Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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

This Government's continued neglect of regional Australia.

I call upon those honourable 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—

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with a bit of sadness that I propose this MPI. Labor, for many years now, whenever they've been in government, have always been in an alliance with the Greens. Now they are in an alliance with the Teals. So we have a Labor-Greens-Teals alliance. What their actions, any decisions they make and the legislation they pass show is that they don't like regional people. They certainly don't like what they do.

Why would I say that? It's because, in this country, in the calendar year of 2023, we exported $650 billion worth of goods and services. I can tell you three-quarters of that, over $400 billion of that, came from rural, regional and remote Australia. I can tell you right now that they don't like what we do. They do not like what people in regional Australia do.

Of the four major things that we sell and the four major things that fund Australia's standard of living, the first one is iron ore. I had the great privilege last year to go to Port Hedland. I was out at a mine for a couple of days. I went and saw the wonderful infrastructure at Port Hedland. It produced over $100 billion for this country last year. Just by coincidence, the cabinet had a meeting that day in Port Hedland. They all flew in, had a meeting at an undisclosed location and flew out. That was their commitment to Port Hedland and the iron ore industry. There was no meeting with the industry, no minesite visit and no trip out on the water to have a look at what happens.

Another one is coal. Coal generates, depending on prices, $100 billion a year to this country. When have you ever heard the Prime Minister or the Treasurer talk about the coal industry? They won't. That's because they represent the inner-city elite. If you look at a map of Australian electorates and you look at the big regional and rural seats, you will see the colour green for my Nationals colleagues and the colour blue for my Liberal colleagues covering vast sections. The vast majority of the map looks green and blue because we represent the people who do this stuff.

The other big export is gas. The best the Treasurer could do was last year in his budget speech. The closest he has ever got to mentioning any of these industries was when he said 'the things that we sell overseas'. He couldn't mention the word 'gas', couldn't mention the word 'coal' and couldn't mention the words 'iron ore'. I've had the great privilege to go to Curtis Island to look at the impacts and investments in Darwin in the Northern Territory—they are funding Australia's life.

I will spend time on this later, but the last area or industry that funds this country's wealth is farming. From that side of the chamber over, you'd think that they'd look at this and go: 'You know what? Thank you for the electorates that you represent,' because we feed you, we clothe you and we make the products that build your houses. But there's no thanks; there's just demonisation from the other side. Unfortunately, it's because there has been a shift in the politics and trends of this country that that side—especially the Greens and the Teals and the Prime Minister—represent the elites. They represent the entitled people, whereas we are representing people who are having a go and creating wealth in this country.

Let's go to our farmers for a moment and go through some examples of what this government has done in this term that have demonised our farmers and regional people, what they do and how they do it. The most obvious one I'll start with is the most recent one, and we saw demonstrations last week—it's the live export industry. The Leader of the Nationals has said this many times in this House: we have the best animal welfare standards in the world, but from that side of the chamber and over, no—they demonise it because of the people they represent: the inner city. Let's go back 12, 13 or 14 years ago, because this has been going on a long time. We had the ABC—I can't remember who compered the program, but it would have been a Laura Tingle clone, as there are lots of them at the ABC—run a Four Corners report demonising the live export industry, and then what happened? Within days they shut the industry down because all the inner-city elites said: 'We know the facts; we've just watched the Four Corners report. We know how terrible this industry is. We've never seen one and probably have never been to a live export ship, but we know because we watch the ABC and we live in the inner city.' The government back then shut the industry down overnight. What we have seen is just a repetition of that. Besides the great shame of that decision, that was damaging not only to our live exporters but also our beef at the time. That wasn't bad for our farmers; it was exceptionally bad for our international relations. We had key trading partners and key neighbours who relied on that for their protein. But no, that's not important to this lot! It's all about the inner-city elites. It's all about the ABC and the Guardian. 'They know everything, we'll listen to them and we'll make our decisions about what this country does and what we can do and what we can't do—even though they don't represent most of the people who do that.

Regional people have worked this lot out. In Perth on Friday, we saw the protests there. My Western Australian colleagues were there. The movement is on and regional Australia have worked out that this lot do not like what they do. Another example I want to give is that in this term of government we have seen the Murray Darling Basin Plan. For all of my colleagues who work and live in this area, the devastation that is going to do—this is actually a pretty weird one, because you have got the inner-city elites who have worked out that the mouth of the Murray River should never close. That's weird in itself, because before we built the weir system you'd have a drought and the mouth would close up all the time, but we now have a weir system and we hold water back. They have now decided to take that money—and do you know who they're taking it from? I know you know. They're taking that water—and that money, effectively—from regional people, from farmers. That would decimate a lot of our farming industry. It's going to decimate a lot of country towns and regional centres. It just shows that this government, with their friends the Teals and the Greens, have no idea about regional Australia nor do they care about our farmers or how we do what we do.

