Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This MPI is abysmal in every way because it is built on a foundation of lies. The fact is that those opposite love to foment division in this place. One of the ugly truths of what they do and their politics is this nasty little comment that they use about so-called inner-city elites. I've just done a little bit of research. Let's look at the so-called elite—somebody with a Bachelor of Economics, who had a career in finance, who worked for the money markets, who worked for Colonial State Bank for 10 years, who has a Graduate Diploma in Education, who taught business studies and commerce, who was a director of a local super fund and who was at the centre of power in this country for 10 years. That's the member for Page, who stood at the dispatch box just now and talked about elites. He is one of the most elite people in this place. Don't get me wrong; I think it's fantastic. It's fantastic that the member for Page has a Bachelor of Economics. It's fantastic he went and got a Graduate Diploma in Education. But don't come in here and deride other people for having professional abilities. Don't make yourself out to be a man of the earth. It's absolutely disgraceful.

The people on this side of the House have the great honour and privilege of representing Newcastle, Bendigo, Ballarat, Bellarine, Queanbeyan, Townsville, Maitland, Ipswich, the Somerset region and Gosford, amongst other places. Fully one-third of Australians live in the regions, and those of us on this side of the House have the great honour and privilege of representing those people as well. It really does cause me great distress when those opposite make this false allegation that they are somehow the arbiters of regional Australia and those on this side are not. It is disgraceful and it should stop.

The other point about this MPI is that it is just based, as I say, on lies. The facts speak differently. The Albanese Labor government is committed to working on regions and funding. We are doubling the Roads to Recovery funding from $500 million to $1 billion per year. We're increasing road black spot funding from $110 million to $150 million per year. We're merging the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and the Bridges Renewal Program into a new $200 million Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program. That's a $50 million increase. We're delivering $250 million more to phase 4 of the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. With the Growing Regions Program, our government is investing $600 million over three years into regional and rural Australia, including $11 million in Tasmania. There is a whole list of others.

The member for Bendigo made the excellent point that, on 1 July, every single Australian taxpayer is getting a tax cut, and that includes every taxpayer in regional Australia. It particularly includes those many taxpayers in regional Australia who earn under $45,000 a year, because proportionally there are more people in regional Australia earning under $45,000 a year than there are in the cities. So regional Australians do better with those tax cuts that a Labor government is delivering and that those opposite wanted to deny. Those opposite wished to deny those tax cuts to regional Australians.

We are also delivering energy bill relief of $300 for every single Australian household, including for regional Australians. More than half of the Medicare urgent care clinics we have opened in this country have opened in regional Australia. We have got 100,000 people in the regions going through fee-free TAFE. We've got 20 more regional university study hubs. We've got $7 billion over 10 years for critical minerals processing, stimulating regional jobs. We've got $8 million over 10 years for the hydrogen production tax incentive—regional jobs. We've got $835 million over 10 years to grow Australian solar manufacturing—regional jobs. We've got $7 billion over four years on Snowy Hydro. We've got $3½ billion to triple bulk-billing incentives, with many of those benefits in regional Australia.

This government has regional Australia at the centre of our thinking. We are the party that represents the shopkeepers, the supermarket workers and the fast-food workers who live and work in regional Australia and who were all let go and forgotten by those opposite in 10 long years of Liberal-National government.

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