Mr LINDSAY(8.00 p.m.) —I am pleased to have the opportunity to lead the backbench members tonight in supporting the Howard government's first budget. One of the major reasons that drove me to stand for election was the desire to help put Australia back on track, to restore prudent financial management, to set conditions that will bring prosperity to the country and to return representation to mainstream Australia. This budget does just that.

This budget carries the mark of a Treasurer (Mr Costello) who knew what was needed to be done and accepted responsibility for making the right and necessary changes. This budget is also a tribute to the Prime Minister (Mr Howard). He has made decisions based on principle rather than on political expediency. He did what was right in the national interest. These are the marks of a truly great leader. Mainstream Australia is finally being listened to.

It is now a matter of record that the previous government managed to turn a headline surplus of $718 million in their last budget into a deficit of $10.3 billion. At the same time, despite a promise not to put up tax, they delivered tax increase after tax increase. There were increases in wholesale sales tax, increases in petrol and tobacco tax, increases in departure tax, increases in the Medicare levy, increased tax on motor vehicles and so on—in all, $13.4 billion worth of new taxes. Put this together with Labor's promise in 1990 that there would be no government debt, domestic or external, and you have an opposition with no valid credentials to be critical of this budget.

On August 29, just nine days after the budget was delivered, an article appeared in the Courier Mail under the headline `Labor neglected Queensland at its peril: Beazley'. The article opened with:

The former Keating government has been punished for paying too much attention to the golden triangle of Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne, Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said yesterday.

He said the impact of the March federal election result on the Queensland ALP had been a tragedy.

We kept Arch (Bevis) and Dave (Beddall), but what we lost was almost beyond calculation, he said.

What an extraordinary admission. It is extraordinary because such a statement cannot reflect well on either the performance or ability of the former Queensland ALP members who lost their seats in the March election whitewash. The next part of that Courier-Mail article was simply insulting. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Beazley) stated:

That means we need to get people like Michael (Lavarch), Wayne (Swan), and Kevin (Rudd) and others back.

Why? So you can misrepresent and completely ignore Queenslanders all over again. The member for Moreton (Mr Hardgrave) understands this. These are the same people who failed Queensland the last time round. You would want to put them back in there again for a chance to fail Queensland a second time.

I take this opportunity to respond to the offer of the Leader of the Opposition this morning to oppose the rise in the reef levy. Thank you, but neither I nor my North Queensland coalition members and Senate colleagues need the help of anyone with such a poor record in this area.

The opposition leader's admission that Labor failed Queensland was extraordinary. In fact, the only other more extraordinary admission the opposition could make is the apology they owe all of Australia—the apology they owe the Australian public for telling them right up to the close of voting on 2 March that the 1995-96 forecasts were absolutely correct.

Time after time the former government was asked to open their books and to come clean about the real financial state of affairs, but they did not. Perhaps they did not because they did not want the Australian people to know that the economy was in underlying deficit to the tune of some $8 billion. To quote from the document entitled Charter of budget honesty prepared by the Treasurer:

It is the right of the Australian people to be fully informed about the current state of the Government's finances and the future outlook . . . The proposed legislation will prevent future governments going to an election on the basis of misleading information on the fiscal and economic outlook. It will ensure that at all times governments can be held properly to account for their fiscal and economic policies.

Perhaps it was just as well the former government did not come clean. Had they come clean, the ALP might not have had any seats north of Bankstown. It would be just left to Senator Reynolds to run around Queensland shouting, `The sky is falling, the sky is falling.'

This brings me to my next point. Since the budget a number of shadow ministers have passed through Townsville and North Queensland. The term `opposition' has never been applied more appropriately than to the honourable members opposite. They seem set on talking down confidence in business, confidence in investment, confidence in our families, in our youth, in our elderly citizens, and they seem hell-bent on talking confidence down in Australia generally.

Members opposite should be asking themselves: to what end are we doing this? Are they doing this to so scare the Australian people with a campaign of misinformation and, in some cases, outright untruths that they will not vote for the coalition at the next election? If that is their tactic then you have to ask yourself: what price are the ALP willing to pay to get back into government?

From the way the opposition is talking and from the fear campaign they are running, it would seem that the ALP is willing to gamble the lot. They are willing to gamble away Australia's economic recovery, employment growth and investment confidence in businesses big and small. Where does opposition end and responsible opposition begin?

