I advise the House that the Deputy Speaker has fixed Wednesday 30 March 2022 at 10 am as the time for the next meeting of the Federation Chamber, unless an alternative day or hour is fixed.

he SPEAKER (): I inform the House that on the 22 February 2022 I received a letter from Nicholas David Champion resigning his seat as the member for the electoral division of Spence. With a general election pending, I have decided writs will not be issued and a by-election will not be held. This will avoid the necessity for the electors of Spence to participate in three elections within a short period of time.

I report to the House that on 11 March 2022 I received advice from the Chief Government Whip nominating members to be members of certain committees. In accordance with standing order 229(b), as the House was not expected to sit for several weeks, the appointments became effective on that date. I now call the minister to move a motion to resolve the membership of the committees.

by leave—I move:

That members be appointed as members of certain committees in accordance with the list that has been placed on the table.

As the list is a lengthy one, I do not propose to read the list to the House. The details will be recorded in the Votes and Proceedings.

Question agreed to.

I move:

That in relation to the presentation of, and reply by the Leader of the Opposition to, the 2022-2023 Budget that:

(1) standing order 31 (automatic adjournment of the House) and standing order 33 (limit on business) be suspended for the sitting on Tuesday, 29 March 2022; and

(2) standing order 31 (automatic adjournment of the House) be suspended for the sitting on Thursday, 31 March 2022 and at that sitting, after the Leader of the Opposition completes his reply to the Budget speech, the House automatically stand adjourned until 10 am on Monday, 11 April 2022, unless the Speaker or, in the event of the Speaker being unavailable, the Deputy Speaker, fixes an alternative day or hour of meeting.

Question agreed to.

For the information of honourable members, at the last sitting of the House the House agreed to the third reading of Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2021-2022. The House adjourned before the bill was read a third time. I now call the Clerk to read the bill a third time.

Bill read a third time.

by leave—I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

I would like to thank all of the members who have contributed to the debate on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2021-2022 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2021-2022. These additional estimates appropriation bills seek authority from the parliament on additional expenditure of money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the remainder of this financial year. Passage of the bills will ensure continuation of the government programs and the Commonwealth's ability to meet its obligations for 2021-22.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

by leave—I move:

That the resumption of the debate on the Prime Minister's motion of condolence in connection with the death of Senator Kimberley Jane Elizabeth Kitching be referred to the Federation Chamber.

Question agreed to.

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Supply Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023 together with Supply Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023 and Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023 seek appropriations to facilitate the continuation of normal government business for the first five months of 2022-23. Supply Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023 provides for just over $80 billion of appropriations for proposed expenditure on the ordinary annual services of the government.

The appropriations proposed in this bill are generally based on five-twelfths of the estimated 2022-23 annual appropriations. The 2022-23 estimates are broadly the 2021-22 base, adjusted for economic- and program-specific parameters and the effect of decisions announced as part of the 2021-22 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook or included in the 2021-22 additional estimates appropriations bills. The five-twelfths allocations are adjusted where necessary for programs or entities that have uneven expenditure early in the financial year—for example, administered payments under programs that are made up-front in the financial year.

The bill also includes COVID-19 response measures that have been extended since the 2021-22 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook or the additional estimates processes. This ensures that funding is available over winter and that essential support can continue to be provided in the 2022-23 financial year.

I wish to emphasise that this bill seeks only to fund government expenditure on an interim basis until the 2022-23 budget appropriation bills have passed. Therefore, no new measures for the 2022-23 budget are included in this bill. This arrangement allows for an annual appropriation bill for the ordinary annual services of government to be passed by the next parliament in the usual way.

The bill also contains an advance to the finance minister, or AFM, provision of $2.4 billion to provide the government with the capacity to allocate additional appropriations for urgent and unforeseen expenditure; $2 billion of the AFM provision is set aside for COVID-19 related expenditure and $400 million for other urgent and unforeseen expenditure.

While the COVID-19 AFM provision of a higher value accommodates the ongoing response to pressures emerging from the pandemic, the general AFM provision of a lower value marks a return to standard AFM arrangements. This completes the government's commitment to return to pre-COVID AFM settings when circumstances allow. The COVID-19 related AFM remains a temporary measure and will be ceased in a future year when it has been determined that COVID-19 risks have sufficiently moderated.

In light of the size of the AFM, it is proposed to continue the strong accountability and transparency arrangements that have been in place from 2019-20 through to 2021-22, including a regular media release in weeks when AFMs are issued which reports and reconciles the use of the AFM provision and seeking the concurrence of the opposition for any proposed AFM greater than $1 billion.

Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedule to the bill, the explanatory memorandum and the portfolio budget statements tabled in relation to the 2022-23 budget appropriation bills.

The bill must be passed in this session to ensure that funding is available for the first months of next financial year to all entities from 1 July 2022, thereby ensuring the continuity of program and service delivery.

I commend this bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.

Leave granted for second reading debate to resume at a later hour this day.

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Supply Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023, along with Supply Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023 and Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023, seeks appropriations to facilitate the continuation of normal government business. Supply Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023 provides for just under $10.7 billion of appropriations that are for purposes that include capital works and services, payments to states, territories and local governments, and equity injections for the first five months of 2022-23.

The appropriations proposed in this bill are broadly based on five-twelfths of the estimated 2022-23 annual appropriation. The 2022-23 estimates are largely the 2021-22 base adjusted for economic and program-specific parameters and the effect of decisions announced as part of the 2021-22 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook or included in the 2021-22 additional estimates appropriation bills.

The five-twelfths allocations are adjusted where necessary for programs or entities that have uneven expenditure early in the financial year—for example, the Government Schools National Support Program in order to provide additional transition support for the Northern Territory government schools to implement reforms agreed under the Commonwealth government's Quality Schools package. The supply bills also include COVID-19 response measures that have been extended since the 2021-22 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook or the 2021-22 additional estimates processes. This ensures that funding is available over winter and that essential support can continue to be provided early in the 2022-23 financial year.

The bill also establishes the debit limits for 2022-23 for general purpose financial assistance payments and national partnership payments. The debit limits in the bill reflect the full year of the estimated 2022-23 debit limits so that agreements with other governments can be established with certainty for the full year. The bill must be passed in this session to ensure that funding is available for the first months of next financial year to all entities from 1 July 2022, thereby ensuring the continuity of program and service delivery.

As with Supply Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023, this bill seeks only to fund government expenditure on an interim basis until budget appropriation bills have passed. Therefore, no new measures for the 2022-23 budget are included in this bill. This arrangement allows for annual appropriations to be passed by the next parliament in the usual way.

The bill also contains an advance to the Minister for Finance, a provision of $3.6 billion to provide the government with the capacity to allocate additional appropriations for urgent and unforeseen expenditure: $3 billion of the AFM provision is set aside for COVID related expenditure and $600 million for other urgent and unforeseen expenditure. While the COVID-19 AFM provision of a higher value accommodates the ongoing response to pressures emerging from the pandemic, the general AFM provision of a lower value marks a return to standard AFM arrangements. This completes the government's commitment to return to pre-COVID-19 AFM settings when circumstances allow. The COVID-19 related AFM remains a temporary measure and will be ceased in a future year when it has been determined that COVID-19 risks have been sufficiently moderated.

In light of the size of the AFM, it is proposed to continue the strong accountability and transparency arrangements that have been in place from 2019-20 through to 2021-22, as outlined in the speech for Supply Bill (No. 1) and as particularised in the explanatory memoranda to the supply bills. Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedules to the bill, the explanatory memorandum and the portfolio budget statements tabled in relation to the 2022-23 budget appropriations bills. I commend this bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023 provides appropriations for the first five months of 2022-23 for the operations of the Department of the Senate, the Department of the House of Representatives, the Department of Parliamentary Services and the Parliamentary Budget Office. This bill seeks approval for appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of just under $114 million. The appropriations proposed in this bill are based on five-twelfths of the estimated 2022-23 annual appropriations. The 2022-23 estimates are broadly the 2021-22 base, adjusted for economic and program specific parameters.

The bill must be passed in this session to ensure funding is available to the parliamentary departments from 1 July 2022, thereby ensuring the continuity of the parliament's operations. As with the other supply bills, I wish to emphasise that this bill seeks only to appropriate money to fund government expenditure on an interim basis until the budget appropriation bills have passed. Therefore, no new measures for the 2022-23 budget are included in this bill. This arrangement allows for annual appropriation bills for the latter part of next financial year to be passed under the new parliament in the usual way. Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedule to the bill, the explanatory memorandum and the portfolio budget statements tabled in relation to the 2022-23 budget appropriations bills. I commend this bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.

Labor support the passage of these supply bills. We don't block supply. We believe that the ordinary course of government should be funded by the government and the opposition in this place. Supply Bill (No. 1) 2022-2022 and the other supply bills have been introduced given that we're so close to an election. Normally they would be introduced after the appropriation bills. But Labor agrees that, given the proximity to the federal election and given the appropriation bills won't be passed in the usual time line, the supply bills are required to ensure the continuity of government into the 2022-23 financial year. These bills generally provide for around five months of funding for the 2022-23 financial year, and budget estimates will be indexed for parameter changes and adjusted for any terminating measures.

A moment ago we saw one of the ministers introduce, for the third reading, the 2021-22 appropriation bills. One would expect that that would have been done last year, with the 2021-22 budget. But the reason it wasn't was that the government forgot to bring the bills back to the parliament. When you talk about being all about announcement and not about follow-up, look no further than what they've done in the parliament today. They announced the appropriation bills associated with the last budget, but they forgot to bring them back to the parliament to give them effect—no follow-up whatsoever.

This government is all about announcement and not about follow-up, in a number of areas. We've seen it over the course of this government—firstly, with the bushfires in 2019 and the disastrous effects they had on communities throughout the country. Once again, announcements were made in the wake of those. Do you think they've followed up with any of it? Have any of those communities received the funding they were promised by the government in the wake of those bushfires? We've still got people living in caravans and tents who haven't had their homes rebuilt because of that—all about announcement, never about follow-up.

We're seeing it again at the moment with respect to the floods, with rain once again bucketing down on communities in the north of New South Wales and in southern Queensland. If you were a government that was serious about climate change and, instead of trying to use it as a political weapon, your approach was that this is an existential threat, that it's a problem that we, as a parliament and as a government, have to work to solve with the Australian people, then you'd be prepared for what's going on in the communities of South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales, and, indeed, in Western Sydney. You would have made sure that you had in place, and you worked with those communities on, measures to protect them, through mitigation infrastructure, through the construction of facilities to ensure that people could be housed—evacuation centres and the like—when they lose their homes and all of their belongings. But, no. The government seek to use climate change as a political weapon. As a result, they're not prepared. They are all about the announcement, nothing about the follow-up.

The Emergency Response Fund was their announcement, in the wake of what had occurred in the bushfires and in the flooding that we saw in 2017, to protect those communities. In the Emergency Response Fund, there was $4.7 billion put aside by this government. How many projects has this government delivered out of that fund to protect communities in bushfire zones and flood zones and cyclone zones? A doughnut—not one. they are all about the announcement, never about the follow-up. It's Australian communities and individuals that are suffering.

If you were a government that took climate change seriously and you were interested in solving the problem, you would have used some of that money in the Emergency Response Fund to build levees, to build culverts, to build evacuation centres, to look to protect communities, to have household resilience programs put in place, as the Queensland government has done, so that people can retrofit their homes to protect themselves from the risk of cyclone damage or bushfire damage or flood damage. But, no: the government seek to politicise and use climate change as a political weapon to serve their political purposes, purely for what goes on here and not what goes on in the wider community. And that is the reason why the Prime Minister of Australia cannot even walk down the street in Lismore, in Mullumbimby, in Ballina—in communities affected by flooding—and talk to the Australian people. He knows, his ministers know and his MPs in those areas know that he would have copped a shellacking from the Australian people and the members of those communities for his lack of response to the danger and threat that severe weather has posed to those communities and for his lacklustre response in supporting those communities and getting in place emergency measures to provide them with support. Then, to make matters worse, they used politics by providing emergency disaster based support funding only for Liberal or National Party based electorates, rather than for Labor based electorates.

Is it any wonder the bloke can't walk down the street and any wonder that members of the National Party and the Liberal Party have spoken out so strongly against the Prime Minister? One of them has resigned from the New South Wales parliament in disgust at the approach of this Prime Minister and his support for Australians and their communities in the wake of the flooding that occurred in the north of New South Wales and South-East Queensland. It's all about announcement and never about follow-up, and that's what we're going to see with this budget tonight: another budget that'll be about saving the bacon of marginal seat MPs on that side of the chamber—pork-barrelling to save their bacon in a looming election—rather than what is in the best interests of our nation.

Our economy has been struggling for some years and Australians know it. They've been saddled with cost-of-living pressures for the last decade under this government. Why? Because their real wages haven't been increasing. Their real incomes have been falling under this government. They've been burdened with cost-of-living pressures associated with child-care, housing and insurance costs, and now petrol costs are skyrocketing and rents are starting to take off once again. Yet, at the same time, their wages haven't been increasing. In fact, they've been going the opposite way. Real wages in this country have been falling. Why? Because this government supports policies like cutting penalty rates for some of the lowest paid workers in this country, those who work shift work and on weekends.

This government supports employers being allowed to bring in labour hire contractors to undercut wages and conditions for workers who are performing full-time work for particular businesses. This government has done nothing to stop the explosion of insecure work in this country. It sees people working two and three jobs just to pay the rent, to make ends meet. It has led to a crisis in our aged-care system.

The royal commission titled its report into what's going on in aged care in this country Neglect. If you ever want an indictment of a government, look no further than a royal commission that says 'neglect' about the aged-care system. That is exactly what this government has done when it comes to aged care. The royal commissioner pointed out that Australians aren't getting the level of care they deserve, in certain circumstances. You have people who are overworked and underpaid, who are working two and three jobs just to make ends meet, and the quality of care has suffered.

Do you think this government will deal with that issue in the budget tonight? Of course they will not. They will not do anything that ensures they will even remotely come close to lifting the real wages of Australian workers in this country. They don't support Australian workers. They never have. They put in place laws that diminish their wages and conditions and ensure that over a decade you get no real wages growth in this economy for Australian people. That's this government's philosophical bent and that's the way they always do things. They attack superannuation. They attack wages and conditions. They make sure that employers have the wherewithal to cancel enterprise agreements when they can't get agreements with their workforces.

As a result, we have one of the lowest levels of enterprise bargaining and agreement-making in this country's history. Labour productivity in this country has been falling under this government. The amount of income that we earn as a nation per hour worked has been falling, and that is an indictment on this government's economic management.

Will you see in the budget tonight any productivity-enhancing measures? No, you will not. You'll not see any commitment to ensuring that women get access to the workforce by cheaper child care, which you will see under Labor policy. You will not see any commitment to ensuring that workers are paid fairly when they're working beside someone who's doing the exact same job, on the exact same terms and conditions, but is a permanent employee and not employed by a labour hire company. You will not see anything that this government will do to improve labour productivity, nor will you see anything done to increase business investment that's been falling or housing affordability. These are the issues that are affecting Australians and you will not see them dealt with by this budget tonight.

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour. The member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate resumes.

'He used his access to the children to terrorise here, refusing to bring them back at the time they had agreed to. He stole his middle daughter's comfort toy and refused to give it back. Aaliyah cried and cried when forced to see him.' That is part of the report from the coronial inquest in the murders of Hannah Clarke and her three beautiful children, Aaliyah, Laianah, and Trey. They were murdered 770 days ago by the person who was supposed to love them the most; 765 days ago I stood up in this chamber and called on Prime Minister Morrison to act to prevent further horrific acts of family violence. I called on the Prime Minister to repeal section 61DA of the Family Law Act, the 'Presumption of equal shared parental responsibility when making parenting orders'. Frontline domestic violence workers have been calling for this change over many years. Even a bipartisan parliamentary report, with a Liberal Party majority, recommended it way back in 2017.

This small change would save lives. It would shift the culture and practice towards a greater focus on safety and risk to children. I introduced my private member's bill 653 days ago to make this legislative change. There has been support from across the chamber for my bill. Sadly, we know that there are other Hannahs living in terror and other children who are being put in dangerous situations today. Hannah had no power over the monster who stole her life and her children's. The Prime Minister does have power to change the law; he could bring on my private member's bill this week. He could do it today. I'm sure the member for Griffith, who is closely connected with the family, would agree.

Last week I was delighted to see the Liberal Party in Bennelong conduct a full and open preselection meeting to decide who will be the candidate to represent Bennelong at the upcoming election. I announced my retirement last November to provide plenty of notice to would-be candidates and to the party to steward a full and fair contest free of potential distractions and impositions.

It was great that 250 preselectors turned up at the meeting. It's a courageous act to put one's hand up for consideration at a preselection meeting. It is a stressful process. I commend and thank the nominees who stepped forward: Rose Torossian, Trenton Brown, Craig Chung, Gisele Kapterian and Simon Kennedy. Rose is a wonderful local Liberal Party member and activist over many years. Trenton is a passionate and effective local councillor on Ryde council. Craig is a proud former local councillor and an active community advocate. Gisele has incredibly impressive professional experience and a compelling personal backstory. But there can only be one winner, so I congratulate Simon Kennedy on gaining Liberal Party preselection for Bennelong. The family man won the night on the back of his outstanding performance, outreach to the selectors, impressive professional achievements and local connections. He grew up in Bennelong and was captain of Epping Boys High School. I commend him to the people of Bennelong. He will make a fine representative, and he has my full endorsement and encouragement. (Time expired)

For the second time in this parliament, I am tabling a petition in this chamber regarding treatment for Australians with cystic fibrosis.

The petition read as follows—

The PBAC have now officially recommended Trikafta, but people with CF cannot access this critical medication until it is listed on the PBS. We can't wait any longer to access this life changing medication. Every day without Trikafta means increasing lung damage for those who need this vital medicine. For some of us in the CF Community, our lives cannot truly start without Trikafta. Trikafta is a crucial medicine for the CF Community, with lifesaving implications for around 90% of Australians living with cystic fibrosis.

We therefore ask the House to Expedite the listing of Trikafta on the PBS urgently. The House must quickly work with Vertex and the PBAC to make sure onboarding data, price ratios and other hurdles do not delay access to this lifesaving medicine. We must get Trikafta to the people now. We are so close and have waited so long. We cannot wait any longer. Trikafta must be on the PBS before the election. Trikafta has been recommended, now please get it listed today.

from 58,274 citizens (Petition No. EN3915)

Petition received.

First of all, I would like to thank the previous CEO of Cystic Fibrosis Australia, Nettie Burke, the present CEO, Jo Armstrong, and the cystic fibrosis community for putting this petition forward for the second time. This is something that almost 60,000 Australians have signed. It regards the use of Trikafta, which is a remarkable treatment for the most common variant of cystic fibrosis with abnormalities in the delta F508 gene. This has caused a life-saving treatment to be available for over 2,000 Australians with cystic fibrosis. We've seen people who were on the heart and lung transplant list taken off because of the use of Trikafta. The minister has only just approved this after some delay and after rejection by the PBAC over 12 months ago. It has recently been approved. It's now available and will save the lives of over 2,000 Australians. This is a wonderful new treatment that has revolutionised the treatment of cystic fibrosis in Australia.

In my first speech I spoke about my cousin Matthew. I was very close to Matthew. He had a beautiful but troubled soul. Back in the 1990s there were very few mental health services and even fewer that were youth oriented. Sadly, Matthew died by suicide at the age of 25. For my aunty and uncle there are no words to describe their grief.

Those experiences have actually been at the back of my mind as we faced the COVID pandemic. Mums and dads in Higgins have told me about anxiety and depression levels that are through the roof in young children as they've faced the uncertainties COVID has brought. As a paediatrician and now the member for Higgins, I've always been a strong advocate for greater mental health services, especially for our youth.

That's why I'm so proud that, as I come to the end of my first term, we can announce that a new headspace in Higgins has just opened its doors. This means the youth of Higgins will have greater access to clinical mental health professionals, to judgement-free physical and sexual health advice from onsite GPs and to alcohol and drug counsellors. These services will help our youth balance the juggle of studying and jobseeking as they emerge from the lockdowns into a post-COVID world. So please, if you need support, don't hesitate to reach out to headspace, because your mental health is as important as your physical health.

The past few years have shown us that when the going gets tough we can rely on this Prime Minister not being there—on this government and this Prime Minister failing to take responsibility and to do their jobs. Whether it's failing to take action on climate change, failing to get us vaccines when we need them, failing to keep older Australians in aged care safe or failing to make sure that wages are keeping up with the cost of living, at every stage this Prime Minister and this government have failed to do their job. Today's budget seems to be more of the same: a short-term political fix focused on Scott Morrison's future but not the future of our country.

My community is tired of it. They did their part through all these difficult years of the pandemic. They deserve a government and a Prime Minister that will do their part and that are prepared to take responsibility and do their jobs. They deserve a Labor government that believes climate change is real and will take action on climate change. They deserve cheaper child care to make it easier for families to juggle work and caring. They deserve a government that gets that we need to protect and strengthen Medicare and that we should all be able to see a doctor when we need to. They deserve a government that will fix and protect the NDIS instead of leaving families lying awake at night worrying about their children's future. They deserve a genuine national anticorruption commission. They deserve a Labor government.

