Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

1. notes that:

a. the population of Australia has reached 25 million, a decade earlier than anticipated;

b. there are significant opportunities to grow the population in regional Australia and the planning needs to be put in place and the plan needs to be developed together with the communities it will impact;

c. this Parliament has completed multiple inquiries that outline:

i. the actions governments should take to address the impacts of population pressure; and

ii. actions to address the pressure on the telecommunications, infrastructure, social services, education and health care needs of regional Australia;

d. the Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities report Harnessing Value, Delivering Infrastructure (November 2016) called for the Government to promote a better balance of settlement through decentralisation to the regions linked by faster transport connectivity and particularly through high speed rail; and

e. the Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation report Regions at the Ready: Investing in Australia's Future (June 2018) called on the Government to state its regional development policy through a comprehensive Regional Australia White Paper, considering:

i. regional Australia's population needs as part of the broader national context, including urbanisation, ageing, depleting populations in smaller towns, and migration;

ii. the use of the skilled migration program to support regional development;

iii. improving education and training of young people, in particular Year 12 completion rates—in regional areas;

iv. the development of a national regional higher education strategy;

v. the need for access to information technology, strong and reliable communication, specifically mobile phone and NBN;

vi. the need for strong and reliable transport infrastructure to support passenger and freight requirements;

vii. the role of amenity and social infrastructure, specifically the cultivation of social, cultural and community capital in supporting regional development;

viii. incentives and strategies to improve private sector investment in regional areas; and

ix. the role and funding of local governments to better support regional areas; and

2. calls on the Government to deliver on the recommendations of the Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation, Regions at the Ready: Investing in Australia's Future, including stating its regional development policy through a comprehensive Regional Australia White Paper, following a Green Paper public consultation process.

Colleagues, it gives me great pleasure today to move this motion on policy around population and the future for regional Australia. We've recently heard the Prime Minister tell us that he's now got a new generation of leadership. So my call-out to the government is: let's have a new generation of leadership around regional development and the policy that goes with regional development.

Recently, the parliament presented a report called Regions at the ready. I was part of that inquiry and I'm really proud of this report and the recommendations in it, and I'll refer back to it.

We are at the ready. The regions are at the ready. They're ready to grow. They're ready to do the heavy lifting that's needed to, over the next hundred years, make Australia the wonderful place it is. Communities are at the ready. My communities are organised. We've got growing businesses. We've got people moving to the regions. And we're really keen to grasp and to create, for the whole of Australia, the wonderful opportunity that we know we've got in the regions.

In my electorate we've got the Hume RDA, Regional Development Australia, organisation. They're coming to parliament later this week to talk to government about their long-term strategic approach to not only north-east Victoria but southern New South Wales. So my community are at the ready, but what we're missing is government. Where are the government when you need them? Today I call on the government to please respond in a very timely way to our report. Tell us how you think population, which is very important, is going to be integrated in all the other things we know we need in rural and regional Australia. We're going to be talking about infrastructure and how important that is. What we really need is an approach that is inclusive. The answer is not just to send migrants to the country. That's part of the solution. We learnt when we did Regions at the ready that we need an integrated strategy for how that's going to happen.

Our report developed some very important principles. One of the most important pieces of work we did as part of that regional inquiry was to talk about a comprehensive green and white paper process that would result in a report to government on how population would fit into the whole infrastructure of Australia. I want to read into Hansard one of the recommendations from this report. I want the government to hold steady before it makes its announcement about population and say how that approach to population is actually going to fit in to what we need the regions to do. I ask that it consider the skilled migration program. There are things we could do to make that work better.

We need to talk about education, training and skills development. We need to talk about the completion of year 12 and the transition to TAFE or university. In my electorate of Indi those numbers are really poor. We have very few people taking up higher education. We really need to do something about it. We need to link into a regional higher education strategy that will give the people who live in the country the opportunities to get the training they need. We need to talk about effective communications—having mobile phones and the NBN work. We need to talk about public transport, high-speed rail and rail infrastructure that really work. We need to talk about the role of amenity, social infrastructure, culture and community capital to support the lifestyle of our communities. We need to include incentives and strategies to increase private sector investment in the regions.

