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

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Gippsland proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The government's failure to invest in infrastructure and support regional Australians.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As you know, Mr Speaker, I'm an optimistic kind of bloke. I've noticed that these matters of public importance are often quite negative. So today I thought I'd try and start on a more positive note. Given that this MPI is all about infrastructure and delivery, I thought I'd do the right thing by the government. I thought I'd do the right thing by the Albanese government and list their infrastructure achievements, reading them for the benefit of the parliament, so we'd all be better informed. So we searched. We checked the ministerial press releases. We read through social media. I didn't check in the despatch box, but maybe I should have! But here is the definite list—zero, zilch, nothing, duck eggs. We couldn't find a single project that the minister—who hasn't stayed here for the MPI—or this government has announced, designed, funded and delivered in the past 15 months.

I note that my good mate the member for Cowper is right behind me today. His electorate is famous for the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour. As a child, I visited the Big Banana. I'm worried that the infrastructure minister also visited the Big Banana as a child but took that as some sort of ministerial job description for a future career, because she has become the Big Banana of the Albanese cabinet. She has built absolutely nothing anywhere near anything. It used to be the infrastructure portfolio; now it has become the banana portfolio—they build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything.

There are some dangerous places in the world today—hostile areas with particularly inhospitable environments. Among the top 10 of the most dangerous places in the world are: Death Road, Snake Island, the Gates of Hell, the Skeleton Coast and Death Valley—they all sound very dangerous, but I'm quite sad to report this list isn't quite complete. It's out of date. There's another place in Australia today which needs to be added to the list. There is one other place you just don't want to find yourself loitering for too long. You never want to stand between a Labor minister and a ribbon-cutting event on a project they had nothing to do with. Never stand between a Labor minister and a ribbon-cutting event that they had absolutely nothing to do with. You see them lining up for the project openings. Be very careful, colleagues, in your own electorates—if you actually get invited! If you're there, you will be killed in the stampede for the photo opportunity. They're claiming credit for projects that were fully funded by the previous government, claiming credit for projects that commenced construction during the term of the previous government, claiming credit for projects fully funded by the coalition. They're not only claiming credit but also boldly posting with gushing praise on their social media accounts. Then they come in here, whinging that the previous government did nothing.

If you travel anywhere in regional Australia today and you see a bulldozer, a grader or a crane working on a new infrastructure project, you can be certain of one thing: it wasn't funded by this Labor government. On this side of the chamber, we are proud of our achievements. We had record infrastructure investment which changed and actually saved lives. We built roads, we built railway lines and we built airports. We funded local councils to build community infrastructure. After 12 months, we are waiting for the ministers in the Albanese government to build anything other than their own egos.

If you listen to those opposite, it's like a variation on that famous Monty Python sketch: what have the Romans ever done for us? 'What has the coalition done for us?' Well, apart from fully duplicating the Pacific Highway from Sydney to Brisbane, massive upgrades to the Bruce Highway right through Queensland, starting construction on the Western Sydney Airport, light rail and inland rail, an extra lane to the Monash Freeway, the Beef Roads Program, Roads of Strategic Importance, a second road crossing in Toowoomba, increased funding for local and regional roads, introduced the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, which those opposite have now abolished—

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Apart from all of that—

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Apart from all of that, what has the coalition done for us? Apart from the Monty Python attack lines from this minister, it all falls flat on one critical point: the minister, who can't be bothered coming in here for a matter of public importance on her own portfolio, hasn't built anything. She really is a banana minister—builds absolutely nothing anywhere near anything.

Those of us who were here for the Treasurer's speech on budget night might have noticed one thing: he didn't mention the word 'infrastructure' once. He couldn't even bring himself to mention the word 'roads' once. But that hasn't stopped this minister from hitting the ground complaining and reviewing. She hasn't funded a single project of her own, so she's out there taking credit for the work of the previous government. This would be laughable if it wasn't so bad and so sad for regional Australians. The infrastructure and transport portfolio is so important for the future of rural and regional Australia. All this minister has been able to do in 15 months is announce a review into the infrastructure investment pipeline. She has been the minister for 15 months, and on her 90-day review—we're up to 110 days now, I think—we are still waiting for the outcomes of this razor-gang review.

This lack of support for regional Australians is reflected very obviously in the programs that have gone missing under this government. The minister is out there opening projects, taking credit, putting out press releases and saying how wonderful the local roads community infrastructure program is—she loved it so much, she abolished it. The Roads of Strategic Importance program—it's gone. The regional airports infrastructure program—that's gone. And the Treasurer stood here this week and admitted the Stronger Communities program is goneski as well. On this side of the House we actually trust regional people to make good decisions. That's why we believed in them to set local priorities and fund local projects. We believed in the future of regional communities and we invested heavily in them. Those opposite have just kept on cutting programs. It's because they don't want to support our regional people.

