John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the private member's business motion put forward by Ms McGowan, the member for Indi. It relates to the difficulties faced by regional Australia, and calls for government to provide assistance. I would go as far as to say that I acknowledge her statement regarding the importance of regional businesses and industry and the turbulent global market. There are very few businesses that are not global anymore, particularly in agriculture and mining. In fact, everything we do in regional Australia is influenced hugely by the global market.

Ms McGowan has called upon the government to prioritise investment in regional infrastructure and provide additional capacity to fulfill what is obviously an immediate but also long-term vision. I do not doubt her sincerity in that, not for one second. However, unlike the previous speaker, the shadow minister for infrastructure, I do not believe it has happened until recently in current politics. Taking my own electorate into account for a while, Calare is one of the powerhouses of Australia: it is where mining, energy production, agriculture, manufacturing, forestry and transport, not to mention tourism—or 'visitorism', as I sometimes call it—occur. All of those things are a very big deal to us, and all of them are very affected by global affairs.

Could I just talk for a minute talk about the NBN? Prior to our government coming to power, Calare was not even on the horizon. It was not mentioned in the future of the NBN. We now have over 20 fixed wireless towers; fibre to the node has actually started in my hometown of Molong, the first part of Calare to have started it. We were not even on the horizon with the previous government. So as far as communications go now, we have definitely stepped up to the mark: we are concentrating on areas of need for the NBN rather than the capital cities and areas with large populations.

The mobile black spot program is another one that is very important for infrastructure, particularly for businesses as well as for safety. The black spot program is the first attempt by a government in eight years to actually put more mobile phones out there. I hope to see Calare listed as one of the recipients in the very near future when that comes out. We were also the people in government previously who made the inland rail—put it on the table—and we are the ones now who will carry through on that. There is already $300 million there to do it. Previous Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson is there, making sure that it is done in a practical way, and hopefully there will be a sod turned on that one sometime this year. I certainly hope so. It is a very big project for eastern Australia, but also for the whole of Australia in effect.

I would say doubling the Roads to Recovery Program and the Black Spot safety program for two years are serious infrastructure issues and ones that we are following through. As someone who chairs Black Spot in New South Wales, I am happy to say we are making sure that it is not the state government that takes advantage of this. It is the local councils, be they in urban or, particularly, in regional New South Wales, and hopefully they save lives and improve those things. The National Stronger Regions Fund in my electorate of Calare is already putting out $8.7 million in parks and to fix a treatment plant and a recycling plant, and CareWest is getting $750,000 to help it develop its care of people with disabilities in the community.

I commend Ms McGowan for bringing it to parliament's attention, but let me say our government is acting on it. Our government is putting infrastructure to the fore.

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