We really need to pay attention to local government. I have got nine local governments in my electorate of Indi. They are at the coalface. They are under resourced with finance and under resourced with the people and the things they need to do the high-level planning involved to bring a region to its potential. They need resources. More than anything else, the Commonwealth government needs to pay close attention to the knowledge, experience and skill of local government. We need to vertically integrate local government, the state government and the Commonwealth government so that they're all working together to put the people who want to live in the regions into places where they're going to be welcomed and where there's the capacity and ability to grow.

My call out today is: sure, we need to think about population but we really need a strategic approach to how the regions are going to grow and how the population, particularly migrant and skilled people who come to the regions, have the resources they need.

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

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my friend and colleague the member for Indi for bringing this important issue forward. I also recognise the member for Ryan, Jane Prentice, who some years ago worked on the Sustainable Cities Taskforce, which commenced our work in this area. I'm honoured to chair the Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities, which tabled the report Harnessing value, delivering infrastructure, which also benefited from the member for Indi's expert contribution.

The debate today is timely because in just a few hours time the committee will be tabling another report Building up and moving out, which builds on many of the same themes. These include the importance of master planning so we can avoid the disastrous sins of the past and increase the incentivisation of moving people to the regions through infrastructure like high-speed rail.

I often get asked, as an MP who represents a seat in the northern suburbs of Sydney, why I am so passionate about regional decentralisation. This motion mentioned that the population of Australia has reached 25 million a decade earlier than anticipated. The vast majority of this new population has chosen to reside in Sydney and Melbourne. The result is a huge increase in house prices in my electorate, a construction boom that is dotting high-rise developments across our suburbs and a resulting increase in the number of cars on our roads—a number that our roads cannot hold. As a result, our infrastructure is playing catch-up. The metro line that goes through my electorate will make a huge difference, but it won't be open until thousands of new residents have moved into the electorate. Similar issues face the residents of Meadowbank and, particularly, Melrose Park, who will be served by the proposed light rail, when it opens, years after the 10,000 new homes being built will already be occupied.

This is why we need a master plan in our community. We need to plan infrastructure alongside land use, and we need to find ways to encourage people to move into the regions. The regions of Australia offer a fantastic alternative to city life. There is less congestion and associated stresses, communities are tighter and cost of living is usually dramatically lower than in the cities. But who can take advantage of these huge benefits if there aren't the jobs or the opportunities? This was the central question of the two inquiries in this motion today and in the inquiry that will be tabled later today.

The answer has been unequivocal: connectivity is what we need to unlock our regions. Regional centres need to be connected to the existing business hubs in our capital cities before they can compete with them. The simplest way to do this is through high-quality transportation infrastructure that can move people and goods between the regions, the cities and distribution sites. If people can get between these hubs we won't need to force migrants into our regions or to transplant departments. People will want to move there as they recognise the benefits and quality of life there. Departments, as well as private enterprise, will follow, seeking the competitive advantage of lower costs, as well as following a new client and customer base. Fast rail and integrated transport links will be the silver bullet for our regions.

The second part of the motion calls on the government to deliver on the recommendations of the Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation. I would like to extend this request to the two inquiries by the Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities. The response to the first inquiry was timid, and I would hate to see a similar response to the one being tabled today. Parliamentary inquiries are underappreciated tools that gather, on the ground, evidence for the benefit of ministers and departments. Months of work go into these documents from both the deeply committed secretariats and the scores of Australian organisations who feel the need to give their independent and critical insights into these vitally important policy areas. These two are substantive reports that contain a strong evidence based plan on how to solve the many problems of our settlement, and they must be taken seriously. Here lies the opportunity to commence a battle of ideas and vision—a far more attractive contest that may even restore respect for our leaders.

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

I'd like to thank the member for Indi for bringing this motion forward to the parliament. I agree with the member for Bennelong on his comments in relation to the work of committees—the very important work that we undertake as members of parliament and something that government ministers should look at a little more closely in terms of implementing the recommendations from them.

I want to focus my attention on my regional electorate of Braddon, what five years of a coalition government has meant to the people of Braddon and what a Shorten Labor government will deliver for us. In my region, the north-west and west coast of Tasmania and King Island, we have so much to offer: we have a temperate climate, affordable land, the regional campus of the University of Tasmania and expanding advanced manufacturing industries, and we produce some of the highest quality products you will see anywhere in the world. Despite all of this, my region and many regions across Australia face many challenges. We have an ageing population, a growing digital divide, poor school retention rates, low university graduation rates and some of worst health outcomes in the country. What we need is a government that is truly prepared to stand up for regional Australia.

