Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Hunter proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The pain that the Prime Minister's Budget is inflicting on rural and regional areas.

I call upon those honourable members who approve the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sadly, the Prime Minister's first budget was a shocker for rural and regional Australia. It is fair to say that those on the other side of the chamber spend a fair bit of time talking about the interests of rural and regional Australia, but they are all talk—very rarely do they deliver.

The minister is at the table and he will stand up and say, 'Well, we saved the diesel fuel rebate.' They saved the diesel fuel rebate. They create this straw man and then we are all supposed to breathe a sigh of relief or, indeed, thank them on budget night for not abolishing this important subsidy for rural and regional Australia. They will tell you that there is $100 million in the budget over four years for additional research and development in agriculture. But they took more than that back out from research and development elsewhere and in areas which are critical to rural and regional Australia, for example, the rural industries' RDC, the CSIRO, various other RDCs and our CRCs.

They will tell you about the $370 million new quarantine facility in Victoria. There he is, the minister, turning the first sod. This was fully funded by the former Labor government.

He will tell you that there is drought assistance in the budget, announced after a well-publicised drought tour by himself and the Prime Minister—plenty of pictures, plenty of television cameras involved. Then there was a big announcement: $280 million for farm finance—and I have a picture here of the Prime Minister out there with the farmers and with the minister, looking very concerned about the impact of the drought on our farmers.

The SPEAKER: That isn't a prop, is it?

And yet here we are, three months on after the television news pictures and the newspaper shots, and not one cent of that money has flowed on to struggling farming families.

He will also get up and say, 'We had to do these things to rural and regional Australia because the former government left us with debt.' We do not have time for that debate today but it has been prosecuted by others pretty well, including by the shadow Treasurer and the Leader of the Opposition. And we will continue to have that, no doubt. There is no doubt in my mind that it is a confected budget emergency and that these are unnecessary cuts.

But there is one area which is absolutely uncontested. Indeed, no-one from the government has sought to contest it. It is the fact that this budget, with its tax increases and its funding cuts, falls disproportionately on rural and regional Australia. If you put up fuel taxes it adds to transport costs, and that fuel tax becomes embedded in everything we purchase in rural and regional Australia, including our food. This is a big hit on people who live in the bush.

Of course, Madam Deputy Speaker, if you add a GP tax—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Speaker is coming.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

it falls disproportionately, because in rural and regional Australia we do not have as many GPs, there is less competition and therefore we have lower bulk-billing rates. This will exacerbate that situation, Madam Speaker.

If you are going to cut funding to schools, where will that hit? It will hit those small rural schools which lack critical mass. They will be the first ports of call for the state governments when they are seeking to save money. The same applies to hospitals. If you cut hospital funding then the states will go looking for savings and you can bet your last dollar that they will go to the smaller rural and regional hospitals—some older hospitals—for those savings.

The list goes on and on, Madam Deputy Speaker—Madam Speaker, I am sorry. There is the tough crackdown on welfare and the unemployed, which they over there think are popular. But think about kids in rural areas where there simply are not the jobs and there are not necessarily the training places. It is easy for someone living in a capital city to think about a kid walking down the road to a TAFE, but in rural and regional Australia the courses are not always available. Worse than that, nor is the transport. There might be a TAFE course in the next town 100 kilometres away but there is no bus or train in most instances. So this is a real hit on people who live in these communities.

There is an economic concept known as 'dynamic decline', and this is what they do not understand. Typically, an abattoir, say, closes in a rural area. What happens? There are job losses and there is a knock-on effect in the regional economy. The suppliers to the abattoir feel the effect as well, and what happens? Those who are most capable and best placed to go and get a job elsewhere in another town leave. And who is left? The elderly, who are not producing an income in the local economy, or the real hard cases who are not able to leave for whatever reason. So what happens? The economy further declines. It is a downward spiral.

What does the Prime Minister say? 'Earn or learn. Let them go and get a job in another town.' What does the Minister for Social Services say? 'Send them out grape picking in the state nearby.' This reflects a total non-understanding of how regional economies work and how this is going to impact so badly on regional communities.

But do not worry: the agriculture minister has a plan. He has a plan—he has a decentralisation plan. He is going to move his ministerial office from Sydney and put it in Armidale. This is the minister's plan to revitalise regional economies. It is an interesting plan, because I suggest to you, Madam Speaker, that it is a plan to rejuvenate his own political fortunes. This will give him an electoral office in Tamworth and an electoral office in Armidale. Not a bad deal, I would suggest!

Not only that, he is going to move the research and development corporations out of Canberra and into the regions. Now, that sounds a good thing at first glance. Most people will say, 'Oh, that sounds all right. Regional development corporations, let's get them out into the regions where they belong.' For example, he will take the fisheries RDC down to Tasmania. It sounds like a pretty good idea. But is it going to be the RDC for salmon only now, Minister? Is it really going to encapsulate the broad-brush involvement of the fishing industry?

The RDC for forestry—is it going to Tasmania too, Minister?