In closing, this lack of support for regional people has never been more obvious than in Victoria today. The most obvious example of that today is the Victorian Labor Party and its illogical, treacherous and bloody minded decision to ban the native hardwood timber industry in that state. What did we hear from those opposite, the once great champions of the working class? What we hear from them when Dan Andrews showed no respect to timber workers and cut the guts out of the industry? What did we hear from those opposite? Not a single word of complaint, not a whisper, not a murmur, not even a raised eyebrow—because that's the new Labor way. Old Labor could be trusted to fight for blue-collar jobs. The only thing that new Labor fights for is Greens preferences. The only thing they're interested in is Greens preferences. Those opposite know how true this is because, every time I've raised this issue in the parliament, they never stand up and take a point of order or raise a single word in defence of Australian timber workers.

Those opposite are simply too gutless to stand up to the Victorian Labor Party and say a single critical word, even when they know that this decision was based entirely on political science. It had nothing to do with environmental science, and it is devastating for regional communities not only in my electorate but right across regional Victoria. Their own colleagues are sneaking around the back trying to get motions up at their own federal conference to ban the entire industry across Australia. They're shaking their heads now and saying it's not true. Well, stand up and fight for the blue-collar workers right across regional Australia.

Let me give the Labor Party a little tip. If the Greens are cheering your decision, it's probably a very bad decision. If the light greens—sorry, the teals—are cheering you on, think again. The teals are just the Greens with trust funds. It's obscene to watch members from some of the most privileged communities in the nation demanding timber workers right across Australia lose their jobs. The teals and the Greens enjoy all the spoils of a life created from the hard work of regional Australians, but that doesn't stop them from trying to campaign to take their jobs away. This government has had 15 months in office, and all they've done is cut regional grants programs, whinge about the previous government and turn their backs on hardworking families in rural and regional Australia.

Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's a lot I can say about this MPI, but I'm going to start with one simple thing: is this a joke? For the last 10 years, those opposite have been traipsing around the country announcing infrastructure projects and not delivering a lot. They had 10 years without a decent change to rural aged care, 10 years without understanding that investment in schools delivers skills, 10 years without dealing with the housing crisis that every regional community is now facing and 10 years to make sure that we had GPs in regional areas.

Grant programs deliver things for communities—absolutely—but we need services. We need investments in our people. We need understanding that it is more than a grant program. Those opposite complain about a whole list of things. They say they've delivered projects, but so many of them are undercooked, are underinvested, are poorly thought through, had no delivery partners, weren't done in consultation with state or territory governments and had zero consultation with local councils. We need to make sure that our three levels of government are working together to deliver for our communities. Throwing press releases around doesn't build a road, and you cannot show up for a photo op and not follow through with communities. From day one, this side of the House has been getting on with the job of delivering for regional Australia.

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting—

Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where?

An opposition member: East Gippsland.

East Gippsland—I'm really glad you've mentioned this. East Gippsland is where the former deputy prime minister, once or twice removed—I'm unsure—the member for New England, said he was going to fund two projects for important bushfire-affected communities. He wrote a letter to them saying, 'We've fully funded it,' but they failed to put it in the budget. That's absolutely distressing for regional communities. And I feel sorry for the member, because it is really difficult to go to communities and try to explain that your own party shafted you. The Labor Party made sure those two commitments were delivered, because it's important to back communities that have been through natural disaster.

Despite all the noise, the reality is that you supported some regions. You didn't support all of regional Australia. You can sit here and say you're here for regional Australia, but you were not. You governed via colour coded spreadsheets, by postcodes. You determined that people who were represented by other parties were not worthy of taxpayer funds. You said that funding the North Sydney pool through a regional development program, a closed-tender program which was meant to provide upgrades to women's changerooms, was the most important thing. I don't know where the National Party was then, standing up for regional Australia saying, 'How about you invest in regional pools in regional areas?' It's absolutely ridiculous.

To top it off, we've got 800 projects in an infrastructure pipeline, but not money for 800 projects in the infrastructure pipeline—great economic managers on that side of the House! 'Let's put some projects in a pipeline. Let's do some press releases. I don't want to fund them; that's someone else's job!' And local roads and community infrastructure: I hear a lot about it—it's incredibly important—is a measure that you didn't continue in the budget. Actually, on our side of politics, we added $250 million to it. Do you know what else we did? We said, 'We know how important it is for regional, rural and remote communities to deal with roads upgrades.' So, we said that round 4A was going only to those councils who needed it the most.

That is what standing up for regional Australia looks like. That doesn't mean we're going to give it to metro councils and say: 'Go for your life. I know parking fines have topped $90 million in the city of Sydney, but that's okay. Here: take some more taxpayer dollars and deal with your nice-to-have projects.' We delivered for remote communities doing it really tough. We are a government committed to working with our communities, to listening to local government. That's why we brought them back to the National Cabinet table. That's why we redelivered the Australian Council of Local Government—because we want to work with our regional communities, we want to work with all communities across the country. As I said earlier today, there are a couple of key themes across our regions. One of them, no matter where you are, is housing. Among the Far North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils, 10 councils told me last week that housing is a priority for them, that they can't get more council workers, can't get childcare workers, can't get aged-care workers, can't get teachers or nurses, because they don't have housing.

