2020-03-03 46 1 2 House of Reps 0 1

Tuesday, 3 March 2020

The SPEAKER ( Hon. Tony Smith ) took the chair at 12:00, made an acknowledgement of country and read prayers.

 

COMMITTEES 1 COMMITTEES Environment and Energy Committee 1 Membership 1 12:01 The SPEAKER 00APG I have received advice from the Chief Opposition Whip nominating a member to be a supplementary member of the Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy. 12:01 Mr CHESTER IPZ Gippsland by leave—I move: That Mr Wilkie be appointed a supplementary member of the Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy for the purpose of the committee's inquiry into the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment (Transparency in Carbon Emission Accounting) Bill 2020. Question agreed to. BILLS 1 BILLS Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020 1

Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020

Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020

Second Reading 1 12:02 Mr GILES 243609 Scullin Every morning Australia's Prime Minister wakes up and asks himself what he believes are the critical questions that will guide him and the country through the day: What's today's excuse? Who or what will I be hiding behind today? Australia's Prime Minister is allergic to taking responsibility, which is pretty odd, to say the least, for a prime minister. This is a joke, but it's not a funny joke, because it's on Australia and on Australians. With this Prime Minister everything is always someone else's fault—the Labor Party, by and large; the states, often; sometimes even the National Party; and, indeed, the very processes of government, which is presumably why he has formed a very special cabinet committee consisting of the one person he can trust: himself. It is absolutely extraordinary. But it's not just things or people he hides behind; it's facts. He's allergic to them too. He likes to make up his own. Of course, when he's not doing this, he's also very concerned about people who ask him questions. He's so angry all the time, when instead he should be getting on with his job. This couldn't be more important for the series of reasons that I will go into in this debate on the appropriation bills. Let's recognise one thing in this place: at the moment the gap between the aspirations of the Australian people for themselves, their communities and their country and the vision of this government is enormous. It's enormous and it's getting bigger by the day. People around the country and in my electorate have different ideas about what we should be doing, but they want our government to take responsibility. They want leadership. They don't want a Prime Minister who is always looking over his shoulder, always looking for someone else to blame or something to hide behind. This attitude isn't just trashing his government, although he's doing a pretty good job of that, it's trashing our system of government, as we have seen so clearly in recent weeks in question time in this place and also as the Senate estimates process has kicked off. I spoke a moment ago about the Cabinet Office Policy Committee, a device for internal control within the government and a vehicle to shield documents from parliamentary scrutiny and FOI, which undermines a fundamental principle of our Westminster system, a system which the manager of government business himself tried to undermine in this place in question time last week. We're seeing a Prime Minister who, on the one hand, won't take responsibility but, on the other, continues to centralise power to himself, dismantling the proper processes of cabinet decision-making put in place not just by Labor governments but by governments including that of his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull. This is not surprising, on one level, because we see every day in this place the hubris that has characterised the Prime Minister since he won the election. Normally when leaders bring to this place a sense of hubris and a sense of confidence they bring with that an agenda—not this Prime Minister and not this government. This appropriations debate is taking up the time of this place at the moment. It's an important bill, and I should be clear that we will be supporting the legislation. We'll be supporting the appropriation; we won't be blocking supply. But where else is the government's legislative agenda? It's completely absent. They have no plan for this country and no plan for this parliament, a parliament which has been sitting four or five weeks. It is making absolutely apparent to the Australian people as well as those of us here the absolute failure of the government to advance any agenda in this place or outside of it for Australians. What we are seeing more profoundly from the government, following a very difficult summer for Australians, is something that compounds all of these things: a failure to even seek to bring Australians together through difficult times. Australians right across the political spectrum are entitled to expect political leadership that brings us together in circumstances where too many Australians feel separated from one another, despite, generally speaking, but in many cases, sadly, because of the shocking events of the summer of fires and the recent response to coronavirus. Let's think about trust and politics. Let's think about how we restore that. Fundamentally, we do so by how we behave in this place, how we act and how we conduct ourselves: whether or not we take responsibility for our actions and our responsibilities. On this mark it is no surprise at all that trust in politics is ebbing away, that Australians feel frustrated that government is not on their side, that Australians feel that this place is not a place where a government can even be held accountable. I think in estimates yesterday 258 questions were taken on notice. That makes a mockery of a fundamental mechanism of government accountability. Australians have a right to know about these things. We can't see continue these procedural devices, this failure to accept that there is a role for legitimate criticism and legitimate debate in this place. We cannot allow it to continue. Australians are entitled to expect more. For any government with any vision, one thing is fundamental: trust in the capacity of government, our politics and our political institutions to deliver on their promises. This is something that should unite all of us in this place who bring to it our sense of how the world should be, but this government, through running down the norms of our democracy, is undermining the very system that we all serve in and should be proud to serve in. These appropriations of course go to the functioning of the government. I will make a couple of very brief remarks about the state of the Australian economy. Obviously, we are facing very significant challenges at the moment as we move, hopefully, towards a phase in the bushfire season that's characterised by recovery rather than immediate response. In saying that, I acknowledge, as all of us have, the extraordinary work of community leaders and our volunteers to help rebuild communities and keep communities safe. I do acknowledge the member for Gippsland, the minister at the table, for his efforts in holding together a community under real pressure over the summer, a summer that must have been very difficult for him. He showed the sort of leadership that we should all try to show under these sorts of circumstances. Now all of us in there place are grappling with the impact of coronavirus—an enormous economic impact on Australia across a variety of sectors, particularly higher education and tourism but felt across the economy as we start to consider the supply chain changes and challenges across pretty much every sector of the economy. But it's not just the economy at large which is being impacted; it's particular areas of the Australian economy. As the shadow minister for multicultural affairs, I've spent much of my time in areas dominated by Chinese Australians—places like Box Hill in Melbourne, where we see a localised impact which is driven in part by fear but also in part by racism. That is something that again we have to acknowledge in this place. This is a time when many Australians are feeling pressure. Many Australians are concerned about family members and friends overseas who are affected. They are concerned about risks to themselves. They are concerned about damage to their businesses—businesses which have been trading at 50 or, in some cases, 70 per cent below the usual marker for many weeks now. Businesses are closing. People are losing their jobs. The very least we can do is stand with these proud members of our community, listen to their concerns and reach out to them as we have done, of course, in the bushfires. I would say that there as well there is more that can be done, as the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Gorton suggested yesterday, recognising that there are many gaps in the supporting policy framework that the government has put forward—gaps that we continue to learn about, where announcements are not matched by the reality when it comes to funding commitments. If we're going to consider the state of the Australian economy today, let us not be distracted from two things. First, the government should seek to pass the test it set for itself and not rewrite history. The government should accept the state of the Australian economy under its watch had deteriorated markedly last year before the impact of these events. We need to consider them. We need to respond to them appropriately and as we have done in many cases. I think particularly of the public health dimension of coronavirus. We should do so in a bipartisan manner. We should stand together. But we also shouldn't see other members of this government emulate the Prime Minister and look for excuses when it's time to take responsibility, because of course challenging times like this are those times where Australians deserve real leadership from their government, whatever political persuasion it is formed from. These are times when Australians are entitled to expect taking responsibility and setting a firm direction, directly engaging with Australians, directly engaging with the issues confronting us as a country and taking them on. I mentioned in the context of the coronavirus my concern that racism is on the rise in Australia. Sadly, I think this is something that's not solely a feature of this debate. We've seen many incidents of it. We need to think about how we can better respond to bring Australians together. We know that the security agencies have warned us about right-wing terror and far-right extremist organisations. It's deeply concerning, to say the very least, that the main concern of some members of this government in the other place is taking issue with the offensiveness of that language. That's absolutely ridiculous. Our focus should be on keeping people safe in their communities, not having these ridiculous semantic debates about the hurt feelings of people based on their own ideology, which of course has nothing to do with the ideologies in question here. I also want to talk a little bit about climate in the context of the bushfires and the bushfire response, making one broad response about a community which was briefly affected in my electorate of Scullin: Bundoora, an area quite close to the Melbourne CBD and an area unused to the sort of impacts places like Gippsland are used to. I think that has brought home to many people how real the risks of climate change to our everyday existence as Australians are, how different the summers of today are from the summers of my imagining or perhaps yours, Mr Speaker. The time for relaxation has become a time of deep anxiety for many Australians. When we recognise the extraordinary contribution of ordinary Australians pulling together to support one another, let's think about the big challenge we face: to pull together to ensure that we can do everything we can to deliver an Australia that leads the way when it comes to taking action on climate, to keep all of us safe. Not simply so that we and our children, and perhaps our grandchildren, can enjoy the precious natural environment that we have today but to make sure that the very world in which we live is a world in which we can continue to live on the terms that we do today. This is not a time for anyone to do anything else but to acknowledge the extraordinary existential seriousness of this crisis, to learn from the experiences of the summer and to take action. This is something that will condemn this government if they don't acknowledge the facts soon. Also condemning this government are the continuing revelations about program delivery. I refer specifically to sports rorts and also to 'road rorts'. When it comes to the community sporting grants, I was shocked to find that not a single organisation in my electorate of Scullin—I'm not sure how many in Blaxland; I ask my colleague—received a single grant from the government. Not one! This is something that compounds cynicism in the community. I was at the Lalor Sporting Hub on Sunday. Four community sporting clubs were coming together to reach out to the community, and their sense of frustration and cynicism and distrust of government was apparent. This is something which goes beyond the individual grant decisions made and those not made. It goes to how Australians see a government which is heedless of their concerns, heedless of the things that matter to them, and I think this is something that needs to be confronted by members of the government. They can't turn away. They can't hide behind arguments that are, frankly, preposterous around the dating of advice to the Prime Minister's office. They need to come clean on that. We need to get to the bottom of this and the involvement of the PMO, but we need the government to acknowledge something more fundamental. This is not how government should be conducted. This is not how community organisations need to be treated. There needs to be a more transparent way of supporting volunteers in our community and meeting the aspirations we share about boosting community support and community involvement. Sports rorts are one thing, of course. But then we have the $3 billion worth of 'road rorts' and Pork 'n 'Ride where we see incredibly important government investments being dictated, perhaps in this case not by a marked up Excel spreadsheet but, by a marked up map of electoral boundaries, where we see in Melbourne's east and south-east a variety of park-and-ride facilities being supported without any consultation. In some cases, it's clearly the case that no parking facility can, in fact, be constructed. Whereas, in the growing western suburbs, there's not a single facility. We see in Queensland all three park-and-ride—Pork 'n 'Ride, again, I should say—facilities service one electorate: that of Forde. This approach to government demeans us all. What is so disappointing is that members opposite don't recognise this or won't recognise this. They won't recognise they have in their leader a Prime Minister who won't take responsibility. He will do everything he can to avoid his responsibilities and he fails to stand up for the Australian people. 12:17 Mr TIM WILSON IMW Goldstein It's a pleasure to be able to speak on the Appropriations Bill in this chamber and outline some of the issues that the parliament faces at this time. It gives us a good stock to look at the challenges we face in terms of prudent budget management and making sure that we're appropriating the funds necessary to run a nation against a backdrop of what is unquestionably an incredibly challenging time. We've obviously gone through difficult economic and environmental circumstances as a result of the drought. There are a lot of communities across the country that have struggled for some time, needing income security and, of course, access to one of the most important commodities we have, water, because it's the lifeblood that enables their crops to grow and for grass to grow to feed their cattle so that they can go on and earn a livelihood and an income for them and their community. So many communities have dealt with such a difficult blow as a consequence of the drought. The same is also true as a consequence of the recent bushfires. I see members in the chamber present who have been on the forefront of that catastrophic event across the eastern seaboard of Australia. While many of those communities are in the process of rebuilding, much of it will take a long time. Many of those communities have faced devastating consequences. People have lost their lives and their homes, and community infrastructure as well as wildlife has been lost. Anyone who's been involved with fires knows that it will take some time to repair and rebuild. My grandfather and grandmother experienced the consequences of the Ash Wednesday bushfires in the early 1980s in upper Beaconsfield in Victoria. They knew full well the consequences of bushfires and the impact they can have on communities as well as the time it takes to not just rebuild but reconnect and resew the social fabric that holds those communities together. Then, of course, we have the more recent challenge of the coronavirus. I don't think we should underestimate the seriousness of the events that are about to present themselves to Australia. It needs to be acknowledged in a bipartisan way that the government has provided outstanding leadership in confronting the challenges, threats and risks of the coronavirus. We can implement strong border protection measures because we have strong borders and because we have a government that understands the importance of doing so and not tolerating leakage. We're in a position to respond economically because we have a budget that the government has been determined to return to a healthy balance. We have spending under control, and, of course, we have reassured ourselves, with advice from the expert medical health services across the country and with the cooperation of the states, that we can provide the assistance that Australians need. More critically, while it is a health crisis—and it is—it is also going to cascade into a challenging economic one. I know there's a lot of discussion at the moment in the community about how the government should respond. I have been heartened to hear in the language from the Prime Minister and the Treasurer that they're taking a prudent, a responsible and—critically—a considered approach to how the government should work to reassure small businesses, employees and employers so that, throughout any difficult economic times to come, people can be kept in jobs and small businesses can trade through and be central to any economic recovery following the economic consequences of the coronavirus. I hear a lot of calls out there for short-term or rash stimulus measures without full consideration. We saw that during the global financial crisis from those opposite. While there is no doubt there was some benefit from some aspects of it, in practice it was largely wasteful. In comparison to the options available to Australia—because we had higher interest rates which were able to be cut by the Reserve Bank as well as higher mineral prices—we just saw money being thrown around for marginal benefit. They baked in extra costs, which we are continuing to pay and which, of course, future generations will have to repay. I see some calls for that sort of broadbrush approach again. Similarly, I hear suggestions that we should somehow move infrastructure programs forward. If you go out to the market place, people will already tell you that there are massive capacity constraints with supplies and labour for projects to be brought forward. That is not a sensible solution either. What is necessary is a targeted approach to make sure that government invests where it can add the most value, because the practical reality that's going to unfold in the coming weeks as a consequence of this, particularly the slowdown of manufacturing in China, is that we will have Australians who will be willing buyers of goods, but there will be suppliers with, in some cases, nothing to sell or limited stock to sell, and you're going to have service based businesses that will have plenty to sell but not necessarily the volume of willing customers. Just throwing more money at that problem won't solve it, just as cutting interest rates won't solve it. While it is an approach that could have a marginal effect, it would be better if the RBA turned around and, rather than cutting interest rates, looked at options to help banks loan more money to small and medium businesses so that they could trade through the economic challenges to come and, critically, keep people employed so that they can keep supporting their families and keep paying their mortgages so that they can be a part of the recovery once this temporary crisis ends. But they can only do that because we have a secure economic environment and a secure health environment. That's been at the heart of this government's approach since the day it was elected. Throughout the speeches of our political opponents, they will wax lyrical about how they could have done things better, with no evidence to justify it. They would have left this country with less financial security and less border security, and we would be in a weaker position to respond to this crisis. In the end, government has to provide reassurance to the Australian people. If people are going to back themselves, they need to know that they are going to do it in an environment where the government has their back and is able to deliver them the security that they need to make decisions with confidence. That's what you get under the Morrison Liberal-National government—and not what you would get under the opposition, particularly had they come in at the last election and committed to spend billions of dollars and rake in hundreds of millions of dollars of new taxes. With less money in people's hip pockets, you wouldn't need stimulus, because people wouldn't have any spare cash in their pockets. The other challenge we face at the moment is in the context of climate change policy. I hear a lot of pronouncements from members opposite about what they think policy should be. The member for Melbourne, the Marxist member for Melbourne, now Leader of the Australian Greens, comes into this place and his answer is always to take decisions out of the democratic processes and hand the responsibility over to the United Nations to make determinations about how our policy should be decided. The Independent for Warringah does exactly the same thing—undermining confidence in our democracy and sovereignty. Anybody who thinks the solution to getting stable, considered ongoing climate policy is to take decisions away from the people who are elected to represent and govern this nation and hand that decision-making responsibility to the unelected and the unaccountable, with scant regard to the human, economic, social, political and environmental consequences, is kidding themselves. The Independent member for Warringah has even recommended that unelected, unaccountable bodies be responsible for giving the green light about whether elected and accountable people, ministers of the Crown and this very parliament, can decide things like emissions targets. That is not a sustainable basis for policy into the future. It's a direct subversion and subjugation of this parliament. I have no doubt there will be plenty of people who argue that this is necessary. Many years ago, Clive Hamilton, the far-left academic—who got it right on China, I might add, but on not much else—made the argument that maybe we just need to suspend democracy to meet the challenges of climate change. That will work if you don't have any plan to return to it and/or you have no respect or regard for it. That seems to be the approach the Independent member for Warringah has taken: a disregard, not just for this parliament, but—let's not misunderstand what that means—also a disregard for the people of Australia. People took these policies to the last election—and the last time I checked two of those people sat in this chamber. The Labor Party didn't; they took a different, idiotic policy—but, nonetheless, a different policy—to the last election. People on this side of the chamber, who sit here and represent the people of Australia—149 people—campaigned on a different platform. But those opposite want the tail to wag the dog, with scant regard for the will of the Australian people—and it needs to be called out. Similarly, the plan of the opposition needs to be called out as well, because you have the deception of the Leader of the Opposition saying on national television and in this chamber and everywhere else that he wants a target of zero net emissions by 2050—'but, by the way, we're still going to export coal'. I've never heard such a deceptive statement. It is one designed to manage the different constituent groups inside the Australian Labor Party, but it treats the Australian people as mugs. How on earth could you do that and account for the fugitive emissions that come with it? It is a deception. If members on the other side want to chortle and a laugh because they're either going along with the deception or being deceived, neither hold them in good regard. The thing we need and owe the Australian people, whether it's on reducing emissions, the coronavirus or any other economic response, is honesty and trust to build confidence to take everybody forward together. What we see from members in the crossbenches and members of the opposition is in clear contrast with this government. The foundation of our relationship with the Australian people is to take honest plans to the election. It is to take honest plans that we then seek to implement during our term of government. It's an honest plan, rather than the deception and dishonesty advocated by our political opponents. The cost of their approach is real. When you go to an election and say one thing and then immediately after do the opposite it corrodes trust in this very institution, the chamber itself. I see members on the opposite side nodding. I'm glad they do, because that was shown that clearer than during the previous administration, where you had a Labor Prime Minister say, 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' They then came into this chamber and treated the Australian people as mugs. They deceived them at the election and then turned around and voted for it in this chamber. That is the sort of policy that undermines long-term confidence to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to deliver sustainable change and to build trust with the Australian people. It's that dishonesty—and they sit there and they chortle and laugh at the contempt they have for the Australian people. Well, that is not the view on this side of the chamber. We're going to treat Australians with honesty and build respect and trust, because that is the only way that we can confront the challenges that we face in the short, medium and long term. That's why, rather than having a debate about their policies, we're actually delivering substance on how we're going to achieve our targets. That's why we're bringing forward a road map to give people an understanding, to give Australians an understanding, about the choices that this country faces—versus making ambit, empty and dishonest promises to the Australian people, as the Leader of the Opposition and the parrots who sit behind him do. They simply represent and repeat lines that they cannot substantiate and back up with hard evidence. The Australian people will judge them at the next election, and should. Some of us will stand up and call out, as we did about their dishonesty about their retiree tax. They said it wouldn't hit people on low incomes—only for the Leader of the Opposition to explain to the Australian people afterwards that it would. Some of us will never give up in making sure that we expose the deception of the Australian Labor Party. 12:33 Mr GOSLING 245392 Solomon I point out that, without doubt, the greatest thespian in this House has just endowed his wisdom on us, so thank you very much to the member for Goldstein. I want to talk about the Indo-Pacific Task Force, a trade task force that I lead, and trade in general. Trade remains the domain of federal government agencies, ranging from DFAT to Austrade, and increasingly of state and territory agencies, including the Northern Territory government's Department of Trade, Business and Investment, which I must say does a fantastic job of promoting the investment opportunities we have in the Northern Territory of Australia. While the federal government obviously retains overall competence in negotiating agreements with foreign governments that should be advantageous to Australian businesses, workers, unions, investors and, of course, exporters, the Indo-Pacific trade task force that I lead was set up last year to help feed into a trade policy agenda that a federal Labor government would take to the next election, with a particular focus on markets in our immediate region, those that have five to six per cent growth, as in South-East Asia and the subcontinent. This government could be doing a lot more on trade, particularly to tackle those nontariff barriers that Aussie investors and exporters continually face in many markets, which does penalise them unfairly. We need to be doing a lot more. This government does very little, to be honest, to address this issue—particularly the nontariff barriers—because it is much harder than signing trade deals. So we need to think about how agencies like Austrade work: whether they could function better—I think there's no doubt about—and whether they are adequately resourced to do their job. They need to be supporting businesses that are investing or setting up a nationally. Austrade needs to be adequately resourced to do that important work. As part of the work of the Indo-Pacific trade task force, I and my colleagues have held a number of consultations with stakeholders in Cairns, Darwin and Melbourne and soon will hold them in Adelaide, Perth and Townsville. The feedback we're hearing consistently is that much more could be done to support Aussie exporters to export their goods and to export services and digital trade opportunities, which is a new frontier that Australians are well-placed to be at the forefront of. Speaking of new frontiers, we all know that the global climate challenges we face are indeed a huge opportunity for us. I'll be leading a delegation to Indonesia soon. It'll be one of the things in the digital technologies space and the renewable technologies space that I'll be talking about with our Indonesian friends. When we consider action on climate change and taking up those new technologies, the Climate Change Performance Index recently placed Australia at a dismal 56 out of all nations in the OECD and the EU, whereas Indonesia had come in at 39. So there is a huge appetite in Indonesia. They're doing a lot better than us when it comes to a range of measures, which is to the shame of those opposite. Nevertheless, there's a lot more we could be doing with Indonesia, and I look forward to having those discussions with our Indonesian counterparts. Let me shift to the defence of the Australian homeland. In the Defence portfolio, I note the government's announcement of a $1.1 billion program of infrastructure upgrades to RAAF Base Tindal. RAAF Base Tindal is in Katherine in the Northern Territory. This investment is part of a $20 billion defence funding commitment to northern Australia over the coming decades, which is bipartisan. $737 million of this $1.1 billion is being committed to upgrade the airfield at Tindal, extend the runway and build extra fuel storage facilities. The federal government has said that an additional $437 million would go towards engineering services on the base for power, water, sewerage and 108 new live-in units for our Defence Force personnel. The Minister for Defence Industry has guaranteed that Defence's managing contractor would be required to maximise the involvement of local industry from the Katherine region and the wider Northern Territory. They speak of 300 jobs in the construction phase at Tindal. I think even more can be done to help local industry and ensure their participation in all phases of this project work. The reality is that, without strong advocacy from the government—and I am advocating strongly now for the government to do this—these local companies won't be given a fair go. The federal government has a responsibility to ensure that the local companies that have the capacity to do this work can get a go at doing this work and not just the tender-savvy foreign state owned enterprises who can afford the lobbyists and the slick marketing campaigns. It is unfortunate, but I have to inform the House that recently in Darwin a relatively small contract, mainly civil works, went to a foreign state owned company when there were three locally owned Territory companies that were more than capable of doing that work. I think the federal government needs to wake up to itself because in the Northern Territory and around Australia companies are sick and tired of being overlooked for this type of work, particularly when the federal government went to the last federal election promising that they would breakdown packages of work into smaller packages precisely so that local companies could get a look in. But when that happened in Darwin a contract was given to one of the biggest infrastructure companies in the world—a state owned infrastructure company up against some locals who should have been getting that work. So we want to see an end to that. The federal government has to start living up to the rhetoric that they spouted to Australians before the last federal election. I now move to another issue that is very important to Territorians, and that is the Productivity Commission's recent report on remote-area tax concessions. I note that the Productivity Commission's report on remote-area tax concessions was published last week on Wednesday 26 February. The report recommends that remote-area tax concessions and payments should be rationalised and reconfigured. It calls for the zone tax offset to be abolished and it calls for the remote-area allowance to be refreshed, which means a redrawing of boundaries that, in the report's own words, would exclude at least 25,000 annual recipients in my electorate and a further 33,000 in cities of the Northern Territory, like Alice Springs and Katherine in the member for Lingiari's electorate. The report notes the cost-of-living pressures on Indigenous Territorians, who pay much more than Australians in major metropolitan cities for their groceries, but it doesn't go into the cost-of-living pressures across the territory, including in my electorate in the cities of Darwin and Palmerston, compared to major cities like Sydney and Melbourne. We need to be careful in how we measure remoteness, because what might seem like a scientifically objective measure can't capture the local reality of life on the ground for communities in rural and regional Australia. This is about values, not some kind of objective yardstick which transforms Darwin and other places in the Territory into metropolitan regions magically just by changing our thinking. That does not change the price of goods and services when Territorians go to purchase them. The argument that Darwin is no longer regional because it's a city rather than a town misses the obvious fact that the entire physical, economic and cultural centre of gravity of our nation is heavily biased towards the south and the south-east of the Australian mainland, which the majority of people in this place do represent. But those members are not the whole of our nation. Regional Australia has had a gutful of the bias towards those metropolitan centres when we are not only part of our nation but a vital part of our nation. We don't have access to the same cheap flights and easy connectivity or access to cheap goods and services that you can get, for example, in Sydney. Just measuring up remoteness on a city's size is not a particularly convincing argument, because there are transport costs and often, as is the case in many regional parts of Australia, that is on top of getting goods and services. The cost of the goods and services is added to by those transport costs, and that must be taken into account. So Northern Territory members and senators do not support the Productivity Commissioner's recommendation to abolish the zone tax offset. It's important to people living in regional and remote Australia. The federal government, those opposite, should be investing in the north, not ripping more money from hardworking Territorians—money that gets ripped out of our local economy and that would help the individuals receiving that zone tax off-set. That, I add, has not increased since 1993, so we're talking about a zone tax off set that has not increased for a long time, so it's lost its purchasing power already. But it also hurts the local businesses in my electorate and many other regional electorates because you're ripping funds out of our economy. Instead of directing reviews on how to cut even more from regional areas, the federal government should start focusing on investing in the Northern Territory. The federal government have said that they will not follow the Productivity Commission's recommendation, but, to be honest, we have heard that before. In fact, we heard that there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health and no cuts to the ABC. We've heard so many pre-election promises from those opposite that haven't been realised. In six years there have been continual cuts. So I'd like a firm commitment that those opposite, the federal government, will not cut the zone tax offset. On behalf of Territorians and, I'm sure, many others in regional Australia and northern Australia in particular, we want confirmation that this federal government will not cut the ZTO. Zone tax offsets are important, and we certainly need to be looking at how to encourage more people to come up and live in our amazing Northern Territory and enjoy our amazing Territory lifestyle. The federal government needs to guarantee that Territorians won't be thrown under a bus. The Northern Territory government are doing all that they can, but we need federal investment. Rather than the neglect that we've seen from this Commonwealth government when it comes to the Territory, we want to actually see some investment. The last figures out of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility showed that about one per cent of that $5 billion fund had been drawn down. We want to see a lot more action and much more serious intent. More than serious intent, we want to see the investment actually happen in the Northern Territory. In my submission to the Productivity Commission on the zone tax offset, I made the point that this federal government had an opportunity, a good opportunity, to increase it when there was a white paper on northern Australia that recommended that FIFOs, fly-in, fly-out workers, no longer receive the zone tax offset. About 20 per cent of them got the offset. With those savings, there was an opportunity to increase the zone tax offset, remembering what I said earlier—that it hasn't been increased since 1993. They didn't take that opportunity, which is a shame. But it is an issue that's very important to Territorians. I just want to stress again that we want those opposite, the federal government, to commit to not cutting the zone tax offset. Jobs keep people in the north. When the federal government rips Commonwealth jobs out of the Northern Territory, that doesn't help either. Start investing in the Northern Territory and in our jobs, and that will make Australia a stronger place. 12:48 Ms STANLEY 265990 Werriwa I rise to make my contribution on Appropriation Bill (No. 3). I'm very proud to be from south-western Sydney, which has long been an area of excellence for education. Our students consistently achieve remarkable results, and tertiary institutions, recognising the need to harness these great young minds, are setting up in our part of the world. The future is in their hands. On 30 October last year I had the pleasure of visiting St Francis Xavier's Catholic Primary School in Lurnea for the CSIRO's STEM in Schools event. I was pleased to meet Ms Rearne Goodwin, whose class undertook a number of activities which developed the students' ideas to help fight climate change. Seeing such bright and aware young men and women working together to address one of the biggest challenges of our time was very rewarding. STEM is such an important program to harness the bright young minds that I saw at St Francis Xavier. It is crucial for a number of reasons: it secures Australia's scientific and research future, and the jobs provided by these vital industries; it helps to solve local and global challenges such as climate change; and it continues Australia's proud history of being first in science and research. It secures Australia's scientific and research future and the jobs provided by these vital industries. It helps to solve local and global challenges such as climate change and continues Australia's proud history of being up first in science and research. I'd like to thank the principal, Gayle Reardon, and Ms Goodwin and all of the students at St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School for welcoming me. Many of the high schools in Werriwa spend the first several weeks of the new school year getting to know the year 7 cohort. They do this by spending time getting to know them in a project based learning environment. It's a collaborative way of learning that allows the students to get to know each other and allows the teachers to test in a safe environment the strengths and challenges of the group. It allows them to put students in literacy and numeracy groups so that they are able to improve and to start the joys of high school. It helps with planning and makes sure students are best placed to commence their next six years of school. Recently, I visited Lurnea High School, the school I attended, to spend Valentine's Day with the year 7 students. Lurnea High School has implemented this innovative program over the past six years to introduce the new year 7 cohort to high school. Students spend the first four weeks undertaking cooperative research, making and thinking about projects that will benefit their community or school. This year's projects were based on unattractive or unused parts of the school. They made plans to beautify the areas so they are versatile and useful space that encourage learning and recharging. Previous years have seen year 7 students design parks in the local area into green spaces that they as teenagers would use. A couple of years ago this work inspired flying foxes to be installed in one of our regional parks after several of these groups suggested it would be a very good idea. I especially enjoyed chatting to this year's students about their designs and models. The designs were costed and the presentation included a sales pitch to encourage investment by local businesses. Some of the sales pitches were really worthy of the best ad agencies, and even included the school motto. I'm not sure how the recharging stations for mobile devices in every design will work, given the limited number of power sockets versus the number of students with smart phones. However, I congratulate the students for their wonderful and enthusiastic work, and Ms Cahill for leading this project. I would also like to welcome Ms Kylie Landrigan to the school as Lurnea's new principal. I very much look forward to working with her. The awareness of issues and developing of innovative solutions is nothing new to the region. Miller Technology High School has a similar induction program for its year 7 students. They were looking at ways to tackle homelessness and its causes and find solutions. I was pleased to be able to speak to them, and I took many and varied thought-provoking questions. One of the students suggested that the money that had been spent on New Year's fireworks could be better spent on providing housing for the less fortunate. It was something that I couldn't agree with more. The students at Miller Technology High School are only too aware of the inaction of the New South Wales government and the federal government on developing good policy to combat homelessness in our country. Between the 2011 and 2016 censuses the total number of homeless people in New South Wales increased by 27 per cent. A closer look at these numbers reveals our national shame in even more significant numbers. The census numbers reveal that between 2011 and 2016 the total number of people sleeping rough increased by 35 per cent and the total number living in severely crowded dwellings increased by 74 per cent. The number of people living in supported accommodation or boarding houses increased by 19 per cent. Over 2,000 of all homeless people in New South Wales are First Australians. I know that in electorates like mine there are lengthy waiting lists of up to 20 years for community housing. I've seen constituents who, though they are considered a priority with disabilities or other issues, have been on the list for over three years with no offers in sight. These are our most critically vulnerable people. Homelessness is not caused just by loss of employment. In the 2016 census, 17 per cent of the homeless population in New South Wales were employed full-time and over 16 per cent were employed part-time. Full-time workers who are homeless increased by 45 per cent in that five-year period. Part-time workers increased by 84 per cent. The fact that full-time and part-time workers are homeless shows just how much pressure real Australians are facing now. Many factors increase both the number of homeless and their vulnerability. Councils, like at Liverpool City Council, have taken up the slack and have recently presented a draft Homelessness Strategy and Action Plan. In fact, people in the Liverpool area are facing some of the highest rates of drivers for homelessness anywhere in this state. This means that parts of Werriwa maybe facing some of the most extreme increases in homelessness into the future. We must develop policies in all areas of government to address both the homelessness crisis and the drivers that cause it. The students at Miller High School know that providing housing that is affordable, safe and appropriate makes a profound difference in people's lives and it's just the right thing to do in a civilised country like ours. I'm pleased that the students across Werriwa are aware of these issues and aware of the lack of action from state and federal governments on the matter. We need to support our students and schools so their future can be in their hands. It's on that note that I notice the local schools grant program is vastly inadequate for its purpose. In the last round of the grants program, schools in Werriwa requested $503,000 worth of funding for very worthy projects. Twelve schools in Werriwa were awarded a total of $200,000, but 11 further projects could not be given any funding—this is despite being assessed and classified as suitable. This shows that more should be done to ensure our schools have the support they need to provide our kids with the education they deserve. To add to the costs that government is forcing others to pay, I turn to people with type 1 diabetes. The National Diabetes Services Scheme has historically supported those who have type 1 diabetes—a lifelong illness that a person who suffers for has done nothing to encourage. It's a disease that strikes randomly and without warning. It means that people with diabetes need to prick their finger up to 15 times a day just to work out what they need to do in terms of food, insulin and activity, and all to keep them healthy. The advent of continuous glucose monitoring and flash glucose monitoring means that every five minutes a person with diabetes automatically gets their results and then gives them the opportunity to choose what they need to do next. This incredible advancement has drastically improved control for all people with diabetes, reducing the pain and inconvenience of the dated pinprick method. In November 2018, the government announced flash glucose monitoring would join the NDIS continuous glucose monitoring scheme as of 1 March 2019. However, it wasn't until February 2020, after significant pressure, that the monitors were listed. They are, however, only accessible for people under 21 years old, females planning pregnancy or those who have concessional healthcare cards. Once you turn 21, have a child or once you start working again, subsidised access is lost. Let me remind the government, diabetes is a lifelong condition and complications can strike at any age. The costs for anyone outside these extremely limited criterion are prohibitive. My constituent Renee Marshall came and saw me in January. Renee is an Australian netball umpire and represents her country officiating at major netball events. She's a young, vibrant woman who is active, and she also has type 1 diabetes. Like all people with diabetes, no matter their age, she wants to take the best care of herself to give herself the best life she can and avoid complications that will cost thousands of extra dollars a year to our health budget. I feel for Renee and all those people with type 1 diabetes around Australia. They do not have fair and equitable access to the technology. As Renee wrote to me: I've never really been one to ask for a pity party, but I've been through enough and have seen many friends suffer from complications such as early onset glaucoma to let this one slip. I feel as though I'm being punished for not having decent enough control of my diabetes to not warrant an Ambulance call-out. Please when someone asks how we can improve our system, talk about type 1 and how complications can be prevented. Minister, this is someone who, like all members on this side, is pleading for you to help. There is social and budgetary value in ensuring people like Renée, and all people with type 1 diabetes, can access this technology—like others can in different countries around the world. I call on the government to make the NDSS fair and equitable and to allow people with type 1 diabetes to access this technology. Thankfully, there are groups in Werriwa that have long supported the community and the important services that primary healthcare providers give to the region. I want to acknowledge the Friends of India Australia for their recent donation of $6,000 to Liverpool Hospital's mental health unit. This donation enabled the purchase of cardiorespiratory bikes for the assessment of patients in the unit. For a long period of time, Liverpool Hospital's mental health unit has been the primary care provider for people in south-west Sydney who have acute mental health needs. As our awareness and acceptance of mental health needs increase, so does our understanding of the influences of our mental wellbeing. We are starting to see very strong links between mental and physical health and fitness. In the face of this, people who suffer severe mental health issues tend to develop metabolic and cardiovascular disease. The donation from the Friends of India Australia and the subsequent purchase by Liverpool Hospital is an important step for the people of south-west Sydney. Again, I thank the Friends of India for their generosity and continuing love and care for our community. They were out again on the weekend for Clean Up Australia. Our diverse community does much for us, and it is wonderful. The DEPUTY SPEAKER M3E I thank the member for Werriwa. Before I call the Leader of the Opposition, I ask members to please read standing order 62 with respect to when your colleagues are on their feet. I call the Leader of the Opposition. 13:01 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler Over summer Australians stepped up on the bushfire crisis—well, most Australians. This Prime Minister, of course, we know, didn't step up. He was behind in each and every way. Eventually he conceded that there was a need for a national response to the bushfire crisis, but last night we found out, yet again, that so much of it was about spin and marketing rather than substance. We found out last night that there isn't actually a National Bushfire Recovery Agency. It isn't actually an agency, remarkably. All it is is Mr Colvin—a fine Australian—doing his best, but just as a member of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Even more extraordinary is what else we found out in Senate estimates, after a question from Senator Watt: Can you point me to where this national bushfire recovery fund is in the Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements? I've had a look and I can't find it. Ms Bradshaw responded: The $2 billion fund is a notional fund … So, Senator Wong asked: Could I ask this way: can you just confirm that there is no additional appropriation in the additional estimates statement for this portfolio for the $2 billion? Mr Colvin replied: Correct. Now, 'notional' is defined in the dictionary as 'existing only as an idea, not as something real.' It's little wonder that just $200 million has actually gone out the door—throughout all of the programs that have been allocated—$200 million, when the Prime Minister made it very clear when he declared that the money would be available straightaway. We know that businesses in places like the South Coast are saying they just haven't seen a dollar come through. The fact is that across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland, a total of five farmers and small businesses have so far received emergency bushfire loans worth just $400,000. Compare the hands-off approach on bushfires with another program: the sports rorts saga. In Senate estimates there have been more smoking guns in this sports rort saga over the last 24 hours than at one of Senator McKenzie's gun clubs! They've all been out there for all to see. And this Prime Minister, who said on election night that it was a miracle, has been exposed not as a Messiah but just as a naughty boy! He's not keen to talk about it—and at the press conference he just gave, he slinked out as soon as a single question was asked. I'm waiting for him to brush it all off as an on-rorter matter—because this Prime Minister has been caught misleading this parliament, misleading the Australian people, and using taxpayers' funds as if they were the funds of the Liberal and National parties. Let's have a look at what we now know. On 3 April, Sport Australia gave their list to Senator McKenzie. On something that's dated 4 April—note: dated 4 April—allegedly, during that period, over 70 per cent of the projects were turned over in a different list. So 70 per cent in 24 hours. Who said they can't be efficient? Can't get money out the door for people whose homes have burnt down or for communities who have been decimated, but in 24 hours, we would have it believed, that decision was made. So the 5th of April came and went and so did the 6th, the 7th, the 8th and the 9th. We got to the 10th and Senator McKenzie sent a list to the Prime Minister's office. The Audit Office says that this was what she intended to fund—'intended to fund'. We now know that those words stack up. So the Prime Minister gets this list on 10 April and the election's called at 8:30 am on 11 April—or 8.29 am to be precise—and the writs are issued and we're off to an election. But at 8:46 am—after we are in caretaker mode—Senator McKenzie sends the list to the Prime Minister's office. So between the email to the PMO the previous day and the email to Sport Australia—it wasn't quite the same list—there'd been a change made. It wasn't quite the same list. The National Audit Office gave evidence on oath before the Senate yesterday that that change, with a project out and a project in, was made at the request of the Prime Minister's office—direct evidence that the Prime Minister was involved in these decisions. But it didn't end there. Remember, we're hours into caretaker mode, and there are provisions under the Westminster system which make very clear that, once you're in caretaker, the government can't allocate funding without consultation with the opposition. Partisan politics end when an election's on because—a bit like sports should be, and a bit like these grants should be—there's meant to be a level playing field. But at 12.35 pm on that day, Senator McKenzie's office sent a different list of projects to the Prime Minister's office—one project out and another nine projects in. I wonder what the basis of it was? We know that there were multiple lists and that there was colour coding that occurred with all of these lists flowing to and from—a pantone chart of corruption, coded green and red and orange—to show where the marginal seats were on all of these colour-coded spreadsheets. Why would Senator McKenzie send it across to the Prime Minister's office? Allegedly, according to this Prime Minister—who has said this in the parliament not once, or twice or three times or four times or even five times but over and over again—all the decisions were made on 4 April; no changes made; nothing to do with him. At 12.35 the list goes to the Prime Minister's office. Minutes later, after it's ticked off—eight minutes later—the final list—another one—goes across to Sport Australia, sending across another final revised list of approved projects. It's just extraordinary! The Prime Minister has misled parliament on at least seven occasions, including five times on a single day. But this isn't some accident. This is a debate that has been going on for a long time. This is a deliberate mislead of this parliament and the Australian people. What we're finding with the sports rorts saga is that every day more and more information comes out which completely contrasts with the Prime Minister's message. The problem isn't just the abuse of the electoral system and the abuse of taxpayers' funds. The Prime Minister obviously misheard the Beastie Boys song as 'you gotta to fight for your right to rort for your party.' What we see from the Prime Minister with this funding is on the one hand volunteer organisations—the local bowling club, the local cricket club—that rely upon Australians selling their raffle tickets, selling their sausage rolls on a Saturday, giving up their time, giving up hundreds of hours to put in applications—but of course we know that the fix was in. They had a go and they got done over. That's what's happened here. In contrast, the Sans Souci Football Club in the Prime Minister's electorate received funding for a project that not only was completed but had already been opened, for which they gave thanks to the local soccer organisation and the district and the local council. No problem—out goes to money. There is the North Sydney pool. The only way it could be closer to the centre of Sydney, located where it is next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, would be if it were on the bridge! That is the only way it could be closer. But apparently country people swim in it! That's the justification for this, while good organisations have missed out on funding right throughout the country. There are girls and women who can't have access to change rooms because the funding was redirected. We have urban congestion which apparently only occurs in Liberal and National Party seats and marginal seats. There's no reason why people who drive through electorates that happen to be represented by the Labor Party should get a fair share of funding, because apparently you can solve congestion based on electoral maps. This government, which can't get money out the door for bushfire recovery, has hundreds of millions of dollars, and in some case billions of dollars, flowing out the door based upon the electoral map. And this Prime Minister has tried to cover it up each and every day. He's deliberately misled the parliament on multiple occasions. He has said that it all occurred on 4 April. He has said that he had no part in the decision making. But the National Audit Office have given direct evidence before the Senate about what has really gone on here. Remember those giant novelty cheques, with people like Georgina Downer—not elected to anything? That's your illustrated guide to rorting taxpayers' funds. That's what they represent, there for all to see. But as far as they're concerned it's okay. The Prime Minister, in this parliament, when he went off script just briefly in the very short answers he's giving, spoke about the member for Lindsay. The only problem was that she wasn't in the parliament at the time—whoopsadaisy! But that's consistent with the absolute rorting that has gone on here. This inquiry has been extended to June. The government is still blocking the release of documentation, the 136 emails between the Prime Minister's office and Bridget McKenzie's office. The government is still blocking the information with all of the applications that were put forward in good faith by hardworking Australians representing their local communities. The fact is that the government are so arrogant they think they can get away with anything. And rather than put all the information out there and say, 'Whoops!' they threw Bridget McKenzie under the bus. Bridget McKenzie's appearance before this committee is going to be pretty interesting, as will Mr Gaetjens's, the Prime Minister's former chief of staff, who was put on to give this independent inquiry, into what was an independent inquiry, but wasn't given any of the colour-coded spreadsheets. He wasn't given any of the information and didn't interview anyone in the Prime Minister's office. This absolutely stinks. We will pursue it, because taxpayers demand transparency and demand a government that represents the nation, not just its own interests. (Time expired) 13:16 Mr PERRETT HVP Moreton I really appreciate my colleagues turning out for my Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020 speech! I appreciate the support that they're all showing. In 2017, Anglican archbishops from around the world said in a letter to global leaders that climate change is the challenge of our generation. Former US president Obama said: … no challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations than a change in climate. The great David Attenborough said in January this year: The moment of crisis has come. We can no longer prevaricate. The IPCC report, also in January this year, said: Climate change creates additional stresses on land, exacerbating existing risks to livelihoods, biodiversity, human and ecosystem health, infrastructure, and food systems Experts and eminent leaders around the world are calling on governments to do something. Here in Australia, Australians have felt all of the effects of climate change over the long black summer we just experienced. Last year was our hottest on record according to the Bureau of Meteorology. It was also Australia's driest year on record. We've seen catastrophic bushfires rage across the country taking lives, destroying homes and attacking businesses. Cities were choking on a thick layer of smoke, causing breathing difficulty, especially to those who are sick, are elderly or have asthma. We were warned about this over a decade ago. Ross Garnaut's 2008 climate change review warned governments of the risks, of more intense and more frequent bushfires. The Australian Academy of Science warned of the impact climate change would have on the sick, the elderly, the very young and the poor. There is something the Morrison government could do now if it had the political will to do it. The Business Council of Australia, not exactly a left-wing cabal, has come out in support of the Paris Agreement and transitioning to net zero emissions by 2050. Rio Tinto, Australia's second-biggest miner, has announced its commitment to action on climate change, with a net zero emissions target by 2050. Every Australian state and every Australian territory has committed to net zero emissions by 2050, yet standing alone on the burning deck the Morrison government is opposing progress towards the decarbonisation of the Australian economy. The Prime Minister is completely out of step with Australian businesses, Australian governments and the Australian community. His reckless and extreme position is the consequence of the stranglehold the hard Right of the coalition have on climate change policy in the coalition. Last week government data showed that there was no reduction in emissions in the quarter to September 2019 and annual emissions reduced only by a pitiful 0.3 per cent in the year to date. That is not a canter; that sounds more like someone flogging a dead horse. There has been a collapse in renewables investment under the Morrison government. Just last night in Senate estimates the Clean Energy Regulator backed industry, business and investors that a lack of climate and energy policy is hampering renewables investment, which would lead to lower power prices for Australians. So, rather than leading Australia to stronger economic growth, higher real wages and lower energy bills by achieving net zero emissions by 2050, the Prime Minister is only concerned about keeping peace in his divided party room and keeping his job—keeping his backside in No. 1, to quote the former Prime Minister. The coalition government have been in office for seven years. The current dismal economic prospects for working Australians are completely the result of this coalition government's economic mismanagement. Their fingerprints are all over this economy today. New data revealed that weak wages growth has stalled further. The ABS wage price index confirmed that wages growth remains stagnant at 2.2 per cent, falling short of budget forecasts yet again, which were downgraded only two months ago. The Treasurer has claimed that wages growth is a core focus for this government. Guess what? It's a joke. A core focus? It has been a complete failure. We have seen youth unemployment increase to 12.1 per cent. There are now over 271,000 young Australians without a job. The recent labour force figures revealed a record high number of underemployed Australians. There are 1.2 million Australians—think of that—looking for more work but unable to find it. Since Prime Minister Morrison took office there are nearly 90,000 more underemployed people. New data last week showed that capital expenditure has collapsed again. It absolutely destroys Treasurer Frydenberg's claim that the economy was performing strongly before the coronavirus outbreak hit and the bushfires hit. Private new capital expenditure plunged by 2.8 per cent in the December quarter—well below market expectations. Capital expenditure is more than 30 per cent lower than when the Liberals first came to office and business investment is around its lowest level since the 1990s recession. When the economy was already struggling from weak consumption, stagnant wages, declining productivity and record high household and government debt, we had news that construction work pretty much collapsed in the December quarter. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer had no plan for the floundering economy last year and it looks like they don't have a plan for 2020. Because of the Morrison government's inaction, Australia meets the serious challenges and uncertainties of the fire season and the coronavirus outbreak from a position of weakness, not from a position of strength. Ignore the slick advertising coming from those opposite. Look at the economic data that the reliable government departments put out. There's no doubt that the coronavirus is damaging confidence in the economy, in our communities and all around the world. Stock markets are very jumpy. We've seen serious assaults on the stock markets. But there are also longstanding problems in the economy that predate these challenges. The government seems to have set itself one test and one test only—to get to a surplus. They have to justify those black cups that they're flogging off to punters. It's a test that the government set for themselves. Whether they fail that test remains to be seen. They promised a surplus in their first year. I remember former Treasurer Joe Hockey saying that they'd have a surplus in their first year. They're now in their seventh year. They've promised it every year after. At the moment they're batting none for seven. Labor, along with the Reserve Bank and the business community, have been calling on the coalition government for some time now to bring forward a plan to address our longstanding domestic economic challenges and to get business investing again. It's time that the Morrison government stopped navel-gazing and stopped putting out glossy ads that actually misrepresent the facts. It's time they focused on coming up with a comprehensive plan to restore the economic and wages growth that have deteriorated on their watch. From the calls coming in from my electorate of Moreton I know the frustration that people feel about the rollout of the NDIS. After six years of mismanagement of what should have been a world-class scheme, people with disability have been left out in the cold. A departmental review of the scheme has found that the scheme is plagued by delays and it is frustrating for those who engage with it to actually understand. This finding is echoed by the experience of some of my constituents. The review recommends to trial the NDIA agency delegates performing all planning functions in-house—though the review notes that 'this may have a requisite impact on the Liberal-imposed staffing cap'—to fund navigator roles to help people find their way through the system and to create a participant service guarantee to ensure basic standards are met, legislated time frames for decision making and for the publication of NDIS reports, greater involvement in the carer workforce, a national outreach strategy that would facilitate rollout to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and also their culturally and linguistically diverse communities, the reinforcing of NDIS objects and principles, and a return to the original version of the 2011 Productivity Commission report. Labor welcomes all of these recommendations. It's important for those who need NDIS funding to have access to the scheme. It is also important that those who are fraudulently claiming funds from the NDIS are flagged, caught and punished so that the money for people with disability is going to the actual people with disabilities or the people caring for them and not to these fraudsters that have swooped on this honey pot. It was recently reported that a whistleblower revealed thousands of dollars are being stolen from vulnerable clients every day but these frauds are rarely being investigated. It is not good enough that there is a general acceptance of fraud in the NDIS scheme or an acceptance that $2 billion is lost through fraud and that the rarely recouped stolen money just gets replaced with other taxpayers' money. The minister has a padlock on the front gate of the NDIS for the genuinely needy and then he's got a welcome mat out the back for the crooks and the fraudsters. This is the great disability robbery, and the Morrison government is waving the white flag and slugging the taxpayer in the hope of covering it up. Why is the Prime Minister so hard on people with disability but, it turns out, so soft on criminals? Maybe, having removed $4.6 billion from the NDIS, the government identifies with these people who are ripping off the system. People with disability and Australian taxpayers deserve transparency when it comes to NDIS funding. There needs to be a regular reporting to parliament of the NDIA's progress, particularly in tracing down the fraudsters and the criminals. The NDIS scheme is too important to be treated like an ATM for fraudsters and criminals. It's too important to be continually mismanaged by this coalition government. The Coopers Plains level crossing in my electorate of Moreton has been putting lives at risk for too long—some say for over 50 years. The RACQ rate this crossing as its No. 1 crossing to fix in Queensland. I was pleased to hear that the Labor candidate for the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Pat Condren, announced last week that a Labor city hall would contribute one-third of the construction cost of the Coopers Plains rail crossing grade separation. Not only will Pat Condren fix the Coopers Plains level crossing; he's also committed to fixing another dangerous crossing in my electorate on Warrigal Road. The Warrigal Road Runcorn level crossing is also on RACQ's list of the five most dangerous level crossings in Queensland. The local Labor councillor, Steve Griffiths; and the Labor candidates John Prescott and Trent McTiernan have been working hard to get these improvements to improve local infrastructure, and I congratulate John, Trent and Steve on their hard work. Pat Condren's announcement is in stark contrast to the LNP mayor, who will not even commit to paying the council's fair share to fix the Coopers Plains level crossing. The LNP council has been playing favourites with infrastructure expenditure for years now, paying 50 per cent of the cost of north side works but only committing to 15 per cent when it comes to the south side. In fact, the only infrastructure grade separations on the south side have been funded by the federal government—for example, the Kessels and Mains Road intersection at Macgregor and the Elizabeth Street rail overpass at Acacia Ridge. These dangerous level crossings—two of them in the top 5—need to be fixed, and we can't waste any more time arguing over who should pay. A road overpass instead of a level crossing with boom gates—boom gates go up and down 138 times a day, which causes delays, frustrations and danger. These are dangerous crossings for commuters. At the Coopers Plains crossing alone there have been 28 cases of cars hitting the boom gates in the last seven years. A road overpass will significantly reduce the risk of horrible accidents occurring. A Labor-led federal government committed to fixing the Coopers Plains rail crossing; it was an election promise last year. I'm calling on Pat Condren to say well done for committing to fixing it now. The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may resume at a later hour. STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS 14 STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS Treasurer 14 13:30 Mr KHALIL 101351 Wills Australians of Hindu faith deserve our respect, not our mockery. The Liberal-National government and the Treasurer think it's funny to mock one of the great faiths of this world. I ask: would the Treasurer have mocked the robes of a rabbi of his very own Jewish faith or the appearance of an imam or a priest? No, he would not, so why is it that he does so with the Hindu faith? I think it's important that we all reflect on this and that the Treasurer apologises unreservedly to people of Hindu faith. He has spoken in the past about the context of insidious stereotyping of people of faith, particularly in the context of anti-Semitism. Why the hypocrisy and double standard when it comes to Hindu Australians? When it comes to Hindu Australians and their faith, he should apologise. It'd be good if he takes heed of some of the wisdom that we see in the Bhagavad-gita, the great Hindu scripture, where Krishna says that it is important for us to slay ignorance with the sword of wisdom. That's something that this government should reflect on. It's not acceptable for him to make comments like that about any faith or to mock any faith. It's about respect in this place. As political leaders we need to lead by example in respecting people of all faiths and backgrounds, and it starts in this House. Moncrieff Electorate: Schools 14 13:31 Ms BELL 282981 Moncrieff Can I say I disagree with the member for Moreton and commend the work of the Brisbane City Council in the great city of Brisbane. I rise to speak about a 'cool commitment' the Liberal-National government has made to schools in my electorate. Gold Coast summers are hot, and that means classrooms can overheat, making the learning environment very uncomfortable for students and teachers. High temperatures and humidity obstructs learning, reduces student concentration and negatively impacts student behaviour. For example, since Worongary State School installed air conditioning in the year 2 student classrooms, there was a 30 per cent decrease in behaviour incidents, a 15 per cent increase in grades in maths and a 10 per cent increase in grades in English. I'm pleased that Worongary State School, Aquinas College Ashmore, Southport Flexible Learning Centre and Benowa State High School can now install the much-needed air conditioning in more classrooms through the Local Schools Community Fund. A comfortable classroom environment is essential for learning. Clearly the heat has affected the Queensland Labor government, as we saw them just last week backflip on their election policy. The Queensland LNP made the commitment nearly two years ago to put air conditioners in all classrooms. Since then, state Labor has refused to do the same. They said that we didn't need it because we have sea breezes on the Gold Coast. Eight months out from the election, they pull a rabbit from a hat and announced their supposed election promise to air condition all Queensland state schools. For these schools, air conditioning installed before the end of the year will make a massive difference for students and teachers. These are just some of the projects that have been successful in my electorate, and I look forward to visiting those schools in the coming weeks. (Time expired) Fabian, Mr Erwin 15 13:33 Mr GOSLING 245392 Solomon On 19 January this year, we lost an icon, an elder statesman of the Australian arts, veteran and Jewish communities, Erwin Fabian, who passed away at 104 years of age. What an innings! Erwin was born in Berlin in 1915, the son of distinguished Impressionist painter Max Fabian. By the time he was 10, he had lost his father. By the time he was 22, he had lost his homeland. By the time he was 25, he had lost his freedom. But Erwin made it to England, where he was deported on the well-known ship the Dunera. The Dunera brought to Australia many German and Austrian Jewish who were fleeing the Nazis. Despite some poor treatment on the Dunera, many members of that voyage went on to make amazing, massive cultural, academic and economic contributions to Australia. An example of this is the father of the current Australian Statistician, David Gruen. David's father was the respected economist Fred Gruen. He came over on the Dunera as well. When Erwin Fabian arrived in Australia, he was interned in a camp in Hay, New South Wales. He was later released and allowed to join the Australian Army, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. At 104, he was Australia's—if not the world's—oldest practising veteran artist. Vale Erwin Fabian. (Time expired) Coronavirus: Chinese Restaurants 15 13:34 Mr BROADBENT MT4 Monash I don't know how you're approaching the coronavirus yourselves, but I know that what I've done is to make sure that each Friday, when this parliament's not sitting, I've gone to a Chinese restaurant. I've sat in the window to make sure everyone can see we're there. I go to one in the city and one in Warragul. Peter and Pienna Duan run Jade Chinese Cuisine restaurant in Warragul. I'll be joining them again on Friday. They don't know it yet, but I'll be joining them again on Friday to make the point to the people of Warragul and surrounds and Gippsland that it's great to go out to a Chinese restaurant. Get out there! There is not one single reason why you shouldn't be enjoying the quality and the hospitality of the Chinese community, especially in Melbourne and across Victoria—not one reason. Peter and Pienna provide beautiful food at their Jade Chinese Cuisine restaurant. It's one of the many Chinese restaurants in my electorate and, of course, Melbourne has been struck particularly heavily by people not attending Chinese restaurants. It's just not on. Get out there. Enjoy yourselves. Go to the places you've been before. I went into Melbourne with a couple of mates to have our normal get-together meeting. The people who owned that restaurant were particularly grateful for our attendance there. To you Australians: don't step back. There's nothing to fear. Get out and get into your own local Chinese restaurant. International Women's Day, Central Coast Community and Business Women’s Network 15 13:36 Ms McBRIDE 248353 Dobell This Sunday 8 March is International Women's Day. The day has been marked by the UN since 1975, and its origins can be traced back to 1909. The theme this year is: '#EachforEqual. An equal world is an enabled world.' On Friday I'll be joining an International Women's Day breakfast held by the Central Coast Community and Business Women’s Network with Business and Professional Women Central Coast and the Central Coast Festival of Women. The Central Coast Community and Business Women’s Network was founded in 2018 by Sharyn Burgess. Membership opened just 14 months ago and it's climbed to 264. Sharyn was recognised for her outstanding efforts connecting business and community in this year's Central Coast Australia Day awards. CBWN believes connecting women leads to growth and resilience for the person, their business and our community. New members have described CBWN as a wonderful network of like-minded women and a fabulous opportunity to connect with like-minded-women in the local community. Congratulations to the Iris Foundation, Sharyn Burgess and all the local women who are joining forces through the Central Coast Community and Business Women’s Network to bring life to this year's International Women's Day theme: EachforEqual. I'm looking forward to hearing from guest speaker Lisa Burling, author, PR professional and entrepreneur, who has overcome her own challenges and is inspiring women across Australia. If you'd like to join other women on the Central Coast and become part of the one of the most exciting women's networks, contact CBWN's Sharyn Burgess on info@cbwn.org.au. (Time expired) Peak Downs Highway Walkerston Bypass 16 13:38 Mr CHRISTENSEN 230485 Dawson One of the first people to come and see me following my election in 2010 was a man named Graeme Ransley. He represented the Mackay Road Accident Action Group. He wanted to highlight the shocking road toll on the Peak Downs Highway and the need for a bypass around the small village of Walkerston, which sits in the electorate of Capricornia. I shared his concerns because, as a local government councillor, I actually represented that area. Graeme had some horrifying statistics. Over a five-year period, 41 people had died and 71 people had been hospitalised. More than 6,000 vehicles travel the highway into the mining and farming hinterland and 2½ million litres of fuel is transported through Walkerston every day, past two schools and a childcare centre. The Mackay Road Accident Action Group were concerned that state politicians were not listening. I was joined in the fight by the member for Capricornia. After years of pressure and lobbying for funding, $120 million from the Morrison-McCormack government was secured. Last week the Walkerston bypass was on Infrastructure Australia's priority list. Over the next six months, the Palaszczuk government will try to claim credit for this project—I have no doubt—but I want to acknowledge the small band of road safety warriors who really made that funding from the federal Morrison-McCormack government happen: Graeme Ransley, Noel Lang, Carol Single and so many other members of the Mackay Road Accident Action Group. I say to them: take a bow. Fraser Electorate: Multiculturalism 16 13:39 Dr MULINO 132880 Fraser I rise today to pay tribute to the Vietnamese community in the seat of Fraser. Australia has around 300,000 people from a Vietnamese background and roughly 10 per cent of that number live in Fraser. This is a very vibrant and extraordinary community, and that was on display at the many Lunar New Year festivals that were held over the last few weeks in my electorate. It is also a very giving and selfless community. No other group in my community has raised more funds for the Joan Kirner Women's and Children's Hospital than the Vietnamese community—hundreds of thousands of dollars over many years. This is from a group of people often who don't have that much money themselves. I also want to pay tribute to the Indochinese Elderly Refugees Association, which held a remarkable lunch not long ago that I had the privilege of attending. This is an organisation that supports dozens of elderly refugees in my electorate. At the lunch that I attended, many men and women who have been in this country for many decades received certificates celebrating 80th and 90th birthdays, and one woman received a certificate for a 100th birthday. In fact, one woman received a certificate for a 110th birthday. I celebrated my 50th birthday recently. So, fortunately, I was at an event which made me realise that there are some years to go. It also gave me pause to reflect on the remarkable contribution these refugees have made over decades in this country and how we should be paying more respect to refugees more generally, given what a great example this community is. (Time expired) Stirling Electorate: Jambo Africa Festival 16 13:41 Mr CONNELLY 282984 Stirling On Saturday, I had the great pleasure of participating in the Jambo Africa Festival in the heart of my electorate of Stirling. This festival is the largest African festival in Australia. On display was an amazing array of food, dancing, vibrant music and, of course, authentic African food. Jambo Africa promotes cross-cultural awareness and understanding of African culture here in Australia. I congratulate executive vice-president Joe Tuazama, Dr Casty, Elizabeth, Cedric and the rest of the executive team for your success in coordinating over 40 African communities and bringing African culture to life for well over 10,000 people. It was fitting that all three tiers of government were present, with the City of Stirling again being a key sponsor. I have a personal connection with Africa, having travelled to Senegal and to Guinea, including the remote areas of Kambia and Forecariah with my previous work in mining and oil and gas. I understand the growing presence of mining and oil and gas and the value that that brings to the relationship between Africa and Australia. The Australian government is also committed to working with all 54 African nations and the African Union and promoting the global rules based order. Although two-way trade is an impressive $11.4 billion, it's really the people-to-people cross-cultural exchange, like that on display at Jambo Africa, which most enriches our nation and its peoples. Tasmania: Bulk-Billing 17 13:42 Mr WILKIE C2T Clark According to the Tasmanian Council of Social Service 'the median age of death in Tasmania's most disadvantaged neighbourhood is 66, compared to 84 in the state's most advantaged neighbourhood'. This TASCOSS finding is a dreadful example of social injustice. It's also hard evidence of the consequences for disadvantaged Tasmanians of not being able to afford to see their GP—and, no wonder, because bulk-billing rates continue to fall due to years of inadequate Medicare indexation. This leaves around half of all Tasmanian patients having to pay out-of-pocket expenses of up to $43 per consult. Of course the federal government claims bulk-billing rates are high and going up. But this is downright dishonest, because the government counts the number of services bulk-billed, and not the number of patients. In other words the government's figures are a lie. I see the harsh reality of all this in the Clark electorate, where the bulk-billing rate is one of the worst in the country, and where many people avoid their GP because bills like rent, food and power are more pressing. But of course if you skip the GP, conditions can become deadlier and dearer to remedy, a crisis we see in our stretched emergency departments, full hospital wards and premature death statistics. Frankly, the harm caused by the government's chronic underinvestment in GPs in this country is shameful. The government must fix it, and fix it urgently. Environmental Conservation, National Plastics Summit 17 13:44 Mr CONAGHAN 279991 Cowper This week our government's efforts to better recycle plastic have been on show. Hundreds of people attended the Plastics Summit yesterday, bringing together experts to discuss how to reduce and better recycle plastics. One of the attendees at the summit was a constituent of mine and a start-up company's inspiring founder Louise Hardman. Louise is one of those brave people who paused her career as a zoologist to find a solution after a sea turtle in her care died because it had swallowed plastics. Since that day Louise has been working on a practical machine to reduce the amount of plastics entering the ocean. She has worked with engineers to build 'the Shruder' mark 2 prototype, and it has been tested in remote communities domestically and internationally. The machine turns waste plastics into recycled flakes which can be onsold for use in products like sunglasses or instantly remoulded into other usable products. The Morrison-McCormack government have recognised the potential of this invention, and we are investing almost $2.5 million from the cooperative research centre projects into it. The Plastic Collective project is good for the environment, good for the Coffs economy, and it will help achieve one of the summit's aims—getting people to think about recovering resources, not just managing waste. (Time expired) Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 17 13:45 Mr HUSIC 91219 Chifley Far bit for me to give advice to my political opponents, but I think they need to start any speech in this place with the following rhetorical flourish: 'Friends, rorters, countrymen: lend me taxpayers dollars.' That's the only way any coalition MP talking about grants given under sports rorts, road rorts, regional job rorts or pool rorts should be speaking in this place. Realise this: this sports rorts affair will not and cannot go away until those who use taxpayer dollars as a campaign tool are held to account. That includes the Prime Minister, who stood in this place and elsewhere claiming innocence, when it's clear that 136 emails between his office and the former sports minister's office show he was up to his neck in this. There was a plethora of colour coded spreadsheets. This is ScoMo and his technicolour coat of rorts—less Prime Minister, more 'Prime Rorter'—who threw Bridget McKenzie under the bus but won't be held to account himself. It's time to fess up, to be held to account on behalf of all those mums and dads who put in hours and hours of time applying for a grants program where they were never in with a chance to get that money because they were ripped off by the coalition who were using it as a campaign tool to win the last election. It's wrong! (Time expired) Nicholls Electorate: Water 17 13:47 Mr DRUM 56430 Nicholls Recently I had the opportunity to meet a couple of young farmers from around the Yarrawonga region. Obviously the main topic of conversation was that of water policy and the cost of water on the temporary market. Normally when I go to meet the farmers to discuss the cost of water it's because the prohibitively high cost of water is stopping farmers from farming, as the profits simply aren't in dairy, horticulture, rice or cropping to be paying $600 a megalitre to buy the water in to your farm in the first place. My experience two weeks ago, though, was totally different. Here I was talking to young farmers with permanent water, highly efficient farms and zero losses, so they should have been able to go about their farming without a care in the world. The problem is that they get out of bed every day, work their farms, use their tractors, use their equipment and their machinery, start their pumps, look after the stock, and engage in all the local trades that are needed to run a farm—mechanics, electricians, agronomists, transport operators, grain merchants, plumbers to help with the pumps. They can do all that, have a good year and maybe make $150,000 in profits, or they can sit on their backsides, sell their water on the temporary market and maybe make $500 or $600 a megalitre—$400,000 for doing nothing—and disengage totally from the rest of the community. When we have a situation where it's more profitable to your sell your water, sit on your bum and do nothing than it is to grow feed for livestock then we have a serious problem in the market, and it's one that needs to be addressed. (Time expired) Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 18 13:48 Ms OWENS E09 Parramatta Parramatta needs a pool. It had one: a great pool. The state government ripped it out of the ground, and it's desperately in need of one. It's one of the fastest growing regions in Australia that suffers heat 15 to 20 degrees above that in suburbs near the harbour. We desperately need a pool. Yet, when the government gave away $100 million on pools just before the election, Parramatta didn't get one. Now, for a start, Parramatta didn't apply because the government didn't announce that the program was open, nor did it release any guidelines, so Parramatta didn't know that the funding was available. Secondly, even if it had known, it probably wouldn't have applied because the funding was for regional areas. But that didn't seem to have any bearing on who got the funding. It was who you knew and where you were that determined whether you got funding. North Sydney pool, on Sydney Harbour, got $10 million in a regional fund which hadn't even been announced or opened—$10 million! The Kogarah war memorial pool, in the northern part of the Prime Minister's safe electorate of Cook, received $5 million, even though the council hadn't asked for it. That didn't prevent the pool from closing a couple of months later because of leaks—$5 million for a pool for a council that didn't even ask for it. What a rort! Parramatta should have got a pool. It's outrageous. Bowman Electorate: Infrastructure 18 13:50 Mr LAMING E0H Bowman I'd like to make a personal appeal. With unemployment running at 5.3 per cent in my state of Queensland, where there's barely one crane on the Brisbane skyline, unemployment is nearly two points higher than in New South Wales and unemployment is nearly a full point higher than in Victoria, my plea is to the Labor Premier of the state of Queensland. Put my people back to work. Let my people work. Let my people build Victoria Point bypass instead of studying it. Let my people build the Redland Hospital car park instead of studying it. Let us expand Redlands hospital instead of studying it. Put recreational jobs back in Leslie Harrison Dam instead of gutting the dam. Let the tourism jobs on North Stradbroke Island flourish instead of shutting down my island by trebling vehicle permit fees. Don't sack the chaplain at Coolnwynpin State School, as Labor has. My plea to the Premier is: put my people back to work. I'm not talking about jobs as a program officer in the Queensland Public Service. We're covered with thousands of new Public Service jobs, because they'll vote Labor while they stand by the water bubbler and the pot plants in a high-rise building. I'm talking about real jobs, with steel cap boots and high-vis jackets, that build things that work for Queenslanders. We're talking about multiplier effects and opportunities for Queensland. It's not happening under a Labor Premier on the non-striker's end. (Time expired) Prime Minister 18 13:52 Mr BURNS 278522 Macnamara If only the member for Bowman knew that he was in the government, because this government stinks, and the fish rots from the head. This government is happy to write press releases but it's not happy to write policy or legislation. We cannot look at what the Prime Minister says; we have to look outside the Prime Minister's delusional bubble. The Prime Minister said that there would be a $2 billion bushfire recovery fund. Wrong; it's only a notional fund, an idea. The Prime Minister said that $100 million of taxpayer funds for the sports rorts scandal only went to eligible grant recipients. Wrong; the Australian National Audit Office said that almost half went to ineligible recipients. The Prime Minister said that he had no involvement but just passed on some of the details from candidates. Wrong; there were 136 emails between the Prime Minister's office and Bridget McKenzie's office. The Prime Minister said, at the despatch box, that it all happened on 4 April. That's when it happened, the Prime Minister said. Wrong; it happened on 11 April, after the election had already been called. The Prime Minister said that there would be a national integrity commission. Wrong; there's been no national integrity commission. The Prime Minister has no plan, he has no relationship with the truth and he has no accountability. Environment, Samkova, Ms Gabby 19 13:53 Mr TIM WILSON IMW Goldstein Goldstein is an industrious community of residents seeking to build an environmentally sustainable future for Australia. Gabby Samkova, a 25-year-old resident of Brighton East, has channelled her entrepreneurial spirit into a fantastic crowdfunding project. Under the banner of her company, SomerSide, she has created a towel made from recycled plastic bottles. The used bottles are washed, shredded and split into fibres, which are then mixed to create a soft, sand-resistant material. The result is a stylish and sustainable towel, each containing about 14 plastic bottles that would otherwise have gone to landfill. We should all admire Gabby's innovation and her resourcefulness. It's stories like Gabby's that highlight the role of enterprise and the capacity of the free market to reallocate resources, consistent with the needs and values of society, to help reduce waste and increase efficiency. Reducing waste is a vital part of the government's plan to develop a 21st-century economy. The Prime Minister yesterday outlined the next step in this journey at the National Plastics Summit. Our government will invest in new recycling infrastructure across Australia and implement the environmentally sustainable trigger for federal contracts, driving a green jobs boom while working to safeguard our environment. These are practical plans, just like Gabby's, to build Australia's sustainable future for everyone. Local Schools Community Fund, Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 19 13:54 Mr GORMAN 74519 Perth I love my local schools. My parents were both primary school teachers and, indeed, my dad was a school principal. I know that our schools spend every cent they get incredibly carefully. Ron Gorman told me that and David Gonski has told us all that. So I was pleased to support 19 schools with the Local Schools Community Fund. My heart particularly went out to the Cyril Jackson Senior Campus, who through their Keys4Life program help newly-arrived 17- and 18-year-old migrants to this country learn to drive. I'm very proud to support that. I'm very proud to support the Sir David Brand School with their sensory playground. While 19 schools were supported, 13 schools missed out because this government deliberately designed a school funding program that was underfunded for the need in my community. Schools missed out on air conditioners, computers and play equipment. This program is designed to hurt school communities, because they don't get the funding they need. The National Party should say that this program doesn't work, because it disproportionately hurts regional communities. The kids who play netball at the Noranda netball courts don't get a new netball court, because of this government's sports rorts. They said: 'No, you are not going to get any funding for that. We're going to give it to the Applecross Tennis Club instead.' This government needs to take Western Australia seriously, it needs to take our local schools seriously and it needs to apologise for its sports rorts. Lyne Electorate: Sporting Champions 19 13:56 Dr GILLESPIE 72184 Lyne I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate some of the local sporting champions from my electorate. Fourteen-year-old Whitney Stace of Bolwarra Heights has been selected for the New South Wales Cricket Academy development squad. He also helps mentor the junior sixes girls league. Whitney has received the best and fairest award at Maitland High School's annual awards presentation for the past two years. Whitney's goal is to play rep cricket for New South Wales. Sixteen-year-old Caleb Walz of Bolwarra has been recognised for his achievements in soccer and touch football. Caleb took to sport at an early age and has represented his clubs at champion of championships level and now has been asked to referee games. He hopes to play sport professionally one day as well as refereeing at a professional level. Fifteen-year-old Bayden Smith of Bonny Hills is a dedicated and committed hockey player. He trains up to five days a week as well as playing in championships, umpiring, coaching and mentoring players. He was the junior club person of the year in 2019. Great work, Bayden. Fourteen-year-old Zoe Bulmerof Telegraph Point has been playing futsal and football since she was five years old. She is hoping to have a career playing football. She won premiership, championship and state competitions in 2018 whilst playing in the Women's Premier League under-14s side. Well done, Zoe. With the Tokyo Olympics months away I want to ensure our local sporting champions are given every opportunity to follow their dreams. I look forward to following their future success. (Time expired) Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 20 13:58 Mr THISTLETHWAITE 182468 Kingsford Smith I pay tribute to the millions of passionate and hardworking volunteers of local sporting organisations who have been dudded by the Morrison government sports rorts. Countless projects that were deemed eligible and rated highly for funding by the independent Sport Australia were ignored by the former sports minister and replaced with projects that were ineligible, with low ratings. Why? Because they were in Liberal-held marginal electorates—rorts and pork barrelling at its best! The most outrageous being in the Prime Minister's own electorate where the Sans Souci soccer club received $50,000 for a project that had already been completed and had already been officially opened. My question to those opposite is: who was the genius that forgot that you opened a set of change sheds? After claiming that it was all the sports minister's fault, we now know that the Prime Minister's office were up to their necks in it. There were 136 emails between the Prime Minister's office and Senator McKenzie's, including on the day the election was called. The ANAO confirmed that the Prime Minister's office requested changes to projects that had received funding. This comes on top of North Sydney pool receiving $10 million of funding, despite this funding being earmarked for the regions. The Liberals say: 'That's okay. People from the bush can swim in it.' I'm sure the students of Broken Hill Public School are looking forward to next year's swimming carnival at North Sydney! This Prime Minister had misled the parliament and the Australian people. You should apologise, Prime Minister, to those people you dudded. (Time expired) Organ and Tissue Donation 20 13:59 Ms FLINT 245550 Boothby Today I want to say thank you to everyone who is a registered organ donor. Thank you to the families who have made the heartbreaking decision to donate the organs of their loved ones to save the lives of others. Thank you to the medical professionals who make this possible. Thank you to the individuals who have bravely shared their stories to encourage others to give the gift of life, like the member for Mallee, her daughter Bethany and granddaughter Emmy, and like local Boothby resident Lauren White. Lauren's very active seven-year-old son, Ollie, went from competing in the scooter state championships to acute liver failure within a month. They still don't know why. But they do know that Ollie lived, because an organ donor was found successfully. Lauren and her family are eternally grateful for their generosity. Thanks to the selflessness of another family and a team of wonderful medical professionals Ollie's life was saved. Lauren wants to make sure that everyone knows that you need to register and consent to become an organ donor through DonateLife, which you can do at donatelife.gov.au. You also need to let your family know that you've registered and consented. This is critical so that dedicated medical professionals like renal transplant specialist Professor Toby Coates can save lives. Professor Coates, with whom I met recently, is at the forefront of renal transplants in South Australia. We can all help raise awareness of organ donation. I would like to thank the members for Macarthur and Mallee for their efforts as co-chairs of parliamentary friends of organ donation and their event last week. The SPEAKER 00APG In accordance with standing order 43, the time for members' statements has concluded. QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE 20 QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 20 14:01 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that after Senator McKenzie wrote to him about sports rorts on 10 April, the day before the election was called, his office requested changes to the list determining which projects were funded and which projects missed out? 14:01 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook I will confirm, as I always have on this matter, that my office provided information based on the representations made to us, including information about other funding options or programs relevant to project proposals. Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG I just say to all members that I won't continuously keep warning members. I'm making that very clear. Ejection under 94(a) does not require a warning. For those that are regular customers, don't be surprised if you interject and you're ejected. I'm flagging that very early. If the noise continues, I will issue a general warning that gives me the option of naming. Coronavirus 21 14:02 Mrs McINTOSH 281513 Lindsay My question is to the Prime Minister: Will the Prime Minister outline to the House how the Morrison government's economic plans and stable management are ensuring that we can protect Australians and our economy from global challenges like the coronavirus outbreak? 14:03 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook I thank the member for Lindsay for her question. The government, since our election in 2013, has worked incredibly hard to put Australia in a more secure position, to ensure that we've addressed the structural balances that were needed in the budget to ensure that at a time like this, in a year like this, when we have dealt with bushfires and continue to do so, dealing with drought which has been ongoing for many years, and particularly now as we address the very serious issue of the coronavirus—a health crisis globally that has very significant impacts—we can stand before the Australian people with great confidence and say to them that while we are not immune, as this virus has now hit some 75 countries, we're as best prepared as any country can be. A key reason for that has been the careful financial stewardship of this nation's finances over the last six years. We have a health system that Australians can be confident in. We have borders that Australians can be confident in, and we've invested in the border management that enables us to respond to the issues we are currently facing swiftly. When it comes to the economy, we have done the same. On the issue of this virus, we have got ahead early. We are working together with states and territories and others to ensure we stay ahead, and that, in particular, means working closely with the Reserve Bank. Earlier this week, as I said yesterday, the Treasurer and I and the finance minister hooked up with the Governor of the Reserve Bank and the deputy governor to ensure that we are completely aligned as we understand the economic impacts of this health crisis and that we respond accordingly. The bank, of course, will make its response, and the government is preparing its response. Dr Chalmers interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The member for Rankin. Mr MORRISON E3L I would simply say, as I did at the press conference earlier today, that the Reserve Bank will consider their response today and whatever decision they make I would ask the big banks to respond to and pass on in full—whatever decision the Reserve Bank made today—in the same way that Qantas stepped up to the plate when we asked for their support to get Australians out of Wuhan and to get them out from the Diamond Princess. I want to thank Qantas again for the great work they did. I simply ask that the big banks do exactly the same thing by passing on the full impact, should the bank make that decision. But, over these past six years with jobs growth and with ensuring that we've fixed the structural balance of this budget so Australians have been able to get jobs and restore their own balance sheet, we can look through this current crisis and we can look to the other side and we can know that the Australian economy can bounce back even better on the other side. It will because of the measures we have put in place and will put in place that will be targeted, that will be measured, that will be scalable. They'll focus on jobs. They'll focus on keeping businesses in business and ensuring Australians bounce back. The SPEAKER 00APG The Prime Minister's time has concluded. Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 21 14:06 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler My question is again to the Prime Minister. How can the Prime Minister claim he simply passed on information on the corrupt sports rorts scheme when the Audit Office told parliament last night the list of sports rorts projects was changed after the election was called—and I quote the Audit Office here—'at the request of the Prime Minister's office'? Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG Members on my left! 14:06 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook I simply say again, as I've said in this House before, and going back to my Press Club address earlier in the year: what my office did was very straightforward. They passed on information based on the representations made to us, and that included information about other funding options or programs relevant to project proposals. That statement is completely consistent with all of the matters that have come before this House and in other places. Coronavirus 21 14:07 Ms LIU 282918 Chisholm My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister update the House on how the Morrison government is taking action to protect Australians' health, particularly children's, from the outbreak of the coronavirus? 14:07 Mr HUNT 00AMV Flinders I want to thank the member for Chisholm. She has shown great leadership and strength during the course of the coronavirus outbreak. Within her community, and within the Chinese-Australian community right across the country, she's helped with communication, she's helped in providing reassurance and she's been a very important bridge to that community, which has been a task and a responsibility shared by all in this House. Globally, what we have seen overnight is that numbers have now exceeded 90,000 cases of confirmed coronavirus around the world. We have now seen almost 3,100 lives lost sadly, including the case in Australia of Mr Kwan. As part of that we have now seen, as the Prime Minister said, 75 countries affected, including countries with their first confirmed case such as Indonesia, Portugal and Saudi Arabia. As a consequence of that, we have moved to put in place very strong protections. In particular, in relation to those protections, was the declaration by the Chief Medical Officer on 21 January—well ahead of some of the international organisations—that COVID-19, as it's now known, is a disease of human pandemic potential. In response, that has included some of the strongest border protection measures in the world, declaring on 1 February that— Mr Husic interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The member for Chifley! Mr HUNT 00AMV that we would— Mr Husic interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The member will leave under standing order 94(a). The member for Chifley then left the chamber. Mr HUNT 00AMV close the borders to non-nationals from China, but with other important steps along the way, including the closure in relation to Iran once we observed the high death rate and realised that that indicated that there was clearly a much higher unreported rate than was on the record. Very specifically, in relation to families and children, we have been working with the states and territories closely. The COAG meeting focused on that element. Just today, the Chief Medical Officer provided the very important reassurance to families and parents that the transmissibility rate to children is low—indeed, potentially lower than the flu itself—and that the consequence when children are infected is low. It has a very low mortality rate. Many cases amongst children will be mild. I think it's important to provide this information to the community, to provide the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, the collective chief health officers across the states and territories and the international community to say to Australian families that we are taking care of you and your children are safe. Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 22 14:10 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler My question is again to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware that after the election was called Senator McKenzie's office sent not one but two emails to Sport Australia allocating sports rorts funding, one at 8.46 am and another at 12.43 pm? Is he also aware that the second email, at 12.43 pm, removed one project and added nine more? Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The member for Rankin needs to recall what I said after the first question. The member for Chifley obviously didn't listen. 14:11 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook The Leader of the Opposition has simply just set out evidence that was provided in the Senate today. Rail Infrastructure 22 14:11 Dr HAINES 282335 Indi My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. The North East rail line upgrade is due for completion in June next year. Currently, there is no plan to provide extra funding for its ongoing maintenance. If there is no funding for maintenance, it will again fall below the class-2 passenger standard and the entire $235 million upgrade will be for nothing. Will the government commit to providing maintenance funding for the North East rail line to keep it safe and at the class-2 passenger standard? 14:12 Mr McCORMACK 219646 Riverina I thank the member for Indi for her question and her interest in rail and infrastructure more generally. I thank her for the meeting we had yesterday in my office about the wider infrastructure agenda that this government is putting into place for her electorate, for regional Australia and, indeed, right across the nation. We discussed the tragic accident at Wallan that occurred on 20 February and other rail related issues. I would certainly like to pay my respects and condolences to the families, colleagues and friends of the train driver, John Kennedy, and pilot, Sam Meintanis, who were tragically killed in that derailment. It's a tragedy that no family should have to go through. I know how important both of them were to the Australian railway community—I would say the Australian railway family, because it is a very close-knit family. Rail is important to regional people, as the member for Indi and all regional members know, because of the vital passenger and freight links it provides to major centres and to markets for regional industry. I'm pleased to inform the member for Indi that rail, particularly regional rail, is very important to the government. It's this government that is building the historic Inland Rail between Melbourne and Brisbane. It's a project which will transform the way freight moves around this country and provide economic opportunities for regional Australians for generations. In Victoria, from where the member hails, Inland Rail is supporting 2,800 jobs— The SPEAKER 00APG The member for Indi on a point of order? Dr Haines 282335 Relevance. The question was in regard to the maintenance of the North East rail line after the upgrade. The SPEAKER 00APG I just say to the Deputy Prime Minister that, whilst the question did have some preamble to it, it was specifically about that issue. Whilst he has had a preamble himself on matters more generally, he now needs to bring himself to the question. Mr McCORMACK 219646 The Victorian section of this nation-building project is going to benefit from a $235 million upgrade between Melbourne and Albury, the North East rail line. For this upgrade funded entirely by the Commonwealth, delivered by the Australian Rail Track Corporation, the John Holland Group has been contracted. Work is already underway, and major works are scheduled to begin as well, following on from that, later this month. The SPEAKER 00APG I'd just say to the Deputy Prime Minister that that wasn't the question that was asked. Mr McCORMACK 219646 But it's— Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG Members on my left! I'm not going to negotiate; the Deputy Prime Minister needs to address himself to the question. Mr McCORMACK 219646 The result of this investment will be to lift the track standard to Victorian class 2, as the member for Indi asked me about—Victorian class 2 standard—allowing more reliable and faster passenger services. The ongoing maintenance for the North East rail line has been funded from within the usual ARTC budget and is averaged at around $6 million per year, and, as the North East rail line upgrade progresses towards completion by mid next year, the ongoing maintenance of the track is an important consideration for the commercial lease negotiations between the ARTC and the Victorian government. I have discussions with ministers Jacinta Allan and Jaala Pulford all the time about maintenance, ongoing funding and other rail related issues. This investment in the North East rail line—I know the member for Indi is particularly interested in that; it goes through her electorate—forms part of a broader $1.6 billion Commonwealth investment in the Regional Rail Revival package that is upgrading critical regional rail infrastructure in Victoria. Economy 23 14:16 Mr FALINSKI G86 Mackellar My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer tell us how the Morrison government is ensuring that the budget is prepared to deal with any economic impacts from coronavirus? Is he aware of any alternative policies? 14:16 Mr FRYDENBERG FKL Kooyong I thank the member for Mackellar for his question and I acknowledge his background in the private sector before coming to this place and his chairmanship of the House tax and revenue committee—and no-one was more pleased when we on this side of the House, against the will of those opposite, passed more than $300 billion of tax cuts. We on this side of the House believe the path to a stronger economy is through lower taxes, more jobs and responsible budget management. Yesterday was the 24th anniversary of the Howard government coming to office, and it's important to remember what they inherited and what they left. When they came to government, they inherited a budget deficit of around two per cent of GDP, or $11 billion. By the time they left office, there was a budget surplus— Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG If the Treasurer could pause for a second and the member for Gorton could stop interjecting. As I've said repeatedly, we're falling into bad habits here. I listened to the question carefully. The Treasurer can obviously give some context and some comparison, but, as much as I was part of the Howard government, the question didn't ask him about that. It asked about the government's policies and any alternatives to them. Mr FRYDENBERG FKL I was explaining the importance of responsible budget management—that the Howard government left a pristine budget sheet. When we came to government, we inherited a fiscal mess. There was a deficit of $48½ billion, or around three per cent of GDP. Now we have the first balanced budget in 11 years. Unemployment has come down from the 5.7 per cent that we inherited to 5.3 per cent today, and we have helped create more than 1½ million new jobs. We have helped create more than 1½ million new jobs and we have passed more than $300 billion of tax cuts. This important economic discipline will allow us the fiscal flexibility to respond to the economic shock that we are now seeing from the spread of coronavirus. Quite distinct from the impact of the GFC, the coronavirus is disrupting global supply chains and is having a significant economic impact. Overnight, the OECD singled out Australia and Germany as two countries which could introduce additional economic measures without endangering debt sustainability. That was the OECD talking about the importance of maintaining fiscal buffers. I'm asked about alternative approaches. We know that those opposite, when they last responded to an economic shock, spent money on pink batts and overpriced school halls. Most recently, they took $387 billion of higher taxes to the last election. The importance of disciplined fiscal management gives a government the ability to respond to economic shocks like the spread of coronavirus, which this economy now faces. We know that those opposite, when they were last responding to an economic shock, we saw that they spent money on pink batts and overpriced school halls and most recently took $387 billion of higher taxes to the last election. The importance of disciplined fiscal management gives a government the ability to respond to economic shocks like the spread of the coronavirus, which this economy now faces. Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 24 14:20 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler My question is again to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that, contrary to his repeated statements that Senator McKenzie alone determined sports rorts funding on 4 April, at 12:35 on 11 April Senator McKenzie's office sent a list of projects to the Prime Minister's office with one project removed and nine new projects added and, minutes later, at 12:43 pm Senator McKenzie's office sent the final revised list of projects to Sport Australia? 14:20 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook As I've said before, I'm not responsible for the email service in the former minister's office. I refer the member to the evidence— Honourable members interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The Prime Minister will pause. Members will cease interjecting or they'll start— Ms Plibersek interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The member for Sydney will leave under 94(a). There's a certain irony in actually interjecting on me when I'm asking people to stop interjecting. The Prime Minister has the call. Mr MORRISON E3L I refer the member to the evidence by Mr Boyd that was provided regarding the issues that were just raised. It says of the changes made later that day, the 12:43 version, that none of them were evident as being the request of the Prime Minister's office rather than the minister's office. Infrastructure 24 14:21 Mr DRUM 56430 Nicholls My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister inform the House how the Morrison-McCormack government is building resilience and growth in Australia, including through the creation of jobs by bringing forward investment in infrastructure projects through the rollout of the $100 billion infrastructure pipeline, including those in my electorate of Nicholls? 14:21 Mr McCORMACK 219646 Riverina I thank the member for Nicholls for his question. Our $100 billion pipeline of investment over the next 10 years is helping to create around 80,000 jobs—80,000 jobs, including in the member for Nicholls' electorate. We're fast-tracking construction, we're bringing forward $2.9 billion and we've announced $1.2 billion in additional funding. This is an investment flowing through all communities, including the member for Nicholls'. We're building the Echuca-Moama Bridge, a $323 million project that this government has backed with a $127 million initial investment and an extra $28.7 million. The mayor of Campaspe Shire, Adrian Weston, said, 'The Echuca-Moama second bridge is the largest infrastructure project our region has seen. Benefits of the bridge will be significant and wide-ranging. In addition to the regional economic and social advantages, the community will benefit on a daily basis by alleviating bottlenecks and assisting to divert larger vehicles away from the town centre.' Just a couple of years ago, a tree fell on the particular road, which involved a 1½ hour detour for people, particularly families picking up their children, and this is where our infrastructure makes such a difference. It reduces traffic congestion, improves travel times and reduces freight operating costs. Particularly for small business, it's so beneficial—and particularly when it's being constructed. Managing director of McConnell Dowell, Jim Frith, said that he looks forward to working with the local community of Echuca and Moama. He said, 'Retaining as much economic benefit as we can in the Echuca-Moama region by buying local and employing locals through our construction and our phased roll out of this project enables many local businesses to benefit.' You just don't realise the economic benefits by the construction and the small businesses feeding into it. Those alone are just not the advantages that we're getting. It's also in the little things that you wouldn't expect. The Riverine Herald had a great little article about a group of triathletes. One of them—and this will be particularly important for the marathon runners in the chamber: the Attorney-General, the vets affairs minister and indeed, across the other side, the members for Fenner and Kingsford Smith, who like to get out there and run. When you have a better road project, you can run faster times. One of the winners from Team Bruburger, which won the triathlon section, cyclist Sam Eddy, said, 'The legs didn't feel great, if I'm honest, but the surface was pretty quick, and I thought that certainly helped.' So the advantages of infrastructure rollout are not just for small business, not just for commuters; they are also for sporting types. I know the member for Nicholls regards himself as a sporting type. The benefits are right across. Opposition members interjecting— Mr McCORMACK 219646 I hear them yelling out. They are excited about it too, as well they should be! Because every community in Australia is benefitting from the $100 billion, 10-year infrastructure rollout that we're doing across the country. (Time expired) Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 25 14:25 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler My question is again to the Prime Minister: Can the Prime Minister confirm that the list of sports rorts projects was changed more than four hours after the election was called and caretaker conventions commenced? 14:25 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook The member is referring to evidence that's been put before the Senate committee. I can only advise the House of matters that relate to the actions of my own office. I don't have knowledge when emails are sent by ministers' offices to other places. I don't have direct knowledge of those matters. Those matters are attended to by the ministers who have the authorising authority for approving those programs, as I stated and made reference to earlier. Opposition members interjecting— Mr Khalil interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The member for Wills is warned. I'm just going to say yet again, members on my left, at least the members on my left asking questions expect me to be able to hear the answer. All can I hear is noise. Whatever the member for Wills was saying is completely unintelligible. No-one's hearing what he says. You are just creating a wall of noise to prevent me listening to the Prime Minister. If it's the only contribution you can make, you won't be here. The Prime Minister has the call. I need to listen to him. Mr MORRISON E3L In relation to issues that relate to the caretaker period, those opposite have put questions to the government about this. But I remember the 2013 election very, very well. I remember that on that occasion the secretary of Finance, David Tune, said he was given a formal direction by the then Special Minister of State, the member for Isaacs, where they spent $6.5 million in the middle of an election campaign advertising in The Sydney Morning Herald suggesting that people shouldn't come to Australia illegally by boat. They ran the advertisements in The Sydney Morning Herald. I don't know what they were doing in terms of running advertisements up in Indonesia, where the boats were coming from. It was one of the most prolific uses of political advertising by a government in an election campaign. It was absolutely disgraceful! This Leader of the Opposition can only throw mud because he sits in a puddle of mud. Coronavirus 25 14:27 Ms HAMMOND 80072 Curtin My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison government is in cooperation with the states and territories responding to the outbreak of the coronavirus and particularly how it's focusing on protecting the elderly within our communities? 14:28 Mr HUNT 00AMV Flinders I want to thank the member for Curtin for her work prior to coming to this place and in particular for her focus on the hospitals in her electorate, hospitals such as Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth Children's Hospital, St John of God Hospital, Hollywood Private Hospital, all of which are playing a role now or have potential to play a role. As part of what we are doing, working as a country and dealing with the challenge of the coronavirus, one of the things which happened following the medical advice, the decision of the National Security Committee, and ultimately the stewardship of the Prime Minister, was to implement the pandemic plan for coronavirus last Thursday. As part of that, one of the key elements has been to make sure that we are focusing on ensuring that people who come to Australia are here without any significant chance of bringing the disease. The Prime Minister has today added to the border protection measures by referring the cases of South Korea and Italy—each of which has had recent travel advisory upgrades—to the medical experts, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee. That should inform our advice at a subsequent National Security Committee this week. In addition, though, in our work with the states and territories, whilst they have been focusing primarily on hospital preparedness, we have been focusing in particular on primary care and aged care, our elderly. Whilst our children, as I mentioned earlier, are far less likely to contract and, in particular, to suffer from a severe form of coronavirus, our elderly are much more vulnerable. That is a global trend and a global challenge. Here in Australia we have taken a series of steps. Firstly, very early on, we provided significant information to the aged-care sector—as early as 7 February and again on 26 February—and, throughout, there's been constant liaison with that sector. At the moment, we are working with the sector, and there will be further meetings throughout the course of the week, to develop a specific aged-care preparedness plan. But I do note that Mr Sean Rooney, CEO of Leading Age Services Australia, said: Providers are accustomed to dealing with influenza each winter and are adding to these protocols through the updated COVID-19 guidance from the Department of Health. And Pat Sparrow, CEO of Aged & Community Services Australia, said: We work with a vulnerable group, so every flu season we need to be ready to support these people. It is an evolving situation and we are constantly liaising with health authorities. That work is something that we respect and appreciate. We thank the states and we thank the aged-care service providers and our general practitioners. We are focusing, as our top priority, on care for and protection of our older Australians. Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 26 14:31 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler My question is again to the Prime Minister. Last Friday, on ABC TV, he was asked to confirm that: … there was no direct involvement by any of your staff members in deciding where the money went in tandem with Bridget McKenzie's staffers? And the Prime Minister replied: 'Of course not.' In light of evidence from the Audit Office that his staff sorted out the final allocations of projects over email, will the Prime Minister apologise for repeatedly misleading Australians and this parliament? 14:31 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook I don't accept the assertions of the Leader of the Opposition. He constantly comes to this despatch box and makes assertions as to what things are, and those assertions are not true. Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The member for Higgins has the call. I am going to hear her in silence. If anyone interjects, they will be removed. It is pretty straightforward. Energy 26 14:32 Dr ALLEN 282986 Higgins My question is to the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Will the minister outline to the House the Morrison government's clear plan to reduce emissions whilst at the same time ensuring energy generation reliability? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches? 14:32 Mr TAYLOR 231027 Hume I thank the member for Higgins for her question and I acknowledge her distinguished career, before she came into this place, as a paediatrician and as a researcher and as someone who understands the power of technology in solving hard problems. She knows that we have a comprehensive plan to bring down the costs of energy and to bring down emissions in this country. That plan includes the $3½ billion Climate Solutions Package; the $1 billion Grid Reliability Fund; price caps on electricity—the big stick; the Underwriting New Generation Investments program; and state energy deals like the recent deal we've done with New South Wales, the National Hydrogen Strategy, and many others. The important point is that our plan is delivering. We've now seen for four consecutive quarters reductions in the CPI for electricity prices—for the first time ever—leaving more money in the pockets of hardworking families and businesses. We've seen five months in a row of sharp wholesale price reductions in both gas and electricity, which is freeing up cash for industry to invest in jobs and growth. From all of that, we are delivering a fairer deal for all Australians in electricity and more supply to ensure that there is reliability, particularly in states like South Australia, where we saw the impact of the previous Labor government's policies. And we will overachieve on our 2020 and 2030 emissions reductions targets, because we have a plan. In the lead-up to Glasgow later this year we will be laying out our long-term strategy, and central to that will be the role of technology in bringing down emissions while keeping the economy strong. I was asked about alternatives. There is an alternative, and that is: a target without a plan. As Sam Maiden has written in her book on Labor's 2019 election campaign, members of the Labor Party during the campaign had come to refer to Labor's climate change spokesman, the member for Hindmarsh, as 'the grim reaper'. Now, the grim reaper destroys everything it touches: it destroys jobs, it destroys incomes, it destroys industries and it destroys communities—and certainly he destroyed the member for Maribyrnong's leadership! But the Leader of the Opposition hasn't learnt. He's done it again. He's adopted a target without a plan. We focus on plans— The SPEAKER 00APG The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. Mr Frydenberg interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The Treasurer will cease interjecting. Had the minister concluded his answer? I was just going to say to the Leader of the Opposition that he's not to jump until the minister's concluded their answer. The Leader of the Opposition has the call. Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program 27 14:35 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler My question is again to the Prime Minister. How can the Prime Minister possibly claim that his office was only passing on information when the Audit Office found that there were emails between his office and Senator McKenzie's office on both 10 and 11 April—and I quote the Audit Office—'sorting out what the final lists of approved projects would look like'? 14:36 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook I simply say what I've said consistently on this matter: my office provided information based on the representations made to us, including information about other funding options or programs relevant to project proposals. That's exactly what we've done. I've been very consistent in these representations. The Leader of the Opposition can be wishing and hoping it was something different to that, but he's wrong. Mr Watts interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG The member for Gellibrand will withdraw an unparliamentary statement he made. You need to refer to members by their correct titles. Mr Watts 193430 I withdraw. The SPEAKER 00APG I think you were about to leave. You anticipated my next ruling, so we can do that now, too. The member for Gellibrand then left the chamber. Recycling 27 14:36 Mrs WICKS 241590 Robertson My question is to the Minister for the Environment. Will the minister update the House on what steps the Morrison government is taking to improve recycling rates and the processing of waste? 14:37 Ms LEY 00AMN Farrer I thank the member for Robertson for her question and her keen interest in keeping plastic out of our waterways and out of the ocean. Yesterday we held the National Plastics Summit here in Parliament House. I was joined by the member for Brisbane, the Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management. Part of his drive and determination is to see new processing facilities across Australia as a result of our investment. I was joined by the fabulous reef envoy. He introduced 11-year-old Molly Steer. She's a student from Cairns and she talked about her campaign to get rid of plastic straws. We as a government are committed to tackling plastic waste to not only clean up the environment but also create economic opportunities and jobs, because that's what we do. Our summit included over 300 senior members of government, industry and the community sector looking for new solutions to the plastic waste challenge and looking for further actions across industry and non-government organisations. The waste sector in Australia employs about 50,000 people and generates over $15 billion a year. For every 10,000 tonnes of waste that goes to landfill there are about 2.8 jobs. For the same amount of waste that is recycled there are close to 10 jobs. So this is an economic opportunity as well as protecting the environment. What was really exciting about yesterday was the way industry stepped up—some of them just out of nowhere it seemed—with pledges, with promises, with investment, with dollars. Packaging company Pact Group announced $500 million of investment in recycling. That will divert two billion plastic containers from landfill by 2025. I know they're in the member for Robertson's electorate, where they're recycling about 300,000 wheelie bins. Retailer Coles announced more money to treble the amount of soft plastic it collects as you go in the supermarket in its REDcycle program. Nestle will partner with company IQ Renew in a trial that again will see more soft plastics turned into packaging. McDonald's is phasing out 550 tonnes of plastic cutlery, and Australia Post has pledged to make plastic post bags out of recycled material by 2020. To see these organisations step up and make that commitment to recycling was extraordinary. Following Clean Up Australia Day on the weekend with Pip Kiernan, we used to pick up that rubbish and think about just putting it in a hole in the ground. Now we know that plastic we pick up off the ground is a resource. It can be recycled. It can be remanufactured. It can create jobs and it can do extraordinary things to the Australian economy. We saw national leadership in the national parliament and we are committed to fixing our plastic waste problem and stopping hundreds of tonnes of waste going into landfill. This is one of our most significant policies on recycling. Prime Minister 28 14:40 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler My question is again to the Prime Minister. Why has the PM repeatedly told the parliament and the Australian people the decision on the sports rorts project was made on 4 April when the Audit Office has found the lists of sports rorts projects attached to that brief kept changing until hours after the election was called on 11 April? Isn't it absurd to claim a decision was made on 4 April when the list determining which projects were funded and which missed out was still changing a week later? 14:41 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook The member has raised comments and statements I've made in this House regarding this specific matter regarding 4 April. Let me say what I have said in this House. The evidence provided today was that Sport Australia advised the committee this morning that they received a brief from Senator McKenzie dated 4 April 2019. That was the evidence. That's what I said. From a later question: the authority approving those projects was signed, dated 4 April 2019. The testimony today from Sport Australia—another response—was that they received a brief from Senator McKenzie dated 4 April 2019. It was authorised by the minister 4 April 2019. That's when the approval was given. I've been very clear in this House about when that authority was provided for that brief, which was on 4 April. I don't think it can be any clearer. The Leader of the Opposition seeks to come to the dispatch box and treat question time as smear time, to treat question time as baseless assertion time. The Australian people can see through a Leader of the Opposition who is so desperate that he has to resort to smears and assertions when the real issues that Australians are facing today— The SPEAKER 00APG The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order? Mr Albanese R36 Yes, Mr Speaker. The quotes are from the Audit Office, and in order to be— The SPEAKER 00APG The point of order is? Mr Albanese R36 relevant he needs to talk about the Audit Office. Relevance. The SPEAKER 00APG The Prime Minister has the call. He's being relevant to the question. I was listening to— Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG I'm not going to have commentary reflecting on the chair. The Prime Minister is being relevant to the question asked that included a preamble. The Prime Minister has the call. Mr MORRISON E3L Mr Speaker, more than a preamble, I dealt specifically with the reference to 4 April 2019, which was the specific question which was put to me about that matter. The SPEAKER 00APG I just say to the Prime Minister: I was actually agreeing that you'd been relevant. Mr MORRISON E3L Very good; thank you, Mr Speaker. I appreciate that. The SPEAKER 00APG Whether it's good or bad, I said you were relevant! Mr Morrison E3L That's fair enough! What we're seeing from the Leader of the Opposition today is that they haven't come into this place and addressed the big issues for Australian people. Yesterday in this House members on this side came into this chamber and wanted to know what the government's response was to address the very serious issue of coronavirus in this country. There was not one question from the opposition about that. Mr Burke DYW Point of order. The Prime Minister is not abiding by your earlier ruling on relevance. The SPEAKER 00APG No. I want to make it clear. I said that the Prime Minister 'was' being relevant. Opposition members interjecting— The SPEAKER 00APG Those behind the Manager of Opposition Business: whatever they interject, I can assure you he doesn't hear it or take any account of it, and I'm trying to listen to him. Mr Burke DYW You gave an earlier ruling saying precisely why at that point the Prime Minister was being relevant. What he's going to now are issues entirely outside of that ruling that you gave. The SPEAKER 00APG The Prime Minister is entitled to compare and contrast, which he's doing. And, as I said earlier, the question had some preamble in it. It also had what I'd call an element of character attack, for a better term, and that's not uncommon. I'm not going to try and make question time something that it's not. But I'm going to keep hearing from the Prime Minister in response to the question. Mr MORRISON E3L Our government are going to keep focusing on the issues that seriously matter to the Australian people. Whether it's the coronavirus, whether it's responding to the bushfire crisis, whether it's dealing with the drought, we're prepared for the budget. We're getting skills into Australian employees so they can grow our economy and we bounce back strongly—whether it's the plastic summit or getting emissions down or providing certainty in our electricity system around the country. Those opposite want to come in here and engage in political smears. I know they're used to doing that in their own caucus against each other, but if they're not interested in the serious issues confronting the Australian people there is no wonder why the Australian people have no confidence in the opposition or this Leader of the Opposition. Child Safety 29 14:45 Mr CONNELLY 282984 Stirling My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister outline for the House how the Morrison government is ensuring that Australia leads the fight to combat child exploitation? 14:45 Mr DUTTON 00AKI Dickson I thank the honourable member for his question and for the support of the government's very determined policy to make sure that we can keep Australian children safe. We've invested more money into making sure that we can keep kids safe online, to make sure that we can defeat the scourge of paedophilia, whether it's in the real world or it's online. I'm very proud of the fact that we've been able to invest $70 million in the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, which is a world leader—it's recognised as such. It's brought together not only state and territory jurisdictions but also international partners to make sure that we can work to stop the very dreadful business of children being sexually assaulted for those paedophiles here and overseas. In December 2019 the ACE child protection triage unit identified a case, along with their agency partners, which was a particularly egregious case. And one of the things that we need to do in our country is to recognise the extent of this problem. It's not polite to talk about children being sexually abused when we're in discussion in any setting. It offends all of us. It is something that we need to talk more about because it is happening every day. There are children that are being sexually abused online for the gratification of Australians and others around the world. It is perverse behaviour, and it's proliferated because of the use of the internet. And we know that in many cases the police can't access the details because the messages have been encrypted. The use of technology is working to the advantage of the criminals and paedophiles in this space. We have done all we can and will continue to do all we can as a country to make sure that we bring those paedophiles to account. I want to make sure that all Australian parents can have confidence when their kids go online—the hours and hours that they spend on their devices—that they're not being groomed, that they're not being photographed or that images aren't being taken and transmitted around the world, because, for young boys and girls, those sexual images are multiplied thousands of times across the internet and those children are effectively offended against on each of those occasions. I want Australians to be aware of the extent of the problem. In December last year, as I said, there was a case where a 48-year-old male from Queensland was alleged to have filmed his own actions engaging in sexual acts with his son, and he posted that online trying to identify further offenders that he could engage with. I want to pay tribute to all of those officers who involved themselves in this very difficult area of police investigation. I want to make sure that people know that this is an issue that our Australian public needs to talk more about and that together we have a concerted effort, both online and in the real world, to make sure that we can protect Australian children. Honourable members: Hear, hear! 14:49 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler on indulgence—firstly, can I associate everyone in this parliament, certainly on this side, with the minister's comments. Particularly for those people acting on the front line, this is a tough job that has an emotional and mental health impact on them I am certain. We need to, as a parliament, do everything we can to keep kids safe. MOTIONS 30 MOTIONS Prime Minister 30 14:49 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler I seek leave to move the following motion: That the House: (1) notes that: (a) at 12.21 pm on 10 April 2019, Senator McKenzie's office sent a letter from Senator McKenzie to the Prime Minister attaching a list of sports rorts projects she intended to approve; (b) at 8.30 am on 11 April 2019, the election was called and caretaker conventions commenced; (c) at 8.46 am on 11 April, Senator McKenzie's office emailed the approval brief dated 4 April 2019 to Sport Australia with a list of approved projects attached; (d) according to the Audit Office, between the 12.21 pm email to the Prime Minister's office on 10 April and the 8.46 am email to Sport Australia on 11 April, one project had been removed and one project had been added "at the request of the Prime Minister's office"; (e) at 12.35 pm on 11 April, Senator McKenzie's office sent a different list of projects to the Prime Minister's office, with one project removed and nine new projects added; (f) at 12.43 pm on 11 April, Senator McKenzie's office sent the approval brief dated 4 April to Sport Australia with the final revised list of approved projects attached; (g) the Audit Office found there were emails between the Prime Minister's office and Senator McKenzie's office on 10 and 11 April "sorting out what the final list of approved projects would look like"; (h) the Audit Office confirmed that although Senator McKenzie's approval brief was dated 4 April, the list of approved projects attached to the brief kept changing up until 12.43 pm on 11 April; and (i) the Prime Minister has repeatedly claimed his office simply passed on information about sports grants and claimed the projects were approved on 4 April, but this new evidence proves beyond doubt: (i) the Prime Minister was up to his neck in decisions on the corrupt sports rorts scheme; (ii) the approval brief dated 4 April 2019 kept changing up until 12.43 pm on 11 April; and (iii) the final list of approved projects wasn't sent to Sport Australia until four hours after the election was called and caretaker conventions commenced; and (2) therefore, finds this Prime Minister has repeatedly and deliberately misled the Parliament and the Australian people about the corrupt sports rorts scheme. Leave not granted. Mr ALBANESE R36 I move: That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion immediately— That the House: (1) notes that: (a) at 12.21 pm on 10 April 2019, Senator McKenzie's office sent a letter from Senator McKenzie to the Prime Minister attaching a list of sports rorts projects she intended to approve; (b) at 8.30 am on 11 April 2019, the election was called and caretaker conventions commenced; (c) at 8.46 am on 11 April, Senator McKenzie's office emailed the approval brief dated 4 April 2019 to Sport Australia with a list of approved projects attached; (d) according to the Audit Office, between the 12.21 pm email to the Prime Minister's office on 10 April and the 8.46 am email to Sport Australia on 11 April, one project had been removed and one project had been added "at the request of the Prime Minister's office"; (e) at 12.35 pm on 11 April, Senator McKenzie's office sent a different list of projects to the Prime Minister's office, with one project removed and nine new projects added; (f) at 12.43 pm on 11 April, Senator McKenzie's office sent the approval brief dated 4 April to Sport Australia with the final revised list of approved projects attached; (g) the Audit Office found there were emails between the Prime Minister's office and Senator McKenzie's office on 10 and 11 April "sorting out what the final list of approved projects would look like"; (h) the Audit Office confirmed that although Senator McKenzie's approval brief was dated 4 April, the list of approved projects attached to the brief kept changing up until 12.43 pm on 11 April; and (i) the Prime Minister has repeatedly claimed his office simply passed on information about sports grants and claimed the projects were approved on 4 April, but this new evidence proves beyond doubt: (i) the Prime Minister was up to his neck in decisions on the corrupt sports rorts scheme; (ii) the approval brief dated 4 April 2019 kept changing up until 12.43 pm on 11 April; and (iii) the final list of approved projects wasn't sent to Sport Australia until four hours after the election was called and caretaker conventions commenced; and (2) therefore, finds this Prime Minister has repeatedly and deliberately misled the Parliament and the Australian people about the corrupt sports rorts scheme. It is very clear that this Prime Minister has misled parliament over and over again. 14:55 Mr PORTER 208884 Pearce I move: That the Member be no longer heard. The SPEAKER 00APG The question is that the Leader of the Opposition be no further heard.

