Mr LLOYD (12:15 PM) —In response to the last question from the member for Hasluck, I remind her that all GST revenue goes directly to the state governments so that they can spend the money where it is needed: education, hospitals and roads—things that are important to all the constituents. That is not what I rose today to speak on. I want to use the debate on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2003-2004 as an opportunity to respond to an article in the Central Coast Herald on 26 May 2003. It is an article by Phillip O'Neill, who is the Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Newcastle. At the beginning of the article, Mr O'Neill states:

I agree with the population statistics, but I believe that they are both separate regions in their own right. He goes on to say:

I cannot speak about Gillian Summers—I have never met her—but I have worked very closely with Geoff Riddell in his position as chief executive officer, and he does an admirable job. We have a very good working relationship in trying to achieve as much federal government funding and support to the Central Coast that we possibly can. I look forward to continuing to work with Geoff. The article goes on to say:

he does not mention it is Labor Party debt, but I will—

I dispute that because, if you use the money to pay off debt, you do not have that money. That was the Labor Party's debt—$63 billion worth—which we had to pay off. Like anyone knows in their own household budget, if you have a massive debt you need to pay it off.

The federal government is now saving $4,000 million every year in interest payments because of the reduction in debt. That is where that money has gone. That is money that could have been spent on further expanding our infrastructure, but now that we have managed to repay it we are starting to see the benefits within our regions and in our economy. The article goes on to say:

This article was headed `Federal interest in regions goes bush'. Mr O'Neill has mentioned young couples and housing. I would like to remind Mr O'Neill that in New South Wales, including the Central Coast and Newcastle, from 1 July 2000 to April 2003, 140,000 people took advantage of the federal government's first home buyers grant to the value of $1.085 billion. That is, just over $1,000 million has helped 140,000 families get into their first home. If that is not an interest in and an assistance to the regions, I do not know what is. The article goes on to say:

I do not know where Mr O'Neill gets his information from, because I am holding a copy of the Central Coast economic indicators prepared by the Central Coast Research Foundation, an independent organisation that prepares these figures twice a year for the Central Coast. I will read out the jobs growth:

If that is not getting a share of employment growth, I am not sure what is. The article in the Central Coast Herald continues:

I would like to remind Mr O'Neill that the federal government has allocated $86 million for the F3 Freeway, the major road link between Newcastle and Sydney, for the use of businesses that are locating on the Central Coast and Newcastle and for commuters going to Sydney and Newcastle for work. That is $86 million to widen the F3. Already, the first stage has been completed and the second stage is about to begin. That is a very important investment in the regions.

One of the other programs that the federal government has utilised on the Central Coast and Newcastle, and particularly in regions, is the Black Spots Road Program. That is an important initiative which was scrapped by the Labor government. It has enabled a number of important programs to be undertaken on the Central Coast, such as the Ocean View Road-Picnic Parade roundabout costing $92,000, Wilsons Road at Terrigal for $50,000, West Street at Umina for $100,000, and Ocean View Road and Memorial Avenue at Ettalong Beach for $32,000. There was $500,000 for realigning a very dangerous section of Woy Woy Road on the Central Coast. Henry Parry Drive had $50,000 spent on it. The list goes on, and yet Phillip O'Neill has the hide to say that the federal government is not interested in regions.

I have so many examples that I could show you. There are regional assistance programs, including for Somersby Industrial Park, which is a very important employment generating area on the Central Coast. The federal government gave $20,000 to assist in attracting companies to come to the Central Coast. Other programs include: future jobs for Central Coast residents by industry, occupation and location, and the federal government provided $40,000 for that; the Central Coast fast ferry package tour project to encourage the promotion of a fast ferry service between the Central Coast and Sydney, for which $140,000 was provided; the sustainable youth employment solutions program, for which $220,000 was provided; the Central Coast aquaculture cluster, designed to create an aquaculture centre on the Central Coast, and that is a very important employment generating program; and only this month I announced $100,000 for the New South Wales Central Coast sustainable development futures program, an important program which will look at how we can continue to attract more employment to the Central Coast and how we can sustain our futures. Yet Mr O'Neill says:

He goes on to say:

very cynically—

I would like to advise Mr O'Neill that having a national public toilet map is something that is very important. It is amazing, since I had my own health problems with prostate cancer and the difficulties that go with that disease in incontinence and concern about those sorts of issues, the number of people who have contacted me saying that this map is important. When you want to take a person, particularly an elderly person, out for a drive one day or if you need to commute to Sydney for medical treatment, it is important for people to know where public toilet services are available. While he likes to have his little snide remark about that, it may only be a small project but it is an important project and when you encompass it with what the federal government does it shows that the federal government cares about the small issues as well as the big regional issues.

He then goes on to say:

What they had was their bulldozers going through the Australian economy. Phillip O'Neill holds up the Whitlam government as an example—the worst government this country has ever seen. My generation has spent its time repaying the debts and repairing the damage of the Whitlam government, and Phillip O'Neill holds it up as an example! He goes on:

That was $1 billion that the Keating government did not have. They liked to spend money, and they practised so much economic mismanagement that they virtually destroyed this economy. They gave us an unemployment rate of 11 per cent and an interest rate of 17 per cent for home mortgages. I mentioned the 140,000 young couples in New South Wales who have been able to buy their new home with the first home buyer's grant. The reason they could buy their first home is that interest rates are now at a record low, of around six per cent. The mismanagement of the Hawke-Keating governments and their spending of money that they did not have destroyed our economy, destroyed businesses, destroyed careers, destroyed families. One of the major reasons why I got involved in politics at that time was the damage the Hawke-Keating government was doing to this country.