To date the Australian people have seen no responsibility from the opposition at all. On 22 August, the Treasurer stood in this House and said that the Leader of the Opposition had to include a coherent budget strategy in his speech in reply to the budget and declare how the opposition would set about reducing the budget deficit in the three years espoused by the shadow Treasurer just days before the budget was delivered.

Where in the opposition leader's speech in reply was the ALP strategy for deficit reduction? Where was the ALP strategy for economic growth in Australia? Where was any encouragement offered to small business to invest, to grow and to employ our youth? Where was the strategy to reform the labour market programs that had failed so many Australians and had sent many from one training program to another with no job in sight? Where was the opposition leader's commitment to doing away with the crippling unfair dismissal laws he helped shackle like leg irons to the ankles of employers throughout Australia?

All of these elements went AWOL from the opposition leader's speech on 22 August. Since then, the only thing that he has offered the people of Queensland is to bring back former members who failed them so miserably last time around. If that is the best the ALP can offer Queensland, the ALP are going to be in opposition for a very long time indeed.

The Townsville Chamber of Commerce, Townsville Enterprise, the Townsville Bulletin and the Thuringowa City Council showed the initiative all Australia needs when on 22 August they sent out a non-political message in the form of a full-page newspaper advertisement which says, `Come on North Queensland. There is life after the budget. Let's get on with business.' The opposition should pay attention. They might learn a thing or two about responsibility. From the way people such as Senator Margaret Reynolds, Mike Reynolds and the former member for Herbert have been speaking in the lead-up to the budget, I am sure they got the fright of their lives when they woke up on the morning after the budget to discover that Townsville and, indeed, Australia had not ceased to exist.

Yes, there is life after the budget and for the Herbert electorate and North Queensland that life will be a prosperous one. In terms of development opportunities, the potential is enormous. At the Townsville 2000 luncheon shortly after the budget was delivered, the Townsville business community heard from the Chamber of Commerce President, Mal Missingham, that our regional economy stood on the threshold of an unprecedented era of economic growth; that the Townsville regional economy would more than double over the next two decades.

Based on data supplied from the Centre of Applied Economic Research and Analysis at James Cook University, Mal Missingham told the audience that the next 10 years would account for $3.5 billion of the $5.6 billion worth of expected regional growth. Just part of that growth will involve a project which has suffered from the neglect of successive governments and one which needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. The project I refer to is better known in my electorate as the Woolcock Street project.

An in globo amount of money was provided in the budget for new work on the national highway. There was no breakdown as to how this money would be spent. I understand that the Minister for Transport and Regional Development (Mr Sharp) will allocate priorities within the next two weeks. It is absolutely vital that Townsville receive funding for the urgently needed upgrade of the northern approaches to our city. Councillor Les Tyrell, Mayor of Thuringowa City, sent me a letter this morning which quite accurately sums up the feeling of Townsville. He said:

An indication in last week's media that the Woolcock Street/Bruce Highway extension may not proceed this financial year has sent shock waves through the communities of Townsville and Thuringowa.

The Woolcock Street extension has been a topic of conversation for something like 25 years, when it was first announced it would proceed.

The residents of the twin cities are fed up with the ongoing promises and the arbitrary breaking of those promises in relation to the Woolcock Street extension of the Bruce highway.

The current right angle bend where the four laning stops is one of the blackest of black spots in the country. It is intolerable that the standard of the Bruce Highway at this location is such.

These are strong words from the mayor, but they are appropriate and I support them 100 per cent. Despite the rhetoric and promises from the previous government and the former member for Herbert, the minister's office has informed me that the former government never signed off on the project. It is vital that this government now does what is needed. Townsville must receive funding for this project; and it must receive it now. The minister will again find me on his doorstep this week. I will present him with the huge feedback I have received on this matter from the electorate. Now is the time for our government to deliver with a positive decision.

I want to turn now to another Townsville facility that is unique in Australia. I refer to the National Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies of Back Pain at the Townsville General Hospital. The centre deals with the problem of low back pain, which affects some 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the population at some time during their adult lives. I visited the centre on two occasions. It is a marvellously well run centre. Certainly, in talking to the patients as I have, I have found they have every confidence in the centre because they have been elsewhere and have not had any result. They have been told they have no back pain but they know the problems that they have and this centre has been able to take up where others have left off—and has solved the problem.