Mr Joyce interjecting—

Oh! You are going to sell? That is a very good idea, Minister! That would not surprise me! Nothing you would or could do would surprise me, Minister! I am sure Senator Colbeck is pretty happy about the idea that the forestry components of the department and the RDC might be moving down to Canberra.

This is a budget based on a lie. This is a budget which was made possible by a government which was elected by promising not to cut health, by promising not to cut education, by promising not to cut pension payments and by promising not to raise taxes. Again, all these things are hurting rural and regional Australia most.

Rural and regional Australia is where we get our coal, where we get our iron ore and where we grow our food. When we get up in the morning we turn on the light, it comes from coal or gas produced in regional Australia. When we put our cornflakes into the cereal bowl, it comes from food grown in rural and regional Australia. When we put the sugar on top the same applies. We have our beef or chicken for lunch and it has come from rural and regional Australia. Rural and regional Australia is the heartland of this nation. I am sure that rural and regional Australia felt pretty confident that this government would acknowledge that in this first budget, because that is what they promised to do. They promised to rejuvenate regional Australia.

Let's think about it: they have never really had an interest in regional development. Chifley was the first to really get involved in regional development. Menzies and the Tories that followed him showed no interest at all. Whitlam, of course, kick-started the idea, and had big regional development programs. Fraser came along and showed no interest at all. The Hawke and Keating governments, again, kicked off regional development with gusto. John Howard came along and all he knew was pork-barrelling that produced no structural reform, making no long-term impact on the economic fortunes of rural and regional Australia. Then the Gillard and Rudd governments came along and, in particular, the member for Grayndler and the former member for Hotham spent most of their time here pursuing the interests of rural and regional Australia, developing policy that produced structural reforms that were uplifting for rural and regional Australia.

On the other side, there is none of that. We have a Deputy Prime Minister sitting here with regional development in his title, but I have not seen much. I have seen some road re-announcements, projects that were fully funded by the former Labor government, but I have seen no real plan for a rejuvenation of rural and regional Australia and an acknowledgement of the economic contribution of rural and regional Australia. All we have seen is a budget which hits rural and regional Australia and is bad for rural and regional Australia.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to agree with some of that speech. Regional Australia is the heart of Australia, I agree with you. Hear, hear! Well done! And I agree that the GDP of this nation would disappear were it not for the contribution of regional Australia from dairy, from wheat, from grains, from sugar, from beef and from mining, which the Labor Party does not support, bringing in the mining tax and the carbon tax.

But there are other parts of that speech that are just factually incorrect. At this point we have approved over 1,179 applications for the interim farm family payment, which is direct assistance, so when they say that not a dollar has gone out that is factually incorrect. On the second issue, we have had two iterations of the drought package. The first was the realignment of the farm finance package, which went through, with $10 million also for water. The second iteration includes $280 million of concessional loans at four per cent, which is great, and we have now got the agreement signed off. I said that would be done by June and it will be done in June. So the money is going out. In fact, we have got $420 million going out at 4½ per cent, we have over 1,100 payments of the interim farm family payment and we have approved $20 million to go towards water infrastructure. While I was here in the chamber I have already got a thankyou from a former member, Sandy Macdonald, who has managed to get access to some of that money—

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good bloke!

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes—to assist in basically doing one of his watering points. So the money is going out. But when they say, 'You don't have a vision for regional Australia,' well, what's $300 million on the inland rail? What is that—a block of flats? That is real vision because that creates a corridor of commerce from south-east Queensland through to Melbourne, a corridor of commerce that actually advances the interests of people, especially in the seat of Parkes—

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

Yes.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and right down through Shepparton. This is real vision. Do you know how much the Labor Party had put towards that for the next 10 years? $30 million. What were they going to do with that? That is the sort of vision you get! So we have 10 times vision that they had. What vision do you call $6.7 billion on the Bruce Highway? What do you call that? A lady in a nightie? That is real vision.

What do we call it when we managed to actually turn around the live cattle trade, when we have record numbers going through Townsville? I call that real vision and real direction. What do we call it when we open up the trade to Egypt? I call that real vision. What do we call it when we open up the trade to Bahrain in live cattle? I call that real vision. What do we call it when we get the protocols through so we can open up the trade into Iran? I call that real vision. What do we call it when we have record numbers moving out, in live sheep and live cattle? I call that real vision. What do we call it when we are getting record increases in the movement of chilled and frozen beef into China? I call that real vision. I call it happening in agriculture, and it is happening under our watch.

What do you call it when in January they suspected that we may have a $100 million deficit, and we got a $1.4 billion surplus, so we got a $1½ billion turnaround, and it was predominantly driven by agriculture and it happened under our government? I call that real vision. This is how we actually start getting the money coming back in. This is how we get the money coming back in, and it is under us that it is happening.

What do you call it when a government brought in tree-clearing laws? Who did they come in under? Labor Party. That is the sort of vision you get with the Labor Party: new caveats on closing you down. They came in with tree-clearing laws and when they were not doing that they decided to change the temperature of the globe, single-handedly. The carbon tax. I remember that. I don't know how it is going. We have got a carbon tax. It has been awfully warm lately, so I don't know whether it is working. We are certainly paying for it. And we have still got it, even though we won an election on it. What vision have you got for regional Australia on that? I will tell you what it is.

