Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, cooperative federalism has delivered absolutely nothing for the regions and nothing for the North Coast. The member for Richmond, Justine Elliot, is now being termed ‘just in Canberra’ and ‘just incompetent’ because she is not doing anything to help the people of her local area fight for their hospital. It is appalling, and I challenge her to start fighting for her local people and to do something for the people there who need those hospital services so desperately.

While we are on Labor neglecting the regions, we cannot go past the extraordinary decision that we saw at budget time to cut Regional Partnerships funding for projects that were underway in the run-up to the election. I find that completely appalling, and I will give an example of it. A skate park was one of the projects put forward under Regional Partnerships in the run-up to the election, and I commend Daphne White, who was one of the many people in the region who did so much to try and get this project up and running. Now, $110,000 does not sound like very much, and that is because in the scheme of things it is not very much. This is an area with a very high population of young people—young people who need something to do. They were incredibly involved in getting this project up and running, but they saw all that being axed and ripped out from underneath them.

There was such a hue and cry about all these projects in the pipeline being axed that the minister had to do a huge backflip a few months later and say, ‘We’re now going to assess all those projects that were in the pipeline.’ We saw at the time the Labor MP, Justine Elliot, boasting, ‘This is what we can do if we all work together,’ referring to the backflip of the minister in saying that these projects would now be assessed.

Local skater Luke Wyatt said that ‘local skaters would be stoked’ to hear that the government had reversed their decision. This is a skate park for young people for a measly $110,000 in a region that is rapidly expanding. By the way, it was not pork-barrelling because we had the local clubs, the state government—mind you, they were only going to contribute a paltry $30,000—and the council working collectively because they knew this project was something that was so needed for the region. So they resubmitted it, it was reassessed and guess what? The Labor government said: ‘We’re sorry but you can’t have your money for your young people in the town for your skate park. It’s not going to happen.’