I know those opposite get the same comments in their own communities. But they are failing to understand that they have a role to act. The Housing Australia Future Fund is one way to make sure we can get more dollars into housing supply across the country. Shepparton council backed in what all those councils across Far North Queensland said to me the following day: 'Housing is a critical shortage for us. We need houses for our fruit pickers, for chefs, because unless we get those people we cannot get a productive workforce.'

And childcare workers are an absolute essential if we are to get productivity moving in our nation. We know there is no access to child care in some regions across this country. In the Kimberley there's a critical workforce shortage. Earlier today I was speaking to a parent from Kangaroo Island, who said, 'Unless we have houses, unless we deal with that critical shortage, we cannot attract childcare workers to start the facilities to get people back into the workforce.' From Bega Valley to Broome in WA, the same issue is housing, but those opposite have sided with the Greens to block that. The time for talking is over. Your petitions need to stop. Get on with it so that we can deliver housing across the country.

The other key theme, regardless of where you are in this country, is connectivity. Digital accessibility is important no matter where you live, but it's even more critical in the bush. The digital divide could not be more stark. Those opposite know that we need more connectivity across this country. You've been through natural disasters—everyone points you to a phone: 'Get on the Fires Near Me app. Check your hazards report.' You know what? If you have a black spot and you don't address it, you cannot deal with it.

The NBN was left in a critical mess—an absolute mess. It was going to be $29 billion, then $41 billion, then $49 billion, and then they ended up spending $58 billion on a redundant system—a system that was just outrageous. During lockdowns, I had community members say to me, 'I can no longer have my child learning from home because I've reached my cap on Sky Muster.' Honestly! The champions of regional Australia over there forgot to have unmetered data for people on satellite plans!

Let's get serious—you cannot grow a business, you cannot invest in a business, you cannot skill up and learn from home and you cannot keep in contact with family and friends unless you're serious about connectivity. That's why this side of the House has made the biggest commitment to regional communications since the creation of the NBN. As I said, it's a Labor government that delivers those critical infrastructure needs for regional Australia.

Our communities said to us, 'Invest in disaster resilience and mitigation,' and that's exactly what we did. We have backed regional communities by making sure that there are critical investments in mitigation and resilience projects that are critical to our communities. We are supporting regional Australia, we'll continue to do so and we're going to do so with clear and transparent regional programs.

The Growing Regions Program is a new opportunity to apply for funding for social and economic infrastructure, for councils and not-for-profits, and it is going to be done through an open, competitive grant process. The Precincts and Partnerships Program is going to provide a strategic, nationally-consistent mechanism for funding and coordinating our large-scale projects. It will transform places. It'll benefit communities in our regional cities and regional and rural Australia. Why is that so important? It's important because we respect regional people. They are in every town and village across the country. We want them to know that, if they put in an application, it's going to be treated on its merits, not treated on the postcode that it's in. We want to give people a fair go, and we will back their ideas.

Unlike those opposite, we're listening to regional Australia. We will deliver for regional Australia. As I said, it takes a Labor government to put regional people first.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Wow, what a long 10 minutes that was! The amusing thing about this—it's not a funny subject, but it's almost an amusing dichotomy about what they used to speak about—is that, when we were in government, we, as regional MPs, were criticised by those opposite for 'pork-barrelling' our seats, and they're still saying it. Now, I take issue with the term 'pork-barrelling' because I always used to refer to it as 'being a strong advocate' rather than 'pork-barrelling'. But we were criticised for 'pork-barrelling' our seats. What's the definition of 'pork-barrelling'? Basically, it's getting money that other people don't think you deserve and that you're getting for reasons other than you should. That's an insult to every regional MP who was advocating and got stuff for their regional community.

But it's changed now. No, we're not pork-barrellers anymore. We don't talk about pork-barrelling anymore. Now they're saying that we were all announcement but no action. So we've gone from delivering too much for our communities as pork-barrellers who were getting stuff delivered to our communities that we should have never got—that's what they were saying in opposition. Now that they're in government, they're saying: 'No, you just put out the press releases. There was no delivery.' That is actually a contradictory statement, but I'll just leave that there.

A long time ago—and it hasn't changed—a previous prime minister and a previous leader of the Labor Party basically showed how the Labor Party think. He belled the cat, basically. He said exactly what every Labor MP says. He said that every Nat MP that he spoke to—all they wanted to do was build a road to nowhere. He probably thought that was funny—funny Paul Keating. 'All regional MPs want to do is build roads to nowhere.' They don't go to nowhere. They go to our farms; they go to our homes; they go to our hospitals; and they keep us safe. It's very important. Again, the Labor Party would never understand.

