Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Last night we heard extraordinary revelations that change to the diesel fuel rebate was never on the table for this budget, but of course the fuel excise has been. Interestingly, we heard in estimates last week in response to questioning from Senator Stephen Conroy about whether any analysis has been done on the impact of the increase in fuel excise on regional Australia that the answer was no. So you are not planning to do any regional impact study on any of these cuts? No, not at this stage. Still not going to bother with any regional impact study? No, not at this stage. So no impact study has been done on the fuel excise increases in the budget and their impact on regional Australia.

We have had no regional impact study on anything that is in this budget and how it will affect regional Australia. We heard in health estimates that there has been no impact analysis of the GP tax in regional Australia. We also heard in health estimates that there has been no impact analysis of whether or not it will affect a person's ability to access a GP right across rural and regional Australia. In education estimates last night we heard that the Department of Education has not looked at the potential impact of the $30 billion cuts on schools, so the impact of those cuts on regional schools has not been looked at either. So regional Australia is going to be very badly hit by this budget. We have had no impact analysis done by the department or, it appears, by anybody in government from any agency on the budget cuts to any part of regional Australia.

Nobody in any department or in the regional development department appears to have done any analysis on any of these decisions and their impact on regional Australia. Minister, can you tell us: has anybody, or will anybody, anywhere in the government at all do this analysis? Is anybody interested in the impact of this budget on regional Australia? Are you interested in the impact of the fuel excise increase? Are you interested in whether regional Australians can access a GP when these changes come into effect? Do you care that regional students may have increased fees and may have less access to regional universities because of the changes in your budget? Is anybody anywhere at any time actually going to make some analysis of how hard regional Australia will be impacted by these budget cuts?

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