Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to ask the minister some more questions regarding the government's failed decentralisation agenda and I'd also like the government to respond to some of the confusion that they've created throughout regional Australia. You may be aware that, over the last 12 months, the then leader of the National Party and the Deputy Prime Minister, the member for New England, had been running around the country, as his deputy had as well, encouraging regional councils to make bids to the Commonwealth and suggestions to the Commonwealth about relocation of Commonwealth agencies and employees into regional Australia. I sit on the Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation, which has received many submissions from regional councils and regional bodies who are excited about these prospects. Over 200 submissions have been received—submissions such as that from the Rockhampton Regional Council that said:

Relocating Commonwealth entities in regional centres such as Rockhampton would be extremely positive and welcomed.

This week the Rockhampton council are again calling on the government to bring jobs to Rockhampton. Labor has always been very sceptical about the government's agenda and its commitment to deliver on this decentralisation plan. There is a reason for that and, particularly when you look at a place like Rockhampton, you can understand why. Since 2014, Rockhampton has lost a total of 50 public sector jobs. These were people employed by the Commonwealth. On this government's watch, 50 jobs have been taken out of Rockhampton. We can understand why the people of Rockhampton are very, very sceptical when the government says to them 'We're going to relocate some Commonwealth jobs out of Canberra into Rockhampton.' The people of Rockhampton are saying 'We'd like the 50 jobs back that you've already cut out of our region; that would be a damn good start!' They're very sceptical of comments by the local member, who says she supports decentralisation when, on her watch, we have seen 50 jobs already lost from that region.

We ask: can the minister guarantee that when the government prosecutes its agenda to cut 1,240 jobs out of DHS—that is, the agency which employs staff in Centrelink, the Child Support Agency and Medicare—that not one of those jobs will come from the region of Rockhampton? Because if they cannot guarantee that not one of those jobs will come from the region of Rockhampton, they have misled the people of Capricornia and the region of Rockhampton, because they have not delivered any new jobs but those people in Rockhampton stand a very good risk of losing the existing jobs in that region.

I'd also like to ask the minister some questions about the Regional Growth Fund, the Building Better Regions Fund and the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages. These were announced with great fanfare during the election and during the 2017 budget. But what we have seen is persistent delaying from the Minister for Regional Development—twice removed. There have been three ministers for regional development since November last year so it's not necessarily the fault of this minister. Can the minister guarantee that there'll be no further delay in announcing the guidelines and assessing the applications under the Regional Growth Fund, round 3 the Building Better Regions Fund, the $260 million that was announced in the most recent budget?

Can the minister guarantee that guidelines will be issued for this fund, that applications will be available for applicants to make well prior to the next election and that this will be a free, open and transparent process?

There's a lot of interest about this in regional Australia. We don't need further delay. A great fanfare has been made about the announcement of these funds. We need a guarantee that funds are going to be flowing and that it will be done on the merits of the program, not just more pork-barrelling to shore up the political concerns of National Party MPs. This is a fund for all Australia, not National Party MPs, and we want to see guidelines issued and grants flowing. This should not be run over by the forthcoming election. (Time expired)

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