Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. How is the Albanese Labor government changing policy to deliver for regional Australia, providing fair and transparent investment and building and protecting the infrastructure and services—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member will resume his seat. I want to be very clear. I need to hear the questions. There is far too much noise on my left. We can keep doing this until we get it right.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. How is the Albanese Labor government changing policy to deliver for regional Australia, providing fair and transparent investment and building and protecting the infrastructure and services our communities rely upon?

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight you will see a budget that delivers for our regions. It will deliver responsible reform for regional programs and deliver on our commitments that we made to regional Australia right the way across this country.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will cease interjecting.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The budget will include over 760 initiatives for regional Australia. In my own portfolio it will include the Bass, Tasman and Tamar highways in Tasmania; freight roads in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory; Mandalong Road and the Muswellbrook bypass in the Hunter; jetties up in the Torres Strait; logistics and industrial hubs in Gippsland, in Townsville—I see the member interjecting—and in the Northern Territory; and cultural and sporting precincts in Alice and in Kalgoorlie. It will include two new regional programs: the Growing Regions Program and the partnerships and precincts program—a billion dollars to be invested over the next three years into regional communities across this country.

The budget, of course, ends the decade of waste and rorts and cleans up the mess that has been left by the Liberal and National parties. It fixes the legacy of infrastructure projects that the previous government announced, with great fanfare, but was actually unable to deliver. It ends the mess of grants programs that saw rampant politicisation and deserving communities across this country miss out.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Barker will cease interjecting.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And it cleans up projects dating back to 2016 that remain undelivered, uncontracted and, in some cases, without any proponent. Unlike the National Party, we don't believe the regions are only worthy of funding if they elect a National Party member. Our fairer and transparent regional investments will make sure they are delivered across the country.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Nationals will cease interjecting.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know that it isn't only grants and infrastructure that matter to our regions. Every single portfolio has a role to play, and that's why the budget tonight will deliver amongst the largest investments in regional communications that we have seen, along with the Powering the Regions Fund, the regional first homebuyer guarantee, investments in First Nations communities and, of course, defending and protecting the sustainability of the NDIS and Medicare, on which our regions so fiercely rely.

Through it all, we will of course continue to deliver flood and disaster affected communities the support that they need, helping them to become more resilient and to build back better, something the previous government did not do. This is a budget that delivers for all Australians, and it will certainly be a budget that delivers for our regions.