Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to be speaking to the member for Mayo's matter of public importance. The member for Mayo and I joined this place nearly 10 years ago in the same intake, and our communities, while in different states, have remarkable similarities. We have mixes of peri-urban, semi-rural, rural and remote areas—broadly called regional. I'm stunned in a way that she is so keen to put down what this government is doing when both of us have been here in a parliament with the Liberals in charge, seeing media release after media release about, 'Wow, you beaut, this is going to happen,' and then nothing. What I have seen and what we focus on on this side is the delivery of the commitments we make to every part of Australia.

The announcement made today about the 90,000 tonnes of agricultural-grade urea will be as welcome in my community amongst my farmers, my turf growers, my vegetable growers and my agricultural producers as it will be for all of those in our semi-rural, rural and regional areas, where we are the food producers for our communities. Of course, the Hawkesbury was always the food bowl and continues to be a major producer for many parts of the agricultural sector. That's the sort of delivery that the Albanese Labor government is doing. The announcement today is giving certainty to producers around their fertiliser needs. I have to say that I never imagined I would be up here talking about fertiliser, but it is such a privilege to represent an area that we are responding to and recognising its needs.

The difference I see is that it's not about saying, 'Here's a piece of road,' and the job is done. It's not just about infrastructure; it is about infrastructure and a whole lot of things. The assistant health minister has gone into detail about the delivery we have on improving Medicare and making Medicare stronger for every part of our country, including our regions. The key thing I have seen in my more remote areas is the benefits of the increased workforce, but that has been a benefit across the entire electorate. It means that our additional training of GPs and the ability for more people to say, 'Yes, I want to do this,' is starting to flow through to what we see on the ground.

We have a goal to train 2,000 GPs each year by 2028. Bit by bit, that is improving the access that my community has. We've done it simply by waiving HECS for doctors and nurses who work outside the regions for five years, where there's $600 million to grow the health workforce, particularly in those areas. We've also recognised that it's not quick enough and that we need an extra service. That's where 1800MEDICARE comes in—a free nationwide 24-hour health advice line that provides an after-hours GP telehealth service backed by Medicare. All of that makes our lives much easier to live further from the cities. I know my community benefits from that.

I also want to touch on an area that I know the member for Mayo also cares about, and that's the arts. The Albanese government has delivered in this area for regional and rural communities through extra funding and extra programs. There's 35 per cent more funding for the Regional Arts Fund. It's gone up from $4 million to $6 million a year. That means more great arts projects in regional Australia are being supported. There's the Sharing the National Collection program from the National Gallery of Australia. Places like the Wanneroo Regional Gallery, the Texas Regional Art Gallery in Queensland, the Tamworth Regional Gallery, the Ipswich Art Gallery and the Shepparton Art Museum are all receiving access not just for a couple of weeks but for years to incredible artworks. The National Gallery of Australia's program is getting those works away from Canberra and out into our communities.

I have also visited places like the Burnie cultural centre. That is a great example of $13 million boosting local infrastructure for the arts. I commend the member for Braddon for her work there. This is delivery.

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