I notice that Mr O'Neill does not mention anything about the federal government's assistance packages to Newcastle. When BHP left Newcastle, the federal government poured assistance packages into Newcastle to assist it to redevelop and retrain and to attract new industries. He also does not mention anything about the $120 million per annum, just in wages, from the Williamtown RAAF base. Of course, that $120 million flows directly into the economy of Newcastle and its businesses. It is very important. This is all federal government support. Mr O'Neill goes on to say:

The main campuses of the University of Wollongong and the University of Newcastle are both located in large population centres, but the government will be asking both institutions, along with others, to nominate their regional campuses, such as the Ourimbah campus on the Central Coast of New South Wales, and to provide information about these campuses in the latter half of the year to determine allocations within this initiative. The current list is indicative only and there will be every opportunity for Newcastle University and the Ourimbah campus to put forward their cases.

It must be remembered that this is only one element of the government's $10 billion 10-year reform package for education. Institutions including the University of Newcastle are set to benefit from a range of initiatives, including the $400 million in additional funding to the institution's base operations; the 31,500 Commonwealth supported university places, including new places for teaching and nursing—both important careers and certainly in demand in areas such as Newcastle and the Central Coast—an additional $188 million for a range of teaching and learning initiatives to reward quality teaching; additional funding to assist institutions in their support of students from equity groups and students with disabilities; 25,000 new scholarships for students from rural and regional and low-income backgrounds over the next four years; the raising of the HECS repayment threshold from $24,365 to $30,000, and the new loans scheme to support students through their studies. Mr O'Neill does not make any comment about those initiatives, which will directly assist the University of Newcastle and the Ourimbah campus. Phillip O'Neill goes on to say in the article:

Nothing could be further from the truth. Under Wilson Tuckey's regional services ministry, some of the programs that we have for regions such as the Central Coast include the black spot program, the ex gratia disaster relief packages and financial assistance grants to local government. Local government and people like Phillip O'Neill are loath to mention such things as the financial assistance grants to councils. Gosford City Council covers most of my electorate. In 1996-97 it received $6,822,000. Every year since then that rate has increased. In 2002-03 Gosford City Council will receive $7,937,476 just in financial assistance grants. Some of it is road funding. Most of it is untied to assist the councils with development in their regions.

There are so many other different programs that I could name; time will not permit me to go through all the details. The Roads to Recovery program, which was very important on the Central Coast of New South Wales, was scrapped by the Labor Party. We had to reintroduce it. The Roads to Recovery program is an excellent program to which the Commonwealth committed $1.2 billion over four years. On the Central Coast in 2001-02 there was $3,903,050 to help with the reconstruction of some of the local roads. There is the federal government's Regional Flood Mitigation Program. In 1997-98, $500,000 went towards flood mitigation in Erina and Narrara. In 1999-2000 Gosford City Council received $1,120,000 for regional flood mitigation. In 2001-02, $160,000 went towards assisting with the purchase of properties in flood prone areas. Only recently I announced that the federal government has provided $170,700 in funding for the Hanlon Street South culvert upgrade in Narrara Creek, a very important initiative which will allow the school students in particular who come from the Narrara High School to access that area during flood times.

A lot of people do not realise that the federal government pours a huge amount of money into our environment. In his article Mr O'Neill mentions that the Central Coast waterways could be cleaner than they are. Certainly we are making great inroads in this regard. I will go through some of the environment funding that the federal government has provided to the Central Coast. The Central Coast Riparian Rehabilitation Project ran from 1998 to 2003. The total value of those works was $2,061,062. There were 20 sites and about 1,000 volunteers and professionals involved in that project. The Central Coast Waterwatch program has been in operation since the year 2000. So far the value of that work is $332,438. Participating in the program are 53 schools, 18 community groups and more than 4,000 people. Then there is Central Coast Landcare Support 2002, to which the Natural Heritage Trust gave $122,000. The total value of those works was $350,000. There were 50 groups and more than 500 people involved in that. The Natural Heritage Trust gave funding of $83,800 to Central Coast Wildlife Corridors 2002, which enabled work to be undertaken to the value of $399,000. Those are just some of the examples.

Let us look at what the federal government is doing for the Central Coast in the area of aged care. The federal government is currently providing over $38 million a year in recurrent funding in my electorate of Robertson alone for aged care. Over the past four years an additional 1,275 aged care places have been allocated to the Central Coast planning region. Those places are worth $17.6 million. The people of Robertson will share another 120 aged care places and 20 extended aged care home packages which have been allocated to Central Coast planning this year. They are examples of what the federal government is doing for the Central Coast and what it is doing for regions all over Australia. The third last paragraph of this article states:

referring to Gillian Summers Geoff Riddell—

Nothing could be further from the truth. I know that Geoff Riddell knows that he is not on his own. The Central Coast people are not on their own. The federal government is there with them. I certainly am working with my community to ensure that federal government funding continues to flow through to the Central Coast. The final paragraph of this article states:

I have never met Phillip O'Neill—I am not sure if he has ever been to the Central Coast—but I suggest that maybe he should wake from his slumber in Newcastle and take a trip to the Central Coast to see what is really going on in our area. Maybe he will be surprised about the support the federal government is giving to the Central Coast.