The House divided. [15:00]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)

 74 AYES Alexander, JG Allen, K Andrews, KJ Andrews, KL Archer, BK Bell, AM Broadbent, RE Buchholz, S Chester, D Christensen, GR Conaghan, PJ Connelly, V Coulton, M Drum, DK (teller) Dutton, PC Evans, TM Falinski, JG Fletcher, PW Flint, NJ Frydenberg, JA Gee, AR Gillespie, DA Goodenough, IR Hammond, CM Hastie, AW Hawke, AG Hogan, KJ Howarth, LR Hunt, GA Irons, SJ Joyce, BT Kelly, C Laming, A Landry, ML Leeser, J Ley, SP Littleproud, D Liu, G Marino, NB Martin, FB McCormack, MF McIntosh, MI McVeigh, JJ Morrison, SJ Morton, B O'Brien, LS O'Brien, T O'Dowd, KD Pasin, A Pearce, GB Pitt, KJ Porter, CC Price, ML Ramsey, RE (teller) Robert, SR Sharma, DN Simmonds, J Stevens, J Sukkar, MS Taylor, AJ Tehan, DT Thompson, P Tudge, AE van Manen, AJ Vasta, RX Wallace, AB Webster, AE Wicks, LE Wilson, RJ Wilson, TR Wood, JP Wyatt, KG Young, T Zimmerman, T 68 NOES Albanese, AN Aly, A Bandt, AP Bird, SL Bowen, CE Burke, AS Burney, LJ Burns, J Butler, MC Butler, TM Byrne, AM Chalmers, JE Champion, ND Clare, JD Claydon, SC Coker, EA Collins, JM Conroy, PM Dick, MD Dreyfus, MA Elliot, MJ Fitzgibbon, JA Freelander, MR (teller) Georganas, S Giles, AJ Gorman, P Gosling, LJ Haines, H Hayes, CP Hill, JC Jones, SP Kearney, G Kelly, MJ Keogh, MJ Khalil, P King, CF King, MMH Leigh, AK Marles, RD McBride, EM Mitchell, BK Mitchell, RG Mulino, D Murphy, PJ Neumann, SK O'Connor, BPJ O'Neil, CE Owens, JA Payne, AE Perrett, GD Phillips, FE Rishworth, AL Rowland, MA Sharkie, RCC Shorten, WR Smith, DPB Snowdon, WE Stanley, AM (teller) Steggall, Z Swanson, MJ Templeman, SR Thistlethwaite, MJ Thwaites, KL Vamvakinou, M Wells, AS Wilkie, AD Wilson, JH Zappia, A 0 PAIRS

Question agreed to.

 15:02 The SPEAKER 00APG Is the motion seconded? Mr Porter interjecting— 15:02 Mr BURKE DYW Watson Seconded. It's colour coded corruption and it goes right to the Prime Minister's office— The SPEAKER 00APG I haven't called the Leader of the House yet. I'm going to make clear to all members that, for the Leader of the House to move this motion, that someone be no longer heard, they actually have to have said something so that they can be no longer heard. That's why I needed to hear first from the seconder. I now call the Leader of the House. 15:02 Mr PORTER 208884 Pearce I move: That the Member be no longer heard. The SPEAKER 00APG The question is that the member be no longer heard.

The House divided. [15:04]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)

 74 AYES Alexander, JG Allen, K Andrews, KJ Andrews, KL Archer, BK Bell, AM Broadbent, RE Buchholz, S Chester, D Christensen, GR Conaghan, PJ Connelly, V Coulton, M Drum, DK (teller) Dutton, PC Evans, TM Falinski, JG Fletcher, PW Flint, NJ Frydenberg, JA Gee, AR Gillespie, DA Goodenough, IR Hammond, CM Hastie, AW Hawke, AG Hogan, KJ Howarth, LR Hunt, GA Irons, SJ Joyce, BT Kelly, C Laming, A Landry, ML Leeser, J Ley, SP Littleproud, D Liu, G Marino, NB Martin, FB McCormack, MF McIntosh, MI McVeigh, JJ Morrison, SJ Morton, B O'Brien, LS O'Brien, T O'Dowd, KD Pasin, A Pearce, GB Pitt, KJ Porter, CC Price, ML Ramsey, RE (teller) Robert, SR Sharma, DN Simmonds, J Stevens, J Sukkar, MS Taylor, AJ Tehan, DT Thompson, P Tudge, AE van Manen, AJ Vasta, RX Wallace, AB Webster, AE Wicks, LE Wilson, RJ Wilson, TR Wood, JP Wyatt, KG Young, T Zimmerman, T 68 NOES Albanese, AN Aly, A Bandt, AP Bird, SL Bowen, CE Burke, AS Burney, LJ Burns, J Butler, MC Butler, TM Byrne, AM Chalmers, JE Champion, ND Clare, JD Claydon, SC Coker, EA Collins, JM Conroy, PM Dick, MD Dreyfus, MA Elliot, MJ Fitzgibbon, JA Freelander, MR (teller) Georganas, S Giles, AJ Gorman, P Gosling, LJ Haines, H Hayes, CP Hill, JC Jones, SP Kearney, G Kelly, MJ Keogh, MJ Khalil, P King, CF King, MMH Leigh, AK Marles, RD McBride, EM Mitchell, BK Mitchell, RG Mulino, D Murphy, PJ Neumann, SK O'Connor, BPJ O'Neil, CE Owens, JA Payne, AE Perrett, GD Phillips, FE Rishworth, AL Rowland, MA Sharkie, RCC Shorten, WR Smith, DPB Snowdon, WE Stanley, AM (teller) Steggall, Z Swanson, MJ Templeman, SR Thistlethwaite, MJ Thwaites, KL Vamvakinou, M Wells, AS Wilkie, AD Wilson, JH Zappia, A 0 PAIRS

Question agreed to.

 15:05 The SPEAKER 00APG The question now is that the motion be agreed to. 15:05 Mr MARLES HWQ Corio Caught red-handed: his office; his decision. The SPEAKER 00APG The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The Leader of the House. 15:05 Mr PORTER 208884 Pearce move: That the question be now put. The SPEAKER 00APG The question is that the question be now put.

The House divided. [15:06]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)

 74 AYES Alexander, JG Allen, K Andrews, KJ Andrews, KL Archer, BK Bell, AM Broadbent, RE Buchholz, S Chester, D Christensen, GR Conaghan, PJ Connelly, V Coulton, M Drum, DK (teller) Dutton, PC Evans, TM Falinski, JG Fletcher, PW Flint, NJ Frydenberg, JA Gee, AR Gillespie, DA Goodenough, IR Hammond, CM Hastie, AW Hawke, AG Hogan, KJ Howarth, LR Hunt, GA Irons, SJ Joyce, BT Kelly, C Laming, A Landry, ML Leeser, J Ley, SP Littleproud, D Liu, G Marino, NB Martin, FB McCormack, MF McIntosh, MI McVeigh, JJ Morrison, SJ Morton, B O'Brien, LS O'Brien, T O'Dowd, KD Pasin, A Pearce, GB Pitt, KJ Porter, CC Price, ML Ramsey, RE (teller) Robert, SR Sharma, DN Simmonds, J Stevens, J Sukkar, MS Taylor, AJ Tehan, DT Thompson, P Tudge, AE van Manen, AJ Vasta, RX Wallace, AB Webster, AE Wicks, LE Wilson, RJ Wilson, TR Wood, JP Wyatt, KG Young, T Zimmerman, T 68 NOES Albanese, AN Aly, A Bandt, AP Bird, SL Bowen, CE Burke, AS Burney, LJ Burns, J Butler, MC Butler, TM Byrne, AM Chalmers, JE Champion, ND Clare, JD Claydon, SC Coker, EA Collins, JM Conroy, PM Dick, MD Dreyfus, MA Elliot, MJ Fitzgibbon, JA Freelander, MR (teller) Georganas, S Giles, AJ Gorman, P Gosling, LJ Haines, H Hayes, CP Hill, JC Jones, SP Kearney, G Kelly, MJ Keogh, MJ Khalil, P King, CF King, MMH Leigh, AK Marles, RD McBride, EM Mitchell, BK Mitchell, RG Mulino, D Murphy, PJ Neumann, SK O'Connor, BPJ O'Neil, CE Owens, JA Payne, AE Perrett, GD Phillips, FE Rishworth, AL Rowland, MA Sharkie, RCC Shorten, WR Smith, DPB Snowdon, WE Stanley, AM (teller) Steggall, Z Swanson, MJ Templeman, SR Thistlethwaite, MJ Thwaites, KL Vamvakinou, M Wells, AS Wilkie, AD Wilson, JH Zappia, A 0 PAIRS

Question agreed to.

 15:12 The SPEAKER 00APG The question is that the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition be agreed to.

The House divided. [15:12]
(The Speaker—Hon. Tony Smith)

 68 AYES Albanese, AN Aly, A Bandt, AP Bird, SL Bowen, CE Burke, AS Burney, LJ Burns, J Butler, MC Butler, TM Byrne, AM Chalmers, JE Champion, ND Clare, JD Claydon, SC Coker, EA Collins, JM Conroy, PM Dick, MD Dreyfus, MA Elliot, MJ Fitzgibbon, JA Freelander, MR (teller) Georganas, S Giles, AJ Gorman, P Gosling, LJ Haines, H Hayes, CP Hill, JC Jones, SP Kearney, G Kelly, MJ Keogh, MJ Khalil, P King, CF King, MMH Leigh, AK Marles, RD McBride, EM Mitchell, BK Mitchell, RG Mulino, D Murphy, PJ Neumann, SK O'Connor, BPJ O'Neil, CE Owens, JA Payne, AE Perrett, GD Phillips, FE Rishworth, AL Rowland, MA Sharkie, RCC Shorten, WR Smith, DPB Snowdon, WE Stanley, AM (teller) Steggall, Z Swanson, MJ Templeman, SR Thistlethwaite, MJ Thwaites, KL Vamvakinou, M Wells, AS Wilkie, AD Wilson, JH Zappia, A 74 NOES Alexander, JG Allen, K Andrews, KJ Andrews, KL Archer, BK Bell, AM Broadbent, RE Buchholz, S Chester, D Christensen, GR Conaghan, PJ Connelly, V Coulton, M Drum, DK (teller) Dutton, PC Evans, TM Falinski, JG Fletcher, PW Flint, NJ Frydenberg, JA Gee, AR Gillespie, DA Goodenough, IR Hammond, CM Hastie, AW Hawke, AG Hogan, KJ Howarth, LR Hunt, GA Irons, SJ Joyce, BT Kelly, C Laming, A Landry, ML Leeser, J Ley, SP Littleproud, D Liu, G Marino, NB Martin, FB McCormack, MF McIntosh, MI McVeigh, JJ Morrison, SJ Morton, B O'Brien, LS O'Brien, T O'Dowd, KD Pasin, A Pearce, GB Pitt, KJ Porter, CC Price, ML Ramsey, RE (teller) Robert, SR Sharma, DN Simmonds, J Stevens, J Sukkar, MS Taylor, AJ Tehan, DT Thompson, P Tudge, AE van Manen, AJ Vasta, RX Wallace, AB Webster, AE Wicks, LE Wilson, RJ Wilson, TR Wood, JP Wyatt, KG Young, T Zimmerman, T 0 PAIRS

Question negatived.

 QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE 36 QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE Interest Rates 36 15:15 Mr LAMING E0H Bowman My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the House on today's decision by the Reserve Bank and any responses to their decisions? 15:15 Mr FRYDENBERG FKL Kooyong I thank the member for Bowman for his question. I can inform the House that earlier today the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia reduced the cash rate by 25 basis points, to half a percentage point, to support the Australian economy in the face of the spread of the coronavirus. I'm pleased to announce to the House that both Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank have passed on the 25 basis point rate cut in full, responding to the Prime Minister's call. Now I call upon the other banks to pass on the rate cut in full. As the noted economist Chris Richardson has said, both fiscal and monetary policy are supporting economic growth. The country is coming together in the face of the significant economic shock that we face. We welcome the announcement today by both Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank, and we call on the other banks to follow suit. Mr Morrison E3L I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper. STATEMENTS ON INDULGENCE 36 STATEMENTS ON INDULGENCE Australian Associated Press 36 15:16 Mr MORRISON E3L Cook It is a sad day today. I want to acknowledge the AAP journalist who was here. AAP will not be operating here anymore. Those journalists will be not employed in those positions. We extend to Paul Osborne, Katina and the whole team our best wishes to you and your future. AAP has had a proud history here in the Australian parliament. Many of us will remember Peter Veness from many years ago. He was a marvellous man who we lost to cancer many years ago. They have a wonderful history in this place. When you have such an important position, such as AAP, coming to an end not just here, it is a matter of real concern. We want to wish them and their families all the best. We want to thank all of those who filled the gallery on behalf of AAP in the past for all their great work. We wish them all the best on this difficult day as well. The SPEAKER 00APG I'm going to call the Leader of the Opposition, who indicated to me prior to question time that he wished to rise on exactly the same matter. 15:17 Mr ALBANESE R36 Grayndler Yes, Speaker, I did indeed. Today is a tragedy for our democracy. AAP, Australian Associated Press, have played a valuable role in this building and in Old Parliament House since 1935. The newswire will close in June. To Paul Osborne, Katina Curtis, Dan McCulloch, Lucas Koch, Mick Tsikas, Colin Brinsden, Matt Coughlan, Rebecca Gredley, Finbar O'Mallon, Don Woolford, Marc Tewksbury and Eamonn Tiernan, we wish you well. We thank you for your contribution over such a long period of time in terms of holding us to account and informing the Australian people wherever they live. That's the important thing about AAP, that, unlike the other bureaus, with respect, they got out everywhere. We were covered on radio and covered on other newspapers, including suburban, regional and rural newspapers. You will leave a massive void in terms of information coverage. Democracy should not be taken for granted. It relies upon the education and communication of what happens in this place and around economic, social and environmental issues to the Australian public. The Australian public will be less informed as a result of the decision today that I think is a great tragedy. On a personal level, I thank you for everything that you've done and I wish you well. I hope that you stay involved in what is an honourable profession in the media. We on this side have had a bit of a run in recent times, saying journalism is not a crime. Well, that's true, but it's much more than that. It's a vital component of our democracy. DOCUMENTS 37 DOCUMENTS Presentation 37 15:20 Mr PORTER 208884 Pearce Documents are tabled in accordance with the list circulated to honourable members earlier today. Full details of the documents will be recorded in the Votes and Proceedings. MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE 37 MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE Economy 37 15:21 The SPEAKER 00APG I have received a letter from the honourable member for Brand proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely: The government's failure to adequately support the economy. I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places. More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places— 15:21 Ms MADELEINE KING 102376 Brand I do indeed rise today to talk about the government's failure to adequately support the economy. That has been demonstrated in today's decision by the Reserve Bank to cut the cash rate to a new record low. It's a new low for the cash rate in this country, but it's also a new record low for the Morrison government's economic credibility. This is a massive and unforgivable failure. It is a failure that will haunt this third-term coalition government. This government under the leadership of this rotten Prime Minister will predictably try to spin its way out of this terrible economic mess. That's because the Prime Minister is a salesman and not a leader. We have had ample evidence of this over the summer and we have had ample evidence of this right here today in question time. In times like this, when the world and Australia are confronted by very serious issues such as coronavirus and the bushfires that we had earlier this summer, Australia is crying out for a leader. Instead we get an ineffective Prime Minister with no plan for this country and certainly no plan for this economy. This is a ramshackle coalition government of disaffected Liberals and disappointed Nationals. Even worse, this is a blatantly dishonest government led by a Prime Minister who is up to his neck in this sports rorts fraud. Amazingly, this Prime Minister and his Treasurer are now trying to use the coronavirus and bushfires as an excuse for their longstanding failures of economic management. I'm amazed but I am not at all surprised, and neither are any of us on this side of the chamber. This government desperately wants people to forget that before this occurred growth in this country was already slowing, that wages were already stagnant and that we had big problems with investment and productivity. The Australian people will see through this latest marketing ploy from this ad man. For a long time Australian people have worried about their jobs and family budgets. They know the economy was weak before the emergence of coronavirus and the bushfires. The government cannot escape this fact. It has been confirmed by the Reserve Bank of Australia, leading economists, business groups and other analysts. Another fact is of course the cut in the cash rate today—another blow to the economic credibility of this rotten government. I will give you more inescapable facts about the government's economic record. Economic growth has slowed since the election, it has slowed since Mr Morrison became Prime Minister and it has slowed since the Liberals came to office in 2013. Underemployment is at record highs, with almost two million Australians looking for work or for more work. Weak wages growth has stalled further, and the Liberals are presiding over the worst wages growth on record. The worst wages growth on record—what a legacy for a Liberal-National coalition government in this country. Household spending is growing at its slowest pace since the global financial crisis. Again, what a legacy! And we know consumer confidence is below average. Household living standards have declined under the liberals, with real household median income lower than it was in 2013. Everyone knows it. Everyone around this country knows it. They know they have less to live on than they did seven years ago when this government came to power. We know it on this side of the House, because we talk to our constituents and we witness their lives and what the higher cost of living and stagnant wages growth is doing to them every single day. This government does not care and does not listen. It has no plan for the economy and no plan for this country. Business investment is down 20 per cent since the Liberals came into office, and now it is at its lowest levels since the 1990s recession. The private domestic economy is contracting and has experienced the biggest decline since the GFC. Labor productivity has declined for the first time on record. Net debt has more than doubled—more than doubled!—under the Liberals and rocketed to record highs of $430 billion. These are the facts. The Liberals can say what they want—and they will say what they want—but facts remain. That's the good thing about facts: they always remain. The data doesn't lie and facts don't lie. That's something all of us in this place can have a think about. For many months before the bushfires and coronavirus, Labor had been calling on the government to stimulate the economy in a sensible, responsible way by bringing forward infrastructure spending and tax cuts. We have said that the economy is much weaker than the government had pretended and much weaker than their own budget forecast. But the Prime Minister and the Treasurer refused to do a thing. For the past several weeks, we, on this side, have been saying the impacts of the coronavirus on the economy have been and will continue to be substantial. We have called on the government to do more. You'd think by now this government would have come up with a plan to support business and workers during the fallout from this virus but, again, we have seen nothing. Again, this government is behind the eight ball when it comes to confronting the true economic impacts it is facing. In my role as the shadow minister for trade, I've been made aware of serious concerns among business groups about the current and particular impacts of this virus. Businesses are concerned about a lack of information and guidance from government. The government has a national hotline for anyone concerned about the health effects of the virus. That is entirely a good thing. But, for businesses struggling to stay afloat, there is little information available on the exposure they face or the steps they can take to plan for different scenarios in the weeks and months ahead. Today even in the Financial Review it's been noted that businesses with a network of consumer outlets around every state in this country have complained about a lack of information coming from government about the impact of this virus on their businesses. They seek to know more about potential protocols that they could follow if a customer or staff members is diagnosed with the virus, but they are not getting this information. I first raised concerns about the government's lacklustre response on the business side and the economic impact of the coronavirus back on 6 February. Four weeks later, business is still waiting for this information. It's still waiting for anything—some kind of better information on the website, some kind of hotline—for something to support the economy, and that's why we speak about this government's failure to support the economy today. Another thing that happens in this place time after time in question time is that the government trots out one of these tired lines about its virtues in international trade. It has this line, 'The government has increased our two-way trade by free trade agreements from 26 per cent to more than 70 per cent and are aiming for a high of 90 per cent.' They repeat this over and over. That's fine. What we do know is that Labor has supported the passage of these trade agreements through the parliament. Without our support for open international trade, this government would have nothing—nothing!—to gloat about in respect of its economic record. All it has is its failure to support the economy and its luck that it has the support of a Labor opposition that will do the right thing and make sure we do get international trade happening through this country. Labor in government has a history of supporting international trade and we'll continue to do so. We support the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. We started IA-CEPA. It was a Labor initiative. It took time, it took patience and it took Craig Emerson to start it. We helped finish it, and we're proud of it. Labor support and always will support free, fair and open trade because we know that it raises living standards around the country. The truth is that this government is more concerned with doing absolutely anything it can at any possible cost to remain in government. As we've seen in answer to questions here, it relies on technically correct yet vague assertions about deals it has signed. What is clear to everyone in this place and in this country is that this government cannot run an economy but it sure can run a corrupt sports rorts program. This government can't run an economy but it can run a regional infrastructure program that funds swimming pools in North Sydney. That's great for the National Party. This is their very first dam. They would be very pleased indeed. As an actual bonus, they've delivered a dam with change rooms in North Sydney. Congratulations to the government! This government had a plan and enacted a plan to flagrantly buy the last election, but it's never had a plan to boost economic growth. There will be a reckoning for this government, because the Australian people, the Australian voters, will not forget this sports rorts program, this fraudulent, corrupt program that you have ownership of. This will go with you for all of your careers, because you all played a part in it. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You should just apologise. You do not support the economy. The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 The member will resume her seat. A point of order from the member for Fisher? Mr Wallace 265967 I'd ask the member to withdraw her offensive words under standing order 89 or her reflection under standing order 90. The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 I was listening to— Mr Wallace 265967 The learned member used the term— The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 The member for Fisher can take his seat. I was listening to what the member for Brand said. She was referring to a program that was being administered. I'll rule that in order. 15:32 Mr HOWARTH 247742 Petrie I thank the member for Brand for bringing forward this MPI, because we on this side of the House, as Liberal-Nationals, know that a strong economy is essential for all Australians. It funds all the essential services that so many people rely on. Before coming into this House, I ran my own small family-owned business and employed between 15 and 20 people. As a small business owner, I know the pressures that many small, medium and family businesses are under when employing people. When the economy slows, when times get a bit tough or when you have 6.3 per cent unemployment like we do in Queensland, the highest in the country, it's tough on small and medium businesses. We appreciate our staff. We value their contribution to our businesses and we want to make sure that they have a job going forward. Today the Treasurer mentioned that it was the 24th anniversary yesterday of the Howard government coming to office in 1996. Those on this side of the House remember that the Keating government left the Howard-Costello government a debt of some $96 billion. Nothing has changed. Howard and Costello paid off that debt, left $50 billion in the bank, grew the Future Fund and so forth. When we came to government in 2013 the situation was far worse. We had a much higher debt, which we inherited from the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, a fact that those opposite don't like to know. They went on an unnecessary spending spree that they claimed saved the country. What saved the country was 11 prudent years of the Howard-Costello government balancing the budget and leaving money in the bank for those opposite. Australians know this. The reason why our government won in May was that we had a plan around the economy and that plan didn't involve taxing Australians another $387 billion in new taxes. Can you imagine where retirees would be today if this mob opposite had got in and taken away their dividend imputation, taken away the extra money they had? Where would people trying to rent in this country be if those opposite had introduced negative gearing and all the other new taxes that they wanted to implement? No, it wasn't luck that the coalition won; it was a plan around the economy. Since we were elected in May, we proceeded with $300 billion in legislated tax cuts. That will mean that many Australians earning $90,000 a year—$95,000 a year very soon—will have their 37c tax bracket eliminated completely. What it will mean, in the not too distant future under the legislated tax cuts that have gone through, is that people earning upwards to a higher income will only pay 30c in the dollar, and that will mean more money in people's pockets for the majority of Australians. That's very important. We also know that this government, the coalition government, the Liberal-National government, has reduced taxes for businesses. That has also been very, very important, because, when you're employing people, that all helps. I said today to the member for Curtin, over in Western Australia: 'What about your electorate in Curtin? What are we doing there to help people?' She spoke about the instant asset write-off, where businesses can immediately write off assets and get a tax deduction. She spoke about the changes through the Deregulation Taskforce to help small and medium businesses with simplification of business registers. So a local cafe in Curtin or in Petrie employing staff for the first time—they haven't done it before—can now go to servicesaustralia.gov.au and see how they do it. The information is there. I spoke to the member for Barker, down in South Australia, who has a lot of farmers in his electorate—cattle farmers, sheep farmers, horticulture, citrus, almonds, wine, grapes. Mr Deputy Speaker Howarth, in your electorate, you would have a lot of that. By negotiating world-leading free trade agreements, the Morrison government, the coalition government, has helped the farmers of Barker to work through the non-tariff barrier, and, when exporting fruit and citrus overseas, the fruit fly-free status into countries like China has been a game changer for electorates like Barker. The member for Barker spoke about the instant asset tax write off. He spoke about the increased thresholds to $800,000 for farm management deposits, which is just fantastic. If farmers have a bumper year and take $1.1 million in earnings one year and they withdraw $300,000 and pay tax on it, they can leave $800,000 in there for future years in times of drought. They might go through three years of drought and they can withdraw that $800,000 down and then pay tax on it. That has been a game changer for farmers in Barker. I spoke to the member for Brisbane. Our government is working hard to build a stronger recycling sector and circular economy in Australia. Prime Minister Morrison has announced that Australia will ban the export of our plastic waste and other waste streams like glass, mixed paper and tyres. The Prime Minister said, 'It's our waste; it's our responsibility, and our government sees the problem of plastics as an opportunity to create jobs.' We're currently working with state governments to create more jobs locally. The environment is very important to people in my electorate of Petrie as well. Locally, I'm installing a couple of sea bins in a couple of the local marinas. These collect plastics and so forth, which is really important. When I spoke to the member for Hinkler, the Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia, he spoke about the 200 workers on site in the Adani coalmine in Queensland right know. We know that if those opposite were in government, those 200 people would not have a job. Those 200 people would not have a job under a Labor government. It's important to note that the Corio MP said, 'If thermal coal markets collapse, that would be a good thing.' And what does the member for Corio get in return for saying that? He gets promoted to Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Before the election, the Leader of the Opposition said on radio that there was no market for thermal coal; yet here we are shipping coal and there are 200 new jobs right now in the Adani coalmine. We are shipping coal to China and India, and basically anyone with a coal-powered station, because they want our clean coal. We know that those opposite would not have provided those 200 jobs. We know that the Palaszczuk government in Queensland—which has the worst unemployment rate in the country—would not have signed off on it. They ran around like chooks with their heads cut off after a sweeping victory in Queensland. Why? Because they were caught out. There are reasons why the coalition government was elected, those opposite, and unless you wake up, you won't know. I'll tell you what: in relation to my own electorate and sporting opportunities, we're going to get a lot more. Ms Wells interjecting— Mr HOWARTH 247742 We're going to get more for Lilley too. We're going to get a lot more opportunities. If it wasn't for people like me, member for Lilley, people like the Sandgate Hawks wouldn't have had that opportunity. It's really good for local people. I'll stand up for the Sandgate Hawks, the Peninsula Power Football Club and the Redcliffe Dolphins and every other sporting organisation around. We will get a lot more for Petrie, I can tell you that. There will be more coming. The Hobart City Deal: as the assistant minister, I can say that we have put in $1 billion. Ms Madeleine King interjecting— Mr HOWARTH 247742 The member who raised the MPI says, 'What has the Hobart City Deal got to do with it?' It's jobs, the economy. Member for Brand, it's your MPI. We're only pumping a billion dollars into the Hobart City Deal, which should be welcomed by Tasmanians and by the member for Brand. The Morrison government's investment in Hobart is a huge boost for the economy, funding vital infrastructure in the region. It also includes a $30 million investment into community housing. I welcome that investment. We want to see more investment in community housing. We want to see more state governments supporting community housing. I welcome the safe places investment that the Morrison government is looking at right now. We've got some $200 million in new housing for women and children escaping domestic violence. Ms Madeleine King interjecting— Mr HOWARTH 247742 Member for Brand, this is important stuff. This is what the Morrison government is doing to support the economy. It's your MPI. This is what we're doing. Finally, I welcome today's interest rate cut. It is great for young homebuyers that are paying off their home. We have also introduced the instant asset tax write-off and we're helping people—7,000 people have put in for the deposit scheme. For older Australians, because the economy's strong, we're putting more medicines on the PBS. (Time expired) 15:42 Dr LEIGH BU8 Fenner My 85-year-old constituent Jean Carter has had it tough. Last September her granddaughter, who lived in the same Wreck Bay house, passed away. Then the fires came within five kilometres of Wreck Bay and she was forced to evacuate. Ms Carter is a member of the stolen generations. She prefers self-reliance to government handouts, but she struggles to access what little disaster assistance is available from the Morrison government. Here in Canberra, the Belconnen Tennis Club applied for a grant to upgrade their 50-year-old lighting system. Their submission ranked 82 out of 100: it did better than hundreds of applications that were funded. As President Martin Klein said after they were knocked back: 'To play tennis, you need to be able to see the ball.' But those opposite do their best work in the dark. You can have a go, but the only way you will get a go is if you're a well-connected insider. You have a regional fund used to upgrade the North Sydney pool. You have $50,000 going to a sports club in the Prime Minister's electorate for a project that had already been built. It's a mateocracy, not a meritocracy. As the line goes, those opposite were born on third base thinking they had hit a triple. They cling to trickle-down economics, the idea that the best way of helping out baristas is to give barristers a tax cut and it's all right to give a tax cut to surgeons and a penalty rate cut to nurses. As the member for Brand has highlighted in bringing this important MPI forward, the economy is in a bad way. Unemployment is a full percentage point higher than in the United States, Germany, Britain or New Zealand. It has been that way for years. Productivity is falling. Debt is rising. The startup rate is down. Today the Reserve Bank cut interest rates to 0.5 per cent—one-sixth of the level that they were during the global financial crisis. Let's remember what Joe Hockey—remember Joe Hockey?—said in 2013 when rates were cut. He said, 'They're not cutting interest rates because the economy is doing well; interest rates are being cut to 50-year lows because the economy is struggling.' Now we're not at a 50-year low; we're at a historic low. The economy's problems are not new, despite what the government will try and say. As the Reserve Bank governor told the House Economics Committee in February: … the extended period of unusually slow growth in household incomes has been weighing on household spending … We should have seen, over recent years, the Australian economy growing like the member for Fadden's internet bill, but instead we've seen it shrinking, like a bushfire victim when the Prime Minister approaches for a handshake. Australians have all the job security that the head of Tourism Australia had in 2006! The fact is that, when it comes to economic management, the past decade has seen the bipartisan undoing of much of the damage that Peter Costello did as Treasurer. We've wound back unsustainable superannuation tax concessions, axed the baby bonus, means-tested the private health insurance rebate. Yet those opposite are like a duckling that follows the first animal it sees. Their idea of good economic management is to run razor-thin surpluses. Forget human capital, infrastructure, countercyclical fiscal policy; don't worry about a structural deficit. If you had a notional surplus, Costello was happy. But the 'kids of Costello' can't even get that right. When those opposite came to office, debt was around $8,000 per Australian. Now it's over $17,000 per Australian. Last year they were saying they had 'delivered' a surplus. Now their 'Back in black' coffee mugs are mysteriously out of stock. They can't decide if they're Arthur or Martha. They take the approach of Yogi Berra: 'When you come to a fork in the road, take it.' It's not surprising confidence is down when you recall the Prime Minister's track record. His first big idea was to increase the GST. He called the banking royal commission a 'populist whinge' and voted against it 26 times. He put his arm around Malcolm Turnbull one day and took his job the next. He said electric vehicles would 'end the weekend', and now he's saying his answer to climate change is technology. As for the Treasurer, his department's latest annual report says that Treasury outcome 1 is 'to improve the wellbeing of the Australian people'. So what does he do? He comes in here and takes a whack at his own department, offending New Zealanders and Hindu Australians on the way. Those opposite would like to say they're the heirs to Menzies, but, really, they're the successors to Fraser. The Prime Minister is as miserable as a bandicoot and leads a government of know-nothings who stand for nothing and do nothing. 15:47 Mr FALINSKI G86 Mackellar It is very difficult to take this MPI seriously. If the others opposite won't take it seriously, what are we meant to do about it? This is like debating a bunch of chatbots. The member for Fenner simply put together a whole bunch of cliches that he's been trotting out in his speeches for the last three years that I've been in this place. The great offence here is not the MPI; the really great offence here is the fact that he can't even be bothered coming up with new material. He's such a great reader, you'd think he would have thought of something new. I see the member for Fraser is getting ready to speak. They talk about human capital over there. This is how they use their best and brightest: they put them up as cannon fodder in an MPI that doesn't even make sense. The punctuation's not even right! The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 If the member for Mackellar can pause for a minute. There is actually an MPI subject today, and I'd ask him to speak to it. Mr FALINSKI G86 With respect, Mr Deputy Speaker, no, there isn't. All that we've got here is some blather about— The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 The member will pause for a moment. It should be written on a piece of paper that you've seen— Mr FALINSKI G86 It's a waste of paper, Deputy Speaker. It's a waste of paper. The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 and that's what you'll be speaking to. If you can just keep it relevant, thank you. Mr FALINSKI G86 At least they're doing something for recycling today! At least the member for Fenner recycled a whole bunch of cliches. We're recycling plastic on this side; they're recycling cliches on that side. Let us not forget the mess—to call it a mess is really expanding the sense and definition of that word—in economic terms that those opposite left us with. They had a runaway budget deficit. They had rising unemployment. They had government debt rising at 30 per cent per annum. They made the labour market in this country more rigid than any other labour market in the world, and of course they won't talk about fixing that. I wonder: how much money did all of you get from the unions in the last election cycle? 'We won't talk about helping ordinary Australians because we wouldn't want to offend our biggest donors.' You guys are all about putting workers first! You guys put workers first! Just ask the people in the coalmines about workers. Just ask the teachers in schools about workers. The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 The member for Lyons, on a point of order? Mr FALINSKI G86 Thank you, I needed to take a breath anyway! Mr Brian Mitchell 129164 On relevance. He's defying your ruling. He said next to nothing on the subject of the MPI. The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 The member for Lyons can take a seat. Shortly after I made that ruling he did start actually talking about the economy, and he has got back there occasionally, so we'll let him go. Mr FALINSKI G86 Wow! The problem with these guys is that they don't even know what the economy is. I could be talking about the economy using crayons and butcher paper and they still wouldn't get it. Of course, the member for Fraser and the member for Fenner are exempt from that. Maybe they could help those on that side actually understand what an economy looks like. Every time they get into government, the economy disappears. There is no economy. You leave us with a mess. When we get back in government we fix up the mess you left. Then what do you do? You come to this place and complain about it. Do you know what this MPI should say? This MPI should say: 'We thank the Morrison government for fixing up the mess we left.' That's what it should say. Frankly, I'm going to pretend that's what it does say. That's a much-better MPI topic than the chatbot that the Leader of the Opposition's office came up with today. It's just absurd. Your responsible lending laws, which effectively make lenders responsible for the behaviour of borrowers, have dried up our capital markets and have destroyed the economy and economic activity. Now you come in here and say to us, 'Why haven't you fixed it yet?' You create the most rigid labour markets in the world. Under you real wages fell and under us they're increasing. Opposition members interjecting— Mr FALINSKI G86 Can't we all come together over a union official bullying a woman, who was a subcontractor, on a building site? I would have thought the parliament could come together over that. But not these blokes—no, no, no. They see the dollars going in the bank, they see the donors coming to the dinners and they're not interested. The SPEAKER 00APG The member's time has expired. Mr FALINSKI G86 But I was just getting started. The SPEAKER 00APG That's why time limits were introduced in 1905. 15:52 Ms WELLS 264121 Lilley It's nice to see that order has been restored to the House. It's genuinely nice to have an opportunity to have a debate in this parliament. Since the election in May last year we have been shut down so many times by those opposite that those of us who are new have had very few opportunities to debate matters of great consequence to the nation, such as the economy. So thanks—thanks for your sympathy, thanks for your compassion and thanks for giving us this opportunity. You normally act like a bunch of schoolchildren in this chamber, specifically schoolboys. You on that side of the chamber are like schoolboys who have a weird obsession with stripy ties, like schoolboys who thump the table when someone makes a particularly petty point—that seems to go down very well over there—and like schoolboys who, despite the fact that they clearly all did it in high school, missed the opportunity to have a proper private school debate. So that's what they do and what they give us instead. It's such a pleasure to give these schoolboys their report card on the economy. I know they take great exception to our opinion, so I won't put that on them. What I will do is give them the opinions of the experts in our country. The renowned bastion of socialism the Ai Group said, 'We can see that from well before the onset of the devastating bushfires the Australian economy has been slowing.' Those rampaging communists Deloitte said back in October 2019, 'The pain in our economy has been home-grown.' EY, those barefoot vegans, said, 'The economy is losing momentum quite quickly.' PwC said, 'The imperative for additional stimulation of the economy remains.' Finally BCA, the workers' friends, said, 'We need to pull all the levers if we really want to get a sustained rise in investment to lock in future productivity growth and income growth.' That's your report card. That is the national report card on how you've been managing the books for seven very long years. Let me tell you about the experience of people in my electorate of Lilley. In just the past few months, under your watch—which you boast about for 90 minutes every single day you come here—Lockheed Martin has completely shut down operations in Pinkenba, the corporate office of Virgin Australia in inner-northern Brisbane has cut 750 jobs and Arnott's, the iconic Australian company that provides us all with biscuits that we love, has been sold to a US private equity giant. Ms Swanson 264170 No Tim Tams for you lot! Ms WELLS 264121 No Tim Tams for that side of the chamber. Look what you did. The Courier Mail has called Nundah 'the village of the dammed' because the shopfront situation there is so bad. The retail figures under your watch are so appalling that shopfronts cannot prosper there anymore. Just last week Tigerair announced that they would be closing operations in Brisbane. That will mean up to 100 jobs lost. Finally, Jetstar treats its workers so poorly that they have had to strike for eight months to try and get something better than the insecure work they are being offered by the bosses in this economy. That is what it looks like in the real world. That is what your economy does to people out in the real world. You should be hanging your heads in shame and you should be burying yourselves in your phones, because for 90 minutes every day we have to hear about how you're engraving your medals with what a great job you've done. That is not how it feels to people in the real world. That's only how it feels to people on the 'HMAS Aloha' on that side of the chamber, led and captained by the PM who says that he can do a better job at managing peoples' money than anybody else. During the election he said: 'It's not their money; it's your money. It's not our money; it's your money.' Look what he did with your money—$100 million rorted, $100 million misspent! What does that look like on the ground? It mean the mums and dads and volunteers and active citizens who gave up hours and hours of their time each week to fill out a grant application in the hope that their 1960s toilets, which are shared by the weightlifters and the soccer kids, might get an upgrade—did they get an upgrade? No, not unless they're in a key Liberal marginal seat, they didn't. Instead, this Prime Minister shovelled $100 million out the door to bolster his own political prospects. Now he has been caught red-handed, and day in, day out we have to listen to the most feeble defence. But it will come undone. You will all come undone by this. We will watch this with some pleasure, because, as we heard today, despite the fact that, clearly, answers are required, the Prime Minister is still only referring to them as 'on rorter' matters. Despite the fact that the grants were supposed to be given on merit, we are operating in a 'merortocracy' under this government. The Prime Minister, under the Prime Minister's XI, is now 'the rorter boy'. We are all operating under 'Rortership Down', and I hope very much that you do not find yourselves with the same ending as 'On the Rorter Front.' 15:57 Dr ALLEN 282986 Higgins It's another week in Canberra and it's another assertion from those opposite that is just plain wrong. There's more doom and gloom from the member for Brand, when the reality is quite the opposite, because we on this side are getting on with the job and we always do. We're getting on with the job of securing our future through a stronger economy. We're making sure taxes are low so that Australians can keep more of what they earn. Unlike those opposite, we believe Australians know how best to spend their money, not the other way around. Equally true is the fact that Australians know they can't trust Labor to manage money. How do Australians know that we are on the right track with regard to economic management? Well, I can tell you: we have had 29 years of consecutive unprecedented economic growth. The Morrison government, with my good friend the member for Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg, as Treasurer, has balanced the budget for the first time in 11 years. But we're not the only ones who think we're doing a good job: just look to the external bodies such as the International Monetary Fund. The IMF is predicting that Australia will grow faster than the US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and the UK—countries with similar economies and government structures—over the next two years. Australia holds a AAA credit rating and has done for eight consecutive years, one of only 10 countries in the world to have maintained a AAA credit rating. The Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, is also positive about Australia's economic future under our strong economic management. The Reserve Bank isn't known for getting ahead of itself. The Reserve Bank governor confirmed: Australia's economic fundamentals remain very strong and they provide a solid foundation for us to be optimistic about our future. We know that those opposite like to talk down the economy. As one of my constituents in Higgins told me, Labor is the party of the glass half empty while we are the party of the glass half full. Where Labor sees problems, we see opportunity. We understand the resilience of Australians. We understand and support the resilience of Australian businesses. We understand and support our economy despite headwinds. Whether they are trade headwinds, bushfires, droughts or now the coronavirus, we understand and invest in businesses getting ahead. We know that Australians trust us to take sensible and proportional steps to help build confidence and act to build a strengthened economy. When you have a strong economy, you can provide a better safety net when we hit external headwinds. When the devastating bushfires ravaged New South Wales and Victoria earlier this year, the Morrison government was there to lend a hand. And the government's support will continue as our bushfire affected communities rebuild. We can and will weather the storm of a public-health emergency like coronavirus. No-one could have possibly foreseen the speed at which this new virus moved, but Australia was ready. We were ready because of the investments we have made in research and development of institutions like the Doherty institute. Australia has been at the forefront of the response to this terrible global epidemic. I commend the government for its investment in the Doherty institute in creating and developing a vaccine. It's because of the actions we've taken on the coronavirus that we've got ahead. That includes our responses that have been proportionate and include communication and containment, responses with the Diamond Princessand responses with investment in medical research into the coronavirus vaccine. And we intend to stay ahead. Together as a country we will get through this. We are supporting Australians through a strong economy and in turn creating a strong future for the next generation. Economically we will weather this storm, and already the Treasury is working on a suite of measures that are targeted, modest, and scalable so we can adjust accordingly as economic implications are realised. Unlike those opposite, we are supporting Australians for the next generation through a strong economy. 16:02 Dr MULINO 132880 Fraser I rise to commend the Shadow Minister for Trade for raising this motion today, a critical day when the Reserve Bank has dropped the cash rate to all-time lows. As she indicated, it is not because the economy is in a position of strength but as a reflection of the weakness of this economy. I will argue today that this motion should be supported because this government has sat on its hands for seven years, which places us in a position of far greater weakness than we ought to be in when we face the inevitable economic shocks that arise. When shocks do arise, often with some warning, this government does not respond in a timely fashion. Let's firstly look at the state of our economy. Those opposite—the Treasurer, the Prime Minister and even some of those who have spoken today—come in here and pat themselves on the back every day of every sitting week, repetitively misquoting and misrepresenting economic statistics. If we look at a series of comparator economies, we find that those opposite can only claim our economy is doing well when they use aggregate figures—when they count up the number of jobs being created or look at gross domestic product in aggregate terms. When you reduce economic figures to per capita terms—what really matters to people—you find that our performance is far worse than those opposite are willing to concede. They will say, for example, 'Our economic growth in aggregate terms is faster than Japan,' without telling anybody that our population growth is two full percentage points faster than Japan. When you look at it in per capita terms, our GDP per capita growth is lower than Japan's. There are any number of tables out there showing that we drop down the table dramatically when you look at us in per capita terms. So let's look at economic statistics that matter to real people in real terms. What about wages growth? It is the lowest on record. What about labour productivity growth? It is going backwards for the first time ever. Let's look at how households responded to the first tranche of tax cuts. Twenty-five per cent of it was spent, according to bank estimates. That's far lower than any economic modellers had estimated. Let's look at unemployment and underemployment. Those opposite will occasionally compare our unemployment figures with some other comparable countries, but what they don't acknowledge is that underemployment in this country is going through the roof. It's over eight per cent and climbing, and in some areas is more than 10 per cent. And labour under-utilisation in some regional areas of Australia is nearly 20 per cent, or one in five workers who aren't being given the opportunity to use their talents. More importantly than that are the structural problems in our economy where many people are not earning enough, even from their main job, to put food on the table and are being subjected to worse and worse insecurity in the workplace because of the uneven laws that this government has put in place and won't reform. So the economy, for seven years, has been lacklustre and, in many key respects, worsening. What we also find is that we have seen a number of negative shocks to the economy, but we have seen warnings given to this government that this government has not acted upon. Let's look at the bushfires. We had fire experts begging to meet with the Prime Minister months in advance of this terrible fire season. He wouldn't meet with them. They had a number of practical policies which they wanted the Prime Minister to consider. Moreover, once we had the fire season, this government has been all too slow to respond. We've had question time after question time where this government fails to answer questions about people who are not being given benefits. The bushfires was a classic example. Coronavirus looks like being another example. We have had weeks and weeks now where the world has become aware of a growing risk of a pandemic. What is this government doing? It is sitting on its hands, week after week after week. Presumably all this government is doing is hoping it can squeeze a surplus, so it's going to wait until the budget, which will be four full months after there were well-disclosed risks arising in the global economy. This government, yet again, is sitting on its hands. This government's economic mismanagement takes two forms: year after year it does nothing when we need productivity reform and we need structural reform, and, then, when we actually have risks that arise—like the bushfires, like the drought, like the coronavirus—this government does not respond in a timely fashion to warnings. We've put forward a willingness to discuss all sorts of policies with the government such as targeted tax relief, an increase in Newstart, infrastructure investment and business tax incentives. They don't want to talk to us. We have said we would sit down in a constructive way. As the shadow minister for trade has said, we have supported trade initiatives that have benefited this economy. We would support timely measures that this economy needs in the face of coronavirus. We shouldn't wait till the budget. 16:07 Mr SHARMA 274506 Wentworth I thank the member for Brand for the important opportunity to talk about our economic record and how our economy is well-placed to withstand external shocks. Let's examine our economic record. We are in our 29th year of economic growth, which is a record for any developed country. We've run our first current account surplus in 45 years—our first current account surplus since 1975. We've been running a trade surplus now for a record 24 months, which means, to lay people, we're exporting more than we're importing. We have the lowest welfare dependency ratio in 30 years, which means we've got more people in jobs and less people on welfare. We've got the longest unbroken month-on-month jobs growth since monthly records began in 1978. In the year to January 2020, employment grew 1.9 per cent—that's double the OECD average. We've created 80,000 jobs in the last three months, and 311,000 jobs in the year to October 2019. Our workforce participation is at record levels, with almost 75 per cent of the population aged 15 to 64 in a job. We've handed down the first balanced budget in 11 years, which means we have the fiscal headroom to respond to shocks and act in the face of contingencies like bushfire and like the coronavirus. And we've been able to do all this without raising taxes and without imposing special levies or duties. Our economic outlook is positive. We've got a AAA credit rating from the three ratings agencies—one of only 10 countries to have this. The IMF is forecasting Australia to grow faster than the United States, faster than Canada, faster than Japan, faster than France, faster than Germany and faster than the United Kingdom, for both the years 2020 and 2021. The Reserve Bank Governor said just a few weeks ago, on 7 February: 'When we met six months ago, I said there were signs that the Australian economy may have reached a gentle turning point. The data that we have received since last met is consistent with this.' I refer you here to a leader in The Economist, published in October 2018, titled, 'What the world can learn from Australia.' I quote: Rising incomes, low public debt, an affordable welfare state, popular support for mass immigration and a broad consensus on the policies underpinning these things—that is a distant dream in most rich countries. Many Western politicians could scarcely imagine a place that combined them all. Happily, they do not have to, because such a country already exists: Australia. Its economy is arguably the most successful in the rich world. This is no reason to rest on our laurels. These things do not happen by accident. They happen because of careful planning, careful budget management and things like fiscal consolidation. For the first time in 11 years, last year the budget was returned to balance. Under six years of Labor, under the former member for Lilley, every year there was a deficit, running up $240 billion in debt altogether. Thank you to the former member for Lilley! We've reduced the growth in spending from four per cent per year under Labor to 1.3 per cent. That's how we've managed to fiscally consolidate. We've done this whilst delivering tax cuts: tax cuts for households and tax cuts for small businesses, allowing people to keep more of what they earn. When these tax cuts are implemented in full, over 94 per cent of Australians will be paying no more than 30 cents in the dollar. We've done this whilst we've still invested record amounts in public services—schemes like the National Disability Insurance Scheme; adding over 2,000 new lifesaving medicines to the PBS— Opposition members interjecting— Mr SHARMA 274506 Remember that—the PBS? The one that you guys didn't add any medicines to? We've done record infrastructure spending. We've overseen once-in-a-generation modernisation and investment in our defence forces and capability, getting defence spending up to two per cent of GDP. We've concluded free trade agreements with China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the 11 nations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. We are negotiating free trade agreements with the European Union, the United Kingdom and the 16-nation Regional Economic Comprehensive Partnership. All this is at a time of growing global opposition to free trade. There's no doubt that we face tough economic conditions. We've still got the impact of the drought from last year. We've got the coronavirus, whose impact is highly uncertain. We've got bushfires, too, which will detract from growth. But with strong policy settings, supportive fiscal and monetary policies and a strong public health system, we will act to safeguard our economy. We will act to safeguard the Australian people. And we will emerge from this, as we have in the past, stronger and better for it. 16:12 Mr DAVID SMITH 276714 Bean We come into this House and often hear from the leadership double act—the Treasurer and the Prime Minister—about what cunning plans they have for the economy. Truly, the Treasurer is the Baldrick of this government and the Prime Minister is Blackadder. With the performance from the member for Mackellar we have a pretty good candidate for George as well. Baldrick and Blackadder would get into all sorts of scrapes, whereupon the hapless Baldrick would suggest he had a 'cunning plan' that would somehow get the dynamic duo out of a mess of their own making. As other speakers have eloquently put it, the lack of leadership from the Treasurer and Prime Minister is responsible for the parlous state of our economy. They are the architects of what was a flatlining economy before the summer commenced and before the challenges of bushfires and now coronavirus. Australian families, workers and businesses were already counting the cost of this government's inaction and ineptitude. As well as other economic problems, those opposite are the key architects of wage stagnation in this country. This is where they have confidently led by example, ensuring that their own workforce—the Australian Public Service and the broader Australian government workforce—has been restricted from genuine pay increases for the duration of this Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government. They have supported penalty rate cuts across the hospitality and retail sectors, ensuring that tens of thousands of Australian workers and their families have had significantly thinner pay packets and tighter budgets not offset by tax cuts. Yes, they are the architects of wage stagnation, as the finance minister has previously crowed. They have paired those penalty-rate cuts with a raft of anti-union legislation. There has been close to silence on the case for minimum wage rises—although they were pretty fast to claim credit for decisions made by the Fair Work Commission, when it suits—let alone the failure to act on Newstart. They've relied on an endless series of fantasy based forecasts that wages growth was about to surge. The constituents of Bean are still waiting for that surge to happen. The end result is that Baldrick and Blackadder have trapped us in a low-confidence vortex of their own making. That has been their cunning plan. And then we have the Reserve Bank cutting the cash rate again today. They have cut this to just 0.5 per cent. That's a mark of some economic success! Those opposite set the bar. They said, 'Judge us by our economic management.' Well, on multiple fronts, they are failing, and it's because they have no plans, no targets, no push for wage growth that is credible. The Reserve Bank have today passed their judgement. We are well beyond emergency levels, to a record low. It is a new low for the cash rate and a new low for this government's economic credibility. As noted by those before, today's decision represents the fourth interest rate in 10 months, leaving the cash rate close to zero, only one-sixth of what it was through the depths of the global financial crisis. The absence of economic leadership and an economic plan have left Australians dangerously exposed to economic risks. In his statement today, the Reserve Bank governor highlighted that unemployment has increased and that subdued wages growth is not expected to pick up for some time. While the coronavirus will have a substantial economic impact, it doesn't explain or excuse seven years of economic mismanagement and underperformance under this government. It doesn't excuse the $8.1 billion, as outlined by one of Australia's great financial journalists, Michael Pascoe, that has come from politically rorted federal programs—programs focused on election outcomes rather than economic or community benefit. We know that that's what their real cunning plan was. This isn't a Richard Curtis comedy; it's a tragedy. Put all too simply and all too disappointingly: for working people and small business in my community of Bean, the government has failed to adequately support the economy, and it's time to stop taking Australians for mugs. 16:17 Mr CHRISTENSEN 230485 Dawson It's rare that I actually join in on a matter of public importance. It's a longstanding policy of mine, normally for two reasons. One, it just seems to be a platform for people that want to hark back to their university days, when they were in the debating club, and serves no real point. The second thing is that it harms my mental health to hear some of the arguments from the opposition. I've got to say, today, once again, we've seen that. The matter of public importance that's been put forward by the member for Brand—quite honestly, I have to ask: are the member for Brand's eyes painted on? Are her ears there for decoration? Does she honestly believe that the country is not adequately prepared economically? The government is investing $100 billion in infrastructure right around this nation—a mammoth amount in projects all over Australia. An opposition member interjecting— Mr CHRISTENSEN 230485 I'll take the interjection. Where? The Mackay Ring Road Stage 1, the Mackay Ring Road Stage 2, the Haughton River bridge project—that's over $1 billion worth of infrastructure in North Queensland. Mr Wallace 265967 The Bruce Highway upgrades! Mr CHRISTENSEN 230485 The Bruce Highway upgrades are all up and down the coast, including stage 5 of the Townsville Ring Road; we've done stage 4 already. There is the Walkerston Bypass. I could be here for a long time. The Mackay Northern Access Upgrade—do the members opposite really want me to go on and on? I could. Do you know what? Some of these are the very infrastructure projects that they come in here and complain about. They say, 'Oh, there's too much going into coalition electorates.' Let me tell you: that's what good advocacy does. All of those people on the other side who complain that their electorates don't get much—when they're pointing the finger at the government there should be three or four pointing back at them. It is their failure as a good local member to go in and bang the doors of ministers' offices, bang the desks and demand for their electorates what their electorates deserve. If they don't do that, if they haven't braced the door of a minister's office since they've been here, then they are not decent local representatives. That is the fact. I can tell you, I did it under the Gillard era and the little sliver of Kevin Rudd that we got. I went to ministers, I wrote to ministers and I harangued ministers about getting local infrastructure. I say to those people who are complaining about what coalition electorates got to do the same thing, to be good local members. It's government investment in local areas, particularly in regional areas, that drives job creation and business growth. It's also the fact that we have deployed a range of measures, from the proposed tax cuts, which have already been delivered, to the small-business instant asset write-off. They have actually caused Australia's economy to be in a very good place going into the economic headwinds we are probably about to go into with the coronavirus and the impact of the bushfires. Our AAA credit rating has been reaffirmed by three leading agencies, one of only 10 countries around the world, and yet the member who put this forward, the member for Brand, reckons that we're not supported adequately in terms of the economy. Employment actually grew by almost two per cent through the year to January 2020, almost double the OECD average. It compares to just 0.7 per cent when those guys were in office. But according to the member for Brand—no eyes and no ears, obviously—we're failing to adequately support the economy. The last three months of jobs data have beaten median market expectations, with around 80,000 jobs created. But apparently the economy is not prepared adequately. More people are in jobs, fewer people are on welfare— The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 The time for the discussion has concluded. BILLS 47 BILLS Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020 47

Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020

Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020

Cognate debate.

Consideration resumed of the motion:

That this bill be now read a second time.

to which the following amendment was moved:

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 that:

(1) after six years in office the economy is floundering on the Government's watch;

(2) Australians are struggling with stagnant wages, with wage growth stalling further;

(3) net debt has more than doubled under this Government;

(4) the Government does not have a plan to boost wages or growth in the economy; and

(5) it is because of the Government's failures that Australia meets the challenges and uncertainties of the bushfires and coronavirus from a position of weakness, not strength"—

