Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I was speaking to the amendment that was moved by the member for Hunter, which basically calls out this government for how it has failed to develop evidence based policies to ensure the effective allocation of taxpayers' money.

I started with climate change. This government tried so hard to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation despite all the evidence, despite the fact that industry partners and others championed the role that it played. I'm quite proud to say that in my part of the world the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which also survived this government, has continued to fund clean energy projects that partner with agriculture. Just in the north of my electorate, around Newbridge, is a mushroom-growing farm that is also home to a solar power plant, a prototype for RayGen, where they have developed a solar panel which is generating more energy than ever before through this technology. It is helping provide power, but it is also reducing bills and power usage of the mushroom farm as well as developing a technology that is now being adapted all over the world. That was made possible because when Labor was in government it believed in evidence based policies, funded them and backed them. We have seen the complete opposite with this government.

Another area where the government are failing is their pork-barrelling. There is no evidence whatsoever that we needed to create the Regional Investment Corporation. The uncertainty they have created for the ag space—for farmers wanting to tap into concessional loans; for banks, like the Bendigo Bank in my part of the world, which purchased the Rural Finance Corporation from the Victorian government, who have been very successful and providing finance to our agricultural sector. That entire operation was thrown into chaos because the previous minister for agriculture came in here and said: 'I'm going to throw my mate in, in New South Wales in the seat of Orange, a bit of a gift. I'm going to put in his part of the world the Regional Investment Corporation.' There was no evidence whatsoever that it was necessary and, as we've learnt through Senate estimates and through the questioning in the other place, not only was there no evidence, not only was there no need for it; they've now gone and tendered to the very people currently doing the work. They've established an investment corporation in Orange, only to say to the Bendigo Bank and rural finance: 'We kind of want you to continue doing the job. So can you put in a tender to keep doing the job you're doing?'

In other words, it was another pork-barrelling exercise and a waste of taxpayers' money.

When it comes to social policy this government has really failed to respect and adopt evidence based policies. As an example of that failure you can't go past drug testing. Report after report discredits drug testing of people on a form of welfare. All over the world there are studies that prove it doesn't work, yet this government is so blind as to bring it back. The legislation was rejected by the Senate, but the government has reintroduced it to the House and is trying to push it through again. It's like the government just repels evidence: 'We don't believe it. We'll stick our heads in the sand and say, "All the evidence is wrong; all the research is wrong. We're going to do it because we think it is the right thing to do."'

Education is another area where the government has ignored evidence based policy. I should mention that, today, ECEC, the United Voice early childhood educators, have walked off the job. They are so frustrated with the way that this government has ignored evidence based policies on education they have walked off the job to try and get the Prime Minister's attention to talk about wages. It is relevant to the amendment that has been moved by the member for Hunter. We know from the evidence that early childhood education workers are undervalued and underpaid. They are paid the minimum wage. But what did this government do on coming to office? It scrapped the Early Years Quality Fund, the very fund that helped the industry lift the wages of early childhood educators. So here we are, five years on, with a government that is still ignoring the fact that we need to lift wages. This is about an issue of equal pay. This is another example of how the government is ignoring evidence based policies.

Also, when it comes to ECEC, all the evidence shows that we must give children from disadvantaged families, particularly those in regional areas, access to early childhood education. We know that the foundation blocks are built in early childhood education, particularly for kids in the bush, and that the foundations they form in the early years actually help ensure better outcomes in primary school and in secondary school. The evidence shows that. Yet this government reduced the number of hours that children from disadvantaged families, from families where people are hardworking, could access early childhood education. Again the government has failed, and because it has failed to look at evidence based policy it has not allocated taxpayers' dollars appropriately.

Mobile phones and black spots are a critical issue for agriculture and for the regions. Report after report from the Auditor-General's office has condemned this government for its failure to expand decent mobile phone coverage in any way at all. I've lost count of the number of farmers and people working in agriculture who say that connectivity is critical. It is critical to developing R&D. Connectivity is vital, whether it be for fisheries, cotton, grains or water management. The rollout of the NBN is another area where the government has failed agriculture and failed research and development. It is really hard to be innovative and to improve R&D if you don't have basic connectivity. In my own part of the world we recently did a survey, which was returned by over 3,000 people. Of the number of people who have been allocated Sky Muster—I know it sounds a bit ridiculous that in the city of Greater Bendigo so many people have been allocated Sky Muster—80 per cent said that the Sky Muster service is too slow, drops out and is unreliable. Farmers in particular said they can't monitor their stock properly. It's an issue when it comes to managing water. The R&D in water management in our part of the world is world-class. I want to give a shout out to the people in the southern part of the Murray-Darling Basin, who were the early adopters of R&D in this space. They're now monitoring moisture within soil to the drop so that they're not wasting a drop of water. That is phenomenal. It's all online and all done through having access to the internet.

There is the role of telecommunications when it comes to the poultry industry. We always had Hy-Line in Huntly: 70 per cent of the day-old hens in our country actually come from Hy-Line in Huntly. Their entire operation is online, and they need access to fast internet to be able to have on-time management of temperature controls. And we have Hazeldene, which have done the same. They invested $30,000 of their own because of this government's failure to roll out the NBN. They've had to invest their own money because this government has failed to roll out the NBN.

When it comes to an area like emergency management, without any evidence whatsoever this government shut down the Australian Emergency Management Institute on Mount Macedon, a regional area. It was seen locally as a bit of a cash grab, because Mount Macedon properties are worth quite a lot. They thought they could get a bit of money but in the end they couldn't, because of the bushfire overlay. So the Victorian government bought it from the Australian government for a bit of a song—a bit of a cheap price—and have reopened it as the Victorian Emergency Management Institute. If only we had a government that actually had evidence based policies to ensure the efficient allocation of taxpayers' money!

And this is where it comes down to the one that the Prime Minister announced last week and that I just cannot believe. I say to the National Farmers' Federation: stand up to this government! Enough of the photos with the Prime Minister being proud to announce another conversation—a white paper, a conversation; another white paper, another national dialogue. Our farmers know exactly what they need from government in terms of basic infrastructure and exactly what they want in terms of R&D. They want the dollars and the scientists back in the CSIRO. They want the funding and they want the independence. What they don't want is another white paper, or a photo op with the Prime Minister or another national conversation that can be retweeted by a few people.

That's what the Prime Minister announced last week: a national dialogue. Where's the real policy? After five years in government, we have a little bit of tinkering when it comes to R&D but no genuine policy on how we're going to develop our agricultural industry here in this country. Given that they're saying this is the future of this country—that ag is the new black—you would think they would do a bit more than tweeting that we're having a national dialogue about agriculture. But that's what we've got from this government. They've got no decent comprehensive plan for agriculture policy. They have no decent comprehension about how we rebuild R&D and make sure that not only do we have the independence but that we have the scientists and the researchers ready to partner in it.

Instead, what we have is jumping from chaos to chaos across the board. We have a government that is not actually standing up for the regions and is not actually investing in the regions. But, worst of all, it is not listening to the regions. It is not listening to the people on the land, to the people who know where they want to go and who are being innovative and creative, and solving their own problems. They're almost at the stage where they're saying to this government, 'Just get out of the way and let us do it,' when, really, it should be a partnership.

If we really want to unlock the potential of agriculture and unlock the potential of regional Australia, they need a partner in government. Instead, what we have is another bill before the House that only really tinkers with it; it's not really controversial. What we have are more tweets about our national dialogue. You can't really do much in 144 characters. What we need is a government that's real about agriculture and that actually has a comprehensive plan, not more discussion.

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