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

by leave—On behalf of the Albanese Labor government, I'm proud to deliver our fourth regional ministerial budget statement.

I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of where we are today and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Across our first term in government, our message to regional Australians has been loud and clear—your postcode shouldn't be a barrier.

Just because you grow up in Bega, on the NSW far South Coast or in Gladstone in Central Queensland and just because you live at Mount Gambier in regional South Australia or in the Pilbara Region in outback WA doesn't mean that the services and the opportunities available to you are second best.

I say this as a proud regional member of this place and on behalf of my fantastic regional colleagues here with me today.

I say this as someone that's always lived in our regions—from Traralgon in regional Victoria, to Merimbula on the NSW far South Coast—where I watched my parents work hard every day to build a small business and to provide our family with a better life.

It is in a regional community where I myself now run a small business with my husband and where we're raising our kids.

And I say this as someone that's had the privilege of spending a lot of time talking to regional people across Australia—both as the member for the mighty Eden-Monaro and as the Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories.

From the Hunter region in NSW, Caboolture in regional Queensland, Devonport in Tasmania to communities across the 42,000 square kilometres in my electorate, regional Australia is a great place to live, to work, to study, to visit and to invest—and I wouldn't live anywhere else.

Our regions generate a third of the nation's economic output, and there are so many opportunities that our government wants to take advantage of.

You'd be living under a rock if you said life outside of our big cities doesn't come without its unique challenges; it absolutely does.

Unlike those opposite though, on this side of the House we're not shying away from that.

I'm proud to be part of a government that, across its first term, has delivered record investments to improve the reliability and the accessibility of critical services that regional people rely on to support more regional people to work and train closer to home, because you shouldn't have to pack your bags to build your career; to build more things in our own backyard, investing in the hard work and know-how of regional people; to give regional Australians more support to buy or rent a home; to support local businesses and local economies to grow, with small businesses in particular the backbone of our regions; to ensure the local roads we drive every day to drop the kids off at school and to get to work are safe and keep pace with growing communities; to improve our major highways linking our cities to our regions so more visitors support our local businesses and experience everything we have to offer; to keep our regions connected and better prepared for natural disasters, something that so many regional communities, including across Eden-Monaro, have needed to rebuild from; and, most importantly, to relieve immediate pressures on regional families and businesses, which, let's not forget, those opposite talk a big game on, despite opposing every single cost-of-living measure to date and committing to tearing apart every measure that'll support regional Australians into the future.

While we're delivering record investments to build regional Australia's future, the wreckers opposite are determined to leave regional communities, which aren't the right colour on their spreadsheets, behind.

The Albanese government is delivering better outcomes for every regional community, because we're addressing the challenges, harnessing the opportunities and taking the needs of our regions seriously.

Through our Regional Investment Framework, we're ensuring targeted investments support regional people, the places they live, the services they need, and the industries that stimulate our local economies, with investments through the 2025-26 budget building on everything we've delivered across our first term.

Investing in p eople

Our No. 1 priority has been easing pressures faced by regional families and businesses today, while supporting more work, training and economic opportunities outside of our big cites.

We've delivered tax cuts for every regional taxpayer—a huge impact for taxpayers in my own electorate of Eden-Monaro, putting an average of $1,633 back into their pockets—with two new rounds of tax cuts on the way, which those opposite just voted against.

We've delivered $300 in energy bill relief to millions of households and $325 to small businesses, along with cheaper child care and cheaper medicines.

We've cut $3 billion in student debt, with a further 20 per cent to be cut if we're re-elected.

And we've supported over 127,000 free TAFE places in our regions—from construction courses to child care.

We're getting more people into industries that are screaming out for workers, after those opposite gutted the vocational education system during their failed decade.

We've introduced legislation to make free TAFE permanent—something those opposite have said they'll repeal, because, as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said in this very chamber, 'If you don't pay for it, you don't value it.'

But I want my kids and every regional person to know that your postcode and your bank balance shouldn't limit your potential.