There are other issues. My good friend the member for Gippsland—we saw some of this in the state government as well, but sometimes state Labor can be worse. They have now decided that we can't selectively harvest our own hardwood. So we're going to have a record amount of houses built but we are not going to have our own hardwood. If you talk to people about that, they go: 'Well, it's not good, but we do it very selectively. We do it very environmentally sensitively.' So now we're going to get it from Brazil or Indonesia. Or they're going to go over and ransack the forest there and do it there.

This is another one: marine parks. It's probably more state government related, but I know that the previous federal government, when Labor was in power from 2007 to 2013, had things to do with this. We import over 70 per cent of the fish we eat. That's absurd for an island country with the fishing grounds that we have. Our fishermen know where to fish, they know how to fish and they know how to protect breeding grounds. But, no, in their wisdom Labor governments, state and federal, have decided to shut down fishing. So we now import and eat fish from ravaged fishing grounds in South-East Asian countries. Again, it's just the absurdity: they don't like what we do and they don't like how we do it even though, as I said, we clothe them, we feed them and we make the products that build their houses. But they demonise everything we do. As I said, the Australian public—or the country public—are onto them.

We've seen other examples: another brainwave they had was to bring in a fresh food tax. That was going to be great for our farmers as well. What would it do? That would increase the cost of food. So the brainstorm there was to bring in a fresh food tax and increase the cost of living. Fortunately, we were able to block them on that one.

My time is running out, but I have a lot more to say. I could go through the renewable ransacking they're going to do for the environment. They want to build 28,000 kilometres for a new transmission system, Deputy Speaker. If you could see how that's going to ravage the environment—and I know that the member for Warringah doesn't want wind turbines in her electorate, but, hey, how dare we ever protest against wanting them in our communities!

Again, I'll just say that country people have worked this lot out. I've said it two or three times before: we feed you, we make the products for you to build your homes and we clothe you. Country people know that you don't respect them and they have sussed you lot out.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will just give a reminder: let's try not to reflect on the Chair in any way during speeches.

Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, that was a long 10 minutes! My electorate of Eden-Monaro, with the towns of Bombala, Braidwood, Bega Bungendore, Bywong and Binalong, absolutely meet the criteria of inner-city elites—absolutely! It's absolutely outrageous: townships of 200 people—absolutely they meet that criteria! What a load of bluff and bluster that was. If the member were so concerned about regional Australia, those over there only had nearly a decade to do something about it.

The previous Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government was known for being long on the story but very short on the delivery: all photo-op and no follow-up.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Page!

Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was nearly a decade which those opposite had to deal with regional doctor shortages, and what did they do? What did they deliver? Nothing. In fact when the now Leader of the Opposition was health minister, he froze Medicare rebates for six years, stripping more than $3.8 billion from the primary healthcare system, impacting regional Australia.

After nearly a decade that they had to deliver extra child care spaces in rural and regional Australia, what did they do? Nothing. In fact, it was widely reported that a bloke in the Liberal-National party suggested that working women using child care was 'outsourcing parenting'. After the nearly a decade that those opposite had to place Australia at the forefront of a global energy transition, they did nothing. To be fair, they did have 22 different energy policies that have never made it past an announcement. And now we have another one. It's only 12 weeks, and I'm waiting for the location of nuclear reactors for a nuclear policy that was announced only 670 days ago—so, according to the timeframes, we still have about eight years to go before we get anywhere. Apart from this load of nothing, the former government will be able to point to their record on sports rorts, carpark rorts and robodebt, or to a prime minister who swore himself into a further five ministerial portfolios—what a record!

When we came to government there was a lot to do, especially in regional Australia. We've made record investment in local roads across the country and we're progressively doubling Roads to Recovery to $1 billion a year. In the next five years the Albanese government will invest a total of $4.4 billion into the Roads to Recovery program. We are increasing road blackspot funding from $110 million to $150 million a year and rolling out our new $200 million Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program.

Local councils tell me this additional funding will be a game changer. But don't take my word for it; Councillor Tony Quinn, Mayor of Greater Hume Council, in the electorate of Farrer, wrote to me only yesterday to say thank you for the recent additional allocation under Roads to Recovery of $3,623,769 for his local government area, bringing their total funding to $11,388,908. Greater Hume Council has over 2,000 kilometres of road. Mayor Quinn said, 'This funding from the Australian government is vital to assist in maintaining this network, ensuring that it is safe, accessible and meets the needs of our growing community now and into the future.'

It's not just the good people of Holbrook and surrounds who will benefit. The shire president of Dardanup, in WA, Councillor Tyrrell Gardiner, in the electorate of Forrest, has written to the government to express his sincere gratitude for extra funding. The Shire of Dardanup will get $1,200,805 in additional funding, and Councillor Gardner said he is deeply, deeply appreciative of the Australian government's continued support for road construction and maintenance.

