David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's regions, home to one in three Australians, are absolutely crucial to our strength and success as a nation. We know that regional Australia punches above its weight. Around two-thirds of Australia's exports earnings come from regional industries such as mining, agriculture, tourism, retail services and manufacturing. But it's not just an economic sense that underpins its importance; our regions are integral to our values and identity as a country.

We know that, while it's immensely rewarding living in the bush, it comes with some major and unique challenges. It's crucial that the millions of men, women and children of regional, rural and remote Australia and the communities they live in have a voice in their federal government. They deserve a voice—a voice with influence, a voice that matters. When we were in government, the federal coalition was immensely proud to give regional Australia that voice. We understood the challenges regional people face every day. In contrast to those opposite, those of us in the coalition overwhelmingly represent the regions in this parliament. We live, breath and experience these challenges, and, as a government, we took decisive action. In government, we looked at ways to harness and turbocharge the incredible potential, talent and opportunities that the regions offer to our nation. Our track record in investing and building critical infrastructure speaks for itself, especially in the regions, with record investments across Australia supporting around 40,000 jobs. These commitments remain our vision for regional Australia.

In our March 2022 budget, we increased the federal infrastructure investment pipeline to $122 billion, to create new jobs, to keep people and freight moving and to drive economic growth. The coalition's last budget also announced an additional $17.9 billion to road, rail and community infrastructure projects across regional Australia. This proud legacy and record of achievement and investment is in stark contrast to this Labor government, which, sadly, has been epitomised in this federal budget, which has swung the financial axe to dedicated funding for regional Australia that we, as a coalition, fought so hard for.

Since the election on 21 May, it hasn't taken long for this Labor government to show its true colours and character. It's less than 160 days since Labor was elected, and already this government has enforced measures that will make life harder for the millions of Australians who live outside our capital cities. During the election, we saw the warning signs. In a deliberate blow to our farmers and the whole agricultural supply chain, they pledged to scrap the agricultural visa, a reform that the coalition delivered as part of our plan to address the massive and acute workforce shortages in the regions. They also promised to shut down the live sheep export trade, which employs 3,000 Western Australians.

Once in office, those opposite went even further. We know that access to adequate health care and a GP is an enormous struggle in rural, regional and remote Australia. In July, this government chose to rip up the Distribution Priority Area classification system for overseas trained doctors, which, as a direct consequence, will rip doctors from our regional, rural and remote communities. This means the residents of Mitchell, a small rural community in western Queensland, that's desperate for a GP will now be forced to compete over the same pool of doctors as Brookfield in Brisbane. All across regional Australia, we're already seeing these consequences. There's a real human toll to this.

Now, in a further blow to the bush, by handing down this budget, this government has cut billions of dollars in dedicated regional infrastructure funding. This funding was going into supporting transformational community-building projects, which would have made a real difference on the ground to our regions. This government has broken the hearts of regional and rural families in this perverse budget. The Prime Minister promised, if he won government, there would be no-one held back and no-one left behind. But in Labor's first budget 30 per cent of Australians from regional and rural Australia have been betrayed. This is a horror budget for everyone who lives, works and invests in the regions.

The federal coalition firmly opposes and condemns this government for ripping multibillion-dollar funds out of rural, remote and regional Australia. The coalition's worst fears have been realised. These everyday Australians, our hardworking regional and rural families and businesses, have been unapologetically forgotten by Labor. Whether it's infrastructure, agriculture, water, the availability of child care, or the cost of living, through this budget the government has turned its back on regional and rural families and workers. It has abandoned them.

A major test last night in this federal budget was for the government to build on the strong position it inherited from the coalition to address the cost-of-living crisis bearing down on Australians. Labor has failed this test, and this budget does nothing to assist the family budget. There is no credible plan to deal with the source of inflation or to help families deal with immediate cost-of-living pressures. This budget confirms that the cost of living is going up. Electricity and gas bills are going up. Tax payments are going up. Employment will go down, and real wages are forecast to go down. This is a high-taxing and high-spending budget that does nothing to help Australian families get ahead.

In our regional communities, these cost-of-living pressures will bite especially hard. The drastic increases in grocery bills were man-made, by the government, and this budget would make the average family worse off by at least $2,000 by Christmas. Groceries are already eight per cent higher, not just because of natural disasters but also because of a Labor-made disaster, in scrapping the dedicated agriculture visa. Supply has been slashed because farmers and processors are only working at around 60 per cent capacity, which has put prices up at the check-out. Retail electricity prices are already up 20 per cent this year and predicted to increase by a further 30 per cent next year, while the $275 reduction in electricity bills promised by the Labor government during the federal election is now all but gone. Interest rates have already gone up and are predicted to go up a further 75 basis points under this government, which is ripping hundreds of dollars out of households each month. Every time Australians get their grocery receipt, their power bill or their mortgage statement, they should see this federal government's face in it.