We need regional infrastructure. Do you know why we need regional infrastructure? Those opposite don't want to know about this either. It's because the regions are big exporters of four things; they're the four biggest exports in our country. I'll say them. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer will never say this, but I'm going to tell those opposite right now what the four biggest exports in this country are: coal, gas, iron ore and ag—farmers. Where do they all come from? Where does every single dollar from those four things, which are the biggest exports of this country, come from? From the regions.

Those opposite think the roads we want to build out there are to nowhere. They roads are to help us and our export industries flourish. They'll never say that. I encourage anyone opposite to name those four things: coal, gas, iron ore and agriculture. They're our four biggest exports, funding our lives. All the things you love to spend money on—as we need to as a government—all come from the revenue from those four things. I'll just throw that out there. The regional infrastructure that we need and deserve is very much about that. Why don't they get it? They have a few token regional seats; they're very token. If you look at a map of regional Australia, it's all blue and green. It's blue for the Liberal Party regional MPs and green for the Nat MPs. That's who the regional representatives in this community are.

I want to run through some of the harsh cuts to programs. I won't run through them all, because there are too many. When we talk about cuts to regional Australia, we're talking about cuts to community. One of them they didn't care about is a little one called the Stronger Communities Program. It's a real little program. It's grants of five grand, 10 grand or 15 grand to tennis courts, local sporting clubs and other local community things. These grants were dear to us, as regional MPs, because we're part of our communities. For our communities and our little community groups, that program was really important, and it was gone straightaway. They don't care about that stuff. They don't care about community organisations or things like that. If they did, they would've fought for them. You can nod your head, but you didn't protect it.

Besides infrastructure, another thing this government has done to really hurt regional communities is the pharmacy decision. They don't care; they've got big pharmacies, the big guys, but we have small regional and rural pharmacies that will close because of this decision. The other thing is the distribution priority areas for GPs. We have a critical shortage of GPs in our regions. They changed the rules so that foreign-trained and Commonwealth-scholarship GPs can now work in the cities. They don't understand the regions, and that's why they have no seats in the regions.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Wasn't that a terribly long five minutes that we all had to sit through! There are a couple of things I want to pick up on from the previous speaker's comments. Gold was missing off his list of our biggest exports. As a proud gold mining electorate, I wanted to correct his statement. Gold is our fourth biggest export in this country. It outranks wheat. Gold is a critical export, and it is in my electorate that we mine gold. We are a proud regional electorate, like that of the member sitting next to me, the member for Blair. His is a proud regional electorate. And there are other members here in the chamber, who will also speak, who are from proud regional electorates. They appear on the electoral map as red. Regional electorates are not just blue, green or independent. There are lots of red electorates, Labor electorates, in the regions. We have Newcastle, Gilmore, Paterson and Hunter—all regional electorates. Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong are regional electorates. We have Eden-Monaro—the list goes on. It is not right of the coalition and those opposite to say that they are the only regional MPs. They are not.

Another point that those opposite raised that I want to touch on: the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program was put forward by the previous government as a COVID recovery measure. In the first instance, it was for a year. I remember writing to the minister of the day, who's probably going to make a contribution, and saying, 'This should be extended because recovery from COVID will take a few years.' It was funded in the budget papers for four years, and it ended. It ended on their watch, not on our watch. We made an election commitment to an extra year of funding for local roads, and that's what we've done. That is the history of that.

Sports rorts: in my regional electorate, a football club in my area, Kyneton District Soccer Club, did quite well, scoring 96 in the ratings. They thought they were sure to get the funding, but they missed out. It was taken away from them and reallocated. Why? Because, as we now know from the sports rorts, they appeared as a red electorate, not a green electorate or a blue electorate. That's why they lost their funding. That is what happened under those opposite. That is why, with us government, these processes are gone. We've introduced a new way of doing grants to make sure it is fair and transparent.

A couple of other things in infrastructure: those opposite would like to suggest that building roads, buildings and railways is all that matters when it comes to infrastructure. Yes, it is critical, and we have plans on where we're going to prioritise that building, but we are also investing in health infrastructure and education infrastructure. We're building the NBN properly, going back and fixing up all the mistakes of those opposite. Regional Australia is the biggest winner, with Minister Rowland and what is happening in telecommunications and the NBN. We're uncapping Sky Muster, so all those relying upon satellite can now get all the internet data that they require. We're building more fibre to the curb and fibre to the premises. Regional electorates are the big winners—people who have towers. We're boosting the towers so they can get the download and upload speeds that they need. It's not something metro areas need to worry about; they don't have towers, but in regional electorates, like mine, we have a huge network of towers. It is our government that has lifted the download/upload speed so that people can work from home and businesses can thrive. These are some of the big changes that we're introducing, and that is making a real difference.

