Mr HARDGRAVE(10.37 a.m.) —I support this States Grants (General Purposes) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1997 . It is a decisive, straightforward and sensible measure which picks up the difficulties that were created by the High Court decision on 5 August which affected state business franchise fees, essentially the collection of fees on petroleum products, tobacco and alcoholic beverages. They were matters which went to the heart of states' revenue and, in turn, to the expenditure on so many important and essential services in my electorate by the state government of Queensland.

This bill gives effect to a straightforward request from the states to alter their share of revenue replacement payments for tobacco under safety net arrangements. It is important to note that there was so much at stake. As the honourable member for the Northern Territory (Mr Dondas) and others in this debate have suggested, the vertical fiscal imbalance where essentially the states rely on the Commonwealth for so much of their revenue is something which can be addressed through the course of taxation reform, a debate which is ongoing in this country at the moment. That imbalance has certainly been a fact of life since the state governments lost their capacity to levy income tax back in 1942, a wartime measure that has continued to be a way of life in Australia ever since the Second World War.

The total of general purpose grants to the states in the budget this year totalled $16.83 billion, mainly in the form of financial assistance grants. Obviously, that is a lot of money and it is very important to the various states. As a result of the High Court decision in August there was going to be quite a large hole in the budgets of the various states unless the Commonwealth acted as it is doing in this bill.

For that reason this bill will pass in this place without any dissension from the opposition, and I welcome their support. Of course, part of the overall planning as far as financial arrangements between the states and the Commonwealth are concerned this year have included the second repayment of some money back to the Commonwealth in the form of fiscal assistance which is a payment, a fiscal contribution, from the states back to the Commonwealth to help mend the $10 billion black hole left by the previous government. The states and the Commonwealth are obviously working very closely, as is evidenced in this bill, on matters relating to financial arrangements.

I thought it was important to recount to this place just how the Queensland state government has been expending moneys given by the Commonwealth under this legislation, and doing a very good job in the last 18 months. In fact, the Queensland state Treasurer, the Hon. Joan Sheldon, and the Premier, the Hon. Rob Borbidge, said that, despite the High Court ruling in August, Queensland was committed to remaining a low tax state—in fact, the lowest taxing state government in the Commonwealth. There will be no changes to this government policy, and no increases to taxes and charges above the CPI.

Despite the fiscal contribution demands of the Commonwealth, and despite the actions and decisions of the High Court, these challenges are still being very effectively met by the Queensland government. They have been met with a point of greater efficiency in the delivery of services—in fact, the delivery of more services than had been the case under the previous Labor government led by Wayne Goss. There are tax cuts taking place in Queensland: tax cuts for individuals, for land-holders and for small business. There seems to be an ongoing program of announcements, including the largest capital works program ever delivered by a Queensland government.

In fact, the most recent budget by the state government in Queensland has provided record spending with the emphasis on tax cuts, delivery of services, capital works and jobs. It is all about helping business do better, create jobs and reduce the current level of unemployment, particularly among the young. In this regard, I think the Queensland state government should be congratulated for the way it is working with the Commonwealth to ensure the delivery of these very important and straightforward demands of our constituents.

The Queensland government's recent budget also focused on giving some hope, help and incentive to rural areas devastated by drought and commodity downturns. For those members who are not from the state of Queensland, particularly the south-east corner, the impact of the drought and the commodity downturn on various aspects of life, including business life, is noticeable in the state.

In addition to the demands of the Commonwealth, the Queensland state government has made savings of about half a billion dollars against forward estimates of the previous government for 1996-97 and, quite sensibly, it has put those savings back into core services. The budget has delivered 1,000 new teachers, 252 more police, 500 extra doctors, nurses and health workers, but, more importantly, 50,000 jobs for Queenslanders. As far as police numbers go, the government is well ahead of its target. There were 6,566 officers in the force at the end of June 1997, up 160 on the previous year and 21 more than the government had targeted. The commitment to provide the extra 252 police officers this year is certainly going to be met. A further 200 officers are being freed from desk duties.

