Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am pleased to be following the member for Whitlam, who really gave a good analysis of the current constitutional situation that we do have with the Deputy Prime Minister's invalid status as we know it. Mr Deputy Speaker Hogan, as you know, I am critical of the National party on some occasions in this House, but even I was surprised when the Deputy Prime Minister stood up and basically said that he doesn't really have a right to be here because he is in fact a citizen of New Zealand. Even I was surprised at the extent of the sloppiness of such an incident.

As the previous speaker highlighted and outlined, how could it have come to this? How could this be the situation that we are facing in our current parliament? It really reflects on the lack of detail by the Deputy Prime Minister, and he is quite rightly being constantly criticised for that—it was a massive oversight, and it does reflect on the status of the bill as well, not just the House. That is a starting point that we should be looking at—we do need to highlight the fact that we are in a very difficult constitutional position, with perhaps the Deputy Prime Minister's election being invalid, and perhaps he shouldn't actually be in the House at all.

Having said that, I will turn to the Regional Investment Corporation Bill. I support the amendment moved by the member for Hunter. It's important to note that this bill is all about the government putting their political interests ahead of Australia's farmers and people living in regional Australia. That is essentially what it is about. As I have pointed out in this House many times before, the National Party regularly fails regional Australia on so many issues. I've also said many times that National Party choices hurt—and, indeed, they do across a whole range of issues. But we have to remember that this bill is all about political interests, not actually about protecting those people who live in regional and rural Australia.

The bill seeks to establish the Regional Investment Corporation, and supposedly this entity will hold responsibility for administering farm business loans and, on the government's behalf, will administer grants of financial assistance to the states and territories for water infrastructure projects. Let's have a look at the background. It was back in June 2016 that the Deputy Prime Minister said the coalition is:

… committed to streamlining Commonwealth financing and concessional loan processing to enable new dams to be financed quickly and ensure drought loans are speedily approved to help farmers in need.

Later on I will get to the issue of the coalition's, and particularly the National Party's, obsession with dams, and I would like to highlight one of their previous attempts to build a major dam in my electorate of Richmond in northern New South Wales 10 years ago. It is still a major issue within our region and one of the many reasons the National Party aren't trusted with their plans to build a major dam. We will get to that in a little while. I will go back to what the Deputy Prime Minister said. He went on to state:

The Regional Investment Corporation will be established as the single administrator for the $4.5 billion in Agriculture and Water Resources portfolio financing and concessional loans initiatives.

That is what he said as background, but in actual fact the Deputy Prime Minister wants to spend $4 billion on a federal government organisation that will replicate what the individual states and Northern Territory are actually already doing. So, in fact, the Regional Investment Corporation is just another pork-barrel by the Deputy Prime Minister and the National Party, which only aims to serve a political purpose—that's it. They have $4 billion for these political purposes and $4 billion to replicate what the states are essentially doing. But, whilst they are doing that, we're seeing a lack of investment in the communities that need it, particularly in our rural and regional areas. What about seniors, many of whom are struggling to get access to basic home care packages and are often forced to wait to access their age pension? What about locals in my home state of New South Wales—your home state too, Deputy Speaker Hogan—who have got increased electricity prices due to the Liberal-National Party sell-off of the poles and wires? What about support for them? It's all about priorities.

What we are seeing with this bill is priorities about political purposes, not priorities about services that people throughout the country and regional Australia need. Remember, this is the government that's also cutting funding for our TAFEs, our apprenticeships and our schools. It's a government that's got plans for $100,000 university degrees. Indeed, the government could be using these much-needed funds to protect Medicare or invest in our hospitals. The Deputy Prime Minister wants to spend this money on a federal government organisation that will replicate what's already in place. I think many speakers have highlighted that. As we have said, this organisation will administer the loans for water infrastructure projects, and these concessional loans will be administered from 1 July 2018, but they have already been delivered by the states and Northern Territory governments and will be continued to be administered by them.

The government contend that the establishment of the RIC will pressure the banks to provide increased support for farmers doing it tough, and the Deputy Prime Minister assures us that the process of financing dams and approving drought loans will be made a lot easier—that's what he's saying. He alleges also that the RIC manifests their commitment to agriculture. They would like us to have the impression that this supposed largesse represents a significant investment in agriculture, a claim that was further outlined in their self-titled 'landmark' agriculture white paper. They are saying that the investment is in excess of $4 billion. The white paper was not only long overdue but monumentally disappointing. It was in short a huge calamity, a failure of epic proportions. The bulk of the $4 billion actually consists of concessional loans that farmers are not taking up. This begs the question: why are farmers choosing not to take up the concessional loans in their current format? It is because both their design and the application process have been problematic. As per the Liberal-National government's usual ad hoc approach, they failed to properly consult or to understand whether their drought loan scheme would be attractive to the drought affected farmers, those who actually need it the most.

The RIC would pose the same challenges, given that it is basically the same scheme. The most important criteria that applicants need to meet concern the viability of the farm business. By the time these businesses get to the RIC, meeting these criteria would, indeed, be almost impossible. This is just $4 billion of administrative pork barrelling that will not really assist or streamline the process of farmers getting the help that they need.