Through this budget we'll provide additional cost-of-living relief, along with increased investments to remove study barriers, and $1.8 billion to provide all households, and around one million small businesses, with an additional $150 in energy bill relief.

We've also added $800 million to expand our Help to Buy scheme to support more people to get into their own home—including in our regions.

This builds on the 32,000 regional Australians we've already helped into homeownership, through the regional home guarantee.

There is $626.9 million to support $10,000 incentive payments for construction sector apprentices—with $7 million to increase the living away from home allowance for apprentices.

As an operator of a small plumbing business that hires apprentices, and having recently spent time with bricklaying apprentices at Queanbeyan, I know that every cent counts when you're starting out, especially when you're living away from home.

That's why we're boosting apprentice wages and we're easing cost-of-living pressures—because we value their hard work and we know that building this workforce is essential to delivering more homes.

My mum, my dad, my brother, my sister and my husband all went to TAFE, which is why I'm incredibly proud to be part of a government that is strengthening this sector—and ensuring more regional people can build a better future.

Through this budget, we're delivering $407.5 million to states and territories, as part of the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement.

This is record funding to give our teachers, including in our regional schools, more support—to lift education standards, and to better support students from kindergarten through to year 12.

And, if you want to go on to further study, fantastic. Existing investments like the 56 regional university study hubs we're delivering—from Port Augusta, in South Australia, to Goulburn, in my own electorate—will mean you don't have to leave the region that you live in and love.

A further $33.6 million will flow to the Clontarf Foundation to support up to 12½ thousand First Nations boys and young men access better education support.

We're delivering record investments to continue improving the affordability and accessibility of regional health care—because when you need to see the doctor, or when you need to buy a script, your street address and your wallet shouldn't stop you.

We've already delivered $3½ billion to triple the bulk-billing incentive, supporting over 2½ million additional claims across regional Australia.

Through this budget, we're investing an additional $7.9 billion to deliver more bulk-billing to all Australians, including in our regions.

Having delivered the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, we're now making medicines even cheaper.

$689 million to bring a PBS script down to $25, keeping more money in the hip pockets of regional Australians—with our pensioners and concession card holders to continue paying $7.70 for PBS medicines until 2030.

$792.9 million to deliver more choice, lower costs and better health care for women—including the first PBS listing for a new oral contraceptive pill in more than 30 years along with more bulk billing for long-term contraceptives, more endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics to treat more conditions, and more Medicare support for women experiencing menopause.

Investing in Services

Regional health and aged care were left in crisis under those opposite—a mess the Albanese government has been cleaning up from day 1.

We've delivered $17.7 billion to fund increases to the minimum award wage for aged-care workers—not only to support and retain these critical workers but also to ensure that our loved ones get the care that they need as they get older.

We've delivered an additional $1.6 billion to strengthen our public hospitals and to reduce waiting times across the country, bringing our hospital funding to a record $33.9 billion in 2025-26.

We've also increased the number of regional GP training places, along with waiving HECS for doctors and nurses that work in our regions—getting more skilled workers where we need them most.

Through this budget, we're investing $662.6 million to grow our health workforce.

There will be hundreds more GP and rural generalist training places to grow the future pipeline of GPs—with fairer salary incentives for junior doctors who choose general practice as their speciality.

100 more Commonwealth supported places for medical students a year from 2026, increasing to 150 more by 2028—with a focus on encouraging students to pursue general practice in our regions—and hundreds of scholarships for nurses and midwives to help meet our current and future demands.

A re-elected Albanese government will deliver another 50 Medicare urgent care clinics across the country, from Burnie in Tassie to Bega in my own electorate, with our $644.3 million investment.

This builds on the 87 Medicare urgent care clinics we've already delivered, which are making a huge difference in our communities.

Of these 137 clinics, 48 are in our regions, from Broome in WA to Townsville in Queensland and Tamworth in New South Wales.

The urgent care clinic just down the road in Queanbeyan has already supported over 7,000 fully bulk-billed presentations in the last nine months alone.

Rusty, a local constituent of mine, told me about the huge difference it made for him when he had an infection.

