Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 149, the Main Committee will first consider the schedule of the bill.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

May I suggest that it might suit the convenience of the Main Committee to consider the items of proposed expenditure in the order and groupings shown in the schedule which has been circulated to honourable members. I also take the opportunity to indicate to the Main Committee that the proposed order of the consideration of portfolio estimates has been discussed with the opposition and other non-government members and there has been no objection to what is proposed.

The schedule read as follows—

Prime Minister and Cabinet Portfolio (Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government);

Infrastructure and Transport Portfolio;

Defence Portfolio (Defence);

Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Portfolio;

Defence Portfolio (Veterans' Affairs);

Treasury Portfolio;

Human Services Portfolio;

Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities Portfolio;

Health and Ageing Portfolio;

Immigration and Citizenship Portfolio;

Resources, Energy and Tourism Portfolio (Resources and Energy);

Resources, Energy and Tourism Portfolio (Tourism);

Attorney-General's Portfolio;

Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Portfolio;

Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Portfolio (Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations);

Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Portfolio (School Education, Early Childhood and Youth);

Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Portfolio;

Foreign Affairs and Trade Portfolio (Foreign Affairs);

Foreign Affairs and Trade Portfolio (Trade);

Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Portfolio;

Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Portfolio;

Finance and Deregulation Portfolio; and

Prime Minister and Cabinet Portfolio (Prime Minister and Cabinet).

Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is it the wish of the Main Committee to consider the items of proposed expenditure in the order suggested by the minister? There being no objection, it is so ordered.

Prime Minister and Cabinet Portfolio (Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government)

Proposed expenditure, $1,808,280,000

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I refer the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government to this press release, where he announced the so-called $1.4 billion Regional Development Australia Fund. I note that the government has since reallocated $350 million of this money to other programs. However, if the minister's press release was honest, this should still leave $1,050 million in the Regional Development Australia Fund. Will the minister confirm that the allocation in his department's portfolio budget statements provides $301 million for the Regional Development Australia Fund all the way out to 2014-15? Minister, what happened to the missing $749 million? Where did it go? Given that only $151 million of the Regional Development Australia Fund is due to be spent before the next election, how can people living in regional Australia trust the Gillard government to deliver the $1 billion you have promised? Does the minister believe that people living in regional Australia—who were told by the Prime Minister before the last election, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government,' I believe—should have any faith in this government's ability to deliver regional funding promised in the never-never years?

I refer the minister to his comments in the press release, where he said the $1.4 billion Regional Development Australia Fund 'is a concrete demonstration of the federal government's commitment to furthering economic development in the regions'. Will the minister inform the House of just the kind of concrete he is using, given that 71 per cent of the government's commitment disappeared in just eight weeks? Can the minister share with the House details of any construction site he is familiar with where 71 per cent of the concrete has disappeared in eight weeks?

I ask the minister to clarify just how the government defines this as a regional fund. I ask the minister to refer to the standard form of regional definitions adopted by the government in the way that the Australian Standard Geographical Classification is produced by the government's Australian Bureau of Statistics. Will the minister advise the House what amount of the Regional Development Australia Fund, or what is left of it, will be allocated to the remoteness areas RA1, RA2, RA3, RA4 and RA5?

Minister, please inform the House what proportion of the Regional Development Australia Fund is subject to the passage of the government's mining tax. Does the minister believe that $151 million in regional funding is an appropriate dividend to regional communities that will be hit hard by the government's mining tax? Will the minister share with the House how previous governments have been able to provide more funding and actually deliver it in regional Australia, and without the need for a massive mining tax?

Will the minister advise the House what happened to the $800 million Priority Regional Infrastructure Program and the $573 million Regional Development Australia scheme of the Regional Infrastructure Fund? Were these two programs abolished or rolled into the Regional Development Australia Fund? Will the minister confirm that, prior to the last election, the Treasurer made an election commitment:

… Federal Labor will invest more than $2 billion in Queensland infrastructure from the Regional Infrastructure Fund …

I refer the minister to question in writing No. 104, where I asked him what allocations have been made to the states or territories in the Regional Infrastructure Fund, and the minister's answer was: 'No funds have been allocated to states or territories.' Minister, why did the government break its election commitment to provide a $2 billion allocation to Queensland and a $2 billion allocation to Western Australia from the Regional Infrastructure Fund? Does the minister think it is fair that Queensland and Western Australia are burdened with Labor's massive mining tax without their promised allocation from the Regional Infrastructure Fund? Will the minister confirm that the biggest single allocation from the Regional Infrastructure Fund is $480 million for the Perth airport roads project? Does the minister agree with Senator Sherry, who when asked, 'Is Perth airport regional,' said, 'I would not consider it to be regional, no'? Minister, if that is the case, why was this project funded from the Regional Infrastructure Fund and not other areas of funding? Minister, I ask you: why are you spending regional money on the cities?

