell and take advantage of the added value? You still have to buy somewhere else to live, and the place you have your eye on has generally increased in value along the same trajectory, so there's often no more money in your pocket. Of course, if you stay put you can draw on the extra equity in your home to buy a caravan or go on a holiday, but that adds debt. Increasingly, many of us with a mortgage and a rising home value are, I am sure, drawing on our own equity to help our kids afford a deposit, because, increasingly, it is impossible for them to do it alone.
The steeply rising cost of housing is bad news for the young couples searching for their first home. They struggle to keep up with ever-rising deposits. For example, Sydney prices rose $100,000 in just three months recently. Many young homebuyers will have to find another $20,000 for a deposit. How long will it take them to save that? And, by the time they do, prices will have gone up again. It's a never-ending and soul-destroying chase. It now takes Tasmanians, on average, 8.4 years to save the 20 per cent deposit needed for a home loan. A graduate who starts saving at 21 will be close to 30 by the time they get the keys. It's no wonder people are putting off having children and having fewer of them.
And it's not as if the rental market provides any relief. Rents are at record highs—in many cases more expensive than servicing a mortgage—and rentals are increasingly scarce. Good luck trying to save for a mortgage deposit at the same time as you're paying massive rent—especially in Tasmania, where incomes are 13 per cent lower than on the mainland.
What it all boils down to is a failure of government policy and political leadership. The Tasmanian Liberal Premier doesn't even acknowledge that there is a housing crisis in our state. He must exist in a parallel universe of privilege. It is obvious to anyone with eyes to see. There are close to 4,000 people on Tasmania's emergency housing list, and our Premier shrugs his shoulders as if it's not his problem. The answer is simple: Australia needs to build more houses. And a Labor government will make it happen. Labor's Housing Australia Future Fund, announced by the Labor leader in his budget reply speech, has the capacity to even the scales. It is the tool with which a Labor government will tackle this issue. We will build 20,000 social housing properties and 10,000 affordable housing properties for frontline workers. We will invest $200 million in the cost of maintaining and improving housing in remote Indigenous communities. We will invest $100 million in crisis housing options for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and older women on low incomes, who are at greater risk of homelessness. And we will invest $30 million to build more housing and fund specialist services for veterans who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
Madam Deputy Speaker, as we know, the answer to the housing crisis for young people is not to mortgage their future retirement.
Government members interjecting—
You don't earn a house today by living in poverty in retirement, as some in this place would have us belief. We know that is not the way forward. You don't raid your superannuation in order to get a house deposit. We need to lift wages—that's the key.
Mr Tim Wilson interjecting—
The Housing Australia Future Fund is Labor's plan to ensure that every Australian has a roof over their head. Under Labor, no Australian, young or old, gets left behind.
For those who weren't in the chamber earlier, I did indicate that I will intervene if people, from either side, have too loud a conversation across the chamber. That perhaps went a bit close to that. I now give the call to the member for Goldstein.
I'm elated to speak on this motion, because we saw the choice between the coalition and the Labor Party in the recent budget and the budget reply. In the budget reply by the opposition leader we saw a man committed to putting bandaids over our housing system. I agree that there are a number of problems with our housing market. When people can't afford to own their own home, they use private rentals. When they can't afford private rentals, they then have to go and seek assistance from social housing. The focus from the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party is on what we need to do to fix the issues of social housing. It is not to fix the challenges in the private market and higher private ownership, not to fix the problems in terms of private rental, but to fix the problems at the bottom. It's a bandaid that won't deliver long-term solutions for young Australians.
In comparison, the focus of a Liberal government is how we empower young Australians to be able to own their own home: by making sure that this parliament understands that the most important financial decision that any Australian can make is to own their own home. There are, of course, other important financial decisions such as superannuation, but they are not the most important factor. They are the second most important. The current law forces people to put the second-most-important financial decision of their life over their most important financial decision of their life.
And what's been the consequence? The data is clear. In 1980 the average age at which Australians purchased their first home was 24 years old. Today it is 36. We have had young Australians at the time of their life where they have low wages, as they are trying to build up their career, being forced to take 10 per cent of their savings and force it into funds controlled by members of the opposition's mates. And the consequence has been it's harder for them to save up their deposit so they can buy their own home. Of course, if you already own your own home, everything is just peachy because prices keep going up. But young Australians are being betrayed by the opposition, because the opposition are prioritising their own interests and their own control of people's capital ahead of empowering young Australians.
That's fundamentally the choice and the divide between this government and the Labor Party. They want indentured renters; we want empowered owners, and we make no apology about it. That is why we should support home first, super second. The member previously spoke about the problems young Australians have in saving their deposit. I agree with him. Young Australians are finding it hard because their disposable income is being taken from them. It is being forced into funds which they can't then access to buy their own home. An average young Australian couple between the age of 30 and 35 has $76,000 saved up in superannuation which could be utilised towards a deposit to buy their own home. In some areas of the community, they will need more money than that, but savings plus super—and that is what super is: savings—will enable them to bring it forward and buy earlier and cheaper. That means they're not paying forgone rent, they're not paying other costs and they are able to own their own home, which is the foundation of their economic security in their working life and their retirement.
But that, of course, is not what the Labor Party wants. They would rather Australians of any age save for a home after they've prioritised their super rather than putting home first and super second. It is simply a fallacy. Young Australians can save for their retirement once they buy their own home. Australians cannot save for a home in retirement, and that is the absurdity of the model we have now: to put superannuation ahead of homeownership.
Now, I know the Labor Party don't support homeownership. I know in their hearts they actually support an indentured nation of people who are renters. This is not the first time we have had this divide. In 1949, the great political divide between Ben Chifley and Sir Robert Menzies started a watershed of Liberal and coalition governments Ben Chifley argued how we should use federal-state housing agreements to build housing that returned soldiers could rent. Menzies used those agreements and made it crystal clear in his election speeches that those federal-state housing agreements should be used to build houses so that Australians could own. Returned service soldiers could own their own home and then have an investment in the future of the country. They turned little platoons into little capitalists. That's the foundation on which we build the country: from the citizen, the family and community up, not from Canberra and fund managers down.
Housing is a human right. Without an address, getting a job is impossible. How can you turn up for an interview and look professional if you are sleeping rough? But too many Australians are currently experiencing rental stress or overcrowding, are couch surfing or have to sleep rough. The cost of renting was already on the rise before the pandemic. The pandemic has made the rising costs more obvious, particularly with the unemployment queue. It's also become more difficult for people that need secure housing unexpectedly. This crisis accommodation is for victims of domestic violence and homelessness. Last year 55 women were killed in the domestic setting. There are more people experiencing homelessness than ever before in Australia, and the forecast is that it's to get worse. This morning on the lawns of Parliament House there was a display of 150 dresses, each one representing a woman who has died at the hands of a current or former partner. This is a stark representation of what happens when there is nowhere safe to go.
There is a lack of affordable rentals in every town and city in Australia and, without affordable housing, you can't be safe. Homelessness services are seeing increased demand in response to the economic impacts of the pandemic. These specialist services provided support for more than 290,000 vulnerable people in the last two years. But, sadly, those same services have turned away nearly 100,000. That's almost 260 people a day. A recent report revealed only a third of people placed in temporary accommodation at the height of the pandemic have moved into permanent accommodation, meaning they've returned to their unacceptable situations from before the pandemic.
The government's answer to this is to cut $56.7 million from the equal remuneration fund, reducing homelessness services. This is a policy failure. The lack of a strong federal government housing policy demonstrates a lack of leadership. The Productivity Commission report revealed there are fewer public housing dwellings in Australia now than there were 10 years ago. Building and repairing social housing is what Australia needs to house people and to stimulate the economy and to provide jobs. By the end of the last year, and continuing into this year, 25 per cent of Australia's social housing needed urgent repairs and maintenance. That's more than 100,000 homes.
Labor bought this issue up during the last budget in October. It was a problem then and, six months later, not much has changed. More importantly, it's a problem that we can fix. Investing in social housing can rebuild our workforce through the pandemic. Investment in social housing would create thousands of jobs for all sorts of tradespeople. Repairs could start almost immediately, providing work for local plumbers, chippies, sparkies plasterers and painters. Our capable manufacturers would also benefit by supplying building materials and delivering resources. This would also provide opportunities for our apprentices and an abundance of work for the construction and manufacturing sectors. For every job created, there is a flow on for jobs in other sectors. That will be work in retail and hospitality and for teachers and nurses.
It's disappointing that the Morrison government continues to ignore Australia's housing and homelessness crisis, knowing the benefits of addressing it to our economy and to our most vulnerable citizens. In my electorate of Werriwa, there is a 20-year wait for social housing. This doesn't include the houses that people are living in right now in urgent need of repair. The GFC taught us that investing in ourselves is the way to break the chains of a recession and unemployment. As the then Treasury secretary Ken Henry said, 'Go hard, go early and go with households.'
The Labor government kept the nation out of recession by investing $5 billion towards 20,000 new social housing dwellings and repairing 80,000 others, keeping unemployment under six per cent, the second lowest in the OECD. Australia was praised on the world stage for our response, and many nations followed our approach. But social housing means much more than economics. It puts a roof over people's heads. It gives people dignity. It improves educational opportunities for their children and themselves. It helps them find jobs and stay in jobs. The pandemic has emphasised the need for everyone to have proper housing. You need that to be thought of well within your community. The government needs to show leadership and refusing to do so puts people at risk, with no safe and secure social housing in Australia.
I want to speak truth to the richest nation in the world per head. Our older women have been recognised as the fastest growing group of homeless people in Australia. Recent research from the Housing for the Aged Action Group found 240,000 women aged 55 or older and another 155,000 women aged 45 to 54 are at risk of homelessness. Older people who live in private rental housing are at even higher risk of becoming homeless. The Australian Bureau of Statistics states that homelessness exists when a dwelling is inadequate, has insecure tenure and does not allow control of access to space for social relations. Increasingly unaffordable housing has added to the concerns about the circumstances and living situations of older people who do not own homes; have limited wealth and savings and, especially for women, low levels of superannuation; and do not have the benefit of living in social housing. Further, we know we have mothers and their children living in cars. What does this say about our priorities? How is a nation as wealthy as Australia even having a discussion on this issue?
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, homelessness has the following effects on children:
Preschool and school-aged children experiencing homelessness are more likely to experience mental health problems than housed children, and some evidence suggests that homeless children are more likely to have physical disability, emotional or behavioural problems than housed children … Homelessness can be disruptive to children's education. It is associated with decreased engagement in the classroom and, when coupled with frequent school moves, is associated with poor academic achievement …
Teachers are reporting how, in the current situation we are facing with COVID, the classroom has become much more stressful for those without a roof over their heads.
How can a woman fleeing domestic violence protect her five-year-old son if she can't put a roof over their heads? How can a parent support their 12-year-old daughter with homework if they can't put a roof over their heads? How can a single mum of four kids stay connected to her much-loved and much-needed community support network if she can't put a roof over their heads? How can you care for a sick or disabled relative if you can't put a roof over their head? How can a middle-aged man with two young adult children engage in the workforce if he can't put a roof over their heads? The difficulty for me here is that I'm actually talking about examples in my electorate. How can you even sleep, shower, wash clothes, cook a meal and stay warm and safe if you don't have a roof over your head? Nations are judged on how they treat the most vulnerable in their societies. So how are we to be judged?
COVID related effects and consequences have caused a combination of Airbnb use domestically; rental property sales because of increased value of the property; relocation to the regions to get out of our capital cities; as we heard from the previous speaker, reduced public housing as compared to 10 years ago; and rental increases. All this combines against those who need a roof over their head.
We know that this government doesn't hold the hammer. Federal governments don't hold the hammer—not even in Indigenous affairs anymore. It's all done by the states. I know the federal government and the previous Labor governments that I've seen have put money into the states for exactly these reasons. Then we have to ask the question: how is it that in this nation today, in 2021, I've got a woman in a small town in my electorate with four boys, closely connected to and supported and cherished by their community, who cannot find a house? Perhaps that's my job.
I have held 14 mobile offices in my electorate of Lilley this year, and I have spoken to countless Northsiders, from all walks of life, who have become energised enough about a particular issue that they want to talk to their federal member at, for example, a park on a Saturday morning. We really have rub the gamut of local issues in that time. Amongst the 14 mobile offices that I've done this year alone, there really has been one common theme, a golden thread that connects each suburb on the Northside, and that is that we want security and the opportunity for ourselves and our families to prosper. It's that simple. After almost a decade of flat wages being decimated by our rising cost of living people feel like they just can't get ahead no matter how hard they work. After eight long years in government, the Morrison government's latest budget offers no respite on that front, no respite for Northsiders at all. Instead it guarantees low growth, it guarantees low productivity, it guarantees low wages and it instils $1 trillion worth of debt.
Affordable housing is fundamental to our individual and collective security and our prosperity. Like my colleague the Member for Macnamara said in his report examining Australia's housing sector:
We know that a house is bigger than its four walls—it gives each Australian a stake in the collective success of our economy.
Workers are being told that with some grit and determination the dream of home ownership can become a reality, but the reality is many are struggling to keep up with their weekly rent payments, let alone having any leftover income to tuck away for a housing deposit, particularly one at 20 per cent of the purchase price. Before COVID hit 30 per cent of renters on the north side of Brisbane reported difficulty even keeping up with their rent each week. That is 6,400 households whose budgets were strained just paying the rent each week whilst trying keep up the other necessities like bills, utilities, school expenses and child care.
On top of this, skyrocketing property values means home ownership is becoming increasingly out of reach. Today the journey towards home ownership for ordinary working people is exponentially more difficult than it has been for people in the past. The pathway to home ownership no longer begins and ends with hard work and careful saving, but with an investment property to build capital, a portfolio of shares to offset tax, a timely inheritance, or a generous loan from the 'bank of mum and dad'. In this context, it is not surprising that home ownership rates are plummeting among people under 45 years of age and especially for people between 25 and 40 years of age. Home prices have climbed an inflation adjusted 150 per cent, while inflation adjusted wages have climbed only 30 per cent. This is an issue only compounded by the Morrison government handing out tax incentives to investors, giving owner-occupiers and first home buyers price competition they did not previously have to face.
I was recently contacted by Chris, who is a Zillmere local, who was done over by a greedy developer who negated his contract to buy a block of land to fetch a higher price. Chris is now out-of-pocket five grand as well as losing his right to the first home buyers grant. Chris said: 'We're not investors. We're just a small family trying to buy our own home and we've now been completely priced out of the market by the greed of developers who are trying to chase a quick buck. I'm completely devastated. I have worked hard for over 15 years trying to save that deposit and now, as a 35-year-old, that dream is just continually being pushed further and further back.'
The housing market is not going to fix itself and challenging vested interests won't be easy, but meaningful progress will be impossible as long as we have this federal government that is unwilling to lay down a comprehensive and ambitious vision for housing. The answer to the housing crisis is not weakening lending laws and it's not asking people to raid their superannuation, their future, for a deposit. These measures only lead to property prices being pushed further up.
The key to fixing the housing crisis is to reduce the skyrocketing overvaluation of property, it's to boost wages and it's to reduce household debt. The second step is to build new, affordable housing—and that's why we have an affordable housing deficit of massive proportions, a construction and building industry desperately in need of work, an abundance of housing that could be repaired and renovated and a community housing sector ready for diversity and growth. Only an Albanese Labor government will improve housing affordability and secure better housing outcomes for all hardworking Australians. We are on Chris's side, we are on the Northsiders side and we are hustling— (Time expired)
) ( ): Here in Australia we take pride in our aspirations. We believe when we work hard we get the results we want. For many Australians this means reaching their dream of owning a house in our very own backyard. It's a dream that has been passed down through generations. It's never been an easy dream but it is a reality we all have the power to create. This dream to reality is something the Morrison government wholeheartedly supports.
Our suite of housing policies give hardworking Australians a hand up to buy a home to raise their families in. In this term, our government devised and implemented the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, which gives an allocated number of first home buyers the freedom to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as five per cent. As a government, we understand that saving a 20 per cent deposit can be difficult and lengthy. Many first home buyers are in a position where their income could afford the mortgage repayments, but they don't have enough in the bank to pay down their 20 per cent deposit. Under the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, Australians are given the freedom and flexibility to purchase a home.
On top of that, the Morrison government has expanded the first home super saver scheme from $30,000 to $50,000 for voluntary contributions that can be released for a first home. First home buyers are at their highest level since 2009, with more than 155,000 aspirational Australians achieving their dream and buying their first home since March 2021. First home buyers make up 41.5 per cent of new owner-occupier loans. This is considerably higher than the 10-year average of around 30 per cent. First home buyers will always have the support of the Morrison government, and it has been working.
We know not everyone is in a position to afford their first home. Some Australians are in precarious living situations or homeless, just like my colleague mentioned earlier. The Morrison government are there for those people too. We are there to support them as they get back on their feet. While the states and territories are responsible for delivering the services required in their jurisdictions, we have provided significant funding—$8.2 billion—to ensure they are well-equipped to handle homelessness. Within this, we are ensuring that people have access to affordable housing. Around $5.5 billion has been allocated to Commonwealth rent assistance.
The Morrison government is committed to spurring jobs growth while ensuring housing affordability. This is why our government has spearheaded the HomeBuilder policy. We want both to protect and to create jobs in the residential construction industry. We are incentivising Australians to build new homes, increasing the supply of housing available while also priming the construction industry for success in a time where other countries around the globe are lagging. The success of this package has been shown in the numbers. The package has driven more than $103 billion in economic stimulus, which has been benefited all Australians. Housing affordability has always been a priority of this government, and it is leading the way in this. Thank you.
I rise today in support of the member for Macnamara, and to thank him for bringing this important motion before us. It's fair to say that the member for Macnamara and I represent vastly different electorates in this place, but the fact that the Morrison government's policy failure affects both our communities shows just how deep the dereliction is. This government's neglect in such an important area of policy cripples the people I represent.
Only last week Choice released data showing the western suburbs of Melbourne is a hotspot for mortgage stress. The postcode 3029, encompassing Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit and Truganina, ranks seventh in the nation and third in Victoria for mortgage stress, with an estimated nearly 8,000 households on the brink. The postcode covering Werribee and Point Cook, 3030, has 6,399 households anxious about how they are going to make their mortgage payments. That's 14,000 households in just two postcodes. In the last census around 26,000 households in my community had a mortgage. I have no doubt that has increased slightly in our growth area. On those figures, roughly 55 per cent of mortgage holders in Lalor are sitting around their kitchen tables, distressed, looking at their bills.
It gets worse. ABS data from 2016 shows that over 800 local residents were homeless—a number which no doubt has grown following the pandemic and the Morrison recession. Over half of those are between 12 and 24 years of age. Let that sink in. This is an increase of 76 per cent in the five years previously. There is no doubt that homelessness is growing across our suburbs across the country, and growing intensively in outer suburban areas. On top of these numbers are the 15,000 locals who are renting and paying an average of $310 a week. This may sound like not a lot to many who live in other suburbs, but when the personal income in Lawlor is $662 a week a rent of $310 is unaffordable.
Women's Health West recently highlighted to me the need for crisis accommodation, which this government has recently neglected to deliver. The scourge that is family and domestic violence also needs to be addressed in the housing debate, with Women's Health West receiving 13,000 referrals from Victoria Police between March 2020 and February 2021. We know many more women won't be reporting domestic violence if the impediment of the lack of crisis accommodation is not overcome.
This nation needs a proper housing policy. My community needs this nation to have a proper housing policy—one that addresses the unaffordable nature of housing, one that addresses homelessness, one that gets to the heart of skyrocketing and unaffordable rental prices for working families, one that addresses the shortage in crisis accommodation for women and their children fleeing domestic violence, one that delivers affordable and reliable housing. This nation needs Labor's plan for housing announced by the opposition leader in the budget reply.
It's on that basis I want to acknowledge and congratulate the Victorian Andrews government for tackling this issue not just across the state but locally in Werribee, with local member Treasurer Tim Pallas delivering $30 million to build a 74-home social and affordable housing development in partnership with Unison. He the first sod on the Cottrell Street site with housing minister Richard Wynne last month. It is also going to create 50 local jobs. That's what Labor does. It's in our DNA. It's what Daniel Andrews is doing in Victoria. It's what Anthony Albanese will do as Prime Minister after the next election.
During this debate I also want to congratulate our local Wyndham City Council for their fair-minded and caring approach to this issue—no ducking, no weaving, no 'Not in our backyard'. Social housing should be across the country. It should be in every community to support the homeless and those people who need it in every community across the country. I look forward to working with Melbourne City Mission, who are also building in my community a crisis accommodation centre for youth homelessness.
All of this is being done without the federal government. The federal government has vacated the space. This government thinks every piece of work in this country can be pushed off to someone else and that homelessness is the responsibility of state governments. This government needs to get out in front of this immediately. I commend this motion to the House and I call on this government to assist in the areas of need in my community.
I rise to contribute to the debate on the motion put forward by the member for Macnamara. Home ownership has always been a pillar of coalition governments. It dates to the very beginnings of the Liberal Party, as Sir Robert Menzies outlined in his 'Forgotten People' speech. We now call this the great Australian dream. Menzies said:
The material home represents the concrete expression of the habits of frugality and saving … one of the best instincts in us is that which induces us to have one little piece of earth with a house and a garden which is ours; to which we can withdraw, in which we can be among our friends, into which no stranger may come against our will.
It's like poetry, isn't it? He continues:
The home is the foundation of sanity and sobriety; it is the indispensable condition of continuity; its health determines the health of society as a whole.
