Tony Smith (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 government failing rural and regional Australia.

I call upon those members who approve of 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, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've just checked SportsBet, and I can confirm that the member for Flynn has now emerged as the leading contender to be the next leader of the National Party and, after his question time performance, I think we can safely say he'll be better than the current bloke.

To have a strong national economy, you have to have strong regional economies. It's a statement of fact that it's been a tough four years for rural and regional Australia under the Abbott and Turnbull governments, whether we talk about hospitals policy, schools policy, higher education policy, energy policy, infrastructure investment and, of course, the biggie: the NBN.

It is also a statement of fact that, when you cut funding to physical infrastructure or to services, the impact falls disproportionately and adversely on rural and regional Australia. That's exactly what has been happening over the last four years. Every time the government grabs money to pay for its $65 billion worth of tax cuts to the big end of town, the big corporates in this country, there is a cost and that cost falls harder on rural and regional Australia than it does on our capital cities.

Let me give you just one example: the schools policy. In the first two years, the impact on schools in Wentworth will be about $10 million but the impact on schools in New England, the electorate of the Deputy Prime Minister, will be more like $20 million—double the impact. Of course, it goes without saying that, when you have cost blow-outs and a hopeless and underserviced NBN, the impact is greatest on rural and regional Australia where we rely so heavily on a decent NBN to narrow the gap between city and country.

I want to leave it to my colleagues who will follow me to focus more on some of those issues, as I am sure they will, and I've no doubt that my colleagues from Tasmania will have something to say about the biosecurity concerns in their state as a result of the failures of this government.

I want to use the time remaining to focus on my own portfolio: agriculture. I want to begin by citing a contribution in the Australian Financial Review today. The headline warns 'Competition slashes wheat exports'. It then reads:

Australian wheat exports have slowed to a trickle as traditional markets in south-east Asia turn to cheaper alternatives.

Why would I quote that story here today? There are two reasons. One, it stands in stark contrast to what we hear on an almost daily basis from the Deputy Prime Minister, who likes to come to the dispatch box and attempt, at least, to claim credit for higher commodity prices where commodity prices are high. The funny thing about that is that everyone in this place and everyone outside this place knows that the member for New England can make no claim for impacting upon those commodity prices. He likes to talk about the beef, sheep and goat sectors. These higher prices are a direct result of drought and a small herd—simple supply and demand. What he doesn't do is talk about the commodities which have fallen—and there are very many of them. He certainly doesn't talk about the crisis in the dairy industry—not only in Murray Goulburn in Victoria, for which he did nothing, but generally across that sector, which is facing some very significant challenges.

But I also quote the article to remind people how dumbed down agriculture policy has become under the tutorage of the Deputy Prime Minister. Thank goodness he has gone. I always said he'd wreck the joint and move on and leave it for someone else to clean up. I wish David Littleproud well, because there is plenty to clean up. I've said it before here and I'll say it again: there is no doubt in my mind that the member for New England is the worst agriculture minister in the history of our Federation, and I think that will become even clearer over time. All we saw from the member for New England in this portfolio is boondoggle after boondoggle and pork barrel after pork barrel—most of them, of course, not benefitting farmers but benefitting the Deputy Prime Minister in his own electorate.

Our regional economies are very diverse—and we welcome that—but you can't have strong regions, at least in most of our regions, if you don't have a strong agricultural sector. Surging demand globally for high-quality, safe, clean green food provides us with many, many opportunities as an agriculture sector. But it also offers many challenges. The so-called dining boom won't come to us; we need to go to it. We need to be prepared for it. There is competition out there. I want to outline 10 things—it is not an exhaustive list—that government must do if we're to make the most of those opportunities. We need to establish high policy guidelines, something you do not get from this government—and the agriculture white paper was a joke. We need to restore a genuine and effective COAG process, where we have the Commonwealth and the states working together once again. We need to protect our great reputation as a provider of clean, green, safe high-quality food, our key competitive advantage—and you can't do that when you've got biosecurity failings, as we've had from this government and as we've seen most recently with white spot in prawns in Queensland and now fruit fly in Tasmania. We must adapt to a changing and harsher climate and we must tackle drought. We haven't had any progression in drought policy over the last four years. We must pursue a vigorous productivity agenda; embrace more efficient and more sustainable land use practices; further develop market mechanisms for the maximisations of the allocation of natural resources; and encourage the pursuit for higher value products. We can't be doing more and more in a commodity market where we're simply price takers. It's not the future for Australian agriculture. We must give higher priority to non-tariff trade barriers. We have free trade agreements but no access because the protocols haven't been complete by this government. And we must lift our research, innovation and extension efforts. There are many other areas of government responsibility, like infrastructure—which, as the member for Grayndler so successfully pointed out, has been so underdone by this government.