We're also investing in people. We're making sure that we have the skilled workforce we need in the regions. We are also investing in manufacturing. The National Reconstruction Fund is $15 billion. Manufacturing occurs in the regions. One of the key priority areas is critical minerals. There's not a lot of critical mineral mining that occurs in metro areas. Almost all of that infrastructure funding will come to the regions. There is this weird idea among those in the coalition that it needs to sit in a regional portfolio for it to be regional. Our government approaches it very differently. Every single area prioritises the regions. That's what we're doing.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bendigo for her contribution and express gratitude to her for pointing out the regional members from the government who represent rural constituents. I say to those Labor regional members: fight for your electorates, fight for your rural communities. You have the member for Rankin as your Treasurer—a Brisbane city based Treasurer. When I was in government, I had the member for Kooyong, but at least I knew that that Melbourne city based Treasurer understood regional Australia, because he'd actually worked in regional Australia. He'd worked on a station. He understood regional Australia. More to the point, he cared about regional Australia. I don't suspect that the member for Rankin quite understands regional Australia like the member for Kooyong, the former Treasurer, did.

It's up to the Labor members to go into where the Expenditure Review Committee is meeting; it's up to them, when the budgets are being prepared, to go in there and fight for regional Australia! But, unfortunately, those members—those ALP members from regional areas—are not. Proof positive of all of the regional programs that have been cut is proof positive that they're not fighting for regional Australia. It's up to those members to do just that—to go in there and fight. They need to fight for the Building Better Regions Fund, which has been abolished. They need to fight for the Stronger Communities Program, which has been abolished. They need to fight for the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program, which has been abolished. They need to fight for more water infrastructure and to fight against the 450 gigalitres that are going to be pushed down the Murray-Darling system and cause such heartache for those irrigation towns and for those communities that rely so much on water. They're going to have that water stripped away.

Earlier, I was talking to Brent Finlay. He's a good man. He's from Stanthorpe. He said to me that Stanthorpe is going to be the biggest town in Australia to run out of water in the next 10 years. Now, I fought hard to make sure that there was money on the table—federal grants—to get the Emu Swamp Dam. But, unfortunately, that side of politics doesn't believe in building dams and doesn't believe in water infrastructure.

I hear the member for Lyons interjecting. Well, I built a dam; I built a dam in your state of Tasmania—it's called Scottsdale. Go and look it up! But we need to fund the Emu Swamp Dam, and we need to fund it because it's 12,000-megalitres of water infrastructure that's going to provide water security for Stanthorpe, with a population of 6,000, and it's going to provide for industry and agriculture. It's up to those regional members opposite to fight for industry and to fight for water security—to fight for irrigation and industry. But they're not.

As Brent Finlay said, there are ways to do this. There are ways around state governments, but those opposite don't seem to want to do that. All they want to do is abolish programs—abolish regional programs which have been so beneficial. And they know it! In their heart of hearts, those members from country areas know how these are just so advantageous for regional communities. Programs such as—

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You should have done it when you had the chance!

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And I hear the minister opposite, who also keeps interjecting. She doesn't understand regional Australia, doesn't understand irrigation and doesn't understand that it's those irrigation communities which are growing the food to feed our nation, and many others beside. They're called 'exports'.

We heard the Treasurer in the last budget; for the first time in quarter of a century a Treasurer stood at that dispatch box and didn't even use word 'infrastructure' once! Not once! Shame on him! But we also heard a budget speech last time where he talked about the things that we sell overseas and he couldn't bring himself to mention coal, gas and iron ore—the things we sell overseas. What an insult to those regional people who work in mines and who are proud of the resources sector! And we should be proud of regional Australia. I call on those members opposite who are from the regions to fight harder to protect and preserve regional Australia and infrastructure.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I give the call to the member for McEwen, I'll say that robust debate is welcome in this place but it's getting loud and the interjections are getting a little disorderly. I'm going to remind the member for Nicholls—I didn't want to interrupt the member for Riverina during his speech—that interjections are problematic, but interjections when you're not sitting in your seat are highly disorderly. Let's just dial it down a little and progress to the member for McEwen.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The one consistency we have with the National Party is that they're blowhards in opposition. They're all bluster, bluff and carry-on about standing up for the regions. But when it comes to government, what did they do? Nothing—absolutely nothing! They had dodgy spreadsheets that were colour coded and took money out of regional areas all the time for themselves.

I'll mention the four words—and I want to get onto this, because this is a ripper—let's look at coal, iron ore and gas, three things where the National Party have screwed farmers over. They don't care what happens on the land; they only care about what's underneath it. The days of the National Party representing farmers are now gone. All they are doing is representing mining interests. They don't care about farmers. We hear them talking about roads and all this sort of stuff, but it's all bluff and blunder. I think the member for Riverina is a good bloke, but standing up to defend the member for Kooyong as your regional Treasurer was as bad as talking about former member for North Sydney Joe Hockey as your Treasurer! But we know you backed him, because you built a pool in North Sydney. That was one of the things you wanted to do.