16:22 Mr PERRETT HVP Moreton During the 2019 election campaign, the Morrison government promised to fund the removal of the Coopers Plains level crossing, as I had done. Here we are in March 2020 and no work has begun. We're coming up to one year since that election commitment was made and there is nothing. In July last year, I asked the Deputy Prime Minister: When will work begin on eliminating the dangerous level crossing at Boundary Road in Coopers Plains? He didn't answer the question but he did say, right here at this dispatch box, that he would come to Moreton to look at the crossing. Well, it's March 2020 and I'm still waiting. The Liberal and National party Brisbane City Council has never committed to paying its fair share for removing this dangerous crossing. It's happy to pay for half of the infrastructure on the north side of Brisbane but will only pay 15 per cent when it comes to the south side. I've got a hardworking Labor counsellor, Steve Griffiths, who has been lobbying to get it fixed. Labor council candidates John Prescott and Trent McTiernan have been working hard to bring attention to the infrastructure improvements that are necessary in both the Runcorn ward and MacGregor ward and the benefits that would flow. That's why I was delighted to hear the Labor lord mayoral candidate, Pat Condren, commit to fixing not just the Coopers Plains level crossing but also another dangerous level crossing in Runcorn. Both of these crossings are under RACQ's top-five priority list of dangerous crossings. Pat Condren has committed to one-third of the construction costs of this Coopers Plains level crossing upgrade, which is actually the Brisbane City Council's fair share. I look forward to welcoming a Labor Brisbane City Council who will treat the south side with the same level of infrastructure spending as they spray around on the north side. The member for Dawson suggested that we should lobby ministers. I lobbied the Deputy Prime Minister. I wrote to the minister. I wrote to the Prime Minister. I did all that I could, but we still don't have this construction project starting on the south side. I did my job as a local member. Now we need the Morrison government to actually step up and fund this crossing. 16:24 Ms RISHWORTH HWA Kingston We're coming up to seven years of this Liberal government, and there is a question on my lips, as on the lips of many others: 'What is the point of them?' What is the point? They've been elected with absolutely no plan for the future of Australia. They don't have a plan for the nation's economy. They don't have a plan to get wages moving or to address job insecurity and the rising cost of living—all these issues that are impacting Australian working families. The Liberal Party and the National Party have taken no steps to really invest in our people. This is a real, real shame. They've let education and health services really decay, and they've done nothing to address climate change. Of course, there are a number of areas that I could touch on in which they have really failed the Australian people, but I think we can't go past the aged-care system. It has been terrible to see this government leave the aged-care system in such crisis. It has been under their watch. I really find it frustrating, as do many other people, when this Prime Minister constantly blames others and constantly finds excuses about why they haven't properly funded aged care. Well, put it in the budget! There's a simple answer. Of course, we've seen waiting times for aged care explode under the Liberals—by 300 per cent—with older Australians now waiting longer and longer for permanent care or for home care packages. More than 110,000 calls for help have gone unanswered by the My Aged Care call centre over the last three years. Just last week, the government was forced to back down on their plans to privatise aged-care assessments. That had been a terrible, terrible plan and finally, after a lot of pressure, I'm pleased that they have backed down on this. But, of course, we still have their inaction when it comes to this really important system. Our older Australians deserve our support. They have worked hard all their lives and deserve, in their older years, the care and support that they need. I think for any society a measure of how well they're doing, how compassionate they are and how decent they are is how they treat their most vulnerable—those that require care. Right now, we're doing pretty badly as a country, particularly when it comes to our older Australians. The Morrison government doesn't need a royal commission to tell them that they need to address the shortfall in home aged care packages. This is not the first time I've raised this. I am regularly having to raise in this parliament the long waiting times for home care packages through My Aged Care. Despite the government's announcement of additional home care packages, people are still not receiving the support and care they deserve. People are being assessed as needing high levels of support and are simply not receiving it due to long waiting times. In South Australia alone, 6,073 people were waiting for a package. As we've heard from others, 120,000 older Australians from around the country are awaiting home care. One of those people is Mrs Charman, who lives in the electorate. She contacted me out of desperation when she was told there would be a 12-month wait before she received the level 3 home care package she needs. She said to me, 'I may not be around to receive it.' Mrs Charman believes she may die before she receives the support she needs. Isn't that a tragedy? She feels this way not only because of the long wait time but because of her own personal experience when it came to her husband. Mrs Charman watched her beloved husband pass away while he was still on the same waiting list that she is on. She says the support came through too late. She was notified that his package had become available after he'd passed away. Her son is worried for her, just as he was worried for his father. Tragically, this is not the only situation where family members or individuals have contacted me about loved ones where the person has passed away while waiting to receive the care they were assessed as needing. These are individuals that have been assessed as needing a level of support, and just can't get it. More than 16,000 Australians died while waiting for their approved home care packages in 2017-18. The son of a fragile aged woman contacted me with his concerns. His mother was not receiving the level of care she was assessed as needing. He was also worried about her husband, who is himself elderly and was responsible for caring for her and making up for the government shortfall. I made my representations to the minister on the family's behalf. Devastatingly, before the minister's response was received, she had also passed away. Her son said to me, 'They claim the support is there but in reality it's not.' In response, Minister Colbeck claimed that he regretted that the home care package service was not in place before her passing. Well, minister, it is too little too late. Enough with your regrets. Enough with your thoughts and prayers. Do something about this. This is a matter of dignity for many who wish to remain in their homes. How can people receive timely assessments to gauge what support they need but then be made to wait months or in some cases years to receive this support? We know that our aged-care system is in crisis—and our elderly cannot wait. The government must do better to ensure older Australians get the quality aged-care services they need. No more excuses, Prime Minister, and no more blaming other people. It is time to act now. In addition to this issue that's affecting many in my electorate, the issues of job insecurity and employment are also on the minds of many in my seat in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. Many people are finding the stagnating wages really difficult. Their wages are not going up and, of course, households bills are, and they feel that their standard of living is being reduced—and the government are doing nothing. They have absolutely no plan. Many in my electorate were affected when then Treasurer Joe Hockey goaded General Motors to leave this country. No-one should forget that that the reason that Holden is leaving Australia today is because this government told them to leave—'Pack your bags and get out. We don't want you here any more.' And, of course, now we're seeing the final step, the final consequence, as a result of the then Treasurer, who was part of this government. We've still got the same government that provides no support for manufacturing in this country and does not believe in standing up for manufacturing jobs. But, of course, there is another challenge that we see in South Australia, and that is making sure that we get our fair share of jobs from the Future Submarine project. When Christopher Pyne was defence minister he said that 90 per cent of the Future Submarine work would be carried out in Australia. That was a solemn, solemn promise. But, unfortunately within, say, 18 months that promised 90 per cent has suddenly reduced to 60 per cent. Now there's only a guarantee of 60 per cent. The increasing uncertainty when it comes to how much work will occur in Australia for the Future Submarine project is concerning, and it's this government who is misleading the Australian people about Australian content. When the Prime Minister flew to Adelaide earlier this year, he didn't face the workers at Osborne; he didn't address their questions; he didn't commit to having 90 per cent of work on the Future Submarine project in Adelaide. Well, it's just not good enough. And Premier Steven Marshall is not holding this government to account and is not standing up for South Australians and demanding answers from this Prime Minister. How, within 18 months, can the amount of work go from 90 per cent in Australia to 60 per cent? This is about government misleading the Australian people before an election—and this government of course has form. In addition to jobs and in addition to failing our older Australians, the government continues to fail when it comes to those that need government services. We know that there are many people, particularly pensioners, who are struggling to make ends meet—and, indeed, struggling to even navigate the Centrelink system. Of course, we know that there are many people, particularly pensioners, who are struggling to actually make ends meet and, indeed, struggling even to navigate the Centrelink system. There are many people who do rely on Centrelink at some point in their lifetime, whether that is when they need a social security and support if they find themselves without a job, people requiring child care support or pensioners who have worked a lifetime and now are looking to the government for support. And we have seen this federal government run down our safety net system in this country. The wait times for Centrelink continue to be absolutely appalling. I literally have pensioners that thought that, when it came time to retire and they knew they'd qualify for the pension, it would be a simple process, that all they had to do was register for Centrelink and then they would suddenly get their pension. They are now eating into their meagre savings just to get by just because the system has been run down by this Liberal government. I think that's because in their heart of hearts the coalition does not believe in a safety net system. It's a safety net for our older Australians, a safety net for those who find themselves down on their luck, a safety net for those most vulnerable in our community. They don't believe in it, and so that is why not only with their language but with their actions when it comes to Centrelink and other government services they have no interest and no commitment to it. Finally, I'd like to quickly touch on our early education and childcare system. We've got a government that is just not investing more money. They're investing less money when it comes to our early education system, and that is just not good enough. We should be investing in our youngest citizens. Just because they don't have a vote shouldn't mean that we should not actually invest in them. They are our future, and it is so important. But of course what we're seeing is a government that will not commit funding past this year to four-year-old preschool and kindy. This was a very successful program that was introduced by the previous Labor government. It has seen early education and access improve right across the country, including in the most recent Closing the gap report, which showed universal access has brought preschool enrolment of Indigenous children to 86.4 per cent and is on target to meet the 95 per cent target by 2025. So it is a good-news story about investing in early education, but the Liberal and National government will not commit to this in the long term. We've heard a whole lot of weasel words when it comes to this government. We've heard them say: 'Well, enrolment's up, but attendance isn't good enough. We need to do a review of the national partnerships'—excuse after excuse after excuse. Well, all of those reviews have been done. All of the negotiations have been had with the states and territories, and the test is in this budget coming up in May. There are no more excuses. It is now time for this Commonwealth government to invest in early education in the long term. Fund universal access to four-year-old preschool. Put it in the forward estimates. Stop your dodgy accounting. Stop holding kindies, state governments and community preschools to ransom and just fund them. Bite the bullet and invest in our children. While you're there, fund three-year-old preschool as well. The two years before school are really important moments in a child's education. Actually fund these. Actually work with the states and territories, not against them. My challenge to the government is for them to actually start funding universal access to early education. Put it in the budget because it has a big impact. While we are there, start actually doing something about childcare fees. You lauded your new childcare system, and all it has done is put fees up for families. Out-of-pocket expenses are soaring. Families cannot afford this, and it is time the government took real action when it comes to investing into early education. There are so many things that this government could do. We are providing a lot of constructive criticism for you. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to see any action, because this government got elected with no plan, but I urge them to take our constructive criticism and get on with the job of governing for all Australians. 16:39 Mr SHORTEN 00ATG Maribyrnong The saying goes that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think it is better that we assume that those in the federal political class are not above reproach. We should acknowledge that we are human and some members of government and the Commonwealth service can and will occasionally wander from the high road. It was in January 2018 that I said at the National Press Club that we need to do more to improve transparency in government and have greater accountability in government to rebuild trust in our democracy. In January 2018, I and our shadow Attorney-General announced Labor's intention to establish a national integrity commission. I said then that politics as usual in 2018 wouldn't cut it, considering the year that we had in 2017 with travel rorts and other matters, but I couldn't have predicted the intervening years between then and now. But we did commit Labor then to create a national integrity commission, a federal body modelled on the lessons of the state anticorruption bodies. It would be a national integrity commission to resolve the gaps and inconsistencies in our current system and be designed to ensure the highest standards in public administration. It wasn't about partisanship then; it was about building trust. I then said that, if the government of the day wanted to move on this before Labor could form a government, they were welcome to do so. They have not though, or they have done so insufficiently. It's about restoring the faith of people in their representatives in the system of government. Then I said: I’m not putting this policy forward because I’m aware of any corrupt conduct—if I was, I would report it. I'm not sure I would say the same thing though. In other words, I think the actions of this government that have been revealed—their actions they took before the election to win the election—now more than ever, underline the need for a national integrity commission. I said then it had to be independent and well-resourced, secure from government interference, and it needed a broad jurisdiction, effectively operating 'as a standing royal commission' with all those investigative powers 'into serious and systemic corruption' in the public sector and those who deal with the public sector. We said then that it should have discretion to hold public hearings when it considers this to be in the public interest. We even outlined it could have a commissioner and two deputies, each serving one fixed five-year term, but, importantly, be appointed by the parliament on a bipartisan basis. The commissioner would make findings of fact, not law, and then refer them to the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions if appropriate. It would report to parliament annually, overseen by a joint standing committee. It was a big move then but one which I and the shadow Attorney-General had been consulting on for months, if not years, beforehand, to talk about the principles that were outlined. I'm pleased to say that since the election the new Labor leadership has re-endorsed its commitment to this approach. But, today, I would suggest the reform is now even more important than it was two years ago. At a state level, anticorruption commissions have provided a valuable check on unscrutinised power. It is imperative that standards apply, that wrongdoings are exposed and that the public be informed. This will create a better culture—a cultural of accountability and standards rather than a culture of cover-up, hubris arrogance and accounting with impunity. Public support for this reform is only increasing over time and, little wonder, we live at a time where the concept of political shame is in fast retreat. When the attitudes of 'whatever it takes' and 'anything goes' are on the rise, we see in this public life the increasing rareness of ministerial responsibility. The Prime Minister doesn't like to be told when he's wrong. He has a trademark stubbornness. Sometimes that is a strength, but at other times that is ignorance. A stubborn refusal to eject any of his ministers from cabinet is not explicable by the norms of ministerial responsibility. The tawdry saga of the sports rorts scandal outlined today in the parliament by our leader Anthony Albanese slows the politicisation of the system. The politicisation of infrastructure and regional grants is a grim story indeed. We know that Senator McKenzie was the sacrificial lamb for the sports rorts scandal, sent down on the technicality of not declaring a membership of a gun club, worth under $300, when in fact it was the impropriety of the whole scheme that made her individual disclosure failings pale into insignificance. How have we got to a state of affairs in this nation where the consequence of these rorts can be described as 'a miracle' on election night? Has anyone else faced consequences or a penalty for this rorting of public finances to try and win an election at any cost? Has anyone apologised to the public over the complete bastardisation of these grants programs? Has anyone explained to all of the clubs who think that they were playing on a level playing field that they weren't—for this mishandling, misspending of public money? No, not this mob. The member for Hume remains on the frontbench despite his trademark bungles and scandals. When I look at my opposite number, the member for Fadden, things are much worse. Mr Morrison's predecessor, Mr Turnbull—who it must be said seemed to believe in ministerial standards to a greater extent than the current Prime Minister—actually ejected the member for Fadden from cabinet following a series of decisions by the member for Fadden. What did the current Prime Minister do, knowing all of this—knowing that Mr Turnbull considered that the member for Fadden shouldn't be in the cabinet? He rewarded his friends who voted for the spill, encouraging Mr Dutton to run, and miraculously switched back the votes against Mr Dutton once the vote actually occurred. Never have so few been rewarded so well for doing so little. What has the new Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Minister for Government Services done since his Lazarus-style resurrection to cabinet? Some $4.6 billion has been ripped out of the NDIS, and 1,200 Australians with disability have died while waiting to get on to this national scheme. As for the government services portfolio he's presided over, there has, I think, been perhaps the greatest scandal in social security that any government has seen. I'm speaking of course of robodebt. How can a government find no-one responsible for issuing hundreds of thousands of illegal letters of demand on their own citizens? It's causing untold stress and untold harm. I've spoken to mothers who believe their children took their own lives because of the pressure of these robodebt letters. Court cases have had to be commenced. We've seen tens of millions of dollars unjustly taken by the Commonwealth from some of the most vulnerable citizens in the country. It is a scandal. When the government doesn't have the power to take money and still does because it can, because its the biggest financial operation in the Commonwealth, and then hangs onto the money and forces citizens who were illegally issued with debt notices to go to court to recover the money that the government never had the power to take in the first place—that's a scandal. The only explanation is that when they set up the scheme they (1) didn't get legal advice (2) got bad legal advice or (3) got good legal advice and ignored it. But, at any level, how can we get a government so complacent that it can issue taxpayer money—infrastructure grants—on an unsubstantiated basis to sports clubs who didn't deserve it and not give it to sports clubs who did, or indeed a government that can issue social security letters of demand that it doesn't have the power to issue? Are there any consequences for ministers in this government? It's anything goes. The government have a sense of deep-seated hubris and arrogance—that because they won the last election that now validates anything they've done since, when, as time goes on, they're underhanded rorting of taxpayer money will show that their election victory was built on the back of taxpayer money that was not given out in the proper way. So, we need to have a national integrity commission. Of course, the most reluctant gentleman I've ever seen to be leader of government business—I speak of Minister Porter—says: 'We're getting on with it. Don't worry about what we've actually done; don't worry about what you can see. Just move on. We're getting on with it.' Their approach so far on the national integrity commission could be described as weak, ineffective, secretive, incompetent, negligent and nonexistent. As the shadow Attorney-General has pointed out relentlessly, the Attorney-General has belled the cat on what this government thinks passes for an integrity commission. Today the Attorney-General, Christian Porter, made it clear that his proposed integrity commission is so feeble—he didn't use the word 'feeble', but you'll see why I call it feeble in the next few moments—that it will not be able to investigate the Morrison government's sports rorts scandal. Mr Porter today claimed falsely that existing state and territory integrity commissions can only examine matters where a crime has been committed. On ABC Radio National this morning Fran Kelly interviewed the Attorney-General. I will read a few lines. Fran Kelly said: Well, it's an integrity commission, it's investigating matters of integrity. That doesn't necessarily mean criminal offences. Attorney-General Porter said: That's just not correct. So, integrity commissions or corruption commissions or whatever they're called, investigate things which are written into statute as offences. Fran Kelly asked: But not the sports grants? Attorney-General Porter said: Neither the police nor integrity commissions investigate things that aren't offences. That's just how it works. The reality is that integrity commissions have a much wider brief to investigate corruption by politicians and public officials. Every existing state and territory integrity commission is able to go beyond the criminal law and examine issues of corrupt conduct and integrity. I think the government hopes that, with the important and troubling coronavirus, somehow the sports rorts matter and other decisions of this government will go unscrutinised. As they say, this government does not want to waste a crisis. It is appropriate that we tackle the coronavirus, but this nation is capable of doing more than one thing at a time. I actually think that this government has an obligation to the parliament and to all our voters to demonstrate that the political system is not broken and that democracy is not broken. Surveys time and time here and around the world show that an increasing number of our citizens and citizens around the world feel that democracy just doesn't work in the interests of the people anymore, that the fix is in and that individual votes can't change anything. Well, let me be very clear. Democracy, with all its failing, is still the least-worst system we have. It certainly needs improvement. One improvement we can make is a national integrity commission. This government has flaws that deserve the attention of independent investigation. Question time isn't working the way it should. Despite the questions we ask, this government simply doesn't care anymore if it misleads the House or if it doesn't answer the questions. In an ideal world though this government would demonstrate some integrity now. We need to demonstrate that our democracy is not broken and that the parliament can deal with obvious problems, with scandals and with matters that go to the integrity of the allocation of taxpayer dollars. We need to do more than just have a national integrity commission. Time doesn't permit me to talk about our need for electoral reform and our need to demonstrate that our democracy is not for sale to the highest bidder with the deepest pockets. I'll save my remarks on that for another occasion. It is well beyond time that this government joined Labor in standing for a strong independent national integrity commission with real powers to let the sunshine in. We need to restore faith in the way that government works. We need to restore faith in the way that politics works. Indeed, before I conclude my speech I'm going to restore faith to the people who are interested in debating in the parliament so, Mr Deputy Speaker, I draw your attention to the state of the House. (Quorum formed) 16:57 Ms SHARKIE 265980 Mayo I rise to speak on a number of local priorities for the electorate of Mayo for the upcoming 2020-21 budget. These local priorities have been identified in consultation with my community, and I trust that the government will recognise that many of these projects have a renewed urgency in light of both the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island bushfires and are vital to the long-term recovery of the regions. With respect to rural and regional health care, the provision of health care across Kangaroo Island has always been a challenge, with disparate communities distributed across an area one-third larger than the greater Adelaide region. Currently, health services are overwhelmingly concentrated in the island's largest town of Kingscote, leaving other communities on the almost 4,500-square kilometres of island quite isolated from quality health care. With the community still reeling from the recent bushfires and the importance of providing health care to all sections of the community, there has never been a greater need to acknowledge the physical and mental toll of natural disasters. The community preferred solution would see the establishment of a nurse practitioner outreach service on the island, with the potential to develop further into a GP outreach service once demand is confirmed. Based in Kingscote, the practitioner would travel to the townships of Parndana, some 40 kilometres away, and Penneshaw, some 60 kilometres away, and potentially also American River, on a regular basis and provide health services to isolated communities. Medicare services in Mount Barker are desperately needed. The installation of the Medicare services centre with Centrelink at Victor Harbor has been a great success, and I'd like to thank the government for their constructive engagement with me on the centre. We advocated successfully for that. It means that Medicare sits inside the Centrelink office at Victor Harbor. I now ask the government to extend the same service to one of South Australia's largest and fastest-growing regional centres, Mount Barker. The Australian Bureau of Statistics confirms that Mount Barker is one of the fastest-growing regional centres in South Australia and is projected to grow from its current population of approximately 33,000 to 55,000 by 2036. The Mount Barker service centre is the other major government service centre in Mayo, and I urge the government to add Medicare to this site. A Medicare service centre in Mount Barker would service a population area that would reasonably include the Adelaide Hills, Strathalbyn, Murray Bridge, Mannum and the Coorong for a total of almost 120,000 people and growing every year. A centre in Mount Barker would predominantly cater for rural and regional communities with a higher average age than metropolitan Adelaide, with digital literacy lower amongst elderly Australians, who often struggle to use online services. Demand for the centre's service, I believe, would be high. With respect to supplementary road funding, this is something I have been championing in this chamber since I was elected. Supplementary road funding is provided to South Australia in recognition of the fact that our state has more than 11 per cent of the nation's local road network and seven per cent of the population but otherwise receives around five per cent of the nation's share of road funding. It's a peculiarity and it's unfair. In 2017, Centre Alliance negotiated for this funding to be reinstated after it was cut by the Abbott government in 2014. In last year's budget, I welcomed the announcement that the government set aside a further $40 million over two years for supplementary road funding for South Australia, which provides Mayo councils with $4.6 million for the much-needed upgrade of local roads. I strongly urge the government to consider and continue supplementary road funding in ongoing recognition of the inequality that would otherwise result for South Australia if this funding were removed. There is a freeway interchange in my electorate which, I'm sure you find hard to believe, is a one-way freeway interchange. That is what is known as the Verdun interchange. The interchange on the South Eastern Freeway of Verdun currently only accepts traffic in half of all possible directions: leaving the freeway when driving from Adelaide and entering the freeway when heading towards Adelaide. Upgrading the interchange to allow traffic to enter the freeway when heading from Adelaide and to leave the freeway when heading towards Adelaide would aid traffic flow, especially by reducing unnecessary flow-through traffic into the major tourist town of Hahndorf, particularly trucks, as many local communities must drive through the main street of Hahndorf with its heavy pedestrian traffic in order to return to the freeway. Conversely, it would also allow easier access for tourists seeking to travel to visit Hahndorf and the wider Adelaide Hills region. While Hahndorf itself was not in the fire scar, its survival is tied to the tourism of the Adelaide Hills and the ability for tourists to travel easily to and from the Adelaide Hills. I have spoken at length with regard to Victor Harbour Road and Main South Road in this place, but I will continue to pursue this until state and federal governments recognise that these projects are in urgent need of funding. In relation to Victor Harbour Road—it being the main artery from southern Adelaide to the major regional centre of Victor Harbour—it has long been in need of additional overtaking lanes and an eventual upgrade to double lanes. Data shows that between 2012 and 2016 there was an increase in traffic of some 34 per cent. During that same period 43 people were either sadly killed or seriously injured. As The Advertiser has previously reported, this equates to close to one person killed or maimed for every kilometre of road over five years. In relation to Main South Road, I recognise the state government made crucial commitments to upgrade Main South Road to Sellicks Beach. However, I also seek a commitment from the federal government to contribute towards funding an upgrade of Main South Road between Sellicks Beach and Cape Jervis at the far end of the Fleurieu. One segment of Main South Road in particular that needs further upgrading is the hilly, winding section north-east of the township of Yankalilla, between the Inman Valley and the township of Myponga. It's a road I drive on very regularly. This segment also sadly had a high count of serious injuries between 2012 and 2016. Another road issue and passenger issue is the Aldinga passenger rail. The community of Aldinga, on the outer edges of metropolitan Adelaide, has been growing rapidly at 8.7 per cent between 2011 and 2016, far above the average growth rate of 2.1 per cent per annum. This is likely only to continue upwards with the new Aldinga reception-to-year-12 school, which is expected to open in the 2022 school year. Extending the passenger rail from Seaford southwards towards Aldinga is an important medium- to long-term plan for this growing community, and I urge the state and federal governments to list this on their schedule. With the provision of adequate infrastructure investments, the federal government will ensure that this area can sustainably cater for current and future generations. My electorate holds the end of the River Murray, the great Murray Mouth. The lower River Murray lakes and Coorong are in urgent need of a dedicated research institute with a focus on water monitoring and management, environmental resilience, climate change mitigation and adaption. It is the most vulnerable part of the river. Specifically, the proposed institute could look at issues such as real-time summaries of the ecological condition of the river to allow for the provision of advice and remedies for intermediate and extreme drought events and to find new solutions for managing water, salinity and nutrient levels in the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth in the context of real-time ebb-and-flow conditions. I think spending money on the Murray Mouth is imperative for the health of the whole river. Speaking of environmental issues: Kangaroo Island is a magical place, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I would certainly urge you to come and visit. One issue we do have on Kangaroo Island is a number of federal animals. We do have some solutions to address this. One in particular is a way that we can get rid of a feral cat issue that we have. There is an eradication program. To ensure that the program reaches its successful conclusion, we will need to make sure that that program is funded into the future. The island is renowned for its environmental tourism and stands to greatly benefit from the complete eradication of feral cats to help preserve its drawcard and environmental heritage. This has only become more important as the community works to protect endangered and vulnerable native species following our devastating fires. Similarly, the agricultural, economic and environmental destruction caused by feral pigs on Kangaroo Island has been greatly heightened after the Ravine bushfire on the island over January. The best, most recent estimate of the economic cost of feral pigs on Kangaroo Island is $1.65 million between 2015 and 2017, with around half of this impact in 2017 alone. The feral pig containment and eradication work has become increasingly important to island landholders and is now urgent in the wake of bushfires. The Kangaroo Island Landscape Board has confirmed to me that their feral pig eradication work is one of the most urgent priorities, especially as the bushfire recovery effort transition towards long-term and strategic recovery efforts. The federal government has an important opportunity to capitalise on the excellent outcomes flowing from its initial rapid and timely support. I strongly urge the federal government to consider a $2 million support package over five years for the eradication of feral species. That will help protect agriculture, our economy and our environment. With the fires we've also had significant damage to our wine region in the Adelaide Hills. The support package provided by the government to grow export of Australian wine and to increase international visitors to Australian wine regions, known as Wine Australia's Export and Regional Wine Support Package, has been a solid success, assisting in growing wine exports by approximately 50 per cent over the three years since its commencement in mid-2016 and supporting local wine regions to promote themselves both nationally and internationally. I encourage the government to continue to support such an initiative for the wine and cider regions alongside the funding recently provided for the purposes of tourism recovery following the fires. I also encourage the government to establish a national vine health authority modelled on South Australia's own successful Vinehealth Australia, with the body to establish and monitor a national biosecurity strategy that incorporates a national phylloxera strategy. South Australian wine exports have reached $1.79 billion and now generate over $2 billion in revenue for South Australia. In 2019, South Australia contributed almost one-third of the national crush. We are the wine state. However, those figures will drop substantially without careful and urgent management of biosecurity hazards. Aged care is an issue that I talk about a lot in this place. It's an issue that I care very, very deeply about. The interim report entitled Aged care in Australia: A shocking tale of neglect by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Qaulity and Safety calls the home-care package system cruel and discriminatory. My office has assisted numerous constituents and their families to negotiate and navigate the aged-care system. I can attest to the accuracy of that description. I'm calling on the government to address the unreasonable delays experienced by those elderly Australians languishing on the national prioritisation queue. The government must release sufficient home-care packages to ensure that no individual must wait more than 30 days to receive a home-care package. Further, these packages need to be at levels that actually meet their needs. There is also an urgent requirement to provide additional aged-care funding approval rounds to ensure that rural and regional residential aged-care providers secure additional beds and access the capital grant program to upgrade their facilities. One example in my electorate in Mayo is Restvale facility in Lobethal. Ensuring the ongoing viability of rural and regional residential aged-care facilities enables elderly Australians to ensure that they stay in their community, and their social and mental health benefits will continue while they are in their community. I think it's critical that we make sure that we don't leave rural and regional Australia behind with respect to aged care. This is a deep concern held by many in our community. Our aged-care facilities, particularly in our smaller towns, are not glitzy, glass brand-new buildings. In many cases they were built in the 1920s or 1930s, perhaps even older. They were originally hospitals and then reshaped into aged-care homes. In our communities, we have an enormous amount of volunteers, people from our community that support our aged-care facilities, but I really am calling on government for a different approach to how we take care of rural and regional elderly Australians, particularly in our aged-care homes. (Quorum formed) 17:15 Ms SWANSON 264170 Paterson I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020. When I first thought about running for parliament to become the member for Paterson back in 2016, I couldn't imagine any greater feeling of pride than representing the community that I not only live in with my family but also was born in. My electorate has a vast range of people. There are a lot of blue-collar workers and families in the west, in places like Kurri Kurri and Maitland, and lots of people in the east, who choose to retire in the magnificent Port Stephens area. These areas are growing at an incredible rate and they are becoming more and more dynamic by the day. But, regardless of the identity of my constituents, I still take great pride in bringing their messages to Canberra and in representing them. At the end of the day, even when this rorting non-hose-holding Liberal-National government turn their backs on my community and bunk off instead of bunking down, I've tried to stand by my constituents and to represent them to the best of my ability. More often than not, this has paid off. When I decided to run in 2016, I put a lot of thought into the priorities of my electorate. Although the list of things that should be done was endless, narrowing those down to a few projects that could be done first was a challenge. When it came to that list, the raising of Testers Hollow was one of the first things. Many locals believe that it should have been raised in the 1930s. In fact, my great-grandparents used to row a little wooden boat across the hollow when it flooded. So I was particularly happy, after I made the announcement in the 2016 election that the Labor Party would, in fact, raise Testers Hollow, that the Liberals decided to back my idea and came to the party with funds. They also pledged a commitment to Testers Hollow, and in 2017 the funds were allocated to the project. Last year, the plans for this section of road were released for public consultation, and today I was delighted to see that tenders have been called to raise Testers Hollow—tick! So far the project is on track, and I'm proud to know that my voice in this place has helped this project move along. That wasn't the only thing that I've thrown my support behind, and I'm proud to witness results. In March last year I was alarmed to see a 'for lease' sign in the window of my local Kurri Kurri Centrelink, I thought, 'How can this be possible? Why would they be leasing the local Centrelink?' So I set about talking to people in my community. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people, who live in Kurri Kurri, Weston and Heddon Greta who rely on Kurri Kurri's Centrelink. I wrote to the Minister for Human Services and asked what was going on. Then I was directed to speak to the national manager of Centrelink, who told me at the time that Centrelink and the building owners were unable to reach an agreement on the lease. Well, this was a big concern to my constituents in my home town. So I persevered with contact to the minister, to the department and to the national manager of Centrelink, and finally we were able to have a lease agreement and the signs were removed. Little did I know it at the time, but this was actually a huge win. Recent reports show that several Centrelink offices across Australia have been secretly closed down without so much as a phone call to the local member or a conversation with the local community or the staff that work at Centrelink. Disgraceful! Thankfully, Kurri Kurri Centrelink was spared. Another incredible win for our community is the PFAS class action against the government, which reached an in-principle agreement late last week. I've spoken about this extensively in this place. In fact, I had pause today to reflect on my first speech, which I made as I stood here with dark brown hair and fewer wrinkles. Grey has come and so have more worry lines, and I do attribute it largely to PFAS. When I look back on my first speech and think about what I said on that day, I stand by those words: This government must stand by the Williamtown community, who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves in an impossible situation. Their properties are no longer fit for purpose—they are devalued and potentially worthless. Their soil and water is contaminated, their health potentially compromised, their lives destroyed, their anxieties heightened, and their trust and faith in all of us low. The PFAS contamination must be stopped, land and soil remediated, and people who want out must be able to go. Governments cannot be allowed to poison our environment and our people. Governments cannot be allowed to walk away. It is time for this government to put things right. I want to say that it is good. We called for these people to have options, and now they do. Finally, after almost five long years of speeches, of Senate hearings, of joint standing committee inquiries, of reports, of officialdom, of bureaucrats, of trauma, of tears, my community will finally get the chance to make some decisions about their future. I welcome that. Above all I welcome the opportunity to be able to repair some of the terrible damage that has occurred between our community and RAAF Base Williamtown. Williamtown was always a RAAF community. Thousands of people have come through the base and made it a terrific Defence institution for our country. Then, when we learnt about PFAS, we turned on Defence because we felt so violated, so literally contaminated. So winning this class action means not only can the people of Williamtown get on with their lives, but we can start to mend those breaks that have occurred between our community and the Department of Defence. That is really an important and good thing. Outcomes like this are what I dreamed of when I got this job. If anyone ever says to me, 'What can a backbencher from a little backwater in opposition achieve in their first term of government?' I would say go and look at the PFAS class action from Williamtown in 2020. We achieved that. We had a win. I am so proud of my community and to serve them in this place. In November 2017 Newcastle Airport, which happened to share the facility with RAAF Base Williamtown, unveiled its $1.6 million international arrival and departure facilities. It took less then a year for an international route to be announced. I would like to think that my advocacy played a small role in this achievement. In fact, it was interesting when the then CEO of Virgin came to Canberra to meet some of the people who'd been elected in 2016. We were all sitting around a dinner table. He asked us what we would like to have in terms of our electorates. He was just chatting generally to us. People around the table were talking very wisely about tourism and how they could benefit from tourism and how Virgin might play a role. I remember saying at the time, 'I'm from the seat of Paterson. In Paterson we have the fabulous Newcastle Airport. I would like an international route and a lounge. We don't have either of those.' The next day I got a lovely email from the CEO of Virgin, who said, 'I'm not sure we can help you with the lounge, but we might be interested in flying to an international destination out of Newcastle.' So, over the next three months, working with Peter Cock and the board of Newcastle Airport Pty Ltd, we worked with Virgin to get a flight—an international flight. I want to thank the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, who really did help us with that. He expedited some of the processes we needed to get through, so that when we held the Newcastle 500 supercars we were able to fly people from Auckland to Newcastle and back again over the February period of the year. So that has been an enormous success, and now we're looking at how we can expand that service. I'm so pleased that we were able to capture that extra piece of revenue and income for our region, and the supercars have been a wonderful boom too. It's great to work with my colleague, the member for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon, in progressing our region forward. The list of achievements that we've had in Paterson is good, but there are lots of things that we want to get on to now. And the very forefront of these priorities is the M1 extension. If you've ever driven between Sydney and Brisbane, you would know where I'm talking about. There's a set of traffic lights when you get to the end of the M1 at Beresfield where you have to sit, often for a long time, behind stacks and stacks of cars, trucks and caravans and everyone who's tried to head north. You turn right at the lights, up over the flyover, down around the big sweeping bend and up over the bridge to Hexham and on your way. Well, that's how it should work. If you're coming from Brisbane back to Sydney, you have to travel over the very antiquated Hexham Bridge, which is a very narrow bridge and has its problems, and back the other way. It is hopeless. In peak times, it's as slow as a wet week, and in holiday times, you just sit, often, for an hour, an hour-and-a-half, to get through two kilometre of road. It is so frustrating for people. The road is used by hundreds of thousands of Australians every single year. It is the last choke point between Sydney and Brisbane. Adding complexity to that, it is one of the main arterial points between western New South Wales and the Port of Newcastle, which sees lots of grain and other goods coming from the west over to the point. And mixed into this we have all our locals, who are busily just trying to get from the areas of Maitland and Kurri Kurri over to Newcastle to go to work. So it is a nightmare. For the past 15 years, all levels of government and the community have called for this road to be extended. When will the Morrison government and the Berejiklian Liberal government in New South Wales stop dragging their feet? In 2016 Infrastructure Australia listed the Pacific Highway M1 extension from Raymond Terrace to Black Hill as a priority, with a near term of zero to five years. The 2020 Infrastructure priority list reveals this project is still a priority, yet nothing has been done. The Morrison government blames the Berejiklian government. The Berejiklian government blames the Morrison government. If either of those governments cared about regional infrastructure, which they should, the project would be a high priority. The business case would have been completed by the state government and the project would be underway. Instead, only four per cent of the funding for the M1 extension has been made available by the Morrison government in the next five years. The Pacific Highway is one of the most used roads in New South Wales. According to Infrastructure Australia, more than 21,000 vehicles use the M1 in afternoon peak times and this number is expected to increase by over 35 per cent by 2031—at least 7,500 vehicles. In holiday travel times, the stretch of road is reduced to as little as 20 kilometres per hour, adding over two hours to the journey. This important project would include 15 kilometres of dual carriageway motorway with two lanes in each direction, bypassing Hexham and Heatherbrae; a new interchange at Black Hill, Tarro, Tomago and Raymond Terrace; and a 2.6 kilometre bridge over Woodlands Close, the Main Northern Railway, the New England Highway and the Hunter River. The project will create hundreds of jobs during construction in the Hunter and Port Stephens regions and boost productivity by reducing traffic congestion—we're always hearing about congestion-busting ideas from the other side—for local residents, tourists, businesses and truck drivers. If you have ever used this road or been stuck on this road this affects you. I'm asking every single person, whether you live in my electorate, North Sydney or North Brisbane: please sign my petition so I can bring it here to Parliament House. I am running a campaign called We Want a Clean Run on the M1. Get on it with me so we can save you time on this last choke point on the M1 between Sydney and Brisbane. Another huge concern for my constituents has been the recent change to bulk-billing. From January this year the Morrison government and his Department of Health have implemented the modified Monash model, which decides how much incentive doctors in regional areas will receive to bulk-bill. In short, regional areas like mine, like Raymond Terrace and Kurri Kurri, have been put in the same billing basket as the CBD of Sydney. How can this be? It is clearly an error in the model. It needs desperate attention because people in regional and rural Australia, in the seat of Paterson, need as much medical help as those in the CBD of Sydney. The Morrison government must make a change to the modified Monash model. (Quorum formed) 17:34 Mrs ELLIOT DZW Richmond I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020. This is a government who's harsh cuts continue to hurt Australians, particularly those in regional areas like mine in Northern New South Wales. It's also a government with no plan. The fact is, this Prime Minister is just a salesman. That's all he is—a salesman. He's not a leader. In fact, he's such an ineffective Prime Minister he's running a do-nothing government with absolutely no agenda for the country. They've got no plan for jobs, no plan for wages growth and no plan to address climate change. They've got no plan for infrastructure investment and no plan for investing in our regions. In fact, all we get in the regions is more of the National Party cuts, chaos and lies. That's all we get. We've got cuts to health, education and aged care, cuts to services like Centrelink and NDIS, and cuts to TAFE and unis. There's no plan to address rising power prices and there's no plan for regional jobs, which is so very, very important. Locals are very, very concerned about the Morrison government's plans in terms of our Centrelink centres. They've got plans to close three local Centrelink service centres: the Tweed Heads south Centrelink service centre, the Tweed Heads south Centrelink call centre and the Tweed Heads Centrelink administrative office. They are all set to relocate to a yet to be determined location. I've written to the Minister for Human Services on behalf of the community to seek his urgent commitment that there'll be no redundancies or cuts to current staff members at any centre and no further decline in the delivery of front-line services to our local community. Our Centrelink service centre provides such essential services that our community relies on, and it's imperative that the services remain easily accessible. Our pensioners and seniors, veterans, people with disability, families, carers, locals seeking work and students all rely on the essential front-line services that our local Centrelink provides. It must be kept there in place for locals. I'd now like to raise the issue of the New South Wales Liberal-National government's ongoing cuts to funding staff and services at the Murwillumbah hospital. This is a massive concern to my local community, and I condemn the New South Wales government for their constant downgrading of this vital regional hospital. There is currently a real and present threat to the ongoing viability of the Murwillumbah hospital with the New South Wales Liberal-National government slashing nursing staff in the emergency department. This will result in the loss of 2.2 nurses from every 24-hour period—reducing staff from the current nine nurses over 24 hours down to 6.8 nursing shifts in 24 hours. In real terms, this takes the morning shift from three nurses down to two nurses, the afternoon shift from three nurses to two, and a further shift to be shortened by two hours. This, of course, all comes on top of their constant cuts to the hospital. As I often say, National Party choices hurt. But this decision by the Liberal-National government will really hurt my community in Murwillumbah. The local community, the nurses and the doctors are rightly outraged by these cruel and harsh cuts, and there are real and justified fears that these cuts to rostered nursing hours will have harsh impacts on patient safety. Make no mistake: this shameful decision could cost lives. There is absolutely no excuse for these cuts to our nursing services. Murwillumbah hospital has an outstanding and highly regarded emergency department which our community relies on and uses often. Locals have serious concerns that these cuts could be the thin edge of the wedge for eventually closing down the hospital. There is a very well-founded concern that the National Party will close down Murwillumbah hospital when the new Tweed Valley hospital eventually opens some time in the coming years. As an insight into how busy the Murwillumbah's emergency department can get, nurses recently saw 18 patients from 8 am to 10 am one morning. To remove a total of 17 nursing hours a week will put incredible pressure on the remaining staff. I'd like to commend Lismore MP Janelle Saffin for her remarkable work as the state member, particularly in fighting this bad decision by a bad government. Janelle has launched a petition protesting the government's cuts to the emergency department. There's overwhelming support from the community, with virtually every business in town promoting the petition in their shops. I'd also like to commend the Murwillumbah branch of the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association, firstly for their incredible work as nurses, providing outstanding care and also for their strong activism in fighting these unfair staff cuts. I also want to acknowledge the recently formed Save Murwillumbah Hospital group, chaired by a local champion Kylie Rose, who is standing up for our community and working tirelessly in gathering signatures for the petition. Working together we'll all continue to send a strong clear message to Premier Berejiklian and the Liberal-National government: no cuts to the Murwillumbah hospital. The slashing of these nurse positions in the emergency department is another broken promise by this bad government. During the state election they promised 280 more nurses and midwives for the area. This was just another National Party lie, just like the broken promise of Tweed Nationals MP Geoff Provest to have free parking at the new hospital—another National Party lie. Well, our community has had enough. We have National Party members who are in hiding. We have a Premier who just does not care about regional New South Wales. She only focuses on Sydney. The fact is her local Liberal and National party members are weak and silent. So, thanks so much to our community for fighting these harsh Liberal and National party cuts. The Murwillumbah hospital is vitally important for the health services it provides. The fact is that lives could be lost unless the government stops these harsh cuts. I also want to raise today the issue of nuclear power. I want to condemn the Morrison government's dangerous plan to develop a nuclear power industry in Australia. We're seeing intensifying pressure from the Liberals and Nationals at all levels of government pushing this very toxic agenda. Just recently we saw the new Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia, the member for Hinkler, stating that he wants the government to explore a lifting of the ban on nuclear energy. I'm saying to the Prime Minister that he has to come clean about his government's plan for nuclear power and let us know which regions are in his sights—and will it be in my area on the New South Wales North Coast? The fact is that nuclear power is dangerous and expensive, and it would consume vast amounts of precious water at a time when Australia faces increased water security threats due to the gross mismanagement of this government and, of course, the very harsh impacts of climate change. The fact is that nuclear energy is three times more expensive than renewables, and it would lead to higher power prices, so I stand with my community in firm opposition to nuclear power. This is a major issue from Ballina to Byron and Tweed—right throughout my electorate. We have major objections to nuclear energy, and I certainly stand with them in opposing it. We've seen many Liberal and National party members starting to strongly advocate this idea, including the Prime Minister, who said that nuclear power is not on his agenda. We've also seen the member for New England and Nationals MP with his bizarre idea that authorities could get around public concerns about the safety of nuclear energy by giving free power to people if they could see a nuclear reactor from their home—quite bizarre. We also have the New South Wales Nationals leader and Deputy Premier calling nuclear power 'the solution to cheaper energy'. This just shows how out of touch the New South Wales Nationals are. Alarmingly, in the Tweed shire, we've seen the Liberal councillor James Owen's strong support for nuclear power, which just shows how incredibly dangerous he is for our region. It's well known that the risky and reckless James Owen can't be trusted and doesn't share our values. In a clear sign that the extremists are dictating the government's energy policy, we're seeing this latest push from the resources minister. But let me make it very clear: if this government pursues its plans, our community will fight every day, every step of the way, to stop them. I'd also like to raise the fact that we've seen many cuts from this government when it comes to TAFE, at both the state and federal level. The New South Wales Liberals and Nationals are refusing to rule out further cuts to our TAFE courses and are closing TAFE campuses. At a federal level, we've seen $3 billion in funding cuts. We know the New South Wales Premier has already decimated TAFE by cutting 5,700 teachers from TAFE, and we now have fewer apprentices than we did. In my seat of Richmond the figures are staggering. In 2013 there were 2,016 apprentices and trainees in the field compared to recent figures of just 1,506—510 fewer apprentices, which equates to a 25.3 per cent reduction. This is disgraceful and must stop. I also want to raise the New South Wales government's plans for paid parking at the new Tweed Valley Hospital. On many occasions I have condemned the Tweed Nationals MP Geoff Provest for his failure to honour his election commitment made over a year ago to stop paid parking at the new Tweed Valley Hospital. Prior to that election he clearly stated that 'parking at the new hospital would be free'. He said that means 'free parking for patients, visitors and staff at any time, day or night'. It was clear that this was a just cheap stunt before the election in a desperate attempt to win votes. Since then he and his Liberal-National government have repeatedly failed to honour this commitment of free parking. They've been repeatedly asked by residents, local media and the New South Wales parliament to come clean on their plans to oppose it. On all occasions they have simply refused to do so. Today we fear it's been confirmed that there will be paid parking there. The Tweed Shire Council had previously passed a motion and written to the New South Wales government condemning them for their plans to do that and asking them to honour the commitment. In the reply from the health minister, we see him say that 'in 2013 the New South Wales Health implemented a hospital car parking fees policy. The Tweed Valley Hospital project will consider this policy as it reviews the funding options for car parking at the Tweed Valley Hospital.' That's a broken promise. You can't promise free parking and then say that all options are on the table. It should be noted that the original notion from Tweed Shire Council requesting the New South Wales government to honour their election commitment was not supported—of course—by Liberal-National Party aligned councillors on Tweed Shire Council: Councillor James Owen, Councillor Warren Polglase and Councillor Pryce Allsop. These three councillors, shamefully, support paid parking at the new hospital. I'd also like to raise the fact that this government's cuts to health care and aged care have been detrimental for our region. Health costs have never been higher than under the Morrison government, and when it comes to aged care there have been so many funding cuts and we have so many people on waiting lists for home-care packages. It is incredibly unfair. The reality is that people are now paying higher costs to see a GP. We've seen a record increase in those patient costs as a direct result of this government's cuts and neglect when it comes to health. We all know here that the Liberals and Nationals tried and failed to impose a GP tax; then they introduced the Medicare freeze—a GP tax by stealth; and the Prime Minister, when he was Treasurer, extended the freeze, leading to those increases in out-of-pocket costs that people face today. The sad reality is that today, in 2020, there are many people in my community for whom the cost of health care is simply prohibitive. They don't access the tests and treatments they need because they cannot afford to. This is having detrimental effects right across my electorate. One of the issues that I have raised before and I continue to raise here is the recent changes under the Modified Monash Model, which have seen this government change the classification of Murwillumbah from a regional area to a metropolitan one. Murwillumbah is a regional town of 9,000 people and it's now classified the same as Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane! This is truly absurd. It's a regional country town. My local community are rightly concerned and angry about this very unfair classification. The direct result of the government's actions will have severe implications for Murwillumbah, including the reduction of incentives for medical professionals, including rural bulk-billing incentives, the Workforce Incentive Program and the Bonded Medical Program. It means that medical practices in Murwillumbah will only be available to general pathway registrars and no longer to rural pathway registrars. That means that young doctors who choose the rural pathway can no longer train in medical practices in Murwillumbah. Those incentives have been completely removed. Make no mistake: this harsh decision means that there'll be less bulk-billing and fewer doctors in Murwillumbah. And it's important to note that there's a very high proportion of elderly people in the town and surrounding areas right throughout my electorate. They have more complex health care needs and require more intensive levels of ongoing care. There's also a huge lack of public transport in Murwillumbah and surrounds on the North Coast generally, so in other areas these locals just can't get to GPs. I have raised this many times, about this government's harsh cuts to our health care services. This change in the classification will make it extremely difficult to attract new GPs to Murwillumbah, as those incentive payments aren't there. I would like to note that Murwillumbah is renowned as an excellent centre for training young doctors and has an outstanding reputation, so I want to see some changes to the Modified Monash Model so the country town of Murwillumbah can access these important incentives. It is not a metropolitan area. It is not Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. It is a country town. In conclusion, this is a government whose harsh cuts continue to hurt regional Australia. It's a government with no plan. That's because this Prime Minister is a salesman, not a leader. (Quorum formed) 17:52 Dr HAINES 282335 Indi Today I will speak on the priorities for my electorate of Indi in the 2020-21 budget. These projects and infrastructure needs were identified in consultation with the nine local government areas in Indi, Alpine, Benalla, Indigo, Mansfield, Murrindindi, Strathbogie, Towong, Wangaratta and Wodonga, and finalised in a roundtable discussion I held with them in late January. These hardworking local councils are the part of government most people see. Despite this, their work is often underappreciated. I am thankful to them for my strong relationships with them, and I look forward to continuing our productive partnerships during my term. Ahead of the last election, the government announced $14.5 million of funding to Albury Wodonga Health, which included $12 million for a mental health rehabilitation unit. The need for mental health specialist services has only grown more urgent in the aftermath of the bushfire emergency. We know that recovery from disaster can bring with it significant emotional and mental health challenges, some transient and some enduring. Albury Wodonga Health provide mental health services across both inpatient and outpatient settings, encompassing all the regions affected by our recent bushfire. Their services include specialist assessment, treatment and ongoing care, including child and adolescent mental health services, adult mental health services, older persons' mental health services and integrated primary mental health services. The mental health rehab unit is a key plank in the Albury Wodonga Health masterplan, enabling a modern, evidence based mental health recovery philosophy most especially for the missing middle of people with serious and ongoing needs for support in-between emergency department, hospital and GP care. Bringing forward the mental health unit funding to the 2022-23 budget will avoid a three-year delay when there is no time to waste. The health services of our small rural communities of Corryong and the Alpine Valleys are funded through the Multi-Purpose Services Program. This provides funding for integrated health and aged care in bushfire affected communities in Indi. Both health services are in our two most severely bushfire affected councils. The MPS Program needs to be expanded and strengthened by providing Commonwealth government capital and service funding to reflect the diversity of care. Most especially, the government must ensure that the current Commonwealth aged-care funding contribution matches the complexity of contemporary aged care in regional settings. The north-east tourism industry has been heavily impacted by the fires. Investment in five key projects can help get the sector back on its feet: one, the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing, which would attract both domestic and international visitors and be a hero product for the alpine region; two, cycle tourism priority projects that offer the greatest growth opportunities for the region; three, the Growing Mount Hotham project to increase the amenity and pedestrian safety of the Mount Hotham precinct; four, bringing the Ned Kelly story to life through an architecturally designed tower complex in the centre of Glenrowan overlooking the historical sites from Ned's life and recognising the as yet unrealised potential of Australia's most well-known story; and, five, $1.8 million of funding to establish a cafe complex in the Mount Buffalo Chalet to unlock the tourism potential of the national park and a truly unique tourism icon. While much has been done to improve telecommunications access in north-east Victoria, when disaster strikes communities are often let down by mobile phone black spots. An additional $20 million allocation to the Mobile Black Spot Program will ensure those communities most at risk of communications outages during bushfires can remain safe and connected. The recent fires highlighted pressing infrastructure needs in my electorate—infrastructure so that we can be better prepared for the next bushfires and can build our resilience in recovery. We need $15 million for a renewable energy microgrid in Corryong to allow this community to be self-sustainable in emergency situations and to significantly increase the reliability of telecommunications and power infrastructure of this town that was so profoundly affected in the fires. The technology and expertise are ready to go to safeguard Corryong in the future. We need $2.8 million for an upgrade to the Kiewa Valley community relief centre and $3.2 million to upgrade the Mount Beauty Airport runway to allow emergency services access to the Kiewa Valley for decades to come. The Kiewa Valley is surrounded by magnificent national parks and rugged alpine terrain and it is highly susceptible to bushfire. We need a new incident control centre at Ovens to coordinate emergency responses to protect the major population centres of Myrtleford and Bright. This summer has highlighted the vulnerability of this region and the key role this centre plays in bushfire response coordination. This former horticultural research centre is no longer fit for purpose. An automated weather station at Corryong to assist bushfire response and suppression, air transport of critically ill patients, search and rescue activities, stock and crop management, and domestic aircraft is long overdue. Two hundred thousand dollars is all that is needed, and it will make a major difference. We need $2.1 million to urgently connect the Tawonga Caravan Park to reticulated sewerage to prevent an important tourism destination and business in the Kiewa Valley being lost. Regional councils face unique challenges. Since 1996 council costs have increased more than 400 per cent, yet over the same period of time the value of the financial assistance grants from the federal government has fallen from one per cent of Commonwealth tax revenue to just 0.55 per cent in 2019. It's getting harder for rural councils to make up the difference on their own. Their rate base is small and the demand on their services is challenged by geography, changing economic circumstances in traditional rural industries and more frequent catastrophic weather events. The Commonwealth government can do more. Restoring the value of financial assistance grants to one per cent is a start. Round 4 of the Building Better Regions Fund was available only to drought affected councils. While the need in drought affected communities is unquestionable, this meant that many of the Indi councils were ineligible to receive a crucial source of funding for infrastructure and community investment. The need remains in all councils for investment to drive economic growth and build stronger regional communities. Indi LGAs have requested that the next round of the Building Better Regions Fund be brought forward and made available to all councils; and, in light of the recent bushfires and their devastating effect on infrastructure, economies and community spirit, it's proposed that another BBRF round, exclusively for fire impacted councils, be introduced. Aged care is of particular importance to my electorate. People in regional areas use residential care less than those in cities and face higher costs in travelling to services. I encourage the government to approve more home-care packages to reduce the waiting list, particularly for those people with the highest level of need. In my submission to the Tune NDIS review last year, I made eight recommendations, based on the feedback from hundreds of people who've contacted my office. In line with my submission, I call on the government to implement all of the recommendations of the Tune review and ensure our NDIS participants are treated with the utmost dignity. The NDIS will expand significantly over the coming years, with estimates of an additional 90,000 new workers in the disability sector. Many of these will be needed in regional areas, and the government should invest in creating a skilled NDIS workforce to meet this need. There is no better place to do that than in regional Australia. The Napthine review has provided an a blueprint for improving educational outcomes for rural students and has the backing of regional universities in my electorate, such as La Trobe University and Charles Sturt University. I have written to the Minister for Education, asking him to fund the Napthine review recommendations in the upcoming budget, and I hope so sincerely that this comes to fruition. And, if the Treasurer is listening right now, I urge him to make his place in history by truly improving the outcomes for regional students in education and fully funding the Napthine review recommendations. The first round of the Local Schools Community Fund identified a huge demand for funding for small capital projects in my accurate. The $200,000 funding in this round did not come close to meeting the $1.1 million worth of applications. A second round could help address the need for vital services and infrastructure—things as basic as air conditioning, computer or ICT facilities—and counselling for youth mental health support. The Mansfield community has waited many years for an upgrade to its single kindergarten. The current infrastructure is over 35 years old and is no longer fit for purpose. An investment of $2 million from the Commonwealth would complement the Victorian government's funding, leading to a better learning environment for Mansfield kids. We know that a good start to education has the strongest impact on long-term educational outcomes. The Wangaratta Aerodrome supports emergency services, charter services, recreational aviation, pilot training, heritage conservation, and tourism for Wangaratta and the region beyond. The $14 million revitalisation of this aerodrome is well overdue and is needed to meet commercial, recreational and emergency services for the next 20 years. This new development, when combined with the current employment onsite, would lead to an aviation cluster, with a total of 40 direct jobs and a further six indirect jobs by 2024. The McKoy Street intersection in Wodonga is one of the hottest topics in my electorate. Slowing down to 80 kilometres per hour on a major freeway as vehicles run the gauntlet of a difficult intersection is dangerous, as well as inconvenient. Everyone can agree on that. I urge the government to ensure this funding is delivered on time and in full so that we can remedy this situation that affects many, many people on a daily basis. Passenger rail services between Albury and Melbourne cause headaches for residents and businesses. With the recent tragic derailment at Wallan, my constituents are asking me: is it safe? And is the upgrade the government promised enough to raise the quality of the rail service? The government has committed $235 million to this upgrade, with completion scheduled for 2021, and construction on the line has now begun. I call upon the government to ensure that this project delivers the upgrade to the standard and within the time lines promised; and, importantly, to commit to recurrent maintenance funding to ensure the line remains at class 2 passenger standard and we can finally have confidence in this train line. In Indi, local councils maintain tens of thousands of kilometres of sealed and unsealed roads, annually renewing sections of the road network to improve access, connections and safety. Continuing long-term funding for local infrastructure, under programs such as the Bridges Renewal Program, the Roads to Recovery Program and the Black Spot Program, will allow councils to proactively identify renewal and upgrade needs of the community. The recent drought has hurt the agriculture industry. Funding research into sustainable and regenerative agriculture ecoservices remuneration for farmers undertaking vital biodiversity work and carbon sequestration is a smart investment. This can help farmers to grow their business and adapt to a changing climate. There is significant potential for regional producers to capitalise on growth in the agricultural and tourism sectors in my electorate of Indi. To help local growers and producers take their business to the next level, the government could support intensive business development programs for them. This added knowledge would support them to expand into the domestic and international markets, creating long-term job security and driving job creation. Our community is crying out for catalysing investment in community renewables, to allow the bright sparks in our small towns and connected communities to reach their potential. A $200 million fund for the development of community renewable energy hubs could provide early-stage grants to support technical and social feasibility studies and capital construction. By supporting local power generation, this fund could promote energy security and cut the cost of electricity. Upgrading electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure will increase the possibilities for renewable energy generation in my electorate and investment in distributed energy resources technology. Finally, a $2 million Commonwealth government co-investment for a new gas city-gate at Logic industrial estate in Wodonga, also funded by the Wodonga council, would open up possibilities for the Logic industrial estate site including a new manufacturing facility, extending the gas supply to the nearby township of Barnawartha and creating up to 34 jobs injecting $2.5 million into the local economy. Regional Australia faces significant challenges with ageing infrastructure, changing economic drivers and a changing climate, but it is alive with opportunity. I look forward to the government realising this opportunity in its forthcoming budget. (Quorum formed) 18:10 Ms TEMPLEMAN 181810 Macquarie I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020, and I want to talk about grants. There's been a lot of talk about grants today. I want to talk about the ones where my community groups, schools and environment groups have worked really hard to put together something that they hope is going to be assessed on merit. That's exactly what we have done with the grants programs that the government has asked members of parliament's offices to administer, with all the paperwork that that involves. We have put a high level of probity around it because we care and want to make sure that these grants are fair. This is important funding for these community groups, and they want to know that it's a level playing field. The sports rorts affair has left a really bad taste in people's mouths about the quality of the assessment process by the government—not by the department, which clearly prioritised the grants that it thought would rate really high in terms of the criteria it had, but then that was just completely overturned and it came down to colour-coded decisions. So I want to talk about the panel that I put together to make sure that the Stronger Communities grants, the Local Schools Community Fund grants and the Communities Environment Program grants are properly assessed, and to talk about some of the people who have been successful in achieving those grants. I also want to point out an issue around grants, and that is that we get way more applications than any of these funds will allow to be distributed. For Stronger Communities grants, it isn't surprising for us to get more than a million dollars worth of applications for $150,000 worth of funding to be spread throughout my community. There is a huge need in the community for support for groups that are run by volunteers, for sporting facilities and for community facilities, to be able to keep on upgrading and meet the needs that are growing in the community. When governments step away from providing services, volunteers and the community step in, and they need support to do that. If a government, like this one, is going to continue to cut budgets for government-funded services, we really need to see a massive increase in the funds that we get to support our very hardworking volunteers and community groups—and I want to talk about some of those. In the Hawkesbury, a huge number of organisations applied for grants under round 5 of Stronger Communities. We looked at each very seriously to see how it strengthened our community. I'll talk about some who were successful in their grant application. The Hawkesbury District Agricultural Association is a real cornerstone in our community. Our Hawkesbury Show takes place this year from 1 to 3 May—and I encourage everybody in this chamber to come and visit the Hawkesbury Show. It's the largest show in New South Wales outside the Royal Easter Show. It's much easier to navigate, much more fun and much but still an incredible show to visit. There is always the need for upgrading facilities at the showground, and the Hawkesbury District Agricultural Association does a huge amount on very little. So it's great to be able to provide them with an additional $10,000 to enable them to upgrade the amenities that they have there. I was also very pleased to be able to support a not-for-profit aged-care facility in Windsor, Fitzgerald Aged Care. This is a really important organisation. One of the processes we have in place is that, when there is a personal connection to a place, we declare that and the panel makes decisions around it. I was on the board of this organisation many years ago, and so I have got to know it very well. The panel that I put together decided that we would be able to approve $10,000 for them to upgrade their gym equipment. There's nothing more important for older people than to keep physical and keep active, and the mini gym will do just that. We also looked at providing funding for the Australian Foundation for Disability in South Windsor. Theirs was for interactive and sensory equipment. Again, it's the sort of thing that makes a difference to the quality of life for the community members who are there and brings more community members in to use the facilities. I'm very pleased that the St Albans Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade have a very deserving electronic sign for fire danger. I'll talk more about them at a later date. Let's turn to Wilberforce soccer. They have been trying to play soccer in the dark. That's what happens at Woodland Oval. The Hawkesbury Sports Council applied for lighting. This was something that I had hoped we would see happen. I made a commitment prior to the election, and on its merits it was considered by the panel as being a really worthy cause. I'm very pleased that that was able to happen. They'll receive $20,000 through the Hawkesbury Sports Council, which basically prioritises the projects. That will go to that wonderful Wilberforce soccer community. Just before Christmas, I was able to celebrate Windsor Girl Guides' Stronger Communities grant with them at their Christmas party. They need a new roof. These are the sorts of things that make a difference when it rains or when it hails. Now the Windsor Girl Guides are going to be able to have that new roof. The 1st Glossodia Scout Group, equally, will have a hot water system thanks to the Stronger Communities grant. The Richmond Girl Guides will be able to continue the work they're doing on their really lovely blue meeting space. It must be almost heritage listed. It has a lots of Hawkesbury flavour to it. They'll be able to continue improving it and have somewhere to store the materials that they use. They were some of the Hawkesbury Stronger Community round 5 grants. There was also a timing and starter kit for the Hawkesbury Amateur Swimming Club at Hobartville, a group that I admire—the families and volunteers of people who swim. It's always an early start. There are always lots of laps. Everything we can do to help them will make a difference. The last sporting one is the Lowland Wanderers Soccer Club at Richmond. I've left them until last because I'm very pleased to see that we were able to give $5,000 to this organisation for a kitchen upgrade and to improve some of their seating. I'm looking forward to getting in that kitchen. I hope it's the new kitchen I get to help out in! The volunteers at that club do an amazing job, and it's really great that these facilities can have an upgrade. I now turn to the Blue Mountains. I have two quite distinct parts to my electorate. The panel takes the view that there should be a very even split between them. In the Blue Mountains, again, we saw fantastic applications. I'm very pleased that a number of children's services are able to do more and deliver more to their community. The Blackheath Kookaburra Kindergarten is going to have bathroom renovations—the basic stuff that makes a real difference to not just those children but the adults caring for those children. We'll also see improvements in Katoomba at Gateway Family Service for the playroom that they use there and the equipment that's in there. Again, it's recognising how important learning through play is for the youngest members of our society. Euroka Children's Centre at Blaxland will now have the opportunity to experience an edible community garden in their facility thanks to this grant. These are all wonderful projects to be able to support. Katoomba Rotary—people know that I have a long history with Rotary, but not with this Rotary Club in particular. I continue to see really good proposals coming forward from Rotary Clubs. Like many members here, I'm an honorary Rotarian of one of my many Rotary Clubs. I'm not sure that you can be a member of Rotary and a member of parliament, because the obligation to be involved with your Rotary Club is paramount and it's very difficult, so I've accepted honorary membership and support them fully in the things they do around youth exchange, leadership development, group study exchange—all the incredible things they do, like fundraising for wonderful medical causes, including seeing an end to polio. They are great fundraisers themselves. It's great to be able to support Katoomba Rotary with a new catering trailer, which will allow them to travel around in the community and do what they do so well. Another group that makes a huge difference to the quality of life for people—and this is for people going through dreadful illness—is the Cancer Wellness Support at Leura. This organisation's request was very modest: they wanted air-conditioning. You don't normally associate the upper mountains with hot days, but the way things are changing they are finding more and more often the days are hot, so it is just a delight to be able to provide an appropriate environment for the cancer patients who they support, and for the volunteers and the team who work with them, with air-conditioning through this grant program. The Central Villages Anglican Church focuses on many different community things, one of which is about youth. They needed a slightly better audiovisual and sound system to be able to do what they do—bring people together. So they received a small grant to assist them to do that. Radio Blue Mountains in Katoomba is one of the really important community institutions we have run by volunteers. They will also receive funding to upgrade equipment. I started out in community radio. I know how important it is to provide training to people as they learn how to communicate and move through a journalism career or sometimes just represent their community. So, congratulations to Radio Blue Mountains. I think I've probably missed a couple here—no, just one. Of course, there's always soccer. The Blaxland Football Club has received $10,000 to improve its field with goalposts and fencing. We are a bit of a soccer community in the Blue Mountains. We like to call it football. And while my children were never a member of this club, the Redbacks, we competed with them fiercely. They are some of the Stronger Communities Program grants that we were pleased to do. People who applied for those grants know there were decisions made on merit. They know that we agonised about which groups would receive funding, because, quite frankly, so many of them were so deserving. I'd really encourage the government to put more funding into these grants programs that support our community. They make a huge difference. I want to turn to the issue of the National Broadband Network, which of course is soaking up large amounts of funding provided by the government but not necessarily delivering to my community the way people would expect. Over the weekend I received a deluge of emails from people who were about to be connected to the NBN. Sadly, the day they were due to be connected, they were told: 'Oops, that date is not possible. That date is moving.' Let me tell you what Rowan from Hazelbrook wrote. Rowan said: 'Hi, I'm writing to you as another of those who, on the day I should have been able to connect to the NBN in Hazelbrook, was told I would be able to connect in on 28 August.' That's the 28th of August! That's a really long time away from the date they were given. Remember, this community has been promised and promised connection dates, and they keep being pushed out by 12 months, six months, 18 months, so the community is understandably frustrated at the poor delivery that has occurred. Rowan knows that I have already received a number of these messages, and he says to me: 'I'd like to add my voice to those who are struggling with the poor communication from NBN and another who is disappointed to be moved to such a distant date.' He is not on his own. Paul from Winmalee said to me: 'I've been waiting on pre-order for quite some time only to be told I'd have to wait until'—when?