I want to quickly take us to the member for New England's performance. I'm going to read this as quickly as I can. There are so many to talk about. He forcibly relocated the APVMA to his own electorate—a disaster for Australian agriculture. He abolished the COAG committee, which was doing so much work to bring the states and the Commonwealth together. He sacked his departmental head, destroying the culture, trust and motivation of those who work in the department. He doctored his Hansard. He ditched drought assistance. He tried to move the Regional Investment Corporation to Orange without any governance, giving him full flight to do whatever he wanted with his pork-barrelling exercise. He's destroyed trust in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, a real threat on the water front and in our food bowl. Biosecurity has been a disaster. He tried to abolish the Inspector-General of Biosecurity. It was only our resistance that prevented that from happening.

When the Murray-Goulburn fell over, I offered to help him—nothing! He did nothing for the farmers who suffered from the Murray-Goulburn collapse. He reregulated the sugar industry. He's giving money to leadership groups in the agriculture sector for no apparent reason. Taxpayers' money is funding these leadership groups. He failed to address leadership issues in the red meat industry, something he promised solidly before he was elected. He introduced a backpacker tax for the first time in this country, and now our growers can't get pickers. I heard the minister at question time talking about 457s. We now have people coming from other countries to work at the APVMA because the local staff won't go to Armidale. He had a multiperil crop insurance boondoggle in his white paper, which failed at the first hurdle. He abolished federal leadership at the Animal Welfare Strategy. He ignored the plight of our thoroughbred breeders when they had a disease problem in the industry. He also misled the community on the implementation on the carp eradication virus. Do you remember the carp? Have you heard anything about it since?

The member for New England is hopeless. He was a failed minister. As a result of many government failures across those four years, rural and regional Australia is struggling. There is no doubt it is time for a change of government.

John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Regional Development, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition has an unrivalled commitment to regional Australia. It fascinates me that the member for Hunter overlooks the fact that his very own electorate under the coalition got: $950,000 from NSRF towards the Cessnock Civic Precinct Revitalisation; $1.25 million from BBRF for Hunter Valley Wine Country tourism; $27.2 million from Roads to Recovery between 2014-15 and 2018-19; and over $4.4 million through Bridges Renewal. It surprises me that the member for Hunter ignores that.

We are focused on supporting the nearly eight million people who live outside of our capital cities. In 2016 our agricultural, forestry, fishing and mining industries made up 57 per cent of the value of Australian merchandise exports. Forty-five cents in every dollar is spent by international and local tourists in regional Australia, and that's why we're laying down the foundations that are required to capitalise on the immense opportunities that we in regional Australia have. We've been delivering jobs in record numbers—over 403,000 jobs in the last 12 months. Well over 100,000 of those are in regional Australia, the highest on record. This is the equivalent of every person in Sale, Port Lincoln, Warwick, Parkes, Grafton, Gympie, Muswellbrook and Burnie all getting a new job in just 12 months.

We're delivering lower taxes through the Enterprise Tax Plan and a structured decentralisation approach to Australian government jobs from Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne because regional Australians deserve those opportunities as well. We're moving jobs via the Regional Investment Corporation into Orange; the Murray-Darling Basin Authority into Toowoomba, Albury-Wodonga and Adelaide; Grains Research and Development Corporation into Toowoomba, Dubbo, Adelaide and Perth; and, of course, APVMA to Armidale. That process means that we will have significant new opportunities—job opportunities, family opportunities—throughout regional Australia as a result of the efforts of the coalition government.

But private enterprise should be encouraged to decentralise as well, and we are doing that through the Regional Jobs and Investment Package. An example of a transformational project that is receiving funds through this package is a company called Adaptapack, from the electorate of the member for Page, in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Over $1.5 million is being delivered to assist this great company to do fantastic things in advanced packaging technology, with a focus on robotics. The family involved have seen the opportunity to move to the Northern Rivers. And what happens therefore is that, thanks to the support of the coalition government, we see a company expanding their business from Sydney into the Northern Rivers, into Lismore in northern New South Wales—60 highly skilled, good-paying jobs coming into that member's electorate.

Our focus on regional jobs is driven by our $75 billion infrastructure investment program right across the country, much of which is invested in regional Australia, as it should be: $6.7 billion for the Bruce Highway, $5.6 billion for the Pacific Highway, $8.4 billion for inland rail—that iconic project that will bring opportunities right across the eastern seaboard of Australia and, via links to the west, the rest of the country as well. I'm particularly proud of the transformational $1.6 billion project that is the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing; $4 billion, including in the electorate of member for Hunter, in Roads to Recovery is I think significant indeed.

In terms of the Regional Jobs and Investment Package, we've also supported recently—amongst many other announcements that I've overseen in just six weeks or so as the minister—projects in the Northern Rivers, including the Tweed Valley Rail Trail project. I think this is particularly interesting because, whilst those opposite don't get regional development, the Tweed deputy mayor, the Labor-aligned Reece Byrnes, said that the project will be of significant benefit to his region. He said, in the Byron Shire Echo:

I welcome today's announcement by the federal government of Tweed Shire Council's success under the latest funding round for the Tweed section of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail,' Cr Byrnes said. 'The rail trail will be a great injection into our tourism and small business sector, particularly in Murwillumbah.

