Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the 2007 election, Kevin Rudd promised to maintain the coalition's Regional Partnerships and Sustainable Regions Program and to launch a new Better Regions regional development program. Instead, the Labor government axed these programs and used its Better Regions program to only fund projects committed to by Labor candidates at the 2007 election.

Early in 2011, the government announced the $1.4 billion Regional Development Australia Fund, which of course is linked to and relies on the passage of the government's new mining tax, the majority of which will be stripped out of Western Australia. But already the Labor government has cut this fund to around $1 billion. In spite of WA's contribution to the national economy and the government using the state as a cash cow, the south-west has been totally ignored in the first round of federal funding through the Regional Development Australia Fund.

Last week, this Labor government announced funding of $150 million from the $1 billion five-year fund and left the south-west of Western Australia completely off the list. In a region of rapid growth that is desperate for infrastructure, regionally strategic and tourism project funding to meet community and industry needs, this outcome is a disgrace. The south-west of Western Australia is an engine room for the state and national economies. It has a $12 billion GDP, but we need investment in infrastructure like roads, rail, airports and the Bunbury port so the region can make an even greater contribution. The mining, construction and manufacturing industries are the main contributors to economic production in the region, at 24.9 per cent, 15.8 per cent and 10.1 per cent of total production respectively.

Mining output in the south-west ranks internationally, with the region producing more than half the world's tantalum and lithium and about one-quarter of the alumina, zircon, rutile and ilmenite supply. Bunbury port had throughput of 13.866 million tonnes in 2009-10, mostly alumina. This ranked the port fourth in Western Australia and 11th nationally for the tonnage of trade handled. There is, however, a plan to export a further 12 million tonnes per annum of coal, which should commence in 2014.

The south-west has been planning for its future developments, and its Roads to Export plan is endorsed by both the Commonwealth Regional Development Australia body and the state's South West Development Commission. It is supported also by the Bunbury Wellington Economic Alliance, which is representation from every local government in the area and a large number of businesses and industries. The Roads to Export plan identifies that transport infrastructure in the Bunbury-Wellington area is operating at or near capacity. Natural population growth in major project developments will place significant demands on transport and port infrastructure. Without a significant upgrade, project investments will be lost and existing operations constrained by transport bottlenecks. The south-west document identifies that the south-west of Western Australia requires an investment of $623 million to complete Bunbury port linked transport infrastructure and underpin the continuation of the decade-long trend of increasing productivity.

This investment is essential for the development of the south-west region and the state of Western Australia. So when funding is made available through Regional Development Australia funds, the south-west should have immediately been on the government's radar. It meets every single one of the government's purported objectives in its regional development program but it actually seems that this government's infrastructure radar is not working. There were a number of very sound projects put forward by the local south-west committee which have been ignored by the Labor government. Given that funding of the Regional Development Australia fund in the future is dependent on the Labor Party's new mining tax, this is one more example of the west being fleeced by Labor's eastern states priorities. In addition Labor appears to be using this fund to buy political largesse. It has delivered almost two-thirds of the regional development funds to its own electorates and those of their supporters, even though Labor holds just one-third of the seats in regional Australia. According to the Parliamentary Library, Labor holds 23 of the 62 non-metropolitan seats but is happily swallowing the lion's share of this funding. Given that the bulk of the funding raised from the government's new mining tax will come from Western Australia, this is even more reprehensible from the south-west point of view.

There is not one dollar for the infrastructure, the nine regionally strategic or tourism projects identified in the south-west action statement. I have identified a number of key infrastructure needs in the south-west that are vital to our future prosperity, including highway, rail, bridge and port developments. A competent government would invest in the region as a normal part of doing business, as the previous coalition government did. The government should be able to do this without imposing another tax on Western Australia to subsidise marginal seats and prop up their own electorates in the eastern states.

The rail system in the south-west has been under significant pressure, particularly with freight transport. The Collie-Brunswick Junction-Bunbury Port triangle is the key hub of freight in the region and has long been recognised as having capacity constraints. This is highlighted in the submission by the WA state government to Infrastructure Australia for funding to duplicate the line in that area to increase capacity. Additional expansion will be required on the Collie to Brunswick Junction line, especially with expansion of the Worsley alumina facility and the proposed export of coal and possible urea from the port of Bunbury. The Brunswick Junction to Picton part of the rail line has been identified as the principal bottleneck and recent estimates put the cost of the required rail expansion at around $63 million. This project has been identified by the state government in its key priorities. However, billions of dollars of resource development will be dependent on increased capacity on that rail line. To ignore these needs is the height of irresponsibility. I will keep working to attract the necessary funding to get this expansion on track.

