Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to endorse the comments of the previous speaker, the member for O'Connor, and acknowledge the work he contributed to our committee. He came on to the committee specifically to deal with these issues, and they are issues that are particularly relevant to his electorate, like they are to other members of the committee. I would like to acknowledge the role of the chair in ensuring that there was a very good balance in the way that the committee looked at these issues, the way this committee got to all of those regions that are being influenced by what is occurring with the mining boom, and for making sure that it got to not only those states and regions where mining is booming but also to smaller areas where there are impacts. I refer specifically to the town of Maryborough in my electorate, where there are issues around drive-in drive-out. It is not to do with the mining industry there. Where there are public services, we have people coming in, using those public services or working in those public services, but living outside those towns.

But these are very complex issues. They do, as the member for O'Connor mentioned, revolve around choice. I think we have to be extremely careful about how we go about telling people what their choices should or should not be. There is no doubt that there are infrastructure issues in regional Australia. In mining regions this has been exacerbated by what is occurring in the mining industry currently. But in other areas, where there is not a mining boom, there are also issues regarding doctor shortage, such as making sure housing is provided. We have to come up with the long-term and permanent solutions that will address these problems. As the member for O'Connor rightly noted, we have to ensure that rural and regional Australia gets its fair share of the funding pie. It contributes significantly to this nation, and we have to make sure that that contribution is reflected in how government addresses these areas. I note what has happened after the Prime Minister's visit to Western Sydney, where we have seen 19 applications for RDAF funding in round 4 progress to the next level, whereas every other region in Australia is only allowed to have three.

This is not the way to address these problems. This is what makes these problems worse, and this is what we need to get away from because—let's be honest—we do not have the population base in regional and rural Australia but we do make a significant economic contribution. My view is that, if we get government policies right and make sure that we share the pie around properly, then everyone can benefit, whether it be from resources, from agriculture, from manufacturing or from services. But it will not occur if we just continually focus on where the population base is and in particular where we think the important political population base is. This is something that all of us in this parliament need to seriously think about, because these issues will not be resolved if we do not. There are serious doctor shortages in a lot of these mining communities, just as there are serious issues about attracting doctors into regional and rural towns. And I have this problem in my electorate of Wannon.

Another point I would like to make regarding this report is that the—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 16 : 47 to 17 : 05

As I was saying, another important aspect of the report that needs to be taken into consideration is the importance of the mining industry to host communities. I know that the member for McPherson has been a passionate supporter of the need to get the infrastructure right in her electorate because of the unemployment levels there so that people can benefit from what is occurring in the mining industry elsewhere. This is an important point that we need to take into consideration because there are some aspects of our community which make it difficult for people to move. They might include issues like stamp duty or family ties to regions. We have to ask ourselves: what is the best alternative here? Do we want to encourage these people to seek work wherever that work may be? Should we be saying, 'No, being prepared to move is the only way you will get access to this work'? It is an important point that needs to be examined as a whole, and I think we will need to do that. As globalisation takes place and there is a need for increased mobility in workforces, we are going to have to grapple with these issues.

In conducting this inquiry, we received telling evidence about the different phases that occur when mining projects are initiated. Obviously, the construction phase more heavily involves the need to put a lot more workers into these communities. This is creating significant challenges for those communities that are the beneficiaries of the mining operations in those regions. How communities deal with the construction phase of projects is one of the more complex aspects of what the committee needs to look at. It is incredibly difficult for communities to deal with the huge influx of people knowing that, over time, there will be a reduction in the population base. Once again, ensuring that we have the mobility to cope with that is very important. It might be that, especially for the construction phases of projects, we will need to look at ensuring that the services required for local communities in mining areas have the flexibility for fly-in fly-out or drive-in drive-out to cope with those construction phases. Obviously, when it comes to the operational phases, this is a slightly different perspective. If we can develop sensible policy for those operational stages to encourage a more permanent workforce into those communities, that is an important aspect that we need to take in consideration.

I would also like to raise the point that we should not see this issue purely in terms of an urban-rural or urban-regional divide, because we are seeing that some communities are benefiting from the growth that has occurred in the mining sector over the previous five to 10 years. For instance, I will point to two areas that are relevant to my own electorate of Wannon. We have a regional aviation provider which is also a trainer of pilots. It has been able to use the opportunities that have been brought about by the growth in the mining sector to service the mining communities. It has done wonders for its business. It is basically a commercial aviation business which services regional towns and provides access into urban areas. Being able to offer additional services has given a breadth to that aviation provider that has enabled it to continue to grow and, in very difficult times in the aviation industry, continue to provide very good services.

We are also seeing regional communities providing services and equipment to the miners and their operations wherever they may be occurring. This is supporting local communities in regional and rural areas who are facing difficult times at the moment due to the high Australian dollar and due to the carbon tax and other government policies that have done nothing to benefit them. The fact that they have been able to service and provide goods to the mining industry has enabled them to offer services not just in their local communities but across the nation. It is giving them the opportunity also to build important linkages to be able to service the mining industry across the globe. That is another important aspect that we need to take into account when we look at this issue.

In summary, this report deals with a series of issues which are problematic for the communities which are hosting the growth in the mining industry, which are seeing mines develop in and around their local communities. There are serious infrastructure issues, serious service issues and serious land release issues that need to be dealt with around these communities. There are other aspects that need to be taken into account as well. We have to make sure when we look at this issue that we get the balance right and that we view it as a challenge that has opportunities for the whole nation. We do not want to be dragging the mining sector down as a way of dealing with this issue. We have to be bright enough and have the breadth of vision to say: 'This industry is providing wealth to our nation. How can we ensure that that wealth is returned to those areas where there are serious issues as a result of population growth and as a result of infrastructure decline? What are the policies we need to get in place to address these issues?' Those are the big questions.

As I said in my dissenting report, we do not want additional bureaucracy, we do not want additional red tape and we do not want to add to the cost of doing business for mining companies at a time when they are facing increased international competitive pressures. These are not the things to address these problems. We need to have a breadth to our vision in how we deal with it. We have raised the issues in this report, and now our big challenge is to ensure that we look at the policies that will address these problems in a very sensible way which will allow our nation to continue to grow. That is our next challenge.

See this speech in context