Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) | Hansard source

Yes. I said there were two. The diversity of our regions is well and truly on display. It isn't just blokes that live in our regions, and it isn't just National Party blokes who live in our regions either. There are people who vote right the way across the spectrum, and, as the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out, each region is different. They each have their own needs, their own opportunities, their own strengths, their own targeted investments and their own economic history. Mine is a gold town and it is a small- to medium-manufacturing town. All of those things are important.

The Deputy Prime Minister also wanted to talk a bit about Labor and the Greens. Well, Deputy Prime Minister, the only people I see trying to inject a bit of green into their blue are the members in the Liberal Party over there who are trying to pretend that they are teal. That is what we've seen. They're the only people I see, in the coalition, who are trying to inject a bit of green into their actual policies.

We know what we stand for; we absolutely know what we stand for. Those people over there simply do not represent modern regional Australia anymore. I remind people that this government has been in power for almost a decade. They didn't just win three years ago, though each term they seem to think they're somehow new. I guess having a different prime minister each time does that to you. But they've now been in power for a decade. Think about the changes you've seen in your own families and your own communities just in the last 10 years. But over that decade those people, who purport to represent regional Australia, have wasted opportunities and have squandered their time in government. This week we've seen those problems writ large.

I always welcome investment in regional Australia—I welcome targeted support and I absolutely want to see investment in regional Australia. But what we saw in the budget and what we saw in the statement tonight was a budget that was focused on an election that we are having, literally, within the next 50 days. It's not a budget that is actually focused on the future, let alone the future of regional Australia. It wasn't a budget that makes up for almost a decade of attacks on wages. It doesn't make up for a decade of attacks on job security, including in our regions, or the attacks and cuts to Medicare, though jobs and Medicare have been fundamental to making sure that regional Australians are actually able to live well within our communities. It wasn't a budget that made up for the attacks on the National Broadband Network and the complete decimation of the plan that actually would have seen first-class broadband in our regions or the attacks on regional government services. The amount of Public Service jobs that have been sucked out of the regions under this decade-old government has been phenomenal. These were people with good paying jobs living in the regions delivering services for regional Australians. But they were cut and have been cut in the past decade.

In the statement we just heard from the Deputy Prime Minister we heard a very limited view of regional Australia. Of course, as I said, Labor supports investment in our regions. We always have and we always will. But an announcement for four regions isn't a plan for regional Australia. A plan for four regions is not a plan for regional Australia. If you want to know the real purpose of these announcements, take a look at the timing. We've had a government in power for nearly a decade, but it took, literally, this last day of parliament sitting for this government to recognise that there is a need to do something about regional economic activity and to look at diversity in our regions, particularly those that have a very narrow economic base.

The regions that have been found to be deserving of assistance happen to include, coincidentally, the seats of Flynn, Leichhardt, Hunter and Lingiari. The government claims that these four regions have been chosen because they need energy security. Well, if that's true, minister at the table, then why have you not included the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, if this is about energy security for regions? These are two seats that the National Party holds.

In Senate estimates today the minister for regionalisation said that they selected these four regions because they were the only regions in need of opportunity. Now, I think those four regions are in need of investment. But, frankly, if the government is saying the rest of regional Australia has neither need nor opportunity, then they have a long way to go. They've picked winners and losers by looking at an electoral map. That's what you've done. This is an announcement for an election but not a plan to develop this nation, and it is definitely not a plan for regional Australia.

This is a government that has always been very big on announcement and very, very small on actual delivery. I want to talk a little bit about inland rail, for example. A fact that the government likes to forget—and the minister did it again in his statement here—is that it was the last Labor government that invested almost $1 billion to kickstart inland rail, to start the project with that investment and progress it to the construction stage. That's what a Labor government actually did. We did see the potential of inland rail, and we invested in it. Another fact the government fails to mention is how it has comprehensively mismanaged this project. They've been in office for almost a decade. I'll just remind you of that: for almost 10 years this government has been in office. And this project is 1,700 kilometres. How many kilometres of rail, out of inland rail, do you think this government has managed to construct in a decade? It's 133 kilometres. That is 15 kilometres a year—the National Party's great nation-building infrastructure project, and in a decade they have built 15 kilometres a year.

