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

I want to thank the Federation Chamber for allowing us to continue to discuss this issue this afternoon. This issue, in the motion raised by Ms McGowan about regional businesses and industry, is a critical issue that this House should be talking about.

My electorate of Bendigo, like Ms McGowan's electorate, has proud manufacturing and agricultural sectors, and many jobs in my own electorate are part of both those industries. For example, in my electorate we have Keech Australia, which produces cast irons like a good old-fashioned, traditional foundry. Many people think that foundries are redundant in this country. Well, far from it. They have a workforce 200 strong, and they are continuing to export their product overseas. One of the reasons that this business does so well and can continue to produce equipment for the mining and rail sectors overseas is that attached to their foundry is an innovation centre where they are able to custom design the parts that their customers want. This is how they saw they could help grow their business. They have a high number of people working in their innovation centre. These are those high-skilled jobs we keep talking about.

But, when I am out there at Keech Australia, the one issue that is holding back their innovation centre is the fact that they cannot get fast, reliable internet speed. Bendigo was on the map for the NBN. We were about to get the NBN—that is fibre to the premises, the proposal that was put forward by the last Labor government—and then the coalition got elected, and we were knocked off the map. We have missed out on getting fibre to the premises in our area of Bendigo. Greenfield sites and new housing developments continue to get it, but not our business sector, whether it be the CBD or our manufacturing sites like Keech Australia. We have been put back on the map, but we still have no idea when or what. It is a mess. It is Malcolm Turnbull's mess. That is the only way to describe the NBN proposal for my electorate.

Some people opposite have said, 'That's okay; we're bringing forward black spots.' The trickle of money that is going into black spots will go nowhere near fixing the black spot issues that we have in regional Australia. The minister wrote to me and asked me to put forward the top three black spot issues in my electorate. I could not decide. I could not put forward three because there are multiple black spots issues in our part of the world. Anybody talking to these businesses or these homes knows that strong investment in NBN and fibre to the premises will help alleviate the mobile phone problem. So one area that this government is not investing enough in is the NBN and it is not ensuring our businesses and industry in the regions get connected sooner.

Another area is a rail. The previous speaker on our side, the member for Grayndler, spoke about how great it was to have the Regional Rail Link opened a few weekends ago—an extra 54 passenger services connecting people from Bendigo and Ballarat to the city, freeing up the metro and regional lines to ensure that more people can get to their city appointments or to work on time. But this government has not followed through with that investment. They have not committed, as the member for Grayndler mentioned, to matching the state government's funding for the Murray Basin Rail Project. This project will help get freight to port sooner. This government is not listening to the people of Victoria. It is not listening to the farmers. It is not listening to industry, who want a freight option. This government is silent on that issue. Another area where this government is not doing enough to support regional business and industry is clean energy. I am very proud of the fact that we have a solar power plant in my electorate, in Newbridge. That solar power plant is helping to power, through clean energy, local mushroom farms. A mushroom composting facility will benefit from cheaper electricity generated through clean technology.

These are just some of the areas where this government is failing to get behind regional businesses and industry. I call on the government to take seriously what has been proposed in Ms McGowan's motion. It is only through unlocking the regions that this country will continue to grow.

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