Your vision is that when a person gets up in the morning and turns on the electric radio they pay the carbon tax because you believe you can change the temperature of the globe. When they decide to go out and knock in a steel post, the steel post is made out of steel, so that has a carbon tax on it. When they want to roll out some barb to keep the cattle in, that is made out of wire that is made out of steel, so that has the carbon tax on it. When they move diesel onto the place, that comes in under the carbon tax. You are putting the carbon tax on it everything. This is the vision of the Labor Party: basically, taxing every mechanism of production. You are trying to say that is a vision. Well, I tell you what, it was so visionary they kicked you out of government—that is how visionary it was.

What we are trying to do is basically remove the impost so we can get the economy going. We are doing this in a position where you left us with this absolutely incredible debt. To think that when we handed government over to you we were actually lending money to the world. We were rich. We had money. But by the time you handed government back to us we were going out the back door. We were going broke. That is the predicament you have landed this whole nation in. Now we have this ridiculous scenario where at this point in time we are paying a thousand million dollars a month in interest, 70 per cent of it going overseas. That is a thousand million dollars a month that we will never see again. We could be spending it on hospitals, on roads, on so many things, but we are spending it on interest. Yet they say that is not a problem, that is not an issue, that is contrived, that it does not exist.

As I said, you have stolen most of my thunder because you gave us a great rendition of the other things we have done, such as the quarantine facility. I accept that we are building an in excess of $300 million quarantine facility and I think we are doing a splendid job at that. That is real investment in biosecurity. We do admit that we did keep the diesel fuel rebate. I accept that we have gone into bat for regional Australians and have kept the diesel fuel rebate.

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

They would not have much luck under you guys. I admit the temerity that I personally would move an office from Sydney, God help us, to Armidale. That cannot possibly be helping regional Australia, to move it to a regional town. Let us leave it, let us put it where former minister Joe Ludwig had it, in Brisbane.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the Leader of Opposition Business, who was the minister for agriculture at the time, had it at Kogarah. There is a big rural centre if ever I saw one. Every time I go through Kogarah I cannot help but think of cows and sheep and sunflowers.

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

A lot of hydroponics.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There may be hydroponics there but it is certainly not a big regional area. We have said that we want to move part of the ministerial office into a town with a university known for being at the forefront of agriculture. I do commend the shadow minister because for once the Labor Party's vision has involved having a person in the portfolio who comes from the area. That helps. I do not know how much agriculture is done in Mr Burke's area but I do not think it is an awful lot.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He has a least number of farmers.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The least number of farms. What other visionary things are we doing in agriculture? We have got Roads to Recovery. That is predominantly in regional areas. Who is responsible for that? The Leader of the National Party. That is the sort of vision you get. Look at the free trade agreement we got with Korea—that is pretty visionary. We have got a great advancement in the prospects there. Who is also currently negotiating to finalise the agreement with China? We are. Who could not finalise it? Those opposite. Who could not finalise the Korean agreement? They could not. Who could not finalise the Japanese agreement? They could not. Who brought us the carbon tax? They did. Who gave us the mining tax? They did. Who thought of the Roads to Recovery? We did. What exactly is your vision? What exactly is the vision of the Labor Party when it comes to regional Australia?

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

I tell you what, you built yourself a freeway to your electorate. I noted that. He is worried about me moving an office to Armidale but built a freeway to his front door. The last time I saw something like that it was in New Orleans. That was a great outcome and you are to be commended for your work. But these are the visionary things that are showing that people in regional Australia believe that now they have a regional development minister and an agriculture minister who actually has lived the experience, who lives in the area and who is bringing agriculture forward. I absolutely thrilled and proud of the job we are doing and I am absolutely thrilled and proud to be given the ministry to look after it.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, on indulgence, I plead guilty on the Hunter Expressway.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is an abuse of the standing orders. I call the honourable member for Franklin.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is great to be up here talking the rural and regional Australia but not so great to be talking about the detrimental impact the budget will have out there in our regions. This budget is built on broken promises and wrong priorities and all it will do is increase the divide between the city and the bush. This budget is no friend to regional Australia. The minister, who is not in the chamber anymore, ought to be ashamed of this budget and its impact on rural and regional Australia. Minister Truss said just two weeks before the budget that to ignore regional Australia's needs for investment and growth is to turn our backs on opportunities for the future. For once I agree with him, but this budget, sadly, does not do that. It does actually turn its back on rural and regional Australia.

It was confirmed in Senate estimates this week that the Abbott government did not carry out an impact study by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development on the impacts in regional Australia of this budget. They have not done one and they do not plan to do one, and one wonders why they will not do it. They will not do it, of course, because of the adverse impact on rural and regional Australia. As we have heard, there is the impact of the increases in the price of petrol and the impact of the GP tax. Then there are the cuts to the financial assistance grants with almost $1 billion over four years being ripped out of councils, and we know that this will impact more on smaller councils in rural and regional areas. What will those councils have to do? That was also revealed in Senate estimates this week when the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development officials said that local councils would need to reshape their budget in terms of no longer having access to the indexation. That means that local councils, particularly smaller ones in rural and regional Australia, will have to consider council rate increases or cutting staff or reducing services or not building roads in regional and rural areas or maintaining their roads. This will have a disproportionate impact on those regional and rural councils which cannot afford this cut by this government.

