Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Back for his question and, even more importantly, for his service to the Australian people. We will miss him very, very much. As Senator Back knows, it is in the coalition's DNA to look after rural and regional Australia. There is no doubt about that. We have wasted no time in implementing our regional agenda. We have seen the Regional Australia Ministerial Taskforce—something probably never even thought of by those opposite—chaired by the Prime Minister, pulling together all of our cabinet ministers to focus on regional Australia and to deliver even more for regional Australia.

We announced our Regions 2030: Unlocking Opportunity strategy. We on this side of the chamber in the coalition recognise the enormous opportunity out there in the regions that are ignored by the Labor Party. We have seen over 450 separate measures for regional Australia across all our portfolios through that regional task force, through the Regions 2030 process, through the budget process. And the coalition is very proud of that. We are very proud of what we are delivering. We are seeing $8.4 billion to deliver the Inland Rail, to actually build it. It has taken the coalition government to do that.

We never saw it under the Labor government. We are seeing it under the coalition government: $220 million for the regional jobs and investment packages going out to 10 regions, for the first time delivered and driven by local people in their local communities. Unlike those opposite, we recognise that the best solutions to the challenges and the best ideas going forward come from those communities themselves. There is almost half a billion dollars in this year's budget for regional projects, an extra $200 million for the Building Better Regions Fund and, for the first time, a large regional projects fund, which is going to deliver even more for the regions.