Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for the opportunity to speak on the importance of Australia's regions and the contribution regional Australians have made and are making to our communities, to society and to the nation's economy. Since the beginning of COVID-19, we've seen something remarkable happening in our regions. Our communities have effectively suppressed the virus. Agriculture, mining and a whole range of different regional industries have underpinned the nation's economy. We've seen innovations in renewable energy, in manufacturing and in tourism.

Despite making up only a third of our population, regional Australians continue to punch above their weight in accounting for half of the national growth over the past decade. During the pandemic, many of us have enjoyed the opportunity to base ourselves in our home towns for the duration and have discovered that working from home and connecting with people around Australia and the world is entirely possible, though, for many, it would be nice to have a more reliable NBN.

Despite our political differences, highlighted just yesterday on infrastructure, the Deputy Prime Minister and I both recognise the beauty and the special sense of community that comes from living in regional Australia. The quality of life in regional Australia has begun to break through into the national consciousness. There are lists of the best regional towns to move to, and friends in the cities are looking seriously at a regional move. This is a welcome change from what is too often a very narrow cast view of regional Australia.

Of course this success is not without its challenges, few more so than rising house prices. High house prices used to be the exclusive domain of the major cities, but not anymore. It's great that lots of people have discovered how wonderful life can be in the regions, and we welcome them. They will surely become fierce ambassadors for our way of life. But we can't ignore what this has meant for first home buyers and low-income earners trying to get their first home or trying to find affordable rental accommodation in our regional cities and regional towns. It is a social problem for families and individuals, and it is an economic problem for our businesses. Businesses are reporting not being able to open for late meals and not being able to open at certain times of the day because they simply cannot find staff who can afford to live in their area to be able to operate. The government could have done something about this in Tuesday night's budget, but they haven't. The measures towards housing in fact exacerbate the problem, and especially exacerbate the problems in our regions.

Australia's regional policy today is still stuck in the tired frame of political expediency, one-off grant programs and 'one size fits all'. I welcome the Deputy Prime Minister's announcements of additional funding for local councils and for road safety, both vital for the health and wellbeing of regional Australians. I was very pleased to see, buried a little bit in the budget papers but there for those of us who looked through the regional statement, the announcement to look into the feasibility of one of the ideas Labor has been pushing and talking about for a while now: the development of Public Service hubs in our regions. It would also be great for the government to restore the thousands of Public Service jobs they've cut from the regional towns and communities across this country.

I also need to acknowledge the 21 new or topped-up slush funds outlined in the budget. There is $4 billion just sitting there, ready to be thrown at coalition-held or target seats. It is this approach that continues to underpin the Morrison government's approach to regions, where some regions do well and other regions are completely left behind.

As well as topping up slush funds, the government's budget introduced infrastructure cuts of $3.3 billion over the next four years. They tried to hide it, but it is on page 84 of Budget Paper No. 1. That is $3.3 billion less for regional roads, for trains, for bridges, for tunnels and, more importantly, for jobs in regional communities. The Deputy Prime Minister told the House yesterday that there were no cuts, that the $3.3 billion less is because the government pays on delivery. It was refreshing to hear the Deputy Prime Minister acknowledge, even if by accident, that they've not been delivering for regional Australians—not delivering to the tune of $3.3 billion over the next four years.

Fifty-five per cent of the Deputy Prime Minister's newly announced infrastructure spend is not even in the budget. Instead, it's off into the never-never somewhere beyond the forward estimates. For Victoria, 87 per cent of promised new funding wasn't in the budget. For Tasmania, it was 30 per cent. For New South Wales, it was 43 per cent. For the Northern Territory, we heard in question time yesterday that, incredibly, 99 per cent of the new funding apparently announced on Monday was not included in the budget. These broken promises leave regional Australians driving on worn-out roads, leave regional businesses dealing with degraded infrastructure and reduce the quality of life for Australians in our regional cities, towns and rural communities right the way across the country. It is symptomatic of a government that is all about the photo op and never there for the follow-up.

In few places is this government failure as stark as in northern Australia. As we all know, North Queenslanders are saddled with soaring insurance premiums. Despite promising, with much fanfare, a $10 billion re-insurance pool, the budget papers reveal that the Morrison government has only allocated $2.4 million to establish a task force to begin consultation on a re-insurance pool, which will not even start until 1 July 2022. It's a $10 billion pool promised but only a $2.4 million taskforce delivered—eventually. North Queenslanders need help, not a plan for a plan.

And, while we're on North Queensland, we can't move on without reference again to the infamous NAIF. The 'no actual infrastructure fund', as it's widely become known. The government promised to spend $5 billion in five years supporting northern Australia infrastructure projects, turbocharging the economies in our north. It might have created a flashy headline or two, but in reality, over five years—remember that it promised $5 billion to be spent out the door into northern Australia in five years—it has only managed to spend just six per cent of the fund. Just last week, the government took the extraordinary step of using its NAIF powers to actually block a $380 million renewable energy project in North Queensland that would have employed 250 people. That was 250 good, long-term, secure jobs in regional Australia in North Queensland that this government deliberately blocked. Labor will always back energy workers in North Queensland and the households and the businesses that want lower bills, not play politics with regional jobs.