He walked right into the clinic and received the help he needed, for free—a service that's also supported his children and grandchildren.

As Rusty said, this type of clinic is critical to taking the pressure off our hospitals—as we continue to rebuild the health sector.

But regional services like this will cease to exist under those opposite, because you only have to look at the billions that were cut from Medicare by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the health minister to know their plan for Medicare is nothing but cuts.

No government has done more for regional services than the Albanese government—but health care wasn't the only service completely abandoned, during the wasted decade, by those opposite.

We're already investing $2.2 billion to strengthen regional communication, particularly in disaster-prone areas—after programs like the Mobile Black Spot Program were pork-barrelled by those opposite.

We've invested record amounts of money in the NBN, where we've seen half of some streets and half of some suburbs being stuck on unreliable copper, including just 15 minutes down the road in Jerrabomberra.

It takes more than a bit of string and a can to run a small business or to work or study from home.

In this budget, we're providing an additional $3 billion in equity funding to NBN Co to complete upgrades for all remaining fibre-to-the-node premises, including connecting an additional 334,000 regional premises to high-speed internet.

A service that we can't forget would be sold off to the highest bidder under those opposite.

We're also introducing a universal outdoor mobile obligation—requiring telcos to provide access to mobile voice and SMS almost everywhere across Australia. This will have huge benefits for regional and remote communities, particularly during emergencies and disasters.

Natural disasters are something that many regional electorates deal with, including my own of Eden-Monaro, and we've felt this deeply, which is why I'm really proud that our government established the National Emergency Management Agency. We've seen the support that it's provided to regional communities, most recently in Queensland and New South Wales during ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Our $1 billion Disaster Ready Fund continues to support regional communities to be better prepared.

And our additional $35 million investment to boost our national aerial fleet gives regional communities more emergency support when they need it most.

But it's not just during disasters when our regions need reliable aviation.

Despite the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate telling Sky News just last week that the opposition had been fighting for a more competitive aviation sector—the reality is that they sat idle at the departure gate.

They did nothing with the Sydney airport slot review handed to them in 2021, something we've responded to with our own Aviation white paper.

And they've said that keeping Rex Airlines' regional routes operating during the voluntary administration process is sabotaging the sale process.

I'm really proud, as is every member of my constituency, that the Albanese government has kept Rex's regional flights in the air, with an $80 million loan facility to Rex administrators and additional support to reduce the debt that Rex owes, because for regional communities like mine these flights are critical to our local economy, they're critical to accessing important health services, and they're critical for just getting around.

The reality of living in our regions is we need to travel longer for some services, which is why we'll continue to stand up for a strong regional aviation sector.

Investing in places

We all know travelling by car is generally how we get around, though, which is why we've already increased local road funding for every council across the country.

Roads to Recovery funding is going up from $500 million a year to $1 billion per year, road black spot funding has increased to $150 million per year, and we've launched our $200 million per year Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program—all while continuing to invest in major transport projects—because every local community should have confidence in the roads that they're driving on.

In his budget reply last year, the Leader of the Nationals said those opposite would deliver the strong infrastructure funding pipeline that our regional communities need.

But let's not forget, when they were responsible for the infrastructure pipeline, it below out from 150 projects to 800 projects, without a single dollar extra being added to the budget, and without the delivery taking place.

Regional communities deserve much more than promises in press releases with no follow-through, which is why we continue to deliver critical projects to build regional Australia's future.

Funding through this budget includes $7.2 billion for the Bruce Highway safety upgrades in Queensland, $200 million towards duplicating the Stuart Highway from Darwin to Katherine, $40 million for the Main South Road upgrade in South Australia, and $1.1 billion towards upgrades along the Western Freeway in Victoria.

After colour coded spreadsheets from those opposite, we've delivered on our commitment to establish transparent grant programs that every postcode can apply for.

Our $600 million Growing Regions Program is already supporting 112 projects, with 29 projects supported under our $400 million Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program so far.

