Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I know. But I want to say to both the Minister for Social Services and the Minister for the Environment and Energy, and other really important people: rural and regional Australia matters. It is not just the election in Queensland and it is not just the election in Western Australia. You have seen the rearguard fight that we have put up for this particular legislation. I want to say to you—if you could take this to cabinet and take this back to your party rooms—that the government has got to do a much, much better job for those of us who live outside the regional capitals. You have got to show that you have a policy. The policy has to have principles of equality. The policy has to have principles of accessibility. The policy has to show that you are actually consulting and that, when you consult, you actually do what people say.

There are so many examples in rural and regional Australia, and in my electorate alone, of where the government—I have to say to both parties: you are missing the boat with us. You are going to lose more and more of us. Already the figures show that something like 29 per cent of Australians want to give their first vote to someone other than the major parties. So you are hearing a call from the heart. It is this sort of legislation that affects the mothers and the children and the Aboriginal people and the most needy of us in rural and regional Australia. I know that the government has heard my call, but I say to my colleagues across the path: you have got to do better. You have actually got to make sure that rural and regional Australia and the services that work for us are considered to work for us. This amendment is important, but it is the beginning of what I am going to say to almost every bit of legislation: have you consulted? Have you done what the people have said? The answer in this particular instance was grants. The minister is going to institute grants, which is a problem. But, anyway, if we have to have grants then we have to have grants.

But what I am beginning to see is grants taking the place of policy—ad hoc, let's put some money in, and then people can apply for grants. The problem with the grant process as a way of solving the problem is that you need really skilled people in your communities, you need paid workers and not only do you need to put the application in but you then have to go and do all the lobbying. The women and the children of rural and regional Australia do not have that capacity to jump through the hoops to get basic services by applying for a grant. It should be by way of service design that the service is there and it should not be only for five years. We actually should be designing systems that are sustainable, that are reliable, that can work for the long term and that have got enough flexibility in them. Working with local government and working with state governments, these services should become part of the fundamental infrastructure of how we build our communities, and this program does not do it. This program does all this add-on and transition stuff.

To the two ministers at the table, I welcome the opportunity to work with you but I really want to place on the record this is not a lone voice from Indi. If you talked to any of the members of the Queensland Rural Women's Network, to the New South Wales Rural Women's Network, to the CWA branches around Australia or to the women members of the farmer organisations, you would be hearing this loudly and clearly. If it is not right for us farmers, just think how much worse it is for our Aboriginal sisters because, if it does not work for us really linked into the National Party and linked into the Liberal Party, think how hard it is for those people who are not even linked into political parties and who do not have a voice.

In bringing my comments to a close and before we vote on this amendment, I am really hoping that you hear my call. This is not just idle; this is the tip of an iceberg of a government that is not paying attention to women and children and is not designing services that meet our needs. I place it there. I will watch the vote with great interest. I say to all my colleagues on the other side of the House: we women will organise around this. The networks we have got around rural and regional Australia and around Aboriginal Australia are strong, and you will be held to account for your vote.

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