Mrs HULL (1:18 PM) —It again gives me pleasure to rise in the chamber today to join the debate on changes proposed through the Tax Laws Amendment (2005 Measures No. 1) Bill 2005. A number of positive changes will be introduced following the passage of this bill through the parliament, but today I would like to focus on just two of those changes that I consider to be of great benefit and assistance to my electorate of Riverina particularly and to rural and regional areas in general.

The first issue concerns the support for the trucking industry through the `effective life of assets declining in value' measure. It sets an effective life cap for the depreciation of trucks, truck trailers, buses and light commercial vehicles. These measures were announced by the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Transport and Regional Services and Leader of The Nationals, the Hon. John Anderson, in August 2004. At that time I expressed my absolute delight and also relief at these changes. It is an issue that I have lobbied on and advocated for some time, and I was pleased to see a great result for businesses across my electorate. By setting a life cap for the transport industry, we are able to provide it with certainty when investing in new trucks and vehicles that will go forward to meet the freight task—perhaps to 2020—and allow it to provide safety and also ensure that freight tasks are met.

The statutory effective life cap is 7.5 years for general and heavy haulage trucks; 7.5 years for general inter-city and long-distance buses; 10 years for truck trailers; and 7.5 years for light commercial vehicles, including minibuses. The effective life cap is the maximum period over which depreciation deductions can be made. Again, I would like to thank the Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. John Anderson, Leader of The Nationals, for his commitment to the industry and to this issue and for accepting the many representations that I and many other supporters of the transport industry, trucking in particular, have made to him in the past.

I would also like to single out one of John Anderson's current staff, Stuart St Clair, former member for New England, who drove this debate to completion—who was able to cut through all the rubbish in order to deliver some very good results to the transport industry. Stuart, like I am, is a very great supporter of the transport industry. Of course, as we all know, we do not have other forms of delivery mechanisms running through our supermarkets and local shops every day. We certainly do not have rail lines running through every single supermarket and every single retail outlet across Australia.

Trucking is essential for growth and competition in this nation. Safe trucking is even more essential. The Australian Truck Memorial is in Tarcutta, in my electorate. Unfortunately, every single year we have far too many new names to add to that memorial. You are only added to that memorial if you are killed on the road in a truck accident. Great credit goes to Ron Pullen and Erwin Richter and their band of volunteers, who built and maintain the truck memorial and who dedicate their time to ensuring that truck drivers are not forgotten in the history of Australia.

Truck drivers are a very important mechanism for Australia to be able to go forward competitively nationally and internationally. At times they are not given their due credit. They are the people who take to the roads day and night. They sometimes have unfair targets forced upon them. They have to leave their families day and night. That is part of their way of life. They are committed to the very great industry that they belong to. I believe that, once you become a truck driver, it is something that gets into your blood and something that you are very proud of.

It is something that all Australians should be proud of. It is not until you go to select the Vegemite on the supermarket shelf and find that the shelf is empty or go to collect the milk, the butter or the bread—the staples of life—and find that they are not available that you recognise the very valuable role that truck drivers play in the everyday economy of the Australian people. We should always recognise that we need to support the transport industry.

That was what Stuart St Clair did when he undertook to ensure that there would be a very positive outcome for the transport industry. Yes, he is a supporter of that industry, but he is also a supporter of the future of Australia and of regional Australia. He recognised that there was an absolute need for this legislation to pass through this parliament to enable suppliers and purchasers of trucks to keep up the safety mechanisms in their fleets and ensure that we minimise road accidents by not using antiquated fleets when there is not adequate depreciation and write-off and to ensure that people can economically sustain themselves in business with ever increasing costs in insurance, fuel and diesel prices and a whole host of areas in a very competitive and increasingly difficult industry. But these people are committed. I see this bill as an essential and critical part of Australia's future and nation building on behalf of the transport industry.

Wagga Wagga is a great trucking town. It has Hartwicks Trucks, which has one of the largest outlets and distribution centres in the Southern Hemisphere. There is Wagga Motors, Thomas Bros, Ron Crouch Transport, Peter Rodney and Toll, formerly Finemores Transport. There are operators like Phyl Jones in Hay, who was transport woman of the year—an amazing woman. These people and more right across my electorate will get the benefit of this piece of legislation that is going through the House today.

