Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always amusing getting lectures from those opposite who claimed before the 2013 election that they'd not cut any funding for regional roads or for health, education and a whole bunch of other areas. It said no cuts to the ABC. In the first budget of the Abbott government, they put a three-year indexation freeze on grants to local government which resulted in $925 million in grants to local government being cut. On top of that, I can vividly remember them allowing 30 June to expire so the Roads to Recovery funding didn't actually happen. They had to bring in legislation to get it done because they didn't even prioritise that particular funding, even though it was bipartisan and we supported the arrangement for the continuation of the Roads to Recovery funding. So $925 million in funding cuts from those opposite to local councils, and they come in here give us lectures about supposed cuts to local councils.

We are putting regional Australia at the centre of a prosperous and resilient future. There was a decade in which those opposite continued to deliver cuts and they failed to support regional infrastructure. They prioritised their own National Party seats on various occasions through the structure of the way they did their regional funding.

The reality is that we've increased funding to local councils for critical local infrastructure—something the coalition not only failed to do but they actually cut the funding. It's an absolute fact that they cut funding back when they were in government. We're delivering record funding for local infrastructure to councils, billions of dollars towards transport and road safety. We're making local roads safer with $4.4 billion under the Roads to Recovery Program and we've committed to progressively double the program to $1 billion annually, something the coalition never did when they were in government. We delivered that in the 2024-25 budget.

As part of this funding boost, local governments in every state and territory will receive additional resources, something that seems to be absent in the understanding of the member for Gippsland. His own home state of Victoria will receive $895 million over five years, an increase of $368 million. My home state of Queensland will receive a similar amount over five years, an increase of $353 million. In my own electorate, investment in Roads to Recovery funding for council will be a massive $132.2 million dollars. This means every single council in Australia will receive more funding for local road infrastructure under this Labor government.

The Black Spot Program will also rise substantially, from $110 million to $150 million per year—something the member for Gippsland seems to have forgotten as well, even though it's in the budget papers—meaning more money is available for improving some of the most dangerous sections of our roads, and intersections as well. The new Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program has $200 million available per year—$50 million more than was in the two programs that it replaced. Again, this is something the member for Gippsland seems to have forgotten.

Not only are we delivering more funding for local infrastructure; the government has returned integrity to grant programs following the shameful record of those opposite. We're delivering community infrastructure that benefits communities across the country, over boondoggles and pork-barrelling. For the first time, under this government, all communities, regardless of where they are, will have access to open, transparent and competitive community infrastructure grants programs.

Early on we committed an extra $250 million to phase 4 of the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program to improve the safety of local roads across the country. In fact, Ipswich City Council and Somerset Regional Council in my electorate received more than $5 million collectively in phase 4 of the program, much of which was used to fix roads damaged in the 2022 floods.

Finally, under this program, the financial assistance grants to local government have actually increased and will increase in each and every budget. There was $2.8 billion in 2022-23, and there will be $3.2 billion in 2023-24 and $3.27 billion in 2024-25. In contrast, from 2014 to 2017 the coalition, as I said, froze indexation, which led to a loss of what was initially thought to be $925 million but got upwards, in retrospect, of close to $1 billion. We've acknowledged the changing services and demands on councils. We're committed to providing fair and appropriate funding to support them and the essential work they do. I urge the member for Gippsland to actually read the budget papers and not the National Party talking points. (Time expired)

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