A key driver of increased educational outcomes in my region is the University of Tasmania campus in Burnie. But rather than support the university, this government has cut $175 million and put a cap on university places. You can't cut so much money and not expect for that to have an impact, particularly on regional communities like mine. How can you attract people to university if you are limiting those places? When it comes to skilling our workforce, again, this government has dropped the ball. I was just talking to some young female apprentices. I said to them that, on reflection, I've never heard this government talk about TAFE or apprenticeships, which is shocking. Under this coalition government, the north-west and west coasts of Tasmania have lost 700 apprenticeships since 2013. Instead of focusing on building TAFE, this government continues to cut it. The 2018 budget cut an extra $270 million from TAFE and training, on top of the more than $3 billion of cuts in previous budgets.

Services are so important to regional Australia, with an ageing population reliant on government services. Regional Australia is also at a digital disadvantage compared to the cities. It therefore makes sense not to cut Centrelink jobs, those face-to-face jobs. A lot of people in my electorate are on the age pension and cannot use a computer or myGov to access those services. This government has cut 6,000 jobs in that time. Those cuts to regional communities are sadly continuing. Only last week we heard of another 30 jobs cut from your area, Deputy Speaker Bird, the Illawarra. In my electorate in the cities of Devonport and Burnie, there are 30 empty desks at Centrelink. I gave evidence to the committee on decentralisation last year and told them that we have some fantastic services. We have Department of Human Services and ATO officers in my electorate in the cities of Burnie and Devonport who can undertake work that is not relevant to where they are; it's nationwide work. The ATO in Burnie is one that exceeds all key performance indicators. This is why jobs in regional communities—public service jobs, full-time jobs, well-paid jobs—are very, very important.

Sadly, for my community, where we have a high prevalence of chronic disease, this government chose to cut more funding out of health. We saw the campaign they launched in the Braddon by-election about how that is not the case, but they've cut $11 million from Tasmanian hospitals this year and next year. They've also cut a program called TAZREACH, which is a program that brought specialists to regional communities. In Tasmania we do have a lack of specialists. These specialists were coming from Melbourne or Sydney and holding regular clinics at places like the Devonport super clinic, the west coast of Tasmania, Circular Head and, of course, King Island—remote communities. That service was cut in 2016. But I'm really pleased to say that, under a Shorten Labor government, we would reinstate that program, $4½ million for TAZREACH, to get those specialists back into regional areas of Tasmania. We'd also increase Department of Human Services staff by 50 in Burnie and Devonport, based at Centrelink, who provide Medicare services, with five of those people being outreach staff. They would go to areas like the west coast and King Island to provide those face-to-face services, because people can't travel to the centres and they certainly can't wait hours and hours on the phone to get the complex support that they need. We will also be putting more money into hospital services, cutting the waiting list in Tasmania, with $30 million—much, much more than this government is proposing.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am a great believer in the power and potential of this great nation. That's why I rise to support the spirit of this proposal and this motion in this place. When you look at the history of this great continent and what has been done, it's been done through hard work, through sacrifice, through people seizing the opportunity of the land in which we live to build this nation's future. The principle behind this motion is precisely that—to allow Australians across this country, as well as people who are new Australians, the opportunity to be part of the continuing vision of Australia and its opportunity.

Where people want to invest in the future of this country we should empower them to be able to do so, so that they can enjoy the fruits and opportunities that have been provided for generations past and can be provided for those into the future. That's why we should support decentralisation, because what we want is the opportunity across the great expanse of this continent to be able to harness and utilise it for the benefit of Australians and future generations. But, more critically, we shouldn't just look at decentralisation—isolation being about people, although it is. Decentralisation goes to the core of Liberal values and Liberal philosophy, about who we are and what we want for this great nation. Decentralisation isn't just about moving departments or bureaucracies out of capital cities. It's about building the foundations of our country across the continent and making sure political power is close to the people it's designed to serve, because the closer power is to the people it's designed to serve the more likely it will reflect the values of that community, the aspirations of that community, have a higher degree of accountability and make sure that it's more in touch with the people who want to see a better Australia.