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was an interesting diatribe and just to pick up one of the points: this inability of the opposition, it would seem, to read the budget. As to the $573 million that the member just spoke about, it is actually on page 47 of the Treasury's 2011-12 portfolio budget statement and on page 76 of Budget Paper No. 3, so I suggest that you look there and actually read the budget. It is a complex document because we are dealing with complex issues.

Perhaps it is probably better for me to talk about what the budget has achieved—

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are answering a specific question.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will answer the questions, because there is a significant commitment to regional Australia contained in this budget. This is a commitment of $4.3 billion for the regions, comprised of $1.8 billion for hospital infrastructure—$1.3 billion announced in the budget, with a second round to come later this year of half a billion dollars—another half a billion dollars for higher education infrastructure funding, not to mention the increase in the regional campuses loading for the universities because of the recognition of the important roles that universities play within the regions. There is also $916 million for the first projects under the Regional Infrastructure Fund; there is $1 billion over five years, and that is clear in the budget, through the Regional Development Australia Fund, the RDAF, which has linked two of those funds, and we set in the budget, into the one initiative. There is also a further $2 billion of national benefits that will come from the National Workforce Development Fund, given the critical issues of skill shortages in the region.

So let us have none of this cant and hypocrisy about the fact that we are not funding resources. I would like you to go back and look at what you spent for the regions in your 11½ years. What you did was to simply establish a pork barrel fund that was only available in the lead-up to elections, whereas we are embedding this to make sure that we take regions seriously over our full term.

Not only is this an important commitment to the resources; we have also changed fundamentally the way that we are going to allocate these resources because we have introduced the concept of 'localism' into this. No longer will the regions simply be contained to having an input into your old pork barrel programs; our regions are being encouraged through the Regional Development Australia Network, which we have resourced far more effectively because we have given them capacity to undertake their own capacity-building operations, to have local input into the way these funds are spent. We believe that localism is important. The ground-up approach rather than the top-down approach actually works, and if you get it right it is not just good for the regions; it is an efficiency dividend return to the nation.

The other thing that I think is important to understand about this budget is the way in which we have ensured that the regions are going to be fundamental to our grappling with the economic challenge of our time—that is, an economy in transition. An economy in transition means that we have to diversify the regions, and if we think in terms of a patchwork economy it is the regions that are the patches, and they are all different. That is why we have committed substantial resources to this, all funded and all costed in the budget, and have developed them in a way that enables the regions to make their patch work better. This local involvement has been embraced all around the country. If you think it is rubbish, go and talk to your own RDA. I suspect you have never had a sensible discussion strategy with them in your life. For the first time, we are equipping a mechanism to develop the strategic vision for their area.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Answer the question.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have also introduced in this budget paper—if you are prepared to look at it—the concept of spatial accounting, which will enable regions to identify better the resources that are available to them. This is a substantial commitment to the regions. We are not going to leave them behind; we are going to integrate them into the mainstream structure.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, we all understand how important regional Australia is, how much work this government has done to support regional Australia and how important it is to the economy, particularly for members like myself from Queensland and other members who have a hugely decentralised state. Minister, could you give us an indication of what the budget has done and is doing to attract new people to regional Australia?

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question, because this was a very important initiative that we have addressed in the budget through three different concepts in recognising the combination of pressures of growth, the need for cities to plan better to accommodate that growth, and the ability to build on a successful program which was developed by the regions and through which the regions are attracting population to them.

This program is known as Evocities. It comprises seven cities in regional New South Wales from Dubbo down to Albury. These cities got together and decided that they should market themselves as a collective with difference in amongst the seven of them—an approach that said. 'We are growing and we have economic diversity. Instead of living in Sydney and making that your home, why don't you think about coming out to our part of the world?' There has been a very successful take-up, with many hits on the website that was established and some significant initial movements going in that direction.

I might say that this will work very well with the New South Wales government's initiative, if they persist with it in the budget, whereby they are going to give a $7,000 incentive for people to move to the regions. This is a marketing exercise that can sit well with other state government proposals as well, of course, as the ones that I have just outlined in our broad thrust. So here is an opportunity for regions to, as part of the attraction mechanism, look to creatively using the different programs not just within the Commonwealth portfolio but also within the state. The Evocities program is a partnership between the Commonwealth government, the state government and local government.