The federal coalition recognises that the cost of child care is a major issue. That's why, in government, our childcare subsidy policy was targeted towards families on low and middle incomes, with around 90 per cent of families eligible for a subsidy between 50 and 85 per cent. We made further changes in March this year by introducing a higher subsidy, up to 95 per cent, for families with multiple children in care, which was estimated to save a family an average of $2,260 per year. In fact, our targeted extra support, introduced in March, made a real difference, because childcare costs came down 4.6 per cent in the year to June 2022.

Although this budget makes a lot of noise about the cost of child care, there is dead silence on any measures to actually improve frontline availability and accessibility of childcare services in regional, rural and remote Australia. In this budget, Labor have turned their backs on the mums and dads desperate to find regional and rural childcare places. Last week I visited childcare centres in Kempsey and Coffs Harbour on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, and the waiting lists there are staggering—about 200 children. It's extremely concerning that the government has announced $4.7 billion on cheaper childcare fees for city families, while refusing to spend even one dollar on delivering more childcare places in regional communities. A recent comprehensive study, by Victoria University's Mitchell institute, found that nine million Australians live in an area defined as a 'childcare desert', with at least three children competing over each available childcare place. Regional Australia was among the worst impacted, and it's a damning reality that 75 per cent of people living in rural, regional and remote Australia live in a childcare desert.

However, in this budget, there's no plan to improve access to child care, there's no plan to address these childcare deserts and there's no plan to address the workforce shortages that are crippling this sector. The questions that regional Australia is entitled to ask are: Where are the additional places going to open up for all the new children entering the system? What's point of having lower out-of-pocket costs if you can't even get your child into care? Regional and rural families have every right to feel let down, to feel disappointed. Unlike those opposite, the federal coalition delivered measures to improve childcare availability in regions. In our budget in March 2022, we provided $19.4 million to support the establishment of 20 new childcare centres where there is limited or no child care, which took our total investment to $432.5 million over the next four years through our Community Child Care Fund. This year the fund was supporting 824 services, of which 403 services are in regional and remote Australia, receiving 65 per cent of the total funding.

In this budget, multibillion dollar programs announced by the coalition have been scrapped, including the $7.1 billion Energy Security and Regional Development Plan, which supported transformative investment in four key regions that were poised for growth: the Northern Territory, North and Central Queensland, the Pilbara in WA and the Hunter in New South Wales. The $2 billion Regional Accelerator Program—which was poised to provide communities with funding opportunities targeted to local priorities in infrastructure, manufacturing and industry development, skills and training, research and development, and education—and round 6 of the Building Better Regions Fund, worth $250 million, has all been ripped up, which has scrapped 815 projects around Australia.

The federal budget takes more than $5 billion out of water projects by not proceeding with the Hells Gate Dam project in Queensland and deferring funding for the Urannah Dam, Dungowan Dam pipeline, Emu Swamp Dam pipeline, Hughenden Irrigation Scheme and Wyangala Dam wall-raising project. We need dams to mitigate flooding in the future, grow our regional areas and continue to grow our economy. These cuts to water programs are devastating and will impact regional areas. If you take away water infrastructure, you take away the future of regional Australia.

In relation to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, the government is refusing to tell regional Australians the cost of delivering their commitments. According to the budget papers, the costs to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and the Department of Treasury for delivering water commitments are not for publication. The government should be open and transparent with the Australian public and basin communities. What are their plans for the basin, and how much is it going to cost? This plan is also under threat, with the safety net of 450 gigalitres less about outcomes and more about numbers.

The federal coalition is immensely proud of our achievements in agriculture during our term in government. By the time we went to the federal election earlier this year, we were investing over $1.7 billion into Australian agriculture. As a government, we supported agriculture, fisheries and forestry production to reach a record $87 billion in 2021-22. In this year's budget, Labor are claiming that they committed a billion dollars. It'd be good to see the numbers, but it's essentially a continuation of what we committed—nothing new, no vision, no plan.

We had an Ag2030 plan, with seven key themes, including stronger trade and export; protection against pests and disease; building productivity and a better environment; stronger local manufacturing and supply chains; stronger and more resilient infrastructure; and helping our farmers and fishers secure their future. We worked in partnership with the industry to get through droughts, bushfires, floods and COVID-19. Now this government needs to work in partnership with industry to assist them with the cost of living. A 50 per cent increase in energy prices is not good for an agricultural business, a dairy farmer, a meatworks or the horticultural sector. A 40c increase in fuel is no good for farming. What's their vision? Cuts to trade and exports, cuts to local manufacturing and supply chains and cuts to infrastructure.

