Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

  (a) 8 million Australians live outside our capital cities; and

     (b) while some regions like the Sunshine Coast are experiencing strong economic growth, others are not enjoying the same levels of economic activity;

(2) further notes that:

(a) many regions, including the Sunshine Coast, can supply substantially lower office accommodation costs and lower operating costs;

(b) regions such as the Sunshine Coast can offer a highly educated workforce, high quality business facilities, first class health and transport infrastructure, as well as innovative start-up communities;

(c) regions, including the Sunshine Coast, can offer lifestyle benefits like lower cost housing, short commute times and a family-friendly environment; and

(d) research suggests that highly skilled people are taking increasing account of lifestyle factors when choosing their employer;

(3) welcomes the Government's pursuit of a policy of decentralisation of public sector agencies, and the recent relocation of some parts of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to Wodonga; and

(4) encourages the Government to continue to explore further options for the relocation of Commonwealth agencies to the regions.

One-third of Australians live in regional, rural and remote areas and, as this House knows well, they often face challenges in accessing the services and the opportunities which our city cousins take for granted. This government has shown considerable commitment to redressing the balance and delivering for regional Australia. We've seen record investment in regional infrastructure, including the $1.6 billion for the Bruce Highway upgrades to the Sunshine Coast. In my own electorate, we are seeing mobile phone blackspot towers soon to go up at Glass House Mountains, at Beerwah and near Peachester. We are seeing the NBN rolling out with high-speed, fixed wireless technology in many regional areas and we've seen hundreds of projects like $3 million upgrades to the Events Centre at Caloundra under the Building Better Regions Fund. Australia is already receiving some of the dividends of this unswerving commitment in the more than 100,000 new regional jobs created just last year.

We often speak about the government's decentralisation agenda in the same terms. However, I don't see it like that. For me, the relocation of government departments is not about what Canberra can do for us but about what our regions can do for the Commonwealth government. It is not about benevolence but about efficiency and a commitment to improving the lives of our public servants.

Cost-effective delivery demands low-cost, high-quality facilities. Office accommodation costs on the Sunshine Coast are 41 per cent lower than in the Brisbane CBD, while operating costs are lower than state averages in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Queensland has the lowest basic flat payroll tax of all the states and territories in Australia. Yet, with that, we have high-speed internet in many parts of the coast, and the NBN rollout is due to be completed this year.

Cost-effective delivery in the 21st century demands access to an innovative culture and a highly educated workforce. We have the University of the Sunshine Coast Innovation Centre, which has become the heart of a fast-growing innovation ecosystem. The Sunshine Coast has been awarded Google eTown status and has been named a smart 21st century community in three of the past four years. The Thompson Institute in Birtinya is conducting cutting-edge medical research, while companies like HeliMods, Praesidium Global, Eniquest and APAC Infrastructure are creating new high-tech solutions in defence, aviation and telecommunications. In terms of education, 57.4 per cent of the local workforce hold a tertiary qualification—well above the state average. The University of the Sunshine Coast is dynamic and growing, offering new courses like medical science, and new campuses in Gympie and on the Fraser coast.

Cost-effective delivery requires good transport links. The Sunshine Coast is already part of the national freight corridor through the Bruce Highway, and I'd like to congratulate my good friend to my right, who has been instrumental in developing Sunshine Coast infrastructure, particularly on the Bruce Highway. We also boast Australia's fastest growing airport, which, by 2020, will service flights from throughout the Asia-Pacific region. As I've already mentioned, the Bruce Highway is currently being upgraded, with a $1.6 billion investment from the federal government. The member for Fairfax and I are also working hard to secure much more funding to upgrade the North Coast rail line. These projects might sound expensive, and, of course, they are, but money invested in the regions is money that truly delivers.

Finally, cost-effective delivery today requires that we recruit the most skilled and motivated people for the Public Service. As I've said before, skilled and motivated people in 2018 expect the best business facilities, but they demand the best lifestyle for both them and their families. A Commonwealth agency on the Sunshine Coast would deliver efficiency, cost-effectiveness and high productivity for all Australian people, and I commend that to the House.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The delivery of this motion was misplaced—misplaced in location, and not by virtue of the fact it's here in the Federation Chamber and not by virtue of the fact that it should have been in the House of Representatives. Really, the member for Fisher should have delivered this speech in the coalition party room, because it's not us he needs to convince; he has to convince the people within the National Party—the ones that have really driven relocation of government departments in this country—and what a proud track record they have, indeed. Look at the incredible way in which the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority of Australia, the APVMA, has been shifted into the Deputy Prime Minister's electorate.