So successful has that program been that we have included in the budget a fund of $11½ million for other groupings of cities to develop their own strategy to draw and attract people to them. We know that some of these communities are great places to live. Those of us who frequently travel out to these regions—and some in this chamber who live there—know the great attributes of these places. But, if you are going to attract people to these places, obviously there has to be economic activity and diversity. That is the patchwork. That is the economy in transition. That is why we have programs to invest in infrastructure and skills and to actually help diversify that economic basis.

It is also the fact that, if you are going to draw people to those areas, you have to make them liveable cities. They have to have the range of services and opportunity. That is why we are investing in improving the hospital system out there and putting funding into the universities and the TAFE facilities. But the more exciting opportunity exists with the rollout of the National Broadband Network. This is what is going to really enable the regions to join the dots. If they have the physical infrastructure—a university, a TAFE, a hospital—think of what they can do through e-education and ehealth initiatives through the National Broadband Network. So far as the diversification of the economic model is concerned, think of what the National Broadband Network is going to enable the regions to do, by way of e-commerce, to develop new businesses, home based businesses, community based businesses. I do not know whether people saw that Four Corners program about the significance of the rollout of the National Broadband Network. There was a very good example in it of a business that has already established itself in Armidale—the Eastmon Digital photography business—which said that, if it can get the bandwidth and the broadband speed, it will be able to double its size. That means people not having to live in Sydney to be part of this system but being able to locate themselves and make communities and raise families in the regions. That can be part of the way in which we address the patchwork approach.

Here we have an initiative that was developed on the ground. We are prepared to fund it, and we urge regions to look creatively at how they can use it, not listen to the carping and negativism that comes from the other side of the parliament, the Liberal and National parties.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, I seek more light than heat on some of the issues I raise. I would like to bring to your attention that the feedback to me from my local RDA is that they believe they are terribly underfunded. In fact, since they morphed from an area consultative committee, the government has seemed to want to move away from them and has substantially defunded them. They were getting global funding of about $300,000 under the ACC. Now it has been reduced to something just over $200,000, about a 30 per cent reduction, and they are finding it very difficult to do their job. I put that on the record, and I would appreciate your response to that. It is an excellent regional development authority, I might say. It has applied for funding for two projects: the Pinjarra Bowling Club, for $900,000, and the Ocean Road Active Reserve and Recycled Wastewater Scheme, for $673,000. I would appreciate any update on the status of those applications.

Minister, we had your very good parliamentary secretary, Senator Farrell, in my electorate recently. The RDA, the local government authorities and a whole lot of other water entities put on notice to him that they would be applying for funding through your portfolio for a massive waste-water scheme called the Gordon Road waste-water scheme. As you know, in Western Australia it has been very, very dry. Alcoa, which gets 60 per cent of its world income from my electorate, has essentially run out of water to do its processing. Senator Farrell listened to that briefing, with a departmental officer. I hope that it is on the radar now, because the state government is considering support for it; so is the Royalties for Regions program. It ticks all the boxes in terms of efficient environmental use of what is basically sewage water, which would be turned into potable water for industrial use, for other organisations, such as turf clubs that are short of water for their tracks, and for irrigation in the Harvey region. Minister, I put this on your radar.

Finally, you mentioned the NBN. In my area, people are telling me that when they contact Telstra about greenfield sites and other sites that need connections, like industrial estates, they are being told that the NBN will not be there for eight years. So how can they do their business? That is more of a comment. I would appreciate a response, if possible, to the specific questions I have asked you.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to have a look at the individual circumstances of your RDA and why that argument of the funding having been reduced pertains to them. In fact the budget allocates another $20 million for the RDAs. It is not just the allocation to the RDA; there is also capacity for those looking to lift their capacity in certain areas. We have utilised this, for example in the Murray-Darling Basin exercise, to identify capacity building, go out and contract that. So there are important opportunities there.

