Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Member for Gorton, I wouldn't mind—and pay it at the personal tax rate. Pay 47 cents in the dollar rather than 30. These are discussions we need to have over time. These are sensible discussions. Right now, company tax is a flow-through mechanism. These are some of the serious discussions that I am sure we will take on over time, with a tax review due.

The last thing I want to talk about is going to university versus getting a trade. Tonight in this place we have been speaking on a bill to do with university education. I come from a part of Sydney that right now, and you have read it in the papers in the last month, is enduring a drastic shortage of trade labour—brickies, plumbers, gyprockers and sparkies. Coming from Western Sydney, one of the best things that I have seen that has not has been spoken about tonight is the expansion of the HELP scheme into trades in the first 12 months. It needs to happen. We need a structure. I am the first generation of my family to go to university. There is an ideal that your children should to go to university. But there should be no stigma attached to getting a trade. It should be supported. Look at the history of trades in this country.

In my electorate of Reid we took massive amounts of post-World War II Greek and Italian immigrants. They were the brickies and gyprockers, the backbone on which my local communities of Five Dock, Concord and all these different places were built. My father was desperate for me to go to university. He had a son in year 10, with two years of school to go and no idea what he wanted to do—in fact, truth be told, he wanted to be an actor! He wanted me to have any opportunity that I wanted. It is not 'force it down your throat, go to uni or do nothing at all. And if you do not go to uni, you are not in some way bettering or maximising your potential.'

After 12 months in the job, I am proud to be part of a government that inherited a mess. Yes, we have structural budget problems. Yes, we need to have sensible and serious debate in this country. Yes, we need to listen to a vast array of people from a variety of backgrounds. But we must always do one thing—aim our policies and government at making this country a better place for our children because, in the short time we are here, we are just looking after it for them.

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