Our budget was absolutely focused on uplifting the regions, improving services to them and securing a future made right here in this country. The regions are front and centre of our $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia plan, a plan that leverages our world-class resources and ensures we can make more things right here in this country. It will grow regional economies and boost employment opportunities. We're investing $7 billion over the next decade to support critical minerals processing in Australia through the new critical minerals production tax incentives, which will stimulate regional jobs—something welcomed by the Nationals and Liberals in WA. What did they say? Libby Mettam, the leader of the WA Liberals, said, 'We will support this measure,' and the Leader of the Nationals in WA, Shane Love, said, 'It is essential not just for Western Australia and not just for Australia but for the Western world to pursue production tax incentives like this.'

We're continuing to respond to the urgent need to support our healthcare workforce with $116.2 million over five years to strengthen and support our health workforce, along with more rural GP training places. That's on top of incentives for doctors and nurses to work in our regions by waiving HECS fees. That's on top of the $3.5 billion incentive to triple the bulk-billing incentive. They are significant investments.

We know housing is critical to building communities and to attracting and retaining the workforces we need. For so many communities in our regions, including my own, housing numbers are already low due to natural disasters, which puts a strain on supply. That's why we have made the biggest investments in housing in over a decade, with $32 billion in housing initiatives—whether that be the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator Fund, which allows the state and territory governments some flexibility to make sure they can get more homes on the ground for Australians, or the Housing Support Program, which supports local councils and state and territory governments to get the enabling infrastructure in to get more building underway. We've expanded eligibility policies for the regional first home buyers guarantee, and I'm pleased to say this has already supported more than 18,000 people into homeownership in our regions. Minister Catherine King recently announced 40 successful applicants from the Growing Regions Program, which includes—you won't believe it—childcare centres in Loxton, South Australia, in the electorate of Barker, and in Cloncurry, Queensland, in the electorate of Kennedy. We don't just talk about it; we actually deliver on it.

Building homes or childcare centres starts with the need to back vocational training and education, particularly our trades—and it's no secret that tradies are hard to come by at the moment. It's why we're delivering an additional 20,000 fee-free TAFE places in the construction sector, building on the 24,000 fee-free construction sector places already secure today. We've supported over 100,000 regional people into fee-free TAFE already. We've added an additional 300,000 places nationally through to 2026, so we will see that regional number continue to grow. It's part of our $4.1 billion investment over five years to boost vocational education. This has been welcomed by small-business owners because we will support them to bring on the staff that they need to provide the services that we all love. We want regional people to be able to build skills in their own backyard and to continue to work in their local communities. That's on top of delivering 20 additional regional study hubs so people don't have to move hours away from home to study, like so many of us in this chamber had to do and so many in my community had to do.

We're investing significant amounts of dollars into the clean energy transition. There is $600 million in the 2024-25 budget to bolster skills growth and development in clean energy, construction and manufacturing. Opportunities in these sectors, particularly in the net zero future, are something regional people speak about often. Landowners and businesses want to be on the front foot of this, and so do we. That's why we are working with communities and putting them at the centre of our successful transition. This includes $20.7 million to ensure best practice engagement with local communities and landholders as new renewables are installed across the country.

There is absolutely nothing worse than having decisions made for you from Canberra without consultation when something is changed. Those opposite can go away and talk to their communities about this, but so many renewable projects in our communities happened under those opposite with little consultation, with no guidelines and with no guardrails. They happened to communities. Now you're out there whipping up fear like this wasn't happening when you were in government. It's an absolute shame that you're putting politics before getting outcomes for regional landholders. So much of our nation's prosperity is generated in our regions, and we understand how strong our regions are in building a bigger, stronger future for Australia.

We also understand that the pressure has been huge on families across regional Australia, which is why we've been providing support, like access to quality services, including strengthening Medicare and putting in place cost-of-living measures. We know that there is more to do to deliver for regional Australia. We are delivering outcomes for regional Australia which are tangible and which give them benefits, because issuing press releases is not enough to keep regional Australians happy. Delivering for them, including service, is incredibly important.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think there's one thing that all of us in this chamber can agree on, and that is that we should be thanking our farmers. We should be saying thank you to our farmers and applauding our farmers for the work they do. It's not easy. I'm sure those regional Labor members would agree with me that farming is a tough caper. It truly is. I'm glad that the regional development minister quoted WA opposition leader Shane Love, the Leader of the Nationals in Western Australia. I've also got a quote that I'd like to read to the federal parliament from one Mr Love, who described the shutdown of the live sheep export industry as a 'very black day for WA'. He said:

Minister Watt has furtively slipped unannounced into Western Australia, coming from Beef Week in his home state of Queensland, where he has no doubt been lauding cattle exports, to kill the live sheep export trade in our state.

That is what Mr Love said. He continued, and this is powerful stuff:

It is a gutless move from a belligerent minister who does not care about the impact this announcement will have on families grappling with a dry season, in the middle of seeding.

