Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

But the Labor government did not take any action. The local community was hugely concerned about the job losses and the effect that it would have on this small country town of Millicent that relies on this mill. The Gillard government was not interested at all in hearing about the Millicent community's concerns, which were evident, because it took no action then and has not taken any action since.

Instead, the Labor government has offered a patch-up solution. This is simply not good enough. Last week the Labor government announced that the budget would contain an initiative to support workers at the Kimberly-Clark mill. Labor has called it the South East South Australia Innovation and Investment Fund. The government says it will provide $10 million over two years together with $7 million from the state government and that the fund will focus on manufacturing and manufacturing services to help create new sustainable jobs and opportunities for the region.

I am hugely concerned that this funding is a patch-up job. This funding would not have been needed if the government had done its job in the first place. If the Labor government had taken measures to protect Australian industries like Kimberly-Clark, that employ so many people, then the community would not be dealing with such a huge loss of jobs and this extra funding would not be needed. In this budget the government spoke about extra funding for roads in South Australia. As a member for a large electorate, I have a lot of roads, as you would imagine, and I always support funding initiatives that make our roads safer. Labor announced $2 million in funding for the Dukes Highway, which is the gateway from Victoria right up to Adelaide. It also links to the Riddoch Highway that heads down to the south-east and Mt Gambier—very important areas. Guess what? At the corner of those two highways is the Keith Hospital that I spoke about earlier. At the 2010 election the coalition announced $10 billion to duplicate the highway from the Victorian border all the way to Adelaide—not $80 million, as this Labor government crowed about.

This is a very important and necessary upgrade of a dangerous highway. So when Labor announced funding for the Dukes Highway in this year's budget I am sure you can understand why many people's ears perked up, including mine. However, when I looked into the detail, as you must do with this government because the truth is in the detail, I found that this funding announcement was not a new one. In fact, when I looked into it further I found it was another re-announcement, so much so that the work that was funded through this program announced in the budget has already been commenced and nearly completed on the Dukes Highway. It was actually announced two years ago. So it was a re-announcement; it was not new money. The Labor government has failed regional Australia once again.

It would seem that this Labor government has a habit of rebadging funding. There was a substantial amount of funding in this budget that was no more than re-announcements. Last week the Gillard government pledged $118 million towards the Lower Lakes and Coorong. I understand how important the Lower Lakes and Coorong are—both are in my electorate. The Murray-Darling system is the lifeblood for so many communities across the country, and at the end of the system are the Lower Lakes. (Time expired)

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