Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Next week represents a year since my electorate was smashed by a once-in-500-years flood. Next week will be a very traumatic time for many people in my electorate. I had hoped that the federal budget that was released on Tuesday night might just do one thing: give some hope that this government cares, listens and delivers for the people on the Mid North Coast and Hunter region that I represent.

I wasn't going to leave anything to chance with this federal budget. I'm a new MP. I'm learning the ropes. I did not want to leave anything to chance, so I took the opportunity to develop a prebudget submission. I worked with my communities. I asked them: 'What are the priorities in your community? Share them. It doesn't matter if it's a pothole in your local street or a major piece of infrastructure.' I developed a submission which I put into the Albanese government's Treasury process prebudget submission. I did the right thing, making sure the government was very clear on the agenda for the Lyne electorate. The budget was handed down, and all I can say is that the budget that was handed down provides no hope to the people of the Mid North Coast. It is a regional funding bloodbath at a time when my community needs support. It's crying out for support and for so many services and so much infrastructure right across the region.

I know a lot of you would be expecting me right now to say, 'What about that urgent care clinic in Taree?' I'm saving that up for the women's statement. I was very disappointed to see in the regional statement that the list of urgent care clinics in regional Australia left off Maitland. It left off the Maitland urgent care clinic. I was very disappointed because like you, Deputy Speaker Swanson, it's important to communities in the southern part of my electorate. Deputy Speaker, you may want to have a look at that list; I think it's on page 51 of the regional statement. Maitland is not listed. It should have been listed, as should Taree, but I will come back to that in another speech today. You're all welcome to join.

If I can just focus on one area, quite extensive notes in my submission were around local roads. I think all of us—the member for Fisher and the member for Mallee—are desperately needing investment in local roads. I'm on an inquiry at the moment looking at the financial sustainability of local government. They're crying out for more investment. I know the government says that they've doubled investment in Roads to Recovery, a great coalition and National Party program from 20-odd years ago. They acknowledge that Roads to Recovery is making some difference, but it's come at the expense of axeing the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, a program that every council that's appeared before the inquiry has praised as a means of getting funding out to key projects because it's not competitive; it's effectively block funding, and it allows them to prioritise those critical local roads and small roads in their communities.

In this budget, there was not one additional cent in roads funding for any part of regional Australia, including the Lyne electorate. I made a number of submissions about particular roads, including the unfinished Pacific Highway. When the commitment was made to duplicate the Pacific Highway back in the mid-nineties, it came after the Kempsey and Grafton bus crashes. The decision was made at the time to fast-track the four-laning of the Pacific Highway and come back and do those overpasses and grade separated interchanges. We are now 20 years on, and we've got six of those overpasses still not on anyone's books. They're not on the state government's priority list. There has been some funding, I admit, for The Bucketts Way, but we are a long way from seeing any prioritisation of fixing those intersections. Anybody that's from Dungog—maybe their kids go to school in Medowie or maybe they're working at Williamtown or Raymond Terrace—use the intersection, The Bucketts Way and Medowie Road. You're playing chicken with the traffic at those intersections, yet they're not on the priority list for the New South Wales government. They need to be, as does the Houston Mitchell Drive intersection with the Pacific Highway, which is, I think, one of the most dangerous intersections on the Pacific Highway. It needs to be addressed.

When you raise it with the New South Wales government, they're talking about making another U-turn 200 metres down the road. That is not going to save the lives of the people that use that intersection, and the community has been crying out for investment there. They're also crying out for investment and support for local councils to put money into the length of The Bucketts Way, the length of The Lakes Way. The Lakes Way used to be the Pacific Highway. I've now got constituents coming to me talking about busted suspensions and blown tyres on that Lakes Way, which is not only an important route for people from Foster and Tuncurry down to Bulahdelah along the Pacific Highway, but is a tourist route. We're talking about attracting people to our region, and they're coming on a pothole filled road. It's a substantial road, but it's one that's full of potholes. That's just great for showcasing the wonders of the great lakes. We've got the Thunderbolt's Way as well, and I could go to a lot of those smaller roads that are key productive routes.

We've got the Lorne Road, and the member for Maranoa is here. He has been to Lorne Road and made a substantial funding commitment to Lorne Road. This is a key road from the Comboyne Plateau down to the Pacific Highway. It's a produce route for dairy, beef and horticulture, yet, again, you're playing chicken with your life if a tanker is going up to collect milk and you're bringing your family down, maybe to go to school at Camden Haven High School. These are critical routes. This matters to the people in regional Australia. Good roads matter to people in regional Australia. I think it is different in the cities. I've lived in Canberra. They do a pretty good job, I have to say, for roads in Canberra. I don't think they should be getting much money from the Commonwealth. I know where the money should be going, and that's to local councils.

On that point, I was exceptionally disappointed to learn that under this budget the distribution of financial assistance grants has fallen again as a percentage of Commonwealth tax revenue down to 0.49 per cent, from one per cent. That has a real impact on regional councils. Some councils in regional members electorates rely 10, 20 or 30 per cent on those financial assistance grants. They make the difference to fix the local roads, to make sure that the local footy club has a field that they can play on that's safe and to look after the local swimming pool. In our local council areas—we're talking about in the MidCoast—it's not just one centre that they have. They have five or six centres that have a swimming pool, that have a library and that have community sporting facilities. So, when you reduce financial assistance to local governments, you are impacting the way that people in our communities can live.

I've just touched on one issue that that is incredibly disappointing from this federal budget. I'm also disappointed at the stripping of $103 million from the National Water Grid. I have a dam that needs to be built in the Manning. That opportunity is potentially now lost. I also note that funding has been stripped from the Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant program and that funding has been reduced for the agriculture stream of the Natural Heritage Trust. Now, this is about helping and supporting people in our regional communities to invest in environmental stewardship. As I said, I think this is a regional funding bloodbath. Shame on this Albanese government.

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