Let's have a talk about what happened in the nine years of neglect under that lot opposite. Victoria got dropped to seven per cent of infrastructure spend. You'd think those Victorian MPs in the National Party would be standing up, but they didn't. They went out and backed that continuation. They made empty promises day after day. Let's talk about opening things that you never did. The member for Riverina would remember the day that his replacement—the bad one, the member for New England—came down and dug the hole for the quarantine centre, something that we funded. I'll tell you how petty the National Party are: they wouldn't let us get in the photo. They wouldn't let us get involved. We funded it and put it there, but they wouldn't let us. Just like the Wallan superclinic. We funded it, but due to the pettiness of the now Deputy Leader of the Opposition they wouldn't do an official opening, because it was a Labor project and that would have screwed up their story about Labor not building superclinics. They are an absolute farce when it comes to integrity.

When we're talking about roads, we hear, 'The farmers bring the food in.' They can't get to the Melbourne markets, because of the Hume Highway being such a mess. What happened? In two elections they were promising $50 million for the Hume Highway. It was a zombie project, which we know they had lots of. They hadn't consulted with anyone, they hadn't spoken to funding partners or anything. What did they do? Here's a letter from the now disgraced Alan Tudge, their mate, the car park rort scheme man. They took the money out of the Hume Highway upgrade. They went to two elections promising it and then ripped off regional Victorians for $50 million. They don't stand up and talk about these things, because they know we're right. There's a big reason that we look at things like the Macedon Ranges Health centre. That was another one we built, but, of course, what happened? The now Deputy Leader of the Opposition went out and opened it but never mentioned that it was funded and built under a Labor government. You know what? They're all good on announcements. Everything they do is all fluff and bubble, but there is no substance. The only thing they had substance in was the rort scheme under the previous government.

We talk about telecommunications, which is an absolute ripper, with $51 billion spent on a $25 billion program. They took the black-spot funding out of regional areas to go and pork barrel their seats. That's exactly what happened. Areas that were prone to bushfire, major roads and rural areas lost funding so that they could prop up seats for themselves, like that of the member for New England to keep him happy. They took it away from Victorians. No Victorian National MP has ever stood up for Victoria. They're happy to stand on them when they're in government, but they won't stand up for them. Never once will you hear them come out and say, 'We did the wrong thing.' In round 4 of the Mobile Black Spot Program, every single one of the projects promised and ready to be delivered was taken away because they wanted to fund their election commitments. Then they had the hide to talk about us. At least we're funding programs in regional areas, plus we're funding our election commitments. Not like those opposite. They invested in copper and put regional Victorians behind.

Regional Australians have done nothing but suffer when the National Party are in government. They like to talk about what they do, but, if you have a look at all the health indexes and education indexes, every single one of them has never improved, because the Nats are all talk and no action.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite do not support regional Australians. Despite all the hype and the bluster, it appears that Labor is focused on investing in infrastructure in their own seats or those that they think they might have a chance of winning. Round 6 of the Mobile Black Spot Program is a testament to that. I have the Minister for Communications right. It targeted funding to Labor seats as election commitments. In fact, 74 per cent of the grants went to electorates that vote red or might vote red. This is despite Labor only representing one-third of regional electorates in the nation. In Victoria, the Labor seats of McEwen, Bendigo and Corangamite all benefited from the communications minister's handpicked funding. There was no funding for Mallee, no funding for Nicholls and none for Gippsland. There was none even for the independently held Indi.

Yesterday in question time the member for Bendigo and the member for Ballarat, who is the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, waxed lyrical over their government delivering for the regions. They talked up the cities of Bendigo and Ballarat—cities in their seats. They forget about more than half the land area of Victoria, which includes cities like Mildura in my electorate, Warrnambool, Shepparton, Wodonga and Traralgon.

Regional Victoria and Australia are waiting with bated breath to hear the results of Labor's 90-day infrastructure review razor gang, which is now up to 110. It has been more than 100 days since it was announced, but where is it? Which projects are getting axed? In Mallee, the Swan Hill community are waiting to find out whether the axe will fall on a $60 million project the former coalition government committed to for a bridge across the Murray River. This has been held up by state governments and heritage listings and all kinds of other reasons. It was not under the coalition that it was held up; it's because of other reasons. Yet here we find that project, which has been promised for years to the people of Swan Hill, is in the axing. We are waiting to hear. In the south of my electorate, the people of Wimmera are still waiting for the duplication of the Western Highway between Ararat and Stawell, as well as the Horsham roundabout. All are subject to the minister's razor gang.

I have spoken to one of my regional councils this week. Due to a Victorian decision to axe the Regional Infrastructure Fund, his council now cannot access federal Labor government's Growing Regions Program. How does that work? This federal Labor government, like Labor every time they get in, has matched funding of fifty-fifty with state governments. Now that the Victorian government has axed their Regional Infrastructure Fund, it means that communities cannot access any funding. Where does that leave us for the next three years? Absolutely high and dry. It's an absolute disgrace. Growing Regions may fund projects between $500,000 and $15 million, but councils are required to fund the fifty-fifty. The Andrews government has slashed the only possibility for most councils my electorate to access any funding at all.