As for the two programs you have mentioned, the Pinjarra and the Ocean Road initiatives, I take it that they have been submitted to the RDA and have been included for the first round of funding. Okay. Obviously there is a process now in train. Applications under the first round closed last month and we are hoping to have the announcements out on 1 July. Obviously there is a process to go through. It is an independent body that will have to make the judgment, because clearly there has been an oversubscription. What we are looking for—and it is interesting because it relates to what you are talking about later with the water initiative—are the initiatives that seek to do a number of things. They seek to leverage funding from the other sources of government so that we are making the dollars go further. We are looking for those initiatives that will actually benefit a wider area, that have the combination of economic and/or social, it does not have to be both, but we are looking at how they fit best with the strategy that the RDA develops. If we are to give substance to the RDA and say to it, 'We want you to develop the strategic vision,' we are also asking them for advice as to whether these projects fit within it, because that will help guide the independent panel.

As for the water initiative that Senator Farrell came over and talked about, these initiatives obviously are occurring around the country as communities seek to grapple with the combination of water security, environmental issues and the like. You have mentioned this leveraged funding and you say this proposal is worked up, and it should continue to be worked up. But one of the important things that I would suggest to his RDA through the member is that I do not want the RDAs just to look at the silo that is the Regional Development Australia Fund. It is true that it is worth $1 billion over the course of the next five years and it is true we are seeking to leverage off it. But what we are actively encouraging the RDAs to do is to join the dots. So I do not want them just looking at the silo that is regional development money; I want them to look at other initiatives, other programs that are available, and to see whether there are opportunities within those other programs. That is what I refer to as joining the dots. The RDAs get that message. The dots I want them to look at are not just Commonwealth programs; they are state government programs as well as local government. That is the leveraging argument as well. Senator Farrell has raised this issue. We have had discussions on it and we will be interested to see how the proposal develops.

Finally on the point of the NBN Co., we made it clear in terms of our commitment that we will not have laid fibre to the whole nation for 10 years. Clearly it is going to be a rolling exercise. I might say that a contract announced yesterday shows that the satellite aspect of the seven per cent has been brought forward by five years. So as the technology increases here we have the opportunity to truncate that timeline. I suspect that as we get better at this and more efficient at the laying we will be able to shorten the time span. But I would urge the regions not just to stick up their hand and say, 'My turn. They are getting it, why are they getting it?' I want the regions to really be creative in the way in which they say why they should be considered first. That means them looking at the applications that they can use for the NBN Co., working with local government to more efficiently lay the fibre so that you are not duplicating the trench digging and showing where the market is for take-up. They are the sorts of things the regions should be embracing and we have talked with them on a number of occasions about that.

Geoff Lyons (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very much a regional person; I am from the electorate of Bass. For those who do not know, most people in Tasmania actually do not live in a capital city. Tasmania is similar to Queensland in that it has a very dispersed population. I travel around my region a lot, and the way things are developing is fantastic, with irrigation schemes in the north-east and the NBN starting in Scottsdale. I am also very keen on health. The Launceston General Hospital is probably one of the best regional hospitals in Australia. The minister's brother was a registrar there some time ago, so I hope that every time he thinks about hospitals he thinks about the Launceston General and that we are on the agenda and very much the target for whatever needs to be done in health around the country.

Launceston General Hospital is a 300-bed hospital and there has been some fantastic work done there. Going back through the history, things that have been commenced in Launceston include the first anaesthetic for Australia and the first reattachment of an amputated hand in Australia. When I think about some of the great advances that have happened at the Launceston General Hospital I think what a great idea it is to support regional Australia. These are not things that have happened in a capital city. These are regional events, and they have happened because we have had management that has pushed down decisions and allowed individuals to come forward with some great ideas and innovations. It is a fantastic place to be, and the model in Tasmania is a great model for Australia. I look forward to there being three regional areas in Tasmania, three regional local health networks. It is obvious that we should be managing our health services at the lowest possible level, where people have full information. It is a very simple proposal, and I am sure it will be acceptable to and indeed promoted by those opposite. A lot of them are in regions and I am sure that if they came to Launceston they could learn a lot that they could take back to their regions.

The hospital in Launceston has had some magnificent work done in recent times. I remember when I was working there as a business manager I did a sketch on a map of how we could expand the emergency department, and I now see it coming up in concrete—fantastic. I see the cancer centre, where they have three linear accelerators, and I see how they have moved the central sterilising department onto the same level as the operating theatres. When the hospital was built they had to save 15 per cent, and at that time they chopped down the size of rooms by 15 per cent. Most of the rooms then had to be rebuilt because they were not big enough to take equipment in the operating theatre. I am absolutely over the moon about the work that is going on at the Launceston General Hospital not because it is a great edifice, which it is, but because it is going to help the people. I am looking forward to the great work that is going to be continued at the Launceston General Hospital. We also have the university in the top level of a new building, which is going to be fantastic. We need to have some additional level-four work for the university.