Look at the lack of transparency. Look at the controversy that has surrounded it. Look at the way in which it's being done and the fact that, while the member for Fisher might come in here with noble ideals about representing relocations that should happen in different parts of the country—and I share those ideals—we would not for one minute sidle up to the sneaky and disgraceful way in which some departments get moved based on the whim of a Deputy Prime Minister or of senior people in government. There should be a proper way to do this, not the way that it's been managed so far. So don't come in here—if I may say so to the member for Fisher, through the chair—pleading the case for this type of thing to occur. Get it sorted out in your party room and, importantly, get it sorted out in a way that represents value for money and proper process for the Australian taxpayer, not the sloppy, slimy way that the Deputy Prime Minister's management of this has shown. The APVMA has even lost senior members through the way that the government have forced this relocation on that authority. It is disgraceful.

Another reason that this motion is misplaced is this: it's one thing to have the ideal to move authorities or government departments like this. It's another to actually put them in places where you've got all the infrastructure support and people with skills to make these things happen in the way in which they should be done. Look at the way that this government have managed regional development—and in that I include Western Sydney. I imagine Deputy Speaker Bird would have criticisms about the way in which things like this happen down in the Illawarra and in other regions, as would the member for Herbert, who is in the chamber. There's never the proper support for infrastructure development in our outer regions where it's needed. Look at Western Sydney. The Western Sydney City Deal was announced in Redfern, not in the heart of Western Sydney. It was announced nearly 40 kilometres away. I pleaded with someone to give the Google Maps app to the Prime Minister and the then assistant minister, Angus Taylor, to make sure that they could make this announcement properly. They announced a City Deal for Western Sydney in Redfern and it didn't include the biggest council in Western Sydney, Blacktown council.

These City Deals are supposed to provide for proper infrastructure development, support and planning, and to make sure that we're doing things right. And yet this government can't even do that. There are big infrastructure plays, like the M9, that should link up Western Sydney and the growth areas of Western Sydney down to the Illawarra and provide the parallel infrastructure to the M7, but nothing was talked about there. If it's a media announcement and the glitz associated with a City Deal in Western Sydney that's announced outside of Western Sydney, and doesn't include the council, they're all for it. If it's the hard planning to make sure that the people are there and that they have the infrastructure to support them, it's in the too-hard basket. You need to have the skilled people and the infrastructure around to support the kinds of things that are being put forward by the member for Fisher today. They can't just be plonked in.

There is no depth of thought or longer term planning by those opposite. All this is is a publicity stunt to be able to go back to the electorate and say, 'I spoke up for our region.' But, within the government, that's all that ever comes. It's this wide open series of announcements that are so shallow. It is disgraceful that the parliament's time should be taken up on something where they should be pleading internally within their party room to get things done, because it's the Nationals who call the shots, not the Liberals, on these types of things. And there endeth the rant!

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And what a rant it was! I congratulate the member for Fisher for his motion. He knows, and all members on this side of the House know, that the biggest issue in our regional communities is jobs—long-term, sustainable jobs. This government has a proud track record there; in the last 12 months, more than 400,000 jobs were created around Australia and 100,000 of those were in our regional communities. These are long-term sustainable jobs that we want to see growing in our regional areas.

The member for Fisher also understands that, when it comes to providing jobs in regional areas, making sure that we have the supporting infrastructure and the service delivery in place is critical for people's ongoing enjoyment of our regional communities. The decentralisation agenda being pursued by this government should not be seen somehow as a punishment of public servants but, much rather, should be seen as a huge opportunity.

So I'd say in making those opening comments that the issue of connectivity is the one that perhaps is critical to the future growth of our regional areas. I wish we had a better word than 'connectivity'; it sounds like a very bureaucratic term. But when we're talking about connectivity, we're simply talking about the capacity to connect regional areas to each other, to our capital cities and to the world. If we're going to maximise advantage from things like the free trade agreements that have been negotiated, we need to make sure our regional communities are well connected. So, we're talking about investment in better road, rail, airport and seaport infrastructure, but also connectivity in terms of better telecommunications links.

I'm pleased to say that over the last several years there's been significant investment in better road and rail infrastructure around regional Australia. Also, with the rollout of the Mobile Black Spot Program and the rollout of the NBN, we're seen better connectivity in terms of telecommunications links. Having said that, I acknowledge that there is still more work to be done. In fact, that's why we all come to this place: we come to this place to champion the cause of our own communities. The member for Fisher is, I'd have to say, an outstanding champion for his region. There's hardly a member I can recall who came to my ministerial office more regularly than the member for Fisher when he was seeking money for his region. Perhaps the member for Hinkler was on an equal footing with him in demanding resources for regional Queensland. But that's their job; they're there to be champions for their communities, and when I was the minister they made sure that I was aware of any shortfalls in their areas.