I had the pleasure of visiting Wagga's Lake Albert—one of this region's most popular recreational sites, which will be completely transformed thanks to $4.4 million in growing regions funding.

Projects like this that are making our regions better places to live, to work and to invest in but having more housing to attract and retain those workers is something that every community tells me they need, which is why we've already committed $32 billion in housing measures, including over 13,000 homes nationally under the first round of our Housing Australia Future Fund—many of those in our regions.

And that's more than those opposite delivered in an entire decade—when they had no plan for building, and their only idea for turning more keys was letting people raid their super for a deposit.

But, to their credit, they've now said that they will fund enabling infrastructure—labelling this a fantastic idea.

It's so fantastic, we're already doing it—through our $1.5 billion Housing Support Program.

That that has supported great projects, like the $27.2 million program to support upgrading Marulan's sewage treatment plant in the mighty Eden-Monaro, which lays the foundation for more housing.

Through this budget, we're delivering $54 million to turbocharge advanced manufacturing of prefabricated and modular homes, which gets more homes into our regions where we need them most—lifting our total housing commitments to $33 billion.

Investing i n i ndustries and l ocal e conomies

More housing is a key part of how we're building regional Australia's future, and it is supporting our regional businesses and our regional economies to grow.

Under those opposite, car manufacturers left our shore, which left our regional people behind.

But Labor has always had the back of regional manufacturing, and we've shown that again with our new investment of $2.4 billion with the South Australian government to save the Whyalla Steelworks, supporting 1,100 direct workers, and encouraging more investment into Australian made steel.

This builds on our existing $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia agenda, ensuring we build more in our own backyard. It includes over $500 million to boost Australia's battery manufacturing capabilities, and $1 billion to supercharge the production of solar panels in our regions.

Our investments are putting regional communities at the centre of industries of the future—unlocking more secure and well-paid regional jobs, and ensuring that we train and retrain our regional workforces.

This includes $38.2 million to boost the diversity of our STEM workforce, with a focus on supporting more women to secure jobs in these critical industries.

Through this budget, we're delivering further investments to build regional Australia's future—by leveraging the competitive advantages that come with our vast energy resources, our world-leading agricultural sector, and regional innovation.

$250 million to accelerate the pace of Australia's growing domestic low-carbon liquid fuels industry will help to drive economic growth and jobs in regional areas, as well as $1 billion under our green iron investment fund to boost green iron manufacturing in our regions.

This builds on our existing commitment of $2 billion to support aluminium smelters' transition to renewables—in places like Portland, Victoria; Tomago in NSW; and in Queensland's Gladstone region.

From our factories to our fields, we're backing our regions—with $11 million to tackle established pests and weeds in our agriculture and forestry sectors—keeping them productive.

And an additional $20 million for a new round of the On Farm Connectivity Program so farmers can use the latest technology to make their work more efficient.

And $20 million to encourage more Australians to buy Australian made products, which will have huge benefits for regional economies—because so much of what we love and rely on comes from our regions.

Close

In his budget reply last year, the Leader of the Nationals said the opposition will take decisive action to give regional Australians a fair go.

But all we've seen since then is those opposite continuing to vote against every single cost-of-living measure, while petrifying regional communities with their nuclear thought bubble.

An idea that was announced with zero consultation, and most importantly—one that will deliver zero savings for regional Australians and their power bills.

Since my last regional budget statement, the Albanese government has continued to relieve pressure on regional families and businesses, while improving access to the services and the supports regional people rely on—regardless of their postcode.

Through our 2025-26 budget we're delivering more energy bill relief, making cheaper medicines even cheaper, and providing extra support to get more regional Australians into their own home.

We're strengthening Medicare. We're expanding regional health services. We're delivering further investments to boost regional connectivity, and we're investing in more support to help build workforces in our in-demand sectors.

That's because only the Albanese government is serious about building regional Australia's future.