At the same time as they've built 15 kilometres of inland rail a year, and have still not worked out how they're going to get it to the ports of Brisbane or Melbourne—it truly been inland rail—now that we've supported the business case for Gladstone they have managed to have a cost blowout from $4.4 billion, for the 15 kilometres a year that they've built, to $9.3 billion and now to a whopping $14.5 billion. And they try to lecture us that they're the best economic managers in the country! You have got to be kidding me.

Despite this multibillion-dollar blowout, the government still does not know where the route will start, where it will end or how it will interact with existing stations along the route. Thankfully they've followed at least the recommendations of the Senate inquiry into inland rail that we set up and the recommendation from Labor's candidate for Flynn, Matt Burnett, who's been a strong advocate for Gladstone, to develop a business case to extend the line there, and Labor looks forward to seeing the results of that business case.

Moving past the government's record of mismanagement on major projects and the huge impact that this issue has on the regions, it is hard to go past the complete failure in relation to disaster management. It is a major issue affecting regional people across the country. It is the job of the opposition to hold the government to account and to point out absolute incompetence when it is affecting regional Australians, well and truly, and this issue is one of those that needs to be pointed out. My heart goes out to the people of Lismore, whom I visited just two weeks ago, in particular. But there are lots of communities facing floods across our community today. The truth is that we know we are going to be facing more and more disasters like this, and we have to be prepared for that.

It is simply an absolute indictment on this government that it took an imminent election for them to unlock their failed $4.8 billion Emergency Response Fund. Again, a decade in office, yet somehow it is: 'Now, on an eve of an election, let's try and do something about disaster resilience.' Too little, too late, as always. This fund did nothing but earn interest for three years. It could have built levies, bushfire evacuation centres, cyclone shelters or drainage improvements across regional communities. It's done none of that. It didn't spend a cent for three years. Instead, it earned the government $830 million in interest. Fine. Let's go and get that money out into the community. This government's inaction has simply contributed to building a better budget bottom line, and it's shameful. Tragically, it is Australians in regional areas, largely, that have borne the brunt of this inaction.

An Albanese Labor government will stop treating emergency funds like they are a cash cow or a term deposit and will instead revamp the failed Emergency Response Fund to create a new Disaster Ready Fund, which will substantially improve disaster readiness in our regions, with up to $200 million per year to be invested on disaster readiness to protect lives and livelihoods. Labor's fund will actually build the flood levies, bushfire evacuation centres, drainage systems and cyclone shelters needed to keep Australian safe, keep their properties safe, and reduce the massive costs of repairs when disasters hit. We will continue to find full disaster recovery through the usual budget arrangements, but our Disaster Ready Fund will provide a permanent, dedicated fund for disaster readiness across the country. Regional Australians shouldn't have to wait for an election before a government decides to keep them safe, but, sadly, under those opposite, we've had to wait for an election for them to do anything.

Driving the increasing severity of weather events is of course climate change. The government may not get it, but climate change is changing our regions and the way in which we live in them. Climate change affects regional Australia more than anywhere else in this country. If you don't believe me, just ask the people in the Northern Rivers, the South Coast, or tourist communities on the reef. Ask the National Farmers Federation, Meat & Livestock Australia, GrainGrowers Australia, or the range of other regional Australian organisations that support net zero by 2050. Why? Because they, like most regional Australians, know that it is in their long-term economic interest to do so.

Instead of representing the interests of regional Australia, instead of acting to secure our social, economic and environmental futures across all the regions, the partisan way that the National Party play politics is, frankly, getting in the way. The Deputy Prime Minister and his deeply divided party room have held our nation hostage, extracting promises of funds for their hand-picked regions in exchange for a fig leaf of climate change action. That's what they've done. They didn't bargain for a better deal for Corangamite; they didn't bargain for a better deal for Eden-Monaro; they didn't bargain for a better deal for investing in Ballarat, Bendigo, Tasmania, Geelong or Gilmore; they are not interested in Wannon or Gippsland, Grey or La Trobe. How weak is the Prime Minister to have actually let this happen? And how out of touch are the Nationals to not realise that acting on climate change could actually be a jobs boon in the regions? This is a decade late. They are a decade late to action on climate change, and any action they are taking is too small.

