Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to support this motion. I thank the member for Gippsland for introducing it to the chamber today. Like the member for Gippsland, I understand the importance of local government in delivering important infrastructure and services across Australia, particularly in regional areas. So often, when we hear conversation about local government, the old RRR acronym gets thrown around—it's often used to disparage and lessen the role of local governments—'roads, rates and rubbish'. I can assure you—and Deputy Speaker Sharkie will no doubt agree with me—that local government in regional Australia are responsible for far more than that.

In Western Australia, we have seen examples over the years of local governments going well and truly above and beyond for their communities, whether that's by incentivising GPs to operate in their community or trying to address the drastic housing shortages that now exist. They are in charge of not just the local library and the local pool but other very, very important community assets.

Just on housing, I regularly meet with local governments across Durack, and I've heard plenty of times about communities being let down by the WA state Labor government. I would like to suggest to the Albanese government that they consider looking to invest directly into local government, bypassing state governments altogether, as a potential solution for housing shortages—particularly across regional WA—because I believe local governments can be trusted with this very important role.

There are over 40 local government areas within my electorate of Durack. Some are home to tens of thousands of residents, like the City of Greater Geraldton, or just a few hundred, like the Shire of Cue. No matter the size of the local council, on this side of the House we know that it is local government that are most in tune with community needs, and that's why we trusted local government to deliver road projects and important community infrastructure.

I'm very proud of the support that we on this side offered to local government authorities across Australia. This included $21.7 billion through the Financial Assistance Grant program and $3 billion of support through the innovative Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, which was particularly important in keeping councils going through the pandemic. Another great aspect of this program was that the funding to the council wasn't tied and, therefore, it assisted local councils to be able to invest in that low-hanging fruit when they were unable to find other pots of money to pay for that. I've seen many good examples of that, right throughout Durack. We also delivered $6.2 billion through the Roads to Recovery Program, which supported the maintenance of the nation's local road infrastructure assets, facilitating greater accessibility and improving safety, economic and social outcomes for Australians. We provided a further $676 million in the Bridges Renewal Program to provide funding for upgrades to bridges that provide access for local communities and that facilitate vehicle access to enhance the local community, which is particularly important in those very, very remote parts of Western Australia.

Before the last election the Labor Party promised fair increases to local government funding, yet all they have done is cut program after program that my councils have relied upon. The Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, which I previously mentioned, is just one of the many programs that has been abandoned by this Albanese Labor government.

Another disgraceful example of Labor's disregard for the needs of regional Western Australia was clearly demonstrated through their recent announcement of the successful recipients of the Growing Regions Fund. Some 90 per cent of projects that were initially assessed as worthy by the regional development department were rejected. This includes several projects for my electorate of Durack. The Albanese government has confirmed that the program was underspent by $93.4 million or by 31 per cent—so there were clearly other projects they could have approved. If you ever needed an example of the Labor Party not supporting regional Australia, there it is right there, underspent by 31 per cent. This is a real slap in the face to regional communities and all of those really hardworking local governments who invested so much time and effort and—dare I say it—in some cases, financial resources to produce detailed business cases and quality applications.

It is clear that the Albanese government is taking councils for granted. The federal budget has been a miserable failure, and the work of councils to deliver liveable communities deserves more respect than they're receiving today. Our local councils— (Time expired)

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