Imagine what Mr Love is thinking now. That was when the agriculture minister, Senator Watt, slipped into WA. Imagine what he's thinking now that the member for Ballarat, just on Monday, moved the legislation to ban the export of live sheep.

This is a black day for our farmers, not only in Western Australia but indeed right across the nation. I applaud the Western Australian police officer who put a 'Keep the sheep' sticker on his motorbike. Well done to him. That's a brave move. His view is shared by many in that state because they are appalled at the fact that an industry which operates under world's best practice, with world's best animal welfare standards, is being shut down by this government. They tried it with cattle in June 2011. They failed miserably then and they will fail miserably again because people power will rise to the challenge. It is a terrible move. I tell you what, Madam Deputy Speaker, when we take back government, whenever that is, we will reverse that move.

We're talking here about the neglect of regional Australia, and one of the dreadful changes made by this Labor government was to change the distribution priority areas for general practitioners. The distribution priority area classification means GPs can put up their shingle in, say, Newcastle, Wollongong or the Gold Coast and claim that they are in a priority area. What this change has meant is that GPs in regional, rural and, particularly, remote Australia are forced to compete with metropolitan centres, let's call them, for GPs. It's just wrong. Three hundred and twenty-four country towns do not have a doctor; the pharmacist is the only health professional in town. Yet we saw the member for Adelaide, the Minister for Health and Aged Care, being dragged by the nose by our pharmacists to reach a better deal when they signed the latest accord. Had it not been for those white-coat warriors, this government would have ridden roughshod over those pharmacists, those health professionals who were deserted in their hour of need by the Labor government.

The new rules around 24/7 nurses in aged-care centres, whilst I appreciate 24/7 nursing was one of the recommendations of the royal commission, have had a lasting adverse impact on regional aged-care providers, and they are closing down left, right and centre.

Then, of course, we've got the budget papers with the water allocations marked 'NFP', not for publication. Under this subterfuge, the government will not say how much water it's going to buy out of the Murray-Darling Basin, and this is causing alarm and panic within the river communities. The farmers will get a very big Commonwealth cheque and you won't see them for dust. But, let me tell you, the cafes and small businesses right across those river communities will be affected, because they'll have fewer customers and less money running around their economy. And this is at a time when businesses are going bust in New South Wales at a record level. Business insolvencies in New South Wales are up 61 per cent year on year on Labor's watch.

Labor are not protecting and preserving our regional Australians. Shame on you lot!

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

Madam Deputy Speaker, allow me to set the record straight on a few statements. This MPI can only be described as an absolute furphy and a complete distraction from the real story of what is going on in regional Australia.

I will start with tax cuts, because they are something that those opposite continue to ignore. Their stage 3 tax cuts would have benefited the highest income earners, meaning those on the lowest income, people earning the smallest amount, would have missed out on a tax cut altogether. That was their plan. As we know, many people living in regional Australia earn less. In regional Australia people are lower income earners by the nature of the work they do. Tax cuts are one measure that this government has introduced whereby all Australian taxpayers, including those in regional Australia, will get a tax cut and disproportionately those in outer metro suburbs and our regions will do better. Just like women will do better and younger workers will do better, regional workers will do better because they earn less. Under those opposite they would have got no tax cut; under us they'll get one.

Another change this government has introduced is the tripling of the Medicare incentive. The electorate that will do best under this tripling of the Medicare incentive—my own electorate will do really well, but I don't get to claim the top prize—is the member for Mayo's electorate, a regional electorate. What I mean by that is that more doctors are bulk-billing because of the tripling of the incentive.

There are the changes to the social security safety net. We've heard time and time again from those opposite that they represent some of the poorest electorates, and it is true that they have a higher proportion of people who are pensioners, who are on a Newstart, who receive rent assistance or who are single parents. These are all measures that we have improved since coming to government. There are also back-to-back increases to rent assistance and making sure we fairly index pensioners. Those opposite say that it's a budget blowout to index our pensions properly. There have been increases to Newstart. Electorates like Hinkler, Durack, Mallee, Braddon, Grey and New England, represented by those opposite, have more people receiving those benefit from us and doing better under our government—not under their government, under our government—because we understand and we represent communities that are disadvantaged. They are not just in the regions but also in the outer metro areas.

They try to claim that they represent all poor people. They don't. There is disadvantage in most electorates. We understand that because we represent the regions and the rural areas, as well as the outer metros and the cities. It is so disappointing that those opposite continue to throw up old rhetoric like 'inner-city elites'. It is just shameful that they try to wedge us that way, because it is just not true.

I do like the way they keep bringing up this issue of live sheep exports from WA. Those sheep are being trucked across the Nullarbor into electorates like mine, and spare land is being turned into sheep farms. Can I tell you the net result of that? We're having more sheep processed in abattoirs in my electorate, which is bringing the price of lamb down, so rural people, like all consumers of lamb, are now paying a fairer price for lamb. Lamb became superexpensive. Pensioners weren't buying lamb. But now, because of what has happened—it's the side of the story you don't want to talk about. We are seeing the price of lamb come down, and that is helping people.

