Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Can the Deputy Prime Minister advise the House how this coalition government is working with other levels of government to provide local answers to local problems in regional areas? Are there any alternative approaches?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Maranoa for his question. The member for Maranoa recognises only too well, given the diversity of his electorate, the importance of the relationship that has been established between our government—the federal coalition government—and local authorities across Australia, particularly in the electorate of Maranoa in Queensland, where we have worked very closely in delivering to local communities the sorts of services that they need. This includes programs like Regional Partnerships, which is directly targeted at addressing local issues and helping to strengthen the local economic and social fabric. A lot of the Regional Partnerships program is actually delivered by local government. Since Regional Partnerships was established there have been 1,350 projects funded to the tune of $311 million across Australia, $140 million of which has gone to local governments that have applied for funding under that program. It is interesting—and the member for Hotham might listen to these statistics—that Regional Partnerships projects have attracted $969 million in cash contributions from other participants in the program and $106 million in kind. So well over $1 billion has been spent on Regional Partnerships projects, a lot of them in local government areas—1,350 projects for an investment of $311 million by the Commonwealth.

But it does not end there. In 2001 we recognised the need and the ability of local authorities to get money directly onto the ground to benefit local communities. We announced the establishment of the Roads to Recovery program. We have been funding that program since 2001 and, as the Prime Minister indicated, that is $307 million a year to local authorities across Australia. We announced in the budget this year that we are going to take that up to $350 million a year for the term of AusLink 2, from 2009 to 2014, to give certainty to local governments across Australia. Many of the projects have been funded under the AusLink Strategic Regional Roads Program, $470 million having been spent on this program in recent years, with a lot of that money going into much needed road projects in local government authority areas.

No wonder we are concerned at the way that the Beattie Labor government in Queensland is trashing democracy, and local government democracy, in Queensland with its ham-fisted approach to the forced amalgamations in Queensland. We are in there trying to help local government. We are holding up our end of the deal, delivering every cent we give on the ground to local communities, and the Beattie Labor government is going to trash that. This afternoon it is introducing legislation to reduce the number of local government authorities in Queensland from 156 to 72. There are 45,000 Queenslanders employed in local government in Queensland. All their jobs are now being put at risk because the Beattie Labor government in Queensland does not care about democracy or about those 45,000 people who work in local government. There is outrage throughout Queensland, from Noosa on the coast to Longreach in the west and right up into the Cape. They are marching in the streets in Queensland because they have been ignored. Just like the Leader of the Opposition turns his back in question time, he has turned his back on local government in Queensland and the 45,000 people who are employed by local government in Queensland.

We have continued to say that the risk of a Rudd Labor government here in Canberra is that it does not know how to manage money—and that is right. We know that he will be a patsy to the union movement. Last week he confirmed, and he confirms again today, that he is just going to be a patsy to the Labor premiers. He has been making all the nice noises about being concerned about amalgamation of local government in Queensland, but he has not done anything about it. He has not got the guts to get on the phone to Premier Beattie and tell him to back off and respect those 45,000 jobs that are in local government in Queensland. It is proof positive of why, last week, the Labor Party announced that it was going to remove all conditions of specific purpose payments to state governments. He is just going to be a patsy to Labor premiers right across Australia. Australia cannot afford to have coast-to-coast Labor governments or there will be a lot more of this sort of ham-fisted approach to democracy as we know it in Australia.