So I'm in fundamental agreement with the member for Macnamara. We see eye to eye—both being six foot six—on the initial point that every Australian should have access to safe and secure housing, but that's as far as it goes. Having a job is a crucial factor in being able to break free from the cycle of homelessness. In the growing city that is Toowoomba, this is an issue that we see amongst us every day. It's an issue that is being addressed by good people, like those who run the 2nd Shot cafe who are bringing homeless people into work. It is wonderful work that they are doing, but the fact of our unemployment falling so sharply clearly refutes the claim that the government is not addressing this issue. To suggest that the federal government is not pulling its weight on housing tells me the member for Macnamara is blind to the tradies driving utes through the streets of regional towns and cities—new utes bought under the—
A government member interjecting—
Absolutely—new utes that are filling the streets—and extending homes as a direct result of the Morrison government's first home owner grant and HomeBuilder schemes. These crucial ingredients of the plan of the Morrison government for driving the housing and construction sector are creating a new demographic that I cheekily call 'Sukkar's battlers'—people who are building and people who are taking advantage of the HomeBuilder scheme.
I highlight to the member for Macnamara that it's not the availability of support that is the issue; rather the availability of land is the problem we are facing. In my electorate of Groom, the construction industry is one of the key building blocks of our economy. We like to build. From major national firms to small mum-and-dad operations, the Toowoomba region businesses deliver big at both the residential and commercial level. The sector employs nearly 7,000 people, generating $890 million, making it our region's third most valuable industry. It's an industry that has not only survived but thrived during the challenges of COVID. Our local building boom is being supported by migration to the regions, with young people and families making the tree change coming to Toowoomba. I encourage them all to continue doing so as our great city builds.
This boom is a direct result of the Morrison government's HomeBuilder program which has received over 26,000 applications in Queensland. It continues to support jobs in the construction sector and owner-occupiers with grants of $25,000 to build a new home or to substantially renovate an existing home. Tradies are doing very well. A wise man would invest in hot pies and flavoured milk. Tradies are out there getting out and doing their work. The take-up of this program has turned around the fortunes of developments like The Avenues in Highfields, which sits in my electorate. Project director Stephen Bowers tells us he was feeling pretty sick about the COVID situation last February, but, since HomeBuilder was announced, he has sold 220 lots, with 50 per cent of those being to first home buyers—people coming into the market and getting their first home. It's fantastic news. The Avenues provides a way for people to move to Highfields with more affordable housing. It's a fantastic place. Again I encourage people to come to Toowoomba. I hope I say that enough times. They've now released the next stage of the development four years ahead of schedule. We are bringing more homes onto the market in Toowoomba in response to the government's action.
The Morrison government is truly committed to helping more Australians get into a home of their own sooner, and the Toowoomba region has truly answered the call to renovate, extend and build. Building approval figures are up, with the December data shows that a remarkable turnaround took place in the last three months of 2020 with Darling Downs dwelling approvals skyrocketing by 121 per cent. The Morrison government's programs have provided the incentive for people to build. However, the problem now lies with state governments through planning instruments to provide the land necessary for construction. In city, town and village, we see evidence of this construction taking place. We know people coming to Toowoomba are indeed looking for new houses. They're looking for affordable housing. We're building as much as we can. The work is there, and the skills are coming in. We have apprentices. I haven't mentioned the 50 per cent apprentice wage subsidy. This is bringing new skills into the workforce to provide these homes for the future. We call on the state governments to open up the land to allow new housing projects to take place.
The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
I move:
That this House:
(1) notes that:
(a) the Government's $270 billion investment in Australia's defence capability is creating thousands of jobs and opportunities for small businesses across Australia, particularly in the state of Western Australia;
(b) it is only because of the Government's continued investment that we are able to guarantee that the men and women of the Australian Defence Force receive the defence capabilities they need to keep Australians safe; and
(c) a key pillar of our economic recovery plan to get Australians in jobs is getting more Australian businesses in our defence industry to deliver the essential capability our Defence Force relies on; and
(2) recognises that because of the support measures the Government has introduced to help Australian defence:
(a) businesses remain in business and are recovering from COVID-19; and
(b) our defence industry is not only recovering, but thriving as we come back from the COVID-19 recession.
I have moved this motion because it is the Morrison government's first and most important job to keep Australians safe, and we are resolutely committed to that aim. We're building an even stronger defence industry by investing $270 billion in Australia's defence capability over the next 10 years. This will help keep our nation secure, create more local jobs and back in small businesses. Our support to the defence industry has kept it strong, importantly, through COVID-19. Since 23 March last year, our government has paid more than 391,000 invoices early, ahead of time, to defence industry participants, and this cash in the hands of businesses early has helped keep Aussies employed and keep the cogs of this vital industry turning.
The vital work of our Defence Force can only succeed with the help of those thousands of Australian workers and businesses. Why? Because small businesses are the backbone of our entire economy, and they are the key to local jobs. That's why our approach includes a new enhanced contractual framework for Australian industry capability, guaranteeing opportunities for Australian enterprises.
I recently had the honour of representing the Minister for Defence, Peter Dutton, at the handover of a brand-new Guardian class patrol boat, the RSIPV Taro, to Solomon Islands. This was at the Austal shipyards in Henderson. It was a personally rewarding moment for me, because, back in 2003, when I was still in uniform, I was the second in command of the first infantry company that went into Solomon Islands, along with Australian Federal Police, to help restore law and order. So it was a very privileged opportunity to represent the Minister for Defence at the handover of that second Guardian class patrol vessel to the Solomon Islands High Commissioner to Australia. During a tour of the vessel and the facilities, I saw again out there firsthand the amazing spirit, the ingenuity, the craftsmanship and the quality that's going into these ships. I commend Austal for their fantastic work.
Just down the road at Civmec, along with their partner, Luerssen, people are also hard at work building the first of 10 Arafura class offshore patrol vessels, OPVs. Meanwhile, another two vessels are under construction at Osborne in South Australia. The Luerssen and Civmec teams in WA are making significant progress on the building blocks that, when complete, will form a 1,600-tonne, 80-metre long OPV, made exclusively with Australian steel. This project alone has created about 400 local jobs and engaged 300 local businesses, and it's on track to achieve more than 60 per cent local industry content. The Morrison government want to see more success stories like these, and that's why we're increasing the funding via defence industry grants. Over the next two years, Skilling Australia's Defence Industry grants will quadruple, from $4 million to $17 million per year. This will allow us to both broaden and deepen the skills of Australian workers.
Our government is getting on with the job. On top of the 10 OPVs, a key part of our plan is to build 21 Guardian class patrol boats, two Minehunter support vessels, one hydrographic vessel and six patrol boats, all in WA, using Australian workers and Australian steel. In stark comparison, Labor, in their last term of government, did not commission one Australian built ship. They failed to place a single order at an Australian naval shipyard in six years.
But this is only the start of our plan. We want to see our defence industry continue to thrive. We're living in a region, and indeed a world, in which significant security challenges persist. It remains our solemn responsibility to ensure that we can meet our strategic capability objectives and to shape, deter and respond, in line with our strategic update. It's not enough just to talk about the defence of our nation; we need to back it up. And that's exactly what we're doing through our clear plan. The Morrison government is investing in our defence industry, in local businesses and in the jobs this creates, because this is how we are keeping Australians safe.
Is the motion seconded?
I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
I call the member for Burt.
A government member: Hear, hear!
Thank you for the support from the other side of the chamber. Our Australian defence industry has so much potential. Our nation is full of innovators and wonderful minds. So why don't we back our Aussie businesses? The member for Stirling's motion acknowledges that thousands of jobs and opportunities are being created for small businesses across Australia, particularly in the home state of both of us, Western Australia. I wouldn't go to the extent of saying this is untrue, but we must look at what these jobs actually are.
You see, this Liberal government has previously identified job opportunities from defence spending as including language classes, security guards, hotels and travel agents. These are all worthwhile occupations in their own right, but they're hardly shipbuilding. They're hardly developing capability when it comes to planes or submarines. We have shipbuilders bashing metal at home in WA and in the shipyards of South Australia. This is an important role in shipbuilding, but it's not something that's going to result in building our sovereign capability or owning our own IP. Bending and bashing metal is very important, but we need Aussie businesses and workers involved from the get-go, in the design phase.
There are companies in Australia who integrate well with local small businesses: businesses like NSM, Naval Ship Management, who are based in WA and New South Wales and are responsible for the maintenance on our LHDs and Anzac frigates. They coordinate a huge variety of local SMEs to be involved in their work sustaining those ships. I was fortunate enough to visit them recently and see the work they were doing on HMAS Adelaide. There were local scaffolders, diesel engine repairers and painters all working alongside Defence personnel on the ship and all undertaking important roles in every facet of the ship. Indeed, due to the COVID restrictions, they're even trying to do work that we previously had to import experts from Europe to do. We must encourage more primes like NSM here in Australia to undertake similar identification work, finding local businesses to do important roles rather than just going offshore.
Luerssen are building the OPVs in Adelaide and Perth and have a specific focus on enabling local businesses to work with them on these platforms. If SMEs don't have a niche skill or capability but are interesting in getting there, Luerssen take it upon themselves to identify and foster their talents, picking up the bill to make sure that it happens. This is excellent work by Luerssen, and it's exactly what primes should be doing while undertaking defence work in Australia and for our ADF. In fact, it's written into most of the contracts. However, these are rarely enforced by the Department of Defence, who settle for 'best intentions' to use Australian businesses rather than actually making sure that it happens in practice. Companies like Luerssen prove that you can identify gaps in the workforce and build these capabilities here in Australia. This is precisely what the Department of Defence's specialist team, CASG, and the AIC team within it should be doing, but they're not.
We must look at the gaps in our Australian industry, the things that international primes say they can't identify to be at the required level here in Australia, and we must foster those businesses. It doesn't appear that the Liberal government has a solid plan to do this, but Labor does. Through the National Reconstruction Fund and through Jobs and Skills Australia, we will be able to identify the gaps in our Aussie workforce, the industries we need to be fostering here at home. Through the Reconstruction Fund, we will have the opportunity to financially support the development of these businesses in our sovereign interest. This could be through loans or even joint investment—indeed, leveraging superannuation and other private investment—to support and build these businesses for our sovereign capability. Particularly in Western Australia, our thriving resources industry, the best in the world, requires very similar skills and technology to that of defence industry. They are complementary. We must be supporting these sectors on how they can work better together. Labor has a plan to support Australian businesses. Labor has a plan to identify capability gaps and fix them in our sovereign interest. Meanwhile, the Liberal government has glossy brochures and announcements.
So I agree with the member for Stirling: we need to be getting more Australian businesses in our defence industry to deliver the essential capability that our defence forces rely on. As the Liberal government continues to bang the drums of war, we must ensure that our platforms are actually ready. We must make sure there are no capability gaps. We can't afford for our personnel to be working with anything less than the best, because they deserve the best, and it's time for the government to catch up.
I'd like to thank my colleague the member for Stirling for bringing this important motion to parliament, because the defence of our nation is of critical importance. That's why we're investing $270 billion in Australia's defence capability over the next decade, building a stronger, more resilient and more secure Australia. This is an investment to keep Australians safe and, in the process, to create more jobs. Our investment in our national defence industry ensures members of the Australian Defence Force have access to the highest quality Australian made capability to keep them safe and to protect our nation. The Morrison government will continue to maximise opportunities for our local businesses to contribute to the defence industry.
In my electorate of Lindsay we have extraordinary potential to build on manufacturing expertise, experience and enthusiasm. Recently, with the Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business, I convened a meeting of my Advancing Manufacturing Taskforce. Every facet of this enthusiasm was apparent at this meeting. We met at a family business, Baker & Provan, in St Marys to discuss building our workforce and equipping it with the skills we need to enable our businesses to grow, employ and support more local jobs.
From universities to manufacturers, innovators, entrepreneurs and experts right across many industries, we're bringing together the pieces of the puzzle, all united on a single purpose. There is a great, razor-sharp focus on growing our manufacturing industry, particularly advanced manufacturing. At the forefront of this is our defence industry. We recognise the potential in Western Sydney. That's why we're delivering unprecedented levels of investment in infrastructure that our communities need. If you need any indication of the private sector's commitment to manufacturing in Western Sydney, look no further than Visy's commitment in Penrith earlier this year, with the Prime Minister and me, of $2 billion to their Australian operations.
As a former member of the Australian Defence Force himself, the minister for employment also recognises the importance of investing in our nation's sovereign capability. This task force meeting at Baker & Provan, who contribute to some of our most significant defence projects, such as the Collins class submarines, was an appropriate demonstration of our commitment not only to Australian manufacturing but to our national defence industry. Our policies are enabling businesses like Baker & Provan to do what they do best, and our wage subsidies are helping our manufacturers to take on more apprentices. The extension of the instant asset write-off, available to over 15,000 businesses in my electorate of Lindsay, is supporting businesses to buy the equipment they need to grow and expand.
All of this, and more, not only creates and sustains more local jobs but is contributing to the building of a more resilient and secure Australia. In building a strong and sustainable Australian defence industry, the Morrison government recognises the need for Australian businesses to have the opportunity to be involved in all aspects, including design, construction, project management and sustainment activities. That's why our government mandated that tenders must demonstrate how they will maximise Australian industry capability over the life of a project, and each tender must meet the Australian content requirement.
The Australian defence industry is also growing by taking up opportunities in global supply chains for new capability like the Joint Strike Fighter program. Currently, over 50 Australian companies are involved in the JSF program, sharing $2.7 billion in production contracts. These are opportunities for local businesses to play a bigger role in the defence industry. I also recently visited the defence establishment in Orchard Hills in my electorate, where we're investing in the Nulka missile assembly and maintenance facilities. This decoy missile has one of the world's most sophisticated electronic defence systems for the protection of warships against antiship missiles. This is happening right in my electorate of Lindsay. Around 200 people will be employed over the course of construction, with a commitment from the company ensuring 95 per cent of local industry participation for the supply of goods and services for the project.
This is what we are doing. This is what we're committed to. We are building innovation in Australia right in our local communities. I couldn't be prouder that I've got local businesses like Baker & Provan involved and that this is also happening at the local defence establishment in Orchard Hills. It will shape our strategic environment and deepen our connection to our defence industry. (Time expired)
It's with a sense of optimism that I rise in this place today to support Australia's small and medium business enterprises that have ambitious plans to break into the defence industry. This optimism, however, is tempered by concern that this government's rhetoric around securing Australian content for future defence contracts is just that. Really, it is all talk with no action. The SMEs I meet with talk about the cost and difficulty of becoming defence ready, and for some businesses this is prohibitive without a good prospect of securing any return whatsoever. Defence procurement could have uncapped potential to generate Australian jobs, but we have to take the cap off and allow these businesses to truly be defence ready, to get involved in our nation's security, in our very sovereignty.
In my electorate of Paterson and here in Canberra, I meet with many SMEs each week who talk to me about the amazing work they are doing—and some of these people are thought leaders across the globe. They're hoping to land a defence contract, but it's not purely for financial gain. These businesses genuinely believe their product or service will improve the life and safety of the men and women who will operate them in the Defence Force and in the defence of Australia. And I've got no doubt that this is true. It's truly a noble act. I recently met with a small operation in Medowie who have developed a secure system that could revolutionise the way organisations talk to each other internally and also in the battle space realm.
With cybersecurity at the forefront of the challenges currently facing not only our nation but other nations we see across the world, Defence needs to consider all of the options, not just those offered up by traditional partnerships. With the government set to invest a record amount in defence, it has a once-in-a-generation opportunity not only to support Australian industry but to secure sovereignty over major investment projects. We know that this is one of the pivotal aspects of any investment in Australia—never more so than right now in defence. We need to have Australian minds and Australian ingenuity right from the idea phase through to the delivery phase.
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of visiting the grand opening of Murray Consulting Solutions, a local success story in my electorate. MCS, as it's known, is a thriving consultancy company with headquarters in Medowie, adjacent to RAAF Base Williamtown. Founded by owner and managing director Jason Murray in 2011, they are a fantastic story, with operations now spanning Medowie, Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra. MCS have more than 40 employees, with steady growth providing services to defence across project management, engineering logistics, tests and evaluation, maintenance management and many services. The thing I took away from my meeting with Jason and his incredible team at MCS is their passion for making outstanding decisions and products. And they do it differently for their employees, their employees' families, their clients, our community and, most importantly, our Defence Force. They are thinking differently about the way we defend Australia and how defence in Australia works.
One of the key elements of Labor's national reconstruction fund is just that. We want to develop our own sovereignty and think differently about it. Labor is going to work with industry, like Jason at MCS, to ensure that defence industry development strategy ensures that we not only think at the cutting edge but we deliver at the cutting edge with Australian industries, Australian jobs and Australian apprenticeships. I'd like to remind those present in the chamber that this government talks up apprenticeships but we've lost 150,000 apprentices while they have been in government over the last eight years. Imagine how far down the track we could have been if we had kept those and got more apprentices, especially in the defence space. Defence procurement processes need to be more agile, consider more easily Australian industry and get the contracting right to make sure defence delivers for all. Defence procurement processes need to be more agile. We need to more easily consider Australian industry and we need to get the contracting right too, to make sure Defence delivers for all. (Time expired)
I rise today to speak about the Morrison government's $270 billion investment in Australia's defence capability. Not only do I support this investment; I applaud it. We are living in increasingly uncertain times, both at home and abroad. Australia must always prioritise its own interests, and that's exactly what the Morrison government is doing. We are ensuring that the men and women of the Australian Defence Force have the capability they need to keep Australians safe and secure. Currently, 15,000 business and 70,000 Australians are employed in our defence industry. These numbers will increase thanks to our $270 billion plan. It will create new jobs for skilled workers and provide investment in our local communities over the coming decade and beyond. It is more important than ever that we keep Australians in work.
Queensland is heading towards being Australia's front line for defence industry, and that's thanks to the Morrison government's ongoing commitment to Australia's defence capability. Our government is investing in growing Queensland's defence capability, supporting Queensland small businesses and enabling thousands of jobs. North Queensland has an established defence industry. This is the patch of the member for Herbert, Phil Thompson. It is the gold standard, an example of what can be achieved. Townsville has a long and proud role at the core of our nation's defence. It is Australia's largest garrison city. Our plan will help strengthen Townsville's defence strategy over the decades to come. We are committing $31 million to the delivery of a new, three-storey armoured vehicle simulation centre in Townsville. This equates to 110 local jobs—jobs that are crucial to keeping Australians safe. As part of this plan, Queensland will welcome the first of a fleet of new combat reconnaissance vehicles. The plan will enable the delivery of 211 Boxer CRVs, creating 330 local jobs in Queensland.
Our plan benefits both the state of Queensland and my electorate of Bonner. Bonner is home to successful defence contracts critical to building up our local industry. In 2019, Skyborne Technologies, based in Murarrie, were awarded a $460,000 grant by the Morrison government to enhance manufacturing capability and further research into artificial intelligence. They are making their mark on Australia's defence industry through the development of armoured drones. Bonner is also home to the Tingalpa based defence manufacturer Ferra Engineering, which, late in 2020, was awarded a defence global competitiveness grant of $127,000 to enhance export manufacturing capability. Ferra Engineering is one of Australia's largest independently owned technology companies serving the aerospace and defence industries. The Morrison government is creating the environment for Australian businesses to thrive. I recently visited Crystalaid's headquarters in Tingalpa, also in my electorate. Crystalaid are undertaking incredible work that specialises in defence, medical and aerospace industries. I was excited to congratulate them on being one of six Australian small businesses to be awarded a $207,000 grant from the Morrison government to boost their export potential. Bonner is going from strength to strength when it comes to defence.
Small business is the backbone of our economy, and small businesses are front and centre in our defence capability and infrastructure. Next week, Land Forces, which is the region's premier international land defence exposition, will take place in Queensland. It will showcase equipment, technology and services for the armies of Australia and the Indo-Asia-Pacific. Under the Morrison government, Queensland has an exciting and young defence industry base. For this event to go ahead, it's clear that there is confidence in the Queensland defence industry.
The Morrison government is getting on with the job of delivering for defence and our defence industry. Compare this with the previous Labor government, which sat idle for six years. Labor gutted $18 billion from the defence budget. Labor did not commission even one single Australian-built ship, whereas the Morrison government is creating at least 15,000 jobs in Australian defence shipbuilding. It's not enough just to talk about the defence of our nation; you need a plan. You need to execute and invest in that plan, and that is how the Morrison government is building the strongest defence industry the country has ever seen.
Debate interrupted.
Sitting suspended from 13:30 to 16:00
So much for being at the front of the vaccination queue. Some of the most vulnerable Australians—people with disabilities who live in residential care in my electorate—are still waiting for their vaccinations. New Haven Farm Home in the Hawkesbury, which accommodates 39 clients and has nearly 100 staff, has been ready and waiting since early February for the vaccination program to arrive at its doors. They got everything sorted for the date they were told it would commence: 22 February. They got consent from staff and clients—and it's quite a complex process in itself for clients as they're not able to provide consent themselves. They also shared this information with the NDIA. And what happened next? Absolutely nothing.
Worse, earlier this month they were told that staff and clients should now attend hubs with proof of entitlement under the 1a classification. The logistics of this are a nightmare for somewhere like New Haven, where staff work long shifts and clients have high care needs. When they asked about on-site vaccinations, the answer was, 'Yes, at some time in the future.' This isn't good enough for organisations that are trying to do the right thing.
The operators of DARE Disability Support, in the Blue Mountains, gave up on the Commonwealth and organised vaccinations themselves for their residential clients. That's how hopeless the rollout has been. This government gave itself very few jobs. Quarantines? They were outsourced to the states. Bringing Australians home? Look how that's worked out. And these vaccinations? This government is failing people with disabilities and failing to protect them.
