Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Our people have been associated with those historic industries in those communities for decades and they just cannot meet those sorts of costs. We are still only in the early stages of this industry, but the pressure on Maranoa's communities will continue to grow. The state and federal Labor governments have failed to undertake the planning required to ensure that these growing pains are not felt across the community. Whether it is in housing, infrastructure or roads, they are prepared to sit back, take the mining royalty, shift it into the capital cities and larger outer metropolitan areas in some cases. But they are ignoring rural and regional areas of my electorate and many other parts of these resource states across Australia.

That was never more evident than when the Regional Development Australia Fund was announced last week. In Queensland there was not one grant west of the Great Dividing Range. They gave grants for the Gold Coast, the sixth-largest city in Australia. There were grants all along the coast. If we look in New South Wales, grants are going to the Northern Rivers area, the Wollongong area and the Newcastle area. The grants in New South Wales have one thing in common, bar one: they are going to Labor electorates.

If you go to Victoria, can you imagine Geelong as rural or regional? Hardly. Some of that money would have been so welcome in my electorate in the town of Barcaldine. They need a day care centre. If we are to attract young families into some of these towns in rural and remote areas of my electorate, surely, a prerequisite is a day care centre. They need something like $2 million for a day care centre.

The local pharmacist, who recently bought the business in Barcaldine, said they would love to have a family but they really cannot afford to stay there now. So what do we lose? A young couple, potentially a young family, that would provide obviously a great service through the pharmacy and children, in time, to the schools. Without a day care centre, that couple will more than likely leave Barcaldine. Once again, it is about how these families look at their prospects and the liveability of these communities. Two million dollars out of this fund would have made a lot of difference to that community.

There was $2 million given to the Gold Coast, the sixth-largest city in Australia. What would it have done for the Stanthorpe support services west of the Great Dividing Range? It would do a great deal to support that community and the work they do supporting families. But, no, there was no money made available west of the Great Dividing Range. In the Murweh Shire Council of western Queensland, they wanted money for flood mitigation yet the Labor government invested $4.79 million in Townsville on the coast. What did they do for the people of Charleville in the Murweh Shire Council, which have been flooded every other year for a number of years now and they need to do more flood mitigation work? They applied for money with a very professional application—as was the one from Barcaldine—but no, no money west of the Great Dividing Range. Rural and remote Queensland missed out, were ignored.

What about the Maranoa Retirement Village in the Maranoa Regional Council area? They need about $1.5 million. Surely they could easily have found that in a grant program of $150-odd million. They lodged a very professional application for a very worthwhile project but what did the Labor Party do? The Labor Party put $2 million in Esk near Ipswich. That has gone to a facility in a Labor electorate--surprise, surprise—in the growing region of the South-East corner of Queensland. I do not deny that all those other communities are worthy communities but what about the Prime Minister, who said only 12 months ago she was going to be a Prime Minister for rural and regional Australia. This was the first opportunity we have seen them act with this grant program and we did not see the money come out in Queensland west of the Great Dividing Range.

The other issue I want to touch on is the switchover to digital television in those communities of fewer than 500 people. I recently had the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, out in Birdsville where he met with the communities out there. There are about 6,000 people in the town of Birdsville. There is a normal population of 150 but through the tourist season many thousands of people flock to that part of my electorate and the outback of Australia. This time next year, if this government denies the Diamantina Shire Council the opportunity to be given a licence for the digital spectrum to rebroadcast that facility, there will be no signal in the air. They will have a satellite receiver only. If you are coming from some other part of Australia and you end up in Birdsville for the races or just for the outback as part of a tourist experience, you do not think of bringing a satellite dish with you if you want to watch the State of Origin during the winter months. A few years ago if you went out there, you just put your little ears up, because the signal was rebroadcast into the community. That is going to be lost under this government's proposal for those communities of fewer than 500 people.

I have something like 34 of those communities in Queensland. They are towns of fewer than 500 people. They deserve better from this government. They should not be treated as second-class citizens. They should not be left behind. They should at least have the opportunity for a rebroadcast signal that is digital, a rebroadcast rather than a satellite. (Time expired)

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