LNP Conference Brisbane
11th July, 2014
Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney, LNP President Bruce McIver, Nationals Federal President Christine Ferguson, my federal and state parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,Given that this is the first LNP conference since the federal election, I must first thank everybody in the party across Queensland for the contribution you made to help us achieve last September's great election result.
In the final analysis it is always the hard work done at the local level that is the bed-rock of any political victory: Winning needs active branches, strong campaign committees, and people prepared to do the work - to knock on doors, to do the letter box drop, to work on the postals and absentees, to man the booths, and raise the money that's so necessary in this day and age to run a successful campaign.
All of that hard work you did is very much appreciated: Its value is understood.
And I want to thank, and acknowledge, the effort, especially, of our candidates - your candidates: With them - you comprehensively consolidated the gains of 2010 - and played a key role in delivering a new government.
After the 2007 election the Coalition had just 13 seats -Labor had 15.
After 2010 we had 21, Labor 8.
Now, we have 22 - and Labor has just six.
This is evidence of a terrific effort, with many highlights.
Michelle Landry took Capricornia from Labor.
Luke Howarth took Petrie from Labor.
Keith Pitt won the always marginal seat of Hinkler.
Mal Brough is back after taking Fisher from Peter Slipper.
The loss of Fairfax, in a razor edge result, to PUP, restricted us to a net gain of one, but there were many other remarkable efforts which deserve to be formally put on the record.
We consolidated, in every instance, the gains of 2010:
Ross Vasta won again in Bonner....
Teresa Gambaro won again in Brisbane....
George Christensen won again in Dawson...
Ken O'Dowd won again in Flynn....
Bert Van Manen repeated his 2010 win in Forde....
Warren Entsch did it in Leichhardt....
And Wyatt Roy in Longman.....
All of those repeat wins were fantastic, but Bert deserves a special mention for so convincingly dispatching Peter Beattie - who was ostensibly one of Kevin Rudd's secret weapons, but who proved to be more buzz bomb than V2 - as most thinking Queenslanders already knew.
And every seat that Labor still holds is now marginal.
Griffith, formerly held by Kevin Rudd, was reduced from a 58% seat in 2010 to a 53% seat after 2013 - through the remarkable campaign by Bill Glasson - and to under 52% after another terrific effort from Bill and the LNP in the by-election that followed Kevin Rudd's resignation.
The former Labor Treasurer's seat of Lilley is now held by Wayne Swan by just over 1% - and most of the short remaining list are in that 1% to 3% range.
Noelene Ikin (with a 14 per cent swing on primaries) has made Kennedy marginal, held by the incumbent by just 2.2 per cent and certainly stripped the Katter Party of any remaining relevance.
You also helped deliver us a good result in the Senate, where we now have the seasoned Ian Macdonald, at the head of the ticket, back alongside two new faces - James McGrath and Matt Canavan who were sworn in this week and will make their first speeches next week.
And of course, in talking of the Senate, I need to formally welcome Barrie O'Sullivan - who has taken Barnaby Joyce's place in the Senate and has already been appointed as Nationals Senate Whip.
Barnaby gave up the balance of his term and near certainty of re-election to the Senate for Queensland to take on what was a formidable task - beating Tony Windsor in the seat of New England: anything but a sure thing, even with the government that Windsor had supported so on the nose.
But Windsor blinked, quickly, which speaks volumes, and that helped pave the way for a remarkable result.
Barnaby won New England with a 2PP result of 70.71% -among the biggest majorities in the land.
Barnaby is now a Cabinet Minister, he's Deputy Leader of The Nationals, a member of the leadership group of the Government, and he's doing a great job - quickly learning the different ways of the House of Representatives.
May I also acknowledge the retirement of three of our Federal Parliamentary colleagues.
Senator Sue Boyce - someone always willing to stand up for what she believed in, even if others did not agree, and a champion for people with disabilities and the NDIS.
Paul Neville - who joined our Party at 17 years of age, State President of the Young Country Party, won the marginal seat of Hinkler and kept winning it, and when he retired had built a double digit majority.
Paul gave a lifetime of service to our Party organisation at every level.
Our Party Room has lost one of its biggest contributors and also its best storyteller and operatic singer.
We must also today pay homage to another of Queensland's favourite sons: Ron Boswell, who has reached the other end of his career.
Ron was the Father of the Senate, and the sixth longest serving Senator in the history of the Chamber, he was also the father of The Nationals Party Room as well, and, I think by general acclamation, one the most committed, passionate and effective people to have ever gone to Canberra from Queensland- or from anywhere else.
Ron received a standing ovation at his last joint-party room meeting, in his final week, and it was not only richly deserved, it truly symbolised the respect, the esteem, that Ron earned, across party lines, throughout his 31 years in the parliament.
He was the 'humble paintbrush salesman' battling, typically, for the small man against the big.
We will not see his like again and we wish Ron and Leita good health and every happiness in their retirement.
Ladies and gentlemen, we were elected last September, with your help, with a clear mandate - which was to get our country moving again, to restore our Budget, and to build a better life for all Australians.
