House debates

Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Questions without Notice

Economy

2:14 pm

Photo of Luke HartsuykerLuke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the Deputy Prime Minister advise the House how the government plans to assist regional communities to cope with the demands of growth, particularly in my electorate of Cowper? Are there any alternative approaches supporting regional and rural Australia?

Photo of Mark VaileMark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Cowper for his question. The member for Cowper, representing the particular area of the mid north coast of New South Wales that he does, would recognise that regional communities in some parts of Australia are experiencing growth as a result of the sea change and tree change phenomenon. Other areas are experiencing growth because of the economic prosperity in Australia: for example, those regions that contain emerging mining industries. That growth is putting significant pressure on social, economic and community infrastructure across Australia. We recognise that. Part of the coalition government’s plan for regional Australia is to try to assist those communities in accommodating the growth and the pressure that is building on community infrastructure.

I have announced today that we will establish a new Growing Regions program, which will invest in major projects that help communities respond to the pressure of change, the changes in demography across Australia and the changing economic circumstances. The government will invest $200 million in the program over four years for major projects that help regions address issues like the effects of rapid growth, structural change, population migration and the ageing of the population in particular regions across Australia. Businesses, local governments, institutions and communities will be able to apply for funding of between $1 million and $3 million per project in growing regions. Projects could involve the development or expansion of major businesses or they could involve the development of smarter ways of delivering services to communities.

By contrast, the member for Cowper asked: are there any alternatives? We know what the Leader of the Opposition thinks about regional Australia. In an interview that he did with the Daily Telegraph on 19 December last year, he insinuated that road funding that we were delivering to regional Australia was favouring the bush instead of cities. He does not want to provide any funding for the bush. He does not want to provide any funding for the regions across Australia. There is proof positive in his form in a previous government of what he has done to regional Australia and of the absolute disregard the Leader of the Opposition has for regional Australia. Anyone who lived in Queensland during the time of the Goss government would remember what happened. When the Leader of the Opposition was the right-hand man for Premier Goss, he disbanded 96 local ambulance boards and 81 community fire boards. He forcibly amalgamated councils—does that sound familiar? He sacked 600 people from the department of primary industries in Queensland and he replaced local hospital boards with great state government bureaucracies.

Labor has no plan for working families in regional Australia. We are adding to our policy initiatives that respond to the pressures of the time, particularly as the regions within our nation change and as our country grows. Under the new Growing Regions program, the coalition government will help local communities deliver the services that they are entitled to.