When we talk about 'all regional Australians' or 'all rural Australians', you have to think past the rhetoric. It's not just about mining companies and big farm corporations; it's about the communities and the people that live in them: the pensioners, the workers, the self-funded retirees, the people who are struggling. Our government is delivering for them through the measures that I've mentioned and through measures that others on this side will mention. There are the changes to housing, the changes that we're bringing forward to help people. We are a government that cares. We are a government that understands because we represent regional Australia.

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I travel around my electorate and I meet constituents face to face, it is becoming more and more apparent that they feel they are being treated as second-class citizens. It is a shame on this government that they feel like they just don't matter, whether it's farmers, farming communities, people running small businesses or mothers who can't get child care—because there is a desert out there; it's called a childcare desert, and not a penny is being spent to deal with this issue. It is a crying shame, and those who are in the cities ought to be aware of just how much—as my good colleagues have been talking about—we actually contribute to the economy.

We on this side of the chamber are not surprised. In fact, we in the Nationals know Labor robs regions to buy votes in the cities. Labor has abolished through the forward estimates the very successful Building Better Regions Fund, the Community Development Fund, the Stronger Communities Program, Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, Roads of National Significance, the Regional Accelerator Program—do I need to go on? Yes, I do—the Regionalisation Fund and the Energy Security and Regional Development Plan. I might add that last month's budget gave the Mobile Black Spot Program a two-year death sentence as well.

Labor's Growing Regions Program, which they claimed would replace Building Better Regions alongside the Regional Partnerships and Precincts Program, has been so delayed that it has now been two years since regional communities received a cent under the equivalent region-building programs. In my own electorate, only one Growing Regions application has been successful—one program for 83½ thousand square kilometres. It was $5 million for the Swan Hill riverfront. I don't begrudge them that, but what about the other 11 councils? Swan Hill also received $650,000 under the Regional Partnerships and Precincts Program. I would like to be able to say that other councils in my electorate received some funds as well. They deserved it. All 12 councils deserved funding. Did they get it? No, they did not, and there is no promise that funding is coming. Under the Growing Regions Program, Labor rejected 90 per cent of the applications, despite the department deeming 300 of the 380 applicants as being suitable for funding. Only 40 projects were funded and, damningly, $94 million from the Growing Regions Program round 1 was left unallocated. Who does that?

At a Victorian level, the Andrews and now Allan Labor government axed the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund of more than $100 million per year, stranding shires and councils in electorates like mine that relied on joint state and federal funding to get projects off the ground. Under Minister King, Labor have changed the funding requirements, requiring a greater proponent contribution. Mallee shires simply cannot commit that money without a Victorian government funding partner. Remember the 90-day infrastructure review? Minister King's review ran for over 200 days in the end, further delaying the rollout of infrastructure, like upgrades to the Calder Highway, the Murray Valley Highway, the Sunraysia Highway and the Western Highway and the long overdue replacement of the Swan Hill Bridge.

Our roads in Mallee are abysmal. I drive them regularly. At least my car has decent suspension, but the experience is still literally painful. Constituents tell me they are having to repair their cars due to the many potholes that Labor have not lifted one little pinky to fix. It's worse than abysmal; it's downright dangerous and it's threatening lives. That's what a combination of nine years of Victorian Labor and two years of federal Labor and a scorched earth approach to regional Australia does to you. It should be criminal. Regional Australians drive on dangerously damaged roads, and shires have also been stranded by Labor's promise to increase their funding. That can wasn't just kicked down the road; it was kicked into a pothole called a 'local government sustainability review', which is yet to report and, unless we have an early 2025-26 federal budget, won't see more funding during the life of this 47th Parliament. It is a shame.

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

This MPI is abysmal in every way because it is built on a foundation of lies. The fact is that those opposite love to foment division in this place. One of the ugly truths of what they do and their politics is this nasty little comment that they use about so-called inner-city elites. I've just done a little bit of research. Let's look at the so-called elite—somebody with a Bachelor of Economics, who had a career in finance, who worked for the money markets, who worked for Colonial State Bank for 10 years, who has a Graduate Diploma in Education, who taught business studies and commerce, who was a director of a local super fund and who was at the centre of power in this country for 10 years. That's the member for Page, who stood at the dispatch box just now and talked about elites. He is one of the most elite people in this place. Don't get me wrong; I think it's fantastic. It's fantastic that the member for Page has a Bachelor of Economics. It's fantastic he went and got a Graduate Diploma in Education. But don't come in here and deride other people for having professional abilities. Don't make yourself out to be a man of the earth. It's absolutely disgraceful.