Higher council rates are be in addition to the GP tax that I talked about before. The Rural Doctors Association has said that this GP tax will have a detrimental effect on rural and regional Australia. In fact, Tamworth GP Dr Ian Kamerman has said that the scrapping of a program designed to attract more doctors to country areas is 'crazy'. He said the program provided valuable community exposure for junior doctors and attracted more doctors to rural practice, and the scrapping of this program in the Abbott government budget could undo gains that had been made in rural practice. Shame on those on the other side for cutting this program. It was vital to get doctors into rural areas right across this country. Dr Kamerman said that the GP tax would mean more paperwork for GPs, and of course this means more work for them.

The higher education changes will impact more adversely on regional and rural students and campuses. Professor Peter Lee, who is chair of the Regional Universities Network which represents six regional universities and is the Vice-chancellor of Southern Cross University, said that he fears that the cost of university education for many regional university students, including a large number who are of mature age, might dissuade them from pursuing further education. Again, shame on those on the other side for causing a disproportionate impact on rural and regional Australia from this policy as well.

We heard just yesterday more contempt for regional Australia with the closure of 10 regional ATO offices across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and my home state of Tasmania. They have confirmed that they are closing offices in Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Mackay, Cairns, Port Macquarie, Grafton, Orange, Sale, Bendigo and Launceston. That is ripping public servants out of regional Australia as the ATO closes those offices. Of course, the slashing of public sector jobs is not finished yet. I am sure we will see more coming out of rural and regional Australia.

They have cut $350 million out of our Regional Development Australia Fund. That is not going down very well with rural and regional councils either. Of course the Stronger Regions Fund is not starting for another year and a half. Where is that money coming from? It was confirmed in Senate estimates that it has come from the regional assistance grants cuts. It is just a transfer of money, but there is nothing for 18 months. 'You could call it a transfer,' I think is what the department said.

Then of course there are the cuts to the ABC. We have not got any guarantees until they know their funding envelope that this also will not affect regional services that we know are critical, particularly for emergency services in regional Australia. (Time expired)

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance. I am going to be followed by the member for Bradfield, who was in my electorate last week talking about the $100 million black spot telecommunications program that the coalition is putting in place. It is going to fix mobile black spot problems throughout rural and regional Australia. He will be followed by the member for Hume, a good rural politician, who will be followed by the member for Durack, who represents the interests of people in Western Australia. They are all good members.

We heard the Minister for Agriculture, the member for New England, talk up regional Australia. All we ever heard in the last six years was that side of politics, who were actually on this side then, talking down rural and regional Australia. The only time the Prime Minister ever really cared about rural and regional Australia was when there was an election looming. She got brand-new RM Williams and went to some peri urban centre and made a miniscule announcement that really did not affect rural and regional Australia. It was just about the only time she really ever cared about rural and regional Australia.

Let us compare our record to Labor's record. When we had the Asian bee incursion Labor did absolutely nothing. It took David Mumford from my electorate to go to Queensland to help eradicate the Asian bee incursion. We had the live cattle fiasco. There was a program on Four Cornersand what did the then Prime Minister do? She cut the live cattle trade off forthwith. It is an absolute shame. Then we had the Murray-Darling Basin fiasco. It took 8,000 people the first time at Griffith to protest and then 14,000 people to protest, to use people power, to get the Labor government to do something and to care about the people who grow food and fibre rather than just let all the water go out of the mouth of the Murray. It was an absolute travesty by that side of politics. The people who grow the food and fibre were treated like second-class citizens. It took people power and Tony Abbott to say he was going to cap the buyback at 1,500 gigalitres, which means that there is only 249 gigalitres to be recovered, to bring about some fairness and equity in the Murray-Darling Basin fiasco.

People in rural and regional Australia understand that you cannot spend more money than you earn. I represent 4,615 farms in the Riverina, all of which are affected by your carbon tax. The very week that the carbon tax was introduced Cement Australia closed its doors at Kandos. It was in the member for Parkes's electorate then, but it is in the member for Hunter's electorate now. One hundred jobs. Over 100 years that cement factory was producing cement on behalf of Australia. Did we hear the member for Hunter complaining about those jobs? No, we did not, just like we did not hear Labor members give two hoots about the farmers who have cattle, about the people who grow food and fibre in the Murray-Darling Basin, who I represent in the Riverina, and about the beekeepers in Australia. They could not care less.

They might get all chirpy now. We heard the member for Perth a minute ago. I am not quite sure how many farmers she represents. We on this side represent farmers. They are the lifeblood of this nation and they deserve better than what they cop from you lot. Farmers right around Australia were deserted by Labor. It was an absolute disgrace what you people did to rural and regional Australia, particularly to farmers. They have not forgotten and they will not forget next time there is an election. They will vote for a National-Liberal coalition that provides hope, that provides surety, that provides confidence and that gets on with the job of paying back the debt. It is $1 billion a month in interest alone to fix up the mess that we inherited from your mob. That would build a hell of a lot of hospitals and a hell of a lot of schools in rural and regional Australia, but what do you care? You could not care less.