On that law and order front, the government has also provided some practical and strong support in the way of legislation to deal with crime. Queensland now has some of the nation's toughest laws with violent criminals to serve at least 80 per cent of their sentence. With respect to juvenile crime, 50 per cent of all motor vehicle thefts were committed by males aged 15 to 19, with 584 offenders aged 14 years or younger. There were 111 sex offenders in the 10 to 14 age group and 189 in the 15 to 19 age group. Despite accounting for only 23 per cent of the total population, offenders in the 10 to 24 age bracket were responsible for 83 per cent of all break and enter crimes. These matters will be dealt with very strongly as a result of the new Juvenile Justice Act, brought in by the Attorney-General in Queensland, the Hon. Denver Beanland, MLA.

As I said, I think the Queensland government, despite the challenges of the High Court, and despite the need to make fiscal contributions back to the Commonwealth to fill in the Beazley black hole, is doing incredibly well. In my own electorate, I am very pleased to see that the Hon. Mike Horan, the health minister, has effected a rebirth of the QEII hospital, which is near the centre of my electorate and is vital to the electorate. To the absolute disgrace of the previous government—which was not facing the sorts of pressures that the current Queensland government is facing in demands from the Commonwealth, in demands from the High Court and, for that matter, the tightness of the numbers in Queensland where the government needs the support of the independent, Mrs Cunningham—it allowed the QEII hospital to run down to the point where it was to be mothballed and closed up.

In fact, the absolute disgrace of this was that the charge was led by the Premier of the state, Wayne Goss, in his efforts to enhance a hospital in his own electorate against a hospital that had been in his electorate when he was first elected. Some of the people in my area will be in the electorate of Rankin. If Mr Goss is to run there, he will find that that will haunt him. If Mr Goss is to run in the electorate of Oxley, he will find that a lot of people in that electorate will also remember his role in destroying the QEII hospital.

Mike Horan has rejuvenated QEII. In fact, $2.4 billion is being spent over 10 years on a hospital rebuilding program—a $733 million increase in capital works. The previous health minister before the honourable Mike Horan is now the opposition leader in Queensland, Mr Beattie.

Mr Tony Smith —A disaster.

Mr HARDGRAVE —He was an absolute disaster. The member for Dickson is quite correct. When the next state election comes around, Mr Beattie too will be reminded by the people in my electorate how poor a health minister he really was.

This year's Queensland budget provided $42.9 million exclusively to reduce category 2 elective surgery waiting lists as part of the coalition government's successful surgery on time program. It also maintained the current category 1 elective surgery long wait target at less than five per cent of the patients waiting longer than the recommended maximum 30 days.

In fact, Queensland now has the best category 1 elective surgery waiting list figures in Australia, after having the very worst under the previous Labor government led by the now opposition leader Peter Beattie. New public hospital projects in Queensland pushed building approvals to a record $535 million, according to the Queensland Master Builders Association, in July of this year.

In a general sense, Queensland fares much better than Victoria in any comparison of economic growth—27 per cent growth in trend terms since 1992 compared with Victoria's 21 per cent. I am sure the Victorian members here today would be very envious of a 27 per cent growth. Queensland also leads all other states in development of retail building and educational, health and community facilities. Brisbane has also superseded Melbourne as Australia's second largest international gateway to Australia and is the fastest growing international and domestic airport.

All of this means that the funds provided by the Commonwealth to the Queensland state government are being very well spent. They are being very well targeted on the real issues by Treasurer Sheldon. As far as jobs are concerned, Queensland has generated 63 per cent of all new jobs created in Australia over the last year or so, and 48,500 jobs have been created, which is an amazing result. Queensland's annual employment growth of two per cent is five times the national annual growth of 0.4 per cent.

The state government is also committed to better social infrastructure for Queensland, such as schools and hospitals. Around Queensland, 1,300 state schools are being upgraded with capital works allocations of $273 million, and $300 million is to be spent in 1997-98 on rail projects serving Queensland's coal and mining industry. All in all, we are seeing tremendous activity and great achievements by the Queensland state government, and very effective expenditure of the money which is generated by the Commonwealth and granted to them.

There are a lot of reasons why it is important to state these facts on the record here in Canberra. I think it is important for all honourable members to realise that, as the states grants matters are discussed each year and the crises come and go and vertical fiscal imbalance discussions occur on an annual basis, in the case of Queensland, its annual growth rate of population is 2.5 per cent compared to one per cent for New South Wales, and 0.6 per cent for Victoria. The national rate is 1.2 per cent, so Queensland is having an ever increasing demand on Commonwealth revenue to ensure that facilities can not only be delivered for the current needs, but also be planned for the future. In the past five years, the population of Queensland grew by 12.7 per cent—more than double the national growth of six per cent.

