Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I certainly agree with the motion and commend the member for Gippsland for bringing it to the chamber. Indeed, the member for Hasluck talks about probity. I would ask the member: which of those projects that were in my electorate would Labor have struck out? I will go through them, because all politics is local. Federal funding for main street upgrades in Cootamundra, Cowra, Forbes, Grenfell, Gundagai and Parkes has made such a difference to those local communities. Perhaps Labor would want to see the $9 million to enhance water security in Bland Shire taken out. Perhaps it might be the million dollars to Coolamon Shire through the Drought Communities Program to upgrade such things as the Redgrave Park Tennis Club, or upgrades to the Marrar Gymkhana Reserve, or improvements to the Ardlethan and Ganmain showgrounds. Maybe it might be the $149,000 for a site upgrade at the Cootamundra Heritage Centre. Possibly the $307,000 to upgrade the roofs at the cultural centre and the bonsai house at the Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre.

I didn't interrupt you. Don't you interrupt me. Possibly the $1½ million for the expansion of the Central West Livestock Exchange at Forbes, the second-largest sheep yards in the world according to the deputy mayor, Councillor Chris Roylance, just the other day when I was speaking to him. Possibly the $950,000 for the Grenfell medical centre in Weddin Shire, which needs to find a doctor for Grenfell. It certainly makes a difference. Possibly $3½ million for a new sewage treatment works in Gundagai.

Would Labor take away the $2½ million to upgrade the Cunningar grain storage and handling facility in the Hilltops LGA? Perhaps the million dollars to Junee for the Drought Communities Program to upgrade community projects such as the Sandy Beach at Wantabadgery or the Bethungra Dam tourist reserves. Or might it be the $200,000 for the Lockhart Community Hub and Conference Centre. Perhaps it might be the $1½ million for the extension of the Parkes Airport Business Park. Maybe the $5.3 million to upgrade the Temora Aerodrome runway and associated main apron and taxiways, which the RAAF described prior to the funding as being quite dangerous. Maybe it would be the $4.4 million to build a multipurpose stadium at the Equex Centre at Wagga Wagga. All were good, worthy and tremendous projects for my electorate. But that was replicated right throughout the nation—indeed, in your electorate, Deputy Speaker Sharkie, and all of those great regional electorates.

The member for Indi belled the cat when she said that these programs were oversubscribed. Yes, they truly were. Many of those programs, I can remember as the minister in charge of making sure distribution was fair and equitable, were oversubscribed six times over. We could have had so many more projects funded, but, of course, the independents never quite realise that the pie is only so big and you can cut the pie only so much. You run out of money. So they are based—or certainly were under the coalition government—on a system which was equitable and which members got a say in. I do take umbrage at the fact that Labor members come in here and say there was no probity or no transparency, because there was.

What we can't have—what we certainly should not ever subscribe to—is a condition in which the public servants, as good as they are, get to determine where all the money is going to be spent, because at the end of the day that should be the minister's prerogative. At the end of the day, under the Westminster system—and, if the minister is doing the wrong thing, if the minister is shown to be rorting et cetera, the minister will face the ire of not only the Westminster system which we operate under but certainly the ballot box next time around.

We are proud of our record, and I am certainly proud of what we did as a government for regional Australia, for regional progress. I know the Local Roads and Committee Infrastructure Fund, which distributed $54.8 million to the councils in my electorate, was money well spent. I know that, right across the nation, that LRCI funding, the Drought Communities funding, the Building Better Regions Fund—all of those programs were so well received by the councils, and the councils did very well to the point where the Bland Shire mayor, Brian Monaghan, at West Wyalong, said the only problem was finding the number of workers to build the projects. In his words, it was record spending. He very much appreciated it, and that was under a coalition government.

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