I was delighted recently to be able to support a number of community groups in my electorate of Menzies to obtain grants under the Stronger Communities Program: the clubroom fit-out of furniture and kitchen equipment for the Macedon Blues soccer club; CCTV camera equipment for the Templestowe RSL; a defibrillator, ride-on mower and gardening equipment for the Doncaster Bowling Club; car park resurfacing at the Manningham Tende Beck Scout Group; two commercial fridges for the Templestowe Football Club; gardening equipment for the Doncaster Community Gardens; an electronic scoreboard for St Davids Cricket Club, an oval that's used by many other sports as well; an air conditioner for the Wonga Park Country Fire Authority; the purchase of equipment for the Eltham Sea Scouts; the construction of a shelter over a seated area for the Whitefriars Football Club; an electronic community noticeboard for fire warnings—something very important—for the Kangaroo Ground Country Fire Authority; tables and chairs for the Kangaroo Ground War Memorial Park; a grant to the Nillumbik Shire Council; another grant to the Nillumbik Shire Council for the upgrade of public bathroom amenities at Research Park; and carpeting for the op shop at the Rotary Club of Manningham. These are all very worthwhile projects undertaken by very important and vibrant community groups in Menzies.

On 27 February this year, it was reported that Mr Clive Palmer had purchased a Mercedes-Benz 770 Grosser Offener Tourenwagen used by Adolf Hitler. This was purchased from an unnamed Russian billionaire. On 28 February, I wrote to the Minister for Home Affairs to ask that she take action under the Customs Act to prevent this import and use all legal avenues available to the Commonwealth to prevent it. The minister released a statement saying: 'No-one gets a special deal, and the rules apply to all. Mr Palmer will have to comply fully with our import, customs and sanctions laws.' Mr Palmer and his spokesperson have refused to say if he has attempted this purchase, is still working on this purchase, or if this purchase was by any of his companies. And then, on 4 March, Mr Palmer threatened legal action against the Minister for Home Affairs, which makes so interesting the letter I received in response from the Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs on 11 March. The assistant minister wrote that he could not comment due to privacy reasons: 'I cannot comment on individual transactions or importations to Australia.' Curious. No action. No comments. He said I should report it to a website. I had written to the minister, and the response I got back was, 'Report it to a website.' This is the Scott Morrison 'not my job' approach that is throughout this entire government. This government should either act or legislate to stop Mr Palmer. I seek leave to table the correspondence.

Leave granted.

On Tuesday 15 February 2022, Rex 'Harry' Reid passed away in his 102nd year. He was a World War II veteran. I had the privilege of meeting Harry when I presented him with a commemorative medallion, for his service during the war, at the Launceston RSL in 2020. While I was leaning in to hear him, Harry sheepishly whispered: 'Darren Chester has already sent me one of these. Can I keep this one too? Given his service, I told him it was okay by me. I was also chuffed to learn that Harry had his handwritten 100th birthday card from me on his wall. Harry, who hailed from Tasmania's north-east, left school at 14 to work in farming with his dad before getting a job on the railways. Harry joined the Australian Navy in November 1941, conducting convoy work in the Pacific, chiefly in the New Guinea area. He had previously described this work as 'terribly monotonous' and 'not all beer and skittles'. Harry was married to his beloved wife, Bev, for more than 65 years and was father to Peter and Vicky. Vicky called her dad 'one in a million'. Last week, I sat with Bev and Vicki to hear of Harry's last days after he took a fall. There is of course deep grief over losing their husband and father, and I know that those last days before Harry passed were very painful. Harry was so loved by all who knew him, and my heart is with his family. Vale, Harry. I will miss you.

I am delighted to read a speech by Caitlin Woolley, a 19-year-old student from Hobart, as part of the Youth Voice in Parliament campaign. Caitlin works as the Tasmanian health ambassador for Down Syndrome Australia. Caitlin writes: 'It matters that people with a disability be included in their community, their employment and in health. This is the future I want for Australia. Everyone should be included to build stronger communities together. I want to be included and respected, not left out because of my disability. Don't assume what I can do. Help me belong. I am thankful for my job. I want to use my strengths and contribute in the workplace. I have learned new skills and confidence. I have made friends and like helping others with my work. We need more support and training for people with disabilities and more employers offering jobs. People with disabilities need equal health care. I teach healthcare workers inclusive communication to better care for people with a disability. The new National Roadmap for Improving the Health of People with Intellectual Disability needs to be implemented as well. We need to keep caring for the health of all people with disabilities. Please make Australia committed to including people with disabilities in their communities, in the workplace and in health. Let's be stronger and happier by working together.' That concludes the speech. I just want to say that I agree with Caitlin and I hope all in this place do too.

Last week, I had the great pleasure of attending the fifth anniversary of the malaria vaccine project at the Institute for Glycomics at my own alma mater, Griffith University, Gold Coast, in Moncrieff. Present among many from the community were General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove, who have supported this project since the beginning. For that, we are truly grateful.

This vaccine, once trials conclude and it's approved, has the potential to profoundly reduce the number of preventable deaths around the world. The freeze-dried vaccine can be easily deployed into malaria-endemic countries, where, according to the World Health Organization, in 2020, there were an estimated 241 million malaria cases and 627,000 deaths worldwide.

The malaria vaccine project is a joint fundraising partnership between Rotary District 9640 and Griffith University. It's raised $1.34 million from Australian Rotary clubs, the federal government's Medical Research Future Fund and generous community donors over the past five years.

Congratulations to Professor Michael Good, who was the first to trial the vaccine in his own body, and his team at the institute, lead researcher Dr Danielle Stanisic, Chancellor Smerdon and Vice-Chancellor Evans for their world-leading research and tireless efforts to save lives on a global scale. There's still more money to raise and more trials to undertake, but my community is well on its way to making a big difference.

Another budget will be handed down tonight. As we've already heard, there will be more promises—lots and lots of promises. We know that some infrastructure funding has already been announced for the Territory, and I welcome that. But we remember what happens when those opposite, the coalition, make promises about infrastructure—next to nothing! I'll use as one example the Kakadu funding that was promised just prior to the last election. Next to nothing has been delivered from that Kakadu funding.

We remember disaster funds. Our hearts go out to our brothers and sisters in those floods in New South Wales and Queensland. But where was the disaster funding? Where was the support from the Commonwealth? We look at places like Darwin and the Northern Territory, which are prone to cyclones, and remember the broken promises from those opposite. We remember sports funding. We remember the change sheds for women who want to play sport and have their own change rooms. Shocker! For example, in my electorate—not one dollar of that money promised at the last election has been delivered. We remember what happens when there are promises made from those opposite. But I can guarantee Territorians that the member for Lingiari and I will make sure that promises are delivered.

One thing that I've learned after being in and out of this place since 1990 is to never forget who brought you to the party, to never forget who you represent. People like myself, who represent the regions, represent small communities with not-for-profit aged-care centres, like Foster, Neerim South, Phillip Island, Leongatha and Korumburra. They're names you might never have heard of, but they're important because they're facilities that are really, really important to the economic value of those communities, not just the aged care that they provide. COVID has really knocked them about. This is right across Australia. They have unique downsides in that they don't have facilities to grab another nurse around the corner. They just don't have that facility in a country area. We need to look very closely at these areas, like Foster and Neerim South, and say, 'What are we going to do in the future for you?' Otherwise, they will be unviable. If they become unviable, the whole community loses.

Aged care has been a passion of mine from the time I came into this place; it will be a passion of mine until the time I leave. The people who work within the facilities and those who are a part of the community are magnificent in the way they go about their job, but we need to be great in the way that we look after them.

Well, it's budget day, and it's absolutely extraordinary that, just now, on the eve of an election, after almost a decade in government, apparently the Liberals and the Nationals have discovered that people are struggling under the cost-of-living pressures. Newsflash people—it's been happening for quite a while now. But with this government's last-minute revelation comes excuse after excuse that it's not its fault. They don't hold a hose, and, apparently, they don't want to use any of the privileges or powers of government to actually help people in my community. What they do want to do is hand down what the member for Rankin has so appropriately called a spakfilla budget. What they want is a set piece performance replete with spending announcements that will never be delivered, which are more about their desperate attempts to hold onto privilege and power than it is about bringing forward any meaningful, substantive and, importantly, enduring benefits to the people I came here to represent, people like 89-year-old widow Mavis from Mount Eliza, who, after paying her rates, utilities and bills, has just $50 of her pension left to cover food for the week, or like Phil from Carrum Downs, who doesn't know how he's going to keep pace with the rise in essentials, and Morrie from Langwarrin, who told me he is totally disillusioned with the Liberal-National government because his future is worse than his past. He needs a new Albanese Labor government; that is what he needs.

As a long-time supporter of assistance dogs, I was disappointed and frustrated to be contacted by the Australian Defence Force veteran who had been refused access to a taxi with their dog. The veteran concerned felt humiliated and embarrassed to be rejected by several taxi drivers in Melbourne last week. For someone who experiences anxiety or PTSD or other mental health issues, such rejection can add to their stress and hamper their recovery. The veteran was so distressed when they contacted me that I have raised their concerns directly with the current federal minister and with the Department of Veterans' Affairs. In the veteran's own words: 'It got so overwhelming and upsetting, as well as embarrassing, as there were people walking by and I felt conscious for the first time of my disability and having a service dog. I'm now in a dark place because of it and have lost my confidence of going out in public. I'm ashamed to be a veteran with disabilities.'

The veteran wanted me to publicise the issue as a reminder about the fragility of recovering from mental health issues and the laws against discrimination which currently exist. It is a breach of the Disability Discrimination Act to actually refuse service to a person with a properly accredited assistance dog. As the Commercial Passenger Vehicles website clearly specifies:

Commercial vehicle drivers have a legal responsibility to transport passengers and their assistance animals.

Hopefully, we will see many more of these dogs in our community in the years ahead, because they are helping owners have more freedom and overcome their personal challenges. I will be urging all levels of government to make sure that service providers are kept educated and well informed about assistance dogs and how to treat their owners respectfully.

My community on the north side of Brisbane has been smashed by torrential rains and floods over the past four weeks, and the Morrison government has abandoned us, right when we needed public service the most. The Morrison government gave Queenslanders one-third of the disaster payment that they gave to New South Wales for the same severe weather event. And, despite earlier this term giving themselves the particular federal powers to do so, they did not call the national emergency until it was far too late. It took one month for some people in my community to receive the natural disaster payment, and they needed that thousand dollars to pay the excess for their insurance claims to even get the process started.

The Morrison government rejected 17 of the 20 disaster mitigation projects requested by Queensland for Queensland. Even today, as we gather here for the federal budget, the Morrison government are still refusing to jointly fund the Queensland government's $771 million disaster recovery package.

Queenslanders understand that the catastrophic effects of climate change are the biggest threat to our homes, to our local economy, to our national productivity and to our national security. Queenslanders understand that that is what the federal budget needs to outline tonight—a plan for our recovery, a plan for our future. Queenslanders will not forget who refused to hold a hose when we needed it most and who doesn't deserve their trust for another term in government. (Time expired)

In August last year the factophobes in this place got upset when I pointed out the ineffectiveness of restrictive COVID measures and called for society to reopen. Seven months later the results are in: mask mandates did not work, lockdowns did not work, and vaccine passports are still an unjustified discrimination. People still caught COVID, including the vaccinated. People still went to hospital, including the vaccinated. Regrettably, people still died, including the vaccinated.

As the omicron wave took off, it was reported that the majority of deaths were among the vaccinated. The premiers and state governments stopped giving us the breakdown, and the media hasn't bothered to ask the question why, because results prove they were wrong and that the tyrannical measures failed. Either in court or at the ballot box, the perpetrators will be held to account. I would offer this word of warning to private enterprises sacking workers under discriminatory policies: they too will be held to account for wrongful dismissal and for injury to workers incurred through forced vaccinations. They knew, or ought to have known, their policies would make no difference. There's no excuse. Workers are forced to confirm their informed consent before getting a shot, despite attempts by Pfizer to bury safety data for 75 years. There are no grounds for an employer or a government to claim they weren't informed before voluntarily discriminating against the public.

In the weeks following the February floods in Queensland, I was out in places like Goodna in my electorate, helping with the recovery effort. Let me tell you: it is heartbreaking to stand across from someone who has lost everything and tell them they are not eligible for the same support as their counterparts across the New South Wales border. They ask me why, when they have lost absolutely everything, they receive different treatment. At every turn, I've done my utmost not to politicise this disaster. But, with the government yet to provide an adequate explanation of their own, I can only come to one possible conclusion: this Prime Minister is so politically cynical and desperate that he would resort to allocating disaster funding based upon the electoral goals of his party. There is no other explanation. The flood communities in my electorate are being treated like second-class citizens because they were not seen as important to the LNP's election plans. The people in Goodna don't care about petty political gains. They don't care about what seats the LNP are targeting. They just want help. I would like to see this Prime Minister walk the streets of Goodna and explain to my constituents why their loss is only worth one-third of the support granted in New South Wales. The truth is that people in my electorate are just as deserving, and I will never stop fighting to ensure they are treated as such.

The situation in Myanmar is both confronting and heartbreaking. Since the coup more than a year ago, we've seen terrible atrocities. My heart goes out to the Burmese community, who I know are hurting for their friends, their families and their communities. And I know that the Prime Minister shares these grave concerns. Just one week after meeting with my local Burmese community, along with Senator Dean Smith, the Prime Minister was back there this past weekend. The PM updated us on the further work that our government's doing to oppose the military regime and to support the Burmese. In response to the coup, we've suspended bilateral defence cooperation with Myanmar and redirected our development program away from government entities. We are holding firm on our longstanding arms embargo, and backing a global arms embargo. On the weekend, the PM said Australia's assistance is reaching communities across Myanmar, including in conflict-affected areas of Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Shan and Rakhine states, and he announced an additional 2,000 new humanitarian visas. This adds to extensions to Myanmar citizens who are in Australia on temporary visas. It was heartening also to hear that further sanctions are being actively considered. This financial year, Australia will deliver over $95 million in assistance to the people of Myanmar. The humanitarian crisis is deepening, and I thank our Prime Minister for continuing to listen and to act as we enhance our support for the people of Myanmar in their hour of need.

The people of Western Sydney, like so many Australians, have been impacted by flooding over recent weeks—not as badly as the people of Brisbane or the Northern Rivers but still badly impacted. Those floods have impacted Western Sydney without discrimination. The difference is that this federal government has not declared the Cumberland Council area a disaster area. Fairfield has been declared, Blacktown has been declared, Parramatta has been declared and Canterbury Bankstown has been declared, but people in Cumberland have not been able to apply for assistance. Cumberland Council is literally surrounded by the other councils. It is literally landlocked by the councils that have been declared. The floods did not check the local government maps. The floods did not check which council areas they could go to and which areas would receive support from the Morrison government. People in Cumberland have been impacted. Sonia contacted me just today. She's a single mum from Greystanes with two girls in high school, both with serious heart conditions. The storm cut their electricity for three days as the water gushed through their house. She's been unable to turn on the air conditioning to help dry out the house. She's had to borrow money to get the ceilings of her kids' bedrooms replaced because of the flood damage, and she's not even allowed to apply for assistance, because this government hasn't listened. I've written to Minister McKenzie. We've raised it with Mr McKenzie. We have received absolutely no response. The people of Cumberland City Council deserve better than this arrogant government, which has just ignored them. The floods do not check how people vote. The floods do not check how people are impacted. The floods impacted everyone, and the Prime Minister should— (Time expired)

I recently had the pleasure of informing Port Macquarie businesswoman Erin Matthews from Blue Bins of her successful grant application to fund an important project in our region. Blue Bins is a family owned and run business that has operated in the region for over 20 years. They're specialists in waste management, recycling, and construction and demolition waste, and I wish them all the best with their project.

In accordance with standing order 43, the time for members' statements has concluded.

by leave—I move:

That the resumption of the debate on the Prime Minister's motion of condolence in connection to the death of the Hon. Dr Moses Henry Cass be referred to the Federation Chamber.

Question agreed to.

I move:

That further statements on indulgence in relation to the floods be permitted in the Federation Chamber.

Question agreed to.

by leave—I move:

That further statements on indulgence in relation to Ukraine be permitted in the Federation Chamber.

Question agreed to.

I inform the House that the Treasurer will be absent from question time today as he is preparing for this evening's budget, and I will answer questions on his behalf. The Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment will also be absent for question time today and for the remainder of the week, and I will also answer questions on his behalf.

My question is to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Can the minister confirm that the backlog of 60,000 unprocessed compensation claims for our veterans is a national disgrace, as he told the media on Saturday?

I thank the member for his question. I stand by everything that I said, and I stand by everything that I did. I did so on Saturday, and I stand by it in this House today. Clearing that backlog of claims needs to be a national imperative, and it should be a bipartisan imperative. That's why we have secured $96 million in this budget and in the budget papers and also the contingency to clear that backlog of claims. Do you know why I'm so passionate about it, Mr Speaker? Because we owe it to the ADF personnel, we owe it to veterans and we owe it to their families. This backlog has been building up for years, but we are doing something about it. You will see funding in that budget to reduce those claims in many different ways, including more staff to get the claims processing system going, to get it fixed and to get it moving. I don't apologise for it now and I never will.

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please outline to the House how tonight's budget will continue to secure our economy and create a stronger future for all Australians?

I thank the member for Longman for his question. He knows and will learn this evening that tonight's budget is a budget that Australians have been working hard for. Over the course of the last three years, Australians have had to put up with a lot. They've had to sacrifice a lot. They've been pushing through. They have been dealing with pandemics, with floods and with fires. Australians have made great sacrifices. We've come through those years, working together and pushing through those difficult times. That hard work will be on display tonight in the budget that we're able to deliver, which will ensure that, combined with strong, responsible and effective economic management, we can deliver for the people of Australia tonight. That same economic management has driven unemployment from 5.7 per cent, when we came to government, down to 4.0 per cent—and it's falling still, to below four per cent, to have a 'three' in front of it. That same economic management, through the course of this pandemic, has enabled Australia to retain its AAA credit rating, one of only nine countries to do so—and the list was longer before this pandemic. That same economic management has ensured that Australia's economy today has around 370,000 more jobs in it than before the pandemic. That same economy has outstripped the performance of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France and the entire G7.

The economic management of this government, combined with the hard work and sacrifice of Australians, means that tonight we can ensure that we deliver support to Australians on the cost-of-living pressures that they are facing today. In addition to that, and doing so responsibly and in a targeted and an affordable way, we will also make the investments in Australia's future prosperity with our long-term economic plan that is working. We know that our economic plan is working because Australians are in work and unemployment has fallen to four per cent under our watch. Under Labor's watch, unemployment went up; under our watch, unemployment fell to four per cent.

We're making investments in skills, in infrastructure, in affordable and reliable energy, in making things in this country, in manufacturing and particularly in our regions. Tonight, you will see an investment in our regions that no government has ever had the ambition to embark on which will transform our regions and ensure that the wealth of our regions is unlocked so we can invest in the essential services that Australians rely on at record levels and we can keep Australians safe. A stronger economy means a stronger future. (Time expired)

My question is also to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, and I refer to his previous answer. In that answer, the minister just said that the backlog of unprocessed veterans' claims has been 'building up for years'. Given this government has been in office for almost a decade, who is responsible for that backlog building up for years, and are the funds actually in the budget or in their contingency reserve?

I thank the Leader of the Opposition.

An opposition member interjecting—

Well—

The minister has the call.

The responsibility to deal with the unacceptably high backlog of claims—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr Speaker, I ask that you bring the House to order.

Order, members on my left!

Member for Solomon!

The responsibility for clearing that unacceptably high backlog of claims rests with me. It's my job to clear it up. I have to clear it up for veterans, I have to clear it up for ADF personnel and I have to clear it up for their families. That is my responsibility, and it's a responsibility that I take very seriously. That's why I wanted the $96 million to back the action plan, to do something about it and to give me the tools and the funding that I need to get that job done. I don't apologise for it today. I'm not going to apologise for what I said. I stand by everything I said, and I stand by everything I did.

As far as the funding goes, there is $22.8 million as a line item in the budget, and the balance of just over $73 million is in a contingency reserve, which is also part of the budget. So the funding is there. It's my job to represent veterans, and I'm satisfied that the funding is there—I've seen the paperwork—and the $96 million is going to make a difference to clearing up that backlog of claims. I stand by everything I said and everything I did, and I would do it all again tomorrow for the veterans.

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. Following the announcements of the Urannah and Hells Gates dams, will the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House why delivering for regional economies is so important to grow the nation as strong as possible as quickly as possible? Is the Deputy Prime Minister aware of any alternative policies?

I thank the honourable member for Dawson for his question and note that the member for Dawson is retiring at this election. If there's one thing we all know it's that, whether you like him or not, he has certainly not been a shadow of a person. He has been a person of incredibly strong views, he has been an absolute compass on what he has done and he has shown to us that he has the courage to stand behind his views. I commend him for that and I commend him for the work that he's done for the people of Dawson.

He raises the question of the substantial investment that this government has made in dams. For Hells Gates Dam, we have put $5.4 billion on the table. That's for a dam that the Labor Party, at the state level, said was of critical importance. It was also an election promise. All the Labor Party has to do now is say the word 'yes', that they're going to do it. But of course we haven't got a yes. What we're getting is excuses that are driven by their attachment to the Greens. It shows you they would be a Greens-Labor government, and when push comes to shove they will not build a thing because they're tied to the Greens. Regarding Urannah Dam, their candidate, Michael Brunker, said that the Annastacia Palaszczuk led government will support Urannah Dam. We announced the money. We can't wait for the state government. Private enterprise is putting in money, and guess what? They're not supporting it. Paradise Dam—well, they built it, it fell over and we had to build it again. Did we quibble about it? No, because we believe in the infrastructure that makes our nation as strong as possible.

