Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that:

(a) Australia's local government sector is a vital partner in the delivery of local infrastructure and services across our nation; and

(b) a financially sustainable local government sector is essential for the social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits it can deliver;

(2) notes that the:

(a) budget failed to provide the funding required to allow Australia's 537 local councils to meet the needs of their communities;

(b) Government has failed to keep its promise to deliver 'fair increases' to local government; and

(c) Australian Local Government Association described the budget as 'incredibly disappointing to many councils and communities'; and

(3) urges the Government to work with councils across Australia to reduce the cost of living pressures on ratepayers and deliver the infrastructure and services our communities need.

If I were to try to describe my political beliefs in just one word, it would be 'localism'. It's the very simple idea that the wisdom of local people should be respected, that local people should have more control over what happens in their local areas and that local businesses should be supported and helped to prosper. Localism is our best opportunity in regional Australia to deliver the services and infrastructure our communities need. But, of course, under our centralised system of government, federal governments receive most of the revenue and then distribute it to the states and local government areas. Hopefully they'll do that fairly, hopefully with strategic national policies and targets in mind and hopefully with enough scope for innovation and flexibility on the ground in our local communities. But I say 'hopefully' because, in reality, that's not the situation under this government.

The modern Labor Party is philosophically opposed to local economy and localism. With its 'Canberra knows best' attitude, this modern Labor Party has presided over decisions which have divided Australians, where the elites in the city don't trust regional people to make decisions that are in their own best interests. We've seen it with Labor's approach to slashing jobs in the native hardwood timber industry, the mining sector and live sheep exports and with ignorant plans to buy back water from the Murray-Darling Basin. This is command and control from people who don't want to actually live in our communities. They don't want to live with us; they just want to tell us how to live our lives, what jobs we can have and what we're allowed to build, and they want to intrude into our pastimes, like hunting or recreational fishing. This is the exact opposite of localism. We need to resist this Labor approach, which is in partnership with their mates, unfortunately, in the teals and the Australian Greens.

In government, the Labor Party wants local councils to come begging to them, cap in hand, asking for more money and bidding under competitive grants programs which are fundamentally unfair and discriminatory to our smaller councils. Labor came to government promising fair increases in funding for local government. Before the 2022 federal election, the Labor Party promised fair increases to local government funding, but it has actually delivered cuts to several programs which our councils relied on. Even the Australian Local Government Association has acknowledged it's a broken promise.

In the middle of the cost-of-living crisis, the burden is falling more on family budgets as ratepayers are forced to fund the cost-shifting and the widening gaps in demand for new infrastructure, maintenance and critical services in our local council areas. Labor has waged war on regional grants programs which our councils have relied on to deliver the infrastructure and services their communities need. We've seen programs abolished right across regional Australia.

What a wasted two years we've seen from those opposite. Not a single regional grants program has actually delivered any project in our regional communities, not even one. With no new funding for regional community infrastructure, the Albanese government has actually created an investment drought, because the pipeline of projects funded by the previous government is virtually complete. Just last month we saw the evidence of this, with the minister finally announcing the first projects under her much-trumpeted but yet to be delivered Growing Regions Program. The Growing Regions Program finally announced just $206 million, against applications which totalled $2.7 billion. It's a pittance after two years of doing absolutely nothing. The backlog in demand for funding is no surprise and has been growing every year because Labor has failed to deliver any funding for two financial years and has lived vicariously off the coalition's policy success.

The greatest insult of all this hypocrisy is Labor ministers and senators turning up to cut the ribbons and unveil the plaques on projects that they had absolutely nothing to do with and that, in many cases, came from programs that had ceased to exist. They love our programs so much they turn up for the openings, they cut the ribbons, they unveil the plaques and then they cut the funding for the program going forward. Instead of parading around Australia, taking credit for projects they had nothing to do with and were funded by the previous government, perhaps the Albanese Labor government should be partnering with local councils to deliver new infrastructure projects in the communities in need.

To be fair, perhaps I'm being a bit too critical. I need to be more optimistic. The member for Parkes will tell me that from time to time as well. Labor has delivered one outcome for local government, one huge achievement for local government, after two years. Labor has given local government an inquiry. After two years in government, Labor has launched an inquiry into the financial sustainability of local government—talk about kicking the can down the potholed road. Apparently the minister can't read the dozens of reports and submissions that have already been submitted to them by individual local councils and representative organisations over a period of years. The Albanese cabinet ministers have outsourced their jobs to a parliamentary committee with a pointless inquiry. It's time to start respecting local government and working in partnership to deliver the services and the critical infrastructure we need. (Time expired)

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