A valuable link to Mackay's pioneering past was lost this month with the sad passing of Gloria Arrow, a faithful and steadfast protector and promoter of a bygone era through her 60 year tenure with the historical Greenmount Homestead. Gloria arrived at the home of the pioneering Cook family in 1958, when she was just 17 years old, to take up the role of live-in housemaid. She became so much more than that over the years: more daughter, friend, confidant and carer to Tom and Dorothy Cook as well as Dorothy's mother, Hannah, in her final years. This did not diminish in any way Gloria's connection with her true family, the extended Arrow and Choppy families of Homebush and Mackay, who are now morning the passing of their Aunty Gloria.
So strong was the connection to the Cooks and the graceful old Greenmount Homestead that, when the property was bequeathed to the district, provision was made for Gloria to stay on at that home for as long as she chose. For many years Gloria welcomed the region's schoolchildren and visitors from far and wide to give them an insight into life at the historical Greenmount, only departing in 2019 to move into a nursing home as her needs were at that time.
Many books, articles, sketches and photos have told the story of Greenmount through the eyes of Gloria Arrow. We are forever grateful for her special place in the history of the Mackay region.
Recently I was lucky enough to visit with Kayaan Katyal and his parents, Varun and Priyanka, in my electorate. I spent time with Varun and Priyanka talking about how our community could stop their family from being deported by the Morrison government to India because, despite Varun and Priyanka having been in Australia for a decade and Kayaan having been born here, the Morrison government is try to deport them because Kayaan was born with cerebral palsy.
Since I wrote to the immigration minister in February asking him to look at this case with fresh eyes and a human heart, more than 120,000 people have signed a petition asking the government to let them stay in Australia. I'm so proud of the way my community has responded to this horrible injustice. Varun and Priyanka, too, have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support they've received from our community since they told their story, and, having spent time with Kayaan, I can tell you that he is quick to laugh and is great fun to be around. We talked about school and spent a bit of time on that activity that all primary school kids seem to love the most: watching YouTube videos.
Kayaan's a person. He's not just a cost to be managed by a government. Anyone can see his human dignity in his laugh and in his parents' love for this beautiful little boy. I'll keep fighting for Kayaan, Priyanka and Varun and keep doing everything that I can do to ensure that we can keep them as a valued part of our community.
I've been shocked this afternoon to learn that the Victorian government has set up a new method whereby they are going to send their contracts out, or another group of state purchasing contracts, and they have now provided a list. There are 35 government departments and 125 government agencies who are currently using regional suppliers for stationery, travel, professional services and recruitment, and print. Those suppliers are all going to be dumped because they're not on this new prescribed list of suppliers for the Victorian government. Only businesses located in Melbourne are going to be on this list.
We have a list of regional business chambers of commerce—from Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong, Shepparton, Wodonga, Echuca-Moama, Bairnsdale, Apollo Bay, Horsham—that are all up in arms because the state government in Victoria effectively says: 'We've created this little list. There are only going to be 35 suppliers. If you're not on the list, too bad.' There is an opportunity for them to get put on the list, but the expectation is that it will be an 18-month process. Is it really the time to be mandating that businesses will actually lose business they already have? Suppliers that are already supplying to government agencies and departments in Victoria are now going to have that business taken off them, and they've got to go through an 18-month process to get that business back.
I rise to speak about the lack of official recognition of those deployed to Somalia on Operation Solace in 1993. This was a peace enforcement deployment based around the 1st Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, 'The Big Blue 1'; the 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment; and other supporting units who were part of a United States led peace enforcement operation to alleviate a massive humanitarian crisis that was resulting from the anarchy, the famine and the civil war in Somalia at that time. 1RAR battle group earned both national and international praise at the time for their work, which ensured the safe delivery of life-saving essential supplies to a starving population.
Somalia veterans in my electorate and around the nation believe that this task force mission has long been misunderstood. When the Defence Honours and Awards Appeal Tribunal did an inquiry into this, it was missing advocacy from people such as the current Governor-General, because he was in a senior position at that time. But there are now precedents for the awards of both unit citations for gallantry and meritorious unit citations from Vietnam, Cambodia and Rwanda that make it really clear that it's well past time for some recognition for those that deployed to Somalia back in 1993.
The farmers in my electorate are certainly the backbone of our economy, and it would be an understatement to say that the last few years have been extremely tough for them. A long drought, horrendous bushfires, floods, pandemics and then, more recently, more devastating and destructive floods have pushed many of our farmers not only to the financial brink but to the emotional brink. So it was a very welcome sight for many of our farmers to see the truckloads of silage roll into our towns courtesy of the Rapid Relief Team. I met with the Rapid Relief Team's managing director, Ron Arkcoll, and coordinator, Will Small, last Friday at Kempsey Showground, where they were providing free bales of hay, mental health support, rural financial counselling and veterinary support. The hay and the silage were donated by farmers from the Southern Highlands and the RTT to almost 100 farmers in the Macleay Valley that day. This was only one of a number of stops they've made over the past months.
RTT is the charitable arm of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, and the hay run is part of the RTT's Family Community Connect program. I would like to thank the Rapid Relief Team for providing their support to our farmers, not just in my electorate but throughout many of the communities. You have not only provided support to our farmers; you have provided hope.
It is with relief that I rise today to commend Israel and Palestine for agreeing to a ceasefire, as well as Egypt for mediating the truce. The violence and loss of life that we have seen in Jerusalem and Gaza is tragic, and the rocket attacks against civilians are unacceptable. Many Canberrans have contacted me in shock and dismay at the violence, with many particularly distressed about the rights of children.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described Gaza as hell on earth for children. Over 200 Palestinians, including at least 65 children, have died, thousands have been wounded and the health system in Gaza cannot keep up. In Israel, the death of 12 people, including two children, is also a shocking tragedy. Yesterday, 150 people stood outside this building, the Australian Parliament House, calling for the violence and unrest to stop. I join with them, Senator Penny Wong and the foreign minister to condemn this violence and reiterate Australia's commitment to a two-state solution.
It was wonderful to be joined in Stirling last week by my colleague the Minister for Finance. We West Aussies love to show off everything that our great state has to offer to our interstate colleagues. We kicked off with a meeting with the City of Stirling, whose boundaries closely align with the electorate of Stirling, to discuss some priority projects. Top of the list was the trackless tram project, to which the Morrison government has contributed $2 million for a business case. This is a truly innovative project and would be an Australian first right in the heart of Stirling. Thanks to the City of Stirling mayor, Mark Irwin, the CEO, Stuart Jardine, and the executive team for your generous hospitality.
Next we hosted a morning tea in my office with community and business leaders. Here the minister heard directly about how the budget is driving positive change in sectors like defence, veterans' affairs, health and Indigenous affairs, amongst many, many others. After a quick stop at the intersection of Reid Highway and Erindale Road, a problem spot known to many in my electorate for its congestion, we were able to acknowledge that the Morrison government has committed their $2 million for a business case. We then headed to Alcolizer, who, with federal government funding support, has developed a world-leading COVID antigen test, which will benefit our nation and the world.
I thank the finance minister for his visit to Stirling and look forward to see him again soon in WA.
Last month I met with a Forest Lake mum of three, Susan Riley. Last year, at the age of 45, she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, five years after she started getting regular mammograms because her mother died of the cancer. Susan has done 16 rounds of chemotherapy and radiation and has had a double mastectomy, but the cancer wasn't killed and she still has a malignant tumour. She doesn't know if the tablet chemotherapy she's taking is working. Susan told me, 'It isn't fair. My kids deserve to have a mum.' The most frustrating part of Susan's story is this: she, and thousands of other Australians like her, could easily take a molecular test which checks for certain genes and proteins in cancers, if there was federal funding.
The federal budget was a start, but today I call on the federal government to invest more in molecular testing to enable 80,000 people to find treatment options for their aggressive cancers and help around 12,000 people identify clinical trials likely to effectively treat their cancer over five years. This could save the government $520 million in healthcare costs. But, more importantly, it could change everything for people like Susan Riley. Right now, she's just following medical advice and hoping for the best. That's no way to go through life.
The government needs to invest in a test that gives real hope to those with rare and advanced cancers, and to their families. The answer is right in front of us, and we can't put a price tag on a better life for all Australians with cancer.
I recently attended a special event in my electorate to mark the start of the relocation of hundreds of agile wallabies to a safer habitat. It will be Australia's largest ever macropod relocation. The Trinity Beach wallabies have become a much-loved part of our community but, sadly, have fallen victim to urban sprawl. The relocation effort, including a significant court battle brought on by the Queensland state government, has been driven by community volunteer group The Agile Project, spearheaded by Shai Ager. Shai has been the wallabies' biggest advocate, champion and protector. She has raised the awareness of the plight of these magnificent animals and has taken the community on a successful journey to protect them. This was no more evident than when the group recently called out, asking if anybody could help with a van that they could use for the relocation. The group had a van within a few hours. Later, thanks to the generosity of local businessman Darren Halpin, the Marlin Coast Men's Shed got to work, fitting out the van to make it suitable for the safe translocation of the animals. The relocation efforts are now in full swing, with 10 wallabies per day being relocated under the careful supervision of a vet. Wallabies are being taken to several private properties north and south of Cairns, all of which are surrounded by national park. Let's hope that their new location becomes a happy home for them for many, many years to come. Again I'd like to say thank you very much to Shai Ager and the team. She was prepared to get out there and make it happen, and we have to be very proud of her contribution.
On 9 May, Sayed ul-Shuhada High School in Kabul, Afghanistan was bombed, killing at least 85 people, mostly Hazara schoolgirls, and injuring another 147. The attack happened in the afternoon, when female students had classes at the school. There were three bombs: first one and then two more when the girls rushed out. The school is located in the majority Hazara Dashte Barchi neighbourhood of west Kabul. This is not the first horrendous attack. A year ago almost to the day, gunmen entered a maternity hospital and killed 24 women, 16 of whom were mothers, including three in the delivery room with unborn children.
Last week I met with members of the Hazara community in Western Sydney, from the Kateb Hazara Association, the Sydney University Afghan Society and the SABA Group, and they told me of the pain in the Hazara community here. Many of them fear for family members living in Dashte Barchi. For others, who have been victims of past trauma and persecution themselves, their pain explodes every time one of these incidents occurs. They are overwhelmingly refugees and children of refugees, and they are really struggling. I can't solve the problems in Afghanistan, but I can help them be heard. So I've committed to help them organise meetings with the Minister for Defence and the Minister for Education and Youth so they can talk about their mental health issues and their fear about what is happening in Afghanistan, and I'll do the same with the shadows. I would urge the government members to assist me in this.
I rise today to acknowledge the extraordinary work done by Fighting Chance, a remarkable not-for-profit group on the Northern Beaches. Fighting Chance, which opened its doors in 2011, designs and establishes social enterprises that ask: what if? In doing so, it supports Australians with disability by breaking barriers in society.
Laura and Jordan O'Reilly were inspired by their brother, Shane O'Reilly, who lived with cerebral palsy. They set out on a mission to create a new and better future for people with disabilities. Shane's passion for IT and computer work was not being realised within the traditional day programs for those with severe disabilities. So Laura and John created Fighting Chance, a place in which people with disabilities were encouraged to thrive by acknowledging their own passions and developing their vocational skills.
The two enterprises Fighting Chance empowers are Jigsaw and Avenue. Jigsaw offers transitional training to build a future in which all people with disabilities in Australia are included within the workforce. Avenue is a day program that provides a greater level of support for people with disabilities by creating opportunities to complete work tasks, develop their individual skills and socialise. Fighting Chance now operates right across Sydney and is changing the lives of hundreds of people living with a disability. I commend Laura and Jordan O'Reilly and the entire team at Fighting Chance for their fine, ongoing work.
Every week I'm inundated by calls from my constituents: the scared parents of young children; families and partners of those struggling with chronic illness; and healthcare workers who are overwhelmed with the demand for their services. They ring my office with harrowing stories of the strain at local GP clinics in our electorate. There simply aren't enough doctors in our towns to look after the needs of the communities. Parents with sick children cannot find doctors to treat them. The GPs are doing the very best that they can, but they're overworked, tired and struggling to keep up.
The Morrison government are failing rural electorates. In McEwen, families are faced with week-long waits for appointments to see a GP. The Morrison government want Australians to believe that their incentive program is going to fix this problem but it's not. What they're not telling people in the communities most in need, including those in McEwen, is that you aren't going to see any of this funding. We've written to the federal health minister to ask for urgent assistance for our region but have heard nothing in response. Meanwhile, every day people in McEwen are being turned away from GP clinics and emergency rooms simply because there are not enough doctors to care for them. This is not a level of medical care that we should accept here in Australia. You can never be sure of when you or your family might need to see a doctor, but if you do you'd want to know there's one available for you to be able to see. Time and time again the Morrison government has put politics above the lives of real Australians. The fact that the Morrison government has failed to ensure basic medical care for the people of McEwen and so many other Australians across our country is an embarrassment to this government. (Time expired)
I would like to congratulate Dr Rachel Swift who has been preselected by the Liberal Party members in Boothby to be the Liberal candidate for Boothby at the next election. Boothby is where Dr Swift was raised and educated and where she worked. Her family made their home in Urrbrae not far from where her father worked at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide, joining the CSIRO as the chief of Division of Soils. Dr Swift herself attained a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science at the University of Adelaide before being award a Rhodes Scholarship in 2004. She holds a PhD in embryology from the University of Oxford.
Dr Swift is passionate about health and has worked in the field for many years. She was a partner and executive adviser with global management consulting company Boston Consulting Group for 10 years. In 2014, Dr Swift was part of the United Nations mission to West Africa as part of the response to Ebola. From 2012 to 2013, Dr Swift was a senior project manager for the Clinton Health Access Initiative—a separate but affiliated entity of the Clinton Foundation. More recently, Dr Swift returned to Adelaide and ran her own consulting firm, Swift Outcomes.
I know that Dr Swift will work extremely hard to listen to our local community in Boothby and to win the next federal election for the Liberal Party. I look forward to working with her on local issues, and I wish her the very best of luck as she seeks to serve our wonderful community in the seat of Boothby.
I rise to acknowledge the important role that the Australian Vietnamese Women's Association plays in the Fraser community. The Australian Vietnamese Women's Association assists with the settlement and welfare needs of Vietnamese-speaking refugees and migrants in Victoria. It provides a very broad range of services from playgroups to training and aged care. Since its foundation in 1983, the AVWA has grown to an organisation of over 200 staff and has assisted countless Victorians. It continues to deliver extraordinary services to the Fraser community.
This impact is testament to the leadership of Cam Nguyen, the founder and full-time CEO and secretary of the AVWA. Cam and her family came to Australia in 1975 as refugees. Her leadership and community service over nearly five decades in Australia saw her named Victorian Senior Citizen of the Year in 2021. Congratulations on that well-deserved award! I also acknowledge Thanh-Kham Tran-Dang, the president of the AVWA, another senior official of that organisation who has given service over many, many years to the Victorian community. As the member for Fraser, a constituency where so many of the AVWA's members live and where so many of their services are delivered, I want to acknowledge in this House Cam and Kham for their work. Thank you to both of you and to the AVWA for your service to the Australian Vietnamese community, and thank you for contributing so much to the Fraser community.
The people of the New South Wales seat of Upper Hunter have spoken. They're good, practical people and they are full of common sense. On Saturday night, I was delighted to congratulate the New South Wales Nationals candidate for Upper Hunter, David Layzell, on his win. He had a three per cent swing. It was a Melbourne Cup race with 14 candidates all campaigning on their own various issues, and the voters recognised the commitment of our party to deliver critical investments across that electorate. There are 11 polling booths that sit inside the Lyne electorate, and I'm very familiar with many of the issues that were raised, including investment in infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and health care and supporting traditional and growing industries that generate jobs in our region.
The Upper Hunter powers the energy of the state. It keeps the lights on and the factories running in the cities and in the country. The majority of candidates were all beginning to highlight the importance of our agriculture and resources sector throughout the campaign. The Nationals have continued right the way, even in this place, to promote the importance of these sectors to the Australian economy and to our very livelihood. There's no doubt that most Australians want to see common sense at all levels of government. That starts with keeping the power going in this state, and that's why we at a federal level have made announcements also for power in the Hunter. We must continue to act— (Time expired)
The importance of community and connectivity to good mental health has been pointed out to us over the past 18 months perhaps more than ever. Today I want to congratulate the people who ran two separate community events in my electorate of Dunkley over the past week. The first event was quite a remarkable forum, the Frankston Regional Youth Forum, run by Hannah Swinnerton, who was the 2019 Frankston Young Person of the Year. Hannah has used her own difficulties and experience of bullying to help others. She was joined by the wonderful Bo'Ness—twin brothers Jackson and Callum, who use their music to talk about domestic violence—and Glenn Cooper of That's the Thing About Fishing. They brought in HALT, which is mental health for tradies, me and state and local government representatives to talk about the importance of good mental health and supporting each other.
The second event, last Saturday, was Game Changer round in the Mornington Nepean Football League, a round to raise money for mental health in local football and netball clubs; in particular, to deal with suicide in those sporting organisations. The Game Changer round is an amazing round in which all of the clubs, 22 of them across the peninsula—many of them in my electorate—join in to raise awareness and funds. Grassroots cooperation, connectivity and caring for each other—it's fundamental.
This coming weekend, thousands of volunteers across Australia will be joining the Salvos in knocking on doors for the annual Red Shield Appeal. The Salvation Army does such incredible work for those who need a helping hand, and the Red Shield Appeal is vital to their efforts to support the most vulnerable in our community. The generosity of Australians during the Red Shield Appeal allows the Salvos to provide, in what is just a typical week, 100,000 meals to the hungry, 2,000 beds to the homeless, support for 1,000 people trying to find work, refuge for 500 people who are the victims of abuse, support for 500 people with addiction problems, and aged-care services to nearly 3,000 elderly Australians. I repeat: that's just in one week.
The Red Shield Appeal is a major logistical undertaking, and I want to thank the many organisations who lend their support, from Rotary clubs to the thousands of school students who volunteer. I want to encourage residents in my own electorate of North Sydney to give generously on the weekend and at collection points in local shopping centres. Residents can also donate online by simply typing 'Red Shield Appeal 2021' into their search engines. I've had the honour of being the Red Shield Appeal area chair for Northern Sydney for several years now, and I've been inspired by both the work of the Salvos and the volunteers who support them. I know the Salvos' work is more important than ever, so please give generously this weekend. Together, let's help the Salvos help Australians.
We know that young Australians have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a recent report, led by young South Australian women and supported by the Working Women's Centre, demonstrated the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on young women. The report highlighted issues such as insecure work, economic inequality and violence against women, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, making young women most in need of support in our recovery, yet this government has failed young Australians, in particular young women, time and time again. The report found that as at January 2021 there were still 17,000 jobs lost by South Australian women that had not been recovered. The underutilisation rate for young women was at 27.8 per cent across the country in March 2021, compared with 13.5 per cent for the labour force as a whole. In this budget, the government has missed the opportunity to support young women back into secure, well-paid jobs.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has also urged the government to focus on Australia's young people, as they play a vitally important role in immediate and long-term labour productivity. Low wage growth, underemployment, unaffordable housing, less accessible education and the precariousness of the gig economy are increasing this inequality. It is time for this government to act, rather than hiding behind rhetoric.
TradeMutt is a clothing company, and this is part of their story, from Dan:
Towards the end of 2016, everything for me came to a grinding halt. I was floored by the news that one of my best mates had unexpectedly taken his own life. His name was also Dan, and … this was the first time in my life that I had been affected by suicide. As hard as I remember it being to accept, it must have been unmeasurable compared to what was felt by his mum, dad and brother …
TradeMutt came about … following what happened in 2016. We are an Australian Workwear brand that aims to make tradies and workers of all kinds look and feel great at work, and in doing so, reduce the rate of male suicide in Australia. Our loud and vibrant shirts—
such as that being held up by the member for Curtin—
act as a catalyst to starting the conversation around mental health and men, a topic that has been hard to approach in the past for blokes, mostly due to the attached stigmas and perceived weaknesses.
The message from Ed and Dan is:
[We] can't thank you enough for getting on board this movement with us. We hope that wearing these shirts brings you the same happiness and courage that we have experienced … We both hope that this can encourage the cultural shift in Aussie blokes that is necessary to effectively lower the rate of suicide in Australia. The right pocket features the letters YNWA, which is … a reminder for anyone wearing one of these shirts, You'll Never Walk Alone.
These shirts are a conversation starter, and they prompt you to ring for help, if you need it, on 0488486988. Well done to the TradeMutt team.
The violence in the Israeli and the Palestinian territories that occurred over the past fortnight was awful and barbaric. It's a mercy there is now a ceasefire in place. Those who have suffered, and still suffer, whether from rockets in Israel or from air strikes in Gaza, are inevitably civilians, and many of them are children. More than 60 children in Gaza were killed. The air strikes followed from the rockets, but were not justified by the rockets, just as the rockets followed from the bullets in the al-Aqsa Mosque, and were not justified by that violence. The air strikes are wrong. The rockets are wrong. The displacement and oppression of Palestinians is wrong. The illegal settlement of their land is wrong. The existential threats to Israel are wrong.
What is clear is that, without genuine progress towards a just and stable two-state solution, this cycle of oppression and violence will continue, civilians will bear the brunt and children will die. To break from that pattern requires something that will always be dismissed as naive, even though it's the only solution—namely, a radical politics of forgiveness, coexistence and nonviolence. With a ceasefire in place, Australia should provide as much humanitarian support as we can. Australia should always be in the game of urging the Palestinian leadership, and especially the government of Israel—because it's the most influential actor in this conflict—to make special efforts to decrease tension, end the occupation and live together, side by side, in peace.