In relation to decentralisation more generally, it's not just about decentralisation of public servants. I think there are huge opportunities for us to work with the corporate sector to highlight the opportunities for them to relocate their operations outside the capital cities. Some of the economic drivers for that—particularly in South-East Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne—will be the increased land value in those urban areas, which will make it attractive for active reuse of a current site to help fund the move to a regional location where we have a workforce available and where we have good infrastructure in place.

One of the advantages that regional communities offer is a more stable workforce. People in regional areas tend to move less. They tend to want to be in those communities. They appreciate the lifestyle that's on offer, whether that be in the member for Hinkler's electorate, the member for Fisher's electorate or my own electorate of Gippsland. There are people who choose those electorates for a very good reason: it's where their families are and they want a long-term future for them. So I think there's a real opportunity for the federal, state and local governments to be working more cooperatively to sell the message to corporate Australia about the opportunity to relocate their operations—or at least part of their operations—to a regional setting.

We have seen it in my electorate with the Patties Foods success story in Bairnsdale. Patties Foods, a small family owned company, purchased Simplot—famous for the Four'N Twenty brand—and moved the whole operation out of Melbourne to Bairnsdale. That was a remarkable achievement for a company that started in the order of 50 years ago with a mum-and-dad operation and a small bakery in Lakes Entrance. It now employs 550 people in regional Victoria. So, in making those comments, I pay due credit to the Rijs family and the work they've done in helping to generate an enormous amount of wealth and economic activity in the Gippsland region.

But the challenge for us, as members in this place who are supporters of regional areas, is to make sure we're doing our bit. Sure, we can come here and lobby ministers for additional funding to support infrastructure and services, but I think the challenge for us is to be relentlessly optimistic and positive about the future of our regional areas. If we can sell the message of opportunity in regional areas—and help promote the opportunities for people to grow up in a regional community, perhaps learn new skills, and then return to that area—I think we would be doing a great service to our regions.

I'm one who believes that regional Australia is a great place to live, it's a great place to work, it's a great place to visit and it's a great place to raise a family. They're the active choices that we made as a couple. In closing, I think the member for Fisher is on the right track, and I'll support him in all his efforts to make sure that we're supporting decentralisation of jobs throughout our nation.

Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fisher has some nerve to stand in this place and move this motion. Whilst I support decentralisation, as a fighter for the north there are three huge problems that I see with this motion. Firstly, the member for Fisher is a member of a government that has been taking a sledgehammer to our public sector jobs in the north. To stand here in this place and say you are wanting APS jobs, whilst your government has made massive cuts in the north, is the epitome of hypocrisy and absolute grandstanding. Not only are the member for Fisher's words empty in this motion but so are those of the Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce. All of his talk of decentralisation has been just that—talk.

That was evidenced in last year's budget, where not one cent was allocated towards government services being decentralised. The Turnbull government's budget has highlighted the absolute hypocrisy of the Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, and his regional jobs plan. The Deputy Prime Minister has misled regional Queenslanders with his decentralisation plan, as it is fiction. Regional Queenslanders are doing it tough, and we are fed up with this government's big talk and lack of action.

This motion states that the Sunshine Coast is regional. The Sunshine Coast is in what we in the north call 'the golden triangle'—South-East Queensland. My electorate of Herbert is in the real regional part of Queensland. I was born, bred and raised outside the golden triangle of Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. Trust me, real regional Queenslanders have a huge problem with the member for Fisher saying that a city only an hour's drive away from Brisbane is equivalent to my home town of Townsville, which is a 19-hour drive from Brisbane.

We need to get real on this issue. The Turnbull government has taken a sledgehammer to regional public sector jobs. In a city where unemployment is 9.1 per cent and youth unemployment is 20 per cent, the Turnbull government is still continuing to slice and dice jobs in Townsville. Here is the history of the Abbott-Turnbull government job cuts in Townsville: Townsville has 50 fewer Defence staff as of June 2017 than it had in December 2012. The consolidation of the Townsville tax office in 2014 saw 110 jobs cut from Townsville. Over the last few years, 19 jobs have been cut from the CSIRO in Townsville, with five more expected to go. Regional Queensland Customs staffing has been cut by 50 per cent, with 30 fewer jobs from Gladstone to Thursday Island, and Townsville was one of the hardest hit.

