Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise as a committee member for this inquiry and I also assume to speak in the place of the deputy chair, the member for Hinkler, who is away. I congratulate the chair, the member for Ballarat and the full committee for a report that is essential reading for all members who represent regional areas and for those who, at a community level, are involved in regional development.

As a new member, I probably did not get to experience and learn from some of the other regions of Australia, but I was certainly a willing participant on behalf of my region. I enjoyed and valued the readings that came through and the substantial submissions that were put in from around Australia. I also enjoyed and valued the wide-ranging discussions that took place during committee meetings here in Canberra.

From my region I was drawing similar conclusions to the ones that this report has drawn. I am pleased that the foreword identifies the difficulty in putting together a report—on an inquiry that is happening almost in parallel with events as they unfold—on the impacts of a global financial crisis on regional Australia. In light of those circumstances, I think they have done an excellent job in tapping into some of the incredible resilience found in regional Australia, including the positive stories that are there for all to see, some of the challenges that are faced, and the unknowns, as we go into the first period without real stimulus. There will be no cheques in the letterbox this Christmas. The implications of that going into next year will be of interest to all of us to see whether we have been the lucky ones in surviving the GFC.

I got involved in this committee when I first turned up in this place because of an interest in local governments that had had some pretty significant exposure—with almost 25 per cent of their investments in collateralised debt obligations, or CDOs. On my arrival in this place in September 2008, a month before the stimulus package went through, there was certainly some interest on my part, and I made comments in my first speech about trying to get a handle on just how much public money had been lost.

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