—'28 August 2020, with no explanation why or any assurance it won't be pushed back again.' This is the contempt with which hundreds and hundreds of people across the lower up to the mid Blue Mountains are being treated. Dates are just being pushed back with no warning and no explanation. It isn't good enough to blame bushfires, because all the cabling's been put in. Something is wrong in the system. The government cannot keep pushing back on NBN Co and saying it is their fault. They have to demand that these things get connected. My community is crying out to be able to run their businesses, university students to do their assignments. We all deserve better internet in the Blue Mountains. (Quorum formed) 18:27 Mr DAVID SMITH 276714 Bean I rise to speak on matters in relation to my electorate and concerns of my community. Integrity matters. Trust in government matters. However, given that we are speaking on appropriation bills and today the Reserve Bank cut interest rates again, it would be remiss of me not to make remarks in relation to the government's economic management. It is not good. We are now in the third term of this government. We are yet to see a plan to deal with underemployment. We are yet to see a plan to deal with flatlined wages; a plan to deal with the lack of infrastructure spending; a plan to deal with the reduction and downturn in retail sales and hospitality; importantly, a plan to deal with the overall poor growth of the national economy. We have been saying it for some time, but our economy is floundering. You have to ask why. Well, it's obvious why we don't see any action from this government. What is becoming clearer every day is that this government has a political strategy to get themselves through an election, but it has no plan to boost wages or growth in the economy. At yesterday's estimates a bit more sunshine was shone on the government's whole rorts affair. Sadly for members of my community, all clearly part of a rotten election strategy. But it is a rorts track record that is worth reminding the chamber of. First, we had the scathing Auditor-General's report. Then we had a minister forgetting to declare some pretty obvious conflicts of interest. Then we had the light-touch investigation by the former staff member of the Prime Minister's office, where it's become apparent that he didn't have all the spreadsheets, emails and materials that were needed for such an investigation. Then we had the 'it's not a rort' defence because our MPs 'live and breathe in our communities'. But the rorts stories keep on coming. We heard last week the secretary of the health department, Glenys Beauchamp, tell the Senate inquiry examining the administration of the government's sports grant program that—wait for it—she had destroyed her personal notebooks, which include notes taken during a hastily convened sports grants conference, called after the then Sport Australia chief learned of the colour coded spreadsheets. And how about the government's idea of 'regional' being a swimming pool on Sydney's North Shore, right next to the Harbour Bridge, which they upgraded using funds originally earmarked for genuinely regional communities? And here's another: we've seen the reporting of the pouring of over 83 per cent of the $3 billion allocated from the Urban Congestion Fund into Liberal seats and seats targeted by the government. And this morning we even had the Attorney-General admitting his proposed integrity commission is so feeble it would not even be able to investigate the government's sports rorts scandal. This week's estimates has provided even more evidence of how broken this government is. Let's start with the government's widely publicised national bushfire recovery fund. On 6 January, the Prime Minister said: The Federal Government will establish a new agency with an initial $2 billion for a national bushfire recovery fund … Yesterday we learned that it is a myth and does not exist. In estimates, officials told senators that the $2 billion fund has never actually been created. A further revelation coming out of only one day of estimates is, as reported by TheCanberra Times, that nine sport infrastructure projects were added to a spreadsheet of approved sports grants in the hours after the 2019 election had been called. What does this mean for our public service caretaker provisions? Frustratingly, it adds yet another layer to the disgrace that is the administration of this program. Seriously, where are those great conservatives on the other side of the chamber—those that broadcast to the world that they protect our great institutions? Where are they? They are nowhere. They are simply missing, either too scared or too embarrassed to speak up. And what does it mean for the Prime Minister's claim that his office had nothing to do with the allocation of the sports program grants? We have learnt a lot this week, but it's worth getting some of the time line on the record. Last week the Prime Minister told the parliament he did not approve the projects and they were signed off by Senator McKenzie back on 4 April. Well, on 11 April parliament was dissolved at 8.30 am and caretaker conventions commenced from that point. At 8.46 am on 11 April, Senator McKenzie sent the approval brief to Sport Australia with the spreadsheet with approved projects. One project had been removed and one project had been added, with the change at the request of the Prime Minister's office. At 12.35 on 11 April—it's still not 4 April—after caretaker had commenced, Senator McKenzie's office sent another spreadsheet to the PMO with a different allocation of funds. One project had been removed and nine new projects were added. At 12.43 on 11 April, Senator McKenzie sent the revised final approved brief to Sport Australia with the same spreadsheet which was attached to the 12.35 pm email to the PMO. The audit office says the spreadsheets attached to the 4 April brief kept changing up until the final spreadsheet was provided at 12.43 pm on 11 April. This evidence shows that the Prime Minister and his office were directly involved in decisions on the eve of the election and following the commencement of the caretaker period. In summary, we have former minister McKenzie saying, 'This is what I'm intending to do,' Then the Prime Minister's office sent back, 'These are the changes we want you to make.' This evidence also adds further weight to the argument that the Gaetjens report was produced with only purpose, to get the government and Prime Minister Morrison off a political hook. I am very much in tune with these April dates because 4 April is an important date in our household. It is my wife's birthday. I can tell you that if I gave my wife a birthday card on 11 April, dated 4 April, any of my protestations about my dating the card the fourth would not wash. Yet that is part of the confidence trick that this Prime Minister is trying to play on the nation. After his multiple denials of misleading parliament over his office's involvement, people in Bean who watch parliament will be joining our calls for the Prime Minister to come into this chamber and make an apology for misleading this parliament. We didn't even get through a day of estimates before hearing last night of another rorted program, this time in the Environment portfolio. It appears that the Environment Restoration Fund has also been through a colour coded spreadsheet. From the evidence provided, more than two-thirds of the projects in this fund have gone to government held and government targeted seats. With one eye on the election and none on the environment the government even announced successful projects up to seven months before the guidelines were developed. So many hardworking people in my local community will be so disappointed by this government, and so many Public Servants across Australia will wonder just what type of government they work for. It has no plan for the economy, a lack of integrity and simply no shame about doing whatever for its political gain, even if it means undermining the cornerstones of our democracy. A matter of concern to me as the member for Bean and to members of the Norfolk Island community is the low levels of food and broader supplies on the island at the moment. My office has received email correspondence and calls of concern in relation to the low levels of supplies on the shelves of their only supermarket and the inability to supply building products. I understand that there has been some aircraft freight, which has helped to some extent, but I have requested further urgent updates from the minister. Both issues relate to the same matter—that is, a lack of a medium-term to long-term solution for freight shipping to the island. There are other real challenges in other areas on the island. The NSW government has written to the Commonwealth, outlining that it is not planning on providing health and education services beyond June 2021. Further, Norfolk is still largely operating on the 2G network. There have been many benefits to the community on Norfolk Island from Commonwealth governance, from access to social welfare through to improved childcare services. I acknowledge Minister Marino is working hard to try and find solutions to the policy challenges in the short and medium terms. But I call on her government to start the real work in the lead up to the budget, to do the heavy lifting to find solutions to the island's policy challenges. There remain real and critical infrastructure issues, and we need to work together to collectively address these. I can assure the residents of Norfolk Island that I will keep representing this proud community on these issues. It is ridiculous that some in this House need to be reminded of this, but climate change is real. Climate change is negatively impacting our nation's economy and our environment, and we must take collective action to address its impacts. It's for that reason I'm proud to be part of a Labor team that has made a clear commitment for Australia to achieve a target of zero net emissions by 2050. Setting a clear target on emissions for our economy is important to giving policy certainty and clear direction to our community, and it's hardly a radical policy. It's one supported by the Business Council of Australia, Qantas, Telstra, BP, Rio Tinto, the Commonwealth Bank and Santos—all renowned as being radical organisations! Further, it is a goal of multiple local governments and all state and territory governments. This substantial list includes the ACT Labor government, who have a target of achieving net zero emissions by 2045. It is a target that works for our local economy and a target that bring investment and jobs into our local area. I note that over 70 nations are already committed to the same target, including Britain. As the Ai Group noted in a recent piece in The Age: 'Australia’s national interest lies in everyone driving that positive spiral by going beyond minimalist compliance.' Labor is the only party of government that has committed today do just that and to take real action on climate change. On this side of the chamber, we know that action is needed, not only to protect the prosperity of future generations of Australians and to meet our international obligations under the Paris climate change accord but also to deliver prosperity today by modernising our economy and adapting to inevitable climate impacts. Labor's core principles that underpin our approach to climate change policy remain unshakable. That is why we have a clear target to make Australia carbon neutral by 2050, consistent with achieving the goals of the Paris Accord. This a goal that the CSIRO says will deliver higher wages and incomes and lower power costs. I am determined to work with my community to ensure that Australia reaches its potential to become an energy superpower. The task for the next Labor government will be to address the challenges of the future. Our policies will be underpinned by commitments to ensure that no workers or communities are left behind as well as to protect future generations from dangerous climate change that would see even worse emergencies than the ones we have seen over this last summer. The potential is enormous. According to the Clean Energy Council, there are 29 large-scale renewable energy projects across regional New South Wales alone either under construction or due to start soon—billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. Ross Garnaut has written about the potential for a clean energy jobs boom in regional areas. This will be through the return of energy-intensive Australian manufacturing powered by cheap, plentiful renewables. As the leader of the party said recently in Singleton, Labor's priority has always been to shape change in the interests of people. We have done it before and we will do it again—not least with climate change. In contrast, the government parties have paid nothing more than lip-service to real climate action, with carbon emissions in 2020 being projected to be the same as they were in 2013. The Prime Minister has refused to rule out providing a taxpayer funded indemnity to new coal-fired power stations, which will raise power prices and carbon pollution and which the Australian Industry Group says could cost taxpayers $17 billion. To quote the Ai Group again: If we don’t lift our weight, it takes the moral and political pressure off emitters of all sizes and makes a global solution much harder. We must lead locally and lead globally through sensible science based long-term goals. After all, our families, our friends and our communities are the reasons that we need to get this right. (Quorum formed) 18:45 Dr MIKE KELLY HRI Eden-Monaro In talking about appropriations, I would like to talk tonight about the investment that the nation needs to make in certain aspects of our national security. Whether many Australians recognise it or not, our democracy is under threat, and it is a serious threat. It's not just the threat of armed invasion, which is a distant one at this point in time, or the ongoing threat of terrorism; it is a more insidious, incremental and corrosive process, and one that I think we must urgently address with capability and mandates for our agencies. I think most people would accept that the quality of democracy can be determined by the educational standards of our people, the diversity and efficacy of the sources of information we have, and the facility with which high standards of debate and discussion take place. Whilst serving here, we get a unique perspective on that. Certainly being the member for a region that's so diverse and large, and also being a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, observing the evolution of the means, control and content in the communication of information, have given me a particular perspective on this issue. The one thing I would say initially is that our education system plays an important role in this. It's never been more important, and I think there are areas that need to be addressed fairly urgently. One thing that I've noticed is an increasing lack of knowledge about the nature of our democratic system, how it works and the different levels of government. I think we do need a civics component in our school curriculum to address this level of ignorance. Along the way, though, our kids need to be armed with the ability to be discerning in the sources of information they rely on and to learn the importance of critical analysis and thinking. That would also help our economic strength, I believe, as the driver of innovation is disputation and contestability. One of my favourite quotes is from Albert Einstein, who once said: 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, simulating progress and giving birth to evolution.' The wellspring of imagination is questioning what you were told and testing the basis of it. That's a critical skill our kids need in order to navigate a world that's now brimming with disinformation and to win and create the jobs of the future. Knowledge is transforming so quickly and the ability to access it has been so revolutionised that an early learning priority has to be on these cognitive aspects as well as the fundamentals. Armed with those skills and forewarned to question and test, our people can take on the information threats that I am referring to. The first issue that limits our ability to contest these areas in these spaces is the structure of our mainstream media at the present time. Studies have shown that we have the fourth-highest concentration of media in the world, with two of the countries in front of us being China and Egypt, whose media is dominated by government ownership, so that's not a very desirable space to be in. No doubt many had hoped that news would be democratised by the rise of social media, and there was some reason for this hope. But what we have seen is that social media has become a vehicle for information warfare by state intelligence agencies, like the Russian GRU, or self-selecting cycles of networked misinformation. This has now reached industrial scale, fuelled by sophisticated and highly produced 'deep fake' materials. Anyone who wants to understand the extent of this, I recommend reading the US Senate intelligence committee report on Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. The three volumes of that report deal with their involvement and penetration of the integrity of the IT system and social media, and also the government reaction to the information that became available. In the US election case study, what we've seen emerge is the unholy alliance between Russia and front organisations like Cambridge Analytica. Information is out there about their links to Russian finance, through Alfa Bank; the fact that they were drawing on assistance—to design and employ algorithms and materials—from those Russian sources; and, through Facebook, using personal data that's been compromised. In fact, Cambridge Analytica had about 5,000 data points on every US voter during the election and was able to then target that with algorithms to develop psychographic pictures of those 'persuadables' that they needed to influence to create an electoral outcome. As well as that Russian finance and Russian intelligence involvement, we've seen Russian private companies, such as the Special Technology Center and the Internet Research Agency based in St Petersburg, allied to the bot factory that is based in St Petersburg—and also using Eastern European organised-crime fronts to prosecute this information warfare campaign. Even in our own 2019 election, it appears that there may have been some sources of this type of information coming from organised crime elements in Eastern Europe. In the US, one example was the Vets for Trump Facebook site, which in fact had been taken over by organised crime elements in Macedonia. Conservative politics in the UK, the US and Australia have been plugging into this through Cambridge Analytica, and obviously there's an advantage to be gained from that, but I would caution all political parties to be very careful about how they embrace these materials. Some of it, of course, is based on aggressively pursuing a line of operation—as in the case of the GRU, which seeks to disrupt and discredit liberal democracy in general—and using social media to help network and fuel extreme-right-wing groups, but also manipulating confrontations with other social groups. In the US, this included the Black Lives Matter group. During the 2019 Australian election, we saw an adapted version of these techniques using the Facebook vehicle to purvey sophisticated material misrepresenting Labor policy, claiming that Labor intended to introduce a death tax and would tax pensioners, as well as a lot of character assassination material on Bill Shorten. That technique had actually been pioneered by the GRU in operations in Estonia, Georgia and the Ukraine, and against Hillary Clinton in the US—but also against other Republican candidates who were opponents of Donald Trump. So those pioneered techniques have been deployed in many cases, and it's a cheap and easy thing for the Russian GRU to experiment with. And, as I say, they are quite determined in their line of operation to undermine liberal democracy. If people want to get a better appreciation for that, I recommend they have a look at a couple of documentaries which have been aired recently—one that's available on Netflix, called The Great Hack; and a very extensive documentary called Active Measures, which explains the whole history of how Russian intelligence operations have evolved in this space. A key difference in Australia was that, instead of the money trail leading to Russian oligarchs or organised crime, there was the unholy influence of the $80 million that was injected by Clive Palmer, which we've learnt more about since that time. We also need more explanations as to precisely why Clive Palmer's spending pattern changed during the campaign and his relationship to, perhaps, these social media activities. That certainly does need more explanation and looking into. Of course, the Russians are assiduously trying to influence the current US election process; that has been highlighted. But their techniques have been carefully studied by other nations, such as Iran, who are similarly inclined to interfere in Western elections. The temptation is there for both sides of politics to turn a blind eye to such interference and tactics if they advantage them, but we have to resist that temptation lest we become witting, deliberately, or unwitting tools of foreign intelligence services. We've devoted a great deal of attention through our Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security—I've seen a lot of this—to legislation designed to defeat malign foreign influence, but we are letting our guard down on these techniques. During the current disaster season, we witnessed more examples of this, with the use of bots to promote the lie that the fires were all started by arsonists and that the scale of the fires was the result of failures to do hazard reduction because greenies stop these from happening. Eden-Monaro was the epicentre of these fires, and it all began for us with the North Black Range ignition on 26 November, caused by dry lightning strike—as were almost all the subsequent ignitions in our region. There were a lot of characteristics of that bot campaign that suggested that perhaps Russians were at work in that one as well, but certainly these bot techniques are something we have to come to grips with, whoever is the source of them. Australians used to take pride in our bulldust and bulldust artist radar and our ability to identify and dismiss ratbags. This has become more difficult with the compromise of our sources of information and the highly produced deepfake material we can see on our Facebook streams. I'm talking here about actual digital manipulation, enhancement and creation of video and other photographic materials. We need to develop new skills to test what we hear and see without falling into the trap of becoming overly apathetic and sceptical. Having fact-checking and publishing capability within the ABC with their partnership with RMIT is one of the good ways that we can achieve this, as it is providing a place where people can go and depend on what they see and hear there. Regularly checking out Media Watch is also pretty invaluable. Beyond that, I urge people to take everything they see in their social media feeds and even what they see in the mainstream media these days with a massive bucket of salt. Try to cross-reference things that have sparked a reaction for you. In my view, we also need to engage in urgent legal measures to enhance personal data protection laws. We saw in relation to the US election in 2016 the Cambridge Analytica team sitting in an office space with Facebook and supplying all of that personal data without the permission or knowledge of those people who own that data or who are the source of it. In a building in San Antonio they ran Operation Alamo to great effect, but it was deeply misleading and misinforming information that was produced and distributed through those means. So there is a great responsibility also on those social media companies to be more active and to be more vigilant in working with our democracies to defeat those serious threats to the quality and the nature of our democracies. So I think we have to look at more rigorous requirements on social media companies, with very robust penalties. I think serious electoral reform is also required to prevent the financial manipulation of our democracy by figures like Clive Palmer or any other source, foreign or domestic, that would deploy resources that just completely distort our processes. But I also come back to appropriations and think that our agencies need to be mandated and empowered to track and defeat more effectively the sources and techniques that we have seen that the GRU pioneered but which, as I said, other nations are looking at very closely. We need to enlist the support of the technology companies in that effort as well. And there are some significant tools that have been developed there within the Five Eyes context that will help us to interrogate big data. The big challenge of modern times is big data and how we need the skills of those who write algorithms and interrogate algorithms to be available to our nations to defeat these threats and take seriously the potential impact of them. Noting, of course, what the Russians were able to do in relation to compromising US election IT, we do need a lot of infrastructure security as well not just for industrial espionage but to make sure that we continue our vital work on cybersecurity posture, notwithstanding that we're less exposed than the US system. The first volume after that report I mentioned that was produced by the US Senate intelligence committee focused on what was done with their IT systems. In fact, the Russians had managed to penetrate all 50 states of the United States with the ability to alter individual voter data without, at the time, any federal or state authority being aware of it. This can show you the scale of the problem that we can face. So we need to know what is going on out there, and our agencies are struggling to keep up with some of the demands of the sorts of industrial espionage and the activities that are stealing personal data right across the world. We have just seen revelations in the US of how sources from China accessed over a billion data points relating to credit and health issues, which we know can potentially be used in all sorts of circumstances: in creating intelligence operations, in creating pressure on individuals and creating influence in our societies. So that is absolutely critical. I also assert that, within the Five Eyes context, we have to work together. There's a lot of opportunity now to work together to crack the nut on quantum computing in particular. That is really the Holy Grail in dealing with the big data challenge. I was privileged to visit the quantum computing labs at the University of New South Wales and Michelle Simmons's wonderful team there. We have to also make sure that her work is secure. We know that, for example, in China they are building a complete university devoted only to quantum computing research and they're bringing back all of their talent to focus on that effort because they understand how critical this will be to our future. We do need to invest in these things and take them seriously, because the truth is worth fighting for if we are to preserve our democracy. (Quorum formed) 19:03 Mr BURNS 278522 Macnamara Disappointingly, they don't want to hear it. They don't want to listen to the truth. They're all leaving, including the member for Canning, who doesn't have a jacket. It's disappointing. The member for Hughes is sticking around—excellent. The member for Mackellar, too embarrassed from his appearance on the ABC yesterday, has decided to stick around. I'm very glad they're all sticking around. Here is the truth—now they're walking away; the member for Mackellar is walking away—in the last hour the Prime Minister admitted that he did invite Mr Houston for lunch at the White House. No-one cares who the Prime Minister has lunch with. I certainly couldn't think of anything I care about less. What they do care about though is that we have a prime minister who cannot be straight with the Australian people. We have a prime minister who is so afraid of telling the truth that he makes up stories, talks about the Canberra bubble and parrots all sorts of nonsense instead of saying something simple like: 'Yes, I did invite Mr Houston for lunch.' That's all he needed to say. That was all the Prime Minister needed to say. Yet he was incapable of that. They all know that the Prime Minister has a problem with telling the truth, but I will say this from my limited experience in politics: it's not the cuts—it's the bleeding. It's not the lies—it's the cover-up. And they can continue. They can say it's a flesh wound. They can continue being loose with the truth over there, but it catches up with you eventually, as the Prime Minister found out today. Who knows why he decided that today was the day that he was going to make an announcement about how Mr Houston was invited to lunch? Maybe there were other reasons why the Prime Minister decided that. But today, on these appropriation bills, I think it is important to restate the fact that we have all worked hard to get into this place. Every single member in this place no doubt has worked hard and has had their own unique journey. Government is special. To be given the gift of government is something that I know no-one on this side of the House takes lightly. We are desperate to try and get to that side of the House, because government is a great gift. And government is about doing great things. But you only have to look at the lack of legislative agenda from this government to know that they are not here to do great things. They are not here to outline a vision for this country. They are not here to outline the policy and visionary agenda that Australians so desperately need. They are not here to help with the issues that Australians are desperately calling out for. They are here just to get through the day, to write media releases, to use taxpayer funds for their own benefit. Instead of dealing with the bushfire crisis, they are here to put Liberal Party ads up on Facebook to get the donation button to the Liberal Party going. That's what they are here to do. I thought that in this appropriation bills debate we would go through some of the things that they should be doing in using this incredible gift of government. First of all, they don't have a plan to tackle climate change. They don't have a plan to reduce our emissions. They are becoming more and more of an outlier. The Australian economy is missing out on all of the international changes that are happening throughout Asia, throughout Europe, throughout the Americas. We are missing out on the economic opportunities of climate change because Scott Morrison and the flat-earthers in his party room are ideologically opposed to doing something about climate change. I'm glad the member for Hughes is in the chamber, because I will get to him shortly. No government in this country is refusing to commit to net zero emissions—except for one. All the states and territories have committed to net zero emissions by 2050, including countries around the world—those radical countries like the United Kingdom, France, Germany and New Zealand—all of those radical countries who have signed up to international agreements to get the planet to net zero emissions by 2050. But that also means that that's where all the economic investment is. That's where all the money is going. The money is not going into new coal fired power generation, except for in Liberal and National parties. The only people trying to slow down the Australian economy, to slow down the economic opportunity, are the slow-movers on that side of the House. It's no wonder they don't have a plan to tackle climate change. Let's go through some of the ethereal thinkers on that side of the House. The member for New England: the man who is ambitious, who is still chipping away at the leadership of the National Party. He spent his summer with his selfie camera in his field, talking to clouds, thinking that climate change is going to miraculously be fixed by the clouds themselves. He showed how difficult things are for him. The member for Hughes is in the chamber. He wants to put messages in schools saying that climate change is a hoax. That's what the member for Hughes wants. He wants to say to our schoolkids—who are feeling anxious, who just want a little bit of hope and who just want a little bit of a message from our leaders to say, 'We recognise there's a problem and we are going to be a part of the solution'—that climate change is a hoax. I know that there are members on that side, including those in the chamber today, who take this problem seriously, who want to be part of the solution and who are, quite frankly, embarrassed by the sorts of views being espoused by the member for Hughes. The member for Dawson says, 'Climate change is like a science fiction, and accused the UN of inventing a conspiracy to inflate it. Well, that's going to help people and help lower our emissions. Senator McMahon said, 'Climate action would be akin to going back and living in huts without electricity.' Senator Molan doesn't believe members should be considering evidence or science when making up their mind about climate change. I mean, of all the things to ignore when forming opinions, I would say evidence would be on very bottom of that list. Evidence is the absolute thing we need to be looking at when tackling this issue. Science is what we should be looking at when tackling this issue. But apparently Senator Molan, who is absolutely pivotal in drawing up the climate plans of those opposite, says, 'Nope; we shouldn't be looking at evidence when talking about climate change.' It's been a fruitful Senate estimates over the last few days over in the other place. Senator Rennick, during estimates, accused the Bureau of Meteorology of faking weather data. This would be funny if it was an independent kooky senator, but this is a member of the government. This is a member of the Liberal-National coalition. And if it was just one, I'd say, 'It's just one; every family has the uncle that you try to avoid at the family reunions—so be it. I understand; I've been to those family reunions too.' But there is an organised army group over there who are adamant that this country should not tackle climate change. We as a nation should be at the forefront. We have had a summer of devastating bushfires. We should be leading the international calls and action. We should be the ones who are at the forefront of tackling climate change, and because of the dinosaurs over there we are missing out on all of the economic opportunities. They scoffed when we came out with the idea of 50 per cent new electric vehicles by 2030. If we had actually implemented that policy, it would have meant that around 15 per cent of cars by 2030 would have been electric—and 85 per cent of the cars would still have had combustible engines. We would have potentially had a manufacturing industry. We would have had more research and developers. We would have had auto-electrical engineers. Our country would have had the economic stimulus of having a new industry and a new market. But they on that side of the House were just looking at ways to combat Labor. They don't have a plan to tackle housing. Housing affordability in this country is one of the most serious issues confronting Australians. There is a spectrum of people across it, whether it be people who need social housing—the government's not building anywhere near enough social housing; or whether it is affordable housing—we need to be building around 20,000 affordable homes per year. The government is absolutely nowhere. I acknowledge that there is some housing funds happening at the moment through the NHFIC. It's just over a thousand homes a year. That's better than nothing but it is absolutely nowhere near where we should be. Then there are the other people who are my age—young people—who want to try to get into the housing market, and this government is doing the absolute bare minimum to try to help them. I recognise that the first home buyers scheme is better than nothing. We supported that measure. Thirty years ago, six out of 10 young Australians my age were able to get into the housing market. Now that number is less than four—and it is plummeting. It is becoming harder and harder for young people to get into the housing market. What are the government doing about it? Nothing. People are finding it harder to accumulate assets and finding it harder to achieve financial security—and what are the government doing about it? Nothing. That bring us to the economy. The economy was stagnating before the bushfire crisis, before coronavirus. Wages growth was stagnating. Underemployment was a massive issue, as was insecure work. Productivity was down, as was retail. You only have to walk down any of the wonderful high streets in my electorate and, I'm sure, in many others to see that retailers are struggling in this country. Before today the RBA had lowered interest rates to record low levels, and now they've been lowered even further again. Instead of acting on this—instead of acting on the economic stimulus that the Labor Party has been constructively been calling for for months—the government has done nothing. The government is watching the economy grind to a halt and now, when they are facing even further challenges, what else are they doing? Nothing. There's no further investment. They haven't brought forward tax cuts. They haven't brought forward infrastructure investment. Their $2 billion bushfire program that the Prime Minister announced apparently is only a notional fund. It's an idea. It may happen. It hasn't yet. And yet the Prime Minister is happy to wave around a media release saying that they're the ones helping bushfire victims. They're not. They are not helping bushfire victims. Less than $200 million has been rolled out across the entire country. Communities are hurting. People are struggling to get ahead. Businesses are struggling. And yet they haven't even set up their fund that the Prime Minister announced. It's only in the 'notional' stages? This is a government that doesn't like governing. There are two other things before I wrap up—and I could go on. We haven't even got to the sports rorts stuff, on which the Prime Minister is completely void of any accountability. The two areas that are also being hurt right now include the ABC. We saw the AAP today announce they were going to be shutting their doors, which is obviously devastating not just for the workers and the journalists there but also for our democracy. They are a fine institution. But the ABC has been squeezed consecutively year in, year out by this government. The ABC is vital not just to our democracy but for work over the summer, reaching out to affected communities to make sure that people are safe and that messages are getting to them. And what's the government's response? We're going to cut funding to the ABC again. We're going to freeze the indexation. And now we're hearing that the government is pressuring the ABC to sell off their assets, including in my electorate, in Southbank, to move to another new home. Not content on cutting funding, they now want to make the ABC sell off their headquarters. To make it worse, there is the temerity of those opposite. It was revealed in estimates today that, because they were so angry with the ABC holding them to account over their dodgy sports rorts, the government sent a letter to the managing director of the ABC, complaining about the coverage that they got on the sports rorts. They should hang their heads in shame, they should stop cutting the ABC and they should start acting like a government. (Quorum formed) 19:20 Ms BUTLER 248006 Griffith As I said earlier today, and I just want to make the point again, traffic and traffic congestion are a significant problem in my electorate. I want to call on the government to actually put some serious money on the table for the Cavendish Road level crossing outside the Coorparoo train station. As you know, Deputy Speaker McVeigh, we have a situation where there have been so many different funds that have been rorted by this government, and one is the Urban Congestion Fund. Eighty-three per cent of the money in that fund went to Liberal held or Liberal targeted seats—none to my seat. But the people of Coorparoo deserve to have their congestion busted, just as much as anyone does. As I said to the member for Bonner before, and I see him again in the chamber, just because you drive from Bonner to Griffith, when you cross the electorate boundary that doesn't mean that the traffic congestion magically disappears. So I call on the federal government to match Labor's election commitment that we put on the table— $107 million to get rid of that level crossing. Of course, Patrick Condren, the Labor candidate for Lord Mayor of Brisbane and Matthew Campbell, our excellent Labor candidate for Coorparoo Ward, have put on the table $410 million across Brisbane, but including for that level crossing removal at Cavendish Road. So all we need is for the Liberals to get onboard and to start caring about Coorparoo and come up with the funding. I call on both the federal government and the Liberal city council administration to actually put some money forward for that traffic congestion in Coorparoo. It doesn't just affect my electorate, of course. It affects people coming in from Bowman and Bonner, people who use Old Cleveland Road in the morning and evening peaks. There are so many issues of importance to my electorate, but you can't go past the damage that has been wrought by this government on the Australian economy and the real-world impacts that is having in my electorate. If you go to Oxford Street, if you go to Stones Corner, you see empty shops. You see situations where small businesses have been driven out of the area because the fact is the economy is really flagging under this government. This government, in its seventh year, has never had a plan for the Australian economy. We have seen situations where, of course, wages growth has been absolutely smashed under this government, where private debt has increased and where public debt had increased. We had the situation just today when the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates to a historic low. It's a historic low for interest rates and it's a historic low for the Liberal Party's economic credibility. I think Australians know what that means. It means we're in a situation where the Reserve Bank is desperately trying to stimulate the economy, where the government is doing nothing about getting economic growth happening, where the Reserve Bank is down to half a per cent with the cash rate, and, let's face it, we're getting to the point where monetary policy is going to run out of puff. We're heading towards the zero lower bound. This is serious, and this government needs to take some serious action to do something about it. Don't just stand around pointing the finger at everyone else you can think of—whether it's state government or whether it's business. The government needs to show national leadership, because businesses, include the businesses in my electorate, need it. Consumption is not going to lift while wages are falling through the floor. Consumption is not going to improve while households are unable to actually make ends meet. Of course, people aren't going to buy the extra coffee, the extra newspaper, the extra dress for the Friday night party. They're not going to go and buy the extra restaurant meal while wages growth is so pathetic in this country. All of the small businesses in my electorate are struggling hard. The business organisations are working so hard to try to revitalise shopping strips, to try to encourage people to come out and to try to make sure that they do well, but they need the national government to lead and stop leaving all the heavy lifting to the Reserve Bank of Australia. Another issue of great importance to my constituents is access to health care, and that includes access to private health care. As you know, Acting Deputy Speaker, premiums have been going up and up and up and this government seems incapable of tackling the difficulties that people have with affording private health care, because they just don't have a plan. It's the same for education. So many of the people who live in my electorate are deeply concerned about what's happening with education in this country. They're concerned about schools not having the money that they need. We have got so many great schools in Griffith, an amazing diversity of schools—big, small, independent, Catholic, state—like, of course, most electorates. They're all worried because they want to see a better education for the kids of the future, and, I might say, this extends to post-secondary as well. Being an electorate that hosts some university students—Griffith University has campuses in my electorate, and the TRI has research through the universities—people in my area are very concerned about what's happening to university funding. They're also extremely worried about what's happening with vocational education in this country. There's been a great reduction in the amount of apprenticeships. There's been billions of dollars of funding cut from vocational education under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. In fact, very few of the schools in my electorate were able to get in before the government cut the Trade Training Centres. There are very few of those around. It's a crisis in education, and people in my electorate are deeply concerned about it. This all comes down to the cost of living. The cost of living remains a crucial issue for people on the south side of Brisbane. They want to see a government that will actually tackle the fact that prices keep going up at the same time as services seem to get worse and worse. The other issue that's of key concern to people in my electorate is overdevelopment and bad development. We've a council election on at the moment. I know our wonderful Labor candidates are out there talking about what really matters to the way we live. We've got a really special way of life on the south side. It's a wonderful place to live. We need to keep it that way, and that's going the require infrastructure to keep up. It's going to require green space to keep up. It's going to require making sure that access to education and health care continues to improve for our communities. It also means making sure that when the Commonwealth can have an influence on development issues that we make sure it's a good influence. We've had the sale of the Bulimba Barracks. The sale has very recently settled, with formal information going out only this week. Our community fought tooth and nail to make sure that when the Barracks were sold there was a master plan on the site. My colleagues the Hon. Di Farmer MP, a minister in the Palaszczuk Labor government and the local member; Councillor Kara Cook, who is the local councillor; and her predecessor, Councillor Shayne Sutton, have all stood very strongly and very firmly for making sure that that redevelopment, once it occurs following the settlement, is done in a way that meets community expectations and meets community needs. As I say, we have a special way of life, and we are determined to keep it that way. There's also an issue, a problem actually, in the Greenslopes area. The Commonwealth owns a property at Greenslopes. It's an old Red Cross hall. It is a great property, but it's falling apart. There's been security fencing and shade cloth around it for years. What's most concerning is that the building is decrepit and there are big signs everywhere saying, 'Danger Asbestos'. I don't want my community to have to be worried about what happens if there's a storm or if there's a tree that falls on the building. This property needs to be fixed. The local members—Joe Kelly, the state member, and of course, Matthew Campbell, the council candidate—and I have been calling for this to be fixed for almost three years now. We have been calling on the Commonwealth, which still owns the property, to actually do something about remediating it, because it is getting to a point where people are concerned. They're concerned about the danger from the asbestos, the lack of amenity, the eyesore that's sitting there and the waste of what could otherwise be a very useful community asset. So we are calling on the government to remediate the property and make sure it is available for community use once again. We're also greatly concerned about the issues that are happening around youth arts funding in my electorate. We've got Backbone Youth Arts, one of the last youth arts organisations in Queensland, and the Commonwealth has just cut the funding to Backbone Youth Arts. It's an absolute disgrace. This is an organisation where 80 per cent of the young people who go through it end up in employment. It needs to be saved. The SPEAKER 00APG I ask the member for Griffith to resume her seat. She'll be able to seek leave to continue her remarks. ADJOURNMENT 73 ADJOURNMENT Parramatta Electorate 73 19:30 The SPEAKER 00APG It being 7:30 pm, I propose the question: That the House do now adjourn. 19:30 Ms OWENS E09 Parramatta The Granville & Districts Soccer Football Association is the oldest soccer football association in Australia. It was founded in 1900, so it's actually a little bit older than the Commonwealth of Australia, and it is the oldest amateur soccer football association in the Southern Hemisphere. One of the oldest clubs in the association is the Granville Kewpies, arguably the most successful club in the association—certainly in terms of producing Australian national team players. This weekend the Granville Kewpies Soccer Club will celebrate its 100th birthday. The Granville Kewpies can actually define and trace its club history to its inception in 1919, when it was formed by a group of apprentices who were working at Clyde Engineering. The Kewpies have operated as a club every single year since then, and they call themselves the Kewpies as a tribute to the diggers who returned from France, bringing with them porcelain Kewpie dolls to give to their mothers, wives and girlfriends. The club is linked to our history—100 years of it—and, when you look at the modern club, it has in it people who brought with them a love of the round ball from all places of the world. As diverse as our community is, so are the Granville Kewpies. Happy birthday, Kewpies, and welcome to the 'second century club'. May your second century be as great as your first. I consider myself particularly fortunate to be able to attend AustTam Fine Arts' 30th anniversary show this weekend. AustTam is an all-female Bharatanatyam dance school studying and performing one of the great dance forms of the world. It was founded by Ms Krishna Swagatham in 1990 and continues to play an important role in teaching and promoting the divine art of Bharatanatyam, a form of classical Indian dance, within our community. The upcoming show marks 30 years since they formed, and the group has decided that, in their own words, 'In recognition of the opportunities given to us here in Australia, all proceeds raised will be donated to an Indigenous organisation based in Sydney, the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence.' The event will take place on International Women's Day, and the theme of this year's event is: strength and determination told through the story of a well-known princess from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. I can usually say that much more easily than that! AustTam Fine Arts has trained superb dancers. They've given people the opportunity to undertake advanced training and tutelage that didn't exist before they started operating in this space. By doing so, they've contributed to other brilliant productions, such as the Sydney Festival, which I attend on the June long weekend each year. Congratulations on 30 years. I'm really looking forward to the performance this weekend. This weekend, to coincide with International Women's Day, the Parramatta Female Factory Friends will host a commemorative event at the Parramatta Female Factory. The event will take place on the weekend of International Women's Day to commemorate the significant women's history of the site. The Parramatta Female Factory is our oldest and most intact female convict site and an important place of local, national and world heritage. The site has significant First Nations history as a women's place before settlers arrived and, ironically, was chosen as a site to incarcerate women for the next 200 years. It was an important women's site for the Burramattagal clan of the Darug people. It was a women's place for gathering and a site for ceremony and matrimony. Approximately one in seven Australians is descended from the women sent to the Parramatta Female Factory. Its history includes Australia's first strike action: the riot of 1827, caused by a lack of food, when 100 women broke out of the facility and converged on the town, demanding food from local shop owners. Many people in my community—and I am one of them—believe that the Parramatta Female Factory should also be World Heritage listed. Parramasala, a great local festival in Parramatta, celebrates its 10th year this year. On 13 and 14 March we'll all descend on Prince Alfred Square to enjoy the best cultural presentations from around the world—live music, incredible dance, a multicultural feast and the iconic opening parade. It's always a fantastic event, and each year for the last four years, I think, I've hosted a stall at Parramasala featuring local designers, and they will be here again. There will be five clothing designers: Ilham Ismail, Ruth Fattal, Maa, Pacific Breeze and Lara Ireland. There will be three jewellery makers: Seewa Collections, Francisca Siow and MASH Accessories. There will be one tote bags and scarves designer: Suba Balendra. And there will be two wellness and skincare companies: bVitra and Bodhi Tree Skincare. It's a great event, and I suggest everybody come to Parramatta that weekend, because it shouldn't be missed. United Nations General Assembly, Defence Industry 74 19:35 Mr VASTA E0D Bonner Last year, I was very fortunate to be chosen as Australia's representative at the United Nations General Assembly, or UNGA, in New York. I would like to take this opportunity to share with the House some of the events and experiences I undertook during the three-month delegation. As a founding member of the UN, Australia has played an active role in addressing global issues such as human rights, gender equality, development, peace and security, and the environment. The annual UNGA event is one of six principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation It is also the main deliberative, policy-making and representative organ of the UN and an integral part of the UN's focus going forward. The 74th UNGA kicked off with Leader's Week, and I very much enjoyed the opportunity to witness Prime Minister Scott Morrison's national statement to the UN General Assembly, which focused on our country's policy action in relation to key environmental challenges. I also had the opportunity to farewell the departing Australian Ambassador to the UN, Gillian Bird, and welcome our new ambassador, former senator Mitch Fifield. Ms Bird had done a brilliant job advancing Australia's interests for the past four years at the UN, and she did a tremendous job of setting up Mr Fifield to build on her success. Our UN post does an amazing job. I don't want to single out individuals, because they are all professional and they all deserve to be praised. I thank them for looking after me and the honourable member for Spence. During Leaders Week there were so many different events, and our Prime Minister and foreign affairs minister couldn't possibly make them all, so I had the privilege of representing them on occasion. One such occasion was the UN General Assembly reception on disability rights and inclusion, which celebrated the launch of the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy at the Global Disability Summit one-year progress report. This event was co-sponsored by the Australian government and hosted by the UN Children's Fund, or UNICEF, and the International Disability Alliance. As well as launching the Disability Inclusion Strategy, the summit was a great opportunity for all partners to renew their commitment to disability rights and inclusive developments. Australia is a strong advocate of disability rights, and I was very pleased to share with UN partners the tremendous achievements of the Australian government to successfully implement the National Disability Insurance Scheme in partnership with all levels and sides of government. Speaking at the event, I shared how in Australia we are working together to improve the lives of people with disability, their families and carers. On a personal note, I also shared a story from a constituent in my electorate of Bonner who had benefited from the NDIS. When Tricia contacted me crying with gratitude because her 15-year-old with Aspergers and NF1 had been approved for the NDIS, it really hit home the impact our government is having on people with disability and their families. To share that at the UN reception was a humbling experience, but an honour nonetheless. I'd like to share with the House another great UNGA experience, which was my visit to the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey to view firsthand the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center. It was great to observe the capability being developed in the US while also advocating for Australia's homegrown defence primes, like NIOA, which specialises in the weapons and munitions domain. Australia is a great ally of the United States, and we share a lot of the same values, particularly around investing in homegrown defence capabilities. Following my trip to UNGA, I met with NIOA's managing director, Robert Nioa, to share with him my experience at Picatinny and reaffirm Australia's commitment to investing in Australia's defence industry. Insurance 75 19:39 Mr KATTER HX4 Kennedy The front page of the Townsville Bulletin today is about insurance going through the roof. There has been another 30 per cent increase in insurance charges in North Queensland, specifically in Townsville. That is on top of a 200 per cent increase in the last seven or eight years. People on fixed incomes are now being hit with $2,600 on average for insurance and another $2,300 for electricity charges, which were $670 prederegulation and privatisation. We can all talk about solar panels decreasing the cost. Yes, they have by 20 per cent or 30 per cent, but there is a 300 per cent increase thanks to the free-market deregulatory policies. That's to the shame of the Labor government—and I'm sure that people like Theodore, Curtin and Chifley are turning in their graves because it was the Labor Party that sold the electricity industry and the railways in Queensland. All of the buildings in North Queensland that can be blown away, shattered or flooded are gone. The buildings that are left were built under the new codes that came out after Cyclone Tracy. The new codes are excellent. In the very big town of Innisfail, you can draw a line. I was up in a helicopter and could see that the old part of the town is gone and the new part of the town is virtually untouched, except where a house was picked up and smashed into one of the new houses. One really excellent thing the government has done is the building codes. There is no justification for charging us 300 per cent more than the rest of Australia. A million people live in North Queensland. We're not small, and you should be cognisant that there are 12 swinging seats in North Queensland—very swinging seats. We are paying 300 per cent more than the people in rest of Australia. It has just gone up another 30 per cent. This can't be justified. I had a little marketing business. It was supposed to sell insurance, but it didn't. All the same, I know the industry. The industry is done by actuaries. They work out how much it will cost to insure a house in this area on the basis of historical data. If you look at the historical data over the last 15 years, a significant number of all the houses in North Queensland went in some of the worst cyclones. They were not the worst cyclones. Believe me, this story about climate change is nothing compared to I think 1929 when the whole town of Innisfail ceased to exist. It was like Nagasaki after the bomb. We have had much worse cyclones. All the same, Cyclone Larry was a frightening cyclone. So all the houses that could be destroyed have been destroyed in one or other of the last 12 or 15 cyclones. They are all gone. Those that are still standing are made to stand. So there's no justification for penalising those homeowners because some old houses got blown away in the last cyclone. There's no justification whatsoever. In the 1920s there was the Theodore government in Queensland—one of the great early governments of the Labor Party in Queensland. They won every single seat outside of Brisbane for 50 years. Of course, when that mob shifted over to the Country Party, as we did—my family and Kevin Rudd's family are classic examples—we carried the same policies with us. When we had this situation in the 1920s the government immediately set up a state government insurance office, which made a lot of money for the state of Queensland and gave us housing insurance at an affordable and fair rate. That needs to be done again now. The responsible people out there advocate that we take this position. The federal government can most certainly underwrite the risk because there isn't any risk—all the buildings that could go have gone and all the buildings that are there will withstand the next cyclone, as they have the last 12 or 15 cyclones. (Time expired) Tourism 76 19:44 Mr WALLACE 265967 Fisher This summer's bushfires and now the coronavirus outbreak are having a significant impact on businesses around Australia, especially on tourism. The Morrison government is stepping up with a $76 million tourism recovery package, but we can all do something to help. In January 2019, I held my 'Tour de Fisher' campaign, where I rode my pushbike around to every major town in the seat of Fisher. It was a sight, of me in lycra, let me tell you! This week I'm kicking off my local 'Tourism de Fisher' campaign. Every day in March, I'll be using my Facebook page to share the story of one of the fantastic local tourism businesses in Fisher on Queensland's glorious Sunshine Coast. We live in the best country in the world and there's just so much to see and do in our own backyard. So let's support our fellow Australians, holiday on the Sunshine Coast in particular and show some love to people who need it most. Without embarrassing myself too much: Let's go everywhere, Deputy Speaker; let's go everywhere. Across the Glasshouse Mountains, Deputy Speaker, let's breathe the mountain air. Of travel we can have our share, Deputy Speaker; on the Sunshine Coast you'll find it there. Let's go to Maleny Cheese, Your Mates, and Sea Life Mooloolaba; Strawberry Fields, Big Kart Track and our brewery, Brouhaha; Sunshine Coast Stadium, Ikatan Day Spa, Art on Cairncross and Flame Hill Vineyard; Aussie World, Actventure and Glasshouse bus tours; Maleny Dairies, Big Barrel and Caloundra Cruise; Green Frog Adventures, Laserzone Warana, Maleny Botanic Gardens and Montville Christmas Wonderland; Oceanview Helicopters and The Wharf Mooloolaba; Illume Creations and The Events Centre Caloundra; Skirmish Sunshine Coast, Sunny Coast Tours, Sunreef Mooloolaba and Sunshine Coast Afloat; the air museum, QCamel, Whale One and Thai Royal; art galleries in Montville, Maleny, Glass House Mountains and Caloundra; the Opalcutter, Montville, and Opals Down Under; Caloundra Jet Ski, SubSurface Scuba, Bill's Boat and Bike Hire and Australia Zoo. Let's stay everywhere, Deputy Speaker; let's stay everywhere. Let's stay at Glasshouse Mountains Ecolodge, Mercure Sunshine Coast; 84 The Spit, Apple Tree Cottage, Aegean Mooloolaba, Alex Beach Cabins and Tourist Park, Headland Tropicana, Alex Seaside Resort, Aquarius Kawana, Aspect Caloundra, At Remingtons Private Cottages, Beach Club resort, Beachside Mooloolaba, Alexandria Apartments, Beerwah Hideaway, Beerwah Motor Lodge, Blue Summit Cottages, BreakFree Alexandra Beach, Caloundra City Centre Motel, Caloundra Holiday Centre, Caloundra House and Camping Boats, Campbells Cove, Centrepoint Holiday Apartments, Cerulean Apartments, Cheltenham Apartments, Cilento Resort, Clouds, Dicky Beach Family Holiday Park, First Light, Gemini Resort, Glass on Glasshouse, Glasshouse Mountains & Beerwah Motel, Henzells Caloundra, Holiday Mooloolaba, Jacaranda Cottages, Joanne Apartments, Spinnaker Quays, Kings Bay Apartments, Kings Row Holiday Apartments, Kondalilla Eco Resort, Landmark Resort, Landsborough Pines Caravan Park, Lillypilly's Cottages & Day Spa, Maleny Country Cottages, Maleny Hotel, Maleny Tropical Retreat, Malibu Mooloolaba, Mantra, Mercure Sunshine Coast, Mirra Chana luxury apartments, Monaco Resort, Montagues of Montville, Montville Country Cabins, Montville Getaways, Montville Grove, Montville Oceanview Cottages, Mooloolaba Beach Holiday Park, Beach Hostel Mooloolaba, Mooloolaba Motel, Narrows Escape Rainforest Retreat, Nautilus resort Mooloolaba, Newport Mooloolaba, Oaks Sunshine Coast Oasis Resort Caloundra, Oaks Sunshine Coast Seaforth Resort, Ocean View Caravan & Tourist Park, Oceans Mooloolaba, Osprey Apartments, Pacific Beach Resort, Pacific Escape Holidays, Peninsular Beachfront Resort, Pomodoras on Obi, Portobello by the Sea, Pumicestone Blue Resort, Raffles, Mandolin Resort, Riviere on Golden Beach, Rolling Surf Resort, Rosebrook Cottages, Rumba Beach Resort, Sailport Apartments, Sails Resort, Sandcastles on the Beach, Sea Pearl, Seamark on First, Seaview Resort, Secrets on the Lake, Sunshine Valley Cottages, Surfside On The Beach, The Excellsior, The Falls, The Sebel Pelican Waters, The Spotted Chook, Tranquil Shores, Treetops Seaview, Ultiqa Shearwater Resort, Dockside Apartments, Whispering Valley Cottage Retreat and Windward Apartments Deputy Speaker, let's eat everywhere; Let's eat everywhere. Let's eat at Amici, Beerwah Hotel, Caloundra Hotel, Caloundra Power Boat Club, Cellar Door on First, Taphouse, Golden Beach Tavern, Kawana Waters Hotel, Daisy's Place, Green Zebra, Little Platter Co, Maleny Food Co, Maleny Lane, Moffat Beach Brewing Co, Montville Coffee, O'Malley's Irish Bar, Palmwoods Hotel, Pub Mooloolaba, Red Hot Chilli Pepper, Ricks Garage, Sandbar Cafe & Kiosk, The Dock Mooloolaba, Spice Bar, CK Wholefoods, Alexandra Headlands Hotel, Backlane Tapas & Wine Bar, The Surf Club Mooloolaba, The Wharf Tavern, People, Plates & Places, Wild Rocket at Misty's, The Edge, Spicers Tamarind and Glasshouse Plantation. I got there! Newcastle Electorate: Newcastle Show, Vocational Education and Training, Ovarian Cancer 77 19:49 Ms CLAYDON 248181 Newcastle I would like to take this opportunity to remind Novocastrians that the Newcastle Show is on this weekend and to encourage everyone to get along. The show has been a much-loved Newcastle institution for more than a century now, and this year's promising to be better than ever. Perhaps you're a fan of the monster trucks, or maybe cake decorating is more your thing. You might thrive on the adrenalin rush of rides or possibly prefer the fuzzy feels of the animal nursery. Or maybe you'd rather watch the rodeo and check out the woodchopping competition. But I think we can all agree that settling down to watch a spectacular fireworks show is a great way to end the day. So whatever your fancy is, there is something for everyone at this year's show. I'll be heading along with my dad, just as I always have since I was a child, and I hope to see you there. I'd also like to take this time to highlight the terrible backward slide in the number of apprentices and trainees under the Liberals. This week brand new local data revealed that apprentice numbers in Newcastle are appallingly low. We now have 1,165 fewer apprentices and trainees in Newcastle than we did when the Liberals came to power. That's almost a third of the 3½ thousand apprentices and trainees we had in 2013. This leaves my city, like the rest of Australia, desperately short of critical trades that are vital to the healthy functioning of our regional economy. The Morrison government has robbed Australians of employment opportunities and forced the country into a tradie crisis by ripping $3 billion out of vocational training and education. Nearly two million Australians are out of work and employers are crying out for skilled staff. The Liberals like to brag about their economic credentials, yet they starve the very sector that delivers the skilled staff that we need to grow the economy and stem unemployment. Investment in skills, education, training is economics 1.01, if you want to drive economic growth and maintain a high standard of living. But all the Liberals know to do is cut, cut, cut. By locking Australians out of education and training the Liberals are locking Australians out of jobs. The Morrison Liberal government is a do-nothing government with no agenda for jobs, training or a better Australia. I'd like to congratulate Anne Kempton, Wilma Simmons and their remarkable Wednesday group from the Timeless Textiles Gallery for bringing the Fearless Flowers project to life. This has involved the creation of hundreds of beautiful flower based artworks, which are currently brightening up some 29 shopfronts in my home city of Newcastle. This includes Abacus, Estabar, Monsoon Living, Porky's Nest, Studio Melt, Pappa Sven, High Tea with Mrs Woo, Curve Gallery, Ramjet, Make Space, Jean Bas, Blackbird Corner and so many other fantastic local businesses. I'd like a give a special shout out to those businesses and all the Makers and Traders Newcastle members who contributed to this great project. For a short time only Novocastrians can walk the flower art trail and vote in the people's choice competition for the best display. Not only is this a fantastic community arts initiative; it is also an important fundraiser. The highlight will be on International Women's Day, when the flower displays will be sold off to support ovarian cancer research at the Hunter Medical Research Institute via Pink Meets Teal. Pink Meets Teal is one of the many legacies left to us by the incredible special Novocastrian Jill Emberson. Jill tragically lost her life to ovarian cancer in December, but no matter how ill she was herself, she never wavered in her fight for fairer funding to fight this diabolical disease. As we can see, Jill's mission is being continued by the many passionate people in our community. I encourage all Novocastrians to get out and enjoy the Fearless Flowers displays, to vote in the auction and to dig deep for ovarian cancer this Sunday. I look forward to opening this project at the celebration of International Women's Day and I would encourage all Novocastrians to go out and support those 29 businesses. Give them your support at this time so that they in turn can support ovarian cancer research in our community. Mallee Electorate: Mineral Sands Mining 77 19:55 Dr WEBSTER 281688 Mallee Today I rise to speak on an industry which is having, and will continue to have, tremendous benefits for my electorate of Mallee, and indeed the entire country. It will also impact on a number of related industries that are forecast to grow rapidly and sustainably into the future. I speak of mineral sands mining. I have met with mineral sands companies on several occasions since coming to office, and I am fascinated by what is now achieved in this space. Australia is home to the largest mineral sands deposits in the world. Mineral sands are a group of minerals such as ilmenite, rutile, and zircon, commonly found together as course and fine-grain sands. Deposits often contain titanium, rare earth metals, and silica—the building blocks of modern life. With 32 per cent of the world's share of ilmenite resources and 62 per cent of rutile resources, Australia has an abundance of titanium mineral sands. Most of the world's titanium is used in the production of Ti02, a white pigment that is used in the production of paint, toothpaste and plastics. Titanium is also used in the production of titanium metal, which is used for medical implants, spectacles and the construction of space craft. Australia also boasts a 68 per cent share of the world's zircon resources, which is incredibly important for the production of ceramic items, including tiles, bathroom fittings and air purification systems. Victoria has globally significant zircon and titanium resources, and there are two advanced projects underway in Mallee, as well as significant areas of exploration and project development. The first project is the Avonbank Heavy Mineral Sands project, which, subject to final approvals, is set to commence construction by 2022. This mine contains significant zircon deposits that will be extracted over the course of a 30-year period. A mine like this brings with it extraordinary employment opportunities for Horsham and the surrounding district, with several hundred jobs expected during the construction phase and 150 to 200 jobs during the operational stage over 30 years. There is also the Donald Mineral Sands project, which is one of the largest deposits of zircon and titanium in the world, with a total mineral estimate of 5,710 million tonnes. This project has obtained a number of approvals, and the final stages of project development are expected to be completed in 2020. This project has the potential to deliver hundreds of jobs to our region, directly employing up to 150 people in the long term. This is a good news story for the township of Donald, who have lobbied me consistently about the need for more jobs. These are just two of many other exciting opportunities for mineral sands mining in Mallee. Mining licences have been granted for deposits near Ouyen, with many more exploration licences issued for areas south of Ouyen and Swan Hill. Another critical aspect of mineral sands mining is the industry's focus on mine site rehabilitation. By progressively rehabilitating the mined area, the area disturbance is minimised and the landscape is reformed more quickly. Approximately 97 per cent of mined material is returned to the mine site, so the land can be returned to its original state and returned to previous land use, such as agriculture. As I travel around the electorate of Mallee, I have seen firsthand rehabilitated mine sites around Ouyen, Wemen and Kulwin, and I have been told farmers are very happy with the way their land has been returned. Mineral sands and the rare earth elements associated with them are used in many products that are becoming more and more essential to our daily lives, including cameras, audio systems, aircraft and satellites. And as many economies around the world begin to focus on emissions reduction and a lower carbon footprint, demand for rare earth elements is growing, because these minerals are crucial in the production of electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. I am proud to say Mallee is certainly pulling its weight in future readiness. I am excited by the opportunities for economic growth and the diversification offered by mineral sands mining, and I look forward to working with relevant stakeholders to see Mallee become a world leader in the production of zircon and titanium minerals. House adjourned at 20:00 NOTICES 78 NOTICES

