Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to call into question the focus of this federal government on regional communities, who are the backbone of Australia's wealth, food and fibre production. I raise this question because people who live in the country have had regional infrastructure ripped away by this Labor government. All evidence so far points to their lack of regard for the nine million people who call the regions their home.

This week, Labor's October budget will celebrate its first month of delivery. That is one month of evidence of Labor's ability to manage finances, industries and the economy and represent all Australians. Despite Labor's significant increased debt and funding for election promises, infrastructure in the regions seems the only significant budget saving committed. In fact, $9.6 billion was cut from regional infrastructure in the budget. That is $4.7 billion over the forward estimates. A hefty $7 billion over the forward estimates was cut from water projects, specifically for dams, including Hells Gates Dam, Dungowan Dam, Emu Swamp Dam, the Hughenden irrigation scheme and Wyangala Dam.

In Victoria, five projects under the Roads of Strategic Importance program have had $248 million slashed across the forward estimates. Outrageously, all five are on Mallee roads. The Labor government has put on hold the safety of the residents of Mallee by withdrawing nearly a quarter of a billion dollars of funding that we on this side had allocated to the Sunraysia Highway from Ouyen to Ballarat; the Murray Valley Highway from Robinvale to Echuca; the Western Highway from Stawell to the South Australian border; the Green Triangle region, incorporating the Henty Highway from Horsham to Victoria's southern ports; and the Calder Highway, connecting Mildura to Melbourne.

What Labor fail to understand is that these roads desperately need investment to improve major trucking routes where local families, grey-haired nomads in caravans and road trains coexist. Danger is written all over this decision to cut the funding. People's lives are at stake. Many of these roads have now experienced flooding. In fact, 11 out of 12 of my shires have floods. The potholes are worse. The shoulders have been eaten away by rising waters. Farmers struggle now to get their product to port, despite the fact that they have an annual economic output of over $14 billion. Because of the ineptness of the Victorian Labor government in delivering the Murray Basin Rail Project, farmers have no alternative but to put road trains on unsatisfactory but major highway systems. And this federal government is cutting future funding. It is not good enough.

In addition, Labor have scrapped the Building Better Regions Fund, turfing 815 community applications under round 6 of the fund in the process. They have also scrapped the Community Development Grants Program. So what does the infrastructure minister, Minister King, do when she is given the keys of funding? She replaces the Better Regions Fund and Community Development Grants Program with two new programs. Those two programs have a total and reduced budget of $1 billion, and no-one in my electorate has yet seen any guidelines for them. It amounts to less than half of what this federal government was able to find for their Victorian counterparts for a suburban rail loop in Melbourne. They found $2.2 billion to bolster Premier Daniel Andrews's chances in the state election this week. This is despite the fact that the Victorian Auditor-General said he was yet to see any economic rationale for it when the federal government committed funds to it. Labor like to say that Infrastructure Australia should approve large-scale projects such as the Suburban Rail Loop. They did not go through that process either.

Thankfully for those in the regions, though, Labor have retained the Stronger Country Communities program—at least for 2022-23; they have provided no money in forward estimates for future rounds. It is only a matter of time before we see this program axed by the Labor government. We know investments in infrastructure are a key plank in growing the Australian economy, but do Labor know that? Their actions have thrown communities across the nation into uncertainty and forced them to play the waiting game—waiting for a new pavilion at their local sporting club or waiting for valuable services to be built. (Time expired)

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