Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Regional South Australia, indeed regional Australia, such important places—you know as I do, Mr Deputy Speaker, how important regional Australia is. The member for Whitlam gave us what I would have expected. If I were working in his office I probably could have written his speech notes. He's a member of the committee but we're hearing this mantra a lot in this place about antidecentralisation. The member for Canberra will give a speech shortly very similar to the one she gave in the House recently, bemoaning some sort of disregard that our government might have for the Public Service, democracy and our nation's capital, none of which is true. And I'm happy to tell the member for Canberra, I think I might be a greater champion for Robert Menzies' legacy than perhaps she is.

Let me talk about the member for Whitlam for a moment. He's a member of the committee. The committee at this stage has travelled the breadth of the country. I understand that the member for Whitlam has attended a number of meetings in Canberra. I don't know that the member for Whitlam has been on the road with us doing this work. We need to be on the road because we need to get out to regional communities, This committee has been in Murray Bridge, it's been to Bendigo, it's been to Launceston, and it's been to Orange. It has been out to regional communities.

We need to be on the road because we need to get out to regional communities. This committee has been to Murray Bridge, to Bendigo, to Launceston, to Orange—out to regional communities. When you say the word 'decentralisation' in regional communities you get high fives. When you say the word 'decentralisation' in regional communities, they go: 'It's about time. It's about time some of our tax dollars were allocated to regional communities and regional jobs.'

But the error that those opposite make is thinking that this is just about public sector jobs. That is wrong, so wrong. I listened closely to the member for Canberra's speech that she gave to the House of Representatives not an hour ago, one that she'll repeat shortly. She will talk about public sector jobs. The role of this committee is to look across the spectrum of our economy and to see how we can translocate employment opportunities from large capital centres into vibrant, strong regional communities to make them even more vibrant and stronger. Those opposite want to talk about the public sector jobs, and they want to run a bit of a scare campaign on decentralisation and the anti-Canberra approach of the coalition government. It's rubbish. The person on this committee who probably works the most diligently, the member for Indi, has just joined us in the chamber. She's passionate about this. She's committed to this and she's been driving it exceptionally hard.

We're very privileged as well that the former chair of the committee is now the minister for regional development. Having heard all of those submissions across the country that gave birth to this interim report, he now sits in cabinet. He now holds the regional development portfolio, and he can begin implementing the recommendations that have come to us across the submissions. He can get onto that straightaway.

But those opposite want to talk about this being a bad approach. The reason we're doing this report, the reason we're doing this body of work—correct me if I'm wrong, Member for Indi—is that we are trying to find best practice for how we go about creating an environment where we can create opportunities for both public and private sector jobs in regional communities. Personally, I think that's fantastic. I wonder why a regional office of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority needs to be in Adelaide. I think it should be somewhere on the river.

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