Tuesday, 3 March 2020

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mrs Wicks) took the chair at 16:00.

 

CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS 82 CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS Holt Electorate: Australia Day Awards 82 16:00 Mr BYRNE 008K0 Holt I rise in this place this afternoon to talk about an exceptional group of people and organisations that I honoured on Australia Day as part of the 16th annual Holt Australia Day Awards 2020. On that day, we recognised 28 outstanding individuals, presented two posthumous awards and honoured seven local organisations for their contributions to the community at the Hampton Park Day of Nations celebrations. I want to honour the people who received awards by reading their names into the parliament record and the Hansard: the Senior Venerable Thich Giac Tinh; Aanchal Meshram, Andrew Gai, Bassir Qadiri, the Casey Multi-Faith Network, Colin Butler, the Cranbourne Stroke Support Group, Dalvinder Garcha, Deborah Chamberlain, Emmanuel Mabil Majok, Fiona and Colin Crane, Gail Kavanagh, Immanuel Marthoma Church in Melbourne, Jasbir Singh Suropada, Jodie Hollis, Kaci Hillis, Kaye Coram, Kelly Warren, Kenneth Drane, Kim Warlond, Dr Leon Shapero, Lindsay Mitchell, Lisa Norman, Louise Berkelmans, Michael Hall, Michael Johnson, Senior Sergeant Niall Waring, Dr Pat Macwhirter, Rebecca Hyland, Rex Genoni, Sally Francis OAM, Sikh Volunteers Australia, Simon Walliker, the Zimcarrum Soccer Club, the Gethsemane Church Charity and the Cranbourne Regional Uniting Church Food Truck. There are a lot of names there. The names that I've just read into the parliamentary record are the names of people and organisations that didn't seek the limelight for the work that they did, but what they did do, in their own quiet, quintessentially Australian way, worked to make the community a better place. I've read these people's and organisations' names into the parliamentary record, and it's a pity that we didn't have the time to go through exactly what each of these people and organisations did to make their place and community a better community, particularly given what we have been confronting. We live in an era when we've confronted the devastating bushfires that our country's experienced. We're dealing now with the onset of the coronavirus, which I think will be a pandemic. We've had the hailstorms here in Canberra. We've literally faced fire, flood and now this virus. We need to emphasise the good in our community to keep the public spirit and the community resilience up. Honouring these people in this place in this way, I think, does that. Congratulations to all those who were honoured on Australia Day. Defence Procurement 82 16:03 Mr STEVENS 176304 Sturt I rise to inform the House of two very significant developments in the naval shipbuilding industry in my home state of South Australia that I was associated with last Friday. The first, of course, was the handing over of HMAS Sydney, which is the final air warfare destroyer that was built by the AWD Alliance at the Osborne shipyards in South Australia. The defence minister and Chief of Navy were there to mark that very happy occasion—in some ways sad, because of course it's the end of the program's life, but at the same time we all know there's a lot of exciting future for the shipbuilding industry in South Australia, and it is with a great sense of pride for all South Australians that we've delivered three impeccable vessels to the Royal Australian navy. The Sydney, beyond question, is now considered the most potent and lethal asset in the RAN's very impressive suite of capabilities. Secondly, having the defence minister in town, I was lucky to attend with her the milestone of the 200th employee at Naval Group Australia's headquarters—not in my electorate actually, on Richmond Road. This program and that business are going to have an enormous impact on the broader Adelaide, South Australian and Australian economy well into the future. It was great to be there with Minister Reynolds and the Premier of South Australia to be part of marking that occasion. There are 200 employees now working onsite there at their corporate headquarters on Richmond Road. But that, of course, is just a very small component of what that workforce is going to grow to over the years ahead. With that, coupled with the Hunter class program, which is the Future Frigate program, we're going to see thousands of jobs created in South Australia, thanks to these very important decisions that the coalition government has made in recent years to have a continuous shipbuilding program as a sovereign capability for our nation, centred out of Adelaide. It is something that's going to benefit the entire economy of our nation. It's very important that, as these programs are rolled out and the people are employed, the skills are developed, and the infrastructure is put in place, we never forget that it's the coalition that is creating this sovereign capability. Under Labor no vessels were commissioned in the six years of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era. Now, we have got towards 50 being constructed across the four programs, added in with the offshore patrol vessels and the Pacific Patrol Boats. I'm very proud to be a part of a team that is investing in our defence capability and our national security and is also recognising that we can have at the same time an amazing industry outcome, a manufacturing outcome. We now have centred in Adelaide an unbelievable ability to provide for our national security well into the future. Griffith Electorate: Roads 83 07:22 Ms BUTLER 248006 Griffith I'm here to talk about traffic congestion, because traffic congestion is one of the key issues in my electorate and on the south side of Brisbane generally. Everyone in this place knows, because I have told them about it so many times, that the Cavendish Road level crossing is one of the worst traffic snarls on the south side. I would like this government to start to do something about it. I see the member for Bonner is here. As you know, Deputy Speaker, the member for Bonner has in his electorate the Lindum level crossing, just near Iona, and I certainly don't begrudge the funding that's been put in that level crossing removal. But we should not have to have a fatality at the Cavendish Road level crossing before something is done about it. At the federal election, Labor put serious money on the table—$107 million—to deal with this terrible traffic snarl. This government failed to match that commitment. And we have learnt recently, since the federal election, that it's no wonder, because in fact the Urban Congestion Fund, the flagship fund from this government for urban congestion, was yet another set of rorts. Eighty-three per cent of the money from that fund went to Liberal electorates or Liberal target electorates. This is some of the worse rorting we have seen in the entire time of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. It's an absolute disgrace. It's not like you just drive down Old Cleveland Road and suddenly when you cross the border from Bonner into Griffith the traffic congestion just magically disappears. That doesn't happen. Traffic congestion doesn't respect electorate boundaries. Traffic congestion actually requires some really serious thought and serious money to go into it. Patrick Condren, who is the Labor lord mayoral candidate in the Brisbane City Council elections, and Matthew Campbell, made a fantastic announcement when they recently announced funding for the level crossing at Coorparoo station and Cavendish Road. It is a $400 million commitment across the city and some of that money will go to the level crossing. I invite the Liberal administration in the Brisbane City Council to stop playing games—no more tricky letters, no more nonsense, just turn up, stump up and put some serious money into this level crossing, because people in Coorparoo and people outside of Coorparoo are sick to death of this being a political football. They want to see some actual congestion-busting infrastructure from the Liberal administration in council and they'd like to see some federal money. As I said, I certainly don't begrudge the member for Bonner the money. It's important that that level crossing be dealt with. It's equally important that the level crossing on Cavendish Road at Coorparoo be dealt with. This government needs to stop using public funds as though they are election campaign winning funds. They need to actually put serious money into infrastructure where it's needed to bust congestion for the people of Brisbane, and particularly for the people on the south side of Brisbane. We are sick of the games. We would like to see the funding put into infrastructure now. Bennelong Electorate: Road Safety 83 16:09 Mr ALEXANDER M3M Bennelong North Epping is the northernmost suburb of my electorate, framed on three sides by the upper reaches of the Lane Cove River and its tributary Devlins Creek. The lushness of the Lane Cove National Park gives everything a peaceful air. Car noises are less obtrusive than the laughter of kookaburras and screeches of lorikeets. This is an idyllic and peaceful bush suburb, a world away from city cares. Epping North Public School is one of the ties that bind this community and the groups of parents that have formed and socialise at the local shops just after the school run for a coffee, chatting, laughing and building a sense of community. It was to one such group that tragedy struck last Friday morning. As a group was sitting in a cafe at Malton Road shops, a car came crashing through the garden and into the seating outside a popular local cafe, crushing some of the group against the wall. It seemed the car had been parking when it simply shot forward. The first reports were that there were 10 injured, one of whom was critical and was rushed to the Royal North Shore Hospital. Tragically, this mother of two died of her injuries later that day—a staggering blow to this peaceful community. Four more were also taken to hospital in a stable condition, and the remainder were treated by paramedics at the scene. Tributes have flowed in for the victim, and I would like to add my own heartfelt sorrow to her husband and family for their tragic loss. It's also important to recognise, however, that the first on the scene were the local business owners. My office has been told that everyone in the nearby shops rushed out and were amongst the first people who administered first aid and assisted in the pulling of the car off those trapped. I'm so proud that these locals refused to stand by in the face of this tragedy and stepped up to help before the ambulances arrived. I would also like to mention my sympathy for the driver. This was clearly an accident, though a heartbreaking one. The driver and his family will have some dark days ahead, and, while there are no words that can make this easier, do know our hearts go out to you as well. This accident will leave a scar on this close-knit community for years to come, and the family of the poor mother will not know happiness for some time. If there is any comfort to be found, it will come from the incredible North Epping community, who, I have no doubt, will rally around this young family that now finds itself without a mother. Our hearts and our prayers go out to you all. Defence Equipment 84 16:12 Mr BUTLER HWK Hindmarsh For months now, this government has sat on its hands while 700 workers—so 700 families, as well as nearly 800 businesses and their employees—have spent the entirety of summer not knowing whether their jobs are safe. This government is still considering shifting the full-cycle docking work on Australia's submarine fleet—work that has been performed in Adelaide at Osborne for decades. Now, in March, the Morrison government is still showing utter contempt for the submarine workers in my electorate of Hindmarsh. Nearly every week for months, these workers have opened the morning news and read that their fate is to be decided within weeks, leaving them in a cruel limbo. Two weeks ago, I met with workers down at Osborne. They're furious. They are highly skilled workers who've been doing this work for decades. They should be rewarded for the work that they're doing, not used as a political football. The Minister for Defence Industry has glibly proposed a split between South Australia and Western Australia, as if that is a win-win. That is not a win. That is still hundreds of workers and their families who lose—hundreds of workers, who have dedicated their lives to this country's national security, being told that the loss of their jobs is somehow a win. The contempt displayed towards these hardworking South Australians is simply beyond belief. The Morrison government has shown the workers of South Australia nothing but contempt in return for their dedication and their skills. Steven Marshall, the Premier, Simon Birmingham, the senior cabinet member in the federal government, and the South Australian Liberals have been missing in action. They should join us in taking up the fight to Scott Morrison; otherwise, it will cost South Australia dearly. Removing or splitting submarine work from Osborne would not just devastate the workers and their families; it would affect almost 800 businesses and cost up to $400 million to South Australia's economy. But this Liberal government has form in betraying the people of South Australia. They told the car industry to leave, costing 24,000 South Australian jobs, with many workers now in work for lower pay, for fewer hours and in worse conditions—if they have a job at all. This government betrayed shipbuilders in Osborne when they had no plan, not a single thought in place, once the Air Warfare Destroyer program had concluded, costing 577 workers their livelihood so far. They sent the supply ship contract to Spain, not even getting local Australian shipyards the opportunity to bid for it. Now they're toying with the lives of the full-cycle docking workers down at Osborne. The answer to this is clear: keep the work where it is, where it has been done with skill and dedication, where the workforce is, where the expertise is. Keep the work in Osborne. Coronavirus 84 16:15 Mr ZIMMERMAN 203092 North Sydney I rise to talk about the risks of the coronavirus, which I know is causing anxiety for all Australians, including many of my residents. That's perhaps understandable when we see some of the imagery coming from other countries around the world. But I want to make the clear point that Australia is not one of those countries. We are a nation which, at both the state and federal level, is prepared for any eventuality. So whilst those concerns are understandable, I want to give some assurance to Australians and residents of my electorate that we are prepared to meet any of the challenges that might face us over the months ahead. In that regard, I want to pay credit to all of those in state governments across the country and, in particular, the federal government who are working so hard on the contingency planning and prevention measures that have already been adopted. In particular, I would mention our own chief medical officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, someone I've previously had the pleasure of working with in my role as chair of the standing committee on health. And I know that we are in exceptionally capable hands. Professor Murphy and all the state agencies are providing advice to residents, and I want to reiterate some of that today. Firstly, obviously, personal hygiene is very important. Secondly, it is important that we carry on with our lives and not be afraid of going to local businesses and restaurants ,or even attending big events, because all the advice we have is that there is no risk from doing so. I also want to mention some of the imagery of empty supermarket shelves that is appearing on social media in my electorate. It makes no sense that people are rushing out to buy things like bulk supplies of toilet paper. That is simply not necessary. I would say it was a little bit ridiculous and silly; but the sad fact is that, when people do that, there is a serious consequence. I want people to think about the fact that, this week, there will be older Australians, and maybe Australians with disabilities, going out for their weekly shop and finding they can't find the things that they actually do need for the week ahead. So I would ask residents to reflect seriously on whether it is truly necessary for them to engage in those types of practices when all of the advice is that we don't need to be concerned in that way. I want to acknowledge the role of the Chinese community in my electorate. I know that many businesses have been hit hard over the last couple of weeks. Some restaurants have reported a decline in trade of up to 50 per cent. But the great news is that they are bouncing back, and I'm really pleased to see that. I hope that by leading by example—I have enjoyed far too many yum chas over the last two weeks—I have encouraged others to do the same. It will be a tough time for our nation and many parts of the world over the coming weeks and months. The important thing is that we listen to their professional advice and act accordingly. (Time expired) Macnamara Electorate: Sporting Clubs 85 16:19 Mr BURNS 278522 Macnamara I recognise the important words of the member for North Sydney. We all need to work together to deal with this and support all members of our community, especially older Australians, and ensure that they have everything they need. I want to talk about some local sporting and recreational facilities in the finest electorate of McNamara. Caulfield Park is located in the City of Glen Eira. The City of Glen Eira is the local government authority with the lowest amount of open space of any local government area in Victoria. There is no local government area that has less open space than the City of Glen Eira. In the heart of the city of Glen Eira we have Caulfield Park. Caulfield Park is the largest park in the city of Glen Eira and is the second largest in my electorate, behind the great Albert Park. It is home to a number of clubs and teams, both senior and junior, including North Caulfield Maccabi Football Club, Caulfield Cricket Club, Maccabi AJAX Cricket Club, Caulfield Lacrosse Club, Caulfield Park social soccer and Caulfield Park Tennis Club. It is a bumper to bumper schedule at Caulfield Park because the land there is so scarce. So what better facility to access the government's recreational and Community Sport Infrastructure Program—the $100 million community sport infrastructure program. So the city of Glen Eira, on behalf of all of the local sporting clubs that use Caulfield Park, put in a grant application. They put in a grant application to upgrade Caulfield Park's community and social clubs, to upgrade the lighting to better enhance the usage of the oval for competitive and social sport, in an area that's completely overfilled and not utilised enough in the park. These things cost money. We need that space so let's put in the application. The good news is that Sport Australia thought that that was a pretty good idea too. They thought that Caulfield Park needed a bit of money, that's why they awarded the application 83 out of 100—not bad. We thought we're not going to ask for the full amount. We'll just ask for less than half—$213,000. Especially because down the road in the electorate of La Trobe the Pakenham footy club only got 50 out of 100. If they didn't get the full $500,000 then surely at Caulfield we can only get less than half, that seems reasonable—but not a dime. I now know the two reasons why Caulfield Park didn't get any. The first was that it wasn't in the Prime Minister's electorate and it hadn't already been built. If that had have been on the application they would have helped them. The second reason was that it's not a regional grant. I know the member for North Sydney has got a nice new pool, but in Macnamara our kids and our parents are missing out because of the rorting government. Local Sporting Champions Program 85 16:22 Mr VASTA E0D Bonner I would like to congratulate some of Bonner's up and coming sports stars who will be able to compete nationally and internationally thanks to the Morrison government's Local Sporting Champions grants. Successful round 3 grant recipients were announced recently. We certainly have some diverse young sporting stars who are at the top of their field. In total 11 young people have received a grant to help pay for travel, accommodation and expenses to compete in sports varying from swimming, touch football, softball, basketball, athletics and even sailing. I was fortunate to catch up with one of our local recipients recently, Lily Bassingthwaighte of Carindale, who will use the grant to compete in the Australian under 12s cricket championships in Adelaide. Lily said attending the championships was a great opportunity for her to play against the best girls in the country. And she hoped it would help improve her skills as she works towards her goal of representing Australia one day. Lily said competing against the best teaches young athletes to perform better under pressure and brings out the best in them. Other recipients in Bonner include Lily Bogomiagkoff, of Mount Gravatt; Alex Condon, Tipene Harkness and Erin Cowley of Manly West; Ethan Bennetts of Carindale; Jarrod Jones and Holly Jones of Wakerley; Caitlyn Hosking of Ransome; Jasmine Bokow of McKenzie and Oliver Reynolds of Lota. I wish you all every success in your sporting pursuits. I'd also like to mention all parents and carers of our young sporting stars who sacrifice their time and hard-earned money to help their kids pursue their sporting passion. You give up a lot to help our young athletes to get where they are now and your efforts should be commended. I'm very pleased to be part of a Morrison government committed to supporting our young athletes to compete at the highest levels in a sport they love. Well done and all the very best to you. Barton Electorate: Community Events 86 16:24 Ms BURNEY 8GH Barton . On Sunday I attended a Clean Up Australia Day activity hosted by Advance Diversity Services at Hogben Park in Kogarah in the electorate of Barton. In recognising this day, I'd like to also recognise the late Ian Kiernan, the founder of clean up Australia. Seventy members of the Nepalese and Chinese communities from Barton—grandparents, parents and children—all joined together to clean up the park. Of course, these activities were right across Australia. They collected many full sacks of rubbish from around the basketball courts, the creek and the children's play equipment. The morning also included cultural performances by local people from the Nepalese community. Hogben Park is an important gathering place in Barton. It gathers together, morning and evening, Nepalese, Bangladeshi, Arabic, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian families who have chosen the suburbs of the Barton electorate to live in. Every morning and evening, as you drive past the park, you can see social gatherings of people undertaking discussions, yoga, tai chi, meditation, basketball, football and many other activities. Sunday's activities were part of Advance Diversity Services' Waste Wise Project, which was funded by a grant of $19,000 or so from the Communities Environment Program. The aim of this project is to help educate and inform newly arrived migrants to the Barton electorate about how to reduce waste and litter through practical activities such as participating in Clean Up Australia. Also on Sunday, the Cooks River Alliance and the Mudcrabs—very famous groups—helped Clean Up Australia around the Cooks River. Forty-five Mudcrabs removed 65 bags of mainly plastic rubbish from along the river, such an important part of the Barton electorate. This event also marks the start of the Cooks River Alliance Wurridjal Festival, which celebrates the mullet season in the Cooks River. The first fish enter the Cooks River during the pre-spawning migration along the east coast of Australia. And looking to the future of this country, this recalls a time which is fondly seen as 'in the past' today in the electorate of Barton. Two weeks ago I attended the annual presentation day for Sydney Technical High School. It was wonderful coming together. I want to recognise the school captain, Eric Napper. I also want to recognise Wesley Yiu, Scott Lam and Miguel Mariano from year 12, who sang and played beautifully. I had the great pleasure of presenting awards to Lochie Bown, Minsu Jung and Mohammed Huta, who have ATARs of great importance and wonderful outcomes in their education. (Time expired) Brisbane Electorate: Clean Up Australia Day 86 16:27 Mr EVANS 61378 Brisbane For 30 years on the first Sunday of March thousands of volunteers right across Australia have rolled up their sleeves and put some gloves on to join in with Clean Up Australia Day. It has become our nation's largest community based environmental event, and it's a very practical way for people to make a positive difference for their local environment and, of course, to meet some like-minded people around their community too. I spent Sunday attending four Clean Up Australia Day events around Brisbane. They included an early morning event helping to clean up New Farm Park with Councillor Vicki Howard, then a clean-up along Crosby Road in Albion with Councillor David McLachlan and Tim Nicholls MP. This was followed by a clean-up event organised by Brisbane City Council and with Cleanaway at Victoria Park in Spring Hill. And, finally, a river clean-up event with the member for Bonner along the Lower Brisbane River catchment. This was run by the very formidable Ocean Crusaders. At that last event, I stood next to a wall of rubbish and debris that had been pulled out of the Brisbane River—about 2½ tonnes worth of rubbish, including some old bottles that we estimate date back probably to the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s. There's obviously a lot of hard work to be done to clean up our waterways. The health of the Brisbane River has always been a key priority for me, since I was first elected back in 2016, and that's because the Brisbane River and its catchment is truly our most significant environmental asset in South-East Queensland. And I'm very much looking forward to some further river rehabilitation work that will be occurring in Brisbane over the coming months this year, following my hard fight and advocacy in this place to secure resources and support for this important priority. For example the Ocean Crusaders will hold Paddle Against Plastic, an event where community volunteers in kayaks and watercraft will be removing significant debris from the Brisbane River. Another project will see Conservation Volunteers Australia run a community-led campaign with local students and community groups to remove plastics and other debris from Breakfast Creek. These are exactly the type of community driven solutions we need to tackle the harmful impact of plastics and pollutions in our waterways. All up, I have worked hard to secure further funding of $1.15 million for projects to improve the health of the Brisbane River on top of the $760,000 I delivered in my first term. Taken together, and working together with everyone, these activities and projects are making a real difference to protect and revitalise our local waterways and will, hopefully, keep the Brisbane River blue. The DEPUTY SPEAKER 265991 In accordance with standing order 193, the time for members' constituency statements has concluded. MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS 87 MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework 87 16:30 Dr MIKE KELLY HRI Eden-Monaro I welcome this opportunity to address the situation that has emerged in the context of these terrible disasters beyond the scale of anything we have ever seen and it is, I guess, a concession that should be made that on disasters of this scale we do need to learn lessons and some things that may have been unforeseen need to be addressed. But there are so many things that have been so glaringly obvious about the failures of addressing this disaster that they do need to be highlighted if we are to move forward at all. Just to put it in context, in Eden-Monaro we saw over a million hectares burnt. That is greater than the entire extent of the damage in the Black Saturday fires in Victoria, larger than the famous Amazon fires recently, larger than the Californian wildfires of 2018, all just within the borders of Eden-Monaro. Associated with that too, we lost over 1,000 homes across the LGAs in Eden-Monaro and close to around 9,000 livestock. I guess when you stick out that raw number of 9,000 livestock, it doesn't mean a lot to people. But if you are a farmer—I have lived on dairy farms with my family—and you have go out there and see an animal that is suffering from terrible burn injuries and then have to go through the trauma of euthanizing them—putting them down—and having to do it on a large scale and then dealing with the corpses, it is traumatic stuff. One farmer from out Batlow way was telling us the other day how his kids had to be involved in that too. Because these animals were suffering so much, they didn't have time to waste. He was in tears when he was telling me this story. So the trauma and the tragedy out there has been just enormous. It certainly has been a big awakening about the future we all face if we done do something seriously about climate change and that is something that we can talk more about. We are now talking about the recovery phase and how we deal with that scale of damage, disaster, destruction. I have travelled all around Eden-Monaro meeting with chambers of commerce in Jindabyne, Merimbula, Eden talking to business communities, attending community meetings in Tumbarumba and it has been a common disturbing theme out there that the measures meant to have been put in place to help particularly small businesses haven't been. Some of these chambers of commerce have actually surveyed their members. For example, in Jindabyne they said that 71 per cent of the businesses that had applied for assistance had completely failed and they were mystified by the process. When I was talking to the Narooma Chamber of Commerce members, they were telling me that, looking at the Austrade package of event support, there is this 11-page document they have found absolutely impossible to navigate. When we talk about to assistance allocated to councils, it works out to be around $30,000 per LGA. They estimated that to stage the Narooma Oyster Festival this season is going to cost $85,000 and no business which normally would support that activity can afford to engage in the sponsorship that they usually do. So we have to completely revisit the scale of this assistance to these councils. I think in the context of some of the other things we have been hearing in the last few days, what has made them particularly angry are things like the story about the $10 million North Sydney pool project, which used regional money. To hear someone from that area saying, 'Yes, but people from the regions sometimes visit and use the pool,' just underlined how ridiculous that situation is. I've seen the Bega District News reporting on the anger of the Mayor of Bega Valley Shire Council, Kristy McBain, who had to deal with those terrible fires at Tathra only a couple of years ago, which destroyed 65 homes, killed animals—no people thankfully—and killed off a lot of businesses. We've just seen On the Perch Bird Park fold at Tathra—the double whammy of the two seasons. Mayor McBain is absolutely livid. In the past she's asked for $5 million to help get them through the infrastructure and repair challenges that they faced, and they weren't granted that money, and then she saw $10 million of regional money go to a North Sydney pool. They've had situations where the disaster recovery money won't cover the loss of infrastructure, like dressing sheds and cemeteries and town halls. The whole scope of that program needs to be revisited. In relation to this North Sydney pool issue, the Bega member, Andrew Constance, who's a Liberal government minister, described it as disgusting. This has to be looked at. We have stolen regional money from shires who are really suffering from the damage of these bushfires, and they're watching this money being frittered away in places where it just should not be. To go back to the effect on small businesses, I mentioned in questions to the Prime Minister that the Longstocking Brewery would normally be employing 24 to 30 casual staff at this time of the season but is now only employing four. The message we're getting from these businesses all around—because they do mostly employ casual labour based on the seasonal nature of their enterprise—is that these people are leaving town in significant numbers. In a country town, if you lose your job, you have no other option. There are no other jobs to go to and you're forced to leave town, and that creates this vicious cycle: you start to lose numbers and families and kids and then you lose your schoolteachers and maybe then you end up losing your local police officer. So it's a terrible cycle, which we have to intervene now to short circuit. Of course the Longstocking Brewery is not the only example. I've had feedback, as per the other question I asked the Prime Minister, from the President of the Merimbula Chamber of Commerce, Nigel Ayling. There are 140 members of that chamber. Mr Ayling surveyed them, and 90 responders basically said they got no help from the assistance packages that are out there. He indicated that there are seven businesses that could close in Merimbula within the next 12 months and that there are a further 20 that are on the edge of closing if they don't get some help. He said: When it comes to government assistance, it's a big fat zero with 100 per cent of respondents saying they have received no government assistance at all. This is in the face of them losing 60 per cent of their annual turnover. When I met with the Jindabyne Chamber of Commerce they highlighted that 71 per cent of their members couldn't achieve success in their applications and they just didn't understand the process. It was just too hard. This is a message that's emerging all around the region. It underlines the fact that, instead of having these travelling buses moving around only occasionally, we need on the ground in each significant town a small business adviser and a Centrelink representative to help navigate people through these processes. It has to happen. I've had a lot of constituent feedback about how these buses have failed. Someone from Tilba, for example, indicated to me they weren't even aware the bus was coming and, by the time they heard about it, the bus had gone and wasn't coming back. So we need people on the ground for these next few months through to the next summer season at least to help people to navigate this stuff. And those advisers need to feed back to government how those processes need to be adjusted and improved and streamlined to facilitate getting money flowing now. I know that there is hesitancy in the government because of the political capital that was made during the global financial crisis about so-called cheques to dead people and that sort of thing, but that immediate cash in the hands of people during that crisis saved us from going into a recession. The estimates of the government agencies that were advising us to do it that way were that we were essentially going to have 200,000 people on the streets unemployed, and that didn't happen. This is the issue: that money needs to be landing in the streets right now. If it doesn't happen right now, it's going to be too late. I know there is caution around this and you want to put accountability mechanisms in place, but there is this double mechanism now of things going from the federal to the state government and buck-passing that's going on. Minister Barilaro is saying this is unacceptable. The buck-passing has got to stop and the buck has got to land on the ground for the people that really need this to happen. I would beg the government to take a good, hard look at how this is working. There are shamrock measures that are being taken, where we've got a shingle on the door saying 'Bushfire Recovery Agency' and then we find there is actually no agency, and then we find there is no appropriation for the $2 billion that we've heard has been allocated. It has got to start happening now. The government has got to get off the dime. If there are issues with the New South Wales government, sort them out. In my community, this is burning holes in the government. The fires have finished but there is one fire still burning—a fire of anger, and I am not exaggerating. 16:41 Dr HAINES 282335 Indi I'd like to recognise Minister Littleproud for an important speech on disaster risk reduction. He outlined a sensible policy framework that says we shouldn't just respond to disasters after they happen but reduce risks upfront and ensure that communities are resilient before disaster hits. He was extremely clear that climate change is driving these disasters, making them worse, and will continue to threaten the fundamentals that make Australia a wonderful place to live. He said: Climate change is causing an increase in frequency and intensity of heatwaves, fire weather and contributing to drought. Our world-leading science agencies have told us that we can expect more extremes into the future, longer disaster seasons and compounding events. I was pleased to hear the minister lay this out so unequivocally. It is important for Australians to hear this from their leaders. It's also important, as we pivot into rebuilding after these fires, to consider what disaster resilience really means for regional Australia. The minister said yesterday: When things are going well we may value efficiency and cost-effectiveness; but when faced with disruption the need for safety and security comes into sharper focus. For many communities in my electorate of Indi, these fires have brought into sharp relief how much more needs to be done to build resilience before the next disaster hits. Minister Littleproud and I spent a weekend in February touring bushfire affected communities of Indi, and I believe he has heard this message loud and clear. In Indi, like across much of regional Australia, these fires have exposed the brittle skeleton that sits beneath many of our regional communities: stretched health and mental health services; poor facilities; farmers who have lost stock, property and fencing; communities totally reliant on a single electricity transmission line; small businesses with just a few weeks of financial buffer before they have to shut up shop; and young people who have not had the opportunity to access skills and training. Reducing the risk of disaster is not just about buildings and firefighting; it's also about fostering stronger communities. To properly ensure we reduce the risk of disasters and build resilience in regional Australia, these fires need to herald a step change in the government's approach to regional Australia. First, we need to support proper research into how to adapt to our rapidly changing climate. The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre, established in 2013, is due to have its funding expire in the middle of next year. The bushfire CRC has done important work in building our understanding of how to manage fires. CRCs are supposed to be funded only for set periods, but there is an established practice of extending them when there is a pressing national need. I believe there is such a need, and the government should consider extending its funding. Adapting to a changed climate is about more than bushfires. We need proper research into adaption and resilience in regional Australia. It's a real shame that the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility had its funding cut in 2017. The NCCARF could play a significant role in helping this country prepare for our future. In the next budget, the government should strongly consider reinstating its funding and establishing a sister facility in regional Australia to complement the existing base in the Gold Coast. We mustn't just respond willy-nilly. We have to respond smartly. Ensuring these two research centres are properly funded will be a gift to the nation in coming decades. Second, building the resilience of regional communities means we need to properly invest in regional communities across the board. We need a national strategy to adapt our agricultural sector to climate change, including support to transition to climate-resilient crop strains, upgrade farm infrastructure and much more. I called for such a strategy last September, and it's now clearer than ever why we need one. We need to properly invest in rural mental health. Our mental health services are beyond breaking point in regional Australia. There are not enough trained personnel, and it's way too hard to access services. The mental health impacts of bushfires are immense. We need to ensure our communities are mentally healthy to take on those challenges. Our councils, who are the first to respond in these crises, are starved of funds to build critical infrastructure and community facilities, on which, in a crisis, people depend for their lives. We need to restore financial assistance grants to one per cent of federal tax revenue to ensure rural and regional councils are investing in communities and are empowered to respond in crises. We need to properly fund the ABC, which saved who knows how many lives this summer with their excellent, reliable emergency broadcasts. We need to ensure our regional towns have energy security. Places like Corryong were completely cut off from the grid for several days during 'black summer' after the transmission lines burned down. This meant everyone in the town, including the hospital, lost power. Many in Corryong are calling for investment in a mini-grid to ensure that this will never happen again. An investment of just $12 million to build a small-scale solar array, batteries and mini-grid technology would mean not only that Corryong has a brand-new source of income for the community but that it will never again be reliant on a single fragile wire connecting it to the grid. I'm calling on the government to create a fund to support the development of community renewables, not just in fire affected areas but across regional Australia. In fact, I'm working with local community energy experts in my electorate to design such a proposal, and I look forward to working with government to make it happen, because this is truly about resilience. Will all of this cost money? Yes, of course it will, but, as the minister said: The economic cost of natural disasters is currently estimated to be $18.2 billion a year … The costs of disasters are projected to rise to $39 billion by 2050 even without accounting for a changing climate … If you put the investment in upfront to build your resilience, then you're more likely to get through. The overall cost could ultimately be less. We need to heed Minister Littleproud's call and ensure that these fires herald a new wave of investment in regional Australia. 16:48 Mr GOSLING 245392 Solomon I would like to join with Minister Littleproud in extending my deepest sympathies to the families that have lost loved ones during this horrendous bushfire season, and I also want to acknowledge the members of this place who, when their homes and communities were under threat, worked with the community to safeguard them. I know the member for Macquarie, the member for Eden-Monaro, the member for Gilmore and others performed such sterling work during the horrendous bushfire season. The work that they did is a credit to them. I also extend my deepest sympathies to Australians across our fire ravaged land who lost their loved ones, homes, businesses, crops, livestock or livelihoods over this awful summer, and I extend my personal appreciation to all the members of the parliament, some of whom I just mentioned, and to our brave, heroic firefighters, who gave up weeks or months and often gave up their personal income, their holidays, and time with their families to help save properties and lives. They did this for gruelling days, weeks and months—what must have seemed like an endless tour of duty—to fight these fires, protect their neighbours and protect people they didn't know. It was a horrendous summer, but it also showed the Australian spirit and how Australians will come together to support each other in times of need. In particular I pay tribute to those who never returned home. We owe them and their children much more than our respect, much more than thoughts and prayers. We've actually got to help them. It is something that we must honour. It is of great concern to me that increasingly there doesn't seem to be that much respect paid to the words of government ministers. We find out that the things that they say they are doing are not backed up by the reality on the ground, and that is something that needs to change. That is something that needs to be addressed very quickly. I don't think anyone contests that the level of destruction we have seen in the last six months was unprecedented. Certainly it is a bipartisan point of agreement, I would hope, that it was unprecedented. Any reasonable person would say that this summer was unprecedented, but that doesn't mean that this summer's horrific toll was unexpected. In fact, for many months the government was warned of an intense bushfire season compounded by climate change. For months former fire chiefs, with hundreds of years of experience between them all, asked our Prime Minister to meet so they could explain their concerns to him. For months they were ignored. When pressed on it, the Prime Minister said that he listens to serving fire chiefs and not the really experienced retired ones. That was a shame—not just a shame for the credibility of the Prime Minister, but a shame in that we were not as prepared as we needed to be for those expected catastrophic fires. It was in November last year that the leader of the Australian Labor Party wrote to the Prime Minister to say in a bipartisan way, 'Convene COAG and let's talk about Australia's natural disaster preparedness.' The fact that that was ignored is obviously a shame. For many years, as those opposite would probably like to forget—they won't be allowed to—experts like Ross Garnaut warned the government that this scenario was coming with near certainty. In fact, he even predicted that it would all come to a head in the year 2020, this past fire year. Those warnings were ignored. What concerns me, even though I join Minister Littleproud in thinking about all that was lost, is that there was still this self-congratulating spin, this trumpeting of how well the government did, when the Australian people could see quite clearly—day after day, week after week and month after month, as this fire tragedy spread throughout 2019 and into 2020—that the government's lack of preparedness had left us at the mercy of enormous fires across our nation. It should have been expected. There were warnings. What the federal government needs to do is not congratulate themselves but lead. They need to not coordinate from behind and after the fact but actively lead a national response to the bushfires, floods and other crises, if not to avoid the horrendous loss of life and property, but—this may strike a stronger chord with them—so that they can prevent fires costing our nation billions of dollars. One example of where it is costing us big time is in agriculture. As was pointed out by PhD candidate David McKenzie, from Charles Darwin University, in his submission to the current House of Representatives inquiry into how we lift agricultural production in this country: The primary challenge to the growth of Australian agricultural output is that of the intensifying propensity of natural hazard consequence risks due to increasing frequency and accentuation of climatic variability oscillations. Academic-speak! He continues: The 2008 Garnaut Climate Change Review foreshadowed serious impacts of climate change on the Australian agricultural sector (Garnaut, 2008). As I said, it shouldn't be news to anyone that catastrophic climate change will continue to be a threat, not only to lives and properties in this nation but also to our economy. We are seeing that played out in spades. One of the ways we can better manage the fire threat in our nation is to listen to Indigenous knowledge that has been developed over tens of thousands of years. I was proud to open the Savanna Fire Forum in Darwin on 18 February, which focused on the amazing work of the savannah carbon farming industry. I'll just quickly give you an idea of the potential. The savannah projects have reduced emissions by more than 6.9 million tonnes of CO2 since 2013. These projects have achieved the equivalent of removing 400,000 cars from our roads. It is going to be able to generate income. Our country's tropical savannah covers about 1.9 square kilometres, or close to a quarter of our continental land mass. These savannahs are highly fire prone, so active fire management by First Nations people over the last 60,000 years has obviously helped to shape those savannah landscapes and these traditional practices. The transition from those traditional practices to modern farming techniques had a big impact on our environment. As a result, I think there is a renewed focus on ways that we can work with Indigenous knowledge to actively manage fire and work on what we know to be the case—that the two-way seeing of First Nations Australians will give us a much better idea about how to manage fuel loads and about how to manage fires by managing fuel loads early in the season. I hope that we can do that to the benefit of our nation. 16:58 Mr GILES 243609 Scullin I rise to make some brief remarks on this important debate and in doing so I want to acknowledge the contribution of the member for Solomon, an excellent contribution that touched on many of the things that are of concern to me and the people that I represent in this place. I do want to acknowledge that the minister has done a good thing, and an important thing, in bringing this report before the parliament for us to debate and consider. It is how our parliament should work on matters of importance. There should be more ministerial statements and more opportunity for those of us who are not in the executive to debate them in this place and be accountable to those who send us here, as well as holding the government to account. I have already noted, as I am sure most of us have, the terrible costs of the bushfires of this summer—fires that may well continue well into autumn—in particular that we have seen 33 deaths and enormous destruction of property. I extend my sympathies to all of those directly affected and acknowledge and pay tribute to all of those volunteers and professionals who contributed to the firefighting effort and who are working now in the recovery effort. In terms of the report that is before us, there are a few points I want to make—three things that have arisen since the minister handed down his report. Firstly, Infrastructure Australia has now produced its infrastructure priority list. This is an important document which was prepared in December, before the majority of the fires. Yet it has a new and important focus that I have all members and indeed all senators have been paying regard to. That focus is on the risks that the member for Solomon was clearly articulating earlier—the challenge of climate change and the importance of building infrastructure that is resilient—as well as taking real action on climate change so that we don't see an inevitable transition towards summers like the one we have just had becoming the new normal, with all the attendant consequences. So I ask members to pay attention to that Infrastructure Australia report and to focus on resilience in our infrastructure and taking action on climate change to constrain global warning in keeping with the Paris agreement, to which this government entered into, and it's real aspirations to get to net-zero emissions. In question time today, and in the ministerial statement this debate relates to, we heard some extraordinary evidence about the National Bushfire Recovery Agency, a much trumpeted body. We found out today that the $2 billion the minister and the Prime Minister spoke of is 'notional', which we now understand is Morrison government shorthand for 'non-existent'. This is quite extraordinary because this is something that should be bipartisan. But we on this side of the House won't be bipartisan at any cost. If we are serious about the commitments that we have made as a country and as a government, we should at the very least be serious about such financial commitments—and, indeed, to commitments to create an agency that does not yet exist. This is something the government needs to come clean on and act on, as indeed they have to do in terms of more support for small businesses which have been so grievously affected. They should follow the lead of the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister for small business, the member for Gorton, who, with my friend here the member for Macquarie and the member for Gilmore, called for urgent action to support small businesses that have been affected. It would be good to see the government acting on this. In concluding my remarks, I want to echo some of the comments in the contributions to this debate by the member for Ballarat. She highlighted some very important issues of preparedness. She highlighted that, despite the fact that the incoming government brief on Home Affairs warned of the risks in this summer, despite the constant approaches of retired fire chiefs, the government did not do all that it should and could have done. Indeed, the government leant on an understanding it suggested at the time—which has now been contradicted by its actions—that these are questions for the states. How ironic it is that the Prime Minister's agenda now focuses on acquiring more power. That again suggests that this government is focused much more on marketing than real action. We do need to reflect appropriately on these things through any consideration of what has happened, what went wrong and how we can arm ourselves for the future. The other point to make about power and pushing responsibility back to the states is the failure to bring together COAG, the failure to take national leadership, the failure to bring together a national coordinating role as the leader of the Labor Party called for quite early in the summer. So when we see this statement we see some fine words; but they are fine words that are underpinned by inaction and misleading statements. And they are fundamentally undermined by two things: this government's failure to have any plan to take action on climate and its failure to develop and articulate a plan to manage these risks to build our resilience into the future. 