I am really looking forward to the minister's answer as to how the budget improves services to regional Australia.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I could answer that question, Simon.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bass for his question. I had the opportunity in the week after the budget to go down to the Launceston General Hospital with him, and what we saw there was an investment from a previous budget for significant expansion in a wonderful new facility.

The member for Gippsland says he could have answered the question that the member for Bass asked. That is probably true. But what his government never did was to fund it in the way we have funded it. What we have had to do in the last three years and now into this term is to overcome a decade of neglect of our ageing hospital infrastructure. The member for Gippsland would also be aware that in this budget alone there are important new medical facilities in Timboon and Bairnsdale in his electorate. There were 63 projects announced in this budget.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not Timboon though.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yours is not Timboon? Then just Bairnsdale. The truth is that there were 63 projects—

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And Traralgon.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And Traralgon as well. I think that might have been an earlier one. This is a love-in because I think there is a recognition of the huge new commitment of resources that we are making to regional Australia. The question of the member for Bass is very instructive because he asked how we are improving the services. This is where the Launceston General Hospital has been excellent in joining the dots because, yes, we have funded the physical infrastructure. There is a magnificent new structure down there, in two parts. I think it will be opened officially in October. It is very interesting that they have taken the challenge of the application of the national broadband rollout to see how they can deliver better health services from that new base.

We know that Tasmania was one of the earliest recipients of the national broadband rollout. With Launceston hospital at the moment, patients with complex medical conditions who require acute care are faced with long delays, discomfort and the inconvenience of travelling to Launceston, where they occupy the emergency department whilst being assessed and a clinical care plan is developed before they are admitted to an acute care bed. That is a very costly system. When they connect up this new physical facility with the application of the broadband network, specialists will be able to assess patients remotely, engage directly in real time with the GP and make decisions as to whether transport to Launceston hospital is necessary. This will keep patient trips to a minimum, it will not overload the emergency department and it will free up this new facility—which the member for Bass and I visited when we were down there—where analysis of patients who are judged as needing to come in will be received immediately and their complex range of issues will be seen to.

We are not just making a huge commitment to the regions in this budget. We understand the importance of building new infrastructure, but this is a great example of where, in challenging communities to come up with creative solutions as to how they deliver the services—and there are eight hubs that the Launceston hospital has to service—we actually end up saving money. So there is an economic return for the nation quite apart from better health service delivery to the patient. I suggest this is where those on the other side, instead of criticising the rollout of the National Broadband Network, understand its inherent potential and engage in it. I might say for the regional members: in the regions they get it. There is no question as to whether we should be rolling out the fibre; it is a question of when. The debate that goes on here about whether we should be funding it or not is simply seen as surreal, and indeed it is.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, let me thank the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government for his attendance here today. We do appreciate the opportunity to raise issues in this manner. I will not take up every comment made by the minister but get to my questions as quickly as I can. However, I will take exception to the suggestion by the minister that there has been a decade of neglect in regional areas. I think the minister knows full well that many things were achieved under the previous government and that they were good for regional Australia. I know the rhetoric sounds good and it might look okay in the Hansard but the bottom line is that I do not think any government sets out to neglect regional areas or any other particular area; there are just some ways of doing it better. I am one of the members on this side of the House who are very passionate about regional areas, and I will certainly commend the government when it does something positive and hold it to account when it does not. That is my approach, Minister Crean.

It is with that very brief preamble that I want to raise a genuine question to the minister about the first round of the Regional Development Australia Fund. It is an issue which I have written to you on. It is in relation to the eligibility criteria for a particular project in my electorate—a plan by Southern Rural Water to work in conjunction with the Macalister Irrigation District to do upgrading on some irrigation infrastructure. It is a very good project, and it would tick a lot of boxes along the parameters that the minister has talked about here today. At the moment, though, as I understand it, the Regional Development Australia-Gippsland board encouraged Southern Rural Water to be part of the process and to make an application through round 1. But it was only late in the process that it came to their attention that a not-for-profit state government enterprise such as Southern Rural Water was not eligible to apply for funding under the RDA round 1. I think this is a problem on a couple of points. One is that Southern Rural Water would be the only organisation in my electorate with the capacity to deliver a project like this. It has the relationship with the irrigators themselves; it has the infrastructure capacity; it has all the know-how to get the project done. I respectfully seek the minister's advice on whether the eligibility criteria from round 1 could be reinterpreted or whether in subsequent rounds it could include a combined application. I do not expect the minister to announce funding for it on the spot but it would be nice if a project like this could at least be considered rather than be ruled out on a technicality. That is the question I raise on behalf of the Southern Rural Water board people, who have worked hard in this area, on behalf of RDA-Gippsland and also on behalf of the irrigators, who are very keen to upgrade the infrastructure in that area.