The centre achieves marvellous success rates in treating patients because it combines traditional methods with acupuncture and chiropractic medicine. As well, it conducts research which has the potential for reducing the vast expenditure on compensation payments and lost productivity. The centre was established with the assistance of James Cook University which has provided establishment and salary funding up to the end of this year. That funding must now be replaced.

Fortunately, in this year's budget there is a new musculoskeletal initiative which will provide $400,000 for centres in each state. This Townsville centre deserves federal government support to continue its groundbreaking work in this field. It truly offers unequalled conditions for comprehensive diagnosis, management and research into spinal musculoskeletal pain syndromes.

Not all budget measures have been received favourably in my electorate—notably the increase in the reef levy. The proposed reef levy increase has gravely concerned the tourism industry in my area and throughout North Queensland. Many public statements have been made on this issue and I believe there are justifiable grounds for reconsideration by the government.

It is not realistic or fair to impose a levy without warning on an industry that presells its product. The result is that the operator has to absorb the new charge, probably wiping out the profit on the ticket. To add insult, the operators are facing the prospect of paying commission on the collection of the levy. From the users' point of view, they face paying the $6 charge every time they purchase a marine park activity ticket. For a family of two adults and two children doing three activities in a day the total levy would be $72.

Mr Latham —How much?

Mr LINDSAY —It would be $72. That is unacceptable to me and it is unacceptable to the marine tourism operators of North Queensland. The member for Leichhardt and I—

Mr Latham —Are you going to vote with us?

Mr LINDSAY —If you listen you will hear what is going to happen.

Mr Latham —We used to have a Lindsay in Herbert.

Mr LINDSAY —And a Lindsay will continue in Herbert, I can tell you.

Mr Hardgrave —We've got the real one now.

Mr LINDSAY —We have the real one—the fella who does the work. The member for Leichhardt and I have had meetings with Senator Hill, one as late as this afternoon, looking for ways to satisfy both the government and the operators. A satisfactory outcome will be achieved.

I turn to another issue. While the ABC has taken its fair share of the cut in the budget, I am not prepared to see the implementation of this measure occurring at the expense of rural and regional Australia. Indeed, the investment in the Townsville studios of the ABC should be used to produce more regional output, particularly in news and current affairs.

The ABC should also examine the possibility of using its television facilities, presently unused, to reintroduce a local five-minute TV news service before the national news. The ABC should not be abrogating its responsibility to provide such services. Commercial carriers either cannot or will not provide the types of services to regional Australia that the ABC can. It is beyond all reasoning that the Mansfield review is going to Cairns but not to Townsville when the facilities for regional Queensland are located in Townsville.

The federal budget has been received in Herbert just as it has been received throughout Australia, as tough but responsible and fair. James Cook University student Matt Taylor strongly believes that HECS is the best value for money loan in Australia. Matt said to me on Saturday night, `Where else can you get a loan that requires no repayment until you earn sufficient money to make the payments?' The loan carries no interest component, and repayments stop automatically if you are out of work. I ask members present: what other loan would allow you to do that? A tertiary education is an investment for life.

Other Herbert constituents, such as Ted Bracken of Pimlico and landscape architect Wal Smith, have commented to me on the fairness and responsibility of the budget. Taxi driver Brian Boswell said that the need to boost the number of people accessing private health insurance was a hot topic of conversation in his cab, and one that the Labor Party might well take note of.

The federal budget has delivered for all these people. The family tax initiative, private health rebates, the introduction of Medicare services through selected pharmacy outlets, incentives to small business through the reduction in the provisional tax rate, the freeing up of the capital gains tax, and the introduction of the modern Australian apprenticeship and traineeship system which will clear the path to real jobs for our young people—these are ways in which the coalition has delivered to families, our youth and small business.

The Matt Taylors and Ted Brackens of Queensland and elsewhere in Australia have recognised the fact that the coalition did not create our current economic problems. They recognise that the coalition has taken the responsibility for fixing the problems of the previous government.

What has the opposition offered Queensland, and no doubt the rest of Australia? They have offered to put back in the very same who failed them the last time round. Bravo, Mr Beazley, bravo—but no thanks.

It is with some pride that I speak in the parliament tonight. Back in July of last year I had no intention of being a member of the federal parliament. However, it became quite clear to me that I needed to do my duty towards helping turn this nation around. I appreciate the privilege tonight of speaking to the budget—the coalition's first budget, a budget which will, I believe, turn this nation right around. It is a great feeling to be a member of the Australian parliament, and it is a great and proud feeling to be a member of the government which can turn this nation around.