The Queensland Premier has been caught out in a lie. It gives me no pleasure to report that her supposedly detailed proposal for a quarantine facility at Wellcamp airport was revealed in the media last week to be nothing short of a 15-page document, nine pages of which were just pictures and diagrams.
For the last four months, the people of Toowoomba and I have been asking the Premier to provide details about how this plan would impact our local community, and these are reasonable questions to ask. Our main concern was how this proposal would keep Toowoomba safe, how it would keep our economy strong and open. If there was a load for Toowoomba to bear, we were happy to bear it. We just wanted to know what that load would look like, what the details would be. These are reasonable positions that the good and reasonable people of Toowoomba took, and I took it with them.
But, after months of the Premier refusing to answer these questions, I came to the view that the details never existed and, sadly, that was proven correct in the media last week. Unfortunately, this will continue on as the Premier continues to play politics with this issue—blocking a right to information request from the ABC to access the letters and correspondence with the Prime Minister's office that are supposed to carry the details of this.
An honourable member: You are joking!
I'll take the interjection. Sadly, I'm not joking. It's terrible that this was proceeding without detail, without consideration for how this would impact the people of Toowoomba, who I'm here to represent. I make absolutely no apology whatsoever for continuing to ask the questions that the people of Toowoomba have put to me to make sure we keep the Toowoomba region safe.
Max Good is 84. He contacted my office a few weeks ago, explaining that he had to make a round trip of more than 110 kilometres—past, literally, dozens and dozens of GP offices—to get the COVID vaccination because his own GP, who has been treating him for many, many years, advised that he had no doses and he couldn't tell him when he was going to get them.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. I contacted the Flagstaff Group, a local disability employment enterprise. Less than five per cent of their entire workforce is vaccinated. There is lots of confusion about the vaccination, and they've had lots of trouble finding clinics that can provide doses. There are big problems in aged care as well. One in 10 of the Illawarra based Warrigal's 1,500 aged-care workers have received the vaccine. Over at IRT, it's just 15 per cent of their 1,800 staff. It's not the provider's fault. They had backup plans, and backup plans for the backup plans. The sad story is that the doses just aren't there.
The problem right throughout the Illawarra and Southern Highlands is that the Morrison government has failed in its vaccine rollout plan and it is adding further uncertainty every day. The government has simply mismanaged it from the get-go. Firstly, while other countries were signing up lots of contracts to get lots of variants of the vaccine, our government was not doing that. Then the Morrison government failed to get the doses, once they were provided, through to the GPs. The logistics were all stuffed up, and the net result is we have not enough people getting not enough vaccines.
Forget-me-not cafes are a great initiative where people can come together to support others with dementia and their carers. They provide a safe place for people to visit, socialise and interact with others. The founder of the forget-me-not cafes, Angi McCluskey, was named metropolitan WA's Senior of the Year in 2019. She's grown the cafes from one get-together in Roleystone to 16 cafes across Western Australia.
During a conversation with the chair of Alzheimer's WA, Warren Harding, I provided my support for a memory cafe at Floreat Forum in my electorate of Curtin. After collaborating with Alzheimer's WA in the town of Cambridge, the launch of the Cambridge memory cafe last week was a huge success. The Cambridge memory cafe provides an opportunity for people living with dementia in Curtin to maintain their community connections and help to address some of the challenges they face, such as lack of access to safe social activities. Further, the memory cafe helps to raise awareness and understanding of how we can all better connect with people living with dementia in our local community. It was truly inspiring to see the people of Curtin come together last week to support fellow Western Australians living with dementia.
I would like to express my thanks and congratulations to all involved in this amazing collaboration, including Warren and Alzheimer's WA, Diana and the team at Town of Cambridge, and the Coffee Club Floreat Forum.
Last Friday I was very proud to support thousands of heroes who gathered in my electorate of Melbourne for the School Strike 4 Climate. There were of course the witty signs—'I've seen smarter cabinets at IKEA' and 'ScoMo stop gaslighting us'—but there were also serious ones: 'Save our planet, save ourselves', 'Gas is as dirty as coal', and of course the devastating 'You'll die of old age; I'll die of climate change'.
These students are heroes. I applaud them for taking to the streets to make their voices heard, but they shouldn't have to do it. It should be the government who should be acting. We should not look to these students simply for hope but instead saying to them that we owe them a responsibility. Their demand was, 'Fund our future, not gas.' But what do they get from this government? They got a budget that included $50 billion in handouts to coal and gas, $1.1 billion for new coal and gas projects and $600 million to build a new gas-fired power station. The students are saying what the United States government is saying and what the world scientists are saying: there is no room for new coal or gas. We must start phasing out the coal, oil and gas that we've got, and we certainly shouldn't be taking public money from schools and hospitals and using it to fund projects that will fast-track climate collapse.
I want to quote what a union official from the Hunter Valley said to me: 'The miners have lost faith in the Labor Party, mate, but the Nats and One Nation did some damage with the IR legislation that went through the parliament'—just to give you authenticity—'If you look after the miners' rights at work and promise you'll fight to the death to keep their mines open, you'll take all Labor's ground.' That is precisely what he said. He was a very respected union official.
The fact of what happened in the Hunter Valley is there for all to see. The Labor Party got about one vote in five, and this is no good. I have listened to the member for Shortland, and I'm glad he's here because I had a bit of a look through his resume. He's the one who says he represents them. The fellow was born in Sydney. He supports the Roosters. He has never done a physical day's work in his life!
Mr Conroy interjecting—
He was a staffer for Anthony Albanese. Of course he's going to be a big supporter of Mr Albanese. He's got his honours degree in economics. He's not a worker. He doesn't support the workers. He's never been a worker.
Honourable members interjecting—
Order! I can't hear.
He would know nothing about the people he claims to represent. You were flown in from Sydney because you were useless to Sydney.
You're scum.
I actually cannot—
I can't believe you represent the workers.
Cut his mic. I actually cannot hear a word you are saying, okay? I can't hear it because you guys are yelling. I can't hear it because you're screaming. You need to dial it down, be a bit respectful. Get up and finish your last 13 seconds.
I note that the member for Shortland called me 'scum' and he has nodded, so he's accepted that. That's a shame because we are here to try and keep these people in a job. We are here to try to look after them. I know that he is sensitive but look what he's done to them.
Older Australians deserve better than this government. They deserve a government that's committed to fixing our broken aged-care system. Instead they've got a government that is still failing to act on the recommendations of the royal commission into aged care, failing to ensure that extra money that's put into the system is going to improving the food and nutrition of elderly residents and not just ending up in the pockets of unscrupulous providers, failing to ensure there is a nurse on duty 24 hours a day in residential aged care and failing to improve the wages and conditions for workers on the frontline—the aged-care workers who care for older of people and who desperately need a pay rise.
People in my electorate got a very sobering experience of what the Morrison government's eight years of neglect of our aged-care system looks like during the height of the pandemic last year when local aged-care residents died and others were put at risk because of this government's failures. You would think that the government would have learnt from these mistakes and would now be doing everything it can to protect people in aged care. Yet I know of one local facility where residents were promised vaccines in February but in the end they only received them just last week. That's a five month wait. How lucky is this government that there wasn't a significant outbreak in that time? Because that's all that was protecting those residents in that aged-care home in that time. This government has failed to look after older people and it is failing to do its job.
After Logan Hospital, Redland Hospital has the worst ramping in Queensland. Back in 2019 37 per cent of all admissions were being ramped, 500 hours of ambulance time was being spent just sitting in an ambulance and at any time we had 20 ambulances basically doing nothing. So on a weekend when there was a head injury at Capalaba Warriors and then there was a broken leg that led to compartment syndrome there was no ambulance for an hour because they were are stuck at the hospital. The latest data has not 37 per cent but 51 per cent—that is if you are taken by ambulance to Redland Hospital you are more likely than not to be ramped.
I've done all I can as a federal MP: put $16 million into a multistorey car park—which you're going to fill with ambulances with patients that you can't admit—and a $30 million commitment to a clinical upgrade they won't even start building three years on. We need people with ticker to get things moving. Paul Lincoln was an innocent patient walking past a row of stretchers and a woman, lying in an ambulance stretcher, waiting to be admitted at 9 am was still waiting at 9 pm. We have got a state MP so worried about hurtful work-related Facebook posts that she never answers a single public question. She doesn't have the ticker to even answer these work-related questions. Stop being so indifferent. Get out there and fix and fund this hospital. Redland Hospital, let's fight for fair funding. The community will do it. The federal government's doing it. We need a state Labor government that can run a hospital.
This morning a number of frontline domestic and family violence workers from the Hunter held the dresses of sorrow protest at the front of building. It was an incredibly powerful event highlighting the horror that is family and domestic violence. All the speakers this morning spoke in despair about how many women and children are currently in need of their support and assistance. Their temporary and crisis accommodation is at capacity and they said they see no end in sight. Of great concern is the significant influx in demand from women over the age of 70.
I want all those who travelled from my own Hunter region to know that I hear their voice. Domestic and family violence is a scourge on our society and it is getting worse in regions like mine. It is essential that the government takes enduring, sustainable action to protect the lives of women and children. They could start by investing in affordable and crisis housing to give vulnerable women and children a safe place to live.
I especially want to acknowledge and pay tribute to Nova for Women and Children, an organisation that works with some of the most vulnerable women and children in Shortland and in the neighbouring area of Newcastle, the Madam Deputy Speaker's electorate. I have seen firsthand the work they do and I take this opportunity to thank them here, in the national parliament, for their work. Let's hope that in a not too distant future my daughter and my son live in an Australia where there is no need for such work. We as law makers should all work relentlessly for this outcome.
Recently, I attended the grand opening of a fantastic new business in my electorate, the Floating Oyster Wine Bar, located on the beautiful Hawkesbury River. This charming new floating restaurant is operated by Brooklyn locals Sylvia and Ian Cameron. During COVID, Sylvia decided she needed a change from banking and purchased an old pontoon-style boat from Taree to refurbish and create a European scenic river boat cruise-style restaurant. The restaurant serves seafood, particularly oysters, for which the Hawkesbury is famous, and fine wine while taking diners on a journey to explore the local natural scenery in this beautiful and iconic location.
The Floating Oyster Wine Bar is available for charters and can cater for all manner of functions, from weddings to corporate bookings, community group tours, high teas and even hens' nights. Their signature is a Sunday event called 'The Float'. This experience includes an oyster and prawn tasting plate and cheese platter paired with wine, beer, bubbles or soft drink. It's a great way to spend a wonderful Sunday afternoon, seeing something magnificent on the Hawkesbury River in my community. In addition to these events, the Floating Oyster Wine Bar have special things coming up in their calendar, like the Gin Moon Rising Super Moon Float on 26 May.
I am always delighted to hear about new business ventures in my community, but I'm particularly delighted to hear about business ventures which provide our citizens with the opportunity to get out onto the Hawkesbury and to experience one of the great natural wonders of my community. I wish the Floating Oyster Wine Bar many years of great success.
In accordance with standing order 43, the time for members statements has concluded.
I move:
That:
(1) a joint select committee, to be known as the Joint Select Committee on Oversight of the Implementation of Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety be established to inquire into and report upon:
(a) the Government response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission, including the development of a new Act to replace the Aged Care Act 1997 and the establishment and operation of a new person-centred Aged Care system which focuses on the safety, health and wellbeing of older people; and
(b) any matter in relation to the Royal Commission's recommendations referred to the committee by a resolution of either House of the Parliament;
(2) the committee present its final report on or before the final sitting day of the 46th Parliament;
(3) the committee consist of nine members—four senators, and five members of the House of Representatives, as follows:
(a) two members of the House of the Representatives to be nominated by the Government Whip or Whips;
(b) two members of the House of Representatives to be nominated by the Opposition Whip or Whips;
(c) two senators to be nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate;
(d) one senator to be nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate;
(e) one senator to be nominated by any minority party or independent senator; and
(f) one member of the House of Representatives nominated by any minority party or independent member;
(4) participating members may:
(a) be appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Government Whip in the House of Representatives, the Opposition Whip in the House of Representatives, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate or any minority party or independent senator or member of the House of Representatives; and
(b) participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of the committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee;
(5) every nomination of a member of the committee be notified in writing to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
(6) the members of the committee hold office as a joint select committee until presentation of the committee's final report or until the House of Representatives is dissolved or expires by effluxion of time, whichever is the earlier;
(7) the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that all members have not been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy;
(8) the committee elect:
(a) a Government member as its chair; and
(b) a non-Government member as its deputy chair who shall act as chair of the committee at any time when the chair is not present at a meeting of the committee; and
(c) at any time when the chair and deputy chair are not present at a meeting of the committee, the members present shall elect another member to act as chair at that meeting;
(9) in the event of an equally divided vote, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, shall have a casting vote;
(10) three members of the committee constitute a quorum of the committee provided that in a deliberative meeting the quorum shall include one Government member of either House and one non-Government member of either House;
(11) the committee have power to:
(a) appoint subcommittees consisting of three or more of its members, and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to examine; and
(b) appoint the chair of each subcommittee who shall have a casting vote only;
(12) two members of a subcommittee constitute the quorum of that subcommittee, provided that in a deliberative meeting the quorum shall include one Government member of either House and one non-Government member of either House;
(13) the committee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings and the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit;
(14) the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
(15) the committee be empowered to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public;
(16) the committee have power to adjourn from time to time and to sit during any adjournment of the Senate and the House of Representatives;
(17) the provisions of this resolution, so far as they are inconsistent with the standing orders, have effect notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders; and
(18) a message be sent to the Senate seeking its concurrence in this resolution.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety final report comprises 148 recommendations, setting out the pathway for a future system of aged care with older Australians at its heart. In handing down its response to the report the government has accepted 107 of its recommendations and another 19 in principle. Ten were flagged for further consideration.
I must say that I am disappointed that the government has rejected Commissioner Pagone's recommendation to establish an independent aged-care commission. I believe that this important area of public policy deserves its own commission rather than the aged-care system remaining within the remit of the Department of Health. In handing down the 2021-22 federal budget the government has committed an additional $17.7 billion to deliver generational change to the aged-care system. My fervent hope is this will be a system that affords everyone the care, dignity and respect that they deserve.
But we all know the devil is always in the detail. The budget commits $6.5 billion to an additional 80,000 home-care packages to help older Australians to stay in their homes for longer, and that's what many tell me they want to do. The budget allows for 40,000 packages per year over the next two years, but this means little if packages aren't available because the providers and care workers aren't where they need to be to meet the demand. That's why the $10.8 million investment promised to design and plan a new support and home-care program in that 2021-22 year will be vital.
The commitment to grow the skilled, professional and compassionate aged-care workforce is laudable, but without measures to address low pay in the sector it is going to be a difficult challenge. With disability support workers earning 25 per cent more than aged-care workers, it's clear that we need to address this gap. There is an opportunity for government to actively grow this workforce by supporting the aged-care work value case presented before Fair Work Australia.
The government has also committed to invest $10 per resident per day in residential aged care for improved food quality and nutrition. However, there is no way for government or the taxpayer to ensure that this money is spent as intended. I receive many complaints from my constituents regarding the quality of food in aged care, and I'm told that at one aged-care facility at least in my electorate, even when a resident goes to hospital—in one case, for months at a time—they are still invoiced for food that is never eaten. As I said when the report came out, this additional funding cannot be a blank cheque for aged-care providers. Greater transparency means we need to ensure providers are accountable and give old people real care controls and choice.
That's why I've moved this motion calling for an establishment of a joint select committee so that we can work together in a bipartisan way with oversight of the implementation of the royal commission's recommendations. This will be a true working group focused on meeting the needs of our older Australians. The joint select committee will comprise representatives from the government, from opposition, from independents and minor parties and importantly, come from both chambers, and it would ensure the redesign of the aged-care system is afforded the highest priority.
We can make sure that the royal commission report does not suffer the same fate of tens of reports before it and sit on the shelf until the media reports on the next crisis that should have been addressed decades ago. For us to plan for, design and deliver a new aged-care system with care, dignity and respect for older Australians at its heart, we need to grasp the nettle. The time is now, and the shared responsibility is all of ours—every single one of us that sits in either one of these chambers. I've said before that we cannot wait for a new aged-care system and we need to come together to ensure that it achieves the very best outcomes for the most vulnerable Australians.
And so I urge people to put party politics aside. Let's all work together—both chambers, all sides—and put older Australians front and centre in this place.
Is there a seconder for the motion?
I second the motion. The final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety obviously presents a shockingly grim account of the reality for many people ageing in Australia. Indeed, you need look no further than the title of the report to see what is lacking in aged care in this country: quality and safety, though just as easily I would add care, dignity and respect. No wonder any member of the House or at least any member with compassion and understanding of good public policy would not only acknowledge Australia's aged-care crisis but also support this motion from the member for Mayo.
Care, dignity and respect for older Australians are surely not too much to ask of our rich and lucky country. But, shamefully, until now it has been too much for a series of federal governments to deliver, raising the question why. Why is it that we have failed so spectacularly to adequately support this vulnerable group—victims most often not able to advocate for themselves?
In the electorate of Clark, as across the country, the royal commission uncovered many examples of substandard care, neglect and abuse. Indeed, my community was confronted with heartbreaking stories of older Australians suffering in an aged-care system that failed dismally to protect and support them. Again, it's no wonder that, if only because of the volume and severity of these reports of elder abuse, we have lost trust in the integrity of service providers and the regulation of an industry which has been shown to prioritise revenue over care.
However, despite the commission's devastating revelations, I do believe we are now presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fundamentally change and improve our aged-care services. Indeed, the commission has provided a clear blueprint on how to achieve this reform, and it is imperative we make the most of the opportunity to overturn the failures much the past. But there must be adequate funding allocated to drive this change, and it must be used for this purpose and not to line the pockets of service providers. Moreover, we must ensure that there are tangible changes to the care for the elderly and their families, with adequate safeguards to protect older people and relieve their suffering.
It's way beyond time to acknowledge that older Australians deserve and need the first-class aged-care system our country is capable of delivering—one underpinned by a rights based act where funding is based on need and essential workers are supported through improved training and wages. But systemic change such as this not only needs to be delivered; it also must be seen to be delivered and delivered properly. Unfortunately, though, based on past experiences, the community has little confidence in the ability of any federal government to manage such a monumental task, and that makes this government's challenge all the more difficult. We have seen, for instance, little reform in the banking sector following the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, and we have seen appalling lack of action on the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. This time it must be different. Australians deserve to be reassured that the work of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety will not be in vain, and we as a nation need to see evidence that things are changing for the better. At the same time, it is important for the government to win back the trust of Australians and restore their faith in the government's ability to deliver and monitor aged care in this country.
To that end, I believe that confidence in the implementation of the essential aged-care service reforms will only be achieved through an independent review and analysis of progress against the commission's recommendations, and that is why I support the proposed Select Committee on Oversight of the Implementation of Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Care, dignity and respect—that is what all Australians must have, and we need someone other than the government to reassure us that we're on the right path to achieving it for older Australians, in particular, through the implementation of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommendations. That's what this motion proposes, and that's why it has my full support.
I rise to speak on the motion put forward by the member for Mayo for a Joint Select Committee on Oversight of the Implementation of Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Labor supports this proposal and, if it is successful, I need to say that we will take this very seriously.
The aged-care royal commission provides the government with a once-in-a-generation blueprint for reform, yet we've already seen the government fob off, delay, or outright reject key recommendations. Worse, we know this government avoids scrutiny just as it avoids vaccinating Australians. Think of the things we only know about because we as an opposition have used this parliament to hold this government to account: sports rorts, safer seats rorts, robodebt, and the fact that a staggering 17 of 30 former ministers in the Liberal government have been appointed to cushy government positions or get paid to lobby their mates in government. It goes from jobs for mates to endless ministerial scandals. It's been hard to stay across all the scandals that the minister for energy and emissions—sorry, emissions reduction, but he's failing on that part—has been involved in. We've had 'grassgate', 'watergate' and the forged documents affair. Remember when the government spent $7 million on COVIDSafe app ads and the app then only found 17 people, or when the Prime Minister's solution to the bushfire crisis was to shell out $190,000 of taxpayers' money to a mate to make a flashy video, or when the COVID committee asked the grossly incompetent aged-care minister how many people had died from COVID in aged-care facilities and we had that awful folder-flipping moment before he admitted that he didn't know?
In opposition, we have a fundamental responsibility to hold the government of the day to account for how it responds to key recommendations of the aged-care royal commission. The government has been tasked with development of a new Aged Care Act which aims to radically change the aged-care sector so that its only focus is the safety, health and wellbeing of older people, and the truth is that the government's initial response has huge gaps that leave our residents in aged care wanting. As someone who has spent a long time campaigning for aged care, I don't believe their response package is the generational reform that the royal commission wanted and that the system so desperately needs. It seems to me to be more untied funding for providers that lacks proper wage increases for new nurses and carers. They fobbed off, delayed or outright rejected key recommendations.
There are a couple of points on this. Firstly, nothing will change without reform to the workforce. There was nothing to improve wages for overstretched, undervalued aged-care workers. Critically, there is no plan to ensure real accountability and transparency of funding. There is nothing that seriously reforms the system to see exactly where the money goes. There is no change to auditing requirements to stop money being funnelled away to Maseratis, offshore tax havens or secret family trusts while residents suffer malnutrition, lie in soiled beds and have deep, deep wounds—some, as we've seen, with maggots in them. They're gifting $3.2 billion to providers with no strings attached to ensure that this goes to actual care and better food and not management bonuses or new office fit-outs. They've promised 80,000 home-care packages for a waitlist of 100,000 people and growing. The maths here just don't add up. Australians do want to age at home, but they need those packages to do so.