I take up the minister's comments regarding the opportunity for this fund to leverage funding from other sources. This is one of those projects that would have that capacity. The irrigators understand that, if the infrastructure is going to be upgraded, they are going to benefit from more water and they are going to be expected to dip into their pockets in order to get those benefits. This would have broader benefits—beyond the social and even the economic, through to the environment for the Gippsland Lakes. So it is something that, as I said previously, does tick a lot of boxes. I would appreciate the minister's comment on that.

The other area I want to briefly raise is the term 'localism', which the minister currently uses a lot. I like the term and I think I know where you are coming from with it, but I want to make the point that it does not get on the ground sometimes when it comes to federal or even state government announcements on infrastructure or other types of projects. A lot of these projects do not get on the ground in regional communities. My classic example is the BER program—the Building the Education Revolution program. From day 1, I said to the minister for education at the time: 'If you are going to run a program like this, let local building contractors have a crack at the contracts.' What we saw with this program was a whole bunch of portables that were built in Bendigo and sent to Gippsland on the backs of trucks. The workmanship on the ground was shoddy on many occasions. There was no pride shown because the people who were doing the work were not from my community. I do not think we leveraged the money off it that we could have. If you had come to my school community and said, 'I've got 400 grand for you to do a project in your school,' you would have been amazed at what they could turn 400 grand into. We have plumbers on our school boards. We have local tradies whose kids are at our schools. They will move heaven and earth to provide facilities for the schools that their kids attend. I think we lost a lot of money in that project because we did not give the local blokes a chance to actually implement it. I think that was a mistake. So when we talk about localism, I would like to know that in the future we would make a commitment to a least let the local people compete—at least let them have a crack at the contracts. There was no way that my schools were going to be able to compete with Bendigo Relocatable Buildings—no chance of that. The local people would have leveraged off that project and delivered more value for money.

In the brief time I have left, I refer to another comment you made, Minister, in relation to diversification of the economic base. I raise a point in regard to tourism. There is a really good opportunity for the federal government to do more in the regional infrastructure and tourism space. We have some outstanding natural attractions in regional areas. It is very hard for businesses in those communities to leverage off those great natural attractions unless governments are prepared to commit funding to the infrastructure that we need. I have not got a long wish list in front of me today, but there are plenty of things that we could be doing in the regional tourism space, with the cooperation of local, state and federal governments. Once again, I thank you for being here today and for the opportunity to raise those few issues.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I should not let the preamble go without passing this comment. I do acknowledge that there were important things done by the government that preceded the Rudd Labor government. But if you go to the question of essential health infrastructure and education infrastructure, there was no capacity in that government to fund it through Commonwealth funding. I remember the debate because I was the shadow Treasurer at the time and I suggested that the Commonwealth actually establish an intergenerational fund—which is what I called it because the Intergenerational Report was out and about—and that we should take the proceeds of what the nation had earned in the prosperous times and reinvest them into the future. Your Treasurer of the day, Peter Costello, ridiculed the idea and then came up with the Future Fund. But the future fund that he introduced was limited because the future fund that he said he was establishing was simply to pay off the Commonwealth's liability for Commonwealth superannuation. We accepted that was an important contingent liability that we needed to address, but we said, 'Why should the nation's surplus only go to pay off the debts from Commonwealth public servants? Why shouldn't it be used for the bigger issues of the nation?' Of course, your Treasurer of the day ridiculed that concept. So when we came to office we kept the Future Fund. We said that we were prepared to spend not just the earnings on the fund but also, where necessary, the capital on the fund—but we set up two more funds, one for education and one for health. So my point is that when one looks at the issue—and this was raised by way of a preamble saying that they did not neglect anything—you just did not have the capacity, because you did not think it through. We had it.

So let us move on to the next point, and that is your specific example of Southern Rural Water. I know that you have written to us about it, and I have asked the department to look at this because this issue has been raised in a number of other contexts. At the moment the guidelines for the first round, as I understand them, do prevent that consideration. If in fact the analysis that goes through the panel says 'but for that consideration this would have been the most worthy project' then I think that is something that we might need to look at in terms of subsequent rounds. I am not just taking that on notice; I am actually already looking at it and will come back and advise about that at a later date.