Perhaps there's one Labor person in this country who gets it. It is an example of successful development in the Northern Rivers.

We've invested close to $1 billion in grant funding for vitally important community infrastructure projects—$5 million towards the upgrade of Bendigo Airport; $7 million for the Rockhampton riverfront redevelopment; $5.3 million for Ronald McDonald House in South Brisbane, which supports regional families, particularly those with sick children; $2.8 million for the Kingston Park community hub in the electorate of the member for Franklin; and $4.6 million for the Moss Vale Enterprise Corridor in the electorate of the member for Whitlam. And there is $620 million for the Black Spot Program, $600 million for the Northern Australia Roads Program, $500 million for regional rail in Victoria, $360 million for Bridges Renewal, as I've said, and $272 million to invest $10 million or more in major projects, individually, to unlock the future potential of regions.

Now, $120 million for these regional projects—the 10 pilot regions that are in the regional growth fund—will mean that we'll be seeing significant development through regional areas. We're rolling out, through these projects that have been announced in the Regional Jobs and Investment Package, 500 in construction and 500 ongoing jobs on the north coast of the New South Wales. The list goes on and on. It's similarly the case in the Geelong Regional Jobs and Investment Package: 600 ongoing construction jobs—great benefits for the member for Corio as well as the member for Corangamite—with $2 billion in Sky Muster satellite services and an estimated $58.5 billion in recurrent funding in 2018-27 for regional and remote schools. As I said, the list goes on.

I want to particularly focus on the 765 upgraded and new base stations through the mobile Black Spot Program. That helps regional families, regional businesses and regional opportunities that are being addressed by our government. Of course regional Australians also now have increased access to psychological services via telehealth.

The contrast is stark. Labor can't be trusted because they simply do not have a plan for regional Australia. The Leader of the Opposition, as I've said previously, will do anything to score a headline and try and grab Green preferences in Batman and capital cities. As the opposition leader lurches to the left, regional Australia would be junked by those opposite—just like the live cattle export trade that they nearly killed some years ago. That they wanted to risk that industry showed a total ignorance of the beef industry, our most significant agricultural industry in this country. Labor just doesn't get it.

If the member for Whitlam, as shadow minister, is the closest thing that Labor has to having an MP with a rural or regional background, it is no wonder they have no idea. Let's face it: the member for Whitlam's career highlights before entering parliament included being national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union and spending time as a lawyer for the Australian Council of Trade Unions. That's it! That background, given he's the opposition spokesman, shows that he has no understanding of regional Australia. He has no understanding of the struggle in regional communities, the distress caused by a failed harvest or the long, lonely commute on country Australian roads just to access medical treatment—the sorts of challenges that our government is focused on supporting.

Regional Australia needs more than a weak opposition leader's weasel words—crab walking, if you like, from one position to another. They want jobs. They want opportunities. They, like the rest of us, want a standard of living that is appropriate for families. It's the coalition that has focused on regional and rural Australia. It's the coalition that is driving jobs growth and opportunity growth in regional Australia. Those opposite simply have no idea.

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I enjoyed the minister's contribution. I also have to make the comment that he is the third minister for regional development in three months! So committed are they to regional development that they've had a rotating door of regional development ministers, because they can't make up their minds! While these parlour games have been going on, inequality in regional Australia is growing. Not only is inequality growing between the cities and the bush; it is growing within the bush as well. While health and life expectancy outcomes are going backward in regional Australia, while incomes are going backward in regional Australia and while education outcomes are going backward in regional Australia, we have members of the National Party and Liberal-Country Party members coming into this parliament and acting like Liberal lapdogs and voting in favour of every single Liberal Party proposal that holds a knife to the throats of the people that they are supposed to represent. Well, Labor doesn't believe that this is the right thing to do by people in regional Australia. We think that the current facade that is going on in the National Party room has to stop. It has to stop.

Before question time today we called on the Prime Minister to do the right thing. If the members of the National Party can't make up their minds about who is going to be the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia on Friday then the Prime Minister must step in and do something. We've got the deputy leader who says that 100 per cent of the members of the National Party caucus are behind the Deputy Prime Minister. Well, we know that is not true. We know that the Minister for Veterans' Affairs has the numbers, even though he doesn't have the ticker to do the right thing by his party and by the people of regional Australia. He's got the numbers, but he doesn't have the ticker. Perhaps the bulldog—the member for Flynn—is the guy who's going to push him off the line. Didn't he give a leadership-type performance during question time today!

The real tragedy of this is that the people of regional Australia cannot wait for the hapless lapdogs of the Liberal Party in the National Party room to make up their minds about the future direction of this country. Already there is $500 million—that's right: over half a billion dollars—worth of projects in regional Australia that have stalled because these jokers can't make up their minds and they're too distracted by the sorts of things that are going on—

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Whitlam will withdraw that remark. It's unparliamentary.

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Which remark?

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You know what it was. It was a sentence ago.

