Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. While the government is offering concessional loans to small businesses damaged by floods and the cyclone, it is offering no assistance to the thousands of small businesses affected financially but not physically. Small businesses such as tourism operators, trucking companies and shopkeepers in cut-off towns are suffering from a serious loss of income and their workers are at risk of losing their livelihoods. Will the Prime Minister consider taking up the opposition’s constructive policy proposal to extend $100,000 concessional loans to these businesses so they can get back on their feet and keep local people employed?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question and indicate, in part, the answer that I gave the Leader of the Opposition. I do want to be clear with the parliament about the ability of people to apply for the disaster income subsidy arrangement—that is, the arrangement for 13 weeks of assistance if people are not able to go about their ordinary trade because of circumstances like being cut off by floodwaters. The assistance that the government is already providing is not quite as confined as the way the member phrased his question. I do not seek to make a big issue of that, but I did not want anybody to be confused about the circumstances in which you can get that recovery payment. That does flow, for example, when people have been cut off and are simply unable for some period of time to get to their ordinary place of work.

Can I reiterate what I said to the Leader of the Opposition. We understand that there are impacts broadly in the regions that have been hit by these disasters. We particularly understand that in the region hit by the cyclone. I have seen it from the air myself: acres and acres as far as the eye can see with every tree snapped in half and consequently all of the loss of production that that is going to mean for banana growers and the like. I have seen that damage and I do understand that that will press on people. But we do want to design any additional assistance both in consultation with the Queensland government—because under our Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements we work in partnership on the recovery—and in consultation with the local community.

On the package available under Cyclone Larry, even in the few hours I was in the region last Friday and able to talk to people, I had people give me feedback that they thought it was a good package and it worked for them. I had one person give me feedback that it had not worked for her and her business. When you get that kind of feedback, you obviously do want to do the consultation that will enable you to structure assistance so that we can best work with local needs and make a difference to them.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. What action is the government taking to rebuild my community and how will the government ensure that we get value for money?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Oxley for his question. Of course he and the area he represents were very much affected by floodwaters; indeed, the member for Oxley’s electorate office was flooded, meaning that he needed to keep working, representing his community and assisting them during this natural disaster, whilst dealing with a natural disaster in his own electorate office. I am sure everybody wishes him well as he recovers from that. I think we can all imagine what it would be like to have our office cut off and full of floodwaters as we were trying to go about assisting our community at the same time.

To the member for Oxley I can say the following: we have the right plan to rebuild the nation as it recovers from this devastating summer. We have found savings within the budget and we have taken the tough decisions we need in order to make those savings available to support rebuilding. The rest we are asking Australians to share. We are asking Australians to share through a one-off temporary levy. I do note—and people should—that the levy is one-off and temporary. It will last for one year and one year precisely. The vast majority of Australian taxpayers will be asked for less than a dollar a week. People with income of $50,000 and under will not be asked to contribute at all. We have also rephased infrastructure. We have done that in consultation with state governments because we need to make sure that, as well as having the money to rebuild, we have the skills necessary to rebuild—the necessary skilled workers available to get out there and do the construction that we need. Consequently, rephasing infrastructure is not just about government expenditure. It is also about capacity constraints and making sure that we are making available the skilled labour we need. We have also taken some decisions in relation to skilled migration and in relation to unemployed Australians and getting them where they can get a job rebuilding from these devastating natural disasters around the country.

I am asked about value for money, and I want to make sure that every taxpayer dollar gets value for money and does the most work. That is why we are ensuring that at every level there is clear accountability and value for money. First, we are creating a reconstruction inspectorate, and I thank former New South Wales Premier and former federal Minister for Finance and Administration John Fahey for taking my invitation to chair that reconstruction inspectorate.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is obviously a very popular choice in the parliament! He will be joined by Martin Albrecht, a former managing director of Thiess, and he will also be joined by Matt Sheerin, who leads the Queensland audit practice of the global firm Deloitte. In addition, we have two very high quality nominees on the board of the Queensland reconstruction authority: Mr Brad Orgill, a former chair and CEO of UBS Australia and the person who oversaw the BER implementation taskforce; and Glenys Beauchamp, the Secretary of the Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government. We have made Major General Mick Slater available to chair the reconstruction authority. We will also have a national partnership agreement with clear accountabilities for expenditure. We will make sure that expenditure and statements are certified by the Auditor-General before payments are made. It is my intention to make sure through these arrangements that we are deriving value for money as we rebuild from the devastating summer that has been.