Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government tries to give us a lecture about the geographical size of electorates, but we are talking about building infrastructure where people live. Are they seriously suggesting that more infrastructure money should go to electorates where there are vast amounts of land where nobody is living? There are chunks of the seat of Durack, which is the largest electorate in the country, where there are no towns and there are no people living there. Why would you say that an electorate like Durack, just because of the sheer size of it, should get more funding than an electorate like Bendigo, where you have the second-biggest regional city in Victoria? The regional electorates that I and the women who are participating in this debate from my side represent all have big regional cities as well as villages and towns. We represent regional Australia proudly. The government tries to claim regional Australia as their space, but it is not. In fact, there are probably more women on our side representing regional electorates than they have women in the entire lower house. That's how proud we are. That's how strong we are in representing the regions.

It is so disappointing that the Building Better Regions Fund is one that this government has quite frankly rorted in the way that it has. It should be renamed the 'Building Better Rorts Fund', because that's all it can be. We in Bendigo are trying to redevelop our airport. We're very proud of the work that's been done. The airport is trying to get upgraded. For the first time in decades we actually have Qantas flights coming in. They've been incredibly popular. We thought we had a chance in this round of the BBRF. The council put forward an application. There is money from the state government on the table. There is support from the major airline Qantas on the table. There is support from the local council, who are the owners of the airport. There are local businesses, such as local tourism operators, on the table. This round was supposed to be the tourism round. They were told, 'Apply for it.' They missed out on round 3. They missed out on round 4. Guess what: on round 5, they completely missed out.

I want to know: is it because our colour wasn't pink or green? The member for Mallee said that they had an opportunity to go in and specially lobby. Why didn't I get that opportunity? My town needs infrastructure funding too. My town needs it just as much as their towns need it. We are growing. We have growth pressures. Yet, under this government, we've received no support. It's not just my community that's missing out. In fact, it's a whole chunk of Labor regional electorates that are missing out. The women who will speak on our side will speak about how they've missed out. In this round, we got about $40,000 from this government and, as the member for Ballarat said, in total over the last few years it's about $2 million.

Compare that to the amounts received by the electorates of ministers who were also around the decision-making table. The electorate of the member for Maranoa, who is a minister in this government, received $57 million. The electorate of the former Deputy Prime Minister the member for Riverina received $27 million. The electorate of the former Deputy Prime Minister, then backbencher and now Deputy Prime Minister received $22.4 million. They're sitting around the table. They're not even trying to be fair or transparent. Somehow their seats are more needy than seats like Bendigo, Ballarat and Corangamite—and the list continues.

If you were genuine about building the regions and supporting regional communities, you'd be fair and share it equally. But we're not seeing that at all from this government. It is simply the 'building better rorts fund'. That's what we have on the table from this government. They try to disguise it by saying, 'Our electorates are geographically bigger.' That's not how democracy works. We all have about 110,000 voters in our electorates, and our regions are made up of a network of towns, hamlets, villages and regional centres. I have the City of Greater Bendigo in my electorate, but connected to that is a series of small towns such as the township of Maldon, with 1,500 people, and the township of Metcalfe, which has 100 people. They too need regional investment. I have a truckload of projects that need support. But, if we can't even get the Bendigo Airport upgraded through this government when we have Qantas, the state government, the City of Greater Bendigo and hundreds of local businesses on board, what chance does the Maldon RSL have? What chance does the Metcalfe town hall have? Zero under this government, because they're all about their own and not about anybody else.

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