That doesn't negate the fact that this government has made landmark, significant and historic contributions to the decentralisation of Australia, empowering those communities and strengthening them from the community up—not simply from Canberra down. We've seen the historic investment in Inland Rail, that will link the Port of Brisbane to Port of Melbourne, transforming freight movements throughout Victoria, New South Wales and South-East Queensland while promoting economic opportunities for jobs and growth in those regions. This empowers farmers and empowers employers in those communities to take the goods and services they provide and export them to the world.

To build, repair and upgrade local roads, we're investing $4.4 billion in the Roads to Recovery Program. The Black Spot Program of $684 million for seven years from 2021 is delivering safety improvements so that those who drive outside of capital cities and freeways can make sure they can get to their destinations safely—and they can be the safe communities where people want to live. The local bridges are also being fixed, with $420 million for the Bridges Renewal Program. Maintaining higher living standards in regional areas requires us to manage economic transactions effectively.

But it isn't just the regional centres that are yearning for the opportunity to empower and build the many smaller cities in this country. The call and the demand is also coming from our capital cities. In the Goldstein community I speak so often to people who worry about the congestion, the obligation and the burdens that are now sitting on our overstretched roads, our overstretched hospitals and our overstretched schools. What Australians want to see, and Goldstein residents want to see, are more Australians being spread out across this country because they see their opportunity and their future there. This will take the pressure off our capital cities and make sure that there are other choices and other opportunities, particularly for new and young Australians who want to have their fair share and their fair go of investing in the future of this nation.

That's why there's been such a strong push by the state opposition leader in Victoria, Matthew Guy, to shift the focus from building up a city state around Melbourne—a wonderful community and a wonderful capital city, which I am very privileged to represent and be part of—to make sure that we go from being a city state to a state of cities, empowering those rural and regional communities to realise their ambitions. The more the state and the federal governments work in concert to deliver those outcomes then the more we will develop and deliver the services that Australians want and the standards they expect, and the more we will build this great nation's future.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a member of parliament representing a regional area of Australia, the cities of Darwin and Palmerston in the Top End, I support this motion put forward by the member for Indi. The member for Indi is a very hardworking and effective advocate for her community in northern Victoria. I think she's a great example of that. No-one can go near her office here in Parliament House without being drawn in to see the magnificent Indi quilt, which so beautifully depicts her electorate.

There's nothing like the mansplaining from the member for Goldstein, who, after talking about bridges, quickly moved on to talk about his privileged inner-city Melbourne electorate—nothing quite like that mansplaining!

My purpose, as well as supporting the member Indi's motion today, is to point out three areas that he could take back to his boss, where they can do a lot better when it comes to the challenges facing regional Australia.

It's now been 516 days since the city deal for Darwin was announced, but not one single dollar has gone anywhere near Darwin. Have a chat to the new Prime Minister about that—the money's been allocated.

Government Member:

A government member interjecting—

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know from leaks within the honourable member's divided and shambolic muppet show that the money has been allocated for Darwin for the city deal but we're still waiting after 516 days. If that doesn't reek, I don't know what does. The NT government and the City of Darwin are ready to go, so what's holding that funding up?

I know that the former speaker talked about decentralisation. It's not supposed to be from regional Australia to large capitals on the east coast, but that's what we've seen with the Australian Electoral Commission. It has—wait for it—moved the Indigenous Electoral Participation Program staff, public servants in Darwin, to Brisbane so that they can service regional areas of the Northern Territory from Brisbane. That's one example. Just getting rid of the ATO in Darwin is another example. Slashing the number of Public Service staff in the Australian Bureau of Statistics office in Darwin is another example. Slashing jobs with the Australian Broadcasting Commission in Darwin is another example. And now we hear they're after the BOM, the Bureau of Meteorology. Is there a federal public servant that you won't cut out of regional areas of this country?

Of course, we saw under the former Deputy Prime Minister that the APVMA was moved to his electorate. Public servants go to some regional areas of Australia, but, apparently, for everywhere else, including areas of Australia that get cyclones, they're looking at withdrawing the Australian Public Service, like weather forecasters, out of the Top End of Australia. It's just nuts. It's bordering on immoral, and that's not even the worst of it. Take Charles Darwin University, this Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government is ripping $30 million out of Charles Darwin University. As the previous speaker, my friend the member for Braddon, said, 'If you don't understand the importance of regional universities'—like Charles Darwin and the University of Tasmania's campuses around regional Tasmania—'then you don't understand regional Australia.'