We had six years of mess, six years of economic disaster. We are getting on with the job of fixing it on behalf of rural and regional Australia, the people who trust us with the job of fixing your mess. We will do it. We will do it methodically. We will do it with calmness. We will do it on behalf of future generations.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I am reluctant yet again in this chamber to remind members on both sides to refer their comments through the chair, not at the chair. The use of the word 'you' is a reflection on the chair. It happens on both sides. Please, otherwise I will pull people up even if they are mid flight and they will lose speaking time.

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to comment on the contribution by the member for Riverina on the MPI. The biggest deceit that has been perpetrated on the people of rural Australia is that there is no climate change problem for us to deal with. Who are the people who are going to be most severely compromised by the failure of this government to address these key issues of climate change? It is going to be the farming community. You can tell a lovely story and make them feel happy that this is not something they have to take into account—'We don't have to deal with the problems in the Murray-Darling Basin. It's all going to be fantastic. We make everyone feel happy'—but one day you have to wake up and find out that there is no Santa Claus and you have missed the opportunity to deal with this very important issue.

I am just astounded by the hypocrisy of the other side. We had the Prime Minister last night addressing—

Mr Robert interjecting—

yeah, yeah, go on, go on—the Minerals Council and he was talking about the importance, the centrality, the economic sense of price signals. So you get a price signal when you are sick: do not go to the doctor too early. You get an economic price signal when you might need to have your prescription filled: do not have it filled too early. These are important price signals to tell people that they are not really as sick as they think they are. But the price signal that tells industry that polluting the environment with carbon, well that does not work. That is a completely different thing apparently. I do not understand that; I do not understand that logic. I would have thought that the alternatives available to industry to develop alternative strategies to minimise or reduce their carbon were far more profound than the opportunities that were available to someone who is sick, which is just going to the GP.

I want to talk about a couple of smaller issues, but issues that really profoundly concern me about the cuts. The first one I want to talk about is what is happening in the Kimberley and the Pilbara. As part of the northern Australia committee, recently we have been right across northern Australia. It is so evident to all of us, cross-party, that we need to deal with the profound dysfunction of so many of those Aboriginal communities. They really, really need detailed and urgent assistance to strengthen those communities. We have heard some wonderful stories and seen some wonderful successes. We understand that the work that women like June Oscar and Emily Parker are doing in Fitzroy Crossing in getting behind and developing alcohol bans and using that period of relief then to strengthen the community is so important.

And they have a family and learning centre. In fact there are Aboriginal child and health centres—there are four of them—in the Kimberley and the Pilbara. They are all getting their funding cut, all getting their funding removed.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They never had it in the first place.

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The national partnership funding is being removed!

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You cut it, not us!

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The state government has said that they will give them interim funding for six months, but there is no longer any money in that budget. We are paying wealthy women in Sydney $50,000 to have a baby—

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, don't be ridiculous!

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

to make sure that they can bring that baby up in a loving and nurturing environment. But those women in Fitzroy Crossing, those women in Roebourne, those women in Halls Creek, those women in Kununurra that are utilising those family and child services—well apparently their need is not as great because there is no longer any national partnership money for them. And if the state government does not cough up and fill the gap, those centres will close.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where's Labor's commitment to those centres?

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do note my good friend the member for Durack, and I do like the member for Durack, told the local media that this was to cut out duplication and waste. Hello? There are hundreds of miles between Kununurra, Halls Creek, Roebourne and Fitzroy Crossing! You cannot have a mother from Kununurra taking her kids off to the family centre in Roebourne. This is an absolute disgrace! This is an area of great need— (Time expired)

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise to speak about the member for Hunter's motion this afternoon, the premise of which is that the budget is apparently inflicting pain, we are told, on rural and regional areas. I thought to myself: 'Communications? Telecommunications serving rural and regional areas is a very important issue of priority.' And I thought to myself, 'Well if this budget is inflicting pain, for example when it comes to the $100 million that the Abbott government has committed to spending on improved mobile coverage in regional and remote Australia, then how does that compare to the amounts of money that the previous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government spent in its budget each year on regional and rural mobile communications'? I went back and looked at the 2008 budget and there was not one dollar spent on mobile communications by the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government in regional Australia in 2009. So then I turned to the 2010 budget, not one dollar there; 2011, not one dollar there either; 2012-13, not one dollar spent by the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government on improving mobile telecommunications in rural and regional Australia—despite the fact that there is a clear sense when you speak to people in rural and regional Australia that they want to see better mobile communications.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They want the NBN!

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear somebody from the other side asserting they want the NBN. When you talk to people in regional areas about communications, they say to you a couple of things. They say, 'We really want improved mobile communications', and then they say: 'When is this NBN going to appear? We heard so much about it under the previous government, that it was the universal answer to everything, but what was actually delivered was a long way short of the rhetoric.' And that, I am sorry to say, is the sad story of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government when it came to regional communications.