The people on this side of the House have the great honour and privilege of representing Newcastle, Bendigo, Ballarat, Bellarine, Queanbeyan, Townsville, Maitland, Ipswich, the Somerset region and Gosford, amongst other places. Fully one-third of Australians live in the regions, and those of us on this side of the House have the great honour and privilege of representing those people as well. It really does cause me great distress when those opposite make this false allegation that they are somehow the arbiters of regional Australia and those on this side are not. It is disgraceful and it should stop.

The other point about this MPI is that it is just based, as I say, on lies. The facts speak differently. The Albanese Labor government is committed to working on regions and funding. We are doubling the Roads to Recovery funding from $500 million to $1 billion per year. We're increasing road black spot funding from $110 million to $150 million per year. We're merging the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program and the Bridges Renewal Program into a new $200 million Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program. That's a $50 million increase. We're delivering $250 million more to phase 4 of the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. With the Growing Regions Program, our government is investing $600 million over three years into regional and rural Australia, including $11 million in Tasmania. There is a whole list of others.

The member for Bendigo made the excellent point that, on 1 July, every single Australian taxpayer is getting a tax cut, and that includes every taxpayer in regional Australia. It particularly includes those many taxpayers in regional Australia who earn under $45,000 a year, because proportionally there are more people in regional Australia earning under $45,000 a year than there are in the cities. So regional Australians do better with those tax cuts that a Labor government is delivering and that those opposite wanted to deny. Those opposite wished to deny those tax cuts to regional Australians.

We are also delivering energy bill relief of $300 for every single Australian household, including for regional Australians. More than half of the Medicare urgent care clinics we have opened in this country have opened in regional Australia. We have got 100,000 people in the regions going through fee-free TAFE. We've got 20 more regional university study hubs. We've got $7 billion over 10 years for critical minerals processing, stimulating regional jobs. We've got $8 million over 10 years for the hydrogen production tax incentive—regional jobs. We've got $835 million over 10 years to grow Australian solar manufacturing—regional jobs. We've got $7 billion over four years on Snowy Hydro. We've got $3½ billion to triple bulk-billing incentives, with many of those benefits in regional Australia.

This government has regional Australia at the centre of our thinking. We are the party that represents the shopkeepers, the supermarket workers and the fast-food workers who live and work in regional Australia and who were all let go and forgotten by those opposite in 10 long years of Liberal-National government.

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a known fact that everybody in Australia is worse off under the Albanese Labor government, and those in the regions are a lot worse off. Those opposite probably don't even know where the regions are. They're the big bits that are outside the city. That's where the food and fibre come from. They don't come from the supermarket. They don't come from Coles or Woolworths. The regions are where your fruit and veggies, your milk and your meat come from—out of the regions, not just out of the big supermarkets.

The regions are also where all the minerals come from, where the coal comes from—one of our biggest exports. That's where our iron ore—the biggest export in the country—comes from. Our gas comes from the regions. That's why all we ask in rural and regional Australia is to get a little bit of money from the government back to look after rural and regional Australia. What about this week? We've just had the announcement of the closing down of the sheep trade. The closing down of the sheep trade is a flocking insult. It shows that the Albanese Labor government has no idea what the flock is going on.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're skating pretty close to the water there. If you intend to be unparliamentary, I will absolutely pull you up.

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for your guidance, Deputy Speaker. The flock is a group of sheep, and that's what I'm trying to educate those opposite—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think we all know where you were going, Member for Dawson. Just keep it out of here.

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. I'll take your guidance. I appreciate your guidance.

We're going to see fourth, fifth and sixth generations of farmers have to walk off their land. They're going out of business. But this whole decision hasn't been made on science; it has been made on political science. It has been made by those opposite to make sure that they keep their Greens coalition safe and make sure that they can look after their inner-city voters. But the neglect continues. Look at the fishing industry and the ban of gillnets. That was by those opposite and was supposed to save the Great Barrier Reef—a gillnet doesn't go within 50 miles of the Great Barrier Reef—but it's totally killing our fishing industry. And it's not only our fishing industry, but all the chandleries, the ice-makers, the net builders, the people who do the floats and the anchors, and the boatbuilders. The flow-on effects through rural and regional Australia are absolutely enormous.

The latest brainwave—the family car and ute tax—where they guillotined the debate. You didn't even want to hear from us and you didn't even want to hear from our people. Most people in my area drive a four-wheel drive—they have a Land Cruiser, a ute, a Ford Ranger or something like that. It's what we actually need. But, no, those opposite want to steer everyone into electric vehicles. Listen to this: electric vehicles can't carry the weight, they can't tow the loads and they can't cover the distance. They're just not practical for rural and regional Australia. Again, this is just another attack on the people out in rural and regional Australia. You're taxing them out of existence.

What about the utes for our tradies? Tradies are flat out affording a ute now, so when they have to pay this extra money for a ute they're going to have to put that on the bill. Once again, those opposite are driving up our cost of living.

Then there's the Bruce Highway. Have a look at the Bruce Highway in my electorate. It's how farmers get their product to market and their supplies up from the city. There's no money for the Bruce Highway. There was half a billion dollars from the coalition, but nothing there.