Even though we're coming from a strong position and we're a strong nation that is becoming stronger, and we have to, we are fully aware of the circumstances that are before this nation. They are evident on the television every night. They are evident in the reports that come to us on things that are happening in our region of the Pacific. So this government is focusing on how it makes the money to keep our nation strong. It is not good enough just to say you believe in a strong Defence Force, as the Labor Party does. We're actually showing you how you build your nation so you can pay for it. We are building our nation so we can support the NDIS. We are building our nation so we can support Medicare. We are building our nation by making the hard decisions to grow where we know we have opportunities.

It is people such as the member for Dawson, it is people such as the member for Capricornia and it is people such as the member from Central Queensland and those who stand behind the industry of central New South Wales that make our nation as strong as possible— (Time expired)

My question is to the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister cares about cost-of-living pressures for working families, why has he spent a decade undermining real wage growth and job security?

I completely reject the assertion made by the Leader of the Opposition at the dispatch box. If we still had the same tax rates for personal incomes today that we inherited from those opposite when we were elected to office back in 2013—if we still had Labor's tax rates today and we hadn't embarked on a process of tax reform so Australians can keep more of what they earn—then someone on $90,000 today would be paying more than $50 extra in tax every single week. If we'd kept Labor's tax rates, that's what would have happened. If we'd kept those tax rates, people would be paying higher taxes and higher taxes and higher taxes, because you know what you get from Labor? Higher taxes. That's what we know.

The member for Corangamite is warned.

On Thursday night, the Leader of the Opposition will have the opportunity to put their alternative budget to what we are putting forward tonight. I look forward to hearing it, because they've had three years to ponder what an alternative budget would be.

The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order?

Yes. The Prime Minister is halfway through his answer and he hasn't mentioned real wage growth or job security, which is what the question was about. I know they haven't got much to say about it—

The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The Prime Minister has been dealing with tax rates. The Prime Minister is in order and has the call. The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?

Yes, just to clarify the ruling. Have you just ruled the Prime Minister is in order because he's talking about something that wasn't in the question?

No.

Member for Solomon, I will not tolerate reflecting on the chair. The member for Solomon is warned. The Prime Minister has been referring to tax rates, which clearly—the Prime Minister, in my view, is in order. He is being relevant to the question and he has the call.

I look forward to hearing what might come from the Leader of the Opposition on Thursday on these matters, because there's not a lot for them to say when it comes to these issues. But this is what we can say. We can say that under our government electricity prices have fallen by eight per cent in the last two years. Under our government, we can say that to deal with the rising cost of living we've been getting Australians into jobs at record rates. Unemployment has fallen to four per cent. Even the Reserve Bank governor has highlighted how wages are set to rise, as a result of the pressures in the labour market, because we're running a strong economy.

The best remedy, for higher wages, is a stronger economy. And the way you get that stronger economy is the responsible economic policies that have seen our government oversee an economy that has outperformed the advanced world through this pandemic, where unemployment has fallen from 5.7 per cent under Labor to four per cent under the Liberals and Nationals, and that unemployment figure is falling further still. Our record of getting Australians into jobs, our record of getting Australians into homes, our record of getting electricity prices down to ease the cost of living and our record of addressing these urgent issues is there for all to see, and it's a good record.

They say they're going to have a minibudget. (Time expired)

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, imagine being under the control of a state appointed guardian or public trustee and not being allowed to grab an iced coffee for a treat or buy presents for the grandkids or replace your ill-fitting underwear. Sadly, this is the reality for many Australians. No wonder a Tasmanian inquiry concluded that the Public Trustee misunderstood their duties for the last 26 years or that Four Corners recently documented a number of injustices inflicted by public trustees across Australia. Prime Minister, do you agree that it's an inherent right to exercise as much control over your life as possible, and will you help develop a new national framework for supported decision-making?

I thank the member for his question. On the broad principle, of course, we want Australians to have the lives of their choice and the best possible life they can have. I'll ask the Minister representing the Attorney-General to deal specifically with the matters that you've raised.

I do thank the member for Clark for the question, and I thank the Prime Minister for the opportunity to expand on what the Prime Minister has already said to the House. The Morrison government, of course, strongly supports the right of individuals to exercise legal capacity. Where an individual requires support to exercise this capacity, it should be subject to appropriate safeguards to ensure that no abuse, exploitation or neglect occurs. The effective regulation of public trustees, which are creatures of state government, is therefore a matter, primarily, for state and territory governments. That being said, Commonwealth agencies do have a role to play in setting appropriate standards for the delivery of services to the Australian community. In that regard, the National Disability Insurance Agency recently commenced consultations on a new Support for Decision Making policy for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and the government looks forward to the progress of this important work.

My question is to the Minister for Defence. Will the minister update the House on the Morrison government's commitment in ensuring that the Australian Defence Force has the resources and the personnel that it needs in order to keep Australia safe and secure, and is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

I want to say thank you very much to the member for Braddon for the support that he provides to the Australian Defence Force and acknowledge his own service in uniform to our country.

We know that our nation faces a set of geopolitical circumstances and challenges and threats on a scale and complexity that we haven't seen since the Second World War. Everybody has been watching the unfolding scenes in Europe, in the Ukraine, with a fear that it could spread to other countries, to NATO countries, and what that would mean for Europe and, indeed what it would mean for the rest of the world.

People have been shocked by the relationship between China and Russia, and people rightly are worried about China's own ambition within our region, within the Indo-Pacific, and so we have been determined to do all that we can not to take peace for granted. I think all Australians realise that we are in a very different world now than we were five or 10 years ago. That's why it's been essential for the Australian government, for the Morrison government, to strengthen the Australian Defence Force, to announce that we will increase the number of ADF personnel by over 30 per cent, to a total permanent force of about 80,000 people, and overall Defence's total permanent workforce will increase to over 101,000—an increase of 18½ thousand over the baseline growth already agreed in 2020.

We have, over the course of the last eight years, gone about making sure that we fix up Labor's mess in Defence and the national security agencies. The reality is that Labor ripped money out of Defence. They ripped money out of ASIO. They ripped money out of the Australian Federal Police. They ripped money out of ASIS. We were not the strong country that we needed to be when it came to the Australian Defence Force.

We know that one of the most shameful attributes of the Rudd-Albanese period in government was to reduce spending as a percentage of GDP to 1.56 per cent, the lowest level since 1938. It was a shocking time for Defence and for the men and women of the ADF.

The minister will resume his seat. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order?

Yes. It is a point of order, Mr Speaker. It's irony. This is coming from the government which stuffed the subs.

No, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The minister has the call.

That was more a job advertisement. What about poor old Brendan O'Connor? Have you ever heard of him? What's he going to do?

The minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business—

Honourable members interjecting—

I'm not going to call you until the interjections cease. The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?

The Leader of the House is out of order and knows he's out of order when he makes those comments, and it's a deliberate flouting of the rules of the House.

The defence minister has the call.

The reality is that if we had continued defence spending at the same levels that Labor had when they were last in government then we would have been spending $55 billion less on defence over the course of the last eight years. What does that mean? It means that men and women of the Australian Defence Force would have been looking for other jobs. We would have reduced numbers, because that's what Labor did when they were in government. (Time expired)

My question is to the Prime Minister. New South Wales Liberal MP Catherine Cusack said:

The idea that being a flood victim in a National Party-held seat makes you more worthy than a flood victim who is in the Richmond electorate is probably the most unethical approach I have ever seen.

Why did it take the resignation of Ms Cusack for the Prime Minister to act on flood relief for the people in my electorate?

Honourable members interjecting—

Before I give the call to the Prime Minister, I would ask all members of the House to please just keep the interjections down.

I thank the member for Richmond for her question and I commend her for the work she's been doing in her local community over the course of the floods, as I remarked in my earlier statements on indulgence. I don't agree with the views of Ms Cusack. I've known Ms Cusack for a long time. I don't agree with her views, but I do understand that, in the middle of floods and the terrible circumstances of what occurred in the Northern Rivers, people were under enormous stress. But, as the member for Richmond would know—because I spoke to the member for Richmond when I was in the Northern Rivers—what was being referred to was the extension of the payments from the three local government areas in Lismore, Clarence Valley and Richmond Valley, which were given triple payments on the disaster payment. I spoke to the member for Richmond on the day that was announced and I told her that further assessments were being done on other local government areas in that region and that once those assessments were complete then a further decision would be made.

That was before the statements made by Ms Cusack. She may not have been made aware, even though that position had been made public. I spoke to the mayor of Ballina on that same day, after I'd been speaking to the member for Richmond, and I made it very clear that these other assessments were being undertaken. Those disaster payments—the triple payments—are very rare; they've never been done before. But in recognition and because of the strong work done by members, particularly the member for Page, we extended those payments to seven local government areas. In the member's electorate, the local government area of Ballina and Byron, some $33 million in payments have already been made to some 20,000 people.

The member for Richmond! The Prime Minister will resume his seat. Look, these things are obviously very emotional, but I'm going to warn the member for Richmond.

So, in those two local government areas alone, some 20,000 individuals are receiving three payments and, for households in those areas affected, that would mean a payment of around $7,000, directly to support those most devastated in those flood areas.

When I went to the Northern Rivers I made it very clear that we were making the announcements on those first three and, as is often the case with all disaster payments, assessments are made and additional local government areas are added as those assessments are completed. I made that very clear to the member for Richmond. When we had done those proper assessments through agencies we extended those payments. I'm very pleased we have, and I'm pleased the assessment supported us doing that. This is already part of a commitment in New South Wales alone of some $2.1 billion that we have directly committed as a federal government. And $1.3 million or thereabouts is already out the door supporting Australians affected by the flood.

My question is to the Minister for the Environment representing the Minister for Women. Will the minister please outline to the House how the Morrison government is supporting the more than 800,000 Australian women and girls living with endometriosis—including me, as I discovered to my shock in early 2020, after years of advocacy for everyone affected by endo.

I thank the member for Boothby for her question and particularly thank her for her advocacy for women struggling with this dreadful condition, something that she was doing so many years before she received her own shocking diagnosis of stage 4 endometriosis.

Around one in nine Australian women suffer from endometriosis. It's a painful and debilitating condition, and, like the member for Boothby, they face it with incredible bravery, because it has such a significant impact on their health, their mental health, their family, their work, their education and their participation in all kinds of social activities, starting often as a teenager and affecting you in your school years and on through your adult life. While it's a highly individualised condition, common symptoms include pelvic pain that often puts life on hold once every month, and it can also impact fertility.

This government launched the first ever National Action Plan for Endometriosis in July 2018 to support improved treatment, understanding and awareness of this condition. Since the release of our national action plan we've committed $22.5 million for awareness, education, clinical management, care and research. And as part of tonight's budget there will be an additional $58 million allocated to support women with endometriosis, including $16 million for new specialised endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics in each state and territory, $25 million to support women with severe endometriosis and other conditions that affect fertility so they can access a new Medicare funded MRI scan, more funding for an endometriosis management plan that supports patients in primary care, a digital platform providing access to the best information, a national endometriosis clinical and scientific trials network, funding to increase awareness and education, and a workplace assistance program so that more people can understand how you have discussions about this in the workplace.

Our plan, now over $80 million, will improve the quality of life of women with endometriosis. People who listen to conversations about the budget often deal with that in terms of strong, responsible economic management, and they might not immediately think of measures for women's health. But I do. We do. Because it's measures like this that reflect the approach the Morrison government is taking to this budget. A strong economy guarantees essential services, such as the PBS, where we can list new treatments for ovarian cancer and breast cancer. That responsible economic management affects all Australians, particularly women.

LS () (): My question is to the Prime Minister. The Schlegel family in my electorate of Lilley lost their business and 90 per cent of their possessions in the February floods. They're currently living in a rental caravan with their remaining possessions in boxes. Why does the Schlegel family deserve only one-third of the Australian government disaster relief payment that a resident in New South Wales receives?

In Queensland the government has already committed to phase 1 of the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements on the proposal put forward to us by the Queensland government that comprise $558.5 million. It's funded fifty-fifty. We are currently working through the second phase of that program. The first wave of the program provides some $250 million in primary producer grants, $257.5 million in small-business and not-for-profit grants, sports and recreational assets, and some $32 million in $1 million grants going to the affected local government areas. On top of that, the Queensland government are providing assistance under the disaster recovery funding arrangements under categories A and B for 23 local government areas. Personal hardship assistance is available under that program. The disaster recovery payment and the disaster recovery allowance payment are available right across all Queensland local government areas.

A judgement was made by our advisers at the National Recovery and Resilience Agency that the scale of the flood in the Northern Rivers, which was a once-in-500-years flood—as difficult and challenging as the flood has been in many areas, like Hawkesbury, another area of New South Wales that was affected by the flood, or parts of Queensland, particularly up in Gympie or Maryborough. The scale of the flood compared to the scale of the flood experienced in the Northern Rivers is materially different. On the disaster recovery payment arrangements that have always been provided in all floods, in all bushfires and in all of these circumstances, the decision was taken to provide assistance above and beyond the normal responses to floods for the Northern Rivers because it was a once-in-500-years flood that was more than two metres higher than the highest flood ever experienced in the Northern Rivers. It was an inland tsunami. So we were pleased to provide.

It's almost been now $1 billion in Queensland to support flood assistance and relief to households and individuals through the ADF, who did a sterling job out of the barracks there in Enoggera. I want to commend all the members for their work in supporting their communities throughout the Queensland floods. We will continue in our assessments of the further package that we're discussing with the Queensland government now. But national disasters are no place for partisan politics. They're a place for support, together, and these things should not be made a function of partisan contest.

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. Will the minister please update the House on how and why the Morrison government is supporting access to life-saving medicines, including for Australians living with cystic fibrosis, and is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

I want to thank the member for Robertson. On Sunday I had the privilege of meeting Jess Ragusa from the member's electorate, indeed, I think, from Copacabana. Jess has been an advocate for better access to better treatments for cystic fibrosis. She is a sufferer herself. She said very simply that with the listing of Trikafta, a medicine for 1,900 patients, which will save approximately $250,000 per patient, she and her husband can now plan on having a child. Her life will be extended, her quality of life will be improved and her capacity to have a child is now secure.

Alongside other patients who were there on Sunday, such as Kai, 11-year-old Heidi, and Sarah, who's a year 11 student from the Mornington Peninsula—all of these patients with cystic fibrosis have a better chance of a longer life and a better life. Indeed, as we look across the last few years, we have been able to progressively list new medicines for cystic fibrosis, such as Kalydeco, Symdeko, Orkambi and now Trikafta, a quarter-of-a-million-dollar medicine. That is something we can do because we believe in it, because we can fund it and because we are committed to it.

The member for Macarthur is warned.

As a result of that, we've seen over 2,800 new or amended medicines listed during the life of this government. We have seen the listing times more than halved, from 312 days to 141 days, over the course of the life of this government. And we have committed to listing every medicine that the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee approves.

Sadly, we know that that has not always been the case. In 2011, the previous government refused to list the medicines that were approved by the PBAC, which included Symbicort for other respiratory conditions, in particular asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It is my hope and my belief that such a time never happens again during our lives and during the course—

The member for Macarthur on a point of order.

There are many alternatives to Symbicort, the medicine that the minister is talking about. It wasn't a lifesaving medication. There is no comparison with Trikafta, which is bipartisan.

There you go. There is no repentance on their side for stopping the medicines. But I will finish with a message I received today, about why we do these things, from a friend who said: 'I have a close friend with a 23-year-old son with cystic fibrosis. My friend and her family have not slept since the Trikafta announcement. For their son, Ben, this drug will hopefully mean a chance to live his life rather than await an early death.' That is why we do what we do.

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Khan family, who live in an apartment complex in my electorate, applied for disaster payments when their basement was flooded and they were without power for 27 days. The Khan family says one family member received the payment, but others had their applications rejected. How can one member of the same family, living in the same apartment, be eligible for flood relief payments but the others be rejected?

I'd be very happy to receive the details of the matter which the member has raised and have that taken up by Services Australia. In the course of these floods over the last few weeks, $1.3 billion has been paid to over 1.4 million Australians. Particularly in relation to the Queensland floods, as I mentioned when I was in Brisbane at the time—and I want to thank Premier Palaszczuk for the close cooperation we've had on dealing with the issues with the Queensland floods—when you go back to the 2011 floods, then Prime Minister Gillard, working together with then Premier Bligh and the Brisbane City Council, turned out the Australian Defence Forces and the support that was there to ensure there was an effective response. What I can say is they used everything at their disposal, but, because of what we've been able to build up since 2011, in the Brisbane floods we turned out four times the amount of ADF response, and we did it almost a week earlier than occurred on that occasion.

I'd be very happy to receive the details of the individual case that you're raising; I'd be happy to have that taken up by the minister. But, as I've said, 1.4 million Australians have received assistance, to the tune of $1.3 billion. That is what has gone out over the course of these floods over the recent weeks in which they've been experiencing them. I want to thank the staff at Services Australia for turning out in large numbers, and to thank those who have come from other departments to help process those calls. They have been getting on with their task of helping as many Australians as they possibly can. I commend them for their work. I call on all members of this House to thank Services Australia staff for doing such a great job in this crisis.

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness, Social and Community Housing. Will the minister update the House on how the Morrison government's home guarantee scheme will accelerate the dream of homeownership for even more Australians?

Can I thank the Member for Lindsay for her question and commend her for being a champion for first home buyers in her electorate. I've enjoyed visiting all of the first home buyers in the Lindsay electorate, many of whom have already used the home guarantee scheme to purchase a new home. We took to the last election a commitment to help first home buyers purchase a home with a deposit of five per cent, because we know the biggest challenge for first home buyers is getting into that home and saving what the banks are requiring, which is a 20 per cent deposit.

The home guarantee scheme that we put in place in 2020 has already led to 60,000 first homebuyers purchasing their first home with a deposit of as little as five per cent. We have expanded the scheme to include single parents, to assist single parents purchase a home with a deposit of as little as two per cent. The great success of these schemes has led to the highest levels of people buying their first homes for nearly 15 years. In fact, we see the long-run average of first homebuyers sitting at about 100,000 to 110,000 per year. In the last financial year we helped and ensured that 177,000 first homebuyers were able to get into their first home.

Important though home guarantee scheme was, what is justified now is a major expansion of the scheme. We announced yesterday, and the Treasurer will formally announce this tonight in the budget, the home guarantee scheme will now be expanded to 50,000 places per annum. That will be 50,000 people who will be able to purchase a home with a reduced deposit. There will be 35,000 places for first homebuyers to purchase a home with a five per cent deposit; 5,000 places every year for single parents, 84 per cent of whom are single mothers, to purchase a home with a deposit of two per cent; and 10,000 places set aside for people to build or buy a new home in a regional area. That will be 50,000 places each and every year.

The Labor Party mocked our home guarantee scheme when we announced it. The Leader of the Opposition opposed the $25,000 HomeBuilder grants, which contributed to the first homebuyer levels we have seen. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition said that the HomeBuilder grant would fund gold taps and pearl baths. Well, there are more than 150,000 people who have built modest new homes, first homebuyers who would be utterly shocked to think that the Leader of the Opposition is suggesting they have gold taps in their bathrooms. The Leader of the Opposition does not stand for first homebuyers. The government is a government for first homebuyers. (Time expired)

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.

Just before all members leave the chamber, I have an announcement to make. It is a fairly long one, so bear with me. I ask all members to note the usual arrangements in place for budget week and, importantly, that the usual courtesies apply to the Treasurer's budget speech this evening and equally to the Leader of the Opposition's reply on Thursday evening. As with all proceedings of the House, the member with the call is entitled to speak without interruption. In accordance with precedent, should I determine that a member be required to leave the House under standing order 94(a), the member will be advised by a written note. I ask all members to ensure that their guests comply with COVID-safe measures in place in the building, noting that masks are required in all galleries as well as on the floor of the chamber. I trust there will be cooperation from members and their invited guests in the galleries for whom they are responsible. It should be the aim of all members that both nights proceed smoothly for the benefit of the House and for those watching and listening to proceedings.

To finish off, for the information of members, the speech clock will be on but only used as a guide. Standing order (1) provides that there is no time limit for the Treasurer or the Leader of the Opposition for this debate. I thank the House.

I present the following Auditor-General's reports for 2021-22: No. 18—Remote housing in the Northern Territory: National Indigenous Australians Agency; No. 19—Management of threatened species and ecological communities under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999:Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment; and No. 20—Human biosecurity for international air travellers during COVID-19: Across entities.

Ordered that the reports be made parliamentary papers.

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.

Mr Speaker, I apologise for demoting you to the position of Deputy Speaker during my question. I thought that was—

I thank the member for Dawson. Your leader has done it on several occasions today as well.

I have received a letter from the honourable Deputy Leader of the Opposition proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Government's failure to plan for a future made in Australia.

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—

In December 2013, at the very earliest moments of this government, when then Treasurer Hockey said to Holden, 'Either you're here or you're not,' began the process of goading the car industry from our shores. In that moment what happened is that we lost the most high-tech, complex manufacturing that we were undertaking in this country. At that moment we lost industrial capability, and it was perhaps the most honest and ideological moment of this government. It was when we got to actually see what they believe: flat-earth economics where they don't give a damn about people. I saw firsthand the impacts of that attitude: the loss of those jobs, what it meant to individuals and what it meant to communities, and the devastation that it brought.