The government's change in process in the second division will see up to 10 Townsville APS Defence support staff leave their jobs. The Townsville office for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority closed, forcing five of our local veterans out of a job and ending any sort of a career transition pathway for local veterans and ex-service personnel. And, just last week, we heard the announcement of the relocation of the Royal Australian Air Force's 38 Squadron, Beechcraft King Air fleet, which will move from Townsville to East Sale, Victoria, which is another 40 jobs lost to Townsville. This is the track record thus far regarding the Turnbull government and jobs in Townsville.

In real regional Queensland, the Turnbull government equals job cuts. Enough is enough, and I will fight against these cuts. I want jobs for Townsville—quality, secure jobs—not the cuts, privatisation and casualisation that the Turnbull government is delivering. Townsville needs secure quality jobs, not cuts, lies and empty promises from this government. Our public sector is under threat from this LNP-Turnbull government. Our public sector was once a thriving industry but is now being decimated under this government, and the only thing that will stop the Turnbull government from making further cuts to our public sector is if we stand up and fight back.

I call on the Turnbull government to end these harsh cuts and, instead, reinstate the jobs they have cut from North Queensland's public sector. It's a bit rich to stand in this place and spruik the wonders of decentralisation that will create regional jobs when this government has savaged jobs in regional Queensland. It is hypocrisy at best. When you live in Mount Isa, when you live in Cloncurry, when you live in Charters Towers, when you live in Townsville, Mackay, Cairns—anything above the tropic of Capricornia—you are talking about regional Queensland at its best, and the job cuts in that area have been nothing short of absolute disaster for those communities.

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's my great pleasure to rise in support of the member for Fisher and the motion he put forward this morning. I want to take a moment to outline my electorate in Central Queensland. Between the cities of Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, it's around 3½ thousand square kilometres. But the region itself, the statistical region of Wide Bay is around 270,000 in terms of the population. Unfortunately, we have some very poor statistics which we need to address urgently. In fact, the most recent state of the nation report from the Local Government Association for the state of the regions indicated that the unemployment rate, which is adjusted, the NIEIR rate, is around 16.7 per cent, which is the highest in the nation. Now that rate takes out those people who would be on the DSP, for example. It is a different statistical measure. Unfortunately, we have youth unemployment at 23 per cent. Once again, we have the lowest per capita income in this nation at just $34,000 a year, and that has been the case for some 20 years.

My job as the federal member is to ensure that we continue to build the economy, and the decentralisation program put forward by this government is a great opportunity for us. It is a great opportunity for us!

I congratulate both the Bundaberg Regional Council and the Fraser Coast Regional Council for putting forward their submissions and calling for decentralised agencies in our region. I think we should be very frank in this discussion. The reality is that people are siloing to the cities, and the reason for that is very straightforward. It's because they can. In a digital world, a world where you can do your work from any location that you choose, unfortunately, the road that's been upgraded in the regional area tends to be the road out of town. We need to act. We do need a policy which will place highly paid, highly skilled and highly valued jobs back into our regions on top of our great strengths around agriculture and, of course, tourism and manufacturing. It is about opportunity. This is the opportunity for local youth to go to a local university and to know that there is an opportunity for them to have a highly paid job and a career which will progress, particularly within the Australian Public Service.

There is no reason that we can't have many of these agencies relocated into the regions, and, in fact, it's already happened in a number of areas. I note the APVMA's move to Armidale. The Regional Investment Corporation is going to Orange. AgriFutures Australia went to Charles Sturt University at Wagga Wagga in 2015. The Grains Research and Development Corporation is going to Toowoomba, Dubbo, Adelaide and Perth. The FRDC is going to Adelaide. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority is going to Toowoomba, Albury-Wodonga and Adelaide.

Unfortunately, Madam Deputy Speaker Bird, I haven't read anywhere that says 'Bundaberg' or 'Hervey Bay'. So, as a passionate advocate—as I'm sure you'd understand, and I'm sure you would be the same—I am looking forward to those opportunities, because they create long-term, well-paid, highly skilled jobs in regional areas, which are absolutely desperate for them. Imagine, Madam Deputy Speaker, that your children—I'm only assuming—had an opportunity to go to a local university that runs a course which is relevant to a large employer just down the road. Those opportunities certainly occur for people here in Canberra and in other locations where there are large opportunities with the Public Service. In fact, they deserve those opportunities. In regional Australia, they should get the same chance as children who are born in Canberra or anywhere else. We have the chance to make those changes, because the reality is, in the modern world, you absolutely can work anywhere. We are not talking about organisations which pack out a million widgets that need to be transported from a regional centre to somewhere else. We are genuinely talking about highly skilled Public Service positions.