This reckless race to renewables that Labor seems to be prosecuting at every opportunity is really hurting rural and regional Australia. You're taking out all the good quality agricultural land and putting solar panels on it, wiping out tops of hills, native vegetation and koala habitats so you can put swindle factories in—the big fans that only work about 20 per cent of the time anyway. They don't work when the wind is too short and they can't work when there's too much. This is really bad. It's about time Labor stepped up and started to look after rural and regional Australia.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's an old saying that's used a lot in the country when you hear something like that—'You've clearly been drinking the water downstream from the herd.' In other words, it's full of nutrition. It's just a rambling mess of untruths and factless stories that get told. And all these scare campaigns amount to nothing.

I know the National Party are a bit like goldfish, with a four-second memory, but let's remember that prior to May 2022 they were in government for 10 years. The National Party, which was once the party of farmers but is now the party of what's under the earth, have walked away from farmers for decades. As far as they're concerned, the only thing that farming land is good for is digging the minerals out from underneath it. They've run away from everything they stood for, which is what you'd expect when they're only averaging around 3.6 per cent of the national vote. But they expect to control things. They attack the Greens, but the National Party can't even get a quarter of the Greens' vote. They're absolutely useless.

I love the member for Riverina, but from Deputy Minister to second fiddle to the member for Page—that's an absolutely steep drop.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's an office you'll never hold. Trust me.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know, but it's an office that I haven't tried to get. One good thing is you can't fail. But you did. Let's go through and have a talk—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let's direct our comments through the chair and lay down the personal insults.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The fact of the matter is that the Nationals have some of the poorest electorates in the country. This is not new; this has been happening for decades. It's been happening for decades because it's always the National Party that leave their electorates behind. The reason they have poor education, low incomes and all the other job opportunity failures is that there's one consistency—National Party representation causes that. We heard before the absolute rubbish that was spewed out about what we did with the district workforce shortage stuff in relation to doctors. Well, none of them would know, but there are places like Kyneton, Woodend, Gisborne and the Mitchell shire, which is now half-represented by the absent member for Nicholls. That lot changed the doctors rating to 1, which treated rural communities the same as Brighton, which is where old Bridget used to live. So you've got to sit there and say, 'How can you come in here and attack us, when more money gets invested in rural and regional committees under our government than ever is under your government?' It was your lot that changed the doctors rating to make rural and regional towns the same as inner city.

Now, let's have a think about what they did when they were in government. The Inland Rail is four years behind, $15 billion over budget and getting nowhere. It's just an absolute joke that they come in here and waste our time, and waste the parliament's time. You'd think that they might actually be standing up for farmers. That's what it's about. You'd think that the leadership would have all the knowledge and the wisdom of farmers, but I think the only time the leadership over there ever went on a farm was to foreclose, because that's what they do. They just come in here and waste time. They don't talk about the positive things or how we can actually build to make things better.

In 10 years of government, they couldn't get a thing done, yet in our first budget we delivered $15 million to the hub in Seymour, for which the member for Nicholls was quite happy to get out of his box, make his first trip to Seymour and say, 'Look at that! Isn't that great?' But he never apologised to the community for waiting nine years to actually get that done, because it took a Labor government to do it. The Macedon Ranges Regional Sports Precinct covers a big area that takes in all the Macedon Ranges and surrounding areas. It gets all the kids and all the people together for sports. For nine years it was asked for, and each year it was knocked back by those opposite. We got into government and we funded it straightaway. And, now, what do we see? We see these magnificent facilities in regional Victoria that are actually delivering benefits for kids and their families.

If you want to talk about road funding, I'd be happy to talk about that for days. Let's talk about the $50 million for the Watson Street interchange, which was promised to be delivered after the member for Riverina and I went to a tragic event in my electorate. Fortunately, he wasn't still there, but his replacement then took that money away. And when they promised to put $50 million into the Hume Highway, what did they do with that? They took that away as well. So the only constancy you have with the National Party, if you vote for them, is that they will take away from regional communities just look after themselves.

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

I rise to speak on this motion as a rural or regional member of parliament from the Sunshine Coast. Members opposite—in fact, the infrastructure minister—announced a 90-day review in relation to infrastructure.

Cameron Caldwell (Fadden, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Has that been finished?

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

It's finished now. It took something like six months to get the outcome, but that's what members do on that side of the House. Those opposite, the government, are continuously crowing about housing and how they are going to fix the housing problem, but let me just run this little ditty by you. When the results finally came out about the 90-day review, the government cut a project, the upgrade to the Mooloolah River interchange, that we funded when we were in government. This is $160 million that the former federal government promised to meet the state government on—the hopeless Labor state government—in Queensland. We offered to pay 50 per cent of the first stage. It would've been when you were Deputy Prime Minister, Member for Riverina.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The golden age!