Councils nationwide, including those in Mallee, can get a 90 per cent Commonwealth contribution only if they have been effected by natural disasters like recent floods. But guess what the caveat is. It can only be projects where the site was rolled over with flood; it is not for replacing roads and footpaths which are desperately needed in the region. One council who came to see me this week said they have a total budget of $12 million for all the people that they care for. They have 5,000 kilometres of road. Please tell me: how is that council going to repair any of that road? This leaves regional communities absolutely desperate. It's no wonder our roads are still full of potholes. Under the Labor government, that is going to remain. Do I have to tell my local communities that that is the outcome? It is appalling.

In their first budget, this federal Labor government has cut more than $10 billion in regional programs, highlighted by the axing of the highly successful Building Better Regions Fund and the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure funding. I have had councils nearly weep on my shoulder about the cutting of that fund because it was the only way they could build the projects that are so important to their communities.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was so interesting to hear the member for Gippsland lead off on this matter of public importance. He held up a blank sheet of paper and tried to say to Labor, the new government, that that's what we have achieved in infrastructure. Really I think he was actually just holding up a record of the last 10 years, primarily in infrastructure—their absolutely failed attempt.

It was also interesting to hear him say that the current minister for infrastructure has achieved nothing. Well, I could actually hold up a number of press releases, but I know how the chair feels about props, so I'm not going to be quite that flamboyant. But there are a number of things we can talk about that, in just 12 months, we have achieved in the infrastructure space. To my mind, one of the most important achievements is that we have been able to fix Infrastructure Australia. The minister for infrastructure has said: 'Hang on a minute: this organisation was supposed to be the peak body that led the priorities for the big infrastructure projects that we needed.'

I can remember that not long after I was elected I went along to an Infrastructure Australia announcement under those opposite, when they were in government, and I was aghast. I looked at the document that had been produced, and it was like this endless shopping list of projects for which they had not attributed any budgetary funds whatsoever. I thought, 'How is this ever going to be built?' Then we got to government and the minister spent time and looked over it and said exactly that. She said that what they came up with was lots of glossy brochures—an enormous shopping list of things that needed to be done.

We don't have any argument with those opposite: there is a lot of infrastructure to be built in Australia. We're a big country with a small population, and we've got to build more infrastructure. On that I agree. But we've got to get those priorities right, and bodies like Infrastructure Australia should absolutely be doing the big priorities. I commend the minister on that, because it is important that we get back to identifying those big priorities. One of them is so important to me and the people of the Hunter region more broadly and to my seat of Paterson particularly. It is the M1 between Sydney and Brisbane. I and the member for Newcastle, who is sitting in the chair at the moment, share the last choke point between Sydney and Brisbane. But it's not only Sydney and Brisbane. It's trucks, particularly, on the Golden Highway heading outside towards areas not far from the member for Riverina. They're trying to get their wheat across to the Port of Newcastle. There are all manner of products and commodities trying to get from west to east in Australia that must come through Tarro, Beresfield and the Hexham Straight to get to the Port of Newcastle, and it is a colossal choke point.

I am so proud to say that the minister for infrastructure came to my seat last week and made the announcement that we would be spending, in total, $2.1 billion to fix the Hexham Strait and also build the 15 kilometres of road between Black Hill and Raymond Terrace for the M1 extension. I've spoken about this in parliament so often. You get to Beresfield if you've come from Sydney and you get to the end of the M1. You sit at a set of traffic lights. You have to turn right, go over a sweeping overpass, and then you usually sit in traffic to go over the railway bridge, which I think is close to 80 or 90 years old. It's a danger, actually. People have been killed on it. Well, we've finally made the decision. The drill holes are being done as we speak. It is starting.

Finally, I want to speak about Newcastle Airport. And I will give the former deputy prime minister some props for this. He listened to me when I advocated for that when he was last in government, and I sincerely thank him for that. And our Prime Minister came last week and did the turning of the sod. We are building that project. So, for anyone on that side to say that Labor doesn't represent the regions—it is just a fallacy. We fight for them every day.

Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm here in parliament because I believe rural and regional Australia needs strong representation. To many people's surprise, I had a career before I came here. When I left school, I worked throughout Queensland as a ringer and a timber cutter, a plant operator and an earthmoving contractor, amongst many other things. I was an active partner in my family grazing and farming business and in my engineering and earthmoving business. I still am. I'm a qualified boilermaker, and I worked for many years in the gas industry as a high-pressure pipe welder. Most importantly, I'm a husband, I'm a father and I'm a grandfather. I want my children and my grandchildren to have a strong future in rural and regional Australia. I support the matter of public importance, and it is clear that this government is failing to invest in enough infrastructure to support regional Australians.

What is Labor's plan to invest in regional infrastructure and support regional Australia? Tax, tax and more tax. We've seen them introduce carbon tax 2.0, truckie tax and fresh food tax. What they really should do is change the name of the Australian Labor Party to the Australian tax party. The reason for this is simple. As former prime minister Margaret Thatcher said: 'The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.' So then you have to tax everybody. That's what happens. Central Queensland is the economic engine room of Australia, and it has been under attack since the Labor government has come to office.

