Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

After that pathetic performance you can see why regional Australia has deserted the National Party. They knew when they were in government they had become a branch office for the Liberal Party, but if that is the best they can come up with in response to this budget no wonder they continue to be rejected.

No government has made a greater commitment to engage regional Australia, to help it diversify its economic base or to challenge them to be their best than this government. No government in the history of this country has made a greater effort on all of those fronts. You only have to look at not this year's budget but last year's budget, which made the biggest ever commitment to regional Australian history of this country: $4.3 billion of new money committed over the forward estimates—the largest ever injection of funding for regional Australia. And this year, on top of that, we have got $475 million for regional hospitals; $80 million to encourage dentists to go to the regions; $35 million for doctors to go to the regions; and we have announced the three-year rollout of the National Broadband Network, which covers 238 regional centres and will enable those hospitals and medical facilities, along with the doctors and dentists, to apply e-health service options as well as to be creative in the e-education space.

Mr Truss interjecting—

This would not have been done if you were there because you were never committed to giving the capacity to the country to invest in fibre to the home that provides this fast-speed broadband network.

In addition to that, the budget has provided the important schoolkids bonus, which, disgracefully and hypocritically, the opposition opposed yesterday in this place. Apart from insulting families as to whether they could manage their own budgets they hypocritically opposed it, when how many times do you recall the Howard government paying one-off bonuses—which we then called bribes, I might say. But they have the blatant hypocrisy to come into this place where we have converted a tax rebate, which was not accessed fully, to ensure that people get the money in their pockets when they are sending kids to school at the beginning of first term and third term, and they oppose it. And they say that they want to support families in regions? What utter hypocrisy.

In addition to that, the budget has provided significant increases in the family tax benefit A from next year. Further, with the National Disability Insurance Scheme there are opportunities for regions to access the initial rollout. These are very important opportunities for regions because we know this is a major problem in the regions. In relation to aged-care facilities, the aged-care package provides $3.7 billion and, importantly, has continued the zero interest loan. We know that has been so successful in encouraging regional centres to build much-needed facilities and we have continued it. The other important investment that you have got to make as a nation is in skills, and there is not only $1½ billion in terms of remote regions and jobs but also the significant increase in the skills budget.

That is what we have done in two budgets—and they come into the House and seek to carry a motion that says that we have failed to provide economic security for regional Australians. We reject that completely. What we have done is gone out to the regions and said: 'We understand the complex nature of this economy, we understand that it is going through fundamental transition and we understand that it is facing competitive pressures because of the high Australian dollar. But we want to help you counter the increase in costs associated with the dollar—if you like, the lack of competitiveness—and we want to encourage new ways to drive competitiveness.' That is why we are investing in infrastructure. It is why we are investing in skills. It is why we are investing in the schools and in the regions: so that we can drive competitiveness in the knowledge that the resources boom is driving the dollar higher.

In addition to all of those things that I have announced, let us look at the Regional Development Australia Fund. That is a billion dollars that we have committed to make available to the regions over the course of the next three years. Already the first round has been rolled out: $150 million, which leveraged three times that amount in investments either from state governments, local governments, the private sector or the not-for-profits. The second round, which will be announced shortly, is another $200 million. And the third and fourth and fifth rounds are now secured because we have passed the minerals resource rent tax. This is a very interesting proposition for those who cry crocodile tears on that side. They will oppose the next three rounds because they have committed, if they win office, to abolish the tax—and so, under them, those next three rounds would disappear. Don't come in here and talk about your complaints about assisting regional Australia when you have opposed the very mechanism by which we fund increasing economic and social development in the regions. We have also strengthened the Regional Development Australia Fund network. I have negotiated agreements with my state counterparts including those from different political persuasions, and the member for Gippsland would know the agreement that we have reached with the Liberal coalition government in Victoria in relation to the Latrobe Valley and the Gippsland region to look for economic diversification. I applaud the government down there for joining with us because they understand that we are serious. They do not listen to the empty rhetoric they hear from this Leader of the National Party who could only talk about surplus and roads—forget about the wealth of information and commitment that we have made. We have recognised the importance of doing this to ensure that the regions that are the patches in this patchwork economy can make the transition. We know that they cannot do it on their own. We know that what they require is support from government, and we are doing our best to ensure that we make the programs available and we work with state governments and local governments to leverage that which we have made available.

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