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw. The members opposite cannot make up their minds, so the people in regional Australia are having to suffer. The minister mentioned the Regional Growth Fund—$270 million was promised nearly 12 months ago. There are no guidelines and not a cent has flowed from this fund, because the members opposite, and particularly the National Party members opposite, cannot make up their minds. They are so distracted by their own internal intrigue and their own problems that they can't even issue guidelines to their own fund to ensure that the people of Australia can have their projects funded.

On the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages that the minister mentioned: $220 million worth of funds earmarked to kickstart jobs investment projects in regional Australia. Eight of the 10 projects have not yet even started, because these guys are so tied up with their own internal problems that they can't get around to the job that they're paid to do. He mentioned decentralisation—well, there is a fraud if ever Australians have seen one. They talk about decentralisation at the same time as they are axing public sector jobs from regional Australia. I present Townsville as one example, but we also know that it is happening in Tasmania, and I'm sure the Tasmanian representatives will talk about that. Jobs were cut from CSIRO, jobs were cut from the tax office and jobs were cut from the Department of Defence—40 from Townsville in the last week alone, and over 400 since this government came to power. The people of Australia know a fraud when they see one. As I said before, it is time for the Prime Minister to end the farce. The battle between the Hatfields and the McCoys has to stop. The people of regional Australia need something better than this. The Prime Minister needs to step in. The Deputy Prime Minister needs to be axed. If the National Party can't do it, the Prime Minister should. (Time expired)

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this debate. Don't leave, Member for Hunter! Don't walk out on your own MPI. He has a bit of hide putting in this MPI. We've got old 'No Coal' Joel, who actually works against his own constituents—

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind the assistant minister to refer to members by their titles, and ask him to withdraw.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw. We do know that he is a member who, along with his colleagues, is working against the people of regional Australia. I hope he goes down the street in his own electorate, goes to Kurri Kurri or Cessnock, and says to the people down there: 'I'm here to put you out of a job. I'm going to Canberra every day to shut the coal industry down and to put you out of a job.' This member has the hide to come in here to feign concern for the people of regional and rural Australia. He's quite happy to sell them down the river so that they can win the Batman by-election. No wonder he has that tag that I won't refer to again—but the reality is that it is true.

By contrast, we are a government that supports regional Australia. We are a government that supports farmers. The white paper has had great success in improving farm gate prices and in supporting farmers. If you look at the achievements of the Labor Party in relation to the farming sector, it is a very short list indeed—in fact, I think it barely exists. Look at the work that we're doing on the Pacific Highway: $5.64 billion invested by the coalition government to restore the 80-20 funding split so that the duplication of the Pacific Highway can be completed some seven years faster than if the Labor government had remained in power. We are seeing duplications rolled out from Sydney almost to Grafton. There are two small sections to be completed and then we will have in the order of 600 kilometres of dual carriageway from Sydney almost to Grafton, a massive achievement. We've recently seen the opening of the Kempsey to Kundabung section of the highway, the new Hastings River Bridge, the Port Macquarie section of the highway, the Macksville bypass and the opening of the Phillip Hughes Bridge—a massive achievement and a massive investment in regional Australia. I'm certainly working hard as the local member in the seat of Cowper to move towards the commencement of the Coffs Harbour bypass.

We've introduced the jobs and investment package, a $220 million package, with $25 million being invested on the North Coast of New South Wales. Two million dollars is going to a great air-conditioning company, Faircloth & Reynolds, to build a facility to manufacture air-conditioning duct work, to construct a testing facility and for software upgrades. OzGroup received a million dollars under the regional jobs package to help them become more export-ready and to allow them to invest in research and development and advanced technology and robotics. We saw $338,000 for Stonelake to establish an advanced manufacturing facility to commercialise their patented facade system. This great local company has patents in 50 countries around the world. Those three projects will produce 60 jobs during the construction phase and 140 ongoing jobs. In Port Macquarie, Biodiversity Solutions received a grant of some $300,000 to assist that company establish a facility for the trading of biodiversity credits. There will be six jobs during the construction phase and 12 ongoing jobs.

We are a government that supports our farmers through free trade agreements. We've negotiated high-quality free trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea. Only on Monday this week we saw the signing of the Peruvian agreement, or the PAFTA, which reduces beef tariffs down to zero over five years and provides access for our local universities into the Peruvian market. Education is our third-largest export industry. On mobile phone black spots, our Mobile Black Spot Program is delivering for regional Australia. Labor did not spend one cent on mobile phones in six years in office—not one cent!

We are a government that supports regional and rural Australia. We are providing the infrastructure that is so needed, like the Pacific Highway upgrade and the Inland Rail. We are providing programs like the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages to support greater job opportunities in regional areas. We're assisting our farm sector through drought support, through free trade agreements and through negotiating access to markets for our products. We support regional Australia, and the member for Hunter didn't even stay for the debate.

