Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

No, you didn't. Member for New England, you talked a lot; you didn't deliver much. You were committed to making sure that you were up at the top of the leadership chain and did so by undercutting other people. If that's your record in government and you're happy with it, that's fine. But, when you go out there and talk to people, they're not interested in the political power games you want to play in the Nationals party room. What they're interested in is government delivering for regional Australia, something you talked about but didn't actually do because you were too interested in your leadership games when you were over here.

We are committed to investing, in partnership with regional communities. We want our communities to value what we help them deliver. We are improving livability across the regions. We're focused on responsible, deliverable programs and projects which will help our regions to grow their economies, to build skills and opportunity and to improve connections between and within the regions. And I have to say it again: it takes a Labor government to deliver regional communications—the largest investment in regional telecommunications and connectivity since the introduction of the NBN, which was also a Labor initiative. Who would have thought! Those opposite, who say they champion—'we're here for'—regional Australia, couldn't deliver regional telecommunications like people on this side can. It's absolutely ridiculous.

We take a strategic and holistic approach to what we do across government, and we know that means more than just grants programs in our regions. We know it means delivering services, we know it means making sure people have access to skills and training and we know it means diversifying our local economies, and that's what we're focused on. The Regional Investment Framework will help our government realise the ambition of no-one held back and no-one left behind. It requires specific investment across all portfolios, not across one. Our regions and their economies are diverse. We want to back them. We want to back their unique strengths and challenges. We want to make sure that we are collaborating with them.

We are doing things differently on this side of the House. On this side of the House, our Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program is now open, and we're going to work with local governments, state and territory governments, regional universities and not-for-profits. We want to make sure that we are utilising the expertise and the skills on the ground and delivering local priority projects, not projects that are thought of before an election campaign, to win votes. On this side of the House, our Growing Regions Program is helping our communities unlock some of the investment that they want to see in their communities. Every local council across the country is now eligible for a grants program, unlike what happened under those opposite.

We are delivering more for this country than those opposite did. We are taking people's unique skills and putting them to work. We are making sure that the infrastructure pipeline can be delivered and does not have random things like someone's local roundabout in it. An election commitment of a local roundabout going in a nation-building infrastructure pipeline—it just seems ridiculous! We want every community to be able to fulfil their potential, and on this side of the House we can do that by investing in them directly. We're going to do so transparently and fairly. We don't need a colour-coded spreadsheet to make sure communities get their share of investment.

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