Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is committed to regional Australia. Its sustainability, its prosperity and its resilience are critical to the Australian economy. Over the past four budgets, 560 regional initiatives have been brought forward by this government, and this is crucial to regional Australia. Accessibility, connectivity and equity of service are crucial to nearly one-third of Australians who live in regional and rural areas. Complex challenges are experienced by those living in rural and regional areas in relation to fuel and food security; climate change; the tyranny of distance, which impacts people's health; educational opportunities, which disadvantages young people; and job creation, which is always a big issue for young people in rural and regional areas on farms and in country towns.

It is absolutely vital that we support regional Australia, and that's what this government is doing in this budget. We are backing regional Australia. We're delivering on cost-of-living relief, health care and housing, because every postcode is critical in this country. We're delivering the transport and community infrastructure that regional Australians need. As part of our $120 billion, 10-year infrastructure investment pipeline this budget will see a total of $12.1 billion in new investments across the infrastructure, transport and regional development portfolio, with $10.3 billion for transport infrastructure projects, $976 million for transport and $803 million for community infrastructure. During a period of global uncertainty we're building on infrastructure with investment in responsible projects that boost productivity, deliver safer and faster freight and support connected housing.

The budget will see new investment to support new and existing projects across every state and territory. In my home state of Queensland, there's an $812.5 million investment to deliver stage 2 of the Bruce Highway—Gateway Motorway to Dohles Rocks Road—which will build on the $758.4 million investment into stage 1, which will connect Moreton Bay and the Sunshine Coast regions north of Brisbane. In Western Australia, there's a $552 million investment to deliver the first stages of road upgrades to strengthen supply chain resilience, support housing supply and improve productivity in the defence and critical minerals industries. We're also supporting productivity and resilience upgrades in our national freight rail network with a $1.75 billion investment, which will bring the Australian Rail Track Corporation's network investment to nearly $2.8 billion. I'll have more to say on Inland Rail and the ARTC shortly.

This government is absolutely committed to making sure that we support not only local governments but also local communities. We continue to invest in local communities by providing grant funding, which will make our suburbs and regions even better places to live. This includes bringing forward 80 per cent—that is, $2.9 billion—of the 2026-27 financial grants entitlement to local government and providing funding for the delivery of infrastructure that meets the needs of our cities and regions. I want to highlight our commitment of an additional $750 million for further rounds of our flagship programs, the Growing Regions Program and the Thriving Suburbs Program, which brings our total investment since 2022 to $1.7 billion.

The government is creating a new $2 billion local infrastructure fund under the Housing Support Program, with $500 million being dedicated to local enabling infrastructure in regional Australia. I can tell you, Deputy Speaker, there are stakeholders and organisations in my community chomping at the bit to get access to some of that money. There's $22.5 million to deliver round 10 of the Stronger Communities Program, which builds on more than 18,000 projects that have already been delivered to benefit local communities—many in the regions. We're providing $500 million to build on the successful Active Transport Fund. It will provide active transport options, like walking and cycling, and will make our cities and regions more vibrant places in which to live.

This budget also provides support to keep Australians moving through current fuel disruptions while investing in long-term productivity and resilience in the transport industry. When it comes to the cost of living in regional Australia, not much bites more than the cost of fuel, and there's no doubt regional Australia has been hit the hardest by the impacts of the global fuel shortage. That's why our comprehensive $14.8 billion plan to secure more fuel, to strengthen supply chains, to build resilience and to take the sting out of prices is so incredibly important for regional communities.

As I said earlier, the Albanese government is committed to making sure people in regional and rural areas are not disadvantaged in terms of health care. We're making that more accessible. The Medicare urgent care clinics—we're investing $580 million to keep them permanent and free. There are 137 clinics providing accessible urgent care services across the country, and 47 are supporting communities in regional, rural and remote Australia. We're making them permanent, as I said. In my local community, there are nearly 37,000 visits to the clinic, the Ipswich Medicare urgent care clinic, which opened in August 2023.

On top of that, in regional areas, people have had access to cheaper scripts. For example, in my electorate, people have got nearly 3.1 million cheaper scripts under Labor's cheaper medicines policy. This is absolutely crucial, and we're supporting fully bulk-billing practices across the area. In my electorate alone we've seen an increase of 12 to 30 bulk-billing practices. We're investing in public hospitals and making sure that there's a $25 billion Commonwealth investment in public hospitals. This is so critical in regional towns like Rockhampton and Townsville and Mackay and Bundaberg and Hervey Bay. It's absolutely critical in my home state of Queensland.

We dedicated $500 million to local enabling infrastructure and regional Australia—the power, the roads, the drains. These are all crucial for new housing and we're working with local government across that space. I want to speak about the Inland Rail. We have made a commitment not to continue the northern leg of the Inland Rail project from Parkes in New South Wales to Queensland. Last week, the government announced it would only prioritise the construction of the southern leg from Beveridge in Victoria to Parkes in New South Wales by the end of 2027. The planning work north of that in rural areas will continue on, but there's important work that we need to do in terms of rail, and we've given the money—as I outlined earlier in my speech—to the ARTC and put an emphasis on freight.

In 2013, we provided $1 billion for planning work on Inland Rail. Who wouldn't like the idea of taking trucks off road and reducing carbon emissions? But the coalition government came to power, and they allocated $9 billion, off budget, and said, 'Thank you very much. That will build, the $9 billion, the whole of the Inland Rail,' which, by the way, initially went to 43 kilometres west of the Brisbane port, finishing at Acacia Ridge, going through the Lockyer Valley into rural Ipswich. Now the farmers and small business residents and homeowners in the Lockyer Valley, Toowoomba and rural parts of Ipswich are very pleased with our decision not to proceed, because two-thirds of the cost was going from Toowoomba to Brisbane. I don't think they want 1.8-kilometre-long rail freight trains going every hour on embankments without noise abatement. That's precisely what was going to happen in my community.

I've met with landholders across the proposed route, like Ivory Rock's convention and events centre at Peak Crossing who raised concerns with me. The rail was going to go 500 metres, and when they sought assistance from ARTC on noise abatement—crickets, no support whatsoever. The Inland Rail is disliked immensely in my community, and I'm very pleased the government has decided what it's done. It was high impact with no value for rural Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley. So the decision we made is absolutely vital for koala protection and conservation in our local area, including farms.

The Inland Rail was going to go just south of Rosewood with an intermodal, affecting the people in the township of Rosewood. Imagine their lifestyle and their livelihoods in that area. Also, it was going to go right beside Grandchester State School—right beside this rural school through koala habitat, through the food bowl of the Lockyer Valley, through into rural Ipswich with the cattle farms et cetera in those areas. The decision to stop Inland Rail was the right outcome for the people in my community. I am very pleased we made that, and the people in my community are supportive of that in relation to the decision the government's made. That is critical, and I'm very disappointed that the coalition can't see it. The member for Wright knows how important that decision was. He knows that people in the Lockyer Valley in his community, which I used to represent, absolutely hate the concept of the Inland Rail going through the Lockyer Valley.

Our government is getting on with the job of delivering for regional Australia. The stark contrast for a big game opposite and failure to deliver. It's absolutely vital that we support regional Australia and that's what this budget is precisely doing.

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