Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was going to start off my contribution by going through some of the good programs that are contained within Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2010-2011 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2010-2011, but, having sat here and listened to the drivel that I have just listened to, I have to respond. I have to put on record some things in response to what the honourable member was just talking about. First of all, he started talking about regional development. He was saying that the government is not doing anything in regional development. As he was talking, I cast my mind back to 1997, when the coalition were in government, having been elected in 1996. What did they do for regional development? They just axed the department! That is what they did for regional development. That is how much they cared about it. This is the National Party, who say they are the natural party of the bush. They say one thing and do another.

Then the honourable member talked about there being some disillusionment with things in regions and local councils. What did this government do? It funded a Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program, which operates through local councils. Local councils put up their priorities, as determined by local communities through the councils, and there is money, real money, in it—hundreds of millions of dollars. In my electorate of Page there are small projects, and some larger ones, all over the electorate—which has five local government areas—where that money is being rolled out. We have a Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, who worked in the area in a previous government. We are rolling the programs out.

Then I listened to the words on the NBN. I heard from the coalition that when they were in government they had the OPEL plan, and had that been implemented all would have been well and we would all have 12 megabits per second of broadband. They had 12 years; they had 18 plans. And what happened? Nothing. So to listen to them is to—

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