I might have said earlier, although I thought I had left it more flexible than this, that the first round would be announced on 1 July. Obviously, because there have been so many that have come in, it might take a bit longer than that 1 July date to be able to announce the first round. We will have to take advice on that. Obviously, we put the funding out immediately that the budget was announced and opened the first round, and we want to try and have this thing hit the ground as fast as is possible.

On the localism question, you do not have to convince me about the importance of it. I saw it in practice when I was the primary industries minister and also when I was the employment and training minister. That is how the area consultative committees were established. That is how we used the Landcare groups and the catchment management groups for better natural resource management initiatives. Indeed, one of the recommendations out of the Orgill review of the BER goes to that very question of recognising that for future programs there should be better local input. I hope that what we are doing in this budget is not just to signal our intention to commit resources to the regions but to also genuinely embrace localism and embed it in the way in which we govern things and embed it in a way that cannot be unpicked, just as other governments could not unpick superannuation and could not unpick Medicare. I happen to believe that localism is the right way to go because it can give you a more efficient outcome if you are creatively engaging locals. What I say to the locals and the communities is this: 'Just don't give me wish lists. I want the proposals that stack up.' If we are going to make this system work, we have got to show that we are spending the nation's resources more efficiently than spending through the sorts of examples that you alluded to before. If we get it right that will embed localism.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to comment on the remarks of the minister—and I thank the minister for being here. Without wanting to make this a tit-for-tat argument, I will remind the minister that two weeks ago he did open the Charles Sturt School of Dentistry, which covers both health and education. This was a project of the previous government and funded by the previous government. It is a small point, but I thought I had better make it.

I am pleased to see that you are getting to the pointy end of things with the RDA, but it has taken a long time to get it together and there has been quite a bit of frustration on the ground. My electorate actually has three RDAs either wholly or partly inside of it. I just wanted clarification on funding of projects. As you would know as a local member, you get all sorts of people looking for guidance. I am getting requests from aged-care facilities to go through RDA.

You have been very active with the Murray-Darling thing. While we do not have much dirt moved, I know that in my electorate there is a really good scheme—and I think it is on track—with the Nevertire irrigation scheme. Then we have got more traditional community projects like the rodeo ground at Coonamble and things like that. With all the regional funding that is bundled together to make it look really good in the budget—that there is a large amount there for health, education or whatever—I am just wondering whether the RDAs are going to allocate funding for aged care and all these others.

On another point, I understand that with the half a million dollars you are looking at the bigger projects, but there is still a capacity or a need for some of those smaller ones—for instance, Men's Sheds. They have been a great success, and I acknowledge that the government gave funding to Men's Sheds for start-up, business plans and things like that. Quite a few of them have actually grown beyond that. They are in town halls, supper rooms and, through grace and favour, someone's shed that they have given them. Some of them have outgrown that and they need some tenure. I am not saying that they should be given the money; I think it should go through local government so that the community actually owns it if that movement stops. I think there is a real need to recognise those lower level community type activities in smaller communities—the villages that are never going to get a university or a large sporting facility. For some of those smaller communities, a smaller amount like that can have a positive effect.

In closing I will make one more point regarding the next round of the hospitals fund. There was a lot of disappointment. Minister, you happened to be in Dubbo the week after the budget and the hospital announcement. There was a $57 million project. When the state government said that they would add another $50 million to it, the federal contribution came back to $7.1 million. I just want to make sure that there is still capacity in that process to continue that development. Obviously, it is going to be a staged development for that base hospital. With previous contributions, state and federal, they do now have $79½ million. They are going to make a good start but I just want an assurance that they will be able to continue to put those projects through.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A fortnight ago I had to go to my mother's funeral. I am one of nine children, and we all had to get together to go over stories for the eulogy. One of the stories that came out was from a time when my mum had only two kids and was out on a farm near St George. She had two of the kids in the bath—in dirty brown water—and a black snake came through a hole in the wall. She, like a good country woman, got a gun and shot the snake. My siblings were telling that story, and I said, 'It's just like Henry Lawson's The Drover's Wife.' They said, 'What?' I said, 'Henry Lawson; you would have to read the story.' Seven of my eight siblings are voracious readers, so they all read lots of different things. But they are all readers. I said, 'Henry Lawson; you would have heard of The Drover's Wifeit's a great figure from Australian literature,' and none of them knew it. One of them was mentioning that in the eulogy and I said, 'I'll mention that it's just like The Drover's Wife,' and people in the church will understand. My mum was 78, so there was an elderly group, a range of people, in the church. In fact, many Chinese and Taiwanese from my community were there out of respect for me, even though they had not known my mum. I thought, 'They won't understand The Drover's Wife story, because it's an Australian historic piece of literature.' I mentioned that and afterwards, when I was doing a bit of a straw poll, I said, 'In the story about my mum, did you understand the reference to The Drover's Wife?' They said, 'No.' I thought, 'This is 2011.' I studied it at university. I am sure the minister or anyone who studied literature back in the sixties or seventies or who read Henry Lawson would have heard of The Drover's Wife. It got me thinking.