The fact is the coalition has always had a stronger commitment to improving communications networks in rural and regional Australia as far back as the time, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, when you were instrumental in the $150 million commitment to removing the areas of untimed local calls—a very important reform in regional communications. And there have been so many others. There have been so many programs over so many years that the coalition government has committed to that have helped to improve rural and regional communications. And in this budget there is a commitment to spend $100 million on improving regional and rural mobile communications. So far from this project inflicting pain in the area of regional and rural mobile communications, this budget contains a strong financial commitment by the Abbott government reflecting our determination to see Australians in regional and remote Australia getting improved mobile communication services.

One of the things we are going to do is allocate this money through a well-structured, competitive selection process—competitive as between locations and competitive as between the mobile carriers that will be invited to bid in the competitive selection process. The purpose of that is to make sure that we get the best possible value for taxpayers' money, to ensure that the spending goes to the sites where it can make the biggest difference and do the most good, and to ensure that we leverage the maximum amount of money out of the carriers. We expect a co-contribution and we expect that will get at least as much as the $100 million of public money which is being put in.

Again, this importance in structuring the funding that we are providing to underpin additional services stands in stark contrast to the chaotic mess of the process that the former broadband minister, Senator Conroy, followed with his 2008 tender process, which ultimately collapsed and led in turn to the rushed decision in April 2009 which has created so much difficulty when it comes to the atrocious performance in implementing the previous government's National Broadband Network mess, something we are now busy seeking to clean up.

So when you separate the rhetoric and look at the reality, this government has identified its priorities. When it comes to regional and rural Australia we have heard a very strong message that people want improved mobile coverage for safety reasons—road safety, farm accidents, natural disasters in bushfires and floods; and they want it for economic participation reasons. For all of those reasons the Abbott government is committing significant expenditure in this budget to improve regional and remote mobile communications. That is a budget commitment consistent with serving the people of regional and remote Australia.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to commence my contribution to this debate by congratulating the member for Hunter for the fine job he did in getting the Hunter Expressway built. That was vitally important for rural and regional Australia. It shows that he really understands the needs of rural and regional Australia. It shows that he understands that coal needs to be taken from the mines to the port, and that produce needs to be taken from the farm to the port and to markets. It really demonstrates what a fine shadow minister for agriculture he is and what a fine minister for agriculture he was.

Unfortunately, it is quite a different situation with those of the other side of this House. Year after year, parliament after parliament, government after government they have taken rural and regional Australia for granted. They believe they will get their support so they do not really try very hard. They inflict pain on them each and every budget, be it ripping money out of agriculture or be it ripping services out of rural and regional Australia.

This budget is very bad news for rural and regional Australia. You only have to listen to the contributions made by the Minister for Agriculture today to see why it is bad news for rural and regional Australia. His answer in question time was incomprehensible. He goes on to talk in this debate about live export as if it was the only issue impacting on the lives of people living in rural and regional Australia. Well, Minister for Agriculture, there are a lot of other things impacting on the lives of people in rural and regional Australia.

One of the issues is health and the simple fact that this government is hitting all people with a GP tax, a co-payment, when they go to visit the doctor. This will particularly hurt people in rural and regional Australia. There was already a chronic doctor shortage in those areas and that doctor shortage tends to lead to higher fees. I would like to refer to my bible when it comes to health—The blame game report that was brought down in 2006.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A very good report!

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. I would like to share with a House a quote from that report :

If you are in metropolitan Sydney, or if you are in New South Wales, the further you are from the Harbour Bridge, the greater the impact of the shortage of trained doctors, nurses and allied health staff brought about by the restriction on places in universities and other colleges.

A workforce shortage. What is going to happen under this government? A greater workforce shortage, because, guess what they have done? They have got rid of Health Workforce Australia. Apart from the fact that 130 jobs have gone, it will mean that there will be a further maldistribution of both doctors and other allied health professionals in rural and regional Australia. That is not something that people living there will thank this government for.

Then there is the fuel tax. Everyone knows that if you live in rural and regional Australia you have to travel a greater distance to get to the doctor, to transport your produce and to go shopping. The fuel tax is going to have an enormous impact.

I will conclude by referring to the $483 million that has been ripped out of Landcare, something that will be debated in detail in this parliament next week. Forty per cent of all farmers take part in this program and this government is defunding it. This government has absolutely no commitment to rural and regional Australia. They always take them for granted and they have done so again in this budget. (Time expired)

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been pretty difficult to spend the last 45 minutes being lectured by the Labor Party on regional and rural Australia. But we have heard from the member for Hunter that, by building a highway to his front door, he was going to save rural Australia. We heard from the member for Perth that she was going to—

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did not say that. Retract that. I did not say anything about it.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We heard from the member for Perth that she was going to save rural Australia with a carbon tax. And we heard something from the member for Shortland. I am not quite sure how she was going to save rural Australia but I sat here wondering how many sheep yards she has in her electorate, how many live-cattle exporters she has and how many broad-acre grain growers she has. However, I am proud to represent a rural electorate, and I am proud to be a member of this coalition that is supporting rural and regional Australia with this budget and with its broader policies.