An opposition member: Neither did yours.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before the member for Wakefield starts, I remind members present that this is not a team sport. It's only one at a time.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's interesting following the member for Cowper's audition for a return to the National Party frontbench. There's a bit of stuff going on in this building. We all know the National Party's got their delegations out. They're roaming around the place.

Government Member:

A government member interjecting—

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear a bit of feedback from up there. We all know that this is a government that has been divided against itself for so many years—a divided Liberal Party and now a divided National Party. They're divided on a couple of things. They're divided on their capacity to deliver for this country. They come in here and they always reduce rural Australia down to National Party seats. They don't want to talk about regional seats in South Australia, the Northern Territory, Western Australia or anywhere else.

The member for Cowper talks about telephone towers and mobile phone reception. My seat is in an area which was devastated by the Pinery fires. When I wrote to the Prime Minister and the minister about a mobile phone tower, guess what response I got?

Mr Rick Wilson interjecting—

Zero! I hear the member's interjection. He asked me about the South Australian government. Even in the second round, when the South Australian government did stump up some cash, guess what you provided? Zip, zero, in my seat; zip, zero, in the seat of Mayo. You only funded Liberal Party seats in South Australia. So don't talk to us about mobile phone coverage, because you're driven only by your own electoral prospects. That's the whole driver of the Liberal Party's or the National Party's approach to rural Australia. They just seem to get out the pork barrel—and it's a pretty limited pork barrel; it's a pork barrel that's only aimed at a seat at a time.

People in rural Australia need the same things that people in cities need. They need good roads, jobs, hospitals and good schools. I know because I've lived in country towns. I grew up in a country town. It's not that different to the city. People are always trying to make this difference. They need the services. They need the jobs. They need the schools. They need health. That's as simple as it gets.

Mr Tudge interjecting—

I hear the member at the box. He's interjecting in my speech, 'City boy!' But let's look at the record of the Abbott-Turnbull government. Investment in infrastructure has fallen by 17 per cent, and, in terms of roads, bridges, railway, ports and harbours, it has declined by 22 per cent in transport infrastructure. If we look at the underspend, on major road projects, it is 17 per cent. On major rail projects, it is 11 per cent. On northern Australian roads, it is 46 per cent. On the Bridges Renewal Program, it is 38 per cent. In terms of the Black Spot Program, which is very important in the country, there is an underspend of 33 per cent over the last four budgets. On the Northern Australia Beef Roads Program, it is 51 per cent.

Mr Tudge interjecting—

I hear the member opposite talking about everybody's sartorial splendour. That's not really the topic at hand. He's treating this like a joke. I can't blame him, because his National Party partners are a joke. We all know how concerned you are about them. You are held hostage to them and their whims and desires in terms of rural policy. You come in here and you're laughing about it, but it's no laughing matter.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member of Wakefield will refer things through the chair.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I will talk about infrastructure in South Australia. Over the next four years, federal infrastructure funding in the state will plummet by 90 per cent. It will fall from $921 million to $95 million over four years. You have to remember what will happen and where that won't get spent, and that's on South Australian country roads. That's where it's not going to get spent—that's South Australian infrastructure. Yet you have the temerity to come in here and joke about it and laugh about it; you think it's a big joke. The National Party slings insults all over the place, but anybody who has lived in regional Australia knows they need the NBN, jobs, roads, hospitals and schools—the exact same things that Australians need across the country.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My electorate is a big piece of western New South Wales. When I talk about rural and regional Australia, I often make the point—as I know you do, because you're my neighbour and friend—that 85 per cent of Australians live within 50 kilometre of the coast. That's exactly where the member for Hunter, the member for Whitlam, the member for Wakefield and, no doubt, the other members speaking in this debate live—less than 50 kilometres from the coast.

Mr Champion interjecting—

It may be a few kilometres either way, member for Wakefield. But the point I make, Deputy Speaker—

Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting—

Please don't interject. The point I make is that, to represent rural and regional Australians, you have to have lived a life in rural and regional Australia. The way the Labor Party talks about agriculture and regional and rural issues, as something separate from the rest of Australia, always amuses me. I'm a rural Liberal and I believe in uniting Australia, because when we get the city to take on the country's views as their own, as they do, then we really will achieve the best for our nation. But Labor tiptoes nervously around this space because they don't really understand it. Their members have not lived their lives in rural and regional Australia.

The important thing I really want to get across in the MPI is: why on earth would Labor bring it on on a day like today? Today is very important for my constituents. It's vital, because today there is a disallowance motion sitting in the Senate about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. You would understand that, Mr Deputy Speaker Coulton; you represent part of the basin. If that motion lapses, then the New South Wales and Victorian governments have said that the plan will, in effect, fall over. What's Labor doing about this plan that they signed on to in a bipartisan sense, the plan that was half theirs and half ours, the plan that, between us, we negotiated with our rural communities who suffered such great pain, and still do?

