Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This government is most definitely failing regional and rural Australians and communities. What an extraordinary display by the Deputy Prime Minister and other Nationals, particularly the member for Riverina. These are members who are supposed to represent farmers, but today they threw farmers under the harvester. Instead of supporting Labor's sensible compromise on the backpacker tax—a 10.5 per cent rate that keeps us internationally competitive and ensures that our fruit growers can recruit the labour they need—the Nationals have meekly fallen into line with their Liberal masters. How proud you must feel! How proud you must feel, going back to your country electorates and saying, 'We're doing exactly what those city guys, the Libs, want us to do.'

As with so many other issues, when the going gets tough, the Nationals do what they are told by the Liberals, selling out farmers and selling out regional communities. Farmers across Australia and in my electorate are not fooled. They need Labor now—labour on farms and Labor in government. They know that a 32.5 or 19 per cent tax will not get people here. We need to be competitive internationally. The backpacker tax has been a debacle from day one—an abject failure, a betrayal of regional Australia. But it is not too late. There is still time for the Nationals to muscle up, to put farmers first, to back a lower rate of tax and ensure that we get the labour we need on our farms. I will just add that I would love to see more Australians on farms. But I do understand that locals want permanent, well-paying jobs, when farm fruit work is seasonal. I understand why it is not a viable option for farmers to rely on local labour. Its very seasonality makes it ideal for backpackers.

One of the biggest failures in regional communities has been in health care. Communities in my electorate of Lyons report long waits to access their local GP. In New Norfolk the wait for a standard appointment is three weeks. Desperate attempts by the local practice to engage new GPs are held up by reams of red tape, despite the fact that qualified people are available and keen to commence. And this government is nowhere to be seen when it comes to finding solutions. The town of Kempton is losing its GP to retirement, and there are no replacement plans. It is the same story nationwide. The Rural Doctors Association says that this is 'going to send more rural and remote patients to the healthcare equivalent of deepest, darkest Siberia'. In the Meander Valley and on the east coast, changes to Primary Health Networks guidelines threaten the futures of a local social worker, a youth worker, a mental health worker, and podiatry and physiotherapy services. Between them, these workers have for a number of years developed popular and engaging programs that have yielded enviable results. And all of it is at risk because of poorly executed and poorly communicated changes to funding guidelines.

But the failures do not end there. I could talk for hours; I have only 1½ minutes to go. Perhaps we can talk about poor access to education and training opportunities. Too many kids in my electorate leave school early and with comparatively poor outcomes. And that will not be helped by the Turnbull government's $29 billion cuts to classrooms over a decade. For kids who prefer a vocational future, a trade offers fantastic prospects. But $1 billion in cuts to apprenticeships and the axing of trade training centres makes that future harder to achieve. Campbelltown in my electorate would have benefited from the centre planned for the town, but it is not to be. Labor forced the government to abandon its $100,000 university degrees, but other damage has been done: $400 million cut from regional universities nationwide. Poor education and poor training leads irretrievably to poor employment outcomes: 27 per cent youth unemployment in some areas of my electorate. And when you show no regard for local manufacturing, when you cut training and apprenticeships, when you cut funding to infrastructure, is it any wonder that these are the results?

People on low incomes are also being failed in regional communities; 95 per cent of people in my electorate do not benefit from tax cuts for people earning over $80,000, but they do suffer from ever-higher charges for power, water and other utilities. This government is certainly failing them, on every measure. This government is failing regional Australia.

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