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

the schools. The farmer gets his money. So we were on a pathway to complete that. What this government did when they created the plan is add an additional 450 gigalitres to that, but with that 450 gigalitres they had a safety net. They even put that safety net on to protect those communities so that not a megalitre of water could be taken out of those communities if it did not pass the neutrality test of social and economic benefit. That was the safety net that now this heartless government is trying to rip away from regional and rural Australia. That will see 450 gigalitres bought back, taking away the future of the basin community, taking away our food security. You need that water to produce, and there's a physical constraint even delivering it to the mouth of the Murray. It's called the Barmah Choke. There are perverse environmental outcomes if you try to force too much water down it. That's not common sense; that's a perverse outcome for farmers, for communities and for our food security, and again you'll pay for that at the check-out.

But to do this, to buy back that 450 gigalitres, they're robbing all of regional Australia's future, because they took away the money to build the water infrastructure. The $4.7 billion that has been ripped away from water infrastructure money would give us the tools of the future not just in the basin but right across Australia—northern Australia in particular; whether it's Hells Gates, Urannah or even Emu Swamp dam in my electorate—with which you would continue to help and support farmers who were trucking water to their permanent plantings only less than six months ago. But they've taken that away from us—and to pay for 450 gigalitres of water? That's cruel. That's nasty. That's not what Australians do to one another. Why would you do that? To take away the future of regional and rural Australia, to give us the tools to feed and clothe you—so you understand, this has huge ramifications for these communities but also for you.

But it goes even deeper than that, even just to the Building Better Regions Fund, a fund that helps little councils in remote areas that don't have the rate base to build infrastructure. I'll go my own electorate. In Winton, at my own place, is the idea that locals want to create an aged-care facility for the elderly to age in place. The closest place when you get too old in Winton is Longreach, 190 kays down the road. So you leave your family. Your family is 190 kilometres down the road. You don't get to see them every day. You won't get to see them possibly for weeks, maybe months. That's taking away the opportunity. That's the human toll of this cruel, heartless endeavour by this government to redistribute wealth and opportunity from the regions to the capital cities. We don't begrudge them that; we just want our fair share.

But the human toll gets worse. We welcome the $4.7 billion in the budget for child care, but let me tell you this isn't about childcare affordability for those in regional and rural Australia; it's about accessibility. We've got families that can't go back to work, because they can't get a childcare place. I don't begrudge anyone in Sydney getting a $22½ thousand subsidy, because the cost of living in Sydney is a lot. But try getting a job in regional Australia for just $90,000, to pay for your increased cost of living, but you can't, because you can't get a place. I went to your job summit, and I welcomed the $4.7 billion. But please partition off some of that money for childcare accessibility for regional and rural Australia. Do the right thing. Understand that we have the same opportunities that those in the cities should have. Instead, it all went into reducing childcare fees in capital cities. That doesn't help us. It doesn't help young families get back into work. It's not equitable. It's not common sense.

Then it gets even more sinister and more perverse. The distribution priority areas bonded foreign doctors to regional, rural and remote areas, where it was difficult to attract Australian-trained doctors. One of the first actions of this government was to expand that area well beyond into peri-urban areas of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. I can even give an example in my electorate of Mitchell: they haven't had a doctor since September. We can't compete. If a foreign doctor googles Sandford in Brisbane and Mitchell 350 kilometres west of Toowoomba, they're going to pick Sandford. That's the human toll that we face. We feel like the forgotten Australians. Australia should be better than that. The decisions of the government shouldn't cruel. They shouldn't be vindictive. They should be about making sure there's equality and equity no matter your postcode. Unfortunately, what this will do is put not just livelihoods at risk but also put lives at risk.

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