Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her contribution. I think this is going to be very good. It works on the back of the inquiry we have had in the Senate, which was also premised on decentralisation and premised on what we can do for regional areas. In the Nationals we are very much focused on making sure that we continue with a process of decentralisation, and people would note the work we are doing with RIRDC, going to Wagga; with GRDC, going to Toowoomba, to Dubbo and to Northam in Western Australia; with APVMA, going to Armidale; and with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, with the decentralisation to Wodonga, to Adelaide and to Toowoomba. The centre of our party's purpose is the development of regional Australia, and we are very proud of the work we are doing there—even recently, the announcement of the Regional Investment Corporation in Orange, which will be capitalised to $4 billion.

With all this, the more that we can get other people to put their shoulder to our wheel in driving this agenda the better, because we know that there is always a tendency that it oscillates—at other times people go back to centralisation. There is never an inquiry about how they close down post offices or close down services and move them out of regional areas and back into major cities. There has to be a concerted push, when the opportunity arises, to decentralise back out to regional areas.

I would never be so bold as to say that this is something peculiar to the National Party. Without a shadow of a doubt the Labor Party themselves have been instrumental in decentralisation. The Albury-Wodonga push by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was a clear example of that. We have also had the Department of Minerals and Energy that went to Maitland. We have had the Labor Party moving other departments into the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. All of these I agree with. All of these I think make abundant sense. It makes sense for a section of the minerals department in New South Wales to be in Maitland, because that is where the coalmines are. That is where it should be.

This is something where, if we as a government and in a bipartisan way can drive an agenda of decentralisation then we make our nation a stronger place, because the essence of our nation only exists in a form of decentralisation in its primary aspects of closer settlement. The idea of a penal colony at Sydney was a policy of a government—not a policy of our government; a policy of an English government—but that is precisely how the closer settlement of Australia came about.

The only reason where we are right now—Canberra—is here is the policy of government. There was no natural inclination for the creation of our nation's capital on the banks of the Molonglo River, but what an incredible jewel it is for our nation now. In fact, it was part of the process that the nation's capital had to be more than 100 miles from Sydney or Melbourne. It was one of the reasons why we are where we are at this moment. Now, with around 380,000 people living in Canberra, I think less than 40 per cent of its GDP is to do with the public service. It is growing under its own speed now, and that is a great outcome.

We support this inquiry. This inquiry adds to the work that has been done by the Labor Party and works on the whole premise of the National Party, which is a party for Regional Australia. It works off the back of the Senate inquiry. I want to commend the work that has been done by the Deputy Leader of the National Party, Senator Fiona Nash. She has done a power of work in this space. Also, Senator Bridge McKenzie has been working so hard in this space. We are only too happy to support people across the parliamentary spectrum who share in this goal of decentralisation.

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