Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

It's exactly what's happening.

I'm a proud regional Australian. I come from greater Shepparton in the great Goulburn Valley. It's a place where entrepreneurial spirit thrives because, for waves and waves of generations, people have come there because there was work available and you could build a business. What those people wanted was to have the government help them build businesses and then get out of the way, not over-regulate and not distribute the proceeds of their hard work.

We've got things like the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and additions to that which have made it harder for agricultural industries to operate. We've got regulations on mining, and the Minerals Council hates what this government is doing around industrial relations.

Industrial relations are also affecting agriculture, because of attempted changes to the PALM scheme. The fact is that the Labor Party didn't go ahead with the agricultural visa, which would have been critically important to expanding our regional industries. So again, I say: if you want to keep redistributing these tax dollars, don't attack the industries and the regions which provide them.

I'm going to finish on a positive note, because I think there's an opportunity for us to expand regional Australia. But it will take some willpower and it will take some understanding about what we want our nation to look like in the future.

In my maiden speech, I talked about the crisis I think there is around population balance in Australia. I don't think we've got the balance right. I did mentioned the example of Germany. Germany is an interesting case, because it's got 80 million people, but its biggest city is Berlin, which has 3 million people. It has got a lot of regional cities surrounding a manufacturing sector, and it's all linked by rail. I think we've got an opportunity to do that in Australia, but it's going to take some vision, and it's going to take a stop in this endless sprawl of our three largest cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. I don't think that's good for society; I think it's better when we're all part of a smaller community.

What it means is that rail has to be prioritised. I wasn't in this place before 2022, but the then coalition government was very committed to rail, and they delivered stage 3 of the Shepparton rail project. Well, they delivered the funding for it; I should say that. They delivered 80 per cent of the funding for it. The Victorian government, to their credit, came up with the plan which is going to mean nine return services from Shepparton to Melbourne. The then coalition government delivered the funding for the project.

I mention this because it's emblematic of some of the things that happen between state governments and federal governments. The Victorian government took the money and said, 'We are going to deliver this by the end of 2023.' I'm sick of doing videos in front of passing loops and level crossings, in 2025, saying, 'When is the Victorian government going to deliver this project?' Because it hasn't been delivered yet. If someone's got some information about when this project is going to be delivered, I would love it.

The idea is that we can grow regional Australia, with investment in infrastructure. That's what the former deputy prime minister—who is here in the chamber—did when he allocated that 80 per cent funding for the Shepparton to Melbourne stage 3 project. But the Victorian government has not delivered it, and that has been replicated across Australia. Again, if you want these tax dollars to keep coming in, look after the industries and the regions that provide them.

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