The people listening to this broadcast will listen to the to and fro. But now they can actually be certain that Labor is prepared to trade off rural and regional Australia for its own base political advantage. That's happening right here today, because, if by six o'clock tonight this motion lapses, that effectively cruels what we call the northern basin review. That was a scientific review undertaken under the auspices of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, not government, which actually made a very commonsense recommendation. It was signed on to by Labor, but now they're walking away from it. Why are they? It's very simple: because they're appealing to just one seat—the seat of Batman in Melbourne.

I know that, privately, the member for Watson, the opposition spokesperson, has indicated—because he's actually a decent fellow and he's honest about this—that it is a political exercise. What else could it be for an entire party to reject its own policy on something as important to every Australian as the Murray-Darling Basin Plan? That's exactly what they're doing with the one small seat of Batman, with people whom we love, but they don't really visit our areas and they don't understand what's happening in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys. I do. I live there. I represent them, and I know that right now they cannot believe what politicians in Canberra, in the Labor Party, are going to do to them. They expect it from the Greens. It's the Greens' philosophical base and they understand that, but to see the Labor Party doing this to them is particularly extraordinary. Remember this, everyone listening to this debate: if you want to trust the outcomes policy-wise for people in rural and regional Australia, there isn't an alternative to the Liberal and National parties. We meet as rural and regional Liberals, and there are about 30 of us. I know that, with the Nationals, there are another 20. That's a substantial proportion of all of our members. All of us are kicking goals for our people. All of us are conscious that roads, bridges, child care, education, access to university, access to TAFE, access to skills and everything that makes life in our part of the world so special is understood intrinsically and delivered by people who, as I say, have lived their lives in this environment.

I must focus on the NBN because the member for Whitlam has raised that, and he and I are both on the committee. Remember, this was a government that prioritised access to the NBN for people who weren't disadvantaged, and they are people in rural and regional Australia. So we're getting the NBN in rural and regional Australia before many people are in the cities. The entire rollout will be completed by 2020, but we're getting it first because this is a government that understands where the needs are. (Time expired)

Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was quite extraordinary. I will have to try to control myself. Never before has rural and regional Australia been so badly treated by this government. As the people who purport to represent regional Australia descend into chaos before our eyes, it is the people who live in regional Australia who are paying the price. It is little wonder that around this place the blue signs are appearing once again in office windows: 'Liberals for regions'. I think those signs say more about the National Party than they do about the Liberals.

It is the coalition that is failing regional Australia and my state of Tasmania. I am astonished that not one member on the other side has ever, ever, in my whole time in this place, talked about Tasmania with any knowledge at all. I'm not going to offer a map of Tassie; I'm sure the member for Lyons can do that. I guess it's because there's not one member over there from Tasmania. And that is because this government has trashed health, education, skills, biosecurity, infrastructure, the NBN, access to markets, and the list goes on for my state. Under this government there has not been one infrastructure project commenced in Tasmania. They cut $100 million out of the Midland Highway. They have not stumped up one extra cent in any budget for additional Tasmanian infrastructure.

I do welcome the return of Senator Colbeck to this place, but let's remember what he did as tourism minister for the state of Tasmania, his own state. At the last election, all he could find was $5 million for tourism infrastructure for Tasmania. When we have a tourism boom, he gives us a tourism bust. Absolutely extraordinary. For Cradle Mountain, the single biggest infrastructure project in tourism, he could only manage $1 million for a report for a $160 million project. When it comes to water infrastructure, which the Deputy Prime Minister likes to bang on about, not one new project has commenced, and every single water infrastructure project in Tasmania was started and completed by state and federal Labor governments.

Then, of course, there's the mythical $272 million Regional Growth Fund that the Deputy Prime Minister has gone missing on. Announced in last year's May budget with great fanfare, it's meant to provide grants of up to $10 million for major projects to support economic growth and create jobs in regions. The fund hasn't even opened up for applications, nine months after the budget. How typical this is of the Deputy Prime Minister—all talk, no action. In the Nationals party room they lurch from one regional development minister to the other, taking turns as to who the next minister will be. Three ministers in three months—not good enough!

But it gets worse. This government and Tasmania's Hodgman Liberal government have abrogated their responsibilities when it comes to protecting Tasmania's all-important brand. Under the watch of the former agriculture minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tasmania's reputation for being relatively pest and disease free has been put at risk. Our agricultural, horticultural and marine sectors have worked so hard to establish a national and international reputation for the Tasmanian brand, but we have seen Norwegian salmon on supermarket shelves, blueberry rust, Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome, and now a fruit fly emergency. Fruit is being dumped and farmers are locked out of markets. The Liberal Premier of Tasmania cut $1 million from Tasmania's biosecurity budget in his first term. The Prime Minister, aided and abetted by the Nationals, has abolished the COAG Standing Council on Primary Industries, failed to respond to the recommendations of the Plant Biosecurity CRC's fruit fly report and the Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity Review, and attempted to abolish the position of Inspector-General for Biosecurity. So much for standing up for regions and our farmers.