17:04 Ms TEMPLEMAN 181810 Macquarie It is vital when we talk about disaster risk reduction, as the minister has done—and I welcome his statement—that we look at all aspects of managing, preparing for, recovering from and also mitigating the risks that we face. In terms of what we've seen in these bushfires, which, of course, had a shocking impact on my electorate—on the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury—we need to look at infrastructure that would have made a difference: making sure power supplies are there, making sure people can get calls or texts on a mobile, and making sure that there are back-up systems for landlines and internet, because in many cases people lost all communication. The only connection they had with the outside world was through the ABC, which is also something we should be looking at in terms of risk reduction—making sure that, when we can't reduce the risks, the systems we need in place are there. So there are massive infrastructure needs. It will also be really important for locals to be involved in that planning process. Every area is different. I think we saw during these fires how important local knowledge is in the planning and preparation. We also need to use the Indigenous knowledge of our land that we have. So I think all of those things are key. Our frontline people also have to be resourced so that they can sustain the sorts of disasters that we are likely to see. We've had a lot of focus on thinking about these things from a bushfire perspective, but in my electorate it was only a matter of moments after the bushfires were over that the rain started, and that brought with it flooding and landslides. There were massive storms. Trees were downed. So I think we have to make sure we don't confine our planning to one particular disaster. We know that, as climate change continues, we are going to see more and more extreme weather events of all kinds. In talking about this today, I want to focus on the recovery stage—the things we have to plan so that we don't find ourselves in the situation we are in now, trying to recover from this massive bushfire season. It is becoming more of a disaster every day. I was really pleased to hear the Prime Minister say back in January, 'We will do whatever it takes, whatever it costs.' They are exactly the words that communities want to hear when they have been through something, quite frankly, unimaginable. Sadly those words are not being lived up to with commitments on the ground. The facts on the ground are not reflecting that sort of commitment from this government, which is why it is becoming a triple trauma for us: we've had fire, we've had floods and now we have a failed recovery. I want to talk about some aspects of it—things that we can learn from this and things that need to be improved now. The first is that, when you say you're going to set up an agency to oversee the recovery, you actually have to do it. You can't just create a desk in PM&C, put someone there and say, 'There we are; there's the agency.' People expect transparency, and they expect an agency to be created. At the same time, when you say you're going to put $2 billion aside to start this recovery, they expect that money to be put aside. They don't expect to it to be a notional fund—in other words, an imaginary fund. They expect it to be real dollars sitting there waiting to be used to support communities who are going through a really difficult time. Then they expect that money to flow, not to be held up in bureaucracy, not to have governments at different levels blaming each other for it and not to have the passing of the buck that we're now seeing. We also expect, when you say you're going to give $76 million for tourism funding that will promote the areas that are bushfire affected and bring people back to those areas, that it be absolutely dedicated to those areas. The reason I raise this is that I still think there are questions that need to be answered by Tourism Australia and the minister on the record, in this place, about the commitment that was made. I say this because of a report in the Cairns Post. Chris Calcino, the journalist, writes that, in response to concerns about how coronavirus is going to impact the Cairns community and the concern about local jobs: CAIRNS will be a major recipient of a new $40 million campaign to reignite international tourism as the Federal Government opens up bushfire tourism recovery funds to destinations peering over a coronavirus travel cliff. The Morrison Government will invest $25 million into a marketing effort with a significant focus on Far North Queensland—money directed from a $76 million crisis package already announced for areas struggling in the wake of bushfires. Now if that journalist has this story wrong then we need to hear on the record what is not accurate. Journalists—having been one—don't typically just make things up. Someone has given him information. If it's wrong, we need to hear it and we need to hear it in this place. Because the people who are dependent on tourism in the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains want to see that money being used to drive tourists to our region. We want them back. We want a full house. In fact, we need it because the small businesses, not even those directly in tourism but those who suffer the flow-on consequences when tourism numbers are down, are really hurting. The promises that have been made are not being fulfilled. Only five small businesses and primary producers have been eligible or have received a grant—five! Five have received a grant. I know of one in my community who's received a grant. You're excluded from the grants if you didn't burn down, so that means most people haven't even bothered to apply because they're not eligible. But of those who have, the numbers of approvals are terribly low. The bar for these grants is far too high as is the bar to get a working capital loan, which is meant to help small business. Let me just give you an example of one small business. I have had emails from many but this one is from Peter. Peter runs a wilderness touring company. He notes that his tours to the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden in Bilpin stopped totally for weeks and weeks during the fire. The Darling Causeway was closed, the Bells Line of Road was closed and the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden was closed for weeks yet he is not considered eligible for any sort of support. He can't apply for a concessional loan because, like many small businesses, he doesn't have anything that he can use as security, so he needs a grant to help him get through. He's already got through a really torrid time. He needs to be tied over until the numbers of visitors come back. That's why our proposal is that the government consider wage subsidies. It won't help every business but some businesses would be helped by wage subsidies for their workers, whether those workers are casual or part-time or full-time. You know, it wasn't hard for the government to throw $10 million to North Sydney pool but it's really hard for them to give less than $250 a week to workers who have lost shifts. I refer to people like Noel, who tells me that he works in the hotel industry and he has lost two of his four shifts a week. That's what he faces now. The money is just not coming through. We have also proposed that there be a voucher for accredited accountants to guide people through the grant and loan application process. These are the sorts of supports that are needed. They're needed for individuals who are trying to get Centrelink support. They're needed for businesses who are trying to get business support. I think in all of these things, what we have seen is just way more being promised than what is being delivered. Let me go back to what the Prime Minister said back in January: 'Whatever it takes. Whatever it costs.' My community is asking for modest support. They want the clean-up to happen fast; it's slow. There's still confusion about who's eligible and who's not. We want on-the-ground caseworkers to help solve these problems, to be able to bring together the multiple tiers. That's one of the things that we need to look at—how do we streamline the process so there are not three levels of government all trying to do little bits of it? We need to it to work in a cohesive, coherent simple way because, when you have been through a trauma of a natural disaster, it's hard enough to think straight let alone negotiate bureaucracy. So I hope that's what we see as we look at how we not only reduce the risk of disaster but improve the recovery process. Debate adjourned. GRIEVANCE DEBATE 93 GRIEVANCE DEBATE Macquarie Electorate: Australia Day awards, Western Sydney Airport 93 17:14 Ms TEMPLEMAN 181810 Macquarie The electorate of Macquarie is full of hard workers who go above and beyond their paid jobs. The efforts during the recent fires and floods are proof that in the Hawkesbury in the Blue Mountains the community comes first. It's important that we pause to celebrate people who have made these communities what they are, just as Hawkesbury council did on Australia Day. Mal Bobrige was awarded Citizen of the Year after 27 years of serving the local RFS. He joined the Rural Fire Service in 1980 and has been an active member at the Blaxland Ridge Rural Fire Brigade, being the longest standing captain after taking on the role in 1995 and holding it for 13 years. It's very appropriate that this year, after a fire-affected summer, Mal takes out Citizen of the Year. I note he's also a member of the Colo Heights RFS, so he's a man who plays many roles within that wonderful organisation and we can't thank him enough for his service. The Young Citizen of the Year was given to Jesse Wijnans for his work in promoting inclusivity at McHappy Day, Hawkesbury Youth Fest and Hawkesbury Community Outreach Services. Diane Sweeny was presented with the Volunteer of the Year Award for her full-time commitment to the Hawkesbury City Salvation Army for the past six years. She coordinates the wonderful Hope Market run every Tuesday. Madyson Disbray has supported aspiring artists in the Hawkesbury through the church bar's music nights and was awarded the Community Arts Award. We have fantastic musicians and Madyson provides a terrific venue in a lovely old converted church. One of two local hero awards went to the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Specific Resource Centre, an important resource in the Hawkesbury. Michelle New's hard work as founder and CEO of the centre was recognised. And Michelle is reaching out to bushfire victims as part of the recovery. Richie Benson also received the Local Hero Award for his hugely successful Koala Fest. I have been pleased to be at all his Koala Fests. He was also recognised for his work with Cumberland Reach Landcare, a group he founded as a 21-year-old to improve the riverbank. The Koala Festival is a terrific event, and I think more than 1,000 people attended last year to learn about the importance of preserving the local koala population—something that is now under terrible pressure in the wake of the fires. Pink Finss is a much loved group in our community, having been around for a decade. They received the Community Organisation of the Year Award after expanding their services to cater for women with all types of cancer, supporting women and their families from the site of the old Hawkesbury hospital—a big congratulations to them. Reducing, reusing and recycling was celebrated in the awards when Hawkesbury Remakery received the Environment Award. Their work has resulted in items being redirected from landfill and put into use in the repair cafe. The historic loder house is now not only a sustainable space but one that encourages creatives to collaborate and cultivate their craft. The Cultural Heritage Award went to the Hawkesbury Schools Harvest Project run by Windsor High. For 10 years students have explored and promoted local produce in their own classrooms and local primary schools, creating an appreciation for the Hawkesbury as the food bowl that it is. This is the second year running that Windsor High students have won one of the annual awards. The All Abilities Sportsperson Award went to Renee Hardy, who's sporting journey I've followed for many years. She's the national hammer throw champion for her age. Sandy Freeman who's held two special Olympics world records in 200 metres backstroke and 4 x 100 metres freestyle relay also received that award. Madeline Boyle was awarded Sportsperson of the Year as one of the best archers in Australia. Jasper Sinclair won the Junior Sportsperson of the Year as captain of the North Richmond Cricket Club under 13s. Congratulations to all these Hawkesbury achievers and to Hawkesbury City Council for recognising them at your annual awards, and also to Peter Frazer, a fabulous road safety advocate from the other side of my electorate in the Blue Mountains who was present for that event. The Blue Mountains has recognised the achievements of its citizens at its annual Australia Day event. I was very pleased to be joined by the Leader of the Opposition for that day as we took time to reflect on our local heroes and their achievements. One was Winmalee High teacher Madeleine Sheehy, who was celebrated for her dedication as a drama teacher—a position she has been in for more than 20 years; she won't like me saying that! In her time, she's fostered a love of performing arts in so many students both in Winmalee High and the local primary schools. My son is one of those whose love of drama was fostered under her steady gaze and encouragement. One of her most ambitious projects followed the 2013 bushfires. It was a verbatim piece which took real words from real people and turned them into a play. She devised with her students straw hats, thongs and toothbrushes, which, for those of us from the Winmalee area, very much summed up some of the things that happened during those fires. Students interviewed many people involved in the bushfires and created a fantastic dramatic stage production. We're all thrilled to see Madeleine reluctantly be on stage herself without a character to get her award. We have many worthy senior citizens in the mountains. John Wakefield was awarded Senior Citizen of the Year for his work with the Rotary Club of the lower Blue Mountains. A former police officer and a Rotarian of many, many years, including as a former district governor, John has continuously advocated for child protection policy both in Australia and abroad and has made an extraordinary contribution not just to our community but more widely. Coralie Richmond was also awarded a senior citizen award, for her work as a dedicated teacher and advocate, along with Greg Chidgey, who walked—wait for it—2,654 kilometres from the Blue Mountains to Cairns and raised $26,000 for multiple sclerosis. He did this on his own, pulling his belongings in a little trailer behind him when the car that was going to support him dropped out at the last minute. The photos of him doing this with injuries, which of course happen to anyone walking that sort of distance, show an extraordinary feat. The money that he's raised for multiple sclerosis will be very much appreciated. The Blue Mountains Environmental Citizen of the Year award went to Margaret Baker for her work in documenting and preserving our precious Blue Mountains ecosystem, which is under really serious threat as a result of the fires. The Community Achievement of the Year award was given to the whole of the emergency services in the Blue Mountains to recognise their tireless work during the fires. And it was a treat to see the entire Springwood District Basketball Association under-16 women's representative team celebrated as the young citizens of the year. Congratulations to all of those who received awards and thank you to every one of you for the daily commitment you make to the Blue Mountains. We continue to see the construction of an airport in Western Sydney. It's going to be the size of Heathrow but we don't yet know what the flight paths will be. It's no secret that I'm not a fan of this airport. My view is that the flights will fundamentally change the quality of life that we chose when we moved to the Blue Mountains and to the mountainside of the Hawkesbury. The Forum on Western Sydney Airport is the sole consulting body for this airport, as far as residents go, and the representation we have as a Blue Mountains community is disappointing. I have repeatedly asked to be appointed. While the member for Lindsay is a member, I'm under no illusion that she has any intention of representing her neighbours in Macquarie. I'm very disappointed to hear that the chair of FOWSA, Professor Peter Shergold, has resigned. I think his desire to see strong community engagement is genuine, despite the constraints under which the forum operates. What is a disgrace is that we don't have any information about the flight paths. The government says that this is quite normal and cites examples of both Brisbane and Perth airports having new runway projects at the moment, following a similar process. But these are not new airports; these are extensions to existing airports. It is absolutely unacceptable to my community that we do not have any engagement on this issue. We also have concerns that an engineer from my electorate, Don Carter, has raised. They show that the noise levels predicted for the lower Blue Mountains are fundamentally wrong. He has looked at the noise levels measured by Airservices and done his own measurements, and compared that to what was in the EIS and found that neither his nor the Airservices noise measurements correlate in any way. This government needs to be honest about the noise that Western Sydney will face. Herbert Electorate: Infrastructure 95 17:24 Mr THOMPSON 281826 Herbert My local economy has been sluggish for the last few years, but, thanks to important and targeted investments in infrastructure in the electorate of Herbert and Townsville, we are definitely starting to see some growth. I want to take this opportunity today to highlight a few of the major projects in my electorate that are helping to achieve this: $200 million for water security for our city and surrounds; $75 million for the port of Townsville expansion project; and hundreds of millions of dollars for the Bruce Highway, in multiple sections, to improve not just safety but also freight efficiency in order to boost business. One of Townsville's biggest concerns prior to our flooding event, only in February last year, was the need for long-term water security. For many years, as a community, we have suffered crippling drought. Fortunately, we have just had a few weeks of solid rain and the makings of a proper wet season, which is a nice change after so many years of dry. And, yes, whilst the Ross River dam is today at 84 per cent capacity, we can't rely on the rain to fall and we can't forget that, for months, the dam level was sitting at around 15 per cent, because of which we had very strict water restrictions. These ongoing restrictions don't just mean that people can't keep their gardens green; they hamper business and they reduce the appeal of Townsville as a city to move to and invest in. We can't forget where we were just over a year ago. That's why we've invested $200 million for stage 2 of the Haughton pipeline to the Burdekin dam, which is so important. Working with other levels of government, we will deliver the new pipeline, giving our economy better access to clean water for our growing population. By completing stage 2 after stage 1, we will be able to achieve cost savings. Throughout the three-year construction phase of the project, around 691 new jobs will be generated and a further 30 full-time ongoing positions will be created. Stage 1 is very close to completion and work will soon begin on the federally-funded stage 2. I thank the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister for their commitment to this project. I know it's a big investment, but it's a big investment that's going to give a major, much-needed economic boost to my community. Another project that is providing a boost to the city of Townsville is the port of Townsville expansion project. This is a major, long-term plan to cement this important facility's future. Townsville's port is the largest commercial port in northern Australia. When our port is busy, our city is successful. When exports and imports are going in and out, we know jobs are being sustained and business is chugging along nicely. But as the interest and desire to use our port increases, so does the size of the ships which freight companies are using. Unfortunately, right now our port can't cope with the increase in demand and, at just 92 metres, it's one of the narrowest ports in the country. Currently, our port can only accommodate ships which are less than 238 metres in length. Obviously this has a significant impact on the number of ships we are able to welcome into our city. So we have committed to increase that to 300 metres. When this happens, we'll be able to welcome more freight and bigger cruise ships, so the first stage of this project is to widen the channel by dredging it out and installing a new rock wall. We are very close to announcing who the successful tenderers are and just weeks away from the very first rock being laid. Already, this is delivering jobs for locals and work for local companies. We are delivering for Townsville with this project and its $75 million contribution. It's a very welcome and valuable kickstart for the port and their $1.6 billion port expansion project. Thirdly, most of us in this place will have heard of the Bruce Highway—I'd say all of us have. It is a major artery that serves the east of the great state of Queensland, running all the way from Brisbane in the south through Townsville up to Cairns in the north. While this road is an important asset for our community and our economy, sections of it in the north leave a lot to be desired. That's why we have listened and are now investing $12.6 billion in the Bruce Highway over 15 years to bring it up to scratch. The reason for this is not only to cope with the growing number of cars and trucks that need to use our roads and to keep our state moving but also to ensure that as few people as possible lose their lives in avoidable car crashes. Anyone who says goodbye to their families in the morning should have their families returned in the evening. Upgrading our roads to ensure this safety needs to be a priority. The Bruce Highway runs straight through the middle of my electorate and the electorates of many other members in this place, and there are a number of recent investments that are already making a difference to the everyday lives of residents. I am very pleased that in just the past few weeks, a $20 million safety package north of Townsville is nearing completion, with one of our region's riskiest intersections reopening after a five-month closure. We've lengthened the right turning lane at the Bluewater Drive intersection and improved lane marking. We've also completed a new southbound overtaking lane a little further north. These are important works to ensure better safety for all road users in an area that has been notorious for crashes. There have been 14 reported crashes here in the past five years, including two that very sadly resulted in fatalities. This project will not only go a long way to avoid those crashes happening in the future; it has also supported 60 jobs through the design and construction phase. A little closer into town, we are investing $107.65 million in upgrades to the Bruce between Veales Road and Pope Road, including building another bridge over Black River and reducing the number of dangerous intersections where crashes occur far too often. This stretch caters for an average of 14,000 vehicles a day, many of whom are residents of Townsville's northern beaches, travelling into the city to work each day. Again, it's about improving safety so those who go to work in the morning come home safely at night whilst also supporting the local economy. Finally, I want to mention stage 5 of the Townsville ring-road. I talk about this project a lot because it's important and has so many benefits. Stage 5 of the ring-road is the last piece of the puzzle for this multistage road, which has been worked on since 2006. It will duplicate the last remaining six-kilometre section, once again improving safety and making more room for more cars and trucks to travel along it and get freight in and out, of and through our city, supporting our local economy. Continued works to upgrade the Bruce Highway in my electorate are delivering excellent results for my community. These are just a few projects that are going on in my patch which we are delivering for Townsville. Of course, there are many other projects in defence, education, health, the environment, agriculture—far too many to mention in a mere 10-minute speech. I am proud to be honouring what we have committed to do in Townsville, but also what we are delivering for the Bruce and around the country. We are investing a record $100 billion over 10 years from 2019-20 through a rolling infrastructure plan to help manage our growing population, meet our national freight challenge and get Australians home sooner and safer. This includes an additional $23 billion of new funding in the 2019-20 budget for projects and initiatives that will benefit every state and territory and provide local job opportunities. I acknowledge the focus on regional and rural Australia because we know, and I definitely believe, that regional areas, like the great city of Townsville, are fantastic places to live, work and raise a family. In particular, the Building Better Regions Fund has helped our region out so much, through building the Palm Island retail precinct, as well as many other things it has done in North Queensland, including Drive It NQ. The North Queensland driver education and motor sport precinct is important because it will teach young people how to be safe on the road. It's going to have driver education and a place where they are going to simulate a crash and have users work through it with emergency services. I don't think there is anything more important, when people leave in the morning, that they come home safely at night. Cunningham Electorate: Australia Day Awards 97 17:34 Ms BIRD DZP Cunningham I want to take the opportunity to recognise some amazing local people in this debate in this chamber today. Of course the Australia Day honours are always something that, as local members, we look to with great anticipation to see which wonderful locals have been recognised in that year's list. I was very pleased to see four people from my electorate in this year's honours list. I would like to say that I think all of them are absolutely exemplary and worthy of the awards that they received. First of all, there was Professor Justin Yerbury, who received the Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to education and research in the field of biological sciences. I have talked about Justin and the amazing work that he and his research team are doing before in this place, whilst Justin himself manages the motor neurone disease that has hit him and is something that his family has had a long history with, very sadly. He is a professorial fellow in neurodegenerative disease at the University of Wollongong and is spokesperson for Motor Neurone Disease Australia. He was one of the players with the Illawarra Hawks in the National Basketball League in 1995-96. Many may remember Justin from when he featured in an Australian Story episode on the ABC in 2018 about his journey with motor neurone disease, the story of his family and those who have been impacted by it, his own transition from an elite sportsperson to a student to a researcher in that field and the amazing work that he's doing. He's the author of 55 scientific papers and he was also, as I have previously reported to the House, Wollongong's Citizen of the Year in 2019. Justin would be really angry with me if I didn't acknowledge, as he always does, the partnership in his work of his wife, Rachel, and his daughters, Talia and Maddie, and their many family and friends and his work colleagues, an amazing group of people, who support his work and the collaborations that he undertakes. Ray Brown received the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to conservation and the environment. He is the current manager of the amazing Illawarra Grevillea Park. He was involved in the establishment of the park and has been volunteering there since 1997. He is a founding member and special projects officer of the Black Diamond Museum, a very important community museum in our area, which holds the heritage of the local mining community. Congratulations to him. Congratulations also to Rob Edwards, who received a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the international community of Fiji. I know Rob well and he does amazing work. He is a founding member of the Its Time Foundation, which provides clean, free energy for lighting and computers, and transforms educational opportunities for children in Fiji. Its Time has installed significant battery-supported solar systems in 22 schools. Rob also founded the Good Health Great Futures, the Health Presenter, Plastic-free Oceans and co-founded Resilient Women in Fiji. He is a worthy recipient. Colleen Mandicos, who I have known for many years, received the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to aged welfare. Colleen was the chair of the Multicultural Aged Care Illawarra since 2000 and a director since 1989. She was the executive manager of aged and disability services with CatholicCare Wollongong from 1999 until 2010 and was a member of the management committee of Interchange Illawarra for 15 years as well as being chair of the Illawarra Multicultural Village Hostel Group since 1997. Colleen is absolutely dedicated to the welfare of our ageing population locally and really deserved that recognition. I would also like to recognise a group of people who received the Wollongong City Council awards as part of the Australia Day celebrations. Wollongong City Council always puts on a really great evening of entertainment. My congratulations to all of them and to the committee that organised that. I have previously acknowledged the top three recipients: the Citizen of the Year, Geoff Phillips; the Senior Citizen of the Year, Val Fell; and the Young Citizen of the Year, Ian Steven Muhayimana. But I would like to acknowledge the other recipients today. The Arts Achievement Award went to Mick Berghuis. Mick has inspired hundreds in the Wollongong community and beyond through his leadership and creativity. He's instituted musical initiatives at various schools. He's had a long association with the Illawarra Jazz Club—in fact, more than 40 years, having been a founder—and he's the creator and founder of the Swingaleles Ukulele Group, which is regularly to be seen at community events. So congratulations, Mick. The Cultural Achievement Award went to the Arcadians Theatre Group. They have been delivering amazing productions since 1964 and are certainly very valued by our local community. They are a registered charity, and they're well known for their generosity in providing support to all of our local charities and worthy causes. Their participants, actors, backstage people and technical people range from six to 96, so they've certainly got the whole population covered. The Sports Award went to Gerry Doyle. Gerry is the author of three books on sport which recognise Wollongong as a sports breeding ground and also celebrate the city's cultural and community histories. His books have been used as anecdotal and official history of the Wollongong Showground and the Illawarra Rugby League and Rugby Union communities, and he's a very well-loved local person. The Outstanding Innovation Award went to the Make-Do Library of Things. This is a do-it-yourself space. It's a volunteer-run, not-for-profit organisation, and it provides an innovative service for the people of Wollongong. It allows people to borrow the things they would otherwise have to buy and potentially only use once, as well as to learn how to ensure the longevity of things like tools, clothes and other items around their home. It first opened in Bulli, and it's now opened in Port Kembla. It provides a system available to everyone across Wollongong. The Outstanding Achievement Award went to Dr Mohit Tolani. Dr Tolani has a dental practice that provides free dental care to marginalised community members and those who otherwise might not get access to oral health care. He's very well regarded. The Community Group Award went to the Illawarra Cancer Carers Inc. I have run into them all over the place when they have been fundraising to support people with cancer and their families. They drive patients to the cancer care clinic. This year they will celebrate their 30th year of operation. In that time, they've raised more than $4.8 million for cancer carers in the Illawarra, an amazing achievement. The Diversity and Inclusion Award went to the Strangeways Ensemble, a great group formed in collaboration between the Disability Trust and the Merrigong Theatre Company. They have developed a professional theatre collaborative where people with a disability can showcase how absolutely amazing they are. The Wollongong to the World award went to Professor Peter Quinn. He has been involved with the world's largest optical and radio telescopes. While he's based in Western Australia, he is regularly in contact with our science centre and planetarium and the university. The second Wollongong to the World award went to Jennifer Condon, who is based in Germany. She is a professional conductor and has an extensive operatic repertoire. The Lord Mayor's Award went to Jarred Dyer. He proves disability is no barrier and has shown an exemplary standard in the sports that he participates in. The other Lord Mayor's Award went to the Scouting Movement of Wollongong. Of course, I hardly need to put on the record of this place how important the Scouting movement is. I think all of my colleagues would know that, and it is just as much the case in my local area, where the local Scouts movement, the volunteers who run it and the amazing people who contribute to it were recognised with a very well-deserved award. Renewable Energy 98 17:44 Mr STEVENS 176304 Sturt I'd like to take this opportunity this evening to update the parliament on some of the excellent initiatives of the government around investing and supporting new technology for future energy needs. It was my great pleasure to attend the opening of the Australian Hydrogen Centre Friday week with Minister Taylor, which was just outside my electorate and the member for Boothby's electorate. It's a very important initiative that's going to be significant across not just South Australia but the whole nation. It's a very exciting project that the Commonwealth government are involved and investing in. It's essentially a pilot program which we're undertaking with the Australian Gas Networks to build a hydrogen electrolyser, thereby creating hydrogen from water, or H2O, with hydrogen and oxygen as a by-product, and blending that hydrogen into the mains gas network in the vicinity of this project at the Flinders University Tonsley precinct. From memory, up to about 700 homes will be supported through this pilot program, and there'll be about five per cent hydrogen blended into the ordinary gas pipeline for that area. The expectation and the hope is that that's going to be successful and lead to all kinds of opportunities to put hydrogen into the natural gas network across the country, across the state of South Australia, initially at five per cent, but who knows what that could lead to. Obviously, if that's successful, it's going to result in a reduction in CO2 emissions from the use of ordinary natural gas in our homes. When hydrogen burns, unlike natural gas, it doesn't emit CO2. Effectively, it emits water. So that is really exciting, and it underscores for me some of the really practical and sensible investments and initiatives that we're undertaking. I really commend Minister Taylor for the work not only that he's done so far but that he'll be doing as we roll these sorts of pilot projects out across the country into the future. Hydrogen is a very exciting alternative fuel source for a variety of current CO2 emitting elements of our economy. Transport in many ways I think is probably one of the most exciting applications for hydrogen. The rule of thumb, the scientists were musing on the day, was that, if you think about the future of transport, anything that's currently using unleaded fuel is more likely to be replaced by electric in the future, but anything you run on diesel is more likely to be replaced by hydrogen. For electric you need to carry a battery source on that vehicle, and long-haul transport would require an enormous amount of battery capacity which would mean the cargo component of what you would move would be miniscule. Therefore that solution to replacing large freight is not viable, but hydrogen absolutely is. Hydrogen, just like any other fuel, can be carried in a tanker and run through a combustion engine to generate energy, and the by-product, as I said, is water. Hydrogen is really exciting. For Australia, it's really exciting because there's so much interest now from other economies like Japan and Korea, who are working with various partners in this country including the government. The Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, has recently spearheaded the National Hydrogen Strategy, which has got a vast array of exciting initiatives within it. That plan, that blueprint, gives every corner of this country the opportunity to participate in the future of hydrogen, which in this country not only could address the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in an economically responsible way but could create a spectacularly exciting future export industry. That is the real difference between our approach and the approach of the Labor Party. We are being very mindful of the fact that as we transition to a lower carbon future we need to make sure that we create economic opportunity out of it, rather than economic cost. Hydrogen is one of many examples of how we can actually achieve both. I am also very proud of the pioneering role that my home state of South Australia has played in the rollout of home-scale battery storage systems. The Liberal government in South Australia introduced the home battery subsidy scheme—up to $6,000 per battery, means tested of course. That is the maximum that you can get to support the installation of a battery, or battery-solar system if you don't already have solar. This is a very exciting way of dealing with the challenges of intermittency we have had with the rollout of rooftop solar. Rooftop solar is fine when the sun is shining, but after the sun has gone down in the evening, which tends to be the peak consumption time from a household point of view, if you don't have a mechanism for storing the energy that you generated during the day the full benefit of that and the ability to wean people off the broader grid is lost. It is the Liberal government in South Australia that has introduced this scheme. More importantly—which I think people on our side of the House need to do a better job of prosecuting—the Commonwealth is actually supporting this, through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, with a $100 million loans program to support the rollout of these batteries and battery-solar schemes. So, the state government grant for up to $6,000 is available, but you can also then access a loan from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which means in some cases people can get a full installation and have no up-front cost to that. Home-scale storage is not just good from an environmental point of view, it also has a fantastic economic outcome, because you can store energy that is captured through the day from photovoltaic cells on your roof. You can charge up your battery. You are not paying for that from a fuel point of view. Mother Nature doesn't charge us for the sun or the wind. You can charge your battery up during the day and then in the evening, when you need to draw down on that power source, it is in your battery. It is your electricity that you own and you can use. An even more exciting component of this is that, particularly with virtual power plant technology, which is being piloted, again in South Australia, under the Liberal government there, you have the potential to sell your excess electricity into the grid and even make money. So in the sort of nirvana of this scheme, which is probably a long way away to be sure, we will be able to generate our own electricity and store that electricity and in fact sell it into the grid. We would go from the situation that was created from the terrible energy policies under the Labor Party, where we've had some jurisdictions with the highest electricity cost in the country, to having electricity become a competitive advantage for us again, not only in my home state but across the country. That is what we had in my state in the post-World War II period. People like Sir Thomas Playford understood that if you could create cheap housing and produce cheap electricity you would create an industrial capacity, because that would lead to a competitive advantage from wage cost and also from your main input in industry, which is always going to be electricity and power. We had that in our state of South Australia and many other parts of this country for a long, long time. We have got the get back to that. I make the point—and I really emphasise it—that as we continue having this debate about the important need to reduce carbon emissions in this country, it can't be at the expense of jobs and it can't be at the expense of people's ability to pay their electricity bills. We need to do it in a way that is also reducing electricity bills. If we can achieve both of those things, then it is a great win-win. As I said, with the initiatives of this government around technology, particularly in areas like hydrogen and home-scale battery storage—which I have just talked about with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation—and many other initiatives, we will achieve both of those things. We will reduce emissions and we will reduce power prices, and that is going to lead to great economic outcomes for this country. Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory: Parliamentary Representation 99 17:54 Mr GOSLING 245392 Solomon Kakadu National Park is one of the world's great and unique gifts; indeed, it is an incredible creation. Kakadu helps underpin the visitor economy and tourism sector across northern Australia. Whilst the brand-name of Kakadu is well known—it appeals to international visitors especially; they are the highest spenders and they are more likely than Australians to book cultural experiences—the number of visitors has been declining steadily since the 1980s. We had an estimated high of 150,000 visitors per year, which has dropped dramatically in recent years to about 30,000 visitors per annum now. There are a number of reasons for this but it cannot be denied that consecutive years of underfunding and poor decision-making by the federal government around Kakadu has severely impacted the tourism sector. According to Tourism Top End general manager Glen Hingley the situation is becoming worse. Decisions are being made by the federal body responsible without genuine consideration for the effect it has on tourism. Recently Mr Hingley wrote to the Prime Minister, the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment and the Minister for the Environment outlining the concerns of the tourism industry in the Northern Territory. He made a number of points and raised a number of suggestions on how the federal government can better manage Kakadu. After all, it being a national park, it is the responsibility of the federal government. But instead of working constructively with the Territory tourism sector to address their concerns the responsible minister, Minister Ley, decided to respond with contempt and accused Top End Tourism of grandstanding. She said their concerns were focused more on politics than outcomes. That's an absolute disgrace. Instead of engaging with the sector and addressing their concerns as a competent minister would do, the minister had the audacity to claim that the federal coalition government is getting on with the job. What rubbish! We are eight weeks away from the start of the Northern Territory tourism season and the tourism sector of the Northern Territory has no certainty that major tourism sites within Kakadu will open. When they ask the federal minister responsible for Kakadu a reasonable question, they deserve to be treated with respect; they deserve fairness. To accuse Tourism Top End of grandstanding, when they are simply standing up for their members, is a slap in the face to each of the 520 members that they represent. And it's not just the industry that the minister has disrespected; Territorians themselves deserve to know if they will be able to access Gunlom or Jim Jim Falls. They have the right to know whether their children will be able to deserve Kakadu for years to come. They deserve to know whether this government is properly managing a vital national asset that sits in our wonderful Top End backyard. During the federal election both parties committed funding towards improving Kakadu. We on this side committed $220 million over five years, while those opposite promised slightly less, $216 million, over 10 years. Labor consulted with industry, traditional owners, the Northern Territory government and other stakeholders when we arrived at our commitment. It is hard to gauge whether those opposite consulted. If they had consulted, they would have been told that funds for Kakadu are needed now—not in 10 years time, not budgeted out on the never-never. According to the government's figures released during estimates, by the end of this financial year, the second year of their commitment, the government will have spent only $10 million of the $216 million they promised. That is less than five per cent of what was promised all up. Admittedly this is more than the one per cent that is being utilised for projects in the Territory under the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility—five per cent is better than one per cent—but it is not good enough at all. You can't use your bushfires or the coronavirus as a shield for your government's incompetence. Kakadu has been crying out for investment for the last six years—six years that those opposite have been responsible—so I appeal to the Prime Minister and to the minister responsible, Minister Ley, to properly invest in Kakadu after six years of neglect. It might even be the Prime Minister's greatest marketing move ever, to actually do something that he said he would do, and it will go a long way towards us forgiving him for the Lara Bingle tourism campaign. To the Prime Minister and Minister Ley, I would say that it's high time they take the aspirations of the Territory tourism industry seriously. To Minister Ley I would say that instead of snarky responses in the media, try engaging with them constructively. And when they ask you to help make their sector more secure, as they have been for six years, then it's probably a pretty good idea to listen to them and to work with them in a professional manner, rather than using a bit of megaphone diplomacy through the NT News. After all, national parks are a federal responsibility. Those opposite in the federal government could pretend that Kakadu National Park is a pool near the Sydney Harbour Bridge or a rowing club or a yacht club if they want to pork barrel it a bit, but some real funding for a national asset, for a world famous icon in Australia—that is, the Kakadu National Park—would be good. In the time I've got left, I'd like to talk about an issue that the government has been ignored for too long. The government has been told numerous times that the Northern Territory has the highest proportion of Aboriginal Australians per capita, in fact they make up more than 30 per cent of the Northern Territory's population. The Australian Electoral Commission's records show that nearly one-third of Aboriginal Australians are not enrolled to vote, so talk about industrial disenfranchisement of Aboriginal Australians in this country. Nearly one-third of Aboriginal Territorians are not enrolled to vote. You would think that a competent government would do something about that. The Australian Electoral Commission is responsible for maintaining the Northern Territory electoral roll; however, and you may have heard me speak about this in the past, the current federal government downsized the Australian Electoral Commission's office in Darwin from 15 employees to three. Now, I don't know; to me that doesn't seem like a good way to address under-enrolment in the Northern Territory. One of the results from a temporary decline in the Territory's population and this under-enrolment is that the Northern Territory may lose a seat at the next federal election because we may fall below the 1.5 quota. Let's be clear: the only reason why the Northern Territory would lose a seat is because it does not have a constitutional guarantee of at least five members in the House of Representatives, as the states do. Because we are a territory, people in the Northern Territory will be potentially deprived of a member and a voice in the nation's parliament, and I think all reasonable-thinking people in this place would agree that that isn't fair, that it's not right. In fact, I've talked to several people on the other side of the House and they agree that it would be wrong. It would be morally wrong; it would be a dereliction of duty of any Prime Minister to take away a representative in this place, whatever side of the House that person came from, when we have so many challenges in the Northern Territory and we have so many people who aren't even enrolled to vote. We need to have a concerted effort to make sure that people in the Territory have the same opportunities and are part of the electoral process in our country. Losing a voice for the Territory in this national parliament will not help anyone and, as some people from the opposite side agree, it would be unconscionable. I'm committed to working with the government, the crossbench and colleagues, because, if we're serious about developing northern Australia, the last thing we need is less representation for northern Australia in this place. We're serious about it. We need to make sure that the Territory is properly represented in this place, and I ask all members to join us in that endeavour. Business: New Car Retailing 101 18:04 Mr SIMMONDS 282983 Ryan It's a pleasure to round out the day today on an issue that I am particularly passionate about. We've heard in the media previously, over a number of months and sometimes years, of some particular horror stories when it comes to franchising. The government has moved quickly of course to assist franchisees, where there is an imbalance, an out-of-level playing field, when it comes to these kinds of franchising arrangements. But I want to talk specifically about an industry that employs close to 600,000 Australians, with revenue in excess of $182 billion. So the industry is significant for our economy and they make a significant contribution. Often these businesses are family businesses—they're mum and dad operators—and often they have been in this particular business, amongst the family, for years. The businesses I'm talking about are local car dealerships. I understand that perhaps car salesmen are not the most popular people—in fact, sometimes they're about as popular as politicians! But, like us, they can certainly be misunderstood sometimes. As I said, these local dealerships are normally franchisees. They're normally mums and dads, and they've been operating in these arrangements for many, many years. In my own electorate of Ryan, we have 16 different dealerships providing almost 300 local jobs or $25 million in wages. They contribute $10 million in tax from the Ryan electorate alone and a total economic contribution of over $61 million a year. These dealerships are often iconic. Local residents know them by name. Generations of families have bought cars from them. They sponsor the local team. They sponsor the local school fete. They give back to their community. Global car companies rely on these local dealers to distribute their product and for the ongoing services and maintenance and recalls and so on. For the privilege of representing that manufacturer, the local dealer must invest significant capital in facilities, stock, equipment and training, and this relationship, in order to work, must be mutually beneficial. I've had many conversations with local car dealers in my electorate and, unfortunately, I've become aware that, while some dealerships are operating with these global manufacturers in a very positive way, in some instances this relationship is not one where there is a fair and level playing field. In some instances, manufacturers—often, powerful multinationals with overseas head offices—are putting these local mum and dad operators to the squeeze. Local dealers are having to put up with unrealistic and non-transparent sales targets. They're asking dealers to invest significantly in facilities—so much so that it becomes near impossible to recover those costs, particularly if the dealer agreement they have is too short to recoup the significant capital investment that they are being asked for. Dealers face being terminated without reason and without minimal notice. There's even pressure being placed on dealers not to honour Australian Consumer Law rights—something which of course they push back on. The Morrison government, I'm pleased to say, through the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, the Hon. Karen Andrews MP, alongside the Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash, quite a few months ago announced that we would be seeking to reform the new car retailing sector. On this side of the chamber, we believe that if you have a go you get a go, and we want to make sure that these businesses do get a fair go. We believe that these business owners—and of course all business owners—know best when it comes to running their businesses. That's why we're listening to these business owners and working with them, and, after consulting with the industry, we'll be looking at ways to ensure that these arrangements are more transparent, fair and cooperative. We've heard of franchisees who have got themselves in trouble. They've been locked into agreements with franchisors who are seeking large marketing budgets and costs, where they don't have the flexibility that they need in order to run their business appropriately and are locked into sales targets they can meet in the good times but simply can't meet in the tougher times. The Morrison government has heard concerns and looked at other examples elsewhere in the retail sector. It has heard the specific concerns of those in the new-car dealership sector. We're committed to creating a level playing field. The reforms that the Morrison government is looking at will provide more transparent and cooperative end-of-term and capital expenditure arrangements between the two parties. We hope that these changes will strike an appropriate balance between the concerns raised by new-car dealers and the flexibility that car manufacturers require to manage their dealer networks. In particular, I want to see a focus on addressing any potential power imbalance that leads to dealers carrying costs or targets that may be unreasonable, or any potential power imbalance that leads to dealers having to invest significantly in state-of-the-art facilities to showcase new vehicles without the guarantee of a reasonable time frame to recoup that investment. Whilst there is concern, I want to make it clear that the majority are doing the right thing. But these reforms will ensure that there are consequences for those who are not. They'll put us into a similar situation as other countries overseas. Even the US, the home of the automobile, has legislation in place to make sure that these agreements between local car dealers and the large multinationals who run these operations are fair and balanced. So let's get on with this. Let's get on with this important reform that is required to protect some of our most community-conscious local businesses and some of our most iconic local businesses—family businesses that are often the heart and soul of their communities. These are the kinds of businesses that I am always happy to take up the fight for. I am pleased that the Morrison government is looking at these reforms so that it can provide them with support. I again thank the ministers who are involved and look forward to working with the industry and those ministers to see it progress forward. With a little bit of indulgence from you, Deputy Speaker Gillespie: noting that I have a little bit of time left, I want to take the opportunity in this chamber to wish my lovely wife a very happy 30th birthday on 13 March. The 30th birthday is a milestone for anyone, and it's a significant milestone for our family. A very happy 30th birthday, sweetie; I am pleased that I am able to recognise it for you in this place. The DEPUTY SPEAKER 72184 The time for the grievance debate has expired. The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192B. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting. Federation Chamber adjourned at 18:13