In one of the great speeches of modern political history, in 1942 Robert Menzies described the extraordinary failure of the Left in Australian politics to acknowledge the role that lifters play in Australian society. The focus of his speech was on Australia's forgotten people—the great and growing Australian middle class. But between 2007 and 2013 that speech might just as easily have applied to the great lifters of modern Australia: the men, women, children and businesses of rural and regional Australia.

The reality of modern Australia is that the majority of our export growth, the majority of our business investment and the majority of our best growth prospects are based in regional Australia. The people of rural and regional Australia have always driven our largest export industries, and that is more true now than ever. But the Labor-Greens government's forgetfulness of the people of regional Australia was absolutely breathtaking. The list of forgetfulness and failure was long, and it started with the introduction of a failed mining tax in an attempt to create the highest taxed mining industry in the world. Then there was the extraordinary attack on the live export trade, the complete failure to open up new export commodity markets, and the abysmal failure of the Murray-Darling Basin plan as the Labor Party paid their dues to the Greens with a badly-thought-through attempt to recreate a Murray-Darling Basin that never existed. There was the total failure of the regional NBN, particularly fixed wireless, and their so-called interim satellite solution, which is no better than dial-up. We had the introduction of the carbon tax, which disproportionately hampered our exporters against ferocious competition, and we had the failure to make meaningful investment in regional transport infrastructure.

The coalition government is the great friend of the bush. We always have been, and we always will be. We stand shoulder to shoulder to enable these great lifters of regional Australia. We stand shoulder to shoulder with commodity producers and exporters, with country university students needing to live away to home, with commuters on long stretches of highway needing safe roads on which to travel, and with regional businesses trying to grow their companies and asking for internet and phone services equal to their city cousins.

I want to spend just a moment on one of the greatest failures of the last Labor government—the failure in trade. Over the Christmas holidays I was very lucky to read a book about the economic history of Australia. It was a wonderful book because the point it made was that our prosperity was built on opening up great commodity export markets. In the 1820s it was the wool industry. It moved to the gold industry in the 1850s and then back to wool. By the 1950s and 1960s we recognised the extraordinary opportunities in selling iron ore and coal to Japan. Most recently, we have seen opportunities again in mineral exports and energy exports to China. Today, there are extraordinary opportunities to open up agricultural exports to China and the rest of Asia.

Labor not only forgot those markets but destroyed the most important and fastest-growing agriculture market in recent Australian history—the live export market. We are the friends of regional Australia; the Labor Party is not.

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will start by commenting on some of the points made by the member for Hume. I think it was interesting that he and other speakers did not talk about the budget. That is quite fascinating. Those on the other side of the chamber are pretending it did not happen. Because they are really embarrassed they did not mention anything about it, but this is what this matter of public importance is actually about.

I would assume that most of those on the other side of the chamber are highly embarrassed. They have to go back to their electorates now and talk about some of the measures that are devastating—particularly for regional and rural Australia. That is why I am very pleased to be speaking on this matter of public importance today.

When I look at electorates like mine in regional New South Wales I see that people there are feeling very betrayed by the Liberal Party and the Nationals and what they have done in this budget. It is a very cruel and unfair budget in many of the measures that are being brought in. It is full of broken promises that will hurt pensioners, families and people who are really struggling to make ends meet.

Many people in regional and rural Australia are struggling to make ends meet and this budget has made it so much harder. I have been approached by so many people that are particularly concerned about the suite of measures that this government has brought in with this budget—particularly the GP tax, the petrol tax, and the cuts to pensions and family benefits. Indeed, the people in my region on the North Coast of New South Wales feel particularly betrayed. I imagine that Australians right across the country, including in regional and rural areas, feel equally betrayed by this Liberal-Nationals government.

But this is what we get from Liberal-Nationals governments. We get cuts to pensions. We get services slashed. We get higher taxes. And people in the regions are really angry about it. In my area they are so upset about it that we are going to have a big rally on 12 June. We are calling it the 'fighting for a fair go' rally. I will touch on the public reaction in relation to that rally in just a second.

We hear from this government lots of talk all the time about regional and rural Australia but they never actually deliver anything for them. It is all just talk. That is because the government—particularly the Nationals—take the country for granted. And this budget really shows that they do, because the cuts in this budget are hitting harder in country areas—so much harder. Bringing in a petrol tax hits people in country areas harder; people in country areas have to drive further. It pushes up the costs of many things they have to buy as well.

When you have a GP tax it hurts the people in the country a lot harder. When you cut funding to hospitals it hurts those people in regional and rural areas so much more. When you cut funding to universities and deregulate fees it is the kids in the country that are hit hardest because they will not be able to get to university. That is the reality of their futures. And when you reduce assistance to areas like local governments that will severely impact all regional and rural areas.

If we have a look at some of those cuts when it comes to local government, we see a $1 billion cut in funding to the financial assistance grants and there is also the termination of the national partnership for concessions for seniors. That also impacts a lot of the rate rebates that a lot of senior citizens get. On top of those cuts to financial assistance grants, that will severely impact so many of our councils and their ability to provide services. This government has just walked away from regional and rural Australia. That is really going to impact all of those councils. In my area, if you go from Bellingen right to the New South Wales-Queensland border, there are about $20 million in cuts there—a huge amount—which will really impact on the ability of the councils to provide really important services.