It is folklore in the southern states that a lot of this comes about because retirees are moving to Queensland. Rather, the official figures show that younger people are moving their homes and families to Queensland to benefit from the better economic conditions, lower taxes, higher quality of life and robust and secure economic future. Queensland migration survey figures indicate that interstate migrants coming to Queensland are more likely than not to be in the 25 to 45 age group. All the challenges to provide schools, to provide law and order through more police and to provide improved hospital facilities are being met by the Queensland state government.

It is very important to know that a lot of big companies, as well, are voting with their feet for the performance of the Queensland state government. In fact, the Boeing company is going to shift its Australian corporate headquarters from Sydney to Brisbane to become the hub of the $US48 billion a year corporation's Australian defence and aerospace operations. Three hundred jobs are expected to be created in Queensland by the end of next year, adding to the jobs of relocated headquarters staff. Nearly 20 major national and international companies have relocated their head offices or key divisions to Queensland in the past 12 months, in the life of the Borbidge-Sheldon government.

Essentially, since the Queensland's government's policy agenda commenced to flow through the community and economy, billions of dollars worth of major development projects have been earmarked for the state. The full investment involved is $7.5 billion, with possible job generation of 11,600 people.

This is a great achievement, and it is worth noting and recounting to the parliament just how well the Queensland state government is performing. In fact, it has implemented 90 per cent of the policies it took to the people of Queensland at the July 1995 election. All of this has been done despite not having an absolute majority in the legislative assembly in Queensland.

It is worth noting that in 1995 the Goss Labor government had a substantial majority but sat on its hands and failed to do so many things. One of the things that governments of all persuasions, though, have failed to do in my electorate is a matter about which I have spoken to the new Minister for Transport and Regional Development, the Hon. Mark Vaile. It is a matter about which I have spoken also to the state transport minister in Queensland, the Hon. Vaughan Johnson, and I have raised it with council officers as well. I refer to the Coopers Plains level crossing over Boundary Road. For the last 25 or 30 years there has been a crying need for this.

The people of Coopers Plains supported the Goss government very strongly in 1989 and in 1992. They did not in 1995 because they basically thought that after six years of Labor they would have seen results of something that the previous coalition government never quite got around to doing.

This level crossing has heavy trucks travelling across the main arterial railway line between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Increased railway passenger usage means that there are many more trains travelling across it now than five years ago. Yet nothing has been done to address the need for a proper, reliable crossing there. People have been killed at this crossing; people have been injured in car and truck accidents. There has been some alleviation and some improvement to the site by changes in signalling made by the city council, but there is still a crying need for major capital works.

I know that financial assistance grants under the state grants act do go now to assisting with road and infrastructure in the various states, and I certainly look forward to continuing my role in advocating that something be done about the need for this crossing and in ensuring that the federal government plays its role. But there really is a challenge for the state government to plan, in concert with the Brisbane City Council, what it would like to have there. I think that is a challenge that transport minister Vaughan Johnson can take up.

I am sure that, with the range of quality people endorsed by the Liberal Party in the general area—the first Taiwanese born Australian state candidate, Steven Huang in Sunnybank; Fazal Deen, in Archerfield; John Webster, in Yeronga; and councillor Graham Quirk, in Mount Gravatt—we are going to see some very strong advocates for the cause of the Coopers Plains level crossing between now and the next state election. If each of those four good local people—with strong local connections, having been educated and lived for many years in the areas that they would like to represent—is actually elected to the state parliament in Queensland, I know I will have working with me some very strong advocates for those sorts of basic needs.

In closing, it is important that the Queensland government keep up the good work. Despite the challenges that have been placed on them because of the $10 billion Beazley black hole to make a contribution in a fiscal sense back to the Commonwealth to play its part in paying back this huge budget deficit the Howard government was left with, and despite the fact that the High Court has added to the challenge by saying that they cannot collect what were traditional fees on tobacco, alcohol and petroleum products, I think the Queensland government continues to rise to the challenge and must continue to do so for the benefit of people in my electorate of Moreton.