At the end of the Rudd-Gillard government there was a commitment, when this government came into power, to build 12 submarines for our Navy here in Australia. At that point this government had no commitment to that at all. What you saw then was Prime Minister Abbott going and trying to shop off that promise in a way to try to close trade deals with other countries. In February 2015 we should all have been appalled at that moment when, in the empty-chair challenge that we saw on the other side, we watched Australia's single biggest procurement being tossed around the government party room like it was just a political toy. That's what they did, and it said everything about the fact that they don't care about people, they don't care about industry, they just care about politics.

We saw that again as the submarines evolved, where, as they tried to make amends in the lead-up to the 2016 election, they then did commit to building 12 subs in Australia. In order to prove that the point—or at least attempt to prove the point—they down-selected that tender to one bidder, Naval Group from France, in a way which placed our country in an appalling position of bargaining power in relation to the program. Now, six years later, we see that program come to an end, and there is no chance that we will see any submarines being built in Adelaide in the foreseeable future. That's where they have left it. It would have made an enormous difference to Australian industry.

Once again, what we have seen on that side of the chamber is the triumph of politics over industry and over people so that, by the time we get to the pandemic, there are 86,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in Australia than there were when this government came to power. When it was just a question of trying to make masks or personal protective equipment at the outset of the pandemic, they actually needed to call in the Army to operate the machines in one of the few factories which undertook that activity in this country. At that moment in time, we ranked dead last in the OECD when it came to manufacturing. What we have seen through the drift of this government is that this country just doesn't make things anymore.

The Harvard Atlas of Economic Complexity measures the degree to which economies do high-tech, sophisticated activity. It has countries like Japan, Korea and Singapore all in the top five. In many ways it is an index of modernity. Right now Australia ranks 86th on that index, and we've been falling down it under this government. We are sandwiched between Paraguay and Uzbekistan—that is the legacy of this government after nine years when it comes to manufacturing and industry in this country. We need to climb the technological ladder. We need to close the gap between us and the cutting edge of modernity in the world, because where lies modernity lies prosperity and, might I also say, from a Labor point of view, lies the best distribution of income, because that's where lies the best jobs, which provide the most secure employment, which pay the best wages. And it's the absence of that which is why we've seen wages stagnate in the last nine years—it has been the stand-out statistic of the economy during the last nine years—and why we have seen productivity go through the floor.

We produce science at a rate commensurate with the size of our economy, but, under this government, we are amongst the worst commercialisers of science in the OECD. The National Reconstruction Fund is an initiative by an Albanese Labor government, if given the opportunity to govern at the upcoming election, which will seek to make a change to this, seek to create a future made in Australia, seek to invest in businesses which do help us climb the technological ladder—looking at areas of commercialisation of science and technology where Australia can reasonably expect to lead the world, or be in those top few countries in the world, in that area. We have a vision about creating industry in this country, we have a vision about creating high-tech manufacturing and sophisticated services, and we have a vision about closing the gap between Australia and the cutting edge of modernity. This government has done precious little on all of that. All they have been responsible for is drift. It's as a result of that that, despite them crowing about headline job statistics, the fact of the matter is that, in this country today, there are still 1.5 million Australians looking for work. People are either unemployed or underemployed. It's in the jobs that are generated by this government's economy that we see high rates of casualisation and high rates of employment in the gig economy, and that is where we're seeing low productivity. We now see almost a million Australians requiring two jobs in order to make ends meet. If we're going to climb that technological ladder, we need to deal with the skills crisis which this government has also presided over.

The experience of having had the international border closed has demonstrated to the nation that we are simply not training enough of our own. And so we have a situation today where there are 70,000 fewer trainees and apprentices than there were at the time that this government took office. Think about that. In the last nine years the economy has grown and in the last nine years population has grown, and yet we have fewer trainees and apprentices today than we did nine years ago. The reason for that is that this mob cut $3 billion out of the VET sector. That's what happened. As a result of that, during the six years of the Rudd-Gillard government, we saw a million Australians gain an apprenticeship or a traineeship. And yet, in the last six years of this government, we have seen about half of that number. That is the legacy of the drift and indolence of the government in their failure to actually act on the question of skills. They have a presided over a skills crisis in this country. You cannot speak to a business, big or small, around the nation who isn't desperately struggling to find the people they need, to find the skills that they require. And why is that? Because this is a government which was asleep at the wheel.

In contrast, if elected, an Albanese Labor government will put in place a $1.2 billion Future Made in Australia Skills Plan, which will see that anybody seeking to study a course which is in an area of skills shortage will be able to do that study at TAFE for free. That's what we will do, because that is actually a plan to deal with the skills crisis which this country now faces—a $1.2 billion commitment to put our country on a very different trajectory to deal with the fact that we are facing a crisis in this nation by virtue of a government that has been characterised by nothing other than drift for the last nine years.

The pandemic has been something of a report card for our country. It has been a moment to take stock. It really does give rise, I think, to the single biggest opportunity that we have as a nation to reimagine the country. The breadth of action on behalf of government is much greater. In a sense, that in turn means that the next three years will be the most significant term of government that any of us live through. It will determine the question as to whether we take that opportunity as a nation or whether we do not. It means that this election is more important than any election that any of us would have gone through.

So there is a very clear choice at that election. It's a choice between a government adrift, which has led us down a cul-de-sac of low productivity, of stagnant wages, of falling manufacturing and of declining living standards, and an Albanese Labor government, which will take this moment in time to reimagine Australia and put us on a course to greater prosperity in the future.

I'm delighted to talk about Australian manufacturing, and it's worth starting with some facts. Under those opposite, when they were last in power, we saw one in eight manufacturing jobs destroyed in this country. There are graveyards everywhere. In fact, recently I was up at Kurri Kurri, where we're building a new gas generator to make sure that our manufacturers have the affordable, reliable energy they need. What we see there is the former Norsk Hydro site, a graveyard for an aluminium smelter that left when those opposite were in power.

Here's the contrast. We have the unemployment rate on its way to having a '3' in front of it. Over 13 million Australians are in work today, and 220,000 are trade apprentices. We know the enormous role that manufacturing is playing in that. That's the highest number of trade apprentices since the data began—since the 1960s. We have seen strong manufacturing business growth. Indeed, business is increasing. Manufacturing business increased by 3.3 per cent in 2021. We've had 3,300 new manufacturing businesses come into the marketplace. Of those businesses, we've seen strong balance sheets. Manufacturing contributes an extra $13.5 billion to GDP than when we came into office in 2013 and an extra $5.7 billion since the last election. These are the facts. Those opposite like to ignore it. They like to talk down Australian manufacturing. I like to recognise it for the strong, important sector that it is. Australian manufacturing exports are worth an extra $33.7 billion than when we came into office.

Right at the heart of this is our Modern Manufacturing Strategy. It's a $1.5 billion strategy, with $925 million of that now in committed projects. This is all part of a broad-ranging support for making sure we've got an environment where manufacturing can prosper in this country, getting the economic conditions right for business. That includes lower taxes—something those opposite will never be able to do; they don't believe in it—and delivering affordable, reliable energy. Energy prices doubled under those opposite. That's why the Norsk Hydro smelter at Kurri Kurri went: because energy wasn't affordable. We've seen it come down 12 per cent for industry in the last two years. It doubled under those opposite.

We're making science and technology work for industry and for jobs. You've recently seen the announcement of $2 billion to make sure we do see that commercialisation of great Australian research. We're focusing on areas of advantage: food and beverage, clean energy, cyber and defence, critical minerals—the Minister for Resources and Water knows what a great opportunity that is for Australia. In fact, I was speaking with a range of my ministerial colleagues from around the world—from Europe, in particular—just last week about the criticality of critical minerals. The Europeans want to move towards different sources of energy, away from Russian gas. That's understandable, but, if they are to make sure they have control over their own destiny, they need supply chains they can trust in lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper. We can provide that here from Australia, and we are doing exactly that.

On medical technologies: we've recently made a major investment in mRNA manufacturing in this country, in Victoria. We are on our way to being a world leader in mRNA technology and mRNA manufacturing. That joint venture, that partnership, with Moderna is right at the heart of it. This is all about building national resilience for a strong economy.

I spoke about the modern manufacturing strategy, which includes $925 million of funding, and I want to give a couple of examples of that, because they're instructive. They give you a sense of what enormous opportunity there is for Australian manufacturing. Indeed, last week, I was on the Gold Coast, and I got a chance to visit Gilmour Space. In fact, we're investing $51 million in the Australian Space Manufacturing Network, and this business is going to use that network, that platform, to get satellites up into orbit faster than would otherwise be the case. I always used to think that the only countries in the world that could put satellites up into space were big countries like the United States, Russia and China, but Australia is doing it. We are doing it, and we are manufacturing those satellites and rockets right there on the Gold Coast. We are investing $51 million into that fantastic manufacturing opportunity for Australia, where we are showing leadership. We have one of the world's leading technologies in rockets to get those satellites up into orbit.

I was down at Port Kembla a couple of weeks ago. There is $55 million for the Advanced Steel Manufacturing Precinct at Port Kembla, upgrading the plate mill and providing the steel that is capable of giving us the defence vehicles, the armoured vehicles, that we need and the inputs into those armoured vehicles, from Port Kembla—not far from where we are right here today. There is a $55 million investment in that important project.

There is $61 million for the Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre. This is all about adapting molecules to mutations—making sure that we can develop the molecule that is a precise, personalised medicine for an individual, to make sure that they have the molecule they need to deal with the cancer they have. We don't just think about breast cancer; we think about the many different variants of it and the molecules we can manufacture right here in this country to deal with that breast cancer. There's a personal element to this for me: I lost my mother almost 35 years ago to breast cancer, and this technology can save lives like hers—lives that are lost way too early. This investment, $61 million in medical technology, is exactly the kind of manufacturing opportunity that combines technology and the intellectual smarts of Australia's very best and smartest with our manufacturing capability.

There is $45 million for Alpha HPA. This is high purity alumina. Up in Gladstone, right next to the Yarwun site, high purity alumina is being produced that can be used in LED lighting and batteries, in a joint venture with Orica and Rio Tinto—who own Yarwun—to make sure we can produce, at lower cost than competitors around the world—including the Chinese—high purity alumina.

Those opposite like to talk a big game on manufacturing, but we need to look at their track record. One in eight jobs were lost when they were last in power. Over 37,000 jobs in manufacturing were lost in their last year in power. Manufacturing businesses' profits fell by over 17 per cent in their last term in office, and they doubled the cost of energy. How did they do that? There were two things they did: the carbon tax and over-investment in the poles and wires. And you know what? They are planning to do it all over again. They've got a sneaky carbon tax they're imposing: a 25 per cent emission reduction requirement on the 215 largest energy users in Australia. Our aluminium smelters, our fertiliser manufacturers and our refineries are going to have this sneaky carbon tax imposed on them. They're going to do it all over again. They've done it before; they'll do it again.

The extraordinary thing is: they're going to do exactly the same thing with transmission. They are going to ask for $80 billion of investment in non-priority transmission projects. These aren't the ones we're investing in, which are prioritised now under the ISP. These are ones that are low-priority projects. Someone needs to pay for that $80 billion, and they have not explained to anyone who's going to pay for it. We know who'll pay for it, because we know who always pays for it under Labor: middle Australia, in their electricity prices. And that is how they devastated manufacturing when they were last in power. That is how they saw aluminium smelters closing when they were last in power. That is how they saw the steel industry going backwards when they were last in power. They're going to do it all over again. Labor just doesn't learn.

We are the party focused on those blue-collar jobs in manufacturing. We are the party focused on the needs of Australians. to make sure that we manufacture in this country the products we need. We have the track record, we have the focus and we are absolutely committed to it.

That was an utterly shameless display from industry minister No. 7½—he's not No. 8, because he wasn't given the full job to focus on; it was split with energy. And he's not even paying attention, because he couldn't give that speech one month ago, where he was talking about different projects and rattling off the money that they're worth. He couldn't do it a month ago, he couldn't do it two months ago and he couldn't do it three months ago. He's talking about a program, which we support—the Modern Manufacturing Initiative—that was announced in October 2020. It was announced with fanfare, and it was announced with funding of $1.5 billion.

But guess what? Up until February, only $85 million of a $1.5 billion scheme was actually out the door. And we had said, last year, that they were holding back the announcements, that they were going to turn this into a slush fund. We'd seen it with sports rorts, with road rorts, with the regional funding rorts and with car park rorts, and now they were doing it with something as important to the economy as manufacturing. But they said: 'No, no, no; that won't happen—not at all. No, Labor's got it all wrong. Why are they so critical of us doing this to support manufacturing?'

Then the industry minister turns up in South Australia to make an announcement that he's going to support the space industry—and it was purely coincidence that it was mentioned just a week or two before the South Australian state election! There it was, all of a sudden, and then suddenly we got this announcement on steel, and we got these other announcements on space—because, as is always the case with this government, it's not about doing the right thing for everyone else; it's about doing the right thing for them. It's about turning taxpayer dollars into a slush fund so they can then go and rattle off all these announcements, so they can go and get media coverage after media coverage after media coverage.

Why is this a bad thing? It's inherently a good thing to have that money invested in manufacturing. When they did announce it, a lot of people cheered it on. But it didn't take too long for industry to come back and ask us, 'Why has it taken so long to make a decision?' They won't say it publicly, because they're scared witless that this vindictive, mean government will target them and not support their application. But you should be putting the money in earlier. As the deputy leader rightly pointed out, when the pandemic hit and we were struck, we had to rethink the nation. We couldn't get the things we needed or wanted in time. Countries all over the globe are rethinking manufacturing, and this mob decides, 'We're not going to rebuild at the earliest opportunity; we're going to rebuild at the best opportunity electorally for us'—which is just wrong. They're always late, they always underdeliver, but they're always on time for an announcement that suits them. And that is plain wrong.

We on this side know that manufacturing is an important component of the Australian economy. Australians get that we should be a country that makes things, because that's a sign of economic health. It's also, importantly, a sign of a good, secure nation that can get the things that it needs at the time that it needs them. When we are dead-last among OECD countries in manufacturing self-sufficiency, that is not a healthy sign. And it's not a good sign when the jobs contract, which we've seen, or when only 67 per cent of what we use is being manufactured in this nation.

All those big announcements—and just to restate it: between October 2020 and February 2022 the Morrison-Joyce government committed $292 million out of the $1.5 billion MMS at an average of $583,000 a day, and last week they announced, via The Australian, that they'd committed $925.7 million. That means that in the 38 days since 14 February they've committed $633 million of the MMS—not in time for the economy but in time for them. That is an absolute disgrace.

On our side, manufacturing is not a fad; it is a fact of life. So many of us have families that owe jobs to manufacturing. We represent communities where manufacturing is a big deal. It means something. It is not a slogan. It's not something where you just jump up one day and try to create some sort of news—like we had with industry minister No. 7½. We believe that Australia can make things, we believe it should make things, but it should not have to tolerate a government turning manufacturing into a plaything.

I knew that if I waited long enough the opportunity would come, I knew if I waited long enough there'd be a purpose and I knew if I waited long enough it would provide something useful. It's finally happened, and I've got to thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition: I've found a purpose for Twitter. The claims by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition about apprentices and trainees, I knew I'd heard before. An ABC fact check on Twitter classifies it as a four-letter word: spin.

The facts are these. There are roughly 220,000 trade apprentices in employment right now, the highest number we've had since 1963, since records began. As a former tradesman, and I guess I still am, I'm very proud of that. I think it's a very wise investment in Australia's future, in providing Australia's youth an opportunity. We will continue to build the strong economy that Australia needs, into the future, because a strong economy is a strong future for all Australians.

In my own portfolio, critical minerals is a growing demand, a growing need, and we can deliver for the Australian people in that critical minerals demand. If we look at the resources sector overall, it has put on almost 40,000 jobs since the pandemic started. It hit a record level of $356 billion in exports of energy resources last financial year. It's forecast to hit $379 billion this year. I'll give you a hot tip: I think it's going to smash it. I think it will absolutely smash all records. That is great for our economy. It's great news for those looking for employment. It's great news for people who want to pay their own way. We will continue to build in the critical minerals sector because it's another strand of our economy. It's another area where we can build opportunity and provide employment.

Mr Deputy Speaker O'Brien, I know that you, the member for Page, the member for Cowper and a number of other members, on both sides of the House, have had some real challenges with natural disasters in recent times, and the support that's provided by the Commonwealth—the support we use to build the infrastructure and essential services that all Australians rely on, whether that is roads, schools, hospitals, dams or other linking infrastructure—needs to be paid for. And to make those payments, to ensure that we can continue to provide those services and that support, we need to build our economy. It needs to get bigger. We need to have greater opportunities, because it is the royalties paid by the resources sector and the taxes paid by the people employed in that sector and the companies in that sector that deliver these essential services through many levels of government.

In the critical minerals sector, we're investing $200 million in the Critical Minerals Accelerator Initiative. We know that there is demand but we also know that there is practically a monopoly provider in this space. There is a monopoly provider in one country. That is in no-one's interest. If we wish to build new opportunities, if we want to build new logistics and supply chains, if we want to ensure that the demand of the future is met—and we absolutely want to do that; I want to ensure that as much as possible comes from this country—we need to invest in these new projects and operations.

We have $250 million on the table through this initiative. This will ensure that we can build strategically significant early- and mid-stage projects to overcome those technical and market challenges. This is a difficult space. A lot of the IP is held by the monopoly country and those operating in that nation. It needs to be built. We need proof of concept. We have to ensure that it works. If we want to build from minerals downstream to metals and be into markets with like-minded democracies, whether the US, Japan, South Korea, India or others, we have to demonstrate that we can deliver what they need. There's $200 million there.

We have $50 million committed to the virtual National Critical Minerals Research and Development Centre because we know we need that R&D, and we are working closely with CSIRO, ANSTO, Geoscience Australia and industry, and we've established a $2 billion critical minerals facility. We've already provided two loans from that facility for $239 million, for spherical graphite projects in South Australia and Western Australia, and $243 million from the Modern Manufacturing Strategy for four critical minerals projects. That is how we'll continue to strengthen our economy, build a stronger nation, pay for all the essential services and make our nation safe and secure into the future.

What those opposite are proposing is simply nonsense. We have a growing sector of the economy right across the resources sector. We have a growing sector of the economy in critical minerals and opportunities. We know that we will continue to invest in manufacturing. We are building the skills that this nation needs. Two hundred and twenty thousand trade apprentices is a great result. I look forward to seeing every single one of them finish their time and get into the workforce proper and continue to deliver for themselves and their nation.

In recent days we heard from the Prime Minister that he is very proud of the eight budgets he has been a part of—the three as Treasurer and the four as Prime Minister. That tells you all you need to know about the problems with this country's education system. It's no wonder we've run up a trillion dollars of debt on this Prime Minister's watch, if he thinks three and four equals eight. It actually points to a deeper problem in our education system and one of the critical handbrakes on productivity growth in this country.

When you look at our schools, TAFES, universities, even from early childhood education and care, we need every part of this education system to be excellent so that our children, as they grow into adults, can participate in our economy in a way that adds not only to their own lives and prosperity but to our national prosperity too.

In 2018 Australian students recorded their worst result in reading, maths and science since international testing began. The average 15-year-old is now 12 months behind the average in reading compared to where we were in the year 2000. We know that, if kids don't get the basics under their belt by the age of about eight, they struggle throughout their lives. It is a handbrake on their own prosperity. But think of what that does to the national economy, when we let down millions of children in this way.

Our deputy leader spoke about the attacks that those opposite have made on apprenticeships, traineeships, vocational education and TAFE. So I'll go to universities. We know that when we invest in universities we see a 200 to 300 per cent return on that investment because we educate our people. We know that, for men, there is still an $800,000 graduate premium on their lifetime salaries; for women, a $600,000 graduate premium on their lifetime salaries; and, for our nation, a 200 to 300 per cent return on investment. What have those opposite done? They've had the highest turn-away rates from universities ever; more kids are being turned away than ever before. Forty thousand staff and 7,000 researchers have lost their jobs. What does that do not just to those staff but to our ability as a nation to discover, invent and take that research and turn it into businesses and jobs for the future?

Labor, in contrast, has a plan. We know that to be wealthy and successful as a nation, we need to build things, make things, care for people and invest in our people so that they have the skills and education to drive our prosperity. That's why we have a plan for 465,000 free TAFE places, including 45,000 extra places in areas of skills shortage, and another 20,000 university places. We have a plan for fair school funding so that every school is on the path to meet 100 per cent of the schooling resource standard, its fair funding level. There will be a $400 million-plus student wellbeing boost and a youth mental health check for primary schools kids so that they can be directed to the supports they need after the shocking few years they've had. There will be more counsellors and social workers. There will be school upgrades, because we know that our schools have been run down, particularly our public schools, with the lack of investment from those opposite. They have turned their backs on the two-thirds of kids who go to public schools in Australia. We have a plan for an eSmart Digital Licence to make sure that our primary and secondary schoolchildren have the literacy skills for the 21st century and the digital skills they need to be successful in the world that we're living in today.

The plan includes a start-up year to mentor 2,000 young innovators to start a business straight out of university. There will be new energy apprenticeships to make sure apprentices are trained in the new energy jobs of the future. We will be making sure they are able to complete their training, with $100 million to support 10,000 new energy apprenticeships and an Australian skills guarantee so that one in every 10 jobs on Commonwealth government funded projects actually goes to apprentices and trainees. That is what a future 'Made in Australia' would look like. That is what we need to do to make sure our people and our country are ready for the future.

