Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party, Minister for Decentralisation and Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to say a few words about decentralisation today, but, before I do, I also want to make it very clear that recovering from bushfire is a long and hard process, and I think all members recognise how difficult it is. I was in Clarence and Dargan last week, talking to victims of the bushfire who had lost their homes. It is a long, hard road; there can be no doubt about it. In many respects, the recovery is harder than dealing with the actual emergency when it occurs. I think all MPs are united in wanting to make sure that we keep that recovery process going and that we get the help to where it's needed as soon as possible.

We on this side of the House love decentralisation. In country Australia, we can't get enough of it. It's so important to the growth and prosperity of country Australia. This budget delivers a historic amount of investment to the regions, recognising the strategic importance of the regions and the enormous contribution that they make to this nation. Through COVID-19, we've seen a real upsurge of interest in the regions—people wanting to move to the regions. In years gone by we called them tree changers or sea changers, but now there's a new term for them: they're called VESPAs. Bernard Salt coined that term in The Australian. It stands for 'virus escapees seeking provincial Australia'. Our regional communities are full of VESPAs at the moment. The member for Parkes, here, has VESPAs all over Dubbo, Warialda and all sorts of places. We need to keep supporting this upsurge of interest in regional Australia, because I think it has opened a lot of eyes to the possibilities of what lies beyond the Great Dividing Range, or the 'sandstone curtain', as we call it. This budget has revitalised the decentralisation agenda.

We have a long and successful history of decentralisation on this side of the House. Since 2013, we've overseen the relocation of 1,700 Australian Public Service jobs. The growth of the regionally based Australian Public Service workforce has increased from 12 to 14 per cent, which is very positive, and we're building on this commitment to relocate jobs and services to our regional communities. We're also working hand in hand with the private sector. It can't all be public sector decentralisation; we want private decentralisation at well. This budget delivers $41 million in a decentralisation research and development policy package, which will drive closer research collaboration between businesses and research organisations in priority regional industries.

The package includes two programs—the $35 million Securing Raw Materials program, which will support businesses relocating to regional Australia with investments into research and development to secure raw material inputs. We know COVID has shown us that we need to be securing that supply chain and making sure that it's absolutely bulletproof. There was also $6 million for the Regional Cooperative Research Project, or RCRP, program that will fund short-term research projects led by industry that will deliver commercial outcomes and create jobs for important regional industries.

Under the Securing Raw Materials program recipients would receive up to $5 million of matched funding over the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years to invest in research activities linked to the development of innovative, locally sourced raw material supplies. The companies that could engage with this program could be a food processing company investigating the growth methods that maximise yield with reduced reliance on imported fertilisers or other agrichemicals. It could be a seafood producer investigating possible uses of unwanted byproducts from fish farming, such as seaweed. It could be an advanced manufacturer in the defence sector. There are many different possibilities. What we're saying to those organisations is that if you move to the country and you want to invest in the country and develop country Australia, then we are with you, because it can't all be public sector decentralisation.

Last week I held a decentralisation summit involving peak business and industry bodies, not only the peak business bodies but the universities as well. It's important to get them on board, the Group of Eight and also the regional universities. We are going to revitalise the decentralisation agenda on this side of the House.

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