Labor's infrastructure razor gang are taking aim at the road users, leaving communities and local residents with an uncertain future. The $120 billion 10-year infrastructure investment pipeline adopted by the former coalition government included many worthy land transport projects that had been identified in partnership with state and territory governments, local councils, freight industry stakeholders and communities. Yet now all of it's under review. Fifteen roads in the Flynn electorate are included in Minister King's infrastructure review. Labor has also referred ongoing programs to the 90-day review, putting them at risk, including Roads to Recovery, the Black Spot Program, the Bridges Renewal Program, the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and national road network maintenance. Labor has scrapped the Building Better Regions Fund, a regional grants program designed to deliver funding for regional infrastructure projects and community development activities.

Projects that have previously received funding through the Building Better Regions Fund in my electorate are: $380,908 towards the construction of a speedway track and facilities at the Gladstone Auto Club; $5.7 million for the upgrade of the water supply infrastructure with a new water treatment plant and raw water reservoir at Biggenden; $108,500 towards the construction of the Gemfields skatepark; $300,000 towards improving disabled and elderly entry upgraded bathroom facilities, increased shaded areas and a water feature at the Wondai memorial pool; almost $4.1 million towards nine one-bedroom residential units at the Ivy Anderson aged-care project in Springsure; $1.4 million to the construction of the Emerald Retro Street kindergarten; $492,000 towards upgrading the Vinnies Gladstone warehouse and family support centre; $360,000 towards weatherproofing a roof to an all-weather facility at Calliope community hub; and almost $1.4 million towards the Gin Gin community hub development. These are just a few.

As many in the coalition know, water means life. Water is opportunity and it means production. The Labor government, in their wisdom, have cut more than $7 billion in dams and water infrastructure proposed at the last election, deferring funding of $899 million over four years from the Dungowan dam and pipeline, Emu Swamp dam and pipeline, Hughenden irrigation system and the Wyangala dam wall raising project. Labor's recent budget did not match the coalition's commitment of $25 million towards the supply of water critical for the development of the new industrial precinct 20 kilometres from Emerald at the Yamala Enterprise Area. The funding would support the Yamala Enterprise Area intermodal and industrial precinct to turbocharge Central Queensland's economy, creating more jobs and industries. Cuts to water programs are devastating, and these impact rural and regional Australia. Labor simply does not understand how critical water infrastructure is.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Listening to those opposite, you would not believe that they were actually in government for nine long years. The member for Riverina at the table and the member for New England were deputy prime ministers in the former government—two of the highest offices in the land—and acting Prime Minister for some of it. Those are two of the most powerful positions. If you want a measure of how regional Australia went, where is the data, former Deputy Prime Minister, on health outcomes for regional Australians? Where is the data on education, skills, communications and housing? Where is the data on how you improved life for regional Australians over your nine long years in government? You haven't got it, because regional people's lives did not improve over your nine long years in government.

That's the big difference between us: the way we approach government. Our government is taking a holistic approach. We want to make lives better for everybody, including regional Australians. We want better health outcomes for everybody, including remote, regional and Indigenous Australians. We want better education outcomes, skills outcomes, communications outcomes and housing outcomes. When you look at the deep vein of policy that we have before this place, that becomes evident: a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, a stronger Medicare program, university programs, fee-free TAFE programs and regional communications. The list goes on and on.

The member for Gippsland gave a blank piece of paper. That was a sonograph of what's inside his head! Here we have a $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, $2.2 billion towards regional communications, $2 billion towards a Hydrogen Headstart program, $1.9 billion towards the Powering the Regions Fund, $1 billion over four years for biosecurity, $1 billion over three years for the Growing Regions Program and the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program, $150 million for the Cairns Marine Precinct Common User Facility, $100 million for common user infrastructure at the port of Newcastle—I'm sure you'd be happy to hear that, Deputy Speaker Claydon—$50 million for a new CQUniversity campus.

Then we've got the more general outcomes, such as the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. We know how important it is to get housing supply in the regions for regional employment. Those opposite, including National Party members—including the member at the desk, the member for Riverina—are standing in the way of getting housing supply for regional Australians. If you really cared about regional Australians, you'd back the HAFF and you'd tell your senators to back the HAFF.

We have $3.5 billion to triple bulk-billing incentives, helping regional Australians access health care. We have $2.4 billion to extend the full-fibre NBN to 1.5 million premises, including 660,000 premises in the regions. That's after nine years of failure from those opposite to get broadband to the regions. That's the mess you left us with, that $29 billion blowout, after saying you would deliver a cheaper and better NBN. You left regional Australians absolutely in the dark.

We have $589 million towards the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children. It is women and children in the regions who suffer more from domestic violence than those in the cities. I know you know that, Deputy Speaker. There is the regional first home buyer scheme. There are 10,000 new energy apprenticeships, with five out of six new jobs going to the regions. The list goes on and on.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being 4.18 pm the time for this discussion has now concluded.