It's an opportunity for people. We live in some of the greatest parts of this country. In my own electorate, we have an average temperature of 25 degrees. You can get a house near the beach for just over $200,000. You can take your kids to the coast or to the national park. You can have a fantastic lifestyle, but you need to have the work to go with it to support those people, and this is an opportunity for us and for them. I think we should absolutely look at this, not through rose-coloured glasses but in a considered manner, to determine what the best opportunities are, where the synergies are and where we can match the departments. The reality is, with transport costs as they are, looking at my own centres in Hervey Bay, you can fly directly to Sydney from Hervey Bay. There is one flight a day on a 717 or with another provider—without naming providers.

I think people should take those opportunities up now, because without them how do we ensure that our people continue to have that growth opportunity and jobs which are well paid? As taxpayers—as all taxpayers should be—they are entitled to those opportunities, just as those who were born somewhere else or choose to live somewhere else are. I support the member for Fisher's motion, with one exception. Where he mentions the Sunshine Coast, can we put 'Hinkler' in that place?

Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd also like to thank the member for Fisher, who is my electoral neighbour, of course, for moving this motion, which highlights just how great the regions north of Brisbane are. The electorate of Longman, which I love, is a really friendly and hardworking community of people. I love their strength. I love their diversity. I love the beaches of Bribie and I love the leafy green suburbs of Narangba. But, while state Labor has been helping grow our region, delivering infrastructure and jobs through investments like the $253 million to the Caboolture Hospital and the $6 million Moreton Bay Advancing Regional Innovation Program, we can't pretend that the federal government has shown us much support at all.

While the member for Fisher's motion reads like a bit of a tourism ad for the Sunshine Coast, I have to say there is absolutely zero substance to this motion. There is zero substance and zero policy that will help either the Sunshine Coast or my region of Moreton Bay—because that's what this government is: zero policy, zero action and zero integrity.

Member for Fisher, integrity would be standing up for the many older Australians living on the Sunshine Coast who are waiting for their home care package. Member for Fisher, do you know how many people are waiting in your region? There are 1,074 people waiting for their package in your region, and that's not just limited to the Sunshine Coast, of course. In my local area of Caboolture, 860 older Australians are also waiting for their aged-care package. Ideally, there wouldn't be even one person waiting for their package, but under this government the numbers just continue to rise. If the government spent more time working to get these people what they deserve, then our regions would be doing far, far better, but the honest reality is that they're not. They're not, and it's vulnerable seniors of the Sunshine Coast and the Moreton Bay region who have to suffer because of this government's inaction. Try putting that into your tourism ad, Member for Fisher.

I note that the member for Fisher also sees potential in our regions as potential sites for decentralisation. In theory, I completely agree with him. Take Caboolture, for example. There is a beautiful area with huge potential for growth, it's not too far from Brisbane's CBD and it sits right on the train line. But, as much as it pains me to say it, we aren't quite ready for a huge expansion. The infrastructure just isn't there yet. Again, I commend the work of both the state and the local governments in our area, but the stalling and delays by this federal government are causing our region to suffer.

Last budget, our local federal LNP members—including the member for Fisher and adding the members for Dickson and Petrie—jumped to their feet when the government was announcing and praising the allocation of money towards the Bruce Highway upgrade from the Pine Rivers Bridge to Caloundra. Of course we welcome this funding—absolutely. But I've had constituents tell me that they've been promised these upgrades for years, and the constant delays have seen them all but abandon any hope. Now, though, their hopes have been revitalised with this announcement in the budget. Like I said, we welcome any funding that is provided to the area, particularly for infrastructure upgrades around the Bruce Highway.

There is still one thing that people who come and speak to me are certain of. They're certain that there'll be further delays under this government, delays in things like accessing an NBN connection. Go and ask the people in Narangba; they've now been told it will be 2020 before they get their NBN connection. There are delays in securing an aged-care package; there's a delay you don't want to live with. What about the delay in closing the gap for the Gabi people in my region? And what about delays in making changes to peoples' lives that would deliver a wage growth instead of a company profit growth?

The people in the outer regions of Brisbane have a lot of questions for this government, questions that won't be answered by a motion moved by the member for Fisher. These delays mean that some people are waiting for their livelihoods, but there are some people who are waiting for their lives.

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

The time allotted for this debate has expired. There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.