I do not think we can underestimate our responsibility to ensure that our trucks are as safe on the road as possible and are able to meet the freight task of the 2020s and beyond. To do that we need a combined commitment to both rail and road. Both of those should be in synergy, not in opposition. They can both work together, which is the very great benefit of the huge AusLink proposal that the Deputy Prime Minister has been championing and is in control of. All in all he has made an absolutely enormous contribution to an industry that is sometimes not so much revered but paid out on to a great extent because they are on the roadways with motorists. I suggest that motorists learn to live with trucks on the roads, simply because trucks provide the way in which you live your lifestyle. Your everyday economy relies on these people, who at all times of the day and night are risking their lives, and others, to ensure that we have product on our shelves. And woe betide us if we do not have product on our shelves. Sometimes I think it would be a great idea to have a huge truck stop where they all stopped work for a week and we did not get product into the retail marketplace. I think then we would understand and perhaps start to appreciate the great benefit that the transport industry, in particular truck drivers and their families, give to this nation.

The second issue that I would like to deal with is the change to the remote area housing benefits. This measure will greatly assist my region to attract employees to areas that are suffering from skills shortages—and, who knows, in the future there may be areas with non-skills shortages. After years of not recognising the benefits of trades and services, as I have raised in this House time and time again, and after being absolutely obsessed with the pathway into university and with academic qualifications and education, we now find that every community across Australia is experiencing serious shortages in skills in trades and services.

The Tax Laws Amendment (2005 Measures No. 1) Bill 2005 will assist us to attract some of those people into areas that are not commonly known to be able to be utilised under the remote area housing benefit and FBT exemption. Under the current legislation there is an exemption from fringe benefits tax for remote area housing if certain criteria are met. These changes today are so significant because they will amend the legislation to remove the current requirement for the provision of remote area housing by an employer to be customary in that particular industry. It is so significant, particularly for rural and regional Australia and those remote areas that have not been able to take advantage of this particularly beneficial area.

Generally, a benefit is considered customary where it is common for employees in the industry to be provided with the same or similar benefits. This amendment will provide access to the remote area housing FBT exemption by employers in industries where employer provided remote area housing is not common. That is in a great number of industries right across my electorate of Riverina. I am sure that this is going to be most welcome by many businesses and industries across Labor, Liberal and National Party electorates because it will enable them to offer far more attractive packages and incentives that will include housing.

The changes will certainly see housing being offered as an incentive for much needed staff to fill these severe skills shortages. If you are able to offer this housing and attract these professionals into this housing, that also kick-starts the building industry in those communities because all of a sudden you see construction of housing taking place. I must bring attention to an area that was in my electorate until 2001—and I worked tirelessly on its behalf—and that is Hillston. After 2001 it became part of the electorate of the member for Parkes, the fortunate John Cobb. He was able to reap the rewards of a booming community. When the building industry utilises this remote area housing FBT exemption you will then see it kick forward. You saw Hillston kick forward enormously with huge investment because it has significant access to water—its growth has been huge. The capacity for that community is now unlimited and the building industry is required in those areas.

When a piece of legislation like this is put forward it not only provides an FBT exemption but also provides small local communities with great opportunities. This then attracts professionals and kick-starts the building industry. We can build houses to attract them to those areas. Hopefully they will bring their families in. It might attract teachers and so on. The multiplier effect of a piece of legislation such as this cannot be underestimated. I am hopeful that when people debate this legislation in the House they will recognise that it is not a ho-hum piece of legislation. It is in fact very critical, very important, and it can provide enormous opportunities to rural and regional Australia.

The minister has provided those areas that are experiencing serious skills shortages and non-skills shortages, and those industries in those areas that have been unable to employ skilled staff to fill crucial positions within their businesses, with an enormous opportunity with the flow-on value-added benefits of this piece of legislation. Industries are desperate to secure those staff members and they have made their voices clearly heard. This opportunity to offer housing without attracting fringe benefits tax will make the situation much more attractive to all of these industries.

I commend the minister for putting forward these changes. I think that, in essence, what we have here is somebody who recognises that, without assistance, rural and regional areas in particular are not going to be able to remain competitive into the future. We cannot all live in congested and crowded cities. We have a quality of life but also a quality of output in regional Australia that is recognised now by this bill. It also will give us added value and added capacity to be able to continue to build to ensure that communities do not deplete in size over the years when they may not be able to attract those skills that are required. As I said, I commend both ministers responsible for this tax laws amendment bill and I am sure that regional Australia in the future will recognise just how significant this bill is.