I could go on, but I have run out of time. I'll probably need another 10 hours to keep going on about how this government has failed not only people in regional Australia but in my whole state of Tasmania. The people of all electorates in Tasmania voted them out last time, and there is a good reason why. Labor here will make sure that regional communities in Tasmania will have the best result possible, and we need a Labor government to do that.

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to take part in this MPI today as a regional member who is very privileged to stand here looking after regional Australians and as a proud member of the coalition and the National Party. We went to the last election with a clear message of jobs and growth, and do you know what we've done? We've delivered them. We have delivered jobs and growth—indeed, 400,000 jobs in the calendar year 2017. That far surpasses anything the Labor Party has come close to, but very proudly I can say that 100,000 of those jobs were created in rural and regional Australia. That is success. The Barnaby Joyce-Malcolm Turnbull government is successful when it comes to looking after regional Australia. That's why the eight million regional Australians predominantly vote for us: because they know what the fate of a Labor government is. They know full well that a Labor government looking after regional Australia will be stopping the live export trade and absolutely slaughtering the bush and those associated industries and businesses that were supported—you know what: you'll do it again when you get in. All your greenie mates, who you'll rush to support, like you will in Batman—

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind the member for Wide Bay that he should be addressing the debate through the chair.

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like the Labor Party will in Batman, as they are already sucking up to the Greens. Regional Australia understands that voting in a Labor government also means a 50 per cent renewable energy target. That will destroy rural Australia. Energy costs for our rural producers will destroy—and we won't do that. We'll guarantee energy for our rural producers—our sugar farmers, our beef producers, our business people. Labor, sucking up to their Green mates, will not do that.

So what are we doing to have this great success in the regions? I'll tell you what we're doing. We are creating policies in relation to tax, infrastructure, trade and communications that support people in the regions. We're not crucifying them. When it comes to taxation and economic policy, we've introduced the Enterprise Tax Plan, where we are making it easier for regional small businesses. We're bringing the tax rate down to 27.5 per cent for those little cafes, little shops and corner stores in regional Australia. We're helping them, and we're giving them more money. Do you know what they'll do with that extra money? They'll grow their businesses. I know this is hard for the Labor Party to understand, but, when businesses grow, they employ more people—they employ more regional Australians. And that's how you grow the economy. And we are doing other things. We are introducing sensible policies like the $20,000 immediate depreciation on assets—what an eminently sensible idea—so that farmers can buy that piece of agricultural equipment and immediately depreciate it so that they have that money to invest back into their business, grow their business and employ people. Members opposite just don't know what I am talking about!

I will tell you what else we're doing to support regional Australians and regional business. Decentralisation is a wonderful concept—one I and the National Party fully support—but it's more than moving jobs out there; it's also building the infrastructure that encourages people to go to regional Australia. That's why we have a $75 billion infrastructure program that will deliver for regional Australia—like the $6.7 billion we're spending on the Bruce Highway to save lives. That's what we do. Recently I stood on the side of the highway with my leader, Barnaby Joyce, and spoke to him about saving lives. That's what he's interested in. He is interested in regional Australia. He is not interested in issues like the waste-of-time issues that the Labor Party are carrying on with at the moment—issues that Australians are not interested in. (Time expired)

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You know the place is in trouble when the National Party, that party of agricultural socialists, has been captured by Trump trickle-down economics—the failed economics of the far right, of the HR Nicholls Society. This confirms the fact that the National Party of Australia is now just a bunch of Liberals in big hats. That's all you are—Liberals in big hats. You've lost your country roots completely. To think that these characters over there think that a $65 billion corporate tax cut is going to do anything for people on the ground in country Australia is absolute madness.

There is no better example of this government failing rural and regional Australians than in my own electorate of Lyons, with just 55.3 per cent of 16-year-old kids in the suburb of Brighton in full-time education; youth unemployment at 23.5 per cent; wages averaging $45,000—far lower than the national average; digital inclusion at 45.7 compared to 54.5 for Australia; and a median life expectancy of 70 years of age for men in the Central Highlands in my electorate—14½ years less than those in the Prime Minister's electorate of Wentworth can expect to live. These are big gaps. What is this government doing to address them? It is going to cut $68 million from schools in Tasmania over the next two years; cut $58 million from the University of Tasmania; and keep the Medicare freeze rebate, which makes going to the doctor more expensive and more unaffordable in an electorate of low-income people which has some of the lowest rates of bulk-billing in the country.

In 2014-15, this government spent $910 on Medicare services per individual nationwide, compared to $536 for people in the regions. That is failing regional Australia. Patients presenting to emergency departments requiring urgent medical attention are being left in emergency departments longer. Only 66 per cent of urgent emergency department patients in Tasmania are seen within the recommended 30 minutes. More than half of all public hospital doctors are working unsafe hours, putting them at significant risk of fatigue, including 75 per cent of intensive care specialists. That's failing the people of Tasmania. The Australian Medical Association says:

… the strain and the pressure on our public hospitals is having a detrimental impact on the health of our doctors.

So what's this government's answer to health? To get in the back pockets of the private health insurance lobby.

