Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

What a 10 minutes of bile that was, but thank you very much; we've heard it all before. For us, regional Australia is much more than just a grants program and much more than just a press release or a six-second radio grab; it's about actually getting on and delivering for them, which those opposite failed to do. There were plenty of press releases adding more projects to the infrastructure pipeline but not adding a single dollar to allow any of those projects to actually proceed. That is classic coalition politics. It is: 'Hey, here's a press release. I might deliver this at some point 30 years into the future, but I'm not actually going to do anything about it now because I just want to issue this press release 10 times over.'

From day one we have been getting on with the job of delivering for regional Australia, and we've delivered more in 18 months then those did in 10 years. We're focused on reducing the cost of living for regional Australians, and we take a strategic whole-of-government approach to uplift in our regions, which, as I said, deserve much more than just a short-lived grant program and much more than a colour-coded spreadsheet. We've implemented the Regional Investment Framework, a strategic approach to investing in people, places, the services our communities need and the industries that underpin our local communities.

We're giving regional Australians more choice of cars that are cleaner and cheaper to run, through the new vehicle efficiency standard. You can choose the vehicle that is right for you and your family, and you will have more options on vehicles that use less fuel. You keep more of what you earn, and it's good for the environment. We've announced a preferred option, and we've been consulting with the industry and the community to get the balance right. At the moment, Australian families are paying $5,000 a year in fuel bills, and they don't need to be. Transport and fuel costs are a big proportion of the average household budget. We can and should give households more choice to bring those costs down, and that's exactly what efficiency standards do. Less choice costs households.

Australians have wasted $4 billion unnecessarily on fuel because the Liberal and National parties didn't have the courage to stick to their own policy they wanted to introduce in 2016. That's billions of dollars a year that could have been and should have been in the pockets of Australian motorists. They were wrong to abandon their own policy from 2016, and they are wrong today to engage in a pathetic scare campaign against a policy that they promoted and embraced just a few years ago. The fuel bill on that inaction is adding up every day. Without standards in place, Australians could waste another $12 billion on fuel costs between now and 2030. Those opposite need to explain why they are spending more time spreading disinformation for the sake of it rather than finding tangible and practical solutions for long-term cost-of-living relief.

The Albanese government is charging up electric vehicles and associated infrastructure, with a $76 million funding package for electric vehicle projects to get more Australians into cleaner and cheaper vehicles to run. Some of those opposite appears so allergic to EVs that they once cried they would be the end of the weekend. But, contrary to scare campaigns, motorists are charging their EVs all along the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne. In Yass, in my own electorate, there are 12 new Tesla EV chargers up and running in the centre of town, where visitors can now charge their cars while they support the Yass community in cafes, restaurants and shops. That trend will continue as EV charging networks expand and as more and more people switch to EVs, hybrids or more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Real-world evidence from other countries with vehicle efficiency standards does not show that standards increase vehicle prices. The Liberals came to that same conclusion when they were in government, when they were talking about what we are talking about right now. The Liberals and the Nationals need to be honest and say why they don't want Australians to have more choices to spend less on fuel. And while they're looking up the evidence on vehicle efficiency standards perhaps they should also look at the evidence on what we've been investing in regional infrastructure: 57 per cent of major projects we're investing in under the Infrastructure Investment Program are in regional areas.

When we came to government we faced hundreds of projects, as I said, that were promised to communities in press releases but never costed and never planned for—projects like the replacement of the 60-year-old Sarsfield hall, an essential refuge for the community during the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. Like so many communities, this community was left in limbo by the member for Gippsland and the former Deputy Prime Minister, the member for New England. But it was really great when I got to go out there and say: 'Do you know what? We've locked in $3.6 million in funding for you, because we don't want to leave you up the creek.'

Under the previous government entire regions were ignored, particularly when it came to disaster preparedness and recovery and to communications and training, because it didn't suit their electoral map. Grant programs weren't transparent, and resource constrained organisations wasted time on applications that never stood a chance—something we felt deeply across Eden-Monaro and across a number of regional electorates on this side of the House and on the crossbench.

In contrast, we've doubled Roads to Recovery from $500 million to $1 billion per year—no colour coded spreadsheet required! Every local council in the country will get an increase in road funding, because every local council in the country knows how important it is to have safe and maintained local roads to get kids to school, to go to work and to go to sporting events. We've increased road black spot funding from $110 million a year to $150 million a year, and we've created the new $200 million per year Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. Those opposite were so excited about that announcement that we heard zero on it! So in 10 years they talked about how important road funding was, but not once could they get out of their own way and actually give that to local communities.

On Local Roads and Community Infrastructure, you could have done Roads to Recovery for every local council across the country—doesn't require a colour coded spreadsheet! That means every local community benefits. Unfortunately, when you were in government you did zero.

That's because we're doing it! On Local Roads and Community Infrastructure, we put an additional $252 million in. And do you know what we did? We said in phase 4A that we know regional communities are doing it tough so we will give the majority of the funding to them—again, no coloured spreadsheet required! We listen to local communities, and we're delivering for them. We know they've been impacted by natural disasters, so we proactively advanced nearly $1.8 billion in disaster payments to fast-track essential road repair and public asset repair. Most importantly for communities, we've established transparent funding opportunities, as we said we would, including the $600 million Growing Regions Program and the $400 million Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program.

Regional people want to see delivery in their communities, which is why the Albanese Labor government will continue to deliver the infrastructure, the skills, the jobs and the services that stimulate regional economies and build thriving communities. In addition to the roads and other infrastructure we've talked about, we're narrowing the connectivity divide between rural and remote Australians and our metro counterparts. We've followed through on our commitment to improve mobile coverage in priority areas, with $37.2 million supporting 41 new mobile phone base stations, mostly in our regions.

Over the last decade, half of some streets and entire regional towns missed out on high-speed internet, which crippled businesses, remote work and study, and access to key services. That's why we've made the largest investments in connectivity since the introduction of the NBN—under a Labor government—with an additional $2.4 billion for expanding full-fibre NBN to over 660,000 regional premises. An additional $170.2 million is supporting communications upgrades to mobile coverage, public wi-fi and fibre at over 100 regional locations—because, in 2024, connectivity is not a 'nice to have'; it is an absolute necessity.

On this side of the House, we don't pretend we can solve every issue overnight, but we have been working hard to establish practical solutions which activate regional development and economic decentralisation. We are addressing chronic regional underemployment and unlocking secure well-paid jobs through our $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund. We know we can diversify regional economies by kick-starting innovative projects in agriculture, AI, science and transport. We are also investing 47 new rural and remote community childcare services, supporting more people to return to work. On this side of the House, we believe in delivering for regional Australia. We don't issue press releases for the sake of it and we don't carp on as if we didn't have 10 years in government to do more.

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