This infrastructure is needed not only to allow development but to increase the safety of road users around the south-west. Additional road usage equates to additional pressure on safety and the government's record in this area is poor. The carbon tax alone will impact significantly on road rebuilding and improvements, especially in regional areas. The cost of road construction will rise immediately, so if the government wants to maintain its existing road program it will have to find an extra $400 million. Of course, road funding is already under threat with the Labor government cutting the Roads to Recovery program from 2014. At the last election the coalition committed to maintain and expand the Roads to Recovery program and we readily acknowledge that the obligation to maintain local roads is costly. In fact, in 2006 it was estimated to cost local governments $3.8 billion per annum. The Roads to Recovery program gives local government a much needed helping hand in meeting this infrastructure burden, particularly in those areas where there are small populations to meet the needs of those particular shires and local governments. The coalition is also committed to restoring the Strategic Regional Roads Program, which supports major regional connections and creates jobs. Additionally at the last election we announced the bridges renewal program to provide $300 million over four years to repair and rebuild thousands of ageing and decaying bridges around Australia. We will seek to ensure that Roads to Recovery is extended and adequately funded so that local councils can continue to provide essential transport infrastructure for these local communities.

This particular program, the Regional Development Australia Fund, should be directly linked to those regional areas that need this funding for their expansion and their growth. The south-west of Western Australia fits that particular category. It ticks all of the boxes that the government has set in this regional development program and yet the south-west has totally missed out on any of this funding. It has the capacity to not only contribute to the state economy but the national economy. As I said, it is a $12 billion GDP region and can produce even more. These needs should not continue to be overlooked by this government.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forrest and the government benches for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight in this grievance debate. I rise this evening to highlight the failure of the Labor government to deliver for the people of the Maranoa electorate and also the people of regional, rural and remote Queensland and, as we have just heard from the member for Forrest, people across Australia.

Queensland, as you would be well aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, is home to one-third of the country's regional population. It is also the powerhouse of development for Australia's economy. I know I will be challenged by the member for Forrest—I should acknowledge the great contribution regional Western Australia also makes to the national economy.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Both states.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Both states—they are powerhouses, and yet this Labor government continues to neglect the communities who are absolutely the backbone of our country. When I talk about communities, I talk about the workers, the families, the businesses in those small regional, rural and sometimes very remote communities, and particularly the workers who work out there. They contribute so much to our national economy, and these businesses are based in rural, regional and many parts of remote Australia.

My electorate of Maranoa is the home to the Surat Basin, a great energy resource, but what we are seeing is a classic two-speed economy. It is developing as the coal seam gas industry continues to grow. On one hand, we have got traditional industries—I am sure the member for Forrest knows it well—agriculture and the businesses that service that sector. On the other hand, the coal seam methane gas industry is moving ahead in leaps and bounds, but the growing pains are being felt across our traditional industries and in families who have been longtime residents in these communities.

The CSG companies' ability to offer high salaries means they are able to attract workers who would normally be employed in the region's traditional industries. As a consequence, soaring rents and property prices are pushing locals out of the market. Road infrastructure is crumbling under the pressure. Local schools and even healthcare providers have reached maximum capacity.

I was called recently by the local healthcare provider at the aged care facility, a residential home, in my home town of Roma. They said, 'We can't afford $120,000 for someone to care for older citizens in the community. We can't even afford $70,000 that they are paying to apprentices,' and yet the resource sector can do that. People who come to town like teachers, part-time workers and those who have never owned their own home, might be renting a home for $250 a week. They get a call from the local real estate agent who says, 'We want to negotiate a new rent for your rental property. Your rental term has expired.' They say, 'We'd love to rerent it and pay $250 a week.' They say, 'It's going up to $600 a week.' In fact, a four-bedroom home in my home town of Roma the other day rented for $1,000 a week with quarterly reviews. There was a five-bedroom home in Dalby the other day for $2,200 a week. Admittedly, it is serviced and they get cleaners in, but it is $2,200 a week. Our traditional industries, our traditional economy and our traditional people—I won't call them traditional but—