They've ignored the recommendation to require a registered nurse to be on duty 24/7 in residential care, which we know is core to improving care. Their approach shirks also the main increase to mandatory care minutes in residential aged care. Staffing levels are central to the quality of care problems in residential aged care. Given that this government has ignored so many recommendations, ignored 22 previous expert reports and neglected aged care for eight years, how can any Australian, their families or hardworking carers trust them to fix this broken system? That's why Labor is supporting this motion of the member for Mayo. We must push the government to actually respond to, and implement, the recommendations from the royal commission. Failure to do so will mean we fail another generation of our elderly who will age fearful of the treatment they will receive in their final years.
Every Australian deserves to age with dignity and respect. As we all learnt during the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, this has not always been the case. We heard of cases that shocked us all. We had to hear about them. We had to listen, and now we must act. That is why I welcome the Morrison government's response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety which includes a five-year implementation plan underpinned by five pillars: home care to support people in their homes so that they can age at home—that is what the consumer has asked for, and that is what the government will deliver; residential aged-care services and sustainability, which will help improve service sustainability to ensure that individual care needs and preferences are met; residential aged-care quality and safety to improve access to, and quality of, residential care; workforce—growing a bigger more highly skilled caring workforce; and, of most relevance today, governance—simplifying navigation, improving governance and oversight, and introducing a new aged care act.
In this budget, the Morrison government has committed to a once-in-a-generation investment with an additional $17.7 billion in practical and targeted new funding to significantly improve the system. This includes a further 80,000 new home-care packages which will bring the total of available home-care packages to over 275,000. This is what the public wants. Further, $3.9 billion is being invested to increase the number of care minutes delivered to residents in aged-care facilities, mandated at 200 minutes per day, including 40 minutes with a registered nurse. A registered nurse will also be required to be at the residence for a minimum of 16 hours a day. We are also supporting over 33,000 new training places for personal carers and a new Indigenous workforce, along with providing retention bonuses to keep more nurses in the aged-care sector. This is incredibly important. We need to incentivise the aged-care sector. This investment in our budget brings the total investment in aged care to over $119 billion over the next four years.
The member for Mayo is calling for a joint select committee for greater oversight, but what the honourable member fails to understand is that we don't need more bureaucratic parliamentary supervision. What we need is enhanced consumer engagement. The voice of older Australians needs to be heard. That is what is clear from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Indeed, from the senior Australians using residential aged-care services and from providers within the aged-care sector, we heard a very loud and resounding cry for help. That is why the interim report was called Neglect. They have not been heard. They want their voices to be heard—not another committee pontificating on politics. The need is to hear the views of people, not politicians. As Winston Churchill famously said, it is the people who control the government, not the government the people.
There are three new ways that the voices of older citizens will be heard. These include, firstly, a council of elders. Following recommendations from the final report of the royal commission, a council of elders will be established this year to provide a direct voice to government from senior Australians. Secondly, a national aged-care advisory council is part of the recommendations of the final report. The advisory council would provide expert advice to government on a range of matters, including implementation of the aged-care reforms. Lastly, following the recommendations of the report, an inspector-general of aged care would be established as a new office. This oversight of the aged-care system will provide greater transparency and independence. Its functions will include identifying and investigating systemic issues in the provision or regulation of aged care, producing and publishing reports of its findings and making recommendations to government.
It's important that we seek to meet the needs of an ageing population. We know Australia is ageing, and we know the residential aged-care sector is ageing even faster as people become older and more frail in aged care. In the aged-care sector, we need to make sure the services are there to support them. Following the royal commission into aged care, senior Australians and their loved ones know that the Morrison government's response comes with an absolute commitment to restoring trust in the system and allowing Australians to age with dignity and respect.
I too rise to speak in support of this motion. I also want to thank the member for Mayo for raising such an important issue. It's important because, if one thing has become clear in this government's budget response to the royal commission, it is that they cannot be trusted to do the right thing for older Australians. There needs to be greater oversight of how the recommendations of the royal commission are implemented and how this additional money that's meant to be spent will be spent. We've all heard horror stories during the royal commission, and in the media at other times, about the neglect and the lack of care for older Australians, and that's not good enough.
We've heard of people dying whilst they've been on waiting lists for aged-care packages that would see them looked after in their homes. We know the government has announced around 80,000 new packages, but when you have over 100,000 people on that waiting list—and the number is growing; it's not just the 100,000—you know that it's just plugging holes while other holes gush open. The government made a big song and dance when announcing the additional funding for aged care in the budget. This is what it said it would deliver: a once-in-a-generation aged-care reform package—or something to that effect. However, as we discovered after looking more closely at the detail, the measures announced will simply not deliver for older Australians, and they won't deliver the real reform that's required to fix a system that so desperately needs it.
The royal commission found that Australia's aged-care system is understaffed and that the workforce is underpaid and undertrained—understaffed, underpaid and undertrained. It is very important to pay attention to that because, at the point where you don't have enough staff to look after people, where people are not looking at that particular vocation as their career—and the majority do—and where people are undertrained, you can see why we have these problems. We need to train more people, we need to have more staff and we need to ensure that they get paid a proper wage. It concluded that the inadequate staffing levels, the skills mix and the training were the principal causes of substandard care in our current system.
So how has the government chosen to respond to these very clear recommendations? As I said, they announced 80,000 new packages, which will not go anywhere near getting rid of the waiting list that exists. We've seen stories in electorates. In my own electorate, people have applied for high-care packages. Perhaps they've been allocated a package but there is no package. By the time it comes to fruition, months and months may have passed. As I said, right now, right here, there are 100,000 people on that waiting list—elderly Australians waiting for those home-care packages—with an average waiting time of 28 months. In some cases, people who require a package with the highest level of care can wait up to 34 months. So it's not surprising that around 30,000 people have died waiting for a package. That's atrocious. It's not on. These are people who have contributed to this nation. Because of them, we live the fruitful lives that we do today.
This government's plan will do nothing to address the fundamental problem of waiting lists, because it does nothing to address the workforce shortages. Where will the staff come from to provide home-care places in the next two years? How will nursing homes provide 200 minutes of direct care per resident per day, as promised by this government, without employing a lot more staff? To date, most of this work has been undertaken by new arrivals to Australia. With the virus that's hit us in the last 12 months, that has dried up. That work supply, which is most needed right now, has dried up because our international borders are unlikely to reopen soon. There needs to be fundamental workplace reform to address the pay and working conditions of the people who undertake this very, very important work.
A very critical point is that the government's reforms don't include any requirement for a registered nurse to be on site in nursing homes 24/7, as recommended by the royal commission. This means that elderly residents will continue to be denied round-the-clock nursing care. The government will hand out $3.2 billion, or $10 per resident per day, to support aged-care providers to deliver better care and services, including food. But some providers will choose to do the right thing; others will spend it on office equipment, for example, or refurbishing.
I have made some points throughout the whole debate on arguments that have been presented on the aged-care issue, but there is one point I want to press upon everybody tonight. The motion before us proposes that a committee, to be known as the Joint Select Committee on Oversight of the Implementation of Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, be established. I want to say, firstly, that we shouldn't have to establish such a committee. It's the government's responsibility to oversight the issues that come out of a royal commission. Out of that royal commission we learned a lot of things, one of which is that there wasn't enough money going into aged care. So the government have rightly put in another $10 a day for every resident. They have come up with 80,000 new places. But, to service those new places, you might need 180,000 new workers. In regional communities, which I and others in the room represent, they're more difficult to find than in urban areas. So we have a double dose of aged-care life.
I want to make this point at the outset of my remarks: going from your home or from a package into residential aged care should be another step in life, not the beginning of passing away. It should be another step in life. We should be looking at the way we care for our older Australians as a step in living and improving their place. So what did we do? I had a lady on the phone a few minutes ago who's reasonably worried. She said, 'Russell, I'm on a package, but sometimes the people that should be visiting me'—I won't name the group—'are short of staff in Gippsland, so sometimes I don't get the fullness of my package delivered to me. You've now given out 80,000 new packages. Am I going to miss out because you've given out 80,000 new packages?' I said, 'No, you're not.' But I can't really trust in that when I say, 'No, you're not,' because that means I'm believing that we will find the workforce and we will be able to deliver on behalf of the lady who's concerned today and on behalf of everybody else that takes a package.
I said at the outset that there shouldn't be a need for a joint select committee. But, if there is, I'd love to be a part of it. I'd like to be a part of monitoring what we're doing. With an $18 billion package that the government has put forward in response to this, how can we improve the way that's spent? Where's our oversight over Defence and their spending? Where's our oversight over all the areas of government outlays where I would suggest, because it's not a whole-of-government focus, there may be wastage? We can spend billions on one thing, but we have our other priorities in other areas that do not allow the focus to be on what Australia really needs to be focusing on.
Through the aged-care royal commission and the Australian people's desire for the wellbeing of older Australians, that's how we end up here, because the Australian people say: 'These are the sorts of representatives we want. Go and tell our story, and our story is on aged care.' Our broader community and our nation of small communities said, 'We don't believe that our older people are getting the care that they need, and the government needs to address it'—therefore the royal commission, and therefore your desire, Member for Mayo, to have an oversight body, virtually to continue what the royal commission's done. That's how I see it. It would be a continuing reviewing activity on how the money's being spent.
To me, the best thing that happened in this budget in regard to aged care was the regional sites that the government's going to put out, because one of my biggest complaints was that we don't have enough staff on the ground, as we used to have, so that the knowledge that they would find in the regional areas is then transferred back to government for better decisions to be made at that level. It seems common sense, but we don't have those people in the states at that level anymore. That's one positive out of this proposal. (Time expired)
I rise to speak on the private member's motion brought forward by the member for Mayo advocating a Joint Select Committee on Oversight of the Implementation of Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Joint standing committees do have value and merit. I'm a member of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and I believe it does add real value as a mechanism for independent assessment of performance and constructive reform. However, there must be a real commitment from the government to consider and act on the recommendations brought forward by such committees. In my experience, the Morrison government shows little commitment to acting on committee recommendations that we improve systems and respond to the feedback of participants, often very vulnerable participants.
In regard to aged care, this government has shown little interest in acting on the royal commission's recommendations. A key recommendation relates to funding. While the Morrison government did announce funding in the budget, it is underdone. The Grattan Institute argues that $10 billion per year is needed to address the issues—issues of malnourishment, physical and sexual abuse, and high staff turnover. The government remains uncommitted to looking at the fundamental problems that underpin the aged-care crisis. There isn't a commitment to improving transparency and making private providers publicly state how they're using Commonwealth dollars. There isn't a commitment to improving ratios between aged-care residents and trained nursing staff. While there is an increase in the hours of care for each resident, it is notably less than what the royal commission recommended.
When it comes to wages of those who care for our elderly citizens, our most vulnerable, there is no commitment to increasing wages. From a government that says it wants to reduce the gender pay gap but does nothing for women who work in female dominated sectors, this is disgraceful. How are we meant to attract workers to the aged-care sector when the wages are so poor? The average hourly rate in Victoria, for example, is just $23. As a result, there are high turnover rates. Instead of retaining women with skills and experience, the system fails to reward them for their care and compassion for others.
We know that in Australia we have an ageing population, and with this will come significant future demand for aged care. It's estimated we will need to recruit an additional 70,000 workers by 2050. If we do not value these workers and pay them well for their skills and expertise, we will be facing a workforce crisis in the years to come. We are already facing a shortage in the aged-care workforce now, and this must change. Now, I acknowledge the government has acted on the issue of home-care packages, which is a good thing, but this commitment is 19 months late and will still leave over 20,000 older Australians on the home-care waiting list. It's vital that people who want to stay in their home can do so. In my region over 2,000 older Australians are on waiting lists, including 275 people with high-level needs. Across Victoria that figure has blown out to just under 30,000.
In closing, there is still significant work to be done in this sector to ensure people in aged care are treated with respect and dignity. While a Joint Standing Committee has merit, unless the Morrison government has the will to introduce comprehensive reform, nothing much will change. In the words of Commissioner Briggs, 'The government must step up and embrace its responsibilities'. It's time to do so now.
I rise to support the call from the member for Mayo to establish the Joint Select Committee on Oversight of the Implementation of Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. The breadth of the recommendations of the royal commission and substantial sums of money involved in implementation warrant a multipartisan committee to review its implementation. The 148 recommendations include legislative change to governance, establishment of specialised facilities and care models to improve public awareness of aged care and conditions for workers. The diversity of issues and the dire need for reform demand ongoing parliamentary scrutiny through a joint select committee, not to mention the expansion of funds to be spent in this sector. An additional $17.7 billion in the budget is allocated to aged care over the next five years, short of the $10 billion a year required to achieve all of the landmark Australian social policy reform as desired by Commissioner Briggs. But it is all the more reason to ensure the funding is spent effectively so that we get maximum value from every dollar spent.
The commissioner recommended that the government establish an Australian aged-care commission to oversee the implementation of the royal commission findings, yet the government did not accept that recommendation, instead preferring a recommendation to elevate the minister to a cabinet role and establish a council of elders and replace the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission with an independent aged-care safety and quality authority.
Given the long-term nature of the implementation of these recommendations and the absence of an independent overarching commission, it's essential that appropriate parliamentary oversight from both houses and multiple parties be established as an enduring body. The proposed joint select committee on oversight of the implementation of the recommendations absolutely is a sensible measure to deliver oversight of the implementation. The committee would have the power to establish subcommittees to inquire into the recommendations that the government committed to investigating further. There has been so much focus and attention on this royal commission, so many people have participated and the stories have been so horrific that we absolutely must make sure that the full implementation is done and that any further investigation is also done.
It includes recommendation 72, which aims to achieve equity for people with disability receiving aged care. My constituents have repeatedly raised this issue with me and were disappointed with the government's response to recommendation 72. Also, a subcommittee to further investigate the feasibility of the recommendation would very much have the support in Warringah. I commend the member for Mayo for taking the proactive steps to ensure that the oversight of this huge expansion of public spending is considered and subject to multipartisan review. It's a matter of integrity and good governance that this committee is established.
We've seen with this budget a huge increase to public debt. We know we are an ageing population and the young people of today are going to be burdened with a huge level of public debt. They have so many responsibilities and crises looming.
We must ensuring that all the public money that is being spent in this sector in implementing the recommendations of the royal commission are done soundly, with integrity, with proper accountability and with proper diligence. You can only ensure good governance if there is scrutiny and that needs to be independent and joint scrutiny. That oversight is incredibly important and will give the Australian people confidence that their money is being spent well, that their concerns are being addressed and that after two long years of this royal commission—of all these horrific stories being told—that there is actually going to be meaningful change, and that recommendations are actually implemented, not just given a passing approval. We don't want announcements. What we really need, what the Australian people are asking for, is real change to this sector and we need to ensure that happens. That is our responsibility as members of this place, to ensure that the stories we heard during the royal commission into aged care do not ever happen again.
Debate adjourned.
I move:
That this House:
(1) notes that:
(a) Indigenous tourism plays a vital role in supporting businesses, creating jobs and driving economic empowerment of Indigenous Australians;
(b) the Government's $40 million Indigenous Tourism Fund announced on Friday, 19 February 2021 will support Indigenous tourism businesses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community organisations; and
(c) the establishment of the National Indigenous Tourism Advisory Group will advise the Government on strategic priorities for the growth of Australia's Indigenous tourism sector in a way which best supports the broader tourism sector's recovery; and
(2) recognises and acknowledges that:
(a) Australia's Indigenous culture, country, art and history are unique in today's competitive international tourism market, and are equally attractive to our domestic audience; and
(b) employment in the Indigenous tourism sector provides the opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to stay on country while maintaining and sharing their culture and traditions.
I rise to support this motion but more importantly in support of a critical role that Indigenous people and culture play in our nation's tourism offerings. It's no more evident than in my vast electorate of Leichhardt that includes the Torres Strait, Cape York, Cooktown, Mossman, the Daintree, Kuranda and Cairns. All of these places have a rich history in connection with Indigenous people and their amazing culture. In fact, my electorate is the only region with two distinct Indigenous cultures: the Aboriginal and Torres Strait people.
Australia's Indigenous culture, country, art and history are unique in today's competitive tourism market. My electorate is fortunate to be the home for a number of Indigenous sites and attractions including the Mossman Gorge, Gab Titui Cultural Centre on Thursday Island, the Daintree Discovery Centre and the amazing Quinkan rock art galleries near Laura, just to name a few. Cairns is also home to Tjaukai Cultural Park, which has been closed temporarily because of COVID. But I expect that it will open again in the not too distant future. It's also home to CIAF, Australia's premier Indigenous arts fair that attracts people from all over the nation. And let's not forget the deep and spiritual connection Indigenous people have at places like Kuranda, Mossman, our Daintree Rainforest and, of course, our Great Barrier Reef.
I mention these places specifically because each and every one of them is one of several Indigenous owned and operated tourism businesses. In fact, there are countless Indigenous tourism businesses throughout my electorate of Leichhardt offering world-class tours and experiences. These businesses are important in that they are owned, they are operated and they employ Indigenous Australians. What better way to experience and immerse yourself in the history and culture of these sights and attractions than with a person who has a real connection to them?
Indigenous tourism plays a vital role in supporting businesses, creating jobs and driving economic empowerment for Indigenous Australians. Indigenous tourism, especially in my electorate, is, in fact, very big business. People now want more from their holidays. Instead of simply seeing the sites and flocking by the pool, people want connection. They want a unique and authentic experience. That's why the Morrison government has recently partnered with the Cairns Regional Council to establish the Cairns Gallery Precinct. One of our jewels in the precinct will be a new world-class Indigenous art gallery. This precinct will focus on celebrating and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture, while creating further opportunities for cultural tourism. As the Cairns Regional Council Mayor Bob Manning rightfully said:
When complete, the Gallery Precinct will provide us with a number of unique quality art spaces that will attract national and international exhibitions and also showcase the works of our region's best artists.
And we have no shortage of them.
Importantly, it will provide, for the first time, dedicated places in which to highlight our talented Indigenous artists – not only here but all the way into Cape York and the Torres Strait – and the unique artforms they create.
This exposure to the national and global stage will drive demand for authentic Indigenous art, which will increase the opportunity for career pathways and be an inspiration for our youth, especially our Indigenous youth, to pursue careers in the arts.
You see, Mr Deputy Speaker, the Morrison government understand the importance and vital role that Indigenous tourism plays in supporting businesses, creating jobs and driving the economic empowerment of Indigenous Australians. That's why we put some $40 million towards establishing the Indigenous Tourism Fund. The fund aims to help Indigenous tourism businesses capture a share of the Australian tourism market. As I mentioned earlier, Australian Indigenous culture is a point of differentiation in our tourism market and provides an important source of employment and economic opportunity, particularly in regional and remote areas of Australia. The four elements of the tourism fund are designed to deliver complementary support through grant funding to enhance capability and facilitate Indigenous tourism sector leadership. It includes $12 million for tourism grants, $10 million for Indigenous business, $10 million towards the National Indigenous Tourism Mentoring Program, $17 million towards strategic Indigenous tourism projects and a million dollars towards an Indigenous tourism advisory group.
The hugely popular and highly successful program has already resulted in more than half a million Australians snapping up cut-price fares to Cairns. It has been an amazing success, bringing a lot of people into our area to see this wonderful work from Indigenous Australians. It provides an excellent opportunity for Australians visiting Cairns and North Queensland to check out the experiences of countless amazing Indigenous owned and operated businesses and tourist attractions located in my electorate. I guarantee they will not be disappointed.
Do we have a seconder for the motion?
I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
I rise to speak on the member for Leichhardt's motion on Indigenous tourism. The loss of First Nations cultures around this country is one of our country's greatest tragedies. The world's oldest continuing cultures have been attacked and denied by the colonisation of this continent for too long, and this denial and destruction continue to this day. That is why it is so important that we commit to the Uluru statement and its principles of voice, treaty and truth, and I was proud that the Labor Party reiterated its commitment to seeing this established in full, including a voice to parliament enshrined in the Constitution, on the fourth anniversary of the statement recently.
We are also seeing a revival of First Nations cultures around Australia. Here in the ACT, for example, the revival of Ngunawal language, the language of the traditional owners of the land on which we currently stand, is but one incredible example. Supported by AIATSIS, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Ngunawal families are contributing to the revival of their culture not only for their own benefit but for the benefit of all Australians. Businesses like Thunderstone here in Canberra, owned by Ngunawal elder Tyrone Bell, are pushing the resurgence of Ngunawal language and building successful businesses on the back of this resurgence. Thunderstone provides cultural tours and other education on Ngunawal culture.
There is a keen interest in the community to understand First Nations cultures and to understand the land we live on through a different lens. This desire is strong across the country and among foreign tourists, who seek out First Nations tourism experiences to better understand the oldest continuing culture in the world, so it is good that the federal government is finally providing support for First Nations tourism businesses. While this country should spend considerably more on preserving and celebrating First Nations cultures, further revival of culture may be a positive by-product. I say 'finally' because this fund was a commitment from the 2019 election; however, it has taken the Morrison government 643 days, from the announcement to the opening of the fund. And no funding has been announced, so we can presume that no First Nations businesses have actually benefited from the fund to date. Labor often calls out the Morrison government for not consulting widely enough, but in the case of this fund it seems the government took the opposite approach, consulting for 21 months. More likely is that this fund was put on the backburner by the Liberal-Nationals.
Finally, this isn't new money; instead, this money was reallocated from the Indigenous Advancement Strategy, which has been used repeatedly to announce and re-announce funding. But I commend the Morrison government and the member for Leichhardt for getting around to prioritising First Nations tourism businesses with these reallocated funds.
