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

The coalition put this motion before the chamber—and don't tell us about politics. That's their motion. The coalition is so enamoured with local government that they campaigned ferociously when the Hawke government put up a proposal to recognise local government in our Australian constitution in 1988. In 2013, the coalition scuttled, by the way, the bipartisan approach that the Gillard government wanted to take in recognising local government through a proposed referendum.

Local government in this country is recognised by state legislation, and the coalition has an appalling record when it comes to local government. Who could ever forget Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey's infamous 2014 horror budget? The coalition broke an election promise. They froze indexation of financial assistance grants for three years. At the time, the Australian Local Government Association, ALGA, estimated the freeze caused a permanent 13 per cent reduction in the total grants base, compounding the shortfall for local councils nationwide. It was a politically disastrous budget and a shocking decision. It severely damaged Joe Hockey's relationship with ALGA and the coalition's standing with local government after they opposed the two referenda that were going to be put to them, one by Hawke and one by Gillard. I think in large part this really destroyed Joe Hockey's aspirations for prime ministership.

In contrast, when we came to office, we provided assistance, for example, in natural disasters. We heard the previous speaker speaking about natural disasters. I remember being in this House, in this parliament, when the coalition voted against the natural disaster funding, much of which was going to local councils in Queensland. It cost $11 billion of taxpayers' funding to rebuild Queensland after the 2011 floods. The coalition voted against the funding to provide support for local councils and local communities. So don't give us this nonsense, the complete nonsense that we've got in this motion, that somehow the coalition is supportive of local government. Look at how they voted. They opposed the referendum to recognise local government. They opposed the funding to provide support to recover from the floods in my home state of Queensland. When we put it up, they opposed it. This was money going to councils, and we had to bring forward other money to councils to help them to rebuild.

Also, of course, during the global financial crisis, when we rolled out extra support for councils, for community infrastructure, the coalition voted against the money again. Again in federal parliament they voted against it. So don't give us this rank, faux worry that somehow we're not supporting local government when we've actually doubled the Roads to Recovery funding from $500 million to $1 billion, and we've increased Black Spot funding from $110 million to $150 million per year. That's what we've done. We've also brought forward assistance with financial assistance grants. Look at what the Labor government does and what Labor governments have done, and look at what the coalition governments have failed to do or opposed. This motion here is just full of nonsense—absolute nonsense.

I've had the honour and privilege of representing all or part of Ipswich and Brisbane councils, the Scenic Rim and Lockyer Valley, as well as the Somerset region. I can tell you that it's been Labor governments that have made huge differences, like the Robelle Domain parklands, the upgrades to the civic centre in Ipswich and other projects, like the Orion pool in Springfield in Ipswich; and other projects all up the Brisbane Valley Highway, like the Esk community and civic centre up there in Somerset and also things like the art gallery in Toogoolawah. Recently, as part of Thriving Suburbs, we provided $5 million for tourism, for the environment, for medical rooms and for library facilities in Esk and Toogoolawah. These are things that Labor governments have done—not coalition governments, who actually oppose these things. The Kilcoy information centre is funded by the federal Labor government—also, upgrades to the Kilcoy showgrounds and other showgrounds. The coalition has opposed this again and again and again.

To come into this place and provide this type of motion—it is exactly the opposite of what coalition governments have done, which is exactly the opposite of the incredible commitment that Labor governments have to local government.

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