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's been three long years since the Albanese government was elected, and we all remember the election night, when the Prime Minister stood before the nation and declared, 'No-one held back; no-one left behind,' a pledge that was supposed to be the government's guiding principle. However, with another dismal Labor budget handed down last night and with a federal election on the horizon, those words ring hollow in regional, rural and remote Australia. There are millions of men and women in the regions—the people who drive our economy, grow our food and fibre, power our resource sector and work tirelessly in healthcare, small businesses, tourism and manufacturing. This government has failed them. These proud, resilient Australians deserve better. After three years of a weak and incompetent government, regional Australia is hurting. Under Labor, our regions have been abandoned and forgotten. Under Labor, our regions have been held back and left behind.

Year after year, budget after budget, we've seen damaging policies inflicted on regional Australia by a government obsessed with ideology and out of touch with reality. The results? A cost-of-living nightmare crushing Australian families; a farming sector strangled by workforce shortages, made worse when Labor scrapped the dedicated agricultural visa and damaged the PALM scheme; billions slashed from regional infrastructure and water projects; an outrageous proposal to tax Australian farmers to pay for the biosecurity risks of their foreign competitors; a healthcare crisis worsened by the gutting of distribution priority areas for overseas trained doctors, which is ripping GPs from small, rural communities and sending them to the cities; prime agricultural land, native bushland and pristine coastlines sacrificed for industrial-scale transmission lines, solar panels and wind turbines, all to prop up Labor's chaotic renewable agenda; bipartisanship torn up on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to push through damaging water buybacks; a new emissions reporting burden on primary producers, threatening the productivity and competitiveness of our agricultural exports; a hike on popular vehicles, forcing up the costs of SUVs, four-wheel drives and utes; and, in Western Australia, sheep producers seeing their livelihood shattered by Labor's decision to shut down the live sheep industry.

This government has waged a relentless war on regional Australia, and last night's budget shows that this pain is far from over, because there is absolutely nothing in it for regional Australia other than more ruthless Labor cuts. Right now, regional Australia finds itself at a critical crossroads. The men and women who live in this part of our nation simply cannot afford another three years of the Albanese government. Over the past three years, Australia has descended into a cost-of-living crisis—a crisis that has pushed families and households in the regions to the brink. We've seen the biggest fall in living standards in the developed world. People in regional Australia are asking the question: are we better off now than we were three years ago? The reality is that, under the Albanese government, Australians are paying more for their food, more for their rent and more for their power and gas. Under Labor, the cost of food is up 13 per cent, health is up 10 per cent, housing is up by more than 14 per cent, rents are up by 18 per cent, insurance is up by 35 per cent and gas is up by 34 per cent. Instead of seeing a $275 reduction to their power bills, as Labor promised, families have seen them increase by up to $1,300, while the government's new $150 energy subsidy is simply an admission of failure and won't touch the sides.

When it comes to effectively tackling the cost of living, what Australians desperately need is a federal government that gets back to basics—a government that has the courage to pull the fundamental policy levers to help fix a broken energy system. If elected, that's what the coalition will do. We'll take decisive action to immediately pump more Australian gas into the system to bring down power prices, we'll remove the moratorium on nuclear for a long-term transition and we will ensure that we deliver a mixed and balanced energy grid, one that sets Australia up for the future without carpeting our regions with renewables.

To ease financial pressures, we need to do more. In regional Australia, we know that Labor's cost-of-living pain is being felt at the checkout. Groceries are getting more expensive. Right now, Australians are struggling to put food on the table and our producers need a fair go. When families can't cover the cost of essential items, it's more important than ever that they can have faith that businesses, including the major supermarkets, are doing the right thing by their customers and their suppliers.

In contrast to the weakness of those opposite, the coalition has a comprehensive plan of action to put integrity and fairness back into the market. It's a plan that will protect consumers, small businesses and farmers against any instances of improper conduct by supermarkets. A coalition government will impose stronger and tougher penalties for anticompetitive behaviour in the supermarket sector, starting with infringement notices of $2 million for breaches of the grocery code, which is 10 times higher than Labor's measly $198,000.