The pandemic has decimated our tourism sector. While Australians are now travelling domestically, the reality is that domestic tourists don't spend anywhere near as much as international tourists once did. Despite calls from tourism operators, travel agents and other tourism businesses for support, the Morrison government has abandoned the tourism sector during the pandemic. Without a vaccinated population, the sector is at constant risk of lockdown and further cancellations. The end of JobKeeper has put even more pressure on tourism businesses. Tourism supports spruiked by the Morrison government are actually just subsidies for the major airlines and not real support for tourism operators on the ground.
In the member for Leichhardt's part of the world, my colleague Queensland Senator Nita Green has been pushing hard for support for the tourism sector. Consulting with major tourist attractions such as Skyrail in Cairns, Senator Green has highlighted the difficulties that businesses in the tourism sector have faced during the pandemic. It costs a lot of money to operate facilities such as Skyrail, and without support the sector is on the brink. With the government's budget signalling the borders will be shut until at least mid-2022, there is no relief in sight for our tourism operators. We saw again today the Prime Minister failed to give a date in question time of when the full Australian population could expect to have an opportunity to be vaccinated.
I commend this motion and the government for supporting Indigenous tourism businesses and their important role, but I do call on the government to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full and give our First Nations Australians the voice they deserve in this parliament.
I'm very pleased to support this motion by my good friend the member for Leichhardt, recognising the importance and the value of Indigenous tourism. The statistics for health, education and employment of our Indigenous population, as I'm sure we all recognise across this Chamber, are far from ideal. The average life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is 10 years less than that of non-Indigenous Australians. Twenty per cent of Aboriginal women experience physical violence compared to seven per cent of non-Indigenous women. Indigenous Australians are more likely than non-Indigenous people to have mental health problems and chronic diseases such as respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic kidney disease. We have seen recently media reports to that effect.
Improving economic, social and education outcomes for Indigenous Australians is a priority for this government. The Closing the Gap statement on improving the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is also a national priority. The 2021 budget provides some $243.6 million to Indigenous focused programs, including new Indigenous skills and employment programs and funding of some 2,700 places at Indigenous skills academies. The measures complement the government's $40 million investment in the Indigenous Tourism Fund, which supports Indigenous tourism businesses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community organisations.
In 2017, the Australian government released a report called My life my lead: Opportunities for strengthening approaches to the social determinants and cultural determinants of Indigenous health. During the consultation for this report, one of the key themes to emerge was that of culture as being central to Indigenous Australians' wellbeing and the need for it to be embraced across a range of Indigenous and mainstream services as both a protector and an enabler of health and wellbeing. Aboriginal culture is a foundation of everything else that it is built on: dance, music, arts ceremonies and storytelling. These connect the Indigenous people to family, community and country, and to the past and to others.
I am pleased to say there are a number of these programs across my electorate of Forde. The Spirits of the Red Sand is located not far from my office in Beenleigh, on Yugambeh country. The northern part of my electorate is Yuggera territory. Uncle Eddie set up Spirits of the Red Sand after visiting the Tamaki Maori Village in New Zealand. The mission of Spirits of the Red Sand is to create respect and admiration for the Indigenous culture through the act of storytelling and it provides a unique tourism experience by allowing visitors to participate in the telling of the story of our Indigenous community in our local area over the period prior to and post settlement. Spirits of the Red Sand offer didgeridoo lessons and a deeper understanding of welcome to country and tribal challenges for both individual and corporate visitors. The story they tell at Spirits of the Red Sand is based on that of a local family and many of the characters and many of the people acting out these stories are descendants of those original Indigenous inhabitants. Australia's Indigenous culture, country, art and history are key points of differentiation in a competitive international tourism market and to see their success is great testament to the work that they do. Supporting Indigenous tourism businesses, particularly those who share Indigenous culture and traditions, helps communities to realise the economic opportunities and importantly helps with health and wellbeing.
Additionally the Yugambeh Museum in Beenleigh was established to record and promote the traditional knowledge and language of the Yugambeh people. It works with the community to bring together initiatives centred around cultural and education exchange so future generations have the opportunity to embrace their language, hear their stories and connect to their legacy but also to inform the broader community.
Beenleigh Housing and Development Corporation is a Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation that provides sustainable housing links to the Indigenous community. From the $750,000 they received through the National Indigenous Australians Agency fund, they have run programs to keep jahjum, or children, at school, engaged in starting in playgroups, completing year 12 and going to university. I commend the government for seeking to support these important initiatives through Indigenous tourism and other great initiatives.
I'm very pleased to speak to this important piece of private member's business. It is a credit to the member for Leichhardt for raising it. He understands this issue. From the Northern Territory's perspective, being the heart of our nation, our Indigenous communities have maintained strong and direct links to their culture for over 60,000 years. Engagement with our Indigenous cultures is one of the main reasons—and surveys continually tell us this—that visitors come to the Northern Territory. They want that genuine experience across cultural communication. It is the best way, I believe, to unite Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and communities. I think that Indigenous owned and run tourism offers that experience like no other. It is true, I think, that most Australians are seeking a deeper understanding of and connection with our nation's first people. I won't speak for everyone, but I know on this side of the House and certainly for some of the members from the other side that seek to speak on this there is a genuine acknowledgment of this important task that we all are engaged in.
In the Northern Territory, our art is a major channel to do that. We have world-class First Nations art in the Northern Territory, from the delicate cross-hatchings of the saltwater people of north-east Arnhem Land to the bright shapes and pastels depicting the central deserts of Australia. The Aboriginal art of the Northern Territory is world famous. Every August in Darwin we host the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Awards, one of the richest and most prestigious such prizes in the world. We also host the National Indigenous Art Fair, bringing the artwork of Indigenous communities from around Australia into the Top End so they can showcase their work. I was very proud last week to present an award to the Darwin Aboriginal art fair for their great efforts in not letting COVID stop the art fair. They transitioned online, and they raised almost as much money as they did when they had people coming in the door and seeing the artwork firsthand. It's hugely popular with international visitors and interstate visitors alike. Obviously it will just be interstate visitors this year. We do get huge spikes in tourism numbers when these prestigious art events and art fairs are held in Darwin, and we're very proud to host artwork from all around Australia's many First Nations communities.
We have a lot to be proud of in our artwork, but also in our landscapes, which are like no other. And it is here that we need to help Indigenous-owned businesses get Australians out onto country, and then, when we open up, bring out people from around the world. I do want to say that it is disappointing that the government has been so slow to act to support industry in this regard. Kakadu National Park is an absolute jewel in the crown of Australia's national parks, and yet some of its major tourism sites, like Gunlom Falls, will remain closed for yet another year due to a sacred site being disrespected by Parks Australia.
Parks Australia has had a difficult and fraught relationship with traditional owners in recent times, but it wasn't always that way. It used to be a model of what joint management—traditional owners with Parks—could achieve. I really encourage the minister and Parks Australia to spend more time trying to understand the importance of these sacred sites, and to work together with the traditional owners, with Indigenous-owned and with non-Indigenous-owned tourism businesses so that we can get more Australians out on to that beautiful ancient landscape. We need to do that as a matter of priority.
There has been a lot of talk. The Prime Minister went up there during the last federal election and promised $216 million for Kakadu. We've seen next to nothing of that. We're coming up to another election. Will he come up and reannounce money for Kakadu? I hope not. What we want to see immediately is that funding get onto the ground to make our jewel shine, as it deserves to. Indigenous tourism is incredibly important. I'm glad that we've had a chance to speak on it today. I encourage the government to fund Kakadu and to live up to its promises.
There is little disagreement now, in 2021, that we can stand up and recognise the continuous unbroken connection to land of Indigenous Australians. In my electorate there are the Quandamooka people; there is Minjerribah obviously, formerly North Stradbroke Island, and Moreton Island, which was also recently transferred to Quandamooka management. I would argue the three language groups that make up Quandamooka are probably among the most innovative and progressive of the urban Indigenous groups that are working to co-manage this incredible resource that is Moreton Bay, but also capitalise on what makes it truly unique.
I have talked a lot about how unique Moreton Bay is, not just from an ecological sense, an estuarine sense, but also because of those incredible sand islands that hold spring water that is tens of thousands of years old. It has been, at times, an island that has been mined, but now we recognise just how important this island can be as an ecological asset. And it is the Quandamooka people who have full responsibility, after a period of co-management, to transition to a period of innovation, while also shining a light on what truly makes Moreton Bay special. This is an opportunity we leave to them, and already we've seen people like Josh Walker and his Quandamooka dancers, Mark Jones and Straddie Adventures, and Minjerribah Camping that runs at least half a dozen camp sites on Minjerribah. It is running what is, effectively, the traditional Aussie great escape to the great sand islands, like North Stradbroke, Moreton and Fraser, and giving Australians a chance to have that holiday on those beautiful islands. Let's also remember, of course, the possibility of landing at an international airport and, within 45 minutes to an hour, being on a sand island, being able to, in many cases, live on islands where one can commute to a major CBD. This makes the Moreton Bay area truly special.
We have the Moreton Bay Marine Park—that happened in the past two decades—and the co-management and increasing Indigenous leadership around places like Peel Island and Horseshoe Bay, where we see an overlay of colonial heritage. There is a lazaretto, where we can see still the original quarantine rooms that were used there. We have the original buildings from the turn of the 19th century, when a whaling community was initially set up on North Stradbroke Island. These are all incredible assets where tourists can enjoy both the overlay of colonial heritage and settlement, and of course the unbroken Indigenous connection to the land prior to 1788.
It was Matthew Flinders who first sailed into that bay and explored it. I think it was in 1801 he landed on Coochiemudlo Island in that the incredibly small skiff that he sailed right around the country. You'd have to call him one of the unluckiest adventurers of all. Having sailed up that coast looking for places to moor and harbour ships, he missed the Clarence River, the Brisbane River and, I think, the Fitzroy River. But, apart from that, he made some incredible discoveries on the way and he recorded, as many did, those first interactions with Indigenous Australians. There were mixed outcomes initially, but there has been a huge amount of cooperative effort to identify what is truly able to be showcased to the world. Moreton Bay will play a role in that.
The Indigenous Tourism Fund, which is $10 million a year, is enough to activate some of these young Indigenous entrepreneurs to show off these great areas, be they canoeing, the highly controversial whale-watching facility at Point Lookout or, more importantly, Brown Lake, Blue Lake, being able one day to travel on a walkway, a boardwalk, that effectively takes you around the island or being able to enjoy the 36 kilometres of unbroken main beach all the way down to South Stradbroke Island. These are the opportunities for my tiny patch of Australia, and the Indigenous Tourism Fund is critically important. We've tried driving small-scale economic activity. At one stage they were farming beche-de-mer, or sea cucumber. We've moved on to other forms of economic activity. We'd one day like to see a five-star hotel on the island so that the highest level of hotel and hospitality service can be offered. There's already a range of other accommodation, but never enough to meet the needs of a tiny patch of Australia that's so close to the population of two million that is Brisbane.
Those decisions fall to Quandamooka. We hope that they can have a CEO reappointed soon, given the departure of Cameron Costello late last year. The future is bright. The Indigenous Tourism Fund plays a huge role in the small startup grants that can fully capitalise and showcase the beautiful, wonderful Moreton Bay ecology.
We have 65,000 years of stories to tell, plus we are so privileged to have a live and living Indigenous culture all across this land. We know that the No. 1 desire of international tourists when they come to Australia is to see, experience and breathe Indigenous cultures, and we let them down in that expectation. We don't make it easy.
We also know that Indigenous stories and Indigenous cultures are some of the most powerful stories that we as Australians have to tell when we travel abroad. One of the most powerful tools Australia's diplomats have is talking about the ongoing struggles and process of reconciliation through which our country continues to grow. I've seen that firsthand when I've travelled around the world with Australia's foreign minister and with the gentleman who delivered the apology, Kevin Rudd. I've seen just how much people will stop and say, 'Tell us about that process. Tell us about what you're doing.' Countries all over the world want to hear about Australia's journey, and cultures all over the world want to hear about the culture that has existed here for 65,000 years.
Last week I met with someone who helps tell those stories and give that experience: Robert Taylor, who is the chief executive officer of the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council. They have 146 members. For a long period of time they were the only Indigenous tourism operators council anywhere in Australia. They estimate there are about 600 Indigenous tourism businesses across this land. Robert is passionate about growing tourism and giving tourists, from school students to older international tourists, what it is they want to see when they visit this country: cultural education—making sure that people get a real sense of what Australia really is.
One of the groups that helps in that process is the Tjaltjraak people in the Esperance region. I, with my college the member for Fremantle, had the privilege of spending time with them just a few weeks ago, talking and meeting with their Indigenous rangers, who not only enable some of the tourism experiences that many people want but also make sure that we preserve for the next generation these lands and the way that people have lived on these lands for thousands of years.
The truth is that, right now in 2021, tourism in Australia is hurting like it's never hurt before. In 2019 we had more than nine million international visitors come, spending $45 billion. COVID decimated that industry. In accommodation and hospitality 27 per cent of jobs were shed in the first few months of COVID. The tourism industry dropped 15 per cent of jobs in 2020. We know that travel agents continue to feel the pain of not being able to provide the product that they sell. And so I say $40 million is a great start for Indigenous tourism from this government but that's all it is. It's a small start.
The big opportunity when it comes to Indigenous tourism in Australia is what Infrastructure Australia has identified as a national priority—that is, to start building the network of Indigenous cultural centres across Australia to make sure we do give tourists that experience that they want. Tourism Australia says this will reduce the opportunities for exploitation of Indigenous artist, that many of the cultural facilities we have in Australia today aren't fit for purpose and what we need nationally is a nationally coordinated program of cultural centres.
I think Western Australia can be part of that solution. We have seen a $217 million commitment to increasing Indigenous tourism from the McGowan government. That includes some $50 million of seed funding towards an Indigenous cultural centre in Perth, ideally housed on the Derbal Yiragan in the heart of my electorate. I say it could be the Sydney Opera House of the west coast: something that everyone who comes to Australia not only wants to see but knows they have to see if they are truly to have experienced Australia. It can serve as part of the hub of Indigenous cultural centres across this land. It wouldn't be just for Western Australia; it would be for all of Australia. The federal government should look to do its part—more than the small, $2 million commitment we saw in the troubled Perth City Deal.
This is a major tourism opportunity for this country. It's an opportunity for Western Australia. It's an opportunity for Indigenous peoples across this country.
Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the Worimi, Birpai, Djangadi and Gumbaynggirr nations, who are all traditional land holders in my electorate of Cowper. I give a personal shout-out to Uncle Bill O'Brien, who you know very well, Deputy Speaker Gillespie. Bill O'Brien OAM has the most magnificent welcome to country. He takes you on a journey for about five minutes, talking about the plateaus, the oceans, the fish and all the native animals. It gives you an insight into how powerful the attachment to land is. I have imagined being a tour tourist sitting there, listening to this welcome to country, and I've said for a very long time that Indigenous tourism in Australia is completely untapped.
The $40 million is a very good step in the right direction, but there are many excellent tourism operations and tourism providers—Indigenous tourism providers. In fact, this notice of motion is a very timely one. I met this afternoon with Minister Wyatt, Clark Webb, Christian Lugnan and Aunty Julie Carey, very proud Gumbaynggirr people who started the Bularri Muurlay Nyanggan Aboriginal Corporation. That not only is seeking to establish an Aboriginal bilingual independent primary school but in the past 10 years has set up three excellent tourism opportunities—or tourism experiences, I should say.
The first one is the cultural experience not only for the locals but for the tourists. That's been going for a decade. In addition, they have very successful cafe at the top of Sealy point in Coffs Harbour. They see over 30,000 people come through their cafe every single year. They employ in excess of 15 people. But, most important, and one of the reasons we were speaking to the minister, is the opportunity they see for an Indigenous ecoresort. It is just a magnificent idea. It's my idea of camping—it's a bit like glamping. It will employ 49 people, and it is well underway. They have the site and they expect to open within the next 12 months. These are the very essence, the very ideas, of Indigenous culture—being taken on a trip by the descendants of somebody from 30,000, 40,000 or 60,000 years ago, taking their same steps through the same countryside. Of course, I'm a little bit biased about Cowper: it is the most beautiful electorate in the country. But this is about gaining knowledge from an Indigenous person about what it actually means to be there, including local knowledge about food, hunting, and fauna and flora. This is untapped and such a fantastic opportunity for all our Indigenous people in all of our electorates.
In addition, there are numerous cultural experiences across the electorate. It was good to see, for Port Macquarie's bicentenary, the Wakulda light projection on the old courthouse, 'Wakulda' meaning 'as one' in Gathang, the language of the Birpai people. I sat there at the opening and watched the light projection on the side of the courthouse, recognising and acknowledging that that was on Birpai people's land; acknowledging that we are not the perfect country and we don't have the perfect past but that we are working towards conciliation and making right; and acknowledging and recognising everything that our Indigenous people have to offer to our country. So this $40 million will go a long way. It is a good step in the right direction.
There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
I move:
That this House:
(1) acknowledges the launch of the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Bursary on 18 March 2021 at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra;
(2) notes that the bursary is:
(a) a contribution by members of the Australian-Turkish community to the Gallipoli Scholarship, which supports the descendants of Anzacs to study at university or TAFE; and
(b) part of the new Ataturk Scholarship, which will support Turkish Australians to study at university or TAFE from 2022; and
(3) recognises that the donation of this bursary is an act of friendship by Turkish Australians, who have made enormous contributions to our country and community, helping to forge the strong and lasting bond between Australia and Turkey.
It's wonderful today to acknowledge the launch of the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary on 18 March 2021 at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The bursary is a contribution by members of the Australian Turkish community to the Gallipoli scholarship, which supports the descendants of Anzacs to study at university and TAFE. This bursary is an act of friendship by Turkish Australians, who have made enormous contributions to our country and community, helping to forge the long and strong bonds between Australia and Turkey.
I'd like to welcome to the Federation Chamber today two people who I'm going to call 'parents' of the bursary: the chair of Gallipoli Scholarship Fund, retired Major General Michael Smith AO, and the chair of the Ataturk Scholarship, Mr Omer Incekara. They're both in the gallery today, and I'm really looking forward to acknowledging and celebrating the launch of their joint initiative, the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary, on 18 March.
The date of 18 March is a significant date. It's the date of the Canakkale victory, when Ottoman forces repelled the British naval assault on the Dardanelles. It's a significant day, observed as a day of remembrance for all Turkish people who have died in the service of their country, people who work in public service such as police and firefighters, as well as defence personnel. The events of 18 March were also an important turning point in history, leading as they did to the Gallipoli landings on 25 April. In eight months of brutal fighting, it's estimated that there were over 300,000 Ottoman and British Allied casualties, including over 56,000 Ottoman and almost 9,000 Australian deaths. The fighting ended when British Allied forces evacuated on 8 January 1916, but the legacy continues to this day. Many consider Gallipoli to be a founding moment in history for Australia, our birth as an independent nation. It is certainly a founding moment in the relationship between our two countries: Australia and Turkey.
Nevertheless, it took half a century for Australia and Turkey to establish formal diplomatic relations, in 1967. While Turkish migration to Australia dates back to the 19th century, when Turkish cameleers were among the first who worked on camel trains, the numbers have grown substantially since 1967. Mr Incekara and Mr Oz Girgin, the two inaugural donors of the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary, are descendants of the first migrant workers to arrive after diplomatic relations were established. They made the donation as a gift to their home, Australia, and the generations of Australian defence personnel who have made enormous sacrifices on behalf of a country where most of us have only known peace. They chose a scholarship because they credit the quality education they received in Australia with setting them up for later success.
The Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary is a contribution to the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund, a fund with an interesting history in its own right. It was founded in 1996 with a $6,000 donation from a World War I veterans association which had met annually prior to Anzac Day for a number of years at the Merrylands RSL Club, which was in my electorate until the redistribution pushed it over the border—but I want it back. It's just across the road, literally. The veterans who founded the fund want to promote a better understanding of the Gallipoli campaign, particularly among younger people. It helps inform and remind Australians of the sacrifices of those who served in conflicts and peace operations and thereby contributes to the future security of our nation and the national values of democracy, freedom and the rule of law.
The first recipient of the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary is Eja Collins from Melbourne. Eja is in her first year of a double degree in arts, majoring in languages—French and Spanish—and law. So here we have Turkish Australians donating to a scholarship fund established by Anzac veterans, and we have a wonderful young woman studying French and Spanish. That's who we are these days. We're an extraordinary country. Every year for at least the next four years, the bursary will support a new student like Eja to succeed in the crucial first year of study. This is an act of friendship that creates a virtuous circle, as all of these students will gain valuable skills and one day give back to their communities.
In closing, again I'd like to thank the donors—Mr Incekara and Mr Girgin—the Ataturk Scholarship, which stands behind the bursary, and the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund, for creating these opportunities for the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of our defence personnel. I'd like to thank, too, the Turkish Australians for their enormous contributions to our country and community. I know they're very proud of this. You make our community stronger and make Australia a better place, and you've also helped forge a strong and lasting bond between Australia and Turkey.
Is there a seconder to the motion?
I second the motion and reserve my right to speak. I'll have a little bit to say in a little while.
I have to say that, although the member for Solomon seconded the motion, we were just as keen to second the motion as well. Member for Parramatta, we mightn't agree on everything in this place, but we can agree that this is an enormously beneficial initiative to establish this bursary within the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund. I echo the words of your motion: this is a true act of friendship by our Turkish Australians, who have made an enormous contribution of themselves to this country and are now giving back. I really just want to take the opportunity, in speaking to this motion, to thank them for their contributions and their generosity in establishing this. It is clear that the bonds between Australia and Turkey and within our Turkish Australian community are growing ever stronger and that everybody is keen to see that relationship flourish.
It is built on a difficult experience which is also marked by Anzac Day. I was particularly touched when our Governor-General said:
Ask almost any Australian—young or old, in uniform or civilian, those whose families have been here for generations or our newest Australians—what is significant about the 25th April and they will be able to give you an answer.