We promised to get our finances back in order to build the sort of strong and prosperous economy that's absolutely essential if we are to have a secure nation, and to build the business opportunities that create the jobs - that in turn provide the opportunity for personal independence and prosperity.
We promised more opportunities for people to be able to lift- less need to lean.
We had an economic-action strategy which is designed to strengthen the economy and to take pressure off families and to provide better opportunities for business - and families.
You all know that after six years of Labor waste and mismanagement, the legacy was six record budget deficits, totalling $239 billion.
Labor transformed a history of surpluses and savings to a litany of deficits and debt in just two terms.
Despite promising more than 500 times that Labor would (or already had) deliver a Budget surplus - they never did.
And Labor and the Greens and many of the Independents do not want us to deliver a surplus either!
They have already demonstrated an intention to reject in the Senate more than $50 billion over four years of the savings we announced in the 2014 Budget - including several measures they announced in their own Budgets but never legislated
Our debt was headed for $667 billion in a decade - if Labor's spending path was maintained and we ignored the need to tackle the debt.
We are already paying $1 billion a month now, just to cover interest.
Without remedial action, that $1 billion will become $3 billion.
At a time when business wants assurance and certainty, the Senate is creating uncertainty
When the economy needs confidence - a government that can govern - Labor, the Greens and minor parties are denying us the opportunity for a new start.
Now, Labor and some others think that those dreadful numbers don't matter - that debt is not important.
If we were to put aside $1 per second do you know how long it would take to pay off all Labor's projected $667 billion debt?
More than 20,000 years
I have noted items on the agenda for this convention which delegates will say we can't afford.
You know that if we didn't have to pay $1 billion a month in interest - they may be affordable.
We could fund our entire ten year plan to fix the Bruce Highway, if we didn't have to pay that interest.
We could build the Snowy Mountain Scheme, which had cost $1.1 billion when completed in 1974 every month if we weren't paying interest on the debt that Labor racked up in just six years.
So our Budget has, as its key central focus, rebuilding, restoring our economy and giving our country the chance it needs to create a better future.
Our aim is to trim growth in recurrent expenditure and invest more in building infrastructure and greater self-reliance in the future.
We had to make tough decisions because otherwise things would have got infinitely worse.
Even with Labor's big Budget deficits, they were passing off to the future - outside of the forward estimates - the big increases in expenditure for the programs Labor promised.
Federally, our Budget provides figures for four years.
Labor couldn't balance the Budget but they were promising in five years' time big increases in expenditure - outside their Budget period.
You have heard of the Gonski education reforms, for instance. The big ramp up in expenditure was in years five and six.
The hospital deal with the states promised big increases in expenditure but in year five and beyond.
They kept talking about how they were boosting foreign aid, but it only started in their years five and six and beyond.
Labor was ordering Defence equipment, but it wasn't paid for in the forward estimates. It was all way out there in the future.
Labor claimed it had established a National Disability Insurance Scheme but, in fact, the new funding was not new - it was beyond their Budget estimates.
The trouble for us, of course, is that Labor's year five was year four in our first Budget.
We had to bring it to account.
We had to deal with this massive ramp up in expenditure, which was scheduled for the years beyond Labor's Budget period.
And so that's why a lot of these decisions just had to be made. They had to be made now because they could no longer be put off.
The decisions were often hard for us to make - but we have tried to be fair to share the burden.
Pensioners are not going to feel any reductions in their pension.
Pensions will continue to rise every March and every September on exactly the same indexes for at least another three years.
Beyond then, we have to deal with some of the structural issues that are affecting our economy.
You know that by 2050 there will be twice as many people in our country over 65 years of age as there are now.
There will be four times as many people over 85 as there are now.
One in three children born today can expect to live to 100.
Now, if we're going to provide a safety net for the people who are living much longer than they did previously, and will be a much larger proportion of the population, then we have to make sure that there is a plan to be able to fund those benefits.
Bill Shorten said in his Budget Reply Speech - and there wasn't too much in it that was memorable - but one thing he did say was that by 2050 there would be two-and-a-half people in the workforce for every one living in retirement - two and a half only in the workforce for every one living in retirement.
You know, we live longer because we have better medical treatment, but the medical treatment is more expensive and we want to have the best for everyone.
We've got a right to expect a higher standard of living as the years go by.
So we must make sure that what we need is affordable; that the safety net is sustainable for the long term.
And that means having an economic strategy to ensure that those who are able to care for themselves are encouraged and supported to do so, but that there is a solid and secure safety net to catch those who, for one reason or another, have not been able to put aside for themselves and will need some kind of additional help - or those with disabilities or are disadvantaged who will always require the help of their fellow citizens.
We want - indeed we can only have - a welfare system that is sustainable and manageable. We want people to work and care for themselves as much as they can.
That's why we are creating the Green Army and rebuilding the Work for the Dole programme.
But we will still meet our obligation to be a caring and fair society, and to make sure that for those who need help, that help will be available.
I know there has been suggestions that the Federal Budget has placed an unfair burden on local government and on the states and I do acknowledge that this is a Budget that contains some pain.
We have had to cut many of our own programmes to try to make our finances sustainable.
