David Fawcett (Wakefield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on the response to the government’s plan to secure a future for regional Australia? Are there any alternative approaches to regional policy? What is the government’s response?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wakefield for his question and recognise that, in his former life before becoming a member of the federal parliament, as a member of the Australian Defence Force he has had the opportunity of travelling around many regions across Australia and experiencing life outside of the capital cities, which is in stark contrast to his Labor opponent in the upcoming election, whose main claim to fame is as an official from the SDA union.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not know; you tell me. The member for Wakefield at least has real-life experiences, out there in the real world, that he brings into this parliament as the member representing a constituency in South Australia. I thank the member for his question. He asks about the policies that the coalition government has put in place to help strengthen the economic and social fabric in regional Australia. I added to those policies yesterday when I announced the $200 million Growing Regions program, which was put in place to help those growing regions across Australia deal with the demands of rapid population growth in many parts of Australia. Of course, that has been significantly welcomed across regional Australia. It goes along with the broad suite of policies that are part of our plan in strengthening regional Australia.

The Treasurer earlier referred to the largest investment in land transport in Australia’s history that we are currently in the middle of—a $38 billion investment over 10 years in road and rail infrastructure. A lot of that is strengthening regional economies. There are our health programs, which are encouraging more doctors in rural areas. And there is almost $1 billion to improve broadband services, under Australia Connected, across Australia. These are things that are happening, not things that are out there in the ether and being promised by the Australian Labor Party.

Regional communities recognise the need and they appreciate the response of the coalition government, particularly with this particular policy focusing on growing regions. It was interesting: I saw a press release, and it was not from the member for Hotham; it was from the National Sea Change Taskforce—it came out yesterday—led by Councillor Joe Natoli. He said: ‘It is clear the Deputy Prime Minister, who represents a coastal electorate, understands the sort of pressure this growth has on coastal communities, and we are delighted with the initiative he has announced today.’ So regional communities do appreciate what we are doing. They do appreciate that it is targeted help. They also know that all the Labor Party can do is criticise these programs. If you want to know what Labor in government would do federally, you only have to look at what they do in government at a state level.

Look at state Labor governments and what they do to regional Australia. In New South Wales, Labor have closed nearly half of all country maternity units. In Victoria, they are draining much needed water out of the Goulburn Valley to get it down to Melbourne because they have not planned for and invested in infrastructure in Melbourne. In Queensland, the federal government has had to step in and protect the democratic rights of local authorities, where the Queensland government wants to wipe out local government with tactics that former Premier Beattie introduced. There is a challenge to the new Premier, Anna Bligh, in Queensland: reverse this decision and let the people of Queensland have a say.

We go back a bit beyond that to the Goss-Rudd team in the last Labor government in Queensland. What did the Goss-Rudd team do in Queensland? They cut 600 jobs in the department of primary industries and shut down four regional DPI offices; they closed 13 regional railway lines and three rail workshops—457 jobs were lost in that one move; they shut down small country schools and cut 403 teaching positions. If the people of Australia want to know what a Rudd led Labor government will do in power in Canberra, they only have to look at what state Labor does and what state Labor did when the opposition leader was in charge of the reins in Queensland.