Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bendigo for her question. As someone who holds the sister seat of two great cities in our great state of Victoria, I know how passionate she is about the regions. I always say that Ballarat is just a little bit better than Bendigo, but we love Bendigo as well—well and truly!

Of course, the Albanese government is getting on with the job of delivering for our regions. We look forward to the opportunity to talk more about this at the News Corp Bush Summit that's happening across the country. I know that the Prime Minister will be at the one in Tamworth and I know that the other Minister King will be at one in Perth. We have other ministers going to those bush summits, and that's good to see. I know that other members will be engaging with that. These are great opportunities across Wodonga, Hobart, Perth, Rockhampton and Port Lincoln—I think.

But we have a really good story to tell at all of those: a new approach to regional development is being forged by this government. Despite what those opposite keep saying continually, the reality is that those opposite could not have cared less about regional Australia and about developing a fair and equitable approach to all of our regions—not just to some of our regions. Many of those who I meet in regional Australia tell me that they were fed up with the mess that was left by the previous government when it came to funding, particularly of grants programs. There are those things which we've had to clean up, like the Community Development Grants. This was a grants program where no community organisations could actually apply, while those opposite kept topping it up as a slush fund for their own preferred commitments. And there was the Building Better Regions Fund, which the Audit Office found favoured National Party electorates and that decisions were made on rules that applicants didn't know about.

Our approach is different. We're investing all the way across—every single one of the ministers on this front bench has responsibility for regional Australia. When it comes to regional health, we've got the Minister for Health investing in our regions, particularly through the bulk-billing incentive—tripling that—and making sure that we get bulk-billing moving again in our regions. We're making medicines cheaper and investing in rural pharmacies. And this goes through to the education portfolio, where we're establishing new university study hubs in our regions—

Opposition member s interjecting—

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