Manufacturing is strong in this country; it's critical to our plan for a strong economy and a strong future for Australia. Our government has now committed over $925 million of funding under our Modern Manufacturing Strategy, with over 185 transformational projects leveraging over $2.5 billion of co-investment. This is driving new manufacturing activity, strengthening our sovereign capability and creating more jobs—and there is more to come. In Mallee alone, two businesses have received support from the Modern Manufacturing Fund round 2. One is Australian Eatwell—and I spoke to Nathan Harris, who was excited to receive $750,000 for non-soy tofu, which is an expansion project for them. And True Foods, a rapidly growing commercial bakery with 200 employees who make wraps and flatbreads, received $1 million.

These kinds of investment by this side of the House have been imperative to see growth in our manufacturing businesses. As we secure our economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to see our manufacturing industry continue to grow even stronger. Our $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy is a plan to do just that. It is based on four key principles. The first key principle is to get the economic conditions right for business, which includes delivering affordable and reliable energy. The second key principle is to make science and technology work for industry and for jobs. The third key principle is research and innovation, with areas of focus like new energy technologies. I am really pleased to say that the government has invested in a very exciting solar-hydro project at Carwarp in my electorate of Mallee. We are focusing on areas of advantage with six national manufacturing priorities including medical products, defence, and food and beverage manufacturing in Mallee. Critical minerals are also very available in Mallee, and clean energy and space. The fourth key principle is to build national resilience for a strong economy, making supply chains more resilient and supporting diversification.

It's all about the government backing our manufacturers to back themselves. It sends a clear signal to the industry, and businesses are very happy about it. We will keep delivering for Australian manufacturers to create new jobs by supporting them to take on new apprenticeships and trainees with our JobTrainer initiative, with up to 350,000 in this budget in total; expanding tax relief; removing unnecessary red tape, which is a very welcome process; delivering a record infrastructure investment pipeline; expanding opportunities in the digital economy; and opening new export markets. This is a critical point for our primary producers in Mallee, who export all over the world. We are underpinning renewed housing construction—and there is so much of that going on in Mallee now. We are locking in affordable and reliable energy that manufacturers can count on, and encouraging them to purchase new equipment they need to scale up by extending the instant asset write-off. All these things are possible because of the coalition government in power. These things have happened because we on this side are very keen to ensure business thrives.

We are backing Australian innovation and ingenuity to ensure that we can secure our economic recovery with Australian manufacturing at its core. We are creating the environment to support rapid growth in Australian manufacturing. We have seen unemployment reach its lowest level since 2008, with over 13 million Australians in work. There are now 220,350 trade apprentices currently in training, the highest level of apprentices in trade training since records began in Australia in 1963. We have seen strong business growth with a number of manufacturing businesses increasing by 3.3 per cent through to 2021, with an extra 3,000 manufacturing businesses since the last election. (Time expired)

I rise to talk on this very important matter, and that is, of course, a future made in Australia. We need an economy and a labour market that is sustainable, that provides opportunities for workers in this country and opportunities for businesses, but which also ensures that we are able to stand on our own two feet. If anything, the pandemic has exposed the failure of this government in what it has done to manufacturing.

In fact, I recall that in December 2013, only months after winning office, the Treasurer of the country goaded Holden to leave our shores—firstly threatening them by taking away the support that was provided by the previous government and then goading the company to leave our shores. They promptly did, and with them they took those jobs and those skills. What that did, of course, was very much undermine our economy and our labour market. That was the most sophisticated sector of our economy when it came to manufacturing skills, and it was a dreadful shame to see that happen. That happened within a few months of the election of this government, and of course that wasn't going to be the end of it.

In the 2014 budget we saw the abolition of Labor's manufacturing plan. They removed entirely the plan that was put in place to engage with the manufacturing sector to actually use government leverage in order to ensure the enlarging of manufacturing. We saw that happen because of their disregard and enmity towards the sector. They were not interested in the sector that was actually making things in this country. I tell you what, they got more joy out of it when they realised it might have been a unionised company that was hitting the wall. This is a government that did not support and has not supported manufacturing in this country. It has only been recently, since the pandemic, that they've started to mouth the word 'manufacturing'. In fact, they brought back in name only the manufacturing plan that they abolished in 2014. I recall they also abolished the instant asset tax write-off in 2014 and had to bring it back. They pretend it's their own idea, but of course they abolished it in 2014. It was providing support to small businesses at the time.

Who can forget the forgettable minister, David Johnston, who said, famously—he was the first defence minister of this government; in fact, he was the first of six defence ministers of this government—that Australian industry couldn't build a canoe. That was the sentiment of this government towards the defence industry and towards manufacturing. When you have a cabinet minister saying that our manufacturing sector couldn't build a canoe, what message does it send to those businesses and those workers who have worked so hard to deliver defence assets to this country? It says everything about the government's disregard and hostility towards manufacturing in this country. We need to see defence industry increase so that we can be more resilient and provide opportunities.

It should be seen by those opposite that the defence industry in and of itself is a defence asset because we need to be able to build more and maintain more defence assets in a world that, of course, is increasingly less stable and where the risks have increased. We have not seen the government prepare for that industry to deliver the assets. For all of the rhetoric of the government in relation to these changes to the threats to this country, we have not seen the delivery of defence assets. We've seen a lot of discussion about what might happen in 2038, whether it be increased personnel or actually delivering under AUKUS—which Labor supports. But where's the increased firepower to existing assets today? Where are the decisions to actually ensure that our current platforms have better firepower to act as a deterrent in times that are less stable than they were? Frankly, for all the rhetoric, there's a yawning gap between what the Prime Minister and the defence minister say and what they deliver. Why is that? One of the reasons is that they have allowed the defence industry to be impoverished and have not provided sufficient support, whether it be in skills or in other areas of public policy.

Let me point out a few facts before the shadow defence minister leaves the chamber and for those listening. This is the man who, in an uncertain time, wants to replace Peter Dutton as Australia's defence minister. Let me give you some facts. When the shadow defence minister was last in office, for six years, do you know how many ships they built under naval shipbuilding in Australia? Zero. No wonder the first defence minister who came in said they couldn't build a canoe, because they'd built no ships. The coalition government, since we've been elected and I've been elected, has built 70 naval ships. It is not the time to go to that shadow defence minister and leave Peter Dutton. It is not the time to go to the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, from the Prime Minister.

Let me also give those listening some facts on Labor's record in manufacturing. On Labor's watch, the last time they were in government, manufacturing exports fell by 13 per cent. On Labor's watch, last time they were in government, manufacturing business profits—and they need a profit to employ people—fell by 17.4 per cent in their last term of office and over 110,000 apprentices were lost in a single year. That's their record. Don't talk about to us rhetoric! In Labor's term in office, 6,800 manufacturing businesses closed their doors and over 37,300 manufacturing jobs were lost in Labor's last year in office.

Right now we have Labor candidates running around this country with 'Australian made' symbols on their brochures. I mean, really? Look at their record. The coalition government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, has seen manufacturing increased by over 20 per cent in the last three years alone. There were 800,000 jobs in manufacturing at the last election in 2019; there are now over one million jobs in manufacturing.

The choice that Australians will be making at the federal election in a few weeks time will be clear. I would say to the Australian people and the people of my electorate that the Australian government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, has a plan for a strong economy, a stronger Australia and unlocking a new generation of high-wage, high-skill, high-tech jobs through manufacturing. We've committed over $925 million to manufacturing projects here in Australia alone, leveraging the confidence of businesses to co-invest over $2.5 billion. And what do we see? We see unemployment at four per cent. Youth unemployment has fallen below 10 per cent.

As the Assistant Minister for Youth and Employment Services, I'm really proud to be part of a government that has seen more people in work. We've seen welfare dependency fall to 15 per cent; under Labor, it was over 16.5 per cent. That's important because we want Australians to be able to provide for themselves. We want Australians to be able to own their first home. We've got schemes in place for young people not just in Petrie but right through Australia—for 25- to 35-year-olds who are looking to buy their first place, or maybe those even younger. We have schemes like the First Home Super Saver Scheme, which allows you to save at 15 per cent rather than 32.5 per cent. Those opposite voted against it when we put that through the parliament. We have schemes like the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, which the Treasurer will speak more about in the budget tonight.

They're the facts on manufacturing and the statistics that Labor can't escape. They can go on all they want about Australian made and everything else. The reality is they've got a very poor record when it comes to Australian made and buying Australian first.

I'd say to people in my electorate: 'Please purchase Australian made. Please purchase it. Please go out there and do that.' We've got a modern manufacturing fund that is supporting more manufacturing jobs in the country. In my own electorate, we've seen local businesses like Kingswood Cabinets basically triple their turnover in the time that we've been in government. In the last seven or eight years, they've tripled their turnover. They're hiring more apprentices, thanks to the boosting apprenticeships scheme. We've got businesses like Brisbane Isuzu, who, for over 20 years, have proudly powered other local businesses and manufacturers with their Isuzu trucks in Brisbane, located in my electorate. They have strong local manufacturing opportunities and strong balance sheets, and they're family owned. There are businesses like Big Rigs, who manufacture as well for the back of those trucks. The coalition has jobs' and Australians' backs when it comes to manufacturing. (Time expired)

This government has failed. It has failed to plan for a future made in Australia. This government has failed Australian manufacturing. Fact. There were 86,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in February 2022 than there were when Labor was in government. That's a fact. The examples of that are obvious and everywhere. In defence manufacturing, there isn't a defence manufacturing and procurement project this government has not stuffed up. That's the reality. Whether it be submarines or whether it be shipping, thousands of jobs are at risk. In my own electorate, there's the Hawkei project. There are Hawkeis lined up on the lawns at the Thales manufacturing facility in Bendigo that this government has not picked up. It has not paid the bill. They are sitting there waiting. The staff there—the highly skilled workers—bring them in routinely to make sure that they are fit and ready to be picked up. That project finishes when this government is in caretaker mode. That project, that build, will finish in June 2022. The future of that site under this government is unknown. We don't know what is going to happen to that manufacturing facility on this government's watch.

These are not the only jobs that are at risk or have gone because of this government. During the pandemic, manufacturers switched. They listened to the national call to make masks, to make ventilators and to make the medical technology that we need to survive the pandemic. A few months later, those contracts dried up and disappeared. As supply chains in China and parts of South-East Asia opened up, jobs disappeared, and contracts disappeared. GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Melbourne, announced that they would be closing their doors, in the middle of a pandemic. We have seen pharmaceutical manufacturers close their doors or announce that they're going to close their doors. That's 300 highly skilled manufacturing jobs lost in Melbourne. Pfizer in Perth have announced that they are closing their facility. They're closing their facility on this government's watch. What are the government doing to protect the highly skilled, highly paid jobs we have today? For all the rhetoric and all the press releases, they are not doing enough to secure the jobs we have today and plan for a future made in Australia.

The government boasts about its funds that it had for food manufacturing, yet manufacturers in my electorate missed out. It boasts about the ability to double jobs in food manufacturing, yet manufacturers didn't even get a return call when they asked why they weren't successful. There are supply chain failures in this country. The costs of building supplies have gone through the roof. There is a lot of boasting about how we're going to build our way out of this pandemic through the recovery, yet we haven't secured the supply chains in this country. Homes are not being built, because we don't have enough timber. Steel costs for home construction have gone up by as much as 80 per cent in two years. That's why we're starting to see builders go broke. That's why we're starting to see families' hearts broken, because their dream homes will not be built. We're being told by window manufacturers and makers that there are rations, that they are receiving quotas of what steel they can have, because we have not done enough in this country to secure supply chains and make here in Australia. Cost blowouts, because of this magnitude, will lead to putting jobs in jeopardy and putting projects in jeopardy, and yet this government doesn't have a plan on how to secure supply chains.

Labor does. Not only have we announced that we, in government, will have a national manufacturing plan; we'll also have a defence development strategy to try and fix up the mess that this government has created. Thousands of workers' futures are at risk because this government has not secured defence manufacturing properly. We've announced a buy Australia plan, where we will establish Commonwealth procurement rules and a future made-in-Australia office. That's so we can get the policy settings right in government and so we can buy here first and never have a situation where we ask our manufacturers and med tech to change what they're doing and to manufacture what we need only for those contracts to dry up six months later. Australian taxpayer dollars should be spent on buying Australian made first. This government has an opportunity, at every turn, to make sure that we purchase locally.

I will finish with another one from my electorate. Defence uniforms could be made in Bendigo—the dress uniforms—but they went overseas because the contractor found a cheaper place to manufacture overseas. It could be done in Bendigo, securing 120 jobs in my electorate. That's a missed opportunity on this government's watch. (Time expired)

I'm incredibly proud that it was manufacturing jobs that gave me my opportunities in life. Both my grandfathers, my father and my two brothers were at General Motors Holden in South Australia. My mother was at Levi Strauss in the manufacturing hub of Elizabeth, built by Sir Thomas Playford, the great Liberal and Country League Premier.

I understand how important this is to Australia's economy and sovereignty, and I reject the rhetoric coming from those opposite on this topic today. The Prime Minister and the minister for industry know how important manufacturing is to our country and to our sovereignty. The Morrison government is focused on the present and a future filled with manufacturing. That's why we have the $1.5 billion modern manufacturing fund that was developed and announced on the Gold Coast at Neumann Steel in Currumbin by the Prime Minister and my Gold Coast colleague the former minister for industry, the member for MacPherson and now the Minister for Home Affairs.

Our government has now committed over $925 million of funding under our Modern Manufacturing Strategy for over 185 transformational projects leveraging over $2.5 billion dollars of co-investment. The key pillars of the strategy are getting the economic conditions right for business. This includes delivering affordable and reliable energy; making science and technology work for industry and for jobs; aligning our research and innovation with our areas of focus, like new energy technologies; focusing on areas of advantage with our six National Manufacturing Priorities, including medical products, defence, food and beverage manufacturing, critical minerals, clean energy and space; building national resilience for a strong economy; and making supply chains more resilient and supporting diversification.

The modern manufacturing fund rollout to assist Australian manufacturers to update their processes, their equipment, their capability and their output continues today across the country and, can I say, across my hometown of the Gold Coast. Manufacturing contributes an extra $13.5 billion to GDP compared to when we came to office in 2013, and an extra $5.7 billion since the last election. More than one million Australians now work in manufacturing. That is 200,000 more than at the 2019 election—20 per cent more than at the last election.

Those opposite destroyed one in eight jobs under their watch. Australians cannot trust those opposite in a Labor-Greens government with their livelihoods. There is a clear choice at the next election. If Australians choose a Labor-Greens government at the next election they will be a threat to Australian jobs. They will be a threat to our economy. They will be a threats to the cost of living. They will be a threat to rising interest rates and they will be a threat to our country's future. A Labor-Greens government will impose a carbon tax, and Australians remember well what happened last time when one in eight manufacturing jobs were destroyed by the Labor government. On the Gold Coast, the latest figures I have from Regional Development Australia Gold Coast outline that manufacturing now contributes $8.3 billion to the Gold Coast economy. It's grown local jobs from 14,000 to 22,800. That's significant. That is actually currently larger than any other industry.

Order! The discussion has concluded.

PORTER () (): on indulgence—I gave a first speech in this place almost a decade ago, and in that first speech I told a story about my father as a 19-year-old boy achieving something extraordinary in front of 100,000 people on the first day of the Olympic Games in the MCG in 1956. Still, to this day, that contest with the great American high jumper Charles Dumas remains the longest field event in Olympic history. Although it wasn't in his nature to say so, I think my father rather liked being in a first speech in this place. I think it made him happy. Sadly, in the years after that speech, he fought and lost an awful battle with cancer. In the same week that I make this final speech in this place, I'm also making plans to spread his ashes on the site of that remarkable contest I spoke about when I first arrived. Circles have a fascinating way of closing in families.

Now, after he's gone, his story of a skinny, tough-minded underdog still very much speaks to me. It was in my first speech because it spoke to me about the simple but powerful idea that with great effort anything is possible, and it spoke to me about the ever-true fact that things in individual lives and so often in the lives of entire nations are very finely balanced. They can go one way or the other, often depending on just who is around pressing on either side of the hinges of fate when they're about to swing.

When I first spoke here, nine years ago, I thought that the great challenge of our time was China's economic rise and that this remarkable transformation would mean that Australia would be in the centre of a region of dynamic rise and fall. I think I got that assessment mostly, if a little naively, right nine years ago. The fact is that great dynamic that's been set in a play by China's rise is far from resolved, and as my final contribution to our parliament, being here, which I have enjoyed so much, I want to make some leaving comments about our relationship with China, having had the benefit of a decade at the coalface of the critical issue.

This is the end of 14 years of politics for me. I came into state politics 14 years ago as a 37-year-old with a surplus of enthusiasm over wisdom. Whereas some people wait political lifetimes to serve in a cabinet or even be in government, I've had the great fortune to spend almost all my time since then in cabinet positions, and I spent only four months in opposition. I used to lecture Michael Keenan about how tough opposition was. He found that enormously annoying! I owe great thanks to Colin Barnett and Tony Abbott, the two leaders that gave me my start, and both are people that I admire enormously.

One thing I would say about time in politics in this place, and this may ring true to some of you here, is that time in politics does not run like time outside politics. It is genuinely like being near a black hole, for sci-fi fans: the closer you get to the epicentre of government, the more years of experience you feel get compressed into months. Time actually runs strangely in Parliament House, particularly late at night when that tick, tick, tick goes on. You can come out of a single intense week here, like those swirling mad weeks when leadership spills occur, and you can feel like you've actually been lost in space, like you're adrift. They seem to go on forever those weeks, and you are genuinely surprised when you come out of the building into the sunlight, as if you'd never see it again. The closer you get to the centre of things here, the more we age in dog years, unfortunately. The fact is that in this job you do a lot of city miles. You age hard. You lose paint, and I think maybe if you don't and if you don't become a target for the other side then you're not trying hard enough in your job. That's what it's about.

When you leave a job that's that intense, you naturally ask yourself: 'Well, was it all worth it?' My answer is absolutely yes. Yes, if you get to do as many worthwhile things as you possibly can in the time that you have. I succumbed in politics to the instinct to bite off more than I could chew, and I chewed until I was exhausted. That's not always a bad thing, because time is always shorter than you think it will be. It's almost without exception in life that you know when you're doing something for the first time. But, with few exceptions, the reverse is always true. And it's a melancholy truth that, very often, you just never know when it will be the last time in your life that you do the thing you're doing. Very often, you just never know. That unpredictability in life, not even knowing whether something as simple as talking to a loved one will be the last time it's ever done, is doubly unpredictable in modern politics. You always live in hope that there'll be more time, but in politics you never know if it'll be your last time at the dispatch box, at a national security committee or in cabinet. So biting off more than you can chew, I think, has its benefits. I think it was Costello who said that we are, all of us, only one sentence away from the end of our career. And it's so true.

The first task that I set myself to when I got here was to try and fix Western Australia's GST distribution. Having been a state Treasurer, I came to the view that the old system, which would've seen WA eventually fall to fewer than zero cents in the dollar for its GST share, was totally unfair and totally counterproductive. It was a system that punished a state that had made the hard effort over decades to grow a resources industry. Obviously, the reason this major problem was so hard to fix was all of my good friends and Liberal colleagues from the eastern states. Of course, we love you all, and there are many good people from the eastern states—which is something Western Australia is coming to recognise now that you're all allowed back in—but in this place you all outnumber us about 10 to one. I think it's fair to say that, good people though you all are from the east, most of my eastern states colleagues had all the enthusiasm for helping fix the GST distribution that a turkey has for early Christmas! It was a hard sell. In moving from state to federal politics, I made a decision that it was better, at least, to try and fix the problem from the inside, where the fixing was at least theoretically possible, than complain endlessly from the outside.

My first step on the road to try and effect that change did not go very well at all. It was in the party room. It was the first time I ever spoke in the party room, and it was to put the importance and urgency of the issue in an essentially unwarned and unscripted way to then Treasurer Joe Hockey. I did so with all the genuine enthusiastic naivety of a person who'd been in the job for five minutes, and that sort of full-frontal putting of the issue to the newly ascendant Treasurer Joe Hockey, without any forewarning, while he was preparing for his first budget and with other things clearly on his mind, may not have been the most subtle or advisable start to that campaign. It went very poorly. It did at least get the issue on his radar, though.

After you have a poor start like that trying to effect change, you learn pretty quickly how things actually work in this place. You've got to get as far in the tent as you possibly can, as close to the four or five people who can actually affect the change as you can. Better still, become one of them. That helps. In the end, it requires massive, grinding, ongoing effort. Ultimately with the GST, it was a very small group who really made that change happen, and it took that very small group five years after the 2013 election to fix the problem. Right now, that fix, which is something I am very proud of, means that WA this year is $4.4 billion better off. That's in one year.

Had the system not been fixed, rather than the present floor that we instituted of 70 cents in the dollar, WA this year would've dropped to 16 cents in the dollar, and in the not-too-distant future you would've had a mad situation where WA would've been allocated a negative share of the GST pool, which would've been insane. Fixing that and being a part of the small group inside the tent that fixed that problem was a wonderful thing that I will always look back on with great pride. At the forefront of that fix were the then Treasurer and now Prime Minister and the then Minister for Finance, Mathias Cormann. Both the Prime Minister and Mathias were and are great friends, and that project was a massive feat. I thank them for everything they did in that.