Obviously, the new Australians who came from Taiwan or China might not have read the story. Maybe their children will read it. I am not sure what goes on in the English curriculum. But what would our approach be to a national cultural policy to ensure that we include the iconic things that we need to have in the so-called Australian canon? It also got me thinking: how do we structure things? I am pretty passionate about the publishing industry and about books in particular. I know the industry has had some challenges. We have had some discussions in this party, particularly about parallel imports. The film industry is doing it a bit rough, with the Australian dollar being so high. When it comes to filming, it is hard to compete with places like Taiwan, New Zealand and even Thailand. We have these incredibly skilled people—set dressers, best boys, gaffers and cinematographers—who are rewarded at the Oscars as being world class, world standard, the best in their field—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives

Sitt ing suspended from 12:02 to12:24

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Has the member for Moreton concluded his question to the minister?

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, Madam Deputy Speaker. With our book industry, our film industry and our TV industry under pressure from the high Australian dollar, it is appropriate to ask, because of all the jobs that are associated with the arts sector and the cultural sector, how has this budget supported the arts and cultural sector?

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will deal with the questions from the member for Parkes first. As to the role of the RDAs, I have talked about the joining of the dots but it is not intended that the RDAs allocate the money. It is intended that the RDAs have input through the various mechanisms as to what priorities fit with their strategic vision. Obviously they can have input into the hospital round and the higher education round. And there is a requirement now for Infrastructure Australia to consult with the RDAs, so in terms of the broader infrastructure questions they can have input. But this is the challenge for a government seeking to entrench not just regional development but the localism concept. We have got to find a more effective way to have coordination across the silos, and not just the silos of the Commonwealth government but the silos of the state governments.

I see the RDAs as having an important role. That is why we have resourced them better. Some clearly are better resourced than others and we have got to build that capacity, but this is a new opportunity for them, and I think it is incumbent on all of us to work properly with that structure. We need to understand the important relationship with local government. The RDAs are not intended by any means to replace local government. Theirs is a different function. There are many local government representatives who sit on the RDAs, and we are looking to how we can strengthen the linkages so that we have got the three levels of government coming in.

My sincere condolences to the member for Moreton on his mother's passing at 78 years old. They bred them tough, and if she had nine kids she was some mum. But I do take the point. Culture and the arts are so important to us as a nation. A creative nation is a more productive nation. A creative nation is a nation whose cultural values improve—in interaction, expression, tolerance, understanding. The arts are not just something out there. You have a love of reading, and you are a writer as well as a reader. Like you, I have a great love of the Henry Lawson works. I think it is important we find more effective ways for getting this message out.

The budget has made some significant new input into the arts, particularly in the film area and particularly in post-production, that creative side of the industry. I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Miller studio where they were doing digitised animationforHappy Feet. There is also the games dimension. People should not think of games in terms of the issues of violence. These games involve interactive product development off the movie. In the member's own state, in Fortitude Valley, there is a huge games industry, and I visited some people involved in that as well.

Rising Sun studios in South Australia won an Academy award recently. For all intents and purposes that is where the Harry Potter movie is actually being made—with digital applications. The actors essentially are against green screens, but the whole movie—all of its content, all of its background—is being developed there.

I went the other night to the opening of Love Never Dies, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. He brought it here because it had not been successful in the West End. On stage he talked about the reason he came here—because of the production talent, creative talent and design talent that are here in Australia. We are recognised around the world for that creative thrust. We have to nurture it. We have to build it.

Next year is the National Year of Reading, and we will be making announcements as to how we are going to advance that. We need to find more effective ways by which we encourage more people to read, particularly people from ethnic backgrounds and people in the regions. We have made a major commitment in this budget ahead of the national cultural policy which we are developing and hopefully will announce at the end of this year. (Time expired)