Pre-tax profits of private health insurers increased 7.3 per cent in the 12 months to 2017. They're raking in $1.86 billion before tax. At the same time, out-of-pocket costs for ordinary Australians and Tasmanians continue to soar. Also, the premiums are going up, but what you can claim is going down. More than 12,000 Australians dropped their cover for hospital treatment in the last three months of 2017. They've been paying for private health insurance, but they know that when they come to claim it they're not going to get what they thought they were paying for. That's failing regional Australia. Out-of-pocket costs on private health insurance claims jumped by 31.7 per cent in just 12 months.

The list just goes on, as the member for Braddon said. We could spend hours here talking about how this government fails regional Australia. The NBN roll-out—where do I start? It's an absolute farce. Under Labor, the fibre-to-the-premises rollout would have covered 93 per cent of premises. It would have been a rollout that would not have left regional Australia behind and that would have seen medical and educational services available to people in regional Australia. What we are seeing under this government is a rollout where people in the town of Lachlan in my electorate—a town of 800 people—can't even get onto the internet in the afternoon when the kids get home from school. It's so slow, at one megabit per second, that they can't even do a speed test to see how slow it is. That's how bad it is under this government.

They are failing on industrial relations—kids not being paid properly for work, the PaTH rip-off for young people. It just goes on. What about biosecurity and the fruit fly incursion in Tasmania? What a massive failure of government it is to allow fruit flies to emerge in our state for the first time ever.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Seeing we have a Tasmanian contingent here this afternoon, I'm sure the member for Tangney would join me in wondering why we didn't get an acknowledgement that WA's GST is helping the Tasmanian economy considerably. When we get 34c in the dollar, Tasmania gets $1.83. It would have been nice to have an acknowledgement for Western Australians that we contribute massively to the Tasmanian economy.

This my second term in this House, and I've seen two firsts here today. I saw the opposition direct one of their questions to a chairman of a committee, and they were bulldogged by the member for Flynn. That was something I never thought I'd see, but I'm looking forward to seeing it again. The second 'first' was that the opposition used the MPI to ask a Dorothy Dixer. The member for Hunter didn't really seem to have his heart in it, and I can understand that. You're drawing the short straw when you are sent out to put up an MPI about regional Australia and the performance of the government in regional Australia.

I just want to run through a few of the great things that we've done in regional Australia. I'll start with agriculture, which is very close to my heart. We've seen agriculture's gross domestic product grow to $67 billion since we came to government. I give great credit to the government and particularly the member for New England, who was the agriculture minister through that first term in government, for this result. The agricultural competitiveness white paper made some very important investments in agriculture, and we're now seeing that come to fruition.

Alongside the free trade agreements that we signed in the first term of the Turnbull government, we have seen massive increases in our agriculture export products, which is being reflected in higher prices returning to growers. We're seeing wool prices at record highs, as I'm sure you'd be aware, Deputy Speaker Coulton, as a representative of a great wool-growing electorate. Today the eastern market indicator sits at 1,880c, which reflects about 1,200c per kilogram greasy, and that's a very strong return to the woolgrowers across your electorate and my electorate and the rest of Australia.

We also are seeing record red meat prices. We've seen record beef prices in the last 12 months, and we're currently seeing record sheepmeat prices. I believe that is to a very large extent a result of our free trade agreements, particularly the China, Japan and South Korea free trade agreements.

On the tax side: for the 18,000 small businesses in my electorate of O'Connor and the millions of small businesses across Australia, we've reduced the tax rate to 27.5 cents, on a trajectory down to 25 cents. We've also included instant asset write-offs. For assets up to $20,000—and farmers buy many of those assets—they can write them off immediately. We've also increased the upper limit for farm management deposits from $400,000 to $800,000 to better allow farmers, now that we are seeing some profits being made in the industry, to prepare for the tougher times.

There's a 6.7 per cent increase in school funding across the board in my electorate under Gonski 2.0—a great result for regional schools. I will get to what the WA Labor government have done to regional schools in a moment. In aged care, we've provided capital funding for many of the community-run organisations across the electorate. I would run out of time if I were to name them all, but that's another area where we have performed very strongly. I am going to run out of time, but I want to talk about what WA Labor, elected in March 2017, have done in regional WA. The first thing they were going to do was increase the gold royalty tax by 50 per cent to rip $392 million out of the industry, which was estimated to cost 3,000 jobs. We've had $64 million of cuts to education, which included, if you can believe it, an attempt to close the School of the Air. That is the iconic Australian outback organisation which educates kids across the outback of Western Australia. They attempted to close that down. They have now backflipped due to community pressure. But they are still going to cut school camps—two of them in my electorate, in Kalgoorlie and Pemberton. When I go around to the end-of-year school awards, I hear that the highlight of the year for the year 6 students was going to the Pemberton Camp School. The Labor government in WA will cut that school camp. Member for Hunter, please don't come in here to lecture us about regional Australia. (Time expired)

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This debate has concluded.