It was also a lesson about how things really change in this place. They change over time. You have a few key movers convincing others of the need and the wisdom for change, room after room. You test one alternative after the other, Excel spreadsheet after Excel spreadsheet. It's not a very glamorous process. You also come to understand how it is in these smaller groups: the smaller the group that actually achieves the change, and puts in the grinding work to achieve it, usually correlates inversely to the huge number of people who end up claiming credit for it. As Kennedy said, success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan, and that is another very true thing about this place.

In the Social Services portfolio, I was part of a small team with my very good friend Alan Tudge, and we made great changes—a fundamental shift, which sounds obvious, to measuring the longitudinal results of all of the different policy settings on one single key metric: does it break up welfare cycles, cycles of dep endency? That fundamental shift helped us as a government get to the lowest welfare dependency in Australia since the 1980s. That's just remarkable. It was phenomenal to be a part of that, to be in the middle of it.

The other phenomenal thing to have been a part of over the last decade was the long reshaping of our policy with respect to China. There was specific work that I did as Attorney-General redrawing Australia's espionage and foreign interference laws, essentially from the ground up. That's somethin g that I was very proud to be in the centre of. But it was just one, visible part of a more fundamental change. Now that there is less need, for me at least, to be diplomatic, I can explain it in plain terms.

In a first speech in this place, you'll get som e things right and you'll get some things wrong. When I came to this place, in my first speech I saw Chinese growth as the greatest challenge that we face as a nation. Back then, as many did at the time—particularly Western Australians, because we sell a l ot of stuff to China—I saw the Australian risk-benefit analysis with China as falling substantially on the benefit side of the ledger. I saw it as a largely positive relationship between sort of mercantile frenemies. That assessment may have been a bit mor e true nine years ago than it is now—there's been a lot of change inside China—although I think even that is doubtful , but I am absolutely convinced now, a decade later, that that view about the ledger being on the benefit side, not the risk side, is total ly wrong.

The truth became very clear to me early in my time in this place that the change in China, and in China's capability, has created a massive risk for Australia—as big a risk as we have ever faced. Under this government, that is a risk that we've b een doing our best to understand, to prepare for and mitigate—sometimes visibly and loudly, sometimes quietly and securely. The best explanation of that risk came to me in a conversation that I had with a senior member of the US intelligence community in 2 017. I just want to relay that conversation here.

This person was very smart. He was lamenting the pointlessness of that artful, nuanced, intellectual foreign policy conversation that dominates far too much time for so many bureaucrats and foreign policy e lites, the sort of consuming focus on the 'whys' of change, very often the why of the big political change that happened last week without Western democracies knowing that it was going to happen or being prepared for it—this sort of artful, intellectual co nversation: 'Why has China changed so much in the last decade? Why does the new form of the Chinese autocracy adopt its particular position in relation to the first island chain, the South China Sea or the Solomon Islands?' Then they wash and rinse the dip lomatic aperitif glass and just repeat the discussion again and again and again. It's the pointless search for non-existent rationality in the brutal world of reality.

The person I was speaking to made the obvious rationalist point that, in all of the hist ory of the geopolitics of autocracies, of empires, motive is a much less reliable indicator of threat than capability is. He drew the comparison to centuries of academic analysis of Hadrian's Wall. Why would an emperor end up in a position where he had to instruct three Roman legions to build and station a 120-kilometre-long wall at what was then the edge of the known world? The whys to that expansion are really hard to make strategic or long-term economic sense of—then or now. Academics do PhDs on this stu ff. Punishment for Britain's support of the Gauls, economic chasing of zinc, copper, iron—they're all reasons that might have been part of the motivating fog for actions. I would say, with all due respect to the Scottish, that I'm pretty sure it didn't mak e any sense to the poor centurions who were stuck on top of this thing. It was the edge of the world.

But why were they there? Ultimately they were there because they could be there. They had the capability to be there. They were there because the autocrat ic leadership of a massive economic power was unrestrained by the tempering features of a democratic population, who generally demonstrate reticence to get involved too far away from home. The Romans were there for the same reason that China is now in the Solomon Islands—because they could be. It is as simple as that. Autocratic powers who have experienced massive economic growth and expansion almost invariably tend to push their political power to the edge of their strategic military capability. And, in the simplest terms, our world's capability balance is changing radically. Just, for example, the ability of any nation to unfairly obstruct a freely navigated shipping lane has been fundamentally limited for the last 80 years by the ability of a US carrier group to go essentially unimpeded to any stretch of ocean in the world. And many here would have had the experience that you only get in this job of landing on the deck of a Nimitz class carrier. That is as 'wow' as it ever gets. But, amongst their other military advancements, China is about to develop—or likely has already developed—the capability, with a hypersonic missile, to threaten the authority a $10 billion US Nimitz class carrier with a comparatively cheap, conventional kinetic weapon that can reach a target at sustained speeds of eight times the speed of sound. So that changes the dynamic literally overnight.

And I leave this place having been part of a small but now very substantial group who have come to see the reality of this strategic risk—its immediacy, its peril and the menace that it offers. And they are preparing as best and as thoroughly as they can against it. You can call these people rationalists; you can call them hawks—I know Andrew Hastie likes 'Wolverines' because it's cooler. It doesn't matter what you call them. These people were very few in number 10 years ago when I arrived here, very few in number. That was in government and in the key domains of the Public Service. But, in this government today, the rationalists now shape our preparedness for the very high risk of uncertain times ahead. And that, to me, has been the biggest and most important change in government thinking in the last decade that I've lived through and been a part of. It's been a major, somewhat convulsive change, on my side of politics. It's been aided by a few people on the Labor side—the late Kimberley Kitching, the retiring Anthony Byrne, and a few others. But, and I say this respectfully, the other side of politics hasn't gone through the evolution in its thinking on this issue that we have. And I think you need to. But time will tell.

Just how fundamental that change is—well, think about the fact that, not that long ago, it seemed like a very normal thing to bring an extradition treaty with China to the coalition foreign policy backbench committee. That seemed normal. It was met there by two early Wolverines, Andrew Hastie and Senator James Paterson. As I said, 'wolverine' suits those two much more than 'rationalist'. They gave that extradition treaty the same response Joe Hockey gave my GST intervention. But things have changed. Turning the direction of this part of the ship of state has happened, like most important change, grindingly, portfolio after portfolio, NSC meeting after NSC meeting, issue after issue. It happened slower I think perhaps than it should have done, but it has happened. It's been the most fundamental and profound change in government in the last decade. I am very proud to have been part of that, particularly alongside my good friend Peter Dutton, and others.

If more evidence were needed, the lessons unfolding in Europe for our own region must be, 'Do not enfeeble yourself in the face of foreseeable risk.' Australia is, by any measure, a privileged place. Things here are just so much better than virtually everywhere else on earth, and things here are so much better for all of us than they have been for virtually every other person who has lived at any previous time in human history. We're all so privileged to be here, to live here, as we do. And yet we're falling into this cycle, which Europe is much deeper in than we're in, where we're increasingly preoccupied with the identity politics of every imaginable boutique type. We're disproportionately engaged in arguments where one group of people try to signal virtue by arguing that they're somewhat less, or others are somewhat more, privileged than they are. And at worst there's become this regularisation in the abandonment of fundamental, foundational Western principles—the things that have made us privileged: free speech, due process, free association. Too regularly they just get tossed aside, sometimes in this place—tossed aside when it becomes too hard in the daily news cycle to resist the demand to abandon them to produce some other outcome desired by the best organised and noisiest interests of the day.

There's an old saying that tough times make for strong people, strong people create good times, good times create weak people, and that creates hard times. None of us want to see those hard times befall our country. We need to actually stand up day by day for the fundamental values that have made us a strong country, otherwise those tough times will be a cycle that gets fulfilled. A few weeks ago culture wars were the issue of the day in Europe, and now they have an actual war and all of the horror that that brings. It's almost inconceivable that, after the horrors of the 20th century, that's happened again. And the weakness of European democracies has been an undeniable problem.

While serving in this place, as well as seeing some of the awful side to politics, I've had incredible support and there's a number of people I'd like to thank. I've witnessed amazing courage and I've seen the defining power of true friendships. As a bit of a loner I probably didn't understand that when I first got to this place. The people of my electorate have been incredible, and something that we have a done together—the 100,000 people in my electorate and I—is that we used to be in a place in Australia that didn't get a lot of federal funding, frankly, and now it's probably the most heavily funded place in Australia in terms of federal infrastructure. It has literally been rebuilt: Yanchep rail, Ellenbrook rail, the freeway extended then widened, NorthLink, new rec centres, pools, parks, ovals, lights; we even snuck in a new stand at the WACA, which was nice. So I have enormous gratitude for all of the people that voted for me and made all of that possible.

In nine years the place has been rebuilt. Quite literally the sat navs in Pearce can't keep up with what we've done. While I'm on sat navs, I make an apology to my constituents. It's a 14,000 square kilometre electorate, and it's now time to formally acknowledge that I am a truly terrible driver. I get really bad, so to all those people who've been behind me or in front of me on the roads in Pearce over these nine years, I'm sorry. Me driving the badged-up vehicle in campaigns was a vote loser; it was bad. As a federal minister, I think a hallmark of holding office in the electorate was that, when people met with my electorate office or ministerial office, they got a next-level experience. We ran great offices, great campaigns—amazing offices. I've had three chiefs-of-staff: Cheryl Gwilliam, Tim Wellington and Michelle Hutchinson. All of them have been just brilliant. I acknowledge all the people over the full 14 years who did so much. There are too many to mention all by name, but Annette, Charlie, Nathan, Ella who started with me at the DPP in 2002, thank you for everything. You all, and all of you, have worked so hard over the years. You've been beyond amazing.

I became a cabinet minister the day before the birth of my little boy, and, at six, he and his beautiful little sister have never known anything but me being away. What I do next will be 100 per cent for them. So, Mr Speaker, I'm returning to them and returning to the law, which you'll be very familiar with. I will finish with an observation about the law: you never stop learning about the law. Having been essentially a lawyer to both state and federal government for many years, I've learned things about the law through experiences few people will ever have. Some of them are experiences I wouldn't wish on anyone. I would say to my colleagues: some of the legal problems that you create are beyond imagination. Let alone being able to devise a fix for them, I can't understand how they arose in the first place—just beyond imagination.

Before coming into politics and having the experiences that I've had, I knew, of course, the theory behind the importance of the rule of law. It's drilled into us: the rule of law is the antidote to the rule of the mob. And then I experienced a mob: people so utterly convinced in their own judgement that they didn't need anything other than their own judgement and people that would cut through any law or abandon any process that might get between them and the target of their judgement. In that experience I saw the real truth about how critical the protection of the rule of law is and how fragile it is and how every man and woman in this country should fight for those protections as if their lives depended on it.

I recalled in Bolt's writing of A Man for All Seasons the conversation between Sir Thomas More and, I think, his son-in-law, Roper. The younger man is convinced that any law should be cut down to get at someone he believed to be the devil, and Thomas More says to him:

And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you … do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?

You may think it will never happen to you or someone you know, but, if we don't protect those fundamental protections in this place, they'll come for others. Nothing is more certain. We need to protect our laws from being cut down.

Finally, what kept me upright when they came for me? This will sound hokey, but it was the power of love and friendship. I had love from a guardian angel—a guardian pixie really—that I can never repay. Some people will join a mob, and others will slink away. Some think that they can harness it in their own interest. Just a word of advice: that is always a mistake; this thing's uncontrollable. But very few people ever try to stand in the way of a mob. I watched people—friends—put themselves between me and the mob. I can't mention them all, but Peter van Onselen and Peter Dutton, knowing the risks better than any two people could possibly know the risks, stated plain, public support for me while the mob was in its full fury. I've got to say, they were acts of courage that will stay with me for the rest of my life. The care and pastoral support that I've had from wonderful friends like Dion, back at home, Gerard, who's here, Michael Keenan and Paul Everingham was real kindness that made every difference. To my oldest friend, Nick, who's here: mate, I am in awe at your unwavering commitment to keep your friend going. Your friendship to me as been an enduring and defining influence on my life.

I hear, reliably, that there is life outside this place, so it's time to go live that life and to wish everyone here all of the strength and wisdom that you might need for the very important work that I have been so blessed to be a part of.

I wish to make a statement on behalf of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit concerning the draft budget estimates for the Australian National Audit Office and the Australian Parliamentary Budget Office for 2022-23. On behalf of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, I present this statement on the draft budget estimates of the Australian National Audit Office, the ANAO, and the Parliamentary Budget Office, the PBO.

The committee is required, under the Public Accounts and Audit Committee Act 1951 and the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, to consider the draft budget estimates of the ANAO and PBO and make recommendations—including to both houses of parliament—regarding these estimates. For this year's budget, neither the ANAO nor the PBO has sought additional funding. The committee therefore endorses both the ANAO's and the PBO's draft budget estimates. The committee continues to consider both offices vital in supporting the work of this parliament.

The PBO's estimated expenses for 2022-23 amounted to $9.253 million. Over the last year, the Parliamentary Budget Office has modernised its ICT environment, shifting to a cloud based platform. This will have an ongoing impact on the PBO's budget, and the JCPAA will continue to monitor this over coming years.

The ANAO sought and received, with support from this committee, substantial budget supplementation in the 2021-22 budget, along with additional funding to support the staged implementation of the auditing of performance statements in the Australian public sector. The ANAO's estimated expenses for 2022-23 are $90.462 million. In the last financial year, the ANAO reported an operating loss of $1.833 million, including through contracted costs to complete audit work, investment in cyber-resilience and investments in data analytics technology and capability.

I thank the Auditor-General and the Parliamentary Budget Officer for their work in supporting the parliament and the JCPAA. I ask leave of the House to present a copy of my statement.

Leave granted.

I present a copy of my statement.

On behalf of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, I present the following reports: report 2, 2022, Referrals made December 2021, and report 3, 2022, Referral made February 2022.

Reports made parliamentary papers in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—On behalf of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, I present the committee's second and third reports for 2022. Report 2 of 2022 considers two proposals referred to the committee in December 2021. The first project is the Services Australia fit-out of the new leased premises at 120 Bathurst Street, Hobart, with an estimated cost of $32.86 million, excluding GST. The project aims to consolidate Services Australia office accommodation in Hobart, down from three sites into one fit-for-purpose office at 120 Bathurst Street. The consolidation will reduce the agency's net lettable area by 6.4 per cent, accommodating 1,307 back-of-house corporate agency staff across nine floors of the building. The agency hopes that the co-location of staff will increase staff collaboration. Importantly, the project will not impact customer-facing services and will not reduce agency jobs in Hobart.

The second project is the Australian tax office's proposed fit-out of new leased premises at 255 George Street, Sydney. The project has an estimated cost of $46.32 million, excluding GST. Currently, the ATO leases three sites in the Sydney area. This project aims to relocate staff currently located at its Goulburn Street office to a new leased premises at 255 George Street. The relocation will allow the ATO to achieve a reduction in its net lettable area of almost 10,000 square metres or 42.6 per cent compared to the existing leases.

This inquiry highlighted some concerns with the processes and criteria used by the ATO to select the 255 George Street site for works. In particular, it was not clear to the committee why the George Street site was selected over other sites considered. As lease negotiations fall outside the committee's remit, the committee has recommended that the Australian National Audit Office consider investigating the process used by the ATO to select 255 George Street as its preferred site.

Report 3 of 2022 considers one proposal referred to the committee on 22 February. The project is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority 's environmental remediation of Douglas Shoal, which is located north-east of Gladstone within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. In April 2010, the ship Shen Neng 1 ran aground on Douglas Shoal after leaving the port of Gladstone. The vessel remained aground and moved across more than 40 hectares of the Douglas Shoal over 10 days prior to being refloated. During this period, the ship left behind approximately 20 tonnes of toxic antifouling paint and rubble.

This project aims to remediate approximately 10 hectares of priority area within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park by removing the toxic antifouling paint and rubble, which are currently inhibiting the natural recovery of the Douglas Shoal area. The proposed works are one of the most ambitious and large-scale coral reef clean-ups ever undertaken globally and there are no known precedents for such remediation. The project has an estimated cost of $19.4 million excluding GST, which will be funded from the $35 million out-of-court settlement paid by the shipowners and insurers to the Commonwealth in 2016.

I would like to thank Services Australia, the Australian Tax Office and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority for their comprehensive presentations.

Although the committee was unable to inspect proposed works in person, all entities provided sufficient detail in their presentations and briefings to ensure the committee was able to appreciate the importance and scope of works. In considering the project's examination of reports 2 and 3 of 2022, the committee has recommended that it is expedient that all works be carried out.

Finally, I take this opportunity to thank the secretariat for the enormous amount of work they have done over the period of this parliament. I particularly want to mention Klara Fay, who has been with this committee for the entire three years of the parliament and who not only does an amazing amount of diligent work but is always in good humour and good fun to work with. To the committee members, the Public Works Committee is a very time-demanding committee and I particularly want to thank the deputy chair, Mr Tony Zappia, the member for Makin, who has been a wonderful support and a very cooperative person to work with.

I now commend this report to the House.

I would like to thank all members who have contributed to the debate on the Supply Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023, the Supply Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023 and the Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023. These supply bills seek authority from the parliament for the appropriation of money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the first five months of 2022-23. The total of the appropriation sought through these three supply bills is just over $91 billion. The bills must be passed in this session to ensure funding is available to all entities from 1 July 2022, thereby ensuring the continuity of program and service delivery in the early months of the next financial year.

I wish to emphasise that these bills seek to only appropriate money to fund government expenditure on an interim basis until annual appropriation bills have passed. Accordingly, no new measures for the 2022-23 budget are included in these bills. Once again, I thank all members for their contribution and commend these bills to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

by leave—I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

by leave—I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

by leave—I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

This package of bills contains seven measures, most contained wholly within the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Tax Integrity and Supporting Business Investment) Bill 2022. Schedule 1 gives the tax office the discretion to require business owners to complete a record-keeping course rather than pay a financial penalty when an entity has failed to comply with its tax related record-keeping obligations. This implements one of the government's responses to the Black Economy Taskforce report, which recommended that the ATO be given a broad range of appropriate administrative penalties for record-keeping breaches.

Schedule 2 relates to the income tax and withholding exemptions for the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023. This will provide tax exemptions for FIFA and related entities for specific periods in relation to hosting the 2023 World Cup. It's worth noting that a similar exemption was given to the International Cricket Council for the T20 World Cup that was held recently in Australia. Provision of these exemptions was a commitment made as part of Australia's successful bid to co-host the Women's World Cup.

Schedule 3 allows businesses to self-assess the depreciation schedule of certain intangible depreciating assets, primarily intellectual property rights, rather than using the statutory effective life in working out the decline in value. The types of assets to which this would apply include copyright licences, patents, spectrum licences and software licences. This was a commitment made by the government in the 2021 budget as a part of their Digital Economy Strategy. It will provide a significant tax benefit for entities that can take advantage of that self-assessment and would cost approximately $170 million over two financial years.

The government has not provided any costings as to the long-term tax impacts of these changes—and it does come with a significant budget cost—and the benefits of this change haven't been made clear. Labor won't oppose these measures and the ones contained in the rest of the bill, but we know that it does come at a significant cost to the budget—and again, none of that cost appears to have been offset by the government in their measures relating to this.

Schedule 4 amends the Australian Consumer Law and related legislation to implement reforms relating to unfair contract terms for consumers and small businesses. Unfair contract terms are often used by larger businesses in relation to smaller businesses and consumers as they lack the bargaining power to negotiate and review terms in standard-form contracts. Existing unfair contract term provisions provide that where a court finds that a contract is unfair then that term of the contract is declared void. A number of reviews have shown that this particular operation of the law doesn't provide deterrence against the use of unfair contracts. Labor has repeatedly called for improvements to unfair contract term legislation in the past, and those particular reforms reflect commitments made by the Assistant Treasurer nearly two years ago.

It's interesting that the government are willing to look at unfair contract term provisions for small businesses when it comes to their negotiations and their dealings with larger businesses yet are unwilling, when it comes to workers, to look at ensuring that protections are in place for workers to collectively bargain and protect themselves against exploitation through unfair contract terms in workplace relations legislation. In this parliament in the past we moved to protect small business operators, particularly those who work in the transport sector—small-business truck drivers, lorry drivers and the like—who had set up their own businesses and were running contracts for carriage. When we put unfair contract terms into workplace legislation to ensure that those workers couldn't be exploited, particularly around terms in contracts that require them to work unsafe hours, to drive excessive hours, to operate their vehicles unsafely—when those provisions were entered into the industrial legislation of this parliament—those opposite opposed it. They ran a campaign against it and eventually, when they were elected to government, they removed those provisions for safe rates and for safe contract carriage for truck drivers throughout this country.

We know that that sort of legislation works because it's been in state based legislation, most notably in New South Wales. The 1996 Industrial Relations Act in New South Wales was one of the best pieces of workplace legislation that the country had ever had because it had 'unfair contract terms' within it and it provided the ability for small businesses and workers that were subject to contract provisions in their contract of employment to seek remedies and to seek an unfair declaration in the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission when they were forced into contracts where they had no bargaining power and were operating at a distinct disadvantage and the court found the terms to be unfair. That stopped a lot of those bigger companies that had forced truck drivers into unsafe terms and conditions for contracts of carriage. That legislation worked. It was pacesetting, it was ground-breaking and it worked. It provided a fairer system of workplace relations laws in this country.

