Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on measures in the budget that will help provide essential services to remote communities in my electorate of Durack and around the country?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Durack for her question. Australia is one of the most urbanised nations in the world and yet we have an affinity with our great outback and those who live in remote parts of our country. It is especially important that governments recognise those people living in remote locations and provide the kinds of services and facilities that they have a right to expect.

In the budget significant funding was provided for roads in outback communities, both for highways and their local roads. The Outback Way was amongst those to be funded—Australia's longest short cut, from Cairns to Perth—and many other significant projects will also receive funding.

But there are many people who live in locations across remote and isolated parts of the country which cannot be serviced reliably by road and which are dependent upon air services just to receive their daily goods, food, education materials, mail and urgent supplies. In this budget the federal government provided an additional $5.9 million to top up the Remote Air Services Subsidy Scheme for remote communities. This scheme actually services 366 remote locations and 260 direct services to particular locations, with light aircraft carrying not only passengers but also these essential supplies to these stations and Aboriginal communities. There are around 100 Aboriginal communities serviced through this scheme and it enables them to get the basic supplies that they need. The scheme covers: in the Northern Territory, the Gulf Country; in Queensland, Cape York; in South Australia, the APY and Channel Country areas; in Tasmania, nearby Cape Barren Island; and, of particular reference to the member for Durack, the Kimberley, the Pilbara and the desert country regions around Western Australia. There are 62 services in her electorate alone. This scheme provides a significant benefit to those communities. But we are doing more.

There is $33.7 million of new funding over the next four years under the Remote Airstrip Upgrade Program so that the Flying Doctor Service and other essential air services can be provided to some of these really remote communities. And for the Flying Doctor Service itself there is an extra $20 million over the next two years to increase its funding to $68 million per annum so that a 'mantle of safety' can be provided for people in remote communities.

This is a government that cares about those people who are out of sight and out of mind of the cities. We are providing services that really matter and are absolutely essential to life in these communities.