I spoke before about the rally that we are having in my electorate. Indeed, it was highlighted today in a great local publication, the Tweed Sun. The front page says 'Grey backlash'. The headline is: 'Rally and petition planned to send message to Canberra: pensioners rally to fight the budget'. The article refers to the Vice President of the Affiliated Residential Park Residents Association, Ken Cummins. He started a petition for low-income earners who are upset with the new budget, so that they can register their disapproval, and he has been taking copies all around the place. He is saying that people are concerned about their ability to afford things like going to the doctor and they are concerned about the petrol tax as well. I thank Ken for the great work that he has been doing with his community.

Another great publication, the Tweed Valley Weekly, had a major story—'Rally to protest budget planned'. The article refers to a pensioner, Pat Withers from Kingscliff, who holds strong concerns for what the budget means for people in his position. He said:

This just makes things a lot worse for pensioners, in lots of different ways … power bills, phone bills, council rates, vehicle registration, all these will go up along with … the GP tax and the petrol tax which are just going to drive up the cost of living.

Pat is very much aware of how difficult it is going to be. He said:

I'm too frightened to work out how much it's all going to cost and terrified to think about what will happen to pensioners.

Remember that many of our seniors live in regional Australia, and they are being severely impacted by this budget because a lot of them have retired there. It is such a huge impost upon them.

The fact is that this Liberal-National government have walked away from rural and regional Australia for so many reasons. We see this budget compounding the already difficult situation that many of these people are in. It really is shameful. (Time expired)

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on this matter of public importance. Let me start by saying that it is a bit rich for those opposite to question this government's commitment to rural and regional Australia, when the opposition leader, in his budget-in-reply speech, made no mention of supporting people in the bush. Actually, he made no mention of supporting any Australians.

My electorate of Durack is made up of 47 councils, and every one of those councils is based in what this government would deem a rural or regional area. Therefore I think it is safe to say that I understand the needs of these areas, unlike the Leader of the Opposition—and perhaps we can throw the deputy leader in there at the same time. I note that this government has done what it can to support my Durack constituents. I also want to say that it is a bit rich for the member for Perth—and, yes, we cannot quite understand what rural and regional area she is referring to—to discuss the lack of funding for child and family centres in the Kimberley when Labor failed to provide the long-term funding that was needed for these very important Aboriginal family centres. While I am at it, let's talk about the member for Richmond. Let me assure you that this government is supporting my constituents while those opposite continue to criticise the necessary budget measures that the Treasurer and the Prime Minister had to implement to get this country back on track—not just rural and regional areas but also urban areas.

Let me repeat: we are getting this country back on track, because those opposite put Australia on a path of waste—waste which has left every Australian with five record deficits and $123 billion in future deficits. Instead of letting this government get on with the job that it is tasked with—creating a sustainable and prosperous Australia for all Australians—those opposite continue to make these false statements. Rural and regional Australia, I am pleased to say, is very much at the forefront of this government's mind and the mind of the Prime Minister. That is why key budget measures were implemented to enhance the regions and it is why this government went to the last election in September with a policy to develop Northern Australia. I am pleased to say that I am a member of the Northern Australian committee, which has been working hard over the past couple of months to conduct inquiries across Northern Australia before developing the white paper.

A key industry in Northern Australia—and therefore in Durack—is agriculture. Recently we have seen weather conditions that have gone from one extreme to the other: drought to flooding. That is why this government is committed to supporting our farmers and pastoralists through such funding measures as the drought assistance package and the concessional loan scheme.

This government has also implemented other funding measures in the budget to support our agriculture industry. We have heard from the Minister for Agriculture so I will not repeat it all, but there is some $100 million with respect to grants programs for improvements in technology, $20 million to build a stronger biosecurity and quarantine system, another $15 million to support small exporters, and the list goes on.

This government's commitment to rural and regional Australia did not, however, stop with agriculture. In the budget Durack, my electorate, received $850 million for local infrastructure projects, including much-needed upgrades to the Great Northern Highway, the North West Coastal Highway and the commencement of the feasibility study on the PortLink Inland Freight Corridor concept plan, and it goes on. I was particularly pleased to see the recommitment of $339 million for the Oakajee project in Durack, which was very much welcome. We see a further $550 million committed to the Roads to Recovery and Black Spot programs, largely benefiting road safety in rural and regional areas.

Let's talk about health—something we have not heard much about this afternoon. Regional areas have also fared well from a health perspective, including an additional $6 million for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and an additional $35 million over two years for the General Practice Rural Incentives Program, which provides incentives for medical practitioners to work in underserviced rural, regional and remote areas. And there is more: another $13.4 million over three years to fund an additional 500 nursing and allied health scholarships—scholarships with a value of $30,000 each. These will target workforce shortages in rural and remote areas.

As I said yesterday, when I was speaking on the government's appropriation bills, regional areas are continually faced with a shortage of medical practitioners—

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Unfortunately, the time for the debate has expired. The discussion has now concluded.