When we did it at a federal level, those opposite ran a campaign against it. Instead of siding with small business operators, they sided with big business, as they always do. They overruled those provisions and they had them removed from the law. That was a great shame. But here we are once again. Now they have worked out that there are many small businesses for whom, despite having 'unfair contract terms' in the law, that's not enough. This new law will expand the definition of small business to a business employing fewer than 100 persons or with a turnover of less than $10 million. It will allow courts to impose penalties for use of unfair contract terms. It will allow courts to make orders in relation to contracts and collateral agreements relating to unfair contract terms. It will allow the regulators—the ACCC and ASIC—to apply to prevent the use of substantially similar unfair contract terms in future standard form contracts. And it will allow courts to make injunctions restraining businesses from using a similar term in a future contract or relying on a similar term in an existing contract.

The provisions also expand the definition of a standard form contract and exclude certain specific categories of contracts in the unfair contract term provisions, including the operating rules for licensed financial markets and settlement facilities.

Schedule 5 provides for the tax exempt treatment of grants paid by the government to businesses in relation to Cyclone Seroja, which impacted Western Australia in April 2021.

Schedule 6 of the related Income Tax Amendment (Labour Mobility Program) Bill will reduce the effective tax rate on certain income earned by certain foreign agricultural workers who are not residents of Australia for tax purposes and who are currently taxed at 32½ per cent from their first dollar of income. The measure changes the rate that workers participating in the Australian Agriculture Worker Program or the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme would pay to 15 per cent. The Australian Agriculture Worker Program, as we all know, was established in August 2021 through the Migration Amendment (Australian Agriculture Worker) Regulations to provide available accessible visas to workers in agricultural industries.

This has been brought about by the severe shortage of skills and labour that we have seen in the agricultural sector throughout the country. A lot of it derives from the fact that, unfortunately, there are many Australians that don't want to work in this industry because the wages and conditions have been so low for so long compared to other industries. Australians can work in other industries, without the backbreaking work, for much more money. Unfortunately, that's what they've been doing. So the government has had to act with these measures around foreign workers.

The Pacific Australian Labour Mobility scheme is set to commence on 4 April 2022 and will be administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Let's hope that we don't see some of the cases of exploitation under this program that we have seen in the past with the Pacific labour worker scheme program, where workers from the Pacific islands could come to Australia and be basically indentured to an employer and forced to work, in some circumstances, in shocking conditions. Threats of sending them back home or taking their visas off them were often used in those circumstances to ensure people were exploited. That's unconscionable. We must make sure that that cannot happen again under the Pacific Australian Labour Mobility scheme. As I said, that measure was announced in the 2021-22 MYEFO; and the combined impact of these new visa programs is expected to increase receipts by $165 million over the forward estimates period, including through increased GST receipts.

Schedule 7 contains a series of minor and technical amendments to various laws in the Treasury, Social Services and Veterans Affairs' portfolios. I intend to move a second reading amendment to this particular bill at the conclusion of my speech. That amendment will prioritise the passage of vital legislation to promote integrity in the financial sector, including through implementing the findings of the banking royal commission. After yet another wasted three years in office, it is clear that the Morrison government's commitment to implementing those important recommendations of the banking royal commission remain in question. To the great disadvantage of Australian consumers, they have consistently watered down many of Commissioner Hayne's recommendations. This includes moving to undermine the commissioner's very first recommendation, which was to keep in place the responsible lending laws in this country. During the course of this parliament, we've seen the Morrison government attempt to water down that No. 1 recommendation. They tried to get rid of the responsible lending laws that were put in place by the Gillard and Rudd governments in the wake of the global financial crisis to protect Australian consumers against financial exploitation and some of the unconscionable financial practices that we were seeing in the US, which, unfortunately, came into Australia. That led to the development of the Future of Financial Advice legislation, which led to Australia having to call a royal commission into banking and financial services because of the unconscionable practices that were being undertaken by certain entities and certain individuals within the financial sector.

And they weren't isolated cases, unfortunately. They were serious cases of financial fraud, perpetrated on Australians, for which they had no protection. A classic example was that, prior to the FOFA legislation introduced by the previous Labor government, there was no requirement in Australia for financial advisers to act in the best interests of their clients. And guess what? They didn't! They were putting their clients into products where they had conflicts of interest. The financial advisers were receiving kickbacks in the form of commissions that were built into the financial products, which were not in the best interests of the consumers. A lot of the time, many of those consumers were mortgaging their houses to go into these financial products. And when they all fell over, especially around the time of the global financial crisis, millions of Australians lost the lot. They were left in a position of having to rely on government payments into the future or relying on public housing, renting or family members to get by.

The Morrison government, as I said, tried to water down those responsible lending obligations. Thankfully, Labor opposed them; and the Senate opposed them as well and wouldn't let them get away with it. But the fact is that the Morrison government have always fought to reduce any cost of wrongdoing in the financial sector. I will never forget the strong protections ordinary Australians deserve and expect. The Morrison government were in denial before the Hayne royal commission, and now they're in denial of the detailed findings and clear recommendations of that royal commission. And we all know they never wanted the royal commission in the first place. They voted against a royal commission in the parliament 26 times. That was a pretty clear indicator of whose side you were on, who you were backing when it came to financial fraud and the malpractice that was going on in financial services in this country. They weren't backing consumers, they weren't backing the victims; they were backing the banks and the businesses that were perpetrating this wrongdoing on Australians. They finally succumbed to community pressure and agreed to a royal commission, but only after the bank CEOs had written to the then Prime Minister of the time, Malcolm Turnbull, and said: 'Yes, it's okay to have a royal commission. We can't cop the criticism anymore. We don't want the reputational damage anymore. It's okay to agree to a royal commission.' It was only after that that we finally got that royal commission that uncovered what we all knew about: the decade of rip-off and scandal that had been going on that left many Australians worse off. This was a blatant case of rip-offs and scams, a well-known issue that had been raised well before the royal commission in reports by ASIC, APRA and other consumer groups.

But the Liberals—the Morrison government—still resisted. They held out as long as they could. As I said, it was only after they got the tick from the big banks that they went ahead with it. We have seen yet again that they have continued to downplay a lot of the findings of that royal commission, and it's no surprise that we see now some of those financial institutions, after we had that round of reform, starting to dip their toes in the water again around financial incentives for branch staff to maximise lending. They're starting to look to incentivise their branch staff to push financial products onto their customers once again. This was the practice that was exposed by the banking royal commission as eroding consumer protections. We've now seen that in some banks staff must now achieve sales targets within certain time frames to be promoted to roles with higher pay grades, and staff who fail to meet those targets are reportedly put on performance plans, which can be used as justification for termination. A senior lecturer at the University of Wollongong in financial services, Andy Schmulow, has said that these sales targets reward staff for increasing customer indebtedness and directly contradict the banks' duty to prioritise customer welfare. He has pointed out that it's exactly 'the sales culture that Commissioner Hayne specifically referred to as promoting greed and customer disadvantage'. Has nothing been learnt from the banking royal commission? We need to be vigilant about these practices creeping back in, and we should never forget that we had the global financial crisis. We became lax in the wake of that when this government was elected, and we started to see some of that financial fraud take off once again. So we must be vigilant.

In other key areas, the Morrison government has also been backsliding on the royal commission. In 2019 Commissioner Hayne recommended a compensation scheme of last resort for investors who had been ripped off by financial misconduct. The government pledged to implement one, but, here we are, in the last three days, and they still haven't implemented it. It still hasn't gone through the parliament. The Prime Minister first pledged to introduce a scheme almost five years ago, following the recommendations of the Ramsay review, and last year the Treasurer put legislation into the parliament to establish the scheme. So there's no excuse for another hold-up, and no other reason than incompetence from this government in not getting this important legislation through before the end of this parliament. Labor has reaffirmed its support for these bills and is calling on the government to work with us to pass them as quickly as possible. Once again, has the government not learned from the banking royal commission?

It certainly seems this is also the case also when it comes to funeral insurance. The Morrison government has left thousands of the victims of the Youpla ACBF funeral insurance collapse in the lurch as well. We know that the impact of that collapse is particularly acute for First Nations communities. Many in First Nations communities were exploited by companies like this and took out funeral insurance where, over the lifetime of the policy, the cost of the premiums ends up being more than the benefit that was gained from the actual cost of the funeral that was paid for by the insurance. The financial devastation that has caused is wide and steep: 17,000 people who can least afford it have lost thousands of dollars, and in some cases tens of thousands of dollars.

In 2019 Labor wrote to the Treasurer asking him to look at those funeral insurance schemes. We warned them of a deep financial distress that was being caused to First Nations communities, and the communities themselves have pleaded with the Treasurer in person. Yet for more than two years the Treasurer and the government have ignored those calls to protect vulnerable citizens and offer them a remedy for the victims of this financial fraud.

The inaction has turned the problem into a crisis. In keeping with the Morrison government's track record, it's all talk, no action and no delivery when it comes to the commitments they made to the Australian people. It is now time for the Prime Minister to urgently address the despair and devastation that his inaction has brought those who were impacted by that company—in particular, First Nations communities.

We also know that for two years the Prime Minister has stood by and watched as scams have exploded across Australia's social media platforms and mobile phones. He's ignored Labor's calls to establish an anti-scam centre to coordinate a response to these insidious crimes, that now cost the economy $33 billion every year and are growing, and he's ignored its calls to hold social media platforms to account for the false and deceptive material they disseminate to unsuspecting Australian families.

We welcomed the news that the ACCC is now investigating Facebook, with a view to possible court action, over scams perpetrated on their platform, and we welcome Rod Sims's observations that Facebook knowingly allowed false and misleading observation on its platform and it could have done more to take down that material. But this is not new. The Prime Minister's passive approach to emerging problems has cost many Australian workers and families dearly. His inactions have made Australian homes and small businesses soft targets for scams, while countries like the UK and Canada have seen real results from tackling this problem head on.

That's why Labor recently announced its 'scam buster' policy that will establish a new anti-scam centre, bringing together law enforcement regulators, banks and telcos to share real-time data about emerging threats. We'll introduce tough new industry codes on social media companies, telcos and banks to hold them to account for stopping the spread of scams on their platforms, and double funding for identity recovery services to help scam victims get their lives back on track. We'll also task a minister with direct responsibility for proactively tackling and taking on scammers.

In conclusion, when it comes to financial services, when it comes to ensuring integrity in Australian financial services, there have been many wasted opportunities by this government. They said that they were giving priority to the royal commission recommendations, in implementing them before this parliament ended. Here we are, with two days to go, and they are yet to deliver on a number of important reforms that were indicated by the royal commission—most notably, the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort, which is designed to ensure that people who have been victims of financial fraud and unable to afford justice through the court system have some form of recompense for the wrongdoing that was perpetrated to them by unconscionable conduct in the financial services sector. That hasn't been delivered, and it looks like we'll struggle to get that through in the remaining days of this parliament. That's a broken commitment to the people of Australia but is not an isolated case, unfortunately.

There are broken commitments in every policy area from this government when it comes to promises that have been made to the Australian people. We'll never forget the promise that Australia was at the front of the queue when it came to vaccines. That didn't last long. We found out that it was a mistruth perpetrated by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister said that we'd ordered enough rapid antigen tests to ensure that Australians would be safe, over the summer period, if we relaxed a lot of those restrictions and conditions that the states had in place. That's what they did, and guess what? COVID ran rampant. We were unprepared. The Australian public were misled by the Prime Minister. And over the course of the last few weeks we've had this terrible flooding in the north of New South Wales and South-East Queensland. Once again, it's been proven that this government did not prepare for the effects of climate change in supporting those communities.

When we had a royal commission into disaster responses in this country, they recommended further investment in mitigation infrastructure, using the money in the Emergency Response Fund. There's $4.7 billion in that response fund, and not one cent's been spent on any mitigation infrastructure. They've used it as a financial bank account to earn interest. There is $800 million worth of interest, but not one cent's been spent on the Australian public and protecting those communities. And what do we get? We get the devastation that we've seen in Lismore, Mullumbimby and other places, and a Prime Minister that can't walk down the street because he knows he's going to be abused by the Australian public for his weak and insipid response to that disaster. When the Australian Prime Minister can't walk down their street and talk to the Australian people, it's time to give someone else a go. It's time to work out that your time has come and it's time to give someone else a go. That's why Anthony Albanese was up there, weeks ago, talking to the Australian people. He had no problem walking down the street, seeing and hearing the stories of those Australians that have been suffering. He had no problem making sure that commitments were made for Labor to invest in a disaster relief fund and invest in that mitigation infrastructure in the future to protect those communities.

In conclusion, I move:

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 calls on the Government to:

(1) prioritise the passage of vital legislation to promote integrity in the financial sector, including through implementing the findings of the Banking Royal Commission;

(2) do more to support women's sport in every region of the country, without consideration to political boundaries;

(3) protect the rights of all workers in Australia, including migrants;

(4) improve economic relationships with Pacific nations;

(5) promote innovation by enhancing education and investment in skills, including through our TAFE and tertiary sectors;

(6) support Australians suffering from natural disasters and enhance disaster mitigation;

(7) protect Australian small businesses from unfair practices; and

(8) provide real cost of living relief to Australian families through wages growth and genuine economic reform".

Is the amendment seconded?

I second the amendment.

I thank the member for Kingsford Smith for reading an important second reading amendment, particularly on budget night, when all eyes are on what the government's plans are, after almost 10 years, on some of the critical issues facing our nation. I want to focus on the eight parts to the second reading amendment. There are about three of them that I want to get through tonight—in particular, the skills and training investment piece, which is critical for the economy to grow and also for jobs and growth in my own community of the south-west suburbs of Brisbane and Ipswich. I'll also spend some time tonight focusing on the item before us as part of the second reading amendment to support Australians suffering from natural disasters and to enhance disaster mitigation. As a member of parliament who has had large numbers of their electorate impacted by the recent flooding, this is the first opportunity I've had to address the House this week about the critical needs of my community. So I will focus on some of the uplifting stories regarding the impacts of the floods that I want to place on record in today's debate. Obviously, I will be providing the outline for where I see the cost-of-living issues for Australian families—in particular, families in the Oxley electorate—who have struggled under this government due to the suppression of wages growth and also the lack of genuine economic reform by the government. This has had a major impact on the cost of living and is really hurting so many families that I represent. As the shadow assistant minister has indicated, the package of bills contains seven minor Treasury measures. I find it interesting that, of all the bills the government is dealing with, they're giving priority to minor measures over the passage of vital economic reforms.

I will start, as part of the debate on the second reading amendment, on cost-of-living issues. This is a term that really has become white-hot in the Australian community over the last couple of weeks. We all know prices are going up, but pay packets are not. Under the Morrison government, whether it be petrol prices, whether it be the cost of groceries, whether it be the fact that rents are skyrocketing, working families are falling further and further behind. They are not staying the same. They are not getting ahead. They are falling behind. Whether there be cheaper child care, whether there be cheaper power bills, the most important thing is securing well-paid jobs, which are going to be critical to making sure that we deal with the cost-of-living issues.

On this side of the chamber, we've got a plan to boost productivity and build more things in Australia. The economic reality is thus: the only sustainable plan to boost wages is to boost productivity. How will we do that? Very simply by investing in skills, science and technology, apprenticeships and free TAFE. The shadow Treasurer has been putting those markers in the ground. Since day one, since he became Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, the Leader of the Opposition, has been telling the Australian public exactly how we will do that.

Side by side with this is the crisis in housing. This bills tonight do nothing to address that. Coming up to a decade in power, the government has seen housing affordability get worse and worse. One of the most important things I think this parliament should have focused on in the wasted three years of this term is building more social and affordable housing. Only Labor will do this.

The legislation provides corporate tax relief, obviously, for things like the FIFA Women's World Cup to be held later this year, and this is of course something that we support. But it also reminds me and members of my community that the government's record on supporting women's sport is really nothing short of abysmal. This term of the parliament really has had it all. We had the sports rorts program, where wealthy clubs in ultra-safe Liberal and National Party seats were splashed with cash, while worthy women's sport clubs missed out on funding for upgrades to vital facilities.

The legislation establishes tax arrangements for Pacific workers who come to work in Australia, but this has only come about because the government has neglected our economic relationship with the Pacific for nine long years. As we know, the legislation sets out tax relief for people affected by Cyclone Seroja, and this is of course worthwhile, but it does nothing to help those Australians in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland affected by the horrific floods of recent weeks, which I will circle back to in my remarks tonight.

People across Australia are rightfully angry with the Morrison government. You need only to go into any bar or coffee shop or pub. Most Australians know that this Prime Minister is focused on the political optics over getting things done. While we are supporting these bills, it really is a painful reminder of the government's shameful priorities over what Australians really need.

Let me touch on the skills component of the second reading amendment and things like wages growth that actually keeps up with rises in the cost of living. We know that the government doesn't have a plan to deal with that. In this term we have also been exposed to the fact that the government, through the former finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said that suppressing wages was a deliberate design feature of the economy. Just think about that for a moment. The finance minister of this country said, 'We are going to keep wages low because that's how we're going to help the economy.' I don't know any economist that thinks that's a pathway to economic success. I don't know if there are many families in Australia that you could go up to and say, 'You know what, we're going to keep your wages low because that's going to help the economy.' It's a nonsense. None of that makes sense at all. But the quote was 'a deliberate design feature of the economy'.

I'm really proud to be part of a political party—a major political party of government—that will secure well-paid jobs by investing in skills for Australia. You only need to go to a business in my electorate, in any of the growth suburbs of Wacol, Carole Park, Redbank Plains and Goodna, and walk into a business and say: 'How are you going? How's the business going?' They'll all say the same thing: 'It could be better, and we need to employ people.' We've got low unemployment rates of 3.8 per cent. Queensland is leading the way, with the Queensland government, to lower that unemployment rate. Yet there is still a shortage of workers in this country. So that's why we have a commitment to free TAFE and making sure that we create more university places to tackle the skill shortages that are holding back our economy, particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under a future Albanese Labor government—if we're privileged to form government—people studying in an industry with a skills shortage will be supported through the provision of free TAFE. The $1.2 billion Future Made in Australia Skills Plan will focus on closing the gap on the key areas of skill shortages, with new places at universities and TAFE. In my electorate, we've seen around 1,480 apprentices lost over the last eight or so years. That's not stayed the same and that's not keeping up to scale. It's gone backwards, and that's just one electorate. No-one has ever explained why that is a good thing, because we all know that that's not a good thing.

If we are to have industry growth we've got to have kids going into apprenticeships. It would be okay if the government were saying: 'We want all kids to go to university. We don't want them in apprenticeships.' I get that, but it's getting harder and harder to go to university. So which one is it? You can't go to university, because you can't afford it, and you can't then get to do an apprenticeship, because they're drying up as well. One in four Australian businesses are experiencing critical skills shortages. Free TAFE will help rebuild industries hit hardest by the pandemic. Under our plan we'll focus on those areas which have critical shortages. Our made in Australia plan will close the gap and provide 465,000 free TAFE places, including 45,000 new TAFE places.

I want to speak briefly on the floods. I'm glad that my colleague and friend the member for Moreton is here. We share the same suburbs, which have been absolutely smashed by the floods. It was incredibly uplifting to see members of the community coming together, and the generosity that I witnessed was very humbling. I was inundated with requests from small businesses and people who wanted to help, particularly people in the Centenary suburbs and the businesses smashed there; the residential components in Oxley, which the suburb that I share with the member for Moreton; and also Goodna, which was a ground zero, flood impacted suburb in Queensland.

We needed leadership shown during that crisis and we did not see it. We saw the Prime Minister of Australia turn up to Brisbane. And what did he do? Did he walk into those houses at Rocklea or Oxley? I tell you what he did. He got a dust mop and cleaned a clean basketball court, and said, 'I'm here to help.' What absolute rubbish. That would be okay if he'd said to families in Oxley, 'I'm going to give you $3,000, like I did to people in the National Party electorate.' Instead, Queenslanders were left behind by a prime minister that doesn't get Queensland, has never understood Queensland and gets up today and goes, 'Oh well, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.'

I dare the Prime Minister to come down to Mill Street, Enid Street or Cox Crescent in Goodna and say to those people, 'You don't deserve $3,000, because you live in a Labor electorate.' That's exactly the explanation that people in my community are left with—no explanation why, when houses are completely devastated, completely and utterly destroyed, in the suburb of Goodna. He doesn't set foot there and look those people in the eye. He doesn't explain to them why one electorate gets support—because it suits the political fortunes of the Prime Minister because the people happen to live in a National Party electorate—but they miss out because they live in a Labor electorate in Queensland. It's unacceptable. I will never stop fighting to make sure that my community get the same as everybody else.

I've never been prouder to be the federal member for Oxley. The strength and resilience in my community shown throughout the floods were outstanding, as was their willingness to do whatever they could to help others. Together we did our best to make sure no-one was left behind. In the immediate aftermath of the floods, Tony from the Middle Park Bakery would call me every morning and ask, 'What do you need?' A few hours later we'd have loads of breads and baked goods ready to send to recovery hubs and evacuation centres. Ramee from Big Pappa's Pizza put out the call on Facebook, 'Free pizzas for flood victims,' as they rebuilt their lives. Organisations like Baby Give Back pulled off an extraordinary donation drive for baby items and have helped many families who have lost everything. Pastor Phil Kennedy from Shiloh Church packed hampers of donated goods for those who were living without power. The Riverlife Baptist Church opened their doors to anyone and everyone who needed a place to go as the floodwater rose. Thank you, Pastor John Robertson, for your leadership. Just last week, the Kerwick Hotel held an afternoon of beers and celebration for the volunteers and flood victims that stood side by side for weeks rebuilding our community. I cannot forget Thiess Mining, who set up a free barbecue at the Goodna recovery centre for flood victims and volunteers.

