Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

The government are indeed committed to delivering for regional Australia, and our budget on Tuesday night delivered $176 million to fulfil our Better Regions election commitments. Next year we will establish the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program, a program that will encourage economic development and invest in local community infrastructure. We provided on Tuesday night $74 million for the new regional development Australian network; $8 million for the Office of Northern Australia, which will be based in Townsville and Darwin; $10 billion for rural and regional road and rail initiatives over the next five years; and $1.9 billion for local government across Australia. All of that is on top of the $20 billion Building Australia Fund that will deliver critical infrastructure for the nation’s regions.

I was intrigued to hear the former government continue to defend their approach to regional development, in particular the Regional Partnerships program. I was intrigued to see the member for Calare and my shadow minister stating that he was worried that Labor had changed regional programs so that city groups could now compete for funding. He argued that Regional Partnerships had excluded funding in the cities, and said of Labor’s approach:

It is going to make a town like Tibboburra in the far north-west, the most isolated town in New South Wales, compete with areas like Wollongong, Newcastle and Sydney.

That backs up comments by the leader of the Nationals, who said on 8 May to the ABC about the Regional Partnerships program:

This program was specifically designed to provide things in small communities. The big cities have got the resources and can often provide, on a commercial basis, projects that are simply unviable in regional areas.

So there you have it—post election the senior members of the National Party and the opposition arguing that Regional Partnerships money was just for regional areas. The reality of course is very different. Regional Partnerships provided $43 million on a political basis for projects in Australia’s capital cities whenever it was convenient.

When you think about regional Australia you think about Orange, Tibooburra, Townsville, Wangaratta—you think of these regional communities around the nation. Well, just before the last election, under the Regional Partnerships program, the former government committed $1.5 million for a surf lifesaving club. Was the surf lifesaving club on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, at Coffs Harbour in New South Wales or perhaps on the Surf Coast in Victoria? No, it was at Bondi Beach. Under the Regional Partnerships program, $1.5 million went to a club at Bondi Beach. But, of course, there is form. It was not just the North Bondi Surf Club in the electorate of the shadow Treasurer, the member for Wentworth, who was under pressure during an election campaign, which received funding. There is form here because in 2004 the then government committed $422,000 for a marine discovery centre, again under the Regional Partnerships—

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