Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) | Hansard source

Thank you to the honourable member for her important question. I hope she won't mind me also acknowledging the representatives of local government who are in the House today and in the building this week as well. I am aware of the funding ask from the local government community. It's not unusual for local governments or for other important parts of our community to be seeking additional Commonwealth funding. We are big and enthusiastic backers of local governments. We've got a wonderful minister for local government in Minister McBain, and every one of us is a big supporter of local governments. That's because they play a vital role in providing the services and infrastructure that Australians need.

We're backing councils with new funding in the budget already. Just last week we delivered $2.9 billion in financial assistance grants for councils for roads and other services and infrastructure. We brought that forward to help councils manage the impact of the fuel crisis, in particular. In the budget, we're boosting funding for councils and communities in a range of other ways. The $2 billion Local Infrastructure Fund is to help local governments get more housing projects over the line. I pay tribute to the housing and infrastructure ministers for that. We've got an additional $780 million for thriving suburbs and growing regions programs—bringing our total investment to over $1.7 billion. We've got the Stronger Communities Program and the Active Transport Fund, which is another $500 million to invest in community road safety. That's on top of the Roads to Recovery Program funding. Again, I pay tribute to the transport and infrastructure ministers for that billion dollars a year. That's direct funding for councils to fix and upgrade local roads.

I am aware of that additional funding request, and I engage with councils and local governments in good faith. We value the important work that they do in every single community represented here. But we are already providing substantial new funding for councils in the budget, which was only six weeks or so ago.

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