Sandy Macdonald (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

You fund these projects as you like, Senator Stephens—I do not mind. If you change the name of Regional Partnerships, I do not care. The point is that these are valuable projects. Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. You are entitled to review these policies. You are entitled to make them better. But do not say they are not valuable, do not say they were vexatiously and improperly granted, do not say there was favouritism shown and do not say we are going to remove the opportunity and the avenue for regional Australians—not just regional Australians, but mostly regional Australians—to access that assistance that will help create an economic future for them. You may or may not keep the macro- and microelements of the economy in line—and I suspect you will not, given your past record in government—but one thing you can do is help those communities who cannot help themselves. You fund it any way you like, but you do it through programs like we had in Regional Partnerships, Sustainable Regions, Roads to Recovery and Investing in Our Schools. These were all projects and programs that were very well received.

There were many other avenues of funding, too—and I think Senator Boswell referred to them. They were things like the Envirofunding, which was very important, the Community Water Grants, and the small assistance grants to local community organisations. There were so many opportunities for ordinary Australians to access some of the assistance that city Australians inherit and receive as of right. I think it is a little churlish and a great mistake to say, in your first announcements about prospective budget cuts, that regional Australians—the least able to defend themselves, the least able to look for and develop economic sustainability—will be the first to take a cut. Senator Stephens, you are the representative of the government here today. Through you, Acting Deputy President, I say to Senator Stephens: you take this message back, because you are a fair person and I know that you would understand the priorities and needs of regional Australia. You can do and say what you like, but just do not cut these opportunities out of the mosaic of economic management that this nation requires from its new Labor government.