Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Services, Local Communities and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for McEwen for his question. The member, like me, has made his home in regional Australia, and he sees firsthand the benefits of the government's commitment to supporting and improving our regions. Regional Australia will be the biggest beneficiary of the next phase of the government's Nation Building Program.

Two-thirds of our infrastructure budget is going to projects in rural and regional Australia, delivering major safety and capacity improvements to roads such as the Bruce Highway, the Pacific Highway, and the Hume and Midland highways. The redevelopment of major freight corridors and freight hubs is critical to the economies and livelihoods of towns and the communities alongside them, and we are getting this job done.

Under this government, regional communities are at the centre of the rollout of Labor's affordable high-speed broadband services. We are prioritising the National Broadband Network rollout in regional Australia, with towns like Armidale, Coffs Harbour, Gosford, Townsville, Bacchus Marsh in my own constituency, Toowoomba and Willunga already connected and reaping those benefits. These are very smart investments that will bridge the divide between the city and the regions like never before, in education, health services and economic opportunities for businesses.

This year's budget is also delivering $300 million to bring qualified early-childhood professionals to regional Australia and ensure that they stay—a fair and responsible investment for kids in regional Australia, making sure they get access to the same services as those in the cities and that they can learn and develop to their full potential. This is on top of Labor's Building the Education Revolution. We are proud to have delivered the state-of-the-art classrooms and facilities to towns that have never dreamed of having access to such assets. There are small rural communities with access to libraries that have never had that before; electronic whiteboards in small rural schools—important investments.

We are prioritising regional health services: 25 regional cancer centres providing world-class treatment to over 7½ thousand patients annually and more than 127,000 additional chemotherapy students each year, bridging the divide in health outcomes to rural and regional cancer patients.

People in regional Australia will have a choice: a stark choice, between a government that has a plan for our regions, a plan to sustain and improve our access to high quality education and health services, to sustain and improve our services and our job opportunities, or a leader of the opposition without a plan for regional communities. The Leader of the Opposition says there will be hope, and reward and opportunity.

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