Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This budget smashes regional Australia. This budget is an absolute shocker when it comes to the families, the towns and the communities of regional Australia. There are so many examples of how this budget smashes regional Australia that it is hard to work out what to focus on in this short speech. Let us start with the $80 billion worth of education and health cuts. Everybody can see in the budget papers that these cuts will hit regional Australia hard. Because the government has walked away from the national health reform agreement, my own electorate of Bendigo will be $29 million worse off over the next five years. Bendigo Health will feel the brunt of it and have $25 million stripped away.

The former state Labor government put money aside to build a brand-new hospital. The doctors, nurses and hospital are now asking themselves whether they will have enough money to open their doors. That is now under question because this government ripped apart the agreement and has taken money out of the Bendigo hospital. The other four small hospitals in the area are now talking about mergers. They are not sure whether they will be able to keep their doors open because this funding agreement kept them open. This government is putting the health of regional Victorians at risk.

It is not just the hospital cuts but the GP tax. Local rural GPs are speaking out. Unlike in the metro areas, a lot of doctors in the regions do not operate from nine to five. Those doctors are on-call for emergency care and aged care. They want to know whether they will need a cash register when they turn up at an aged-care facility. One aged-care facility is talking about having a 10-visit card that you pay in advance. It would be just like a coffee card, and every time you see the GP, when they pop in, you cross one off. That is what they are talking about. This is what this government is now creating through the GP tax. Talk about creating red tape. The $7 GP co-payment, the tax, is creating more red tape.

It is not just health that is being hit hard; universities and regional campuses will also be hit hard. The students in central Victoria—for example, Bendigo senior secondary students—who are thinking about going to university talk about not where they will go to university but if they will go to university. Over 25 per cent of the students at the Bendigo campus of the La Trobe University are the first in their family to go to university. Those from low-socioeconomic backgrounds are now questioning whether they will go to university. If they do not go to university, what are their options? There are a lack of jobs in the regions. The jobs crisis is deepening because this government has no plan for jobs in the region. This budget does little to address the growing jobs crisis in regional Australia.

As we have heard, the regional councils are here this week in Canberra and they are demanding answers from this government. Why is it that they have to suffer the cuts when it comes to the financial assistance grants?

I met with the Greater Bendigo City Council last week, and they do not know where they are going to find the $1.8 million that this government has cut from their budget. They have already increased rates by six per cent this year and six per cent last year. Some of the council areas in regional Victoria over the last three years have already increased their rates by 20 per cent. They cannot keep hitting ratepayers, yet they might have to because this government has taken the cruel decision to freeze their financial assistance grants.

Federal government should do its bit to support regional councils and they have failed. This government in their first budget have failed—failed to support local governments that work really hard. The ratepayers in my part of the world are saying, 'We cannot afford an extra per cent. If only our wages went up by 18 per cent over three years.' They do not; yet, their rates are.

Fuel excise: nobody on the other side has even touched the fuel excise issue. Forty cents in every litre is to go to the government. If only 40 per cent in every litre in Bendigo went into Bendigo roads, maybe then we would not be so upset about the fuel excise increasing. The Nats say that this is important because this is what is needed to fix our roads, but if only every cent went into regional roads. Where are the Nats when it comes to regional Australia? Where is the impact statement? Why did they tear it up and why are they hiding it? Why are they so afraid to tell regional Australia how bad this budget is for regional Victoria? (Time expired)

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