Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I am very fond of Canberra. And, if the truth be known, I am quite fond of the member for Canberra and the member for Fenner, but they seriously need to get out more. As to the idea that Canberra is somehow suffering under an incredible scourge from the federal government cutting into the basic economy, they have not told private enterprise that—I do not know how many cranes I counted this morning coming in to Canberra. And I have witnessed the explosion in the population in the 10 years that I have been here.

But this is about decentralisation. The job of the Australian government is to provide value for money for the constituents of Australia. Our job is not to just look after the benefits of people who work in Canberra.

There has been a lot said about the so-called pork-barrelling of the APVMA going to Armadale. I can remember, under a previous government, when I was in opposition, there was the Department of Climate Change, and a beautiful steel and concrete edifice was dug into the ground, disguised with second-hand timber and vines to make it look environmentally friendly, in the middle of Canberra. There was no thought as to why, if climate change is affecting the whole of Australia, that had to be in the middle of Canberra. But there was no talk of pork-barrelling when that went up.

I have just done 3,000 kilometres in the last week, and most of those were on gravel roads. I have been to communities like Tibooburra, where the community committee runs the whole town: they collect the garbage; they fix the water pipes. So I have some idea of communities doing things and of the effects of government decisions on that.

The reasons for the APVMA going to Armadale were: because of the university, because there are the peak bodies for breeds there and because most of the users of ag chemicals are in regional Australia. There was some quite dishonest reporting of it. Indeed, the head of the department has since resigned. There were improper reports in the media about staff working out of McDonald's and nonsense such as that, which were completely fabricated.

We have seen other examples of decentralisation that have benefited the people who it is supposed to serve. The Grains Research and Development Corporation was decentralised across several locations. One of those was in Dubbo in my electorate. That was not because it was pork-barrelling for the member for Parkes but so that the people who need that research, who are collaborating with the government—the researchers, the farmers and others—could get access to highly qualified, professional people.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority being decentralised across several locations was also of benefit. If we had that back when Senator Wong was the minister, we might not have seen the bulk purchase of water for Collymongle Station which took out three quarters of the jobs. In comparable terms, it would be something like 50,000 jobs out of Canberra. As a comparison, that was taken out of Collarenebri with one stroke of a pen. Ten per cent of the rate base of Bourke was taken out when Senator Wong purchased Toorale Station without any thought. If those decisions were informed and made closer to where the people actually lived, that would be a benefit to not only Australian taxpayers but the people we serve. I have just had the weekend in Broken Hill—a wonderful centre in the western part of my electorate. I spoke to the mayor and the general manager of Broken Hill on Friday. They said, 'We would like to look at what we can do with some of the decentralisation policies that you are looking at.' They are central to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The NBN is being rolled out at the end of this year and next year.

The member for Canberra talked about the Menzies era. In the Menzies era, members from regional Australia would catch the train to Canberra and stay there for six weeks. Letters would come from their electorates. We now have connectivity. The reason that those departments were placed all around Parliament House are not as valid as they were in the original days, because in you can work anywhere Australia.

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