As I said before, this crisis brought out the very best in our community as locals stepped up to take on leadership roles to help their neighbours and to keep everyone's morale high. Dan, known in the Goodna community as Dan the Mill Street man, set up a pop-up recovery hub on Mill Street with his family, one of the most impacted streets in Goodna. People like Frank, Wingy and Mama made the devastating reality of the floods just that little bit more bearable with their can-do attitude and good humour.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have worked alongside them in recovery. These people worked day and night to support their neighbours and friends. These people stood up and said, 'I'm here to help you.' It was an honour and a privilege to be their representative, to stand in the mud, to help these people get themselves back on their feet. When the sporting clubs, the infrastructure clubs and the community organisations were smashed, I know the member for Lilley, the member for Blair and the member for Moreton in Queensland were out there every single day supporting our residents and working alongside them. It's probably the hardest thing I've ever done as the member for Oxley, but it's been the best thing I've ever witnessed, working alongside and supporting my community. I commend these bills to the House, and I call on the government to make sure our flooded communities are not left behind.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 17:59 to 19:30

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Introduction

Tonight, as we gather, war rages in Europe.

The global pandemic is not over.

Devastating floods have battered our communities. We live in uncertain times.

The last two years have been tough for our country, there have been setbacks along the way.

But Australia remains resilient. Australians remain strong.

We have overcome the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression. Our recovery leads the world.

Faster and stronger than the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Mr Speaker, those opposite said the biggest test for our government would be what happens to jobs.

Tonight, I can confirm to the House, unemployment is at four per cent, the equal lowest in 48 years.

There are nearly two million more Australians in work today than when we came to government.

More women in work than ever before.

This budget will see unemployment go even lower, delivering more jobs and higher wages.

This is not luck.

Our economic plan is working. JobKeeper saved 700,000 jobs.

HomeBuilder helped more than 100,000 Australians into a home.

Taxes are lower for more than 11 million Australians and 3.6 million small businesses and sole traders.

Our AAA credit rating maintained. This is our record.

Fiscal dividend from a strong economy

Mr Speaker, a strong economy means a stronger budget. This is what we deliver tonight.

The largest and fastest improvement to the budget bottom line in over 70 years.

By the end of the forward estimates, the budget is $100 billion better off compared to last year.

More people in work, fewer on welfare. Repairing the budget without increasing taxes.

The deficit for 2022-23 is expected to be $78 billion or 3.4 per cent of GDP. Over the next three years, this will more than halve to 1.6 per cent.

Net debt as a share of our economy will peak at 33.1 per cent at 30 June 2026.

Significantly lower than what was forecast last year. We have drawn clear lines.

Banking the dividend of a stronger economy. Ending economy-wide emergency support.

When we did so, those opposite were quick to criticise.

When Labor starts spending, they simply don't stop.

The result is higher taxes and higher interest rates.

Only the coalition can responsibly manage the budget and strengthen our nation's finances.

Supporting flood affected communities

Mr Speaker, our thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones, homes and businesses in the catastrophic floods across New South Wales and South-East Queensland.

Nothing I say can overcome the personal pain and loss so many Australians have felt. We will stand with these communities and help them rebuild.

Already, over one million disaster payments have been made.

Total support to families, farmers, small businesses, local governments and their communities is expected to exceed $6 billion.

It will deliver hope, work and the prospect of returning to a better life.

Our vision and plan for a stronger future

Mr Speaker, tonight we look to the future. Realistic about the growing threats we face. Ambitious for our country and our children. Optimistic about what can be achieved.

As we emerge from the pandemic, we are building an even stronger, more secure and confident Australia.

Where aspiration and enterprise are encouraged and rewarded. Where families have greater flexibility and choice.

Where those in need get a helping hand.

Where greater self-reliance leaves our nation less vulnerable to threats. Where our modern competitive industries create new jobs. Where Australia and our allies protect the national interest. This is our vision for Australia.

This is what tonight's budget delivers.

A plan for the times.

Providing cost of living relief

Mr Speaker, events abroad are pushing up the cost of living at home.

Higher fuel, food and shipping costs are increasing inflation and stretching household budgets.

Tonight the Morrison government announces a new temporary, targeted and responsible cost-of-living package to ease these pressures.

Practical measures that will make a difference. Fuel excise will be cut in half.

For the next six months, Australians will save 22 cents a litre every time they fill up.

A family with two cars who fill up once a week could save around $30 a week or around $700 over the next six months.

Whether you're dropping the kids at school, driving to and from work or visiting family and friends, it will cost less.

This cut in fuel excise, which takes effect from midnight tonight, will flow through to the bowser over the next two weeks.

The competition watchdog will monitor retailers to make sure these savings are passed on in full.

This temporary reduction in fuel excise will not come at a cost to road funding, which will see more than $12 billion spent in the coming year.

Mr Speaker, tonight I also announce a new one-off $420 cost-of-living tax offset for more than 10 million low-and-middle income earners.

Individuals already receiving the low and middle income tax offset will now receive up to $1,500 and couples up to $3,000 from 1 July this year.

This measure comes on top of the $40 billion in tax relief already provided by our government since the start of the pandemic.

Under the coalition taxes for hardworking Australians will always be lower.

Mr Speaker, tonight I also announce a new one-off $250 cost of living payment, delivered within weeks to six million Australians.

Pensioners, carers, veterans, jobseekers, eligible self-funded retirees and concession card holders will benefit.

Together, with existing indexation arrangements, this will see a single pensioner receive more than $500 in additional support over the next six months, just when they need it most.

Mr Speaker, to provide further cost-of-living relief, tonight I also announce greater access to medicines for 2.4 million Australians.

For many Australians, incurring these costs is not negotiable.

Australians will need fewer scripts before they are eligible for free or further discounted medicines.

This budget's new cost-of-living package is responsible and targeted, delivering cheaper fuel, cheaper medicines and putting more money in the pockets of millions of Australians.

B uilding a stronger and more resilient economy

Mr Speaker, tonight we write a new chapter in Australia's economic story. With a plan that backs Australians, their enterprise and their aspirations.

Skilling Australia

Mr Speaker, Australia's unemployment rate is heading towards a 50-year low.

We have a historic opportunity to get young Australians into skilled, secure and well-paid jobs.

The dignity of work is important for all Australians.

During this pandemic, we have already invested $13 billion in skills and training. With a record 220,000 Australians now in a trade apprenticeship.

The highest level since records began back in 1963.

Tonight, we go further, with a new $2.8 billion investment to increase take-up and completion rates for apprentices.

Providing $5,000 payments to new apprentices.

And up to $15,000 in wage subsidies for employers who take them on.

Mr Speaker, in this budget we also lay the foundations for national skills reform with a $3.7 billion investment.

Supporting an additional 800,000 training places. Ensuring businesses get the skilled workers they need.

Tonight, we also fund new and expanded programs to help find employment for disadvantaged youth, Indigenous Australians, the mature aged and Australians with a disability.

Skilling Australians is part of our plan for a stronger future.

B acking small business

Mr Speaker, small and family businesses are at the heart of our economy and our local communities.

They employ nearly eight million Australians.

This government has backed small businesses with the lowest tax rates in 50 years and record investment incentives.

Tonight, we go further, rewarding small businesses that invest in skills and new technology.

No one knows better than a small business owner what skills they need in their employees.

Starting tonight, for every hundred dollars a small business spends on training their employees, they will get a $120 tax deduction.

Helping them become more productive and competitive.

In this budget, we are also backing small businesses that are embracing the digital revolution.

From tonight, every hundred dollars these small businesses spend on digital technologies like cloud computing, e-invoicing, cybersecurity and web design will see them get a $120 tax deduction.

Investments of up to $100,000 per year will be supported by this new measure.

Lower taxes for small business is part of our plan for a stronger future.

Boosting our sovereign manufacturing capability

COVID and events in Ukraine have been a powerful reminder that we must increase our self-reliance.

Australia has a world-class manufacturing sector.

Tonight, we announce new funding to solve vulnerabilities in our supply chains.

New funding to make Victoria the first place in the southern hemisphere to manufacture mRNA vaccines.

New funding to drive collaboration between our universities, CSIRO and industry to rapidly commercialise new technologies in clean energy, medical supplies, defence and other high-priority areas.

And a new patent box for the agriculture and low-emissions technology sectors.

This will see income from new patents developed in Australia taxed at almost half the rate that applies to large companies.

A modern resilient manufacturing sector is part of our plan for a stronger future.

Gro wing our regions

Our regions will always be an economic powerhouse generating prosperity for our nation.

No government has invested more in our regions than this Liberal-National coalition. Tonight, we go further.

Announcing an unprecedented regional investment package that includes transformational investments in agriculture, infrastructure and energy in the Hunter, the Pilbara, the Northern Territory and North and Central Queensland.

These long-term investments will unlock new economic frontiers and grow our national economy.

Our regional package also includes major new investments in water projects, a new regional accelerator, telecommunications and health.

A new $7.4 billion investment in more dams and water projects to improve vital water security and expand irrigation.

A new $2 billion regional accelerator program to invest in skills, education infrastructure, export market development and supply chain resilience for our regions.

A new $1.3 billion telecommunications package to expand mobile coverage across 8,000 kilometres of regional transport routes.

More training places for doctors at regional universities.

Better access to MRI machines, mental health services and childcare centres across regional and remote Australia.

Stronger regions will always be part of the coalition's plan for a stronger future.

A record infrastructure pipeline

Our record $120 billion infrastructure pipeline has already completed over 35,000 projects across the country since we came to government.

Nation-building projects like the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail, the new Western Sydney international airport and Snowy 2.0 are well underway.

Tonight's budget includes new commitments to road and rail projects. Brisbane to Sunshine Coast faster rail.

Sydney to Newcastle faster rail.

The METRONET project in Western Australia. The North-South Corridor in South Australia. Great Eastern Drive in Tasmania.

Central Australian Tourism Roads in the Northern Territory.

Melbourne Intermodal Terminals to increase the efficiency of the national freight network.

More than $500 million is in this budget for local councils to deliver priority projects and $880 million to better connect regional Australia with ports, airports and other transport hubs.

Delivering our record infrastructure pipeline is a vital part of our plan for a stronger future.

Energy and net zero emissions

Mr Speaker, Australia is on the pathway to net zero emissions by 2050 and playing its part in responding to the critical global challenge of climate change.

Technology, not taxes, will get us there.

Already, Australia has the highest uptake of rooftop solar in the world.

We are investing in clean hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, batteries and large-scale solar.

Tonight, we make further investments in microgrids to support regional and remote communities that don't otherwise have access to the grid with small-scale renewable energy projects like solar and wind.

A low-emissions future with reliable and affordable power is critical to our plan for a strong economy.

Guaranteeing the essential services

Mr Speaker, a strong economy enables us to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on.

Our government has delivered record funding for schools, hospitals, Medicare, mental health, aged care, women's safety and disability support.

Record investment in health

Funding for our health system has increased every year under our government and is now at a record high.

Medicare is guaranteed.

Bulk-billing rates are at a record high.

We have approved more than 2,800 new or amended listings on the PBS. That is nearly one per day.

Tonight, I announce the listing of Trodelvy for a rare form of breast cancer, saving patients up to $80,000 per treatment.

For the first time, this drug gives hope to many young women, extending their life expectancy and providing an opportunity to spend precious time with their loved ones.

Like Alison, a young mum who when she got her terminal prognosis wrote a letter to her daughter Matilda to open on her 12th birthday, when Alison would no longer be there.

Because of Trodelvy, Alison will tomorrow celebrate Matilda's 12th birthday. And both Alison and Matilda are in the chamber with us tonight.

Mr Speaker, we also continue to invest in keeping Australians safe from the pandemic.

With vaccines, testing and treatment and more PPE to boost the national stockpile ahead of winter.

Mental health support and suicide prevention

Mr Speaker, as we all in the chamber know, mental illness can be completely debilitating for patients and their families. Too many young Australians are living lives of quiet desperation.

Last year's budget saw a landmark $2.3 billion investment in mental health and suicide prevention.

Tonight, we build on that commitment.

In this budget there are more headspace services, community based treatment centres and digital mental health support.

Combating suicide is a national priority.

No government has invested more in mental health services.

W omen's safety, health and economic security

Mr Speaker, one in four women are subject to domestic violence and tragically, every 11 days, an Australian woman loses her life at the hands of her current or former partner.

In last year's budget, we committed $1.1 billion for prevention, early intervention, response and recovery programs.

Tonight we go further, with a new $1.3 billion package to end violence against women and children.

More frontline services, emergency accommodation, and support to access legal and health services for women and children in need.

This budget also includes a substantial new women's health package.

Stillbirth and miscarriage support.

The establishment of new endometriosis clinics. Greater access to breast and cervical cancer screenings, all of which are in tonight's budget.

Mr Speaker, employment is critical to economic security.

Under the coalition, female workforce participation is at a record high and female unemployment is at its lowest level since 1974.

But there is more to do.

Tonight I announce changes to enhance paid parental leave.

Families, not government, are best placed to decide what works for them.

We will expand eligibility and provide working families with full flexibility and greater choice.

More families will be able to access 20 weeks of leave and decide how they will share it. For the first time, single parents will now be able to access the full 20 weeks.

The 180,000 new parents who access paid parental leave each year will benefit from these changes.

This budget, with more than $2 billion of measures to improve the safety, health and economic security of women is part of our plan for a stronger future.

Improving the lives of people with disability

Mr Speaker, when we came to government, federal funding for disability support was half of what it is today.

The NDIS has changed the lives of 500,000 Australians and their families. In this budget, NDIS funding grows in every year.

Under the coalition, the NDIS will always be fully funded.

C aring for older A ustralians

Mr Speaker, since we have come to government, funding for aged care has doubled.

In last year's budget, I outlined a new five-year $17.7 billion plan for the sector.

With new home-care packages, respite services, training places, retention bonuses and infrastructure upgrades.

Under this plan, 40,000 home-care packages, 34,000 additional training places, 7,000 new personal care workers and 8,400 respite services will be rolled out this calendar year.

This budget provides more than $340 million in new funding to embed pharmacy services within residential aged-care facilities to improve medication management for the elderly.

H elping more A ustralians to own a home

Mr Speaker, home ownership is fundamental to the coalition.

HomeBuilder, the First Home Super Saver Scheme and the Home Guarantee Scheme have helped make the dream of home ownership a reality.

Over the last year, 160,000 Australians purchased their first home.

Tonight we go further, more than doubling the Home Guarantee Scheme to 50,000 places per year.

Helping more single parents to buy a home with a deposit as low as two per cent. Helping more first home buyers to buy a home with a deposit as low as five per cent.

In this budget we are also increasing our support for affordable housing by $2 billion through the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation.

Helping more Australians to own a home is part of our plan for a stronger future.

Record funding for education

Mr Speaker, our government will provide more than $180 billion in education funding over the next four years.

Record funding for preschools. Record funding for schools.

More than 30,000 new places at universities last year.

In tonight's budget, we continue to invest in these critical areas.

New regional scholarship programs to support students from lower socio-economic families and new funding for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student boarding program.

Protecting our environment

Mr Speaker, our government is safeguarding Australia's unique environment for future generations.

For thousands of years our First Nations people have cared for country.

Tonight, we are investing a further $636 million to expand the Indigenous Rangers Program with more than 1,000 new rangers to undertake land and sea management.

An additional $1 billion in world-leading marine science to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

More than $800 million to enhance our scientific capability in the Antarctic, funding vital research and environmental management.

More than $170 million for threatened species and habitat restoration including for our koalas.

We are also continuing to invest in ways to reduce waste through our Recycling Modernisation Fund.

Saving 10 million tonnes of recyclables from landfill every year by 2030.

No longer are we exporting waste, we are recycling it here at home and creating over 10,000 jobs in the process.

Strengthening our national security

Mr Speaker, our economic plan can only be achieved if our nation is strong and secure. Our veterans have given so much in the service of our country.

Our nation owes them eternal gratitude.

In this budget we provide further funding to support homecare services for 37,000 veterans and their families, as well as extending other programs supporting the wellbeing and mental health of our veterans.

The lesson of history is that weakness invites aggression. It leaves nations vulnerable to coercion.

This is the reality we must confront. The world is less stable.

We must invest more in the defence of our nation.

This is what we are doing after those opposite allowed defence spending to fall to its lowest level since 1938.

We have put in place a 10-year defence capability plan worth more than $270 billion supporting more than 100,000 jobs.

Hobart Class Air Warfare Destroyers, built in South Australia, now in the water. Combat vehicles, maintained in Queensland, now in service.

And F-35A Joint Strike Fighters with parts made in Western Sydney, now in the air.

In this budget, we continue to make record investments in our Navy, Army and Air Force.

Expanding the size of our Defence workforce, at a cost of $38 billion.

Deepening strategic partnerships through agreements such as AUKUS and the Quad. And tonight I announce a new 10 year, $9.9 billion investment in Australia's offensive and defensive cyber capabilities.

This is the biggest ever investment in Australia's cyber preparedness.

Creating 1,900 jobs, more data analysts, computer programmers, and software engineers to boost our capacity to prevent and respond to cyber threats.

Keeping Australians safe is part of our plan for a stronger future.

Conclusion

Mr Speaker, over the last three years Australians have been tested. Drought, fire, floods.

A global pandemic for which there was no playbook.

Despite the challenges, our economic recovery is leading the world. This is not a time to change course.

This is a time to stick to our plan.

A plan that delivers cost of living relief now. A plan that creates jobs for the long term.

A plan that guarantees the essential services.

A plan that invests more in the defence of our nation.

Three years ago we said to the Australian people:

That under the coalition, the economy would be stronger. We delivered. That under the coalition, more people would be in work. We delivered. That under the coalition, taxes would be lower. We delivered.

That under the coalition, essential services would be guaranteed. We delivered. That under the coalition, we would invest more in national security. We delivered. This is a time to stick to our plan.

A plan for a strong economy and a stronger future. We will deliver.

Debate adjourned.

For the information of honourable members I present the following documents in connection with the budget for 2022-23:

Budget strategy and outlook—Budget paper No. 1—2022-23.

Budget measures—Budget paper No. 2—2022-23.

Federal financial relations—Budget paper No. 3—2022-23.

Agency resourcing—Budget paper No. 4—2022-23.

Documents made parliamentary papers in accordance with the resolution agreed to on 28 March 2018.

I present the following ministerial statements: Women's budget statement 2022-23 and Regional ministerial budget statement 2022-23—A secure future for regional Australia.

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023 proposes appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of approximately $13.3 billion. This broadly represents seven-twelfths of the estimated 2022-23 annual appropriations plus new measures announced in the 2022-23 budget. The 2022-23 supply bills provide for the initial five months of annual appropriations for 2022-23. Together with Supply Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023, this bill represents appropriations for purposes including capital works and services; payments to or for states, territories and local governments; equity injections; and funding for new administered outcomes not previously endorsed by parliament.

I will now outline some of the significant items in the bill. The Department of Defence will receive an appropriation of approximately $7.7 billion. The appropriation will be used to continue delivering on the government's commitments to improve defence capability as set out in the 2016 Defence white paper as well as the 2020 Force structure plan and the 2020 Defence strategic update. The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications will also receive close to $3.9 billion to support rail, road and aviation infrastructure throughout Australia and to support local governments to deliver key community infrastructure. The bill provides $495 million as an equity investment to Airservices Australia to continue to provide critical air navigation, air traffic control, aviation and fire and rescue services at major Australian airports.

The bill also contains an Advance to the Finance Minister provision of $3 billion for COVID-19 related measures and $600 million for other general urgent and unforeseen expenditure. However, if this bill were passed, along with Supply Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023, the total allowable AFM cannot exceed the $3.6 billion under Supply Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023.

Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedules to the bill and the explanatory memorandum. The portfolio budget statements tabled in the parliament show additional detail of programs that are funded, representing the combined impact of the budget annual appropriations and the supply bills for the full 12 months of 2022-23. I therefore commend the bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023 provides appropriations for the last seven months of 2022-23 for the operations of the Department of the Senate, the Department of the House of Representatives, the Department of Parliamentary Services and the Parliamentary Budget Office. This bill seeks approval for appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of approximately $171 million, and this broadly represents seven-twelfths of the estimated 2022-23 annual appropriations. The 2022-23 supply bills currently before the parliament provide for the balance of annual appropriations for the 2022-23 year. This bill also provides funding for new measures announced in the 2022-23 budget to further enhance security infrastructure at Parliament House, building on previous investments. Together with the Supply (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023 currently before the parliament, this bill provides appropriations for the expenditure of the parliamentary departments for the full year of 2022-23.

The most significant item in this bill is for the Department of Parliamentary Services, which will receive approximately $136 million for the maintenance of the Australian Parliament House and to support the functions of parliament and parliamentarians through the provision of professional services, advice and facilities. This amount also includes funding of $10.3 million for enhanced security of the Parliament House.

Details of the proposed expenditure are set out in the schedule to the bill, the explanatory memorandum and, again, the portfolio budget statements tabled in the parliament. I therefore commend the bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.

House adjourned at 20:16