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

I want to start by acknowledging the Australians who created the budget surplus, the Australians that the Treasurer didn't have the courage to acknowledge last night, the one in three Australians who live and work in regional Australia in sectors from agriculture to energy, from manufacturing to resources, from tourism to infrastructure. It's because of their efforts that regional Australia generated 40 per cent of our nation's economic output. Ultimately, the Australians who live in this part of the country need and deserve a federal government that has their back. That's why during our term in government the federal coalition put our regions front and centre of our plan to secure Australia's future, underpinned by our record 10-year $120 billion pipeline of infrastructure spend, which included nation-building project such as the Inland Rail and the Outback Way. We're immensely proud of our track record, which leaves a strong legacy across our regions.

However, after two failed budgets, the millions of men and women who live outside our capital cities now feel like the forgotten Australians. In contrast to the Prime Minister's empty election night pledge that no-one would be held back or left behind, under Labor people in regional Australia have been held back and they have been left behind. When it comes to supporting the regions Labor emptied the kitchen cupboards in that first budget, and last night the government took off the doors and hinges. Right now households are struggling under a cost-of-living crisis that Labor helped create and that continues to spiral out of control. Under the government's watch, persistent inflation, massive increases in energy bills, and 10 consecutive interest rate rises are pushing family budgets to the brink.

Rural and remote Australians are also hurting because they struggle to access a GP, yet the government has blown up the distribution priority areas for overseas trained doctors, which has ripped out GPs from small rural towns in favour of outer-city suburbs. This has put the lives of rural and regional patients at risk. Families are hurting because they can't find a childcare place. In its last budget, this government pulled together a package worth billions, but didn't spend a single dollar to create an extra childcare place in regional, rural or remote Australia. Farmers and regional businesses are hurting due to workforce shortages, faced with such a critical situation they can't understand why Labor has torn up the dedicated agricultural visa. We know that in their first budget back in October, Labor cut billions of dollars from regional infrastructure programs. They ripped out some $7 billion worth of water projects. With last night's budget we see the trend of Labor's cuts and delays and its neglect of regional Australia continue. The second Labor budget promises to decimate regional infrastructure yet again.

A snapshot of the programs that have been cut by this horror budget includes: the Stronger Communities Program; the resilient regional leaders program; the enhanced regional security screening program for regional airports, which was a $94.5 million program under the former coalition government; supporting national freight and supply chain priorities; Inland Rail; and interface improvement programs, while the Regional Airports Program has been discontinued. Many of these programs were all about empowering local communities. By scrapping these initiatives this government is saying that it does not trust local leaders and local councils to make decisions which are in the best interests of their own communities. Instead, this government believes that the extra 10,000 public servants it's employed in Canberra will know better. While we were in government the coalition was delivering a $3 billion road safety program to keep people safe on our roads. In last night's budget the government scrapped a large number of road safety programs, including the keys2drive road safety program, the Road Safety Awareness and Enablers Fund, the supporting young and vulnerable road users program, the Amy Gillett Foundation funding and the Road Safety Innovation Fund. They've all been cut and the money has been reprioritised.

During the Treasurer's speech there was not a single mention of infrastructure, and we can see why. Labor has stuck a razor gang into the former coalition government's $120 billion infrastructure pipeline. This was a smokescreen created by Labor weeks before the election just so the Treasurer didn't have to give the bad news on his one night of the year. Labor has also confirmed the government is now forcing local communities to wait two years to access regional grant programs. This means local councils and community organisations won't be able to access grants for infrastructure until 2024. While pushing back critical funding needed for regional communities, Labor grants programs target projects worth more than $1 million. It means that, for most regions, smaller projects like sports ovals, playgrounds and libraries will be ineligible for funding—local sports and community groups all abandoned and forgotten because of the government's deliberate neglect.

On top of this, the government is slashing roads funding, which includes a $1.7 billion cut to the road transport expense over the forward estimates compared to the October budget and a further cut of $356 million in the 2023-24 to the road investment component of the Infrastructure Investment Program compared to the previous budget. This budget also includes a 19 per cent increase in road user charges on heavy vehicles, trucks and buses over three years. According to the National Transport Commission, this is a $1.6 billion tax hike on every product made and on every product purchased.

But the ruthless measures in this budget keep coming. In a massive blow to regional Australia, the government has also abandoned vital water projects worth more than $872 million. Impacted projects include the Dungowan Dam and Emu Swamp Dam, while the Wyangala Dam wall raising and the Hughenden Irrigation Project have, once again, had their funding delayed. Decisions and cuts like this have consequences. When you take away water infrastructure, you take away the future of our regional communities which produce our nation's food and fibre. The government should know that tearing up or delaying investments in road, rail, bridges, dams and community facilities, while increasing costs on heavy vehicles, is not how we build a more productive and sustainable Australia.