He's right. Anzac Day is a day that binds us. It's interesting that, when we as a nation chose to commemorate Anzac Day as a celebration of our forces, we chose a day that wasn't a magnificent victory but a difficult defeat. But it's a day when we come together and acknowledge the service of those who served our community and who continue to serve and those who we have lost and the great debt we owe them and their families. We reflect on the impact they have had on the Australia that we are today.
Educating our youth on the importance of Anzac Day is so important. I do it every Anzac Day with my young boy. He's three, almost four, and we talk to him about what Anzac Day means and why we commemorate it. I think he still likes making the Anzac biscuits the best! But the bursary and the entire Gallipoli scholarship program is very important to ensure our children learn the of the history and tradition at a young age.
I have the Gallipoli Army barracks within my own electorate of Ryan in Enoggera. It is so named for the commitment to our Anzac traditions. It's very strong. We have a large veteran community in the Ryan electorate, but it's also strong in the broader community—in our schools, community groups and businesses.
We saw the power and the importance of Anzac Day last year ironically when we couldn't celebrate it because of COVID, and yet many, many people were out on their driveways still to mark this significant national day as part of the Light Up The Dawn campaign. In this place, we heard MP after MP talk about their communities standing at the end of their driveways for their own little dawn services. We may have been physically apart but, on this day, we came together. I like to think it is a day that also brings together the Turkish community and the Australian community as one.
Programs like this instil values and support continuing our incredible stories of service that are so important to our nation. Our nation is one built on service. We can get a little bit caught up in this place, but it's always important to remind ourselves regularly that we are here to serve. There are few higher callings than of those who serve in our community, whether it be in this place, whether it be in the Defence Force or whether it be as a community voluntary or anything else.
I'm particularly touched by the fact that the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund seeks to perpetuate amongst young Australians an understanding of those traditions and the importance to our community of service, courage, self-sacrifice and mateship, everything that the Turkish Australian communities themselves show by their support of the Australian community. They themselves show perseverance, they give back, they have a strong sense of service, and that is so important to the foundations of our community. So I just want to thank again those within the Turkish Australian community who have established this bursary. You are to be congratulated. Both sides of politics congratulate you. We are very keen to support you.
We honour the service and sacrifice of those who have fought to defend our country. It's an important reflection of who we are and what we value, and a big part of this recognition is through memorials and commemorations. To me, the most powerful type of recognition is living memorials, acts of recognition that seek to provide opportunities to our following generations that bring Australians together. These are to me the most special kinds of recognition, and that's what we're acknowledging here today. I'm pleased to rise to speak in favour of this motion, acknowledging the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund and the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary.
The Gallipoli scholarship is a great story. It was originally established by veterans of the Great War to provide opportunities for the descendants of veterans to pursue higher education. Australian citizens who are the descendants of Anzac veterans who served in any peace or conflict operation since the First World War may apply. While the scholarship recognises academic achievement, weighting is given to the circumstances of the applicant to ensure that support flows to the most deserving candidate. I think that's really important and a credit to the scholarship.
It has expanded and today we're talking about a new and important development. The Turkish Australian community has come together to create a new bursary under the scholarship fund. The Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary will, from next year, support even more young people to pursue higher education. I attended its launch at the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra in March, and it was great to join with others, including my friend the member for Parramatta, to mark this important occasion. Ataturk, of course, was a commander of Ottoman forces at Gallipoli and went on to found and lead the modern state of Turkey. It is poignant that a scholarship fund named for the bravery and sacrifice of our Anzacs in their first great engagement will offer a bursary named for the commander of their adversaries at that time. I've been to Gallipoli on Anzac Day, and it's an incredibly moving experience. At the site, as you may well know, Deputy Speaker Wallace, is a bronze bust of Ataturk inscribed with the following quote honouring enemy soldiers who died in Turkey:
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us … they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
It's an incredibly generous sentiment expressed by Ataturk on behalf of the Turkish people. The power of the Gallipoli story rests in the capacity to bring people together, and I think this bursary is a wonderful example of this.
Turkish Australians have made an outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Australia. Yes, this scholarship fund and this new bursary is a living memorial to the sacrifice of our Anzacs, but, in a larger sense, it stands as a reminder of our subsequent friendship with Turkey and the ongoing contributions of Turkish Australians. It will directly improve lives and create opportunities. It is a great Australian story.
None of this would be possible without the hard work of the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund Management Committee, including its chairman, my friend Michael Smith AO. Michael has had a distinguished career of service, retiring from the army as a major general. He also served as a founding executive director of the Australian Civil-Military Centre in Queanbeyan. He's here in the gallery today with another great Australian, Omer Incekara. Omer is the chair of the Ataturk Scholarship, and the Ataturk Scholarship contributed the bursary to the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund. I thank Omer and Michael for their ongoing contributions. On a personal note, as a veteran who is the son of a veteran who himself was the son of a veteran and also as someone who is a great-grandson of a World War I veteran, I say thank you very much. It was a great honour for me to stand on the soil at Gallipoli looking out over that country and to know that this was such a big part of the story of Australia growing. And this, which you have created, is a great part of the story of our relationship with Turkey into the future. I encourage all members and senators to learn about the Gallipoli scholarship and the bursary and to promote it in your electorates.
There are few stronger links than those between Australia and Turkey through the fortunes of history, but Turkey's great leader, known for his military prowess, obviously, will one day be remembered for his contributions to education. Ataturk said in the days after World War I that teachers are the only people who truly save nations. As a leader who made education one of his highest priorities, he is remembered for separating Islamic and secular law, introducing a completely new alphabet, and doubling literacy in his country between 1928 and 1940. These are the enduring legacies of Kemal Ataturk. So today, when we see Australian descendants and our Turkish community in Australia making it possible to continue that education, it has a wonderful symmetry.
In the gallery today, I recognise Mr Omer Incekara and, of course, retired Major General Michael Smith, who chairs the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund. Mr Incekara along with Mr Oz Girgin represent the two families behind the funding of this very important bursary. I do want to point out the structure. The Gallipoli Scholarship Fund for Australians is being supported by the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary, which is awarded 60 per cent on need and 40 per cent on academic prowess. It's available to Australians who are studying at a tertiary level—university or TAFE degree or diploma applicants in their first year of study. There will be one every year for four years, and these will be up to four years in duration.
The lasting bond of Australia and Turkey is furthered by this investment. Eja Collins, studying here in Canberra, is the first recipient. Her father is Major Leigh Collins AFC, and her grandfather served in UNTSO in Palestine in 1982-83. There are many connections here that we see, even in the first person awarded this bursary. It's a contribution from the Australian Turkish community. It shows just how serious they are about continuing those links through education. To quote Kemal Ataturk again, 'A good teacher is like a candle—it consumes itself to light the way for others.' This Gallipoli Scholarship Fund recognises that, giving young Australians a very important chance to be part of what is increasingly for Australia a geopolitical priority—to be able to study overseas and for the world to be able to study in Australia.
If we think of what, in 50 years time, will most solidify and crystallise Australia's future as a civil democracy, it probably won't be our agrarian history or our commodities; it will probably be our education. We can feed, provide for and educate the world. To have this unique bilateral relationship with Turkey is something very special. The great leader himself is probably referred to in this Chamber more than most foreign leaders, if you were to check Hansard. There are very few leaders that I enjoy reading about more—his history and his ability to lead after a war and to go on to do great civil and social reforms of a scale that you probably won't see in any other country. So thank you today to the Girgin and Incekara families for making this scholarship possible. It's something I think Australians will benefit from. It was opened and launched at the War Memorial back on 18 March. I look forward to the next four years of Australian students benefitting from that generosity.
I thank the member for Parramatta for the motion, and I'm pleased to rise in support of it. In the famous words of Kemal Ataturk, what would the Johnnies and the Mehmets think of this? Across this country, here we are today in Australia, in the 21st century. A century ago people were fighting a war against one another, and today we're talking about the value of education and good will between people with bipartisan support. They would be astounded and extremely pleased, I'm sure.
Along with a number of people in this place, I was honoured to attend the launch of the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Memorial Bursary on 18 March here in Canberra. I had the opportunity to lay a wreath at the Kemal Ataturk Memorial here in Canberra. Just think about that! We have a memorial to a warrior that led an army defending his country against our troops. Opposite our War Memorial in Canberra we have a memorial to honour him. It is an astonishing thing, but it says a lot about the humanity of Australians and the humanity of the Turkish people as well.
I was here with the member for Parramatta; the member for Solomon, who spoke so brilliantly and beautifully just a few minutes ago; the member for Lingiari, a former veterans' affairs minister in the last Labor government, the member for Paterson; the member for Fraser; and, of course, the Turkish ambassador, His Excellency Korhan Karakoc. I want to acknowledge Major General Michael Smith, AO, retired. Thank you for your chairmanship of the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund. I thank Omer Incekara, the chair of Ataturk Scholarship, for the good work you're doing and the communitarian spirit you bring. You are making a difference in the lives of people, and we thank you sincerely for what you're doing.
The Ataturk Memorial Bursary is part of the Ataturk Scholarship, which in turn comes under the auspices of the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund. As someone who represents RAAF Base Amberley, where there are Air Force and Army units, I know that they prepare for war, but they would be delighted about people being educated for peace. Where the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund supports, of course, the descendants of the Anzacs at university or TAFE, the new Ataturk Memorial Bursary will support further education of Turkish Australians at university or TAFE in 2022. The Ataturk Scholarship and bursary were founded by members of the Australian Turkish community in conjunction with the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund. It has been established to honour the Turkish origins of the Gallipoli Scholarship Fund.
The bursary is named after that extraordinary famous man, the great Turkish commander of the Dardanelles, who became the founder and the first president of the Republic of Turkey, one of the great men of history. Not many people can say they helped found a nation, and a republic at that. His words and actions did so much to rebuild relations between our two countries, with Australian and Turkish forces serving together in later conflicts and peacekeeping operations.
Ataturk was a warrior turned peacemaker. In war, he was a fierce opponent against the Anzacs; in peace, his grace and compassion did much to help rebuild respect and cooperation between our two great countries. Of course, Turkey allowed Australia and New Zealand to establish a memorial at Anzac Cove and has allowed us to commemorate Anzac Day there for many years now. This says much about the decency, sincerity and humanity of the Turkish people. We hope that, in a post-COVID world, public and popular attendance will resume at future Anzac Days. My friend the member for Solomon talked about Ataturk's famous words, written to the mothers of Anzacs. Ataturk talked about them lying side by side, 'in our bosom' and 'in peace'—peace, I note, not war. He said, 'Having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.' This bursary says much about the degree of unity and commitment between our countries.
This is an act of friendship by Turkish Australians, who've made an enormous contribution to our country, our economy and our community, helping to forge a strong and lasting bond between Australia and Turkey at a people level. While Australia was blessed by Turkish migrants during our colonial times, before Australia was federated, it's worth noting that many Turkish migrants have come to this country since 1967. They came as temporary workers, often intending to stay only a few years, but almost all chose to remain in Australia and become Australian citizens, like so many other migrants. Today there are more than 60,000 Turkish Australians, and they include two sisters, Hale and Funda Adasal, who featured in the 2017 Australian National Maritime Museum exhibition to celebrate 40 years of Turkish migration to Australia. Congratulations to all those associated with this bursary.
There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting
I move:
That this House:
(1) notes that the Government is:
(a) supporting universities through the COVID-19 pandemic and creating more opportunities for young people to study; and
(b) investing $20 billion in the higher education sector in 2021;
(2) recognises that $1 billion has been provided to university research this year;
(3) acknowledges that the Government has provided $903.5 million over the next four years for more domestic places and to ensure our universities are financially stable; and
(4) congratulates the Government for its Job Ready Graduates package which is providing up to 30,000 additional university places in 2021.
Some of my most formative years were spent at university, for university education is not just about earning degrees; it's about forming lifelong friendships and networks and about a sense of community. The school graduates of today are the leaders of tomorrow, and it is our responsibility to ensure that they are well equipped with the skills and knowledge that they require. COVID-19 has resulted in a dramatic downturn in university numbers. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, about two-thirds of school leavers would have continued on to further study, with around 50 per cent engaging in higher education and 15 per cent engaging in VET. Around 25 per cent would have worked and the remaining 11 per cent would not have been working or studying.
The government is working hard to provide additional options for the 35 per cent of school leavers who previously had found pathways to the labour market. The job-ready graduate reforms provide funding for up to 30,000 additional places for young people to engage in higher education in 2021. Additionally, the government's JobTrainer Fund will provide up to 320,000 additional training places, which are now free or low fee, in areas of identified skills need for jobseekers and young people. In Reid, there are already 1,405 local apprentices being supported by wage subsidies. Australia's economic growth has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with young people bearing much of the pain. Youth unemployment for 15- to 24-year-olds increased from 10.7 per cent in November 2019 to 14.7 per cent in November 2020.
Australia's labour force needs are changing quickly, and the government must be prepared to adapt in order to provide our young people with the best education. For some young Australians, university will be the answer. However, for many others their post-schooling years will take other forms. The National Skills Commission projects the healthcare workforce to make the largest contribution to future employment growth, followed by professional, scientific and technical services; education and training; and construction. These four sectors are projected to provide 62 per cent of total employment growth over the next five years, going into 2024.
The Australian Academy of Science has predicted that Australian workers will spend 77 per cent more time using science and maths skills in the future, and the Job-ready Graduates reforms reduce student contributions in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, health and education to provide an additional incentive for students to consider careers in these priority fields. As someone who has studied science and psychology and has a PhD from the University of Sydney, I can personally attest to the highly rewarding nature of work in that field. Under the reforms, a young person studying nursing or teaching will have their fees reduced by 42 per cent, from $6,804 to $3,950 per equivalent full-time student loan. Science, information technology and engineering students will have their fees reduced by 18 per cent, from $9,698 to $7,950.
Longitudinal graduate outcome data shows that students who graduated from STEM, health and education related subjects have better salary rates and full-time employment rate when compared with those graduated from society and culture studies. Additionally, they will have, on average, earned around 30 per cent more across their lifetime than someone with a society and culture degree and over 40 per cent more than someone with a year 12 qualification.
The package aims to incentivise students into STEM and other national priority areas to ensure higher education is delivering the skills needed by Australia's future workforce. The package's grandfathering arrangements ensure that no student who was enrolled in a course prior to 1 January 2021 will be charged more for the study in that course. This program is about encouraging students to take up education in a STEM field, which is what our society needs more of.
Is the motion seconded?
I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.
I rise to speak on the motion submitted to the parliament by the member for Reid. In doing so, I want to note that I'm wearing my Griffith University tie, from a university that's in my electorate. It is perplexing that this motion notes that the government is 'supporting universities through the COVID-19 pandemic'. I thought the word 'not' might have been missing or was written in invisible ink or something, because nothing could be further from the truth.
Let's look at the facts. Firstly, the Morrison government changed the rules three times to stop universities getting JobKeeper during the pandemic. Already more than 17,000 jobs at universities have been lost. There was no mention of that from the member for Reid. The jobs include academics, cleaners, admin staff, tutors and everyone who keeps the university up and running. Our regional universities have been hit particularly hard, with some campuses already closed. I think the University of the Sunshine Coast or Central Queensland University had to close one.
Secondly, let's look at the budget handed down just recently, the 'MorrisonKeeper' budget. The Morrison government is happy to put billions of dollars on the nation's credit card for a political fix, but it will not lift a finger to help universities. The Nationals have been either muzzled, muted or missing when it comes to speaking up for bush universities. Rather than supporting our universities, which educate over one million Australians and employ over 100,000 more, the coalition have cut funding at a time when universities need it most. The member for Reid should turn to page 170 of Budget Paper No. 1 where it clearly says that funding will decrease by 9.3 per cent in real terms from to 2021-22 through to 2024-25. That's one university dollar ripped out of every 10 going to universities.
Last year in the face of international students being locked out of studying in Australia—remember where the Prime Minister said, 'Go home'—the government provided some extra funding for research. Obviously it would've made a lot of sense for that extra funding to be continued, particularly when the budget revealed borders are likely to remain shut until mid-2022. No international students can start another academic year. But instead the Morrison budget had nothing for universities. It's not only negligent but short-sighted to neglect our third largest export. Yes, I said that correctly: our third largest export.
New research from the Mitchell Institute has found that a third academic year of no international students would cost Australia about $20 billion a year, that's half of the pre-pandemic value of the sector. These losses might snowball beyond the forward estimates once Canada, the US, and the UK steal our students. This isn't just a problem for our universities. The economic value of international students is far wider than the university sector. Most of the economic value from these students is from them spending foreign money in the wider economy. They go on tourist trips. They bring their family over. Of course the international student sector would be healthier if the Morrison government had not failed in its responsibility to set-up successful quarantine for arrivals in Australia during the pandemic. Quarantine is clearly a federal responsibility. It actually says so in the Constitution.
There are still around 10,000 Australians stuck in India after dealing with the threat of jail just to come home. They now need flights. There are tens of thousands more Australians in other parts of the world wanting to come home but who are unable to. That's a massive failure from the Morrison government. For the international education sector—as I said Australia's third biggest export—the coalition's failure to set-up safe quarantine facilities is a disaster. Our nation risks losing the research sector as well—almost altogether. After the budget was handed down, the Vice-Chancellor of ANU, Brian Schmidt, reportedly said: 'I am worried that we are going to lose huge capacity in the research sector that will take decades to recover.' Professor Duncan Ivison, deputy vice chancellor for research at the University of Sydney, is concerned about 'the long-term viability of research endeavours as a sector because once it goes it's very hard to get back'.
The Morrison budget has nothing for students. The job-ready graduates program has already made it harder and more expensive for Australians to go to uni. Overall kids will be paying seven per cent more out of their own pockets to go to uni. A few people will be better off but overall seven per cent more will be coming out of Australians pockets. I don't want Australia to become the America of the south where kids end up with a lifetime of debt. For a basic degree young Australians will end up with a debt of around $60,000. How can they ever save for a deposit for a house with that debt before they even get a job?
What an opportunity to talk about the tertiary education sector hit hard by COVID. Australia's reliance on international students was taken away from us just 12 months ago. We lost not only 10,000 skilled visa arrivals each month, but our share of international education. That's a quarter of the $150 billion international education sector. It rubbed further salt into the wound with countries like Canada, the UK and the US were able to take international students into their universities, where COVID was at high levels within the community, while Australia did the right thing to keep COVID under control. The universities bore a lot of the brunt of that, which the previous speaker referred to.
I too regard Griffith as my local university. But I do sort of have some divided loyalties to QUT, which is equidistant. And for an extra couple of kilometres across the pedestrian way I also claim UQ. But enough of that sharing of our love for university campuses. We know it was hard. We knew that jobs were going to be lost, because what the universities were doing they were no longer doing through COVID. Many of those workers found work. There was an absolute demand for workers, even if they moved off a campus, when we weren't doing what we were doing 12 months earlier. They found work elsewhere and will find their way back.
What's more important is that Australia still has the most universities in the top 100, after UK and the US. So we have a high level of tertiary education. In every major city you'd be proud to go to every university, and they found their way through COVID—not without some help from the federal government of course. We had the JobTrainer initiative. There were 30,000 additional places working to focus on those STEM areas. As an engineer once said to me, it's hard to work out how many engineers you're going to need two years from now, let alone to start projecting how many we need to train. But universities do their best.
We also know that they're thoroughly reliant on the impact of their research and that the crossfunding of research done on our campuses has predominantly been coming from a reliance on international education, both that done within the universities and the significant amount of education that happens outside of universities. I recognise Troy Williams' ITECA and all of those great providers who provide 80 per cent of the education. They, not just TAFEs, provide 80 per cent of vocational training in this country, so we need to remember that very important sector.
Tonight, though, we are talking about universities. They've had the Job-ready Graduates Package, which has made sure there are another 32,000 places, because we know the greatest demand is for health care and professional services and in technical areas, and this is where maths is an absolute prerequisite. It is a no-brainer. We've been told by the society of scientists that these new positions have 77 per cent more reliance on numeracy. It doesn't happen overnight, but you have to transition towards it, so we need to make sure that there's maths as often as possible in high school, particularly for young women, who are often convinced they're not good at maths. We need to break the stereotype and take senior students through to the highest levels of maths and science possible.
My great bugbear in this area is that, once we think someone's heading to a vocational path, then it's all 'put the tools down and don't worry what maths you're doing—it's all competency based'. That's not right. It's not right that a third to a half of senior students don't worry about the maths they do because they know they either can get in to a tertiary facility or don't need it for what they think they're going to study. That's wrong. While we have these students at school they need to do the highest level of maths that we can take them to on that journey, and this idea that, because they're vocationally directed, they don't count is completely unacceptable.
This complete obsession with ATAR scores and OPs has led to this ranking of schools based purely on what they achieve in tertiary rankings, and that's very unfortunate. We need a postsecondary system that blends vocational and tertiary education. I see a day when people go to university but do a TAFE course because it's a better course than that offered at their university campus. I've seen Central Queensland attempt to do this. We need to have no more sitting on the haystack, protecting our universities and refusing to cooperate with vocational education. That isn't the future. A huge amount of innovation happens in vocational education. They need the maths there. We need the highest standards in vocational education, not just in our universities.
It has not been easy, but it hasn't been easy for universities all around the world. The blip, the significant jump in youth unemployment, that we saw through COVID has come back again. The fall in workforce participation from 65 per cent to 59.5 per cent during COVID is coming back again. The previous contributor to this debate was right to say that these things can take decades to repair, but we're learning one thing through COVID: these things are springing back very quickly. We do it by having an agile tertiary education sector that can respond to threats. We have a competitive process for medical research and for the funding of ARC grants. Those systems will stand us in good stead through COVID.