And there is a new tax levy on higher income earners so that they will pay a larger share of the burden.
But just so the debate can be put in proper context, let me give you a couple of facts.
Next financial year Queensland will receive more than $21.5 billion in funding from the Federal Government - a real increase of 5.5 per cent.
Hospital funding to Queensland in the last Labor budget was $2.74 billion.
In our first Budget, it's up 13% to $3 billion.
In the following year the increase will be almost 10 per cent and in 2016-17 another 10 per cent.
Hospital funding, by the end of the cycle, will be up over $1 billion - or 40 per cent higher - than what it was in the last Labor budget .
There's a similar trajectory for school funding.
Overall funding for government schools will be up by 69% over the forward estimates, from 2013-14.
The increase for non-government schools will be 35 per cent, for an overall increase in schools funding of 47 per cent over the forward estimates, using Labor's last Budget as the base.
We are restoring the $794 million Bill Shorten took away from Queensland schools in the dying days of the Labor Government.
In this Budget, we have also honoured our election mandate by making significant taxation cuts. Tax cuts will deliver $5.7 billion in savings to the taxpayers including a one and a half per cent cut in company tax.
The abolition of the carbon tax will save an average $550 a year for every Australian household.
And we are abolishing the Mining Tax including the unfunded expenditure programmes that Labor said would be paid for by this tax, which has not raised any money.
The centrepiece of this budget is our $50 billion infrastructure package.
And let me say, as Infrastructure Minister, I'm very proud of that package and I know it's going to deliver real benefits right across the nation: in our cities, in our country, in the most remote parts of the nation.
Queensland will receive $13.4 billion of that package - or just over a quarter.
I won't list all the major projects that we will fund, many in partnership with Queensland Government.
The Budget delivers on our $8.7 billion joint commitment to the Bruce Highway.
45 new projects will be funded plus ongoing funds for 16 others.
The Gateway Motorway North will get receive another $1 billion; the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing almost $1.3 billion and the Warrego Highway over half a billion.
There is more money for the Ipswich Motorway and $210 million for a Cape York package - and funding to complete the Moreton Bay Rail Link and start planning the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail project.
The popular Roads to Recovery programme will provide $2.5 billion to Councils for their local roads.
There will be a double payment in 2015-16 to help councils get ahead of some of the backlog of works they face.
$565 million will be provided, nationally, for the road Black Spots program, and a round of projects have already been announced to get rid of the worst accident areas on state and local roads across the country.
We will also be beginning this next financial year our new $300 million Bridges Renewal program to enable repairs and replacement of some of the bridges that are falling down around the nation.
The Heavy Vehicle Productivity program, which will build more passing lanes, build more rest stops and more road facilities for the heavy transport industry around the country will receive a funding boost.
And let me remind you that all of the money that is proposed to come from excise indexation will be hypothecated to roads.
Our commitments to agriculture includes a $100 million competitive grants program for increased applied research and technology; $20 million for a stronger bio-security and quarantine system; $15 million to support small exporters with export costs to help them remain competitive;
$8 million to assist with the registration of chemicals, both agricultural and veterinary, that are so critical to modern farming; and $9 million for a new fisheries project, including OceanWatch.
We have also secured a $320 million drought package to help those parts, particularly in Queensland and New South Wales that are suffering from drought so severely at the present time.
And there will be $2 billion to continue the national land care program, our new Green Army and working for the country projects.
The Green Paper on expanding development in Northern Australia has been released for comment.
A White Paper is also being developed on the future of agriculture.
We are determined to improve both access, and management regimes, for water - especially for productive use in the regions.
These are areas neglected by Labor, because they either simply didn't have the commitment - or indeed were negative about further development of natural resources.
On top of all of that, our $1 billion national Stronger Regions program will commence next financial year and provide funding for projects right across the nation to help, particularly, those communities where unemployment is high or there's a low socioeconomic status.
So the Budget has a lot of positive messages.
It includes the tough decisions that have had to be made but it does demonstrate that, as a government, we've got confidence in our nation.
We believe that with help and support from a government that actually believes in the progress and development of our nation that we can, indeed, secure a strong future for all Australians.
The core message that I want to leave with you today is the determination of our Cabinet room and our party room to back the Budget because we deeply believe that what we are doing is crucial in terms of where our country is headed.
My message to the Senate is to let us get on with delivering what we were given a mandate by the voters to do.
My message to Labor is, don't compound your awful legacy by denying us the opportunity to make an early start on repairing the mess.
Labor sought to create the myth that everybody could have whatever they wanted, when they wanted it, and it could go on forever.
I believe that Australians are intrinsically not leaners; we are lifters.
We all want to do our part to build a better country. If we take the easy road or the popular route, as Rudd and Gillard and Independents tried, we won't arrive at any kind of utopia, we will end up where they were taking us: a fool's paradise, where all the roads to utopia inevitably lead.
So it is important for us to stay the course. We have got to deal pragmatically with the tough calls. It's crucial that we do it.
Campbell Newman and Jeff Seeney here are setting about that task - just as we are.
We've got to get on with the job of making sure we have a strong country and then keeping it that way.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
