Anne Urquhart (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this month, I hosted a local productivity forum with around 30 business and community leaders in my electorate of Braddon. It was a great opportunity to discuss the region's contribution to national productivity and how we might also improve outcomes for the north-west and West Coast of Tasmania. Participants represented businesses, unions, local government, education providers and service providers with very broad experience right across the spectrum of those who attended, and I'd like to thank everyone who attended the forum and made it such a success. The Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science, Tim Ayres, attended, and I'm very grateful for his input into the forum.

The people who attended the forum are an important voice for rural, regional and remote Australia and bring unique perspectives as residents of an island state. Tasmania has real strength across numerous sectors, including agriculture, resources, manufacturing and energy. There is a firm foundation to build on, and we have an important contribution to make to a more productive Australia. To assist discussion at the forum, I commissioned two papers from leading community organisations. One paper was from the Cradle Coast Authority, representing nine local councils, of which eight are in the Braddon region, and one paper was from Business North West. The Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council also provided a paper, and I want to thank CCA, Ian Jones and TMEC for their input in facilitating and assisting me prior to the forum.

I'd like to share some of the feedback from the forum. Everyone attending agreed that the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme is an important part of ensuring Tasmania remains competitive. Tasmania is the only state in Australia that is heavily dependent on interstate sea-transport links, needing to ship or fly goods across Bass Strait. The TFES was a Whitlam government initiative. It helps to level the playing field, or the sea-freight disadvantage, between mainland and Tasmanian businesses. It's about making sure that Tasmanians aren't disadvantaged just because their goods arrive by sea. Goods covered by the scheme are used in our critical businesses across Tasmania, such as manufacturing, mining, agriculture, forestry, fishing and many more applications as well.

During the federal election, the Albanese Labor government announced a $95 million increase in TFES funding by increasing rates of assistance by 25 per cent over two years from 1 July this year. That increase is in place now and was welcomed by businesses present and by lots of other businesses that I've visited in the electorate since. Last year, I was the deputy chair of a Senate inquiry into TFES. The inquiry found the rate of TFES reimbursement no longer supported the original policy intent of the scheme. In response, Labor committed to reviewing and modernising the TFES to ensure that it serves Tasmanians well. The government has commissioned a comprehensive review of TFES, and that review is underway. The review will be completed this year, and I look forward to the outcomes of that process.

The forum also said the benefits of economic reform should be shared by the whole community. Stronger economies and fairer communities go hand in hand. History tells us that the responsibility for major economic and social reform almost always falls to Labor, and we welcome it. When we put in place the building blocks of big economic reform, we also push ahead with those important social reforms. Just look at the Labor record—Medicare, a proper minimum wage, a decent age pension, a strong social safety net, child care, disability care and workers' superannuation. Labor's approach to the economic reform rewards individuals to work hard and do well. It also supports fairer communities by sharing prosperity and lifting ourselves as a nation.

One of the participants summarised this by saying that an honest narrative on economic reform should hear all voices, not just those with choice and power. I couldn't agree more. More broadly, the feedback from the Braddon forum was very much in line with key issues emerging from the Treasurer's roundtable. There was clear support for reducing complexity and red tape; for lowering the cost of production; for ensuring market confidence and certainty for investment; for harmonisation and simplification of regulatory and planning systems—we know these will assist with delivery of more housing approvals—for faster and simpler approvals; to build a modern skilled workforce; and for harnessing the benefits of AI. A more productive economy is how we deliver better living standards.

In every discussion we have about economic reform and increased productivity, it's working people in the community more broadly that are front and centre. As the Treasurer said, the whole purpose of economic reform is to deliver for the people who send us here to work hard on their behalf. I look forward to the results of ongoing work out of the roundtable and congratulate the Treasurer on a very collaborative and successful event. I want to thank again all those who attended my productivity roundtable and provided valuable input, which has fed into the work the Albanese government is undertaking. I'm always impressed by the initiatives, the success and inputs by those companies and individuals who operate across Braddon, and this was another opportunity to show this to the rest of the country.

While I have a little bit of time left I'd like to talk about Bendigo Bank. Bendigo Bank, as we know, is spread around the community. They have community banks right across the country. Bendigo Bank has just made a decision to close the only bank on the West Coast of Tasmania, in Queenstown. It's a fast-growing region, and hopefully, in the next couple of years, a mine will reopen. It's a powerhouse of Tasmania. Bendigo operates the only bank on the West Coast. There are no other banks. The next closest is about a five-hour round trip away up in Burnie. For people who live on the West Coast, this is a very difficult time for them. I've met with Bendigo Bank on two occasions and asked them to reconsider their position and also to reconsider whether or not they take the ATM out of the town. There is one ATM in Queenstown, which is the largest centre of the West Coast. The West Coast has a population of around 4,000 people, but it is a growing region in Tasmania. Without a bank in the town or in the region, it's going to be very difficult for businesses, for community and for others to be enticed to come into that town to live and work and play. It is also a fantastic tourist destination in the summer in particular—we have a very wet winter on the West Coast of Tasmania.

It is detrimental to that whole community to have the only bank branch in that town shut down. I noticed yesterday in the Regional, which is an independent news service, that Bendigo Bank are also cutting ties with community fundraising groups. Now it's a bit rich for a bank such as Bendigo Bank, which yesterday announced a profit of $514.6 million, to even think about pulling out of a town on the West Coast, where there is no other bank. They have spoken to Bank@Post, but there are only a few transactions that you can undertake at the post office. So it is very detrimental to people.

Bendigo Bank really should rethink this position, given that huge profit they've made. I understand that banks and other businesses need to provide a return to their shareholders—but $514.6 million? It's a bit rich that they can't even think about the community that they've been happy to support for a period of time, and then they'll just disappear—take away the ATM as well—and not pay any respect to the people there. I would urge Bendigo Bank to rethink their position, particularly for the West Coast of Tasmania—a growing region as I said, but also a region that does it a bit tough from time to time—to keep the bank open and to give those people the credibility and the representation that they should have by having a bank right in the town where they can do their business.