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Historic.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our people have been associated with those historic industries in those communities for decades and they just cannot meet those sorts of costs. We are still only in the early stages of this industry, but the pressure on Maranoa's communities will continue to grow. The state and federal Labor governments have failed to undertake the planning required to ensure that these growing pains are not felt across the community. Whether it is in housing, infrastructure or roads, they are prepared to sit back, take the mining royalty, shift it into the capital cities and larger outer metropolitan areas in some cases. But they are ignoring rural and regional areas of my electorate and many other parts of these resource states across Australia.

That was never more evident than when the Regional Development Australia Fund was announced last week. In Queensland there was not one grant west of the Great Dividing Range. They gave grants for the Gold Coast, the sixth-largest city in Australia. There were grants all along the coast. If we look in New South Wales, grants are going to the Northern Rivers area, the Wollongong area and the Newcastle area. The grants in New South Wales have one thing in common, bar one: they are going to Labor electorates.

If you go to Victoria, can you imagine Geelong as rural or regional? Hardly. Some of that money would have been so welcome in my electorate in the town of Barcaldine. They need a day care centre. If we are to attract young families into some of these towns in rural and remote areas of my electorate, surely, a prerequisite is a day care centre. They need something like $2 million for a day care centre.

The local pharmacist, who recently bought the business in Barcaldine, said they would love to have a family but they really cannot afford to stay there now. So what do we lose? A young couple, potentially a young family, that would provide obviously a great service through the pharmacy and children, in time, to the schools. Without a day care centre, that couple will more than likely leave Barcaldine. Once again, it is about how these families look at their prospects and the liveability of these communities. Two million dollars out of this fund would have made a lot of difference to that community.

There was $2 million given to the Gold Coast, the sixth-largest city in Australia. What would it have done for the Stanthorpe support services west of the Great Dividing Range? It would do a great deal to support that community and the work they do supporting families. But, no, there was no money made available west of the Great Dividing Range. In the Murweh Shire Council of western Queensland, they wanted money for flood mitigation yet the Labor government invested $4.79 million in Townsville on the coast. What did they do for the people of Charleville in the Murweh Shire Council, which have been flooded every other year for a number of years now and they need to do more flood mitigation work? They applied for money with a very professional application—as was the one from Barcaldine—but no, no money west of the Great Dividing Range. Rural and remote Queensland missed out, were ignored.

What about the Maranoa Retirement Village in the Maranoa Regional Council area? They need about $1.5 million. Surely they could easily have found that in a grant program of $150-odd million. They lodged a very professional application for a very worthwhile project but what did the Labor Party do? The Labor Party put $2 million in Esk near Ipswich. That has gone to a facility in a Labor electorate--surprise, surprise—in the growing region of the South-East corner of Queensland. I do not deny that all those other communities are worthy communities but what about the Prime Minister, who said only 12 months ago she was going to be a Prime Minister for rural and regional Australia. This was the first opportunity we have seen them act with this grant program and we did not see the money come out in Queensland west of the Great Dividing Range.

The other issue I want to touch on is the switchover to digital television in those communities of fewer than 500 people. I recently had the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, out in Birdsville where he met with the communities out there. There are about 6,000 people in the town of Birdsville. There is a normal population of 150 but through the tourist season many thousands of people flock to that part of my electorate and the outback of Australia. This time next year, if this government denies the Diamantina Shire Council the opportunity to be given a licence for the digital spectrum to rebroadcast that facility, there will be no signal in the air. They will have a satellite receiver only. If you are coming from some other part of Australia and you end up in Birdsville for the races or just for the outback as part of a tourist experience, you do not think of bringing a satellite dish with you if you want to watch the State of Origin during the winter months. A few years ago if you went out there, you just put your little ears up, because the signal was rebroadcast into the community. That is going to be lost under this government's proposal for those communities of fewer than 500 people.

I have something like 34 of those communities in Queensland. They are towns of fewer than 500 people. They deserve better from this government. They should not be treated as second-class citizens. They should not be left behind. They should at least have the opportunity for a rebroadcast signal that is digital, a rebroadcast rather than a satellite. (Time expired)