So you've got a lot of work to do in the current government, for however long it lasts, to, as the member for Indi said, get a regional Australia plan, a strategy. It'd be a good start. Start getting to terms with the real impacts of your policies on regional Australia. The Northern Territory government is leading by example, and I'm leading by example. I'll give you a quick couple of examples of how. They've got a population strategy. They're putting their money into our local community, where they're waiting for the federal government to do anything at all. I recently ran a population strategy, because we're serious about the absolute need for us to build population in regional Australia, and we want some support from the federal government.

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

I rise to speak on this PMB. As has been pointed out by many of the speakers this morning, one of the great opportunities, particularly for regional centres like my own, is the decentralisation of not only the Public Service but also there are opportunities within Defence for trade with local ports. I think we do need to continue to focus on identifying the regions in our areas which would most benefit from support, particularly at a federal level. Planning is a state matter. It is a state and local government matter. There is no doubt about that. But at a federal level we do have levers which can direct policy and, in particular, for areas like mine, we can direct high-paying jobs and highly skilled jobs into a region which desperately needs them.

In my electorate, we have a per capita income each year of just $34,000—it is the lowest in the country. We have an unemployment rate of over nine per cent and a youth unemployment rate of around 27½ per cent, right now. This is completely unacceptable. So what are we doing? As the local member, I'm trying to increase the opportunities for jobs in our region, and to do that we need to put more strands into our economy. We're a very strong agricultural producer and it's a great place for tourists; I invite you once again, Deputy Speaker Bird, to come up and see the whales at Hervey Bay or the turtles at Mon Repos, take in the culture or the ambience, even on to the islands and the beaches. There are great opportunities for tourism, but we do need to strengthen our economy and make it more resilient. There is an opportunity to do that with decentralisation.

Can you imagine what a 500-person department would do for one of my major centres—for Hervey Bay or Bundaberg—on an average wage of above $80,000, as they tend to be here in Canberra? I reflect on the contribution last week of the member for Canberra, who was adamant that no-one should shift from Canberra. I understand that, as a local member. But as an individual, as a member of parliament and as a taxpayer, my view is very straightforward: we should be able to spread the benefits that the Australian taxpayer provides not only to the public service but to all levels of government so that all Australians get that opportunity. There are opportunities right now to decentralise into the regions. It does need to be strategic; it does take planning; you certainly need to move people to an opportunity where there is betterment for them.

Right now, in the city of Hervey Bay you could buy a house for $250,000, you can take a flight directly to Sydney every single day, you can live in one of the most spectacular parts of our country and go to the beach in the afternoons. It is a real opportunity, and it is the reason that so many people retire to my area—they can sell from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, buy a very, very good house locally, have a substantial amount of money left to fund their retirement and live in one of the most wonderful places in our country. I understand why they do it, but we need to continue to drive our economy.

We also do need to look at regional immigration, as has been suggested. We are built on a nation of immigrants, apart from, of course, those who were here before us. Looking at some of the famous names around my regions—Arnicars, Asnicars, Bertollas, Santa Lucias—can I suggest that they weren't amongst some of the first people; they've come across for opportunity and that opportunity was around work.

We can drive opportunities into the regions. Through decentralisation, we can drive high-paying jobs into the regions. We can make policy decisions about regional immigration, which will provide very, very high-paying jobs, support and skilled people where they are needed, but it does need to go to an area where that region agrees. Where local councils and others agree to a regional immigration plan, I think that should be supported. But it shouldn't be into those areas of high unemployment already. We need to build the economy in those local regions, particularly in mine, because of the difficulties that we face right now. To do that, the government is providing infrastructure, as mentioned by the member for Goldstein, including: the Roads of Strategic Importance initiative at around $3.5 billion, a $75 billion infrastructure investment plan over the next 10 years, and a substantial investment into the Bruce Highway, which is the lifeline of regional Queensland. Without it, we cannot provide our products to the Brisbane port, and we cannot get our people down there to get services such as health care and additional education facilities. We have good local universities, but we need that linking infrastructure to continue to build our local economies.

Whether it's ports, whether it's roads, whether it's rail or whether it's airports, this coalition government is delivering for the people of regional Australia and regional Queensland in particular. We do need to plan into the future. The question I put is: where is our next million-plus head population centre? Where is the next one? We should be planning for the future for that opportunity, and we should do it.

Debate adjourned.

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

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.