John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Dutton interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Dickson is denying the member for Calare the call.

John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the minister aware of the Yarrawarra Indigenous aged care facility, which would offer a much needed safe home to 15 Aboriginal elders and their carers and would also provide training and employment opportunities for 25 unemployed Indigenous youth on the New South Wales North Coast? Is it not a fact that $470,525 was approved under the Sustainable Regions Program for this project? Why is the minister refusing to fund this worthy community-driven project? Minister, when will you release a full electorate by electorate breakdown of your party’s election promise of 105 better region projects?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to get a question, the first question, indeed, in this parliament, from the shadow minister for regional development. I am particularly pleased to get a question about the Sustainable Regions Program. In this House we have had some debate about Regional Partnerships. Many of the members here, even those in regional areas, would not be aware that the previous government had a Sustainable Regions Program. The Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Northern Australia and I had a meeting with the new Regional Development Australia board, made up of the chairs of the executive of the old area consultative committees here in this parliament. It was a pretty interesting meeting because we discussed the Sustainable Regions Program. There were a number of sustainable regions. One of those was the North Coast of New South Wales.

For information on the North Coast of New South Wales I asked the former chair of the area consultative committees, ‘What electorates were in the North Coast region of New South Wales?’ We all know the North Coast begins at the Queensland border. You cross the Tweed and you hit the electorate of Richmond. But was Richmond included in the Sustainable Region for the North Coast of New South Wales? No! Why? Because after the 2004 election, when Labor won the electorate of Richmond with our outstanding candidate Justine Elliott, they excised it from the North Coast of New South Wales. The North Coast Sustainable Region consisted of Lyne, Cowper and Page but it excluded Richmond. Do not let me think that it was just discrimination against people who happen to vote Labor, because the honourable member’s question goes to the Darling Matilda Way region. The Darling Matilda Way begins at the Victorian border and goes—

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Leader of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order that goes to relevance. This question went to the heart of a specific project on the North Coast.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! And then it went on to be a wider question towards the conclusion. The minister has the call.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Darling Matilda Way Sustainable Region area begins down around Balranald and the Wentworth local government area. It goes all the way up through Bourke and Brewarrina, which is where this particular project is included. It goes up into Queensland; it has got Diamantina and Barcoo and goes right up to Winton, Longreach, Aramac and Jericho, which, before the election, were of course all held by the National Party exclusively.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, it is incorrect. The electorate of Farrer, which is held by the Liberal Party, comprises a large part of that.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Farrer does not have a point of order.

John Cobb (Calare, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Apart from the fact that he has got the wrong program, why won’t the minister answer the questions he was asked? What are you trying to hide?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Calare will resume his seat. As I said, the construct of the question went to concluding about an electorate-by-electorate breakdown of 105 Better Regions projects, or something. The minister has the call.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Sustainable Region for Darling Matilda Way stops, though. It does not include Mount Isa, Cloncurry, McKinlay, Richmond, Flinders or Dalrymple. Why? Because they are represented by the member for Kennedy. That is why. The member for Kennedy’s area was deliberately excluded from this Sustainable Region.

But let us go further and look at a third sustainable region, the Campbelltown Sustainable Region. You know: remote and rural Campbelltown, represented from Mosman. We had two areas—Camden and Campbelltown; not Liverpool around it; not Wollondilly, which is far more regional than either of them; not Wollongong, which is a regional centre—just Camden and Campbelltown. I wonder why? I wonder why you would single out Camden and Campbelltown to make into a sustainable region. What an outrage.

The only thing that makes the Regional Partnerships program just look red hot, rather than totally on fire, is the Sustainable Regions program. What an outrage. This mob opposite define ‘regional Australia’ by how people vote and not by where it was actually located. It was all about politics and not about geography.