A strong and robust biosecurity system is crucial for protecting our nation against the threat of pests and diseases. In government, the federal coalition always supported a sustainable funding model for biosecurity. However, taxing farmers was never considered or part of the mix. The coalition's approach to the biosecurity sustainable funding model was targeted at the risk creators, the importers. We believe this was the responsible and fair way forward, which is why one of the most shocking take-outs from last night's budget was Labor's announcement that, from July next year, Australian farmers will be hit with a bill equivalent to 10 per cent of their existing industry led agricultural levies. Why would any Australian government tax their own farmers to pay for their international competitors to bring their products into this country? To slug our farmers with a new $153 million tax and force them to pay for the risks of international importers is just unjust. Instead of taking direct action to address severe workforce shortages by reinstating the ag visa, the government has decided to tax them. What a perverse outcome. Labor's new tax on farmers will also hit Australian families hard by pushing up the cost of food right in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

This is a deeply concerning and disappointing budget for Australian agriculture, with $5.6 million committed over two years from 2022-23 for the government's independent panel to undertake an assessment and consultation process to phase out live sheep exports. For this government to commit millions of dollars in this budget to push ahead with the destruction of the live sheep export industry is a kick in the guts for our sheep producers, the 3,000 Western Australians employed through the supply chain and our entire agricultural sector. Shutting down a lawful and sustainable industry, which has some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world, is incomprehensible. Decisions on agriculture should be predicated on science and evidence, not based extreme activists' agendas which hurt innocent people.

Despite underpinning the strength of Australia's economy, the resource sector has again suffered Labor's budget cuts, with the Beetaloo basin drilling program receiving a cut of about $8½ million, while for the strategic basin plan it's more than $12.6 million. This builds on cuts which were imposed on the resource sector in the October budget. In government, the coalition invested in the $200 million Critical Minerals Accelerator Initiative to develop new sources of critical minerals by supporting early- and mid-stage projects that contribute to robust global supply chains, build sovereign capability in Australia and create high-paying regional jobs. This funding has now been slashed by over $100 million, despite Labor's claim of support for the critical minerals sector. As a coalition, we'll always back the resource sector, the jobs they create and the wealth they generate.

All across rural and remote Australia, our network of community pharmacists do an incredible job. It takes enormous dedication to provide such a vital service for the local community. Pharmacy is one of the most respected, trusted and important professions in our nation. These men and women need our support. So why, without any consultation with this sector, has this government decided to double prescriptions from 30 to 60 days? The government doesn't understand that these changes could leave regional patients without access to life-saving drugs and threaten the financial viability of many rural pharmacies. The concerns of a potential human toll of these changes are real, and regional Australia will be hit especially hard.

For 18 years, Joanne Loftus has owned and run the local pharmacy in Northampton in Western Australia, a small rural community that's located nearly 500 kilometres from Perth. The Northampton Pharmacy supports about 400 locals, including many seniors with serious illnesses. Joanne loves her profession and loves her community, but right now she's heartbroken and she's worried about the future of her pharmacy. She's just one of many. The government must urgently re-evaluate and reconsider the consequences of this policy because, if these changes to medicine dispensing become reality, the survival of Joanne's business and the thousands of others in the regions will be uncertain, and they will be thrown into turmoil.

We know that accessing a GP in regional, rural and remote Australia has always been tough, but under this Labor government it's getting worse. In this budget there is nothing to address the government's devastating changes to the distribution priority areas, which have seen small rural communities like Cunnamulla in western Queensland forced to compete with suburbs like Brookfield in Brisbane for a GP. This policy has resulted in perverse health outcomes that have left people in rural and remote Australia worse off. In terms of improving access to doctors in the regions, in this budget there's just $4½ million over five years to train rural GPs through single-employer model trials. This simply won't cut it. Labor is throwing crumbs at a serious problem in rural Australia.

Australian children deserve the best possible start in life. Having access to quality early childhood education is so important for our families. Living in the regions should not be a barrier to having access to child care, but the evidence is shocking. According to a comprehensive study from Victoria University, around 75 per cent of families in rural and remote Australia live in a childcare desert, with three children competing over just one spot. Labor's first budget had a $4.7 billion package for cheaper child care, but not one dollar of this was committed to creating new and desperately needed childcare places in the regions. What this government still doesn't understand is that for families living outside the major capitals it's not just about affordability; it's about accessibility.

The cost-of-living crisis in regional Australia is just as severe as it is in the cities, and regional families with children can't afford to get through this crisis. They can't get back to work, because they can't find their kids a childcare place. People want to move to the regions for jobs, but they can't get childcare places. This is a major problem for our regional workforce, and it needs to be addressed. However, in the second Labor budget that we've had in six months, there are no new real commitments to extra childcare places in the regions. It's a poor reflection on a government that continues to turn a blind eye to the issue.

Regional Australia received a very clear message from last night's budget: this government doesn't understand the needs of rural, regional and remote communities, and this government doesn't respect the contribution that people in our regions make to this nation. The millions of men, women and children in regional, rural and remote Australia deserve better. They deserve better than a government that is incapable of dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. They deserve better than a government that thinks it's fair to hand down a budget that cuts billions out of infrastructure and water. They deserve better than a government that swings the axe over the essential services that they rely on. They deserve better than a government that imposes new taxes on your farmers and truckies. They deserve better than a government that rips doctors out of small country towns in favour of city suburbs. They deserve better than a government that prioritises lowering the childcare costs of millions of city families over the need to secure basic access to child care for parents who live in the regions. They deserve better than a government that threatens the viability of our rural pharmacists.

Although this federal budget will inflict another hit on our regional communities, Australians who live in this part of our nation can be assured the federal coalition will hold this Labor government fully accountable for its decisions to leave them behind.

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