We are, of course, talking about investments in dams and water infrastructure. As I said earlier, I want to highlight a big issue in relation to this in my electorate. We will turn our minds back 10 years when the then environment minister, now the Prime Minister, wanted to put a massive dam in the middle of my electorate. It was a huge issue that really goes to the heart of the coalition's obsession with dams. It still is a major community issue. The then environment minister in the Howard government was leading the charge to build a massive dam on the Oxley River, near the beautiful village of Tyalgum, in order to pipe water to South-East Queensland. There was a huge community response. We had massive marches, community meetings and petitions. The community were absolutely opposed to this and made their voices clear. Labor came out early and said we wouldn't allow that to happen, that we were opposed to building the dam in Tyalgum. As I said, it is still an issue that comes up quite a lot, and it really goes to the heart, particularly in my electorate in northern New South Wales, of the National Party's obsession about dams. In fact, they still have an obsession about building a dam at Byrill Creek. The National Party, at all levels of government, are pushing very hard to build another dam there, which is my electorate, and I can report to the House that Labor, at all levels of government, whether federal, state or local, oppose this dam as well for a whole variety of reasons. First, of course, are the environmental concerns, but there are financial concerns as well. It would be a massive impost on ratepayers in our area. This will continue for many years as well, and Labor are very clear on our position. We will continue to criticise the National Party's obsession with the dam at Byrill Creek, just as we continue to highlight their actions back in 2007. Many people in my region remember that the current Prime Minister was the one who wanted to dam northern New South Wales.

It is important to highlight that in the context of this bill. It is a stark reminder that the National Party do not have the farmers' best interests at heart. They simply don't care about the needs of those people, because they continue to assert that the RIC loans will not be the same as those currently offered by the states and the Territory. As we have said, there is no discernible difference. In addition, the loans are for a period of 10 years and, following that period, the farm business will need to negotiate with the bank for further assistance.

As per its usual fiscal irresponsibility, the government has not undertaken genuine consultation about the functions and obligations of the Regional Investment Corporation, including where it will be located. We have had a number of people raise this issue, and we have raised it because it is of real concern. The Deputy Prime Minister has been traipsing around Orange declaring that having the RIC there makes sense. It is hard to see how he can make these sweeping statements when there's been no discernible cost-benefit analysis of the ongoing price tag. The government has chosen to arbitrarily establish the corporation in Orange, where—what a coincidence!—the National Party member for Calare has his seat. This random resolution was obviously made using the same type of decision or order used to relocate the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to the Deputy Prime Minister's own electorate of New England—or 'New Zealand', as everyone's been saying today.

Of course, the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee found that decision should be rescinded and also recommended that the finance minister should apply greater scrutiny to future requests such as these, and this would and should include a cost-benefit analysis. In circumstances where that cost-benefit analysis could identify a net gain from the proposed order, the finance minister would then compel the relevant minister to explain the grounds on which the order was made. For a person from regional Australia, of course, it is always good to see new entities there, but what we also have to have is transparency and a clear process. Obviously, we haven't seen it in either of these cases, and it is something this government seems to keep doing. What we need to have is a clearer, transparent process.

The Senate committee's inquiry into the relocation of the APVMA also heard evidence provided by key scientific industry and agriculture stakeholders about their real concerns about the loss of expert regulatory scientists. Such concerns that are raised with the Deputy Prime Minister tend to get ignored. He is just not interested in hearing any of these claims. He's claiming that the RIC will help fast-track the construction of all these projects and provide all of this investment and economic growth to so many regions, and it really shows, yet again, this government's lack of understanding or concern for transparency, oversight and proper planning. They lack an appreciation of what's really needed in those regional areas.

In contrast, under Labor, we will ensure that farmers do not have to go through another expensive government organisation for vital assistance. The government are just providing another roadblock for people to get assistance. We have said we will continue with those loans in full, and instead of wasting time and money on new organisations we will seek to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery by working with the states on this to try and streamline the process, to make it easier and to make sure help is getting to the areas where it is required. It is only Labor that can be trusted to look after our farming communities and regional and rural Australia. We have said that we can deliver much more cost-effective, efficient and much needed assistance to the farming and agricultural sector.

The Deputy Prime Minister and those in the National Party are consumed with all of their internal concerns, starting with their leader, who, as we've said, is not even validly in the House. It continues on to all of the concerns and the internal infighting within the National Party. They are totally consumed with themselves and have no concern at all for what's actually happening. There are so many real issues in regional and rural Australia, many of which have been imposed by this government and by this National Party. They need to take full responsibility for all of those funding cuts in vital areas like education and health. They are responsible for the cuts to penalty rates, which are destroying regional economies. We are seeing a whole range of issues. In my state, New South Wales, we are seeing that at a state and a federal level as well.

So, people in country areas are really saying that they are fully aware of what the National Party are not doing for them, and they are also fully aware that the National Party are very consumed with their own internal dynamics. People in country areas are angry and disappointed, particularly with the Deputy Prime Minister's actions of late and his sloppiness with his citizenship issues. It has made the National Party a laughing-stock in the state and the country, and obviously within his electorate as well. It highlights all the issues that many of us have raised about the fact that the National Party are just not up to it. They can't even get their paperwork right, for goodness sake. How can they govern the country? They can't even get the basics right. And they have stopped listening to what people are saying—they have stopped listening to their concerns.

But I can tell people in country Australia that Labor continues to listen, because we do have a strong commitment to what they need within the regions—to what families who are doing it tough need. Labor is listening and we are delivering so many policies that will help regional and rural Australia, because we understand, because we listen, and because our job here is to deliver for them. There is a very stark contrast between us and the National Party, who are consumed at the moment with the Deputy Prime Minister and the invalid status of his presence in this House.

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