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

The golden age. We offered $160 million. That was scrapped altogether as a result of the 90-day review. It was scrapped, gone. But guess what? Not only is this the Sunshine Coast's most dangerous intersection, where you've got lanes coming in all over the place and merging—it is a really dangerous intersection—but we offered to fix it. We offered to pay half of it. They scrapped it. But it gets worse, because the state government—same party—about a week after the announcement was made to withdraw $160 million, sent the bulldozers in and demolished 100 houses in the middle of the worst housing crisis that I have seen in my 56 years. They bulldozed 100 houses to make way for an Mooloolah River interchange upgrade that now is not going to happen. Can anybody explain to me the wisdom of governments where the federal government not only cut that $160 million but also, the very next week, sent the bulldozers in to demolish houses? Those people, those families that lived in those houses, would have been dislocated on the Sunshine Coast, because trying to find a house on the Sunshine Coast is like to find a needle in a haystack. It's almost impossible.

I'll give you another example: the $7 million that we contributed to Third Avenue access into Caloundra—cut through the 90 day review. That wouldn't be a rounding error for the federal government, and yet Labor cut it. It just makes no sense. The railway line that we committed to when we were in government from Beerwah to Maroochydore—this government and the state Labor government have cut it into a third. We are getting a third of the railway line for twice the price. That's what's happening to infrastructure under this federal government.

Finally, just to top off why this Labor government has no concept about regions, I had a ginger grower ask me to come to his farm the other day—a ginger grower in the Glass House Mountains, Jacques is his name—and he was telling me about the biosecurity tax that those members opposite wanted to introduce to require local growers to pay a tax on the protection of bringing other goods into this country. (Time expired)

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government is delivering for all Australians, whether you're a taxpayer, a pensioner or a self-funded retiree, whether you live in a city, a suburb, on a back road or a busy road. Speaking of roads, there is so much roadwork going on in Australia at the moment. In fact, in my own seat, and in Hunter more broadly, we are spending a record amount—over $3 billion on roads.

I have been speaking about the incredibly important M1 extension Raymond Terrace bypass since I was elected in 2016. I couldn't be prouder to be part of a government that is delivering this. My neighbouring electorate, the city of Newcastle, is so pleased to be getting a bypass that's finally getting some work done. As you drive around the Hunter region, you can't help but see roadworks. And I know at the moment it is frustrating—we all want the roadworks to be finished and completed—but they are under way. And let me tell you, it is much better to be having delay and disruption than delay and denial, which is what we had for the previous 10 years. The coalition government didn't want a bar of this roadwork. Finally, we have been elected, and together with the state government—and it's a great example of the state and Commonwealth governments working together—we are delivering. We are building that M1 extension. It won't only benefit people in my electorate and the Hunter region more broadly—we're magnanimous in the Hunter, and we're helping to help everyone!

It's going to help the 'city elites', as the coalition keep referring to them as. They are good people—I don't think they're elite; they just live in a city—and often they want to leave the city. They want to drive through my electorate to go to beautiful places like Port Stephens, which is still in my electorate. At the moment, they have to stop at a set of traffic lights, go over a flyover, then go over another flyover, turn left, turn right and sit in hours of traffic. Well, we are building a new road to fix that. It is because we are responsible government that not only has been able to deliver a tax cut for every single Australian taxpayer but also has been able to deliver roadworks.

This week, we have been able to sign a deal with our pharmacists that ensures cheaper medicines for every single Australian. That is really important to the people where I live as well. We do not distinguish between city and bush; we want all Australians to do well. All Australians are going to receive the energy rebate. We know that it is so important to deliver in government.

I think this is where the coalition have missed the mark. They had 10 years to deliver for the Australian people. They had their opportunity. Sadly, they found it very difficult to land an environment policy. Defence ministers—well, there were a good number of those. So, in terms of talking about the security of the Australian people, I think there were some gaping holes there. We are a government that is hellbent on delivering, and we're going to keep doing that.

We're going to keep doing it through things like incentives for a doctor to bulk-bill. I want to give a big shout out to Dr Chris Boyle at the Raymond Terrace Family Practice. He is working so hard, as he has done for 40 years at that practice alone, helping the families of Raymond Terrace be well and feel good about their health. This is where good government really comes into focus. We can come into this place and talk about all of the achievements that we want to have, but when you actually speak to people who have been serving their community you might hear them say: 'I am happy to keep doing this job. I love it. I just want a hand.' That's what this government is doing.

We are delivering for people who are not earning a lot of money and who want a wage rise. They received that this week: 3.75 per cent, thank you very much, from the Fair Work Commission. They're going to get a tax cut from 1 July. These are the things that people in Australia really care about. This is what they look to their government to deliver for them. This government is not just making empty promises. Every day, hard-working ministers and the Prime Minister get out of bed and make a difference for Australia. I'm proud to be a part of this.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Time has now expired. Thank you.