The motion that has been put forward is an insult to our universities and to our university students. The claim that this Morrison government supported universities through the COVID pandemic is just nonsense. I actually don't know how members opposite can keep a straight face through this level of hypocrisy. The Morrison government has gone out of its way to hurt universities and students at a time when they have needed support the most. There was no JobKeeper for universities, a decision that has forced job losses both last year and now. There was no support for international students, and of course this government has hiked up university fees for students.
This government is jeopardising the future of our universities and jeopardising the future of us all by failing to ensure that we will have the skilled and educated workforce we will need for the future. The Morrison government made a deliberate choice to leave university workers off the JobKeeper support payment, and that had devastating consequences. My community's local university, La Trobe University, was forced to ask staff for expressions of interest in voluntary redundancies and pre-retirement contract programs. According to La Trobe, access to the JobKeeper scheme would have provided them with $50 million to mitigate the impact of the COVID crisis. But this government deliberately moved the goalposts for eligibility to JobKeeper, deliberately excluding universities from support. Instead of saving jobs, too many staff at La Trobe University, too many people in my community, have been made redundant.
These job losses continue to have a significant impact across our community. La Trobe is a significant employer across the northern suburbs of Melbourne, and these are jobs that have not come back and are not coming back, because this government is not providing the support that is needed. Last year La Trobe experienced a revenue downturn of $90 million. That's a 10 per cent reduction compared to their pre-COVID forecast. Their final end-of-year operating result was a deficit of $51½ million. In order to break even this year, La Trobe needs to find the financial equivalent of around 250 to 300 jobs, and this is after the two voluntary redundancy rounds they already held last year. This is more jobs to go in my community, and this government has the gall to stand up here to say they supported the higher education system through this pandemic? These job losses are hurting our community, they are hurting our universities and they are hurting all of our futures.
This government is, of course, responsible for trashing one of our largest exports: higher education. Rather than support international students through the pandemic, the message from the Morrison government was 'go home'. The international students who did decide to stay in Australia lost their jobs. They went without meals. Many of them were living in poverty, relying on the goodwill of restaurants that gave them handouts and charities who could help with free meals and accommodation. The people who did decide to return home overseas will likely not return to Australia to complete their education.
In January last year 30,000 international students arrived at Melbourne Airport for the academic year on Victorian campuses. This January there were 70. And this government has no plans for quarantine and has a broken vaccine rollout, so there is no timetable for bringing international students back, no timetable for our universities to know how they look at their future, how they budget for a future and how they get back into this market where they have been incredibly successful.
Of course, it's not just universities that the government's been trashing; it's students and their futures. The government's job-ready graduates bill passed in a dodgy deal done with the Centre Alliance and One Nation senators—a deal that's forcing young people who are already coping with the pandemic and recession to pay more for their education. This government decided to make it harder and more expensive for young people to go to university. Young people who want to study the humanities or commerce and communications now pay more for their degree than doctors and dentists. The fees for people studying humanities have more than doubled, jumping from $27,216 to $58,000 for a four-year degree. What a ridiculous level of debt to be saddling young people with. I, like many people in this room, have a humanities degree. It has stood me in good stead. But I certainly would not have been able to cope with being saddled with that level of debt coming out of university.
You can't trust this government when it comes to our universities. They fail to support them. They have forced job losses. They have made attendance expensive and unattainable for too many young people. This government should be ashamed.
I thank those opposite. I think I should start off by, firstly, setting the record straight. The first matter is that we on this side of the parliament did not trash our third-biggest export. There was a little thing called a global pandemic that did that. I must say that I'm getting just a little sick and tired of the hypocrisy of those opposite.
Aw, diddums.
Indeed diddums. Diddums is quite true. It is hurtful when it happens, and it should not occur. The fact of the matter is that, when we would say here on this side of the parliament that we were worried that universities were becoming too reliant on overseas students and that they were scaling—
Mr Hill interjecting—
Order! The member for Bruce.
When we said that we were worried about that, those opposite would cry that we were racist. They would claim that we were racist for raising this as an issue and saying that our universities had become too reliant on overseas students.
Ms Thwaites interjecting—
The member for Jagajaga.
When we said we were worried about the spread of a virus in China, and did not wish to allow students from that area to come to this country, where undoubtedly they would have spread that virus, those opposite, along with, I might add, the World Health Organization, criticised us for doing so.
Opposition members interjecting—
Can't you see over that glass jaw, Jason?
I would remind members that the debate has been conducted quite respectfully thus far on both sides. The member for Mackellar should have the opportunity to deliver his speech in relative peace. The member for Mackellar has the call, and the clock is restarting at 3:05.
Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Whenever this government made decisions that saved lives, those opposite were critical of those decisions that we made. And now they apparently seek to hold us responsible for, in the words of the member for Jagajaga, 'trashing our third-largest export earner' because we closed the borders to international students. Now, we didn't do that for no reason. We did that because there was a global pandemic. And if those opposite can tell us there's not going to be an outbreak in any other country, as there recently was in India, then we will happily provide them with a road map that has a great degree of certainty. But if they're unable to do that, then I think it is entirely and wholly unreasonable for those opposite to somehow criticise us for not knowing what the future holds.
I think it is also entirely unreasonable—and job losses in any sector are not only regrettable, they are something we work very hard in this place to avoid. However, when they occurred in the university sector, this wasn't something that we took any joy from whatsoever. But we did, on many occasions, worry—and this is not something we did last year or the year before; this is something that goes back 10 years. We have worried with the vice-chancellors that they were putting too much reliance on income they were receiving from international students. So for those opposite to suggest we are somehow not supportive of universities is not only hypocritical, it's an appalling allegation to make. It is not substantiated by any of the facts that are on offer, unless they are accusing us of commencing a global pandemic. To date they have not done that, but I'm sure, if we give them time—
Opposition members interjecting—
The fact of the matter is that youth unemployment in Australia is now at decade lows. Underemployment in Australia is at 10-year lows. Our unemployment rate is falling. We stand for working Australians on this side of the parliament. We want to make their lives easier, more affordable and better. We know that the only way to get them sustainably increased real wages is for them to be able to get the skills and education that they need for the workforce of the future. And the fact of the matter remains that is why we have invested so heavily in job-ready graduate programs and packages. That is why we have provided students who have been leaving school, both last year and this year, the sort of support that they need to make sure that they are ready for the jobs of the future, and that our universities are ready to provide that level of education.
It will be hard to pick the silliest bit of that previous speech, given by the member for Mackellar, but I think the funniest bit was the claim that the government were concerned about the overreliance of universities on international students. This is coming from the government where the Prime Minister, when he cut $2.2 billion from universities only three years ago—another little cut that he snuck into the budget—said, 'Well, they can go out and recruit more international students.' The government literally said only two or three years ago, 'Go and recruit more international students,' and now they're saying: 'They're a bit reliant on international students. We couldn't have that.' It's nonsense!
I saw this motion on the Notice Paperyou know when you're flicking through thinking, 'What's up for debate?'—and I thought it had to be a joke. It must be April Fools Day. But, no, this is trolling the parliament. Government MPs congratulating themselves on what we are seeing as the decimation of the university sector. It's a waste of debate time, and I notice the member who moved the motion is not even here. She ran away. No wonder. To paraphrase the motion: 'Congratulations, government, on supporting universities through the pandemic.' There was no JobKeeper. Just about every other sector in the country got JobKeeper but not public universities. In fact, they changed the rules three times to make sure that public universities didn't get a cent of JobKeeper. The latest level of job losses is 17,000. That's just the jobs from position descriptions that were on org charts. Probably—I'm not exaggerating—tens of thousands more jobs, if you look at the ABS labour force statistics, have been lost, including those of casual teachers and researchers. We hear government speakers going, 'We care about STEM.' Well, they don't care about the hundreds and thousands of laboratory researchers walking out of science labs because they have no funding. Scott Morrison, or the Prime Minister, as we call him, did nothing to stop the job losses. I would hate to see what the mob opposite think supporting universities looks like.
Dr Allen interjecting—
Then the motion says, 'We gave $1 billion this year.' I have to say that, this year, the billion dollars has been cut in the budget that they just handed down. There is a crisis in research, as the member for Toorak over there should well know. There's a crisis in research. International students have lost billions from universities.
Is the member for Higgins wishing to make a point of order?
Yes, please. I would like to make a point of order that I have been incorrectly referred to in this chamber, and I think it's quite offensive.
The member for Higgins will resume her seat. The member for Bruce has the call.
It's about recession and recovery. We are in a recovery from a recession. Surely even this mob of incompetent Neanderthals understand this is not a culture war? Universities are not an elitist thing. They are critical to the national economic recovery. They are critical. It's actually about improving our productivity. You fund research to improve economic outcomes. And yet the government's removing $1 billion in this budget. Shame on them.
This motion talks about giving $903 million over four years for domestic places. What hypocrisy. The government wouldn't need to do that if they hadn't capped places in the first place and cut billions of dollars from universities. Then we hear them talk about the job-ready graduate program. They don't talk about the fact that the latest figures from Senate estimates point out that, by the government's own admission, fees for university students in this country will rise 16 per cent over the next three years because of the job-ready graduate program. They have lowered the repayment threshold so young people have to repay their university debts earlier, making it harder to climb up that ladder of opportunity when they are saddled with debt.
We hear about the destruction of our fourth biggest export sector. Gas actually overtook it. That's $40 billion, but it's more than just money. These are human beings. The Prime Minister's showed a shocking lack of empathy. He stood up and he said to students, 'If you don't like it, go home.' Of course I understand there is a pandemic. Of course it's not easy to get students in at the moment. But you don't have to tell them to go home. You could show some empathy. The lobsters got their own plane to send them to China. The students got told to go home.
Quarantine and vaccine are Commonwealth responsibilities. The Commonwealth has taken no responsibility for quarantine. The vaccine program is an embarrassment globally. It doesn't matter how much the Prime Minister spins it. Imagine if Labor had presided over this vaccine mess? There wouldn't be enough black ink to print the newspapers with the banners. The government should treat international students better and stop congratulating themselves on the decimation of universities. (Time expired)
I rise in this chamber to support the member for Reid on her motion to recognise the Morrison government's continuing support for the higher education sector. The government understands that we as a country need to pivot to a job-ready workforce with job-ready skills. The reason we say that is that we know that the jobs of the future are in health, they are in engineering and they are in areas where people need science and mathematics as core skills. So I'm very proud of the fact that our government is providing job-ready graduate packages, with 39,000 new university places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. We'll provide additional support, importantly, for students in regional and remote Australia. We know that students like to live and work in the regions where they grew up and not have to go to the big smoke necessarily, so I really congratulate the government on the extra $500 million that it is providing to regional universities to allow people to stay in the regions, support where they come from originally and help grow those wonderful, diverse regional and remote areas of Australia.
The government's JobTrainer fund will provide up to 320,000 additional training places that are free or low fee in areas of identified skills need for jobseekers and young people. This is the follow-on from the extra university places that are being provided. We know that, when unemployment rises, the biggest impact is on the young, and we know that, when we have a recession, it's the young that are affected. We know that universities are countercyclical—that is, when economic recessions hit, university places go up—and that is because people understand that they need to be able to get extra training in order to be more competitive in the job market. Youth unemployment for 15- to 24-year-olds increased from 10.7 per cent in November 2019 to 14.7 per cent in November 2020, and that is because COVID has hit us. We understand that higher education is needed to help people get better skills so they can get better jobs, and that is why we are turning to supporting this sector as we go forward post COVID.
We've incentivised students to make job-relevant choices. This is important because students who are already enrolled will not be affected—the scheme is grandfathered—but we want to encourage new graduates to take on the jobs of the future, and we want to ensure that they are taking on the training of the future. This means that the Commonwealth supported students will be studying in key growth areas and will see significant reductions in their student contributions in those units. We've seen this before with Labor. Kevin Rudd himself incentivised an increase in STEM students by decreasing the cost to those students, and that resulted in a marked increase in science, technology, engineering and mathematics students when he was Prime Minister. Students enrolling in teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, English and languages will pay 42 per cent less for their degrees, students who study agriculture and maths will pay 59 per cent less for their degrees, and students who study science, health, architecture, environmental science, IT and engineering will pay 18 per cent less for their degrees.
I know that students need to understand that they can actually decrease the cost of their courses by taking on individual subjects, including subjects like English and clinical psychology, in order to diversify the skill set of their degree to ensure that they're ready for the jobs of the future. Our job-ready initiative also complements our government's modern manufacturing initiative. We know that modern manufacturing will rely more and more on different ways of doing things, more innovative ways of doing things and smarter ways of doing things. We need job-ready graduates who are ready to embrace the future of work. We know that data will be at the base of many of these sorts of artificial intelligence and automated intelligence type jobs of the 21st century. So Australia's labour force needs are currently changing very quickly. Subsidies offered by the government to students need to reflect the national interest and align with the whole-of-government approach of ensuring Australia's future prosperity, which means an employed workforce with job-ready degrees. Sixty per cent of taxpayers don't have a university education. Therefore, it's not unreasonable that, if the taxpayer is subsidising university places, this support should be directed to incentivise students to the jobs of the future. This targeted approach to funding by the Morrison government will leave a lasting legacy that ensures students already in the system aren't disadvantaged but that current students are supported into futureproofed jobs of the future.
I thank the member for Reid for her motion, and I support her motion.
The debate on this motion comes against the background of the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University saying that universities have been left to bleed to death. He said:
Harder to understand is why the university sector has been left to bleed, given what most might expect to be its pivotal role in the future growth of the … economy.
Quite bizarrely, the current settings under this Morrison government mean that the worst affected degrees are science and engineering, according to someone who you'd think would know a bit about science and engineering and degrees: the Vice-Chancellor of the ANU. So you can imagine the surprise of those of us who know what's going on at universities when we saw a motion on the Notice Paper congratulating the Morrison government for supporting Australian universities through the pandemic. It's like being in cloud-cuckoo-land. It's like being Alice in Wonderland.
Monash University, which has a campus in my electorate, the Peninsula Campus, had its revenue slashed by about $350 million as a result of this government deliberately and repeatedly—not once, not twice but three times—amending legislation to prevent public universities from having JobKeeper when foreign students couldn't come here. Private universities are fine, as are, apparently, incredibly rich megacompanies and private all-men's clubs, but, as to public universities, this government did everything that you could do to make sure that they didn't get JobKeeper.
Order! The member for Dunkley is reflecting on the chair when she uses the term 'you'.
I apologise, Deputy Speaker. The Morrison government and all of its members did everything they could, by supporting the legislation, to stop public universities from getting JobKeeper. Monash University had to scramble to keep operating. It had 7,000 personalised study plans to retain students. The university cut capital, cut non-salary expenditure, used up its resources, borrowed money and put $30 million of its own money into a hardship fund for international and domestic students, because the Morrison government abandoned them. Executives took voluntary pay cuts. The university worked with the union for 277 voluntary redundancies and for deferrals of pay increases. If any university, any public institution of higher learning, got through the COVID-19 pandemic, it's not because of the support of the Morrison government; it's because of the work they did, their students did, their workers did and their unions did to get through that challenge.
As if it weren't bad enough that the Morrison government have walked away from all of these people and their jobs and their future, they are, of course, yet again contributing to undermining the Australian economy, because we know that universities drive economic growth. We know that, before the pandemic, international education was Australia's fourth-largest export industry. In Victoria, my home state, it contributed $12.7 billion a year. It supported 250,000 jobs across the Australian economy. Every dollar invested in higher education, research and development is linked to a $5 return to GDP. Every dollar invested in university teaching and scholarships contributes to $3 of additional tax revenue. Every person who gets to experience university life and get a higher education has a greater opportunity for success and fulfilment in work and life. Yet we have a sector that is losing $3.8 billion in revenue across last year and this year. We have a sector that this government has abandoned. Members of this government should spend less time with ridiculous motions saying that black is white and more time lobbying the Prime Minister to provide the funding that Australians need to get education for the economy and for the wellbeing of our people into the future.
The time allotted for this debate is expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
I'm very pleased to speak in support of this private members' bill tabled by my colleague the member for Moreton. It is of course disappointing that this is not a reform that the government has seen fit to take up itself. We have spent so much time over so many years in this parliament and in parliaments across the country talking about how we can make children safer; talking about reforms to systems to try to protect our most precious citizens and our future; talking about how we can reduce the instance of family and domestic violence. This is, on the face of it, a simple reform that would do just that. But it is more than that. It's a deeply important reform to make sure that children and the best interests of children are genuinely at the heart of our family law system.
We know that our family law system doesn't work perfectly. In many respects it's hard to imagine a family law system that everyone who enters it and exits it would be happy with, because, by definition, you're not going into the family law system because things are going well. It's difficult enough when relationships break down and people's dreams and hopes for the future aren't realised, and when couples have to split finances, assets and sometimes dreams; it's another thing altogether when children are involved. Far too often, those of us who are privileged to be in this place have representation after representation from constituents who are struggling to get through day by day because they're not getting the child support payments they are owed, or they have no savings left because they've all been drained in legal fees from family law cases that have been drawn out and out and out. They're absolute tragedies, but in some respects they pale in comparison to the tragedies of children who have grown up witnessing and experiencing family and domestic violence. The Family Court system is essentially an extension of that.
What this bill does is remove section 61DA of the Family Law Act, which provides the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility in parenting matters. This presumption, as has been shown by report after report and organisation after organisation, has caused confusion since it was introduced. The bill also removes another section which mandates that before a judge can determine what parenting arrangements should be ordered, the judge must navigate a complicated pathway and consider various options for the child. The law as it operates is currently difficult for ordinary people to understand. It makes court processes longer and more expensive. What is important, and what this bill ensures, is that any decision about a child is based on what is in that child's best interest, without the need for a complex pathway—a pathway that has been described as 'practically impenetrable' by a judge who has to apply it.
The presumption of equal shared parental responsibility sounds like it would be a good thing on the face of it, but in fact it has put victims of domestic violence on the back foot in parenting negotiations and has caused the need for fighting against assumed norms of cooperative and ongoing parenting where that might not be safe for children. It's to the credit of the member for Moreton that he's put forward this bill in order to redress that issue with the support of family law and family and domestic violence organisations around the country.
My local community legal centre has experienced the shadow pandemic of domestic violence first hand. As Jackie Galloway from PCLC has said:
… 2020 will be remembered by many of those working in the family violence sector as the worst on record.
There has been a surge in people affected by family violence for the first time and a surge in people seeking help. When one woman dies every week in Australia, more has to be done. (Time expired)
When it comes to making the right and safest decisions for children, we must always keep their best interests close at heart. Family law and the court process can be complex, difficult and emotionally exhausting for many Australian families. As a father and grandfather myself, I believe that every single Australian child is worthy of the best future and best opportunities we can give them. I know how important it is for a child to grow up in a loving, caring, clean and safe home. We must create this for them and never stop improving the legal process so that we can make it possible.
We have so many kids of families here in Australia. Some children are raised by a single mother or single father, others by a step-parent, a foster parent, a grandparent or in a family unit with both parents. We must take the rights and feelings of every child into consideration, because they deserve to be given the opportunity to enjoy a meaningful relationship with their family. In some cases, children also need to be protected from violence within the family dynamic, and it's here that we need to strive to ensure that no child is ever put in the position of fearing for their life or being harmed at the hands of a person who should be caring for them. This is paramount to allowing children to live a life of quality, love, compassion and comfort.
By improving and making amendments to Australia's Family Law Act and our court and legal systems, we are protecting our children, putting their wellbeing first, strengthening our Australian family units and building cohesive communities. This is what I hope the Family Law Amendment (A Step Towards a Safer Family Law System) Bill will achieve for Australian families. Under section 61DA of the Family Law Act 1975, there is a presumption that it is in the best interests of children that both parents equally share parental responsibility, such as jointly making long-term decisions about their children. This provision was a significant part of reforms to family law, made by the Howard government in 2006, to emphasise the importance of children maintaining a meaningful relationship with both parents where it is safe to do so. However, shared parental responsibility does not always apply. The presumption does not apply where there are reasonable grounds to believe that a parent has engaged in family violence or abuse of the child or children. This is set out in section 61DA(2) of the Family Law Act. In cases where it does apply, it can be rebutted if it's not in the best interests of the child. This is set out in section 61DA(4). It is also worth being clear that equal shared parental responsibility does not mean that the child is to spend equal time with both parents. A legislative note sets this out immediately below the section 61DA presumption. Where the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility does apply, the court must also consider whether the child spending equal time, or substantial and significant time, with their parents is both in that child's best interests and reasonably practicable.
This is an area that the Australian Law Reform Commission, the ALRC, considered as part of its review of the family law system. The report stated:
The ALRC supports the idea that a presumption of shared parental responsibility serves as a good starting point for negotiations between parents and recommends that the concept be retained.
The ALRC did not recommend the removal of the presumption; it did recommend clarification to reduce the confusion that there can be around its meaning.
While considering the ALRC response and while a joint select committee has been considering this topic, the government has put in place a range of measures to improve safety within the family law system. The government has invested $13½ million in the launch of new family safety risk screening, and triage processes being piloted in the family law courts. There is government funding of $10.4 million to pilot the rollout of co-located state and territory child protection and policing officials in family law courts across Australia. This government banned the cross-examination of victims in family law proceedings to protect them. That has been in place since September 2019. The government also funded the establishment of family advocacy support services, and, since 2016, it has committed over $48.9 million for this program through to 2022.
At the end of the day, we cannot lose sight of what's best for the children of Australia. We must go through this process for a variety of reasons. We can't let them get lost inside the system or be forgotten, because it will shape their future. It could mean the difference between a good future and a bad future. The main priority must always be the children's welfare.
Debate adjourned.
Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:20