The cuts to the $2 billion Regional Accelerator Program and $7.1 billion Energy Security and Regional Development Plan are going to hurt agriculture and regional Australia. This was the very industry that assisted all of Australia to get through COVID-19 and contributed to the windfall in the budget—building supply chain resilience and investing in agricultural imports and manufacturing. It is all gone. This government has spruced $500 million from the National Reconstruction Fund to support local sovereignty but will not provide loans or equity until mid-next year. Fertiliser input prices and supply chain issues need to be addressed now. The Export Market Development Grants for industry has also gone. With no agricultural visa, and not helping farmers and fishers secure their future, where are all our workers going to come from?

In April 2022, to address critical workforce shortages in the agricultural sector, the federal coalition was proud to announce the introduction of the ag visa. This was a huge piece of reform that would help alleviate workforce pressure for our farmers. Built on a bilateral agreement that we secured with Vietnam, the ag visa had a minimum age of 21 and provided a pathway to permanent residency. Under the ag visa, employees would be recruited to work across a range of agricultural sectors, including horticulture, dairy, wool, grains, fisheries and forestry as well as support services and primary processing. Importantly, this program provided flexibility for workers to move between approved employers without compromising workforce standards and undermining worker protections.

Given the severe workforce shortages in the agricultural sector, the government's decision to tear up this visa is unconscionable. This move makes it so much harder for farmers to find workers. Right now, Australia needs 172,000 workers to get product from the paddock to the plate. The government's Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme will be able to provide 42,000 workers at best. Labor must deliver practical solutions for our farmers, their families and Australian consumers. Now they're even changing the settings. As the National Farmers Federation has pointed out, the PALM promise is 'undelivered':

The budget reveals that Labor's election commitment to cover worker travel costs under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme will instead be replaced with an underwriting scheme.

This commitment to help with the cost of bringing in Pacific workers was a consolation prize for the scrapping of the Ag Visa …

Already, election commitments have been cut at the expense of agriculture, fisheries and forestry. Under the coalition, the Pacific, Timor-Leste and South-East Asia were prioritised within our overseas development assistance budget. Travelling across regional Australia, visiting agricultural communities and speaking directly with locals—from the fruit and veggie growers in the Gascoyne to the beef producers in Central Queensland and the farmers in Mildura—I've seen and heard firsthand what a tremendous difference the ag visa would have made to the businesses and livelihoods of regional Australians.

The coalition supports improving the environment and started the world's first Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Package, with an investment of over $90 million. There was the $5 billion Future Drought Fund, $214.9 million for soils and the $1.1 billion National Landcare Program. This government have indicated they'll protect the environment, including 4.8 million hectares of additional protected areas. Tasmania is 6.8 million hectares. Where is this going to come from, and how will it be done? It's another measure creating uncertainty in investing in agriculture in Australia.

This budget also includes $80.7 million to support voluntary action by farmers to lower methane emissions. This plan doesn't stack up. The plan will force farmers to buy more expensive food for their cattle and make farming more expensive. The result will be an increase in meat prices, which will push up food bills for families across the country. In government, the coalition took a practical step towards helping reduce methane emissions in the resources and agricultural sectors. We didn't sign up to the Global Methane Pledge, which calls for a 30 per cent global reduction in methane emissions on 2020 levels by 2030. Signing the pledge goes against the agriculture sector's desire to grow to $100 billion by 2030. At a time when Australian families are struggling with the cost of energy and mortgage payments, this has the potential to push up food prices even further.

We owe so much to our veterans. It appears that wellbeing centres to support those who have served our nation are not spared from this government's cuts to the regions. Veteran wellbeing centres, established in partnership with ex-service organisations, local health services or community organisations, help better connect veterans to the extensive support and advocacy already available, with a strong focus on health and wellbeing. A re-elected coalition government would have established 14 new veteran wellbeing centres, at a cost of $70 million. However, this government is funding 10. Veterans on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales and in Wagga Wagga, Mackay, Wide Bay-Burnett and Sunshine Coast have all missed out.

The government has announced $99.8 million for a strategic critical minerals development program to assist critical minerals producers progress strategically significant projects. However, this program has been rebranded and was previously a $200 million critical minerals accelerator program. The program actually only has about $50 million left, after the first $50 million is already out the door, following six grants announced and approved by the coalition in April. In a further sleight of hand, the government has rebranded the Australian critical minerals research and development centre as a hub. They are trying to pretend it's new. While the headline figure of $50.5 million in funding appears the same, the government has hidden further funding cuts by stretching it out over more years to reduce annual funding. This funding cut is a slap in the face to an industry that should be leading the world in critical minerals extraction and exports, as the global demand for batteries and renewable components soars. The hypocrisy is clear. This government is pushing Australia headlong into a rush towards renewables, all while cutting funding to the very critical minerals that are vital— (Time expired)

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