Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to rise today and speak about the National Stronger Regions Fund. It may be that Queensland's disadvantaged regions are benefiting from the National Stronger Regions Fund, as asserted by the member's motion, although I dare say some of my colleagues on this side may have more to say on that point.

As the member for one of Western Australia's most disadvantaged areas, I fail to see how this program has helped my constituents one little bit. The reality is that the outer suburban regions of Perth have been forgotten by the Turnbull Liberal government. A simple glance at the projects funded by this program over the past three years charts the increasing stranglehold that the National Party has on the Turnbull government. In round 1 of the program we saw money flowing to only one suburban area in Perth in need of new infrastructure, Belmont. Round 2 saw infrastructure funded in only one suburb again, in Rockingham. Then take a look at round 3. The outer suburban funding dries up altogether, and the National Stronger Regions Fund becomes the Building Better Regions Fund.

I am certainly not arguing that WA's remote and rural towns should not receive funding under the program. Of course they should, and they do. Nor do I support a regional grants program funding projects in the inner city, like the $2.5 million committed to South Perth in that most recent round of this program, a blatant piece of pork barrelling for the contested seat of Swan. But outer suburban areas are in crisis across the country—particularly in Perth. High unemployment, combined with years of neglect from state and federal Liberal governments has left local infrastructure, like sporting complexes and community hubs, in a state of disrepair.

One perfect example of the hypocrisy in project selection under this program comes in my electorate of Burt. The city of Armadale has been campaigning for funding for a year-round, heated indoor aquatic facility for a number of years now. More than $4.5 million in preparatory work has already been completed by the city for this $26 million project. So when the National Stronger Regions Fund appeared in the budget, the City of Armadale thought it had found the solution and put in an application. They had good reason to think that it would be a suitable project. After all, round 1 of the National Stronger Regions Fund funded a water park in Craigieburn in Melbourne's outer suburbs, and another two pools in the Northern Territory and Queensland. Alas, the city was knocked back in round 2 and it appeared that the residents would be forced to wait another five years until funding could be sourced—right up until an election was called, that is, and the project was funded as an election commitment.

This is a vitally important project for my electorate and grant programs like the National Stronger Regions should exist to ensure that, outside of contested election cycles, local governments and community organisations in our outer suburbs can access federal funding. But, of course, we discovered during the election that the National Stronger Regions Fund would no longer exist as we knew it in this new parliament: it would be replaced by the Building Better Regions Fund, which strips from outer suburban councils and groups an opportunity to even apply for the funding.

So the funding for the Armadale pool through the Community Development Grants, in this context, confirms how blatant a political move supporting this funding was by the government. It was knocked back in round 2 of the National Stronger Regions Fund. The city applied again for round 3—they received no approval for this—and then the government announced it would not be able to fund metro projects. But, miraculously, the government announced funding for the Armadale pool through its once-every-three-years Community Development Grants Program.

We are, of course, grateful that this project has been funded and I do take some credit for applying political pressure on the government leading to that funding announcement. Remember: all of this is at a time when unemployment in the city fringes in my seat is almost triple that of the national rate. In Armadale, we are seeing unemployment at 17.2 per cent. Infrastructure projects provide for young people the employment opportunities that have disappeared in Western Australia as the mining construction boom winds down.

I am regularly contacted by community groups in my area looking for funding grants from the federal government for infrastructure projects. While other programs exist for smaller projects, there is nothing that provides substantial funding opportunities for infrastructure projects that will benefit entire communities. Why should our outer suburbs be put at a disadvantage simply to allow support for the National seats and, further, to support Malcolm Turnbull's prime ministership? The Nationals are buying votes; the Prime Minister is buying votes in his party room; and outer suburbs, like in Burt, are missing out—once again, ignored by a Liberal government.

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