House debates

Tuesday, 23 July 2019

Grievance Debate

Rural and Regional Services

5:01 pm

Photo of Luke GoslingLuke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the abandonment of regional Australia by this federal government. In particular, I will speak from my experiences and the lived reality of people in the Top End—in Darwin, Palmerston and the territory more broadly—in the hope that bringing this set of circumstances to the attention of the parliament might spur some action from the federal government to address it.

Yesterday in the House of Representatives we saw a former Deputy Prime Minister stand up in the main chamber and criticise members of the Senate for not spending enough time in regional Australia. It's easy for governments to forget about the regions, and it can be seen that in many ways this federal government is certainly taking the easy path, particularly when it comes to not investing and not spending funds that are required to build our nation. Have a look at the lack of funding for regional, road, rail and port infrastructure through the Building Australia Fund; it's a case in point. But also look at the unfair cap on university places, which places a massive burden on our regional universities.

Charles Darwin University is the only university in the Northern Territory. It's been crippled by the coalition's freeze on university places, losing around $30 million of federal funding as a consequence. Some of the larger sandstone universities in the large capitals—Sydney and Melbourne—might be able to cope with this university place capping. But it was because of the effect the cap has on regional universities, in particular, that when we were in office Labor lifted the cap on the number of university places. That opened the door to thousands of students around the country, including in regional areas. There are young Territorians who would never have had the opportunity to go to university if not for the lifting of those caps.

Now the federal government's cap prevents regional universities like CDU from growing, and it blocks prospective students' access to tertiary education across the Territory. It's estimated more than 1,200 Territorians could miss out on a place at university over the next decade because of this cap. By not lifting the cap, the Morrison government continues to put university out of reach for young Territorians. Another area of concern for Territorians is the flow-on effect for vocational education and training. Currently, it looks like Charles Darwin University may also lose up to 100 jobs. So staff jobs are on the line as well because of the capping of these university places.

Homelessness is also a massive concern for Territorians, with the highest rates of homelessness in the country. Most of those suffering are older women and young people who have become socially disconnected or disconnected from family. And yet the Northern Territory receives the least amount per capita of funding support from the federal government. Try and work that out. I could barely believe it when I recently heard that the Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services's solution was to put 'a positive spin' on homelessness! Try telling that to people on the front line, like Fran Avon from the St Vincent de Paul Society NT. Her organisation is having to turn away six callers a day because of funding constraints, and people are having to wait six weeks for emergency accommodation. So, if the federal minister is interested in making a positive contribution to addressing homelessness around the country, he could take a look at the current funding structure for homeless people, which is disadvantaging the Northern Territory.

This federal government, the Morrison government, cannot continue to ignore the housing affordability crisis which is gripping the country, because it's forcing more people into homelessness. I know that this is not on purpose—the federal government is not trying to force people into homelessness. However, they must look at the policies they have. And ignoring the problem is not a solution. It's not a solution for broken families who cannot pay the rent, for those who are feeling lost and abandoned, or for those on the streets whose minds have been touched by illness or whose bodies are sorely affected by disabilities. Ignoring the problem of homelessness we have in our country is not a solution. I can say to honourable members: if you want to get a sobering view of the homelessness crisis in our country, come up to Darwin and I will show you what a lack of federal support does to people living rough.

It's no surprise, either, that Territory businesses are frustrated at the sluggish delivery of the infrastructure spend. They are also very frustrated at some other issues—issues that are driving crime, as one example. When it comes to infrastructure, the Territory business community know what they were promised. As to Defence spending on infrastructure, the delay in those infrastructure packages had become a problem. Before the election, the federal government said that infrastructure packages would start before the end of 2019. But since then we haven't heard a thing. There are some months to go, so we're looking forward to hearing some news.

The government says it believes in regionalisation—in bringing government services closer to the people they serve. However, talking is easy. We want to see the regionalisation rhetoric become a reality. They are worthy sentiments, but let's look at what is happening.

When it comes to supporting regional areas—particularly regional areas of low population—the Australian Public Service is an important employer. At the moment, Territorians are being denied the services that they need and deserve, and we have seen, over the past six years of coalition government, a 26 per cent cut in the number of Commonwealth Public Service jobs in the NT. That's 695 people, which is a lot of people when you've got a relatively small population, as we have in Darwin. When we look at permanent positions, it's an even bigger figure: 32 per cent of permanent positions, or 713 people, have been cut. So, when we look at departments and agencies that have received cuts to their staffing, services have become very hard for Territorians to access.

In the Department of Defence, 62 positions have been lost; in Defence Housing, eight positions have been lost; in the Department of Education, four positions, or 25 per cent, have been lost; in the Department of Health, we've seen a loss of 65 per cent in Commonwealth public service positions; in Human services, Centrelink and the like there have been 74 positions cut; in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 23 per cent of positions have been cut; in Aboriginal Hostels there's been a cut of 10 per cent; in the Bureau of Meteorology, there's been a cut of 16 per cent; and in the ATO there's been a cut of 100 per cent. That's right; there is no-one left to assist Territorians face to face when it comes to the Taxation Office. Then we have the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities. They've lost positions. The Fair Work Commission has also lost positions.

In speaking about the different sectors of our public service that have lost positions, I have laboured the point that it's easy for someone down in the federal government to direct the public service to find cuts to the public service. But, when it hits places like the Northern Territory, it hurts. It hurts not only because our people living a long way away from Canberra or from the main cities have to deal with not having the services that every other Australian has; it also hurts our economy because of the smaller population. I want to see the coalition government start to invest in regional Australia and invest in the Territory.