The government also announced a new agency to replace the National Bushfire Recovery Agency months ago in response to the bushfire royal commission. The reannouncement of a new disaster resilience agency is yet more marketing from a government that has promised a lot on natural disasters but just has simply not delivered. Bushfire and flood victims who are still waiting to see money hit the ground will wait to see how committed to natural disaster recovery this government really is. Many people are still being forced to live in caravans and temporary accommodation years after the event has occurred. After all, this government still hasn't delivered a cent of the disaster funding it promised two years ago in the 2019 budget.

It is a similar story on water infrastructure, too. A promise of 100 dams turned out to be a mirage. There was the promise of an independent, statutory water grid authority. Well, it's neither independent nor statutory and we're not sure yet whether it is in fact an actual national water grid or whether it is a National Party seat water grid.

The Labor Party do have a very proud record when it comes to our regions. Our party was born in the regions and it is our party that built the regions. Every government formed by our party has taken steps to advance the regions. Back in 1942, well before Australia returned to peace, it was the Curtin government that understood that the regions were the place to drive postwar recovery. Gough Whitlam, in the 1970s, saw the regions as a place to confront entrenched social and economic inequality. The Hawke years saw the potential of Geelong, Newcastle, Mackay, Townsville, Bunbury, Launceston and Hobart, and we invested and built them into the wonderful, vibrant cities with strong local economies that they are today. The last Labor government, under the leadership of Anthony Albanese and Simon Crean, both in their regional ministerial capacities, sparked regional growth by building connections between regions and the cities. We are proud to have established and funded the Regional Australia Institute, and I'm grateful that the Deputy Prime Minister has continued to support this important initiative. We established Regional Development Australia across the country to drive economic growth and to improve liveability in each region.

If we are to have a recovery truly worthy of the name then our regions have to be part of it—not just some regions but all of them. A responsible, responsive government would engage with local communities, listen to local leaders and work hard to find out what investments they need, what regulations can be changed and how we can build self-sustaining industries that grow out of a region's pre-existing strengths. That's because good leadership involves understanding that not all regions are the same and, in our own home towns or in Canberra, we cannot hope to understand all of them. The people who know best what a region needs are the people who live in that region. The local councils, the chambers of commerce, small-business owners and community leaders—all of them have ideas about and insights into what their communities need to grow.

Labor understand this. That is why, under the Leader of the Opposition, we are not looking to decentralise; we're looking for smart regionalisation. Smart regionalisation means having a comprehensive understanding of each region's strengths and job growth potential and playing to those strengths. For Cairns and Gippsland that might mean tourism investments; for Shepparton, high-level food processing; and for Wollongong, hydrogen and renewable energy. It can mean investing in resources, renewable energy, health care, the service economy and exclusive tourism experiences of fine wine and food. It means investing where we can create the highest number of good, secure jobs, using the base of our existing industries to do so—harnessing those existing strengths and turning them into lasting engines of growth for our regions.

Labor's national rail manufacturing plan is a good example of this. Designed to leverage government investment in rail infrastructure, the huge amounts of money that we invest in spending on rail will be used to grow secure manufacturing jobs and to build more trains here in this country. This would mean more jobs and investment in regional communities such as Maryborough in Queensland, Newcastle and my hometown of Ballarat.

Lifting people out of poverty and improving living conditions are what we in the Labor Party are all about. With this in mind, we know that the current climate crisis we face is also Australia's jobs opportunity. That's why we have committed to net zero emissions by 2050 and why we have announced our policy to rewire the nation. This is a $20 billion commitment to modernise the electricity grid and to help facilitate the uptake of renewable energy across the nation. We have also announced Labor's 'Power to the people' policy, which will connect up to 100,000 solar homes to shared battery storage, reducing costs and emissions, creating jobs and helping to deliver new opportunities to our regions. Tonight our leader, Anthony Albanese, may have more to say about renewable energy jobs and harnessing the potential of young people in our regions.

As I said earlier, we know that housing is an increasing challenge for more and more Australians, and our regions are no different. Despite the trillion dollars of debt the Morrison government presented on Tuesday night, not a single cent was invested in social and affordable housing in our regions. An Albanese Labor government will develop and implement a national housing and homelessness plan that will help more Australians to buy a home. It will help Australians who rent and will help to put a roof over the heads of more homeless Australians. If you want to hear more about it, tune in tonight.

When Australian governments invest in Australian jobs it is often the regions that benefit first. Regional Australia does need a plan. It needs a plan that identifies what investments are needed, where they are needed and when they are needed. It needs a plan that identifies how we leverage infrastructure investments to grow local businesses and to grow local jobs. It needs a plan that treats all regions fairly, not one that prioritises those that vote for the coalition or the National Party. It needs a plan that looks at the long term, not just the next election cycle. An Albanese Labor government will develop and implement such a plan—a plan to ensure that our regions get their fair share; that they grow sustainably; that we address the challenges of rising house prices; and that we capitalise on the huge job opportunities from tackling climate change. An Albanese Labor government will work for the regions, not take them for granted.

To all regional Australians I say today: the Australian Labor Party stands proudly on your side.

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