Labor's Powering Australia Plan will create jobs, cut power bills and reduce emissions by boosting renewable energy. That's what it will do. This policy will put the federal government in step with the business community, agricultural sector and state governments when it comes to investing in renewables. This plan, as shown in the independent modelling Labor commissioned, will create 604,000 new jobs and, more importantly, five out of six of those renewable energy jobs will be in regional Australia. They will be good, secure jobs for Australian workers—the kind of jobs you can raise a family on. At the same time, our plan will spur $76 billion of investment. It will cut power bills for families and businesses by $275 a year for homes by 2025, compared to today. Our plan will prioritise growth and investment for the regions that have served as Australia's engine room for so long. Energy, manufacturing and resources.

Under a Labor government these regions will continue to power Australia and provide a stream of exports into the future. They are secure jobs for regional Australians for generations to come, and secure jobs are pretty important. That is why so many of Labor's policies boil down to securing Australian jobs and a better future for all Australians.

We want to use the power of government to buy Australian. We want to use the power of government to make more things here in this country, particularly in our regions. With our national reconstruction plan, we will value-add in resources, expand mining sciences, process more raw materials here and unlock the potential of the agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors. We'll provide free TAFE places in areas of skill shortages to regrow decimated sectors that are so important in our regional communities. You don't have to go very far in our regional communities to know how the skills crisis is impacting everywhere, from the resources sector to tourism to hospitality to retail. Every single element of our regional economies is being affected because this government has failed to train enough Australians to actually make us self-sufficient in this country. That is what you have done; that is the legacy of a decade of inaction on this issue.

Labor will upgrade the National Broadband Network, ending the drag that slow internet has had on our economies and allowing more people to relocate or set up a business in the regions. With our housing plan, our housing Australia fund and the Regional First Home Buyer Support Scheme, we will enable more young people and low-income people to buy in the regions, to stay in the regions and to raise their families in the communities that they love. We will strengthen and support Medicare and aged care, in particular, providing the services that people need in the regional communities that they call home.

We will substantially improve NDIS services throughout regional communities. Our communities deserve that. We know there are good, paying jobs in this sector in particular, but you shouldn't have to be living in a capital city to be able to access the services you need on the NDIS. The government had absolutely nothing to say last night about improving and expanding the services for regional people with a disability, who might, when they actually get access to an NDIS plan that meets their needs, not be able to use their plan because there isn't anyone to deliver those services in regional communities. We will resolve that problem. We will invest in each regional community based on the merits of the projects that are brought forward, not on some colour-coded spreadsheet, which is the only way the government seems able to make decisions.

An Albanese Labor government understands that each region has its own needs, its own opportunities, its own complex economies and its own challenges. We want to work with local government, in particular, with regional bodies—the Deputy Prime Minister couldn't even mention Regional Development Australia; the government has completely sidelined that as an economic development body in its own regional policies—with business groups in regional areas to identify the opportunities for investment and to invest in them, whether that be in manufacturing, in mining, in food production or in tourism. We won't impose a one-size-fits-all solution and we certainly won't be going around trying to pick winners, leaving communities behind. Everybody who lives in regional Australia should have the same opportunities. It shouldn't be that we leave regional Australians behind if they don't live in a National Party seat, which is what this Deputy Prime Minister basically just said he was planning to do.

We won't focus purely on the announcement and neglect the delivery, and we will prioritise the part that actually matters—that is, building things—not just getting a headline in a newspaper or trying to get some glossy brochure out, which is what this government has done for a decade. We will actually deliver the programs, as we did when we were last in government. We will actually increase the amount of investment in rail—in particular, in freight rail and across regional communities. We will increase the investment in roads, as we did in government, right across the country but particularly in regional Australia, making sure we have a national freight and supply strategy that actually works for the country and works for of our port system and that is not just a disconnected set of National Party announcements.

An Albanese government wants to govern for all the regions, whether they are held by the National Party, the Liberal Party, by independents or members of the Labor Party. We recognise the diversity of our regions, we recognise the economic powerhouse of our regions and we want to govern for all Australians and make sure that nobody is left behind.

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