Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member of Moreton for running through those amazing volunteers that we all have in our communities. It's great to see them recognised.

Labor's first budget in nine years is another blow to regional and remote communities still recovering from the pandemic. Before the election, the Prime Minister promised that no-one would be held back and no-one would be left behind under an Albanese government. With Labor's first budget, 30 per cent of Australians who live in regional areas, including my entire electorate of O'Connor, have been left behind in four key areas. These four neglected areas are cost of living, child care, infrastructure and community care.

The first neglected area of cost of living is set to get worse under this budget. Where the coalition's budget earlier this year decisively dealt with this issue through measures such as halving the fuel excise for six months, Labor's budget will set the average family back by at least $2,000 by Christmas. Groceries will cost eight per cent more, not just because of natural disasters but also thanks to a Labor-made disaster in scrapping the ag visa. Supply has been slashed because farmers and processors are only working at 60 per cent capacity. In O'Connor and across the rest of the country, this has put upward pressure on families at the checkout. It's a double whammy for families in my electorate, many of whom are farming families who, in the coming months, will struggle to harvest all their crops thank to the shortage of workers.

Turning to child care—or a lack thereof—Labor's budget has turned its back on families desperate to find childcare places in O'Connor. While the Treasurer announced $4.7 billion in childcare measures, he could not create one new childcare place, leaving families no better off. Labor has put the needs of regional families last, refusing to increase the availability of desperately needed childcare places and centres in regional areas.

Labor has also axed the Building Better Regions Fund. Across O'Connor, more than 20 community groups and local councils lodged applications for round 6 of the program. They spent much time, money and energy and many resources in doing so. Scrapping this highly successful program mid-round is heartbreaking for those applicants. Over the past five years, Building Better Regions has supported more than 50 community building projects across O'Connor. These include the very popular Esperance Jetty project, upgrades to Niels Hansen Basketball Stadium, in Kalgoorlie-Boulder and extensive works at Middleton Beach allowing for significant investment in a hotel development in the precinct. Without the Building Better Regions Fund, infrastructure renewal in regional communities will stagnate, while projects in Labor's metropolitan heartland are prioritised.

In the lower South-West I welcomed a reported commitment that $39.7 million previously budged by the coalition for water security would stay in WA and not vanish into consolidated revenue. I've written to the Minister for the Environment and Water urging her to quarantine that money for water security measures now that the WA Labor government has decided not to proceed with the Southern Forests Irrigation Scheme. Unfortunately, the minister is yet to reply to me, but news reports today that the money will stay WA is a welcome development, and I will hold the minister to that.

With regard to community care, in a bizarre move federal Labor will blow $217 million over four years on scrapping the cashless debit card. That works out to $13½ thousand per participant in the trial. In the Goldfields working age welfare recipients had 80 per cent of their payments placed onto a visa debit card, with the remaining 20 per cent available to be withdrawn as cash. An early evaluation of the card showed that 41 per cent of surveyed participants who drank alcohol reported drinking less frequently, 48 per cent of surveyed participants who used drugs reported using drugs less frequently and, surprisingly enough, 48 per cent of those who gambled before the trial reported gambling less often.

Meanwhile, Warren-Blackwood constituents will be disappointed that the budget claiming to allocate $4.2 million to support regional headspace centres—health minister Mark Butler has informed the Blackwood Youth Action group that Labor will reverse the coalition's pre-election promise of a headspace dedicated to that district. I will keep working with the Blackwood Youth Action group towards achieving a headspace service in the district.

In a further blow, in the middle of the show season, the budget will not proceed with round 2 of the Regional Agricultural Show Development Grants Program. It's also scrapping funding for the Agricultural Show and Field Days Program. Abolishing these programs is bad news for our Ag. societies who are still recovering from the economic hit of the pandemic. Cuts are proof of the contempt which Labor has for regional and remote Australia— (Time expired)