Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am going to give you a pat on the back in a minute, so settle down. I guarantee that the money that went to local government through those local infrastructure programs was used to good value. The money given to every local government area I am aware of that got funding directly from the federal government during that stimulus program was money well spent. Other dollars were leveraged so that the dollars that came from federal government to local government were magnified several times over. If the Rudd government at the time had given more money to local government and less to ill-thought-out and ill-conceived green programs like the pink batts program, the Australian economy would be a lot better off.

So where are we now? The government says that it wants a referendum, and there is a bit more negotiation to go through. The coalition has said that it supports the concept of recognition of local government, but there are some reservations as to the timing and the preparedness. I personally believe that, if the minister gets his skates on and gets around the states to explain to them that this is not an affront to their sovereignty but merely housekeeping to close a loophole, this is possible. I had some frustration at the Australian Local Government Association's initial input into the hearing in January, but I was somewhat relieved to see them come to a firmer position in the later hearing. Right across Australia local government bodies are prepared to come into action to fight to see this referendum succeed.

I do not know whether the reluctance of the minister to commit to doing more on this is to do with a lack of finance for the case. It is interesting that the referendum to recognise the Aboriginal people in the Constitution has now been delayed. It was given a considerable amount of funds to present the case for and against, yet at this stage there has been no promise of any funding to move on this local government referendum.

In closing, there is still time. I have told the minister that if he goes ahead with this I will do my level best to make sure that this referendum is a success. The Australian local government bodies rely on this, particularly in regional Australia. In regional Australia the local government bodies rely on direct funding, so the minister needs to bring the states into line and get this referendum underway. If he does not do that pretty well immediately then I feel that the success of the referendum would not be great. The real tragedy would be to put this referendum up in a half-baked way. It needs to happen in a way that is going to be successful.

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