Under our plan, the coalition will deliver increased court-ordered penalties for more serious contraventions, and we will introduce sector-specific divestiture powers as another powerful deterrent. We will establish a supermarket commissioner who will cover the entire supply chain and provide a confidential avenue where farmers and suppliers can have their concerns heard and acted on without the fear of retribution. Our measures will help Australian shoppers at the check-out and support our farmers and suppliers throughout the supply chain in regional Australia. Supermarkets don't fear the Albanese government. That's why we will introduce real deterrence and real consequences for them.

Across the nation, homeownership is one of the defining issues of our generation. We're experiencing a full-blown housing disaster, and it's hurting regional Australia as well. This is a crisis that's being fuelled by record-high migration, skyrocketing rents and scenarios where families with a typical mortgage are now up to $50,000 a year worse off. Meanwhile, the construction of new homes is at a decade low. After three years in government, the Labor government has not built a single home under its Housing Australia Future Fund, Help to Buy scheme or build-to-rent scheme. Australia needs a new approach to fix housing, one backed up by practical action.

A coalition government will boost housing supply, rebalance migration, incentivise first home buyers and take pressure off interest rates and rents. We'll implement a two-year ban on foreign investors purchasing existing homes, and we'll unlock up to 500,000 new homes by investing $5 billion to fund essential infrastructure like water, power and sewerage at housing development sites, with up to 30 per cent of that secured for regional Australia. It's time to restore the dream of homeownership for young people in this nation, and these measures will make a real difference.

Under this government, we've endured three years of economic vandalism, and businesses have paid a very high price. Since Labor took office, nearly 29,000 businesses have collapsed. In the budget last night, there was more bad news for business, with the government slashing the popular instant asset write-off scheme, ending the current $20,000 asset threshold. This means that the threshold is set to drop to its rock-bottom legislated rate of $1,000 next financial year. In regional Australia, the decision will shock many small businesses who are planning capital upgrades, and it will spark major concern in a sector that is already doing a tough.

When it comes to delivering infrastructure in regional Australia, we know that this government has an atrocious record. Over the past three years, the Albanese Labor government has cancelled, cut and delayed more than $30 billion worth of infrastructure projects across our nation, and this horror budget is no different. Last night, we saw that this government's appalling trend to cut and cancel regional infrastructure will continue. This fourth federal budget has no funding for the Stronger Communities Program, the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, the Growing Regions Program or the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program. We know that, of these, the Stronger Communities Program and the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program are critical to building community infrastructure and engagement in regional Australia. The Growing Regions program is the government's own measure, intended to support regional communities. It has no new funding from last night's budget. This essentially means that no more Growing Regions grant opportunities will be available over the next four years.

It's a major concern that this government is utilising federal funding that could otherwise extend these regional community programs to instead pay for 41,000 new public servants here in Canberra. It's shameful that this budget inflicts cut after cut, but in regional Australia there's no money to fix basic things like potholes. Even after being in government for three long years, Labor will spend less than one per cent of their infrastructure announcements in 2025-26.

Going through the budget papers, this government is attempting to mislead the Australian public on infrastructure, because, if Australians are waiting to see work commence on recently announced projects, then they will have to wait, and they will be sorely disappointed. Of the $17.1 billion claimed to be for new infrastructure investment, only 0.7 per cent of the so-called new infrastructure announcements will be delivered next year in 2025-26, and only 10.7 per cent of infrastructure funding announced in the budget is over the forward estimates. Meanwhile, when it comes to road funding, it appears that this government plans to short-change the states by $1.1 billion a year, with a further $273 million cut in 2025-26 compared to last year's budget.

We've just covered the damage done by this budget to infrastructure. Looking over to the water portfolio, there is similar carnage. Building on the billions of dollars that was ripped out of water infrastructure in the early budgets, the Albanese government has yet again deferred $190 million in funding for crucial project such as the Paradise Dam Improvement Project, the Hughenden Irrigation Project and the Big Rocks Weir project. All the while, in our nation's food bowl, the government continues to hide the cost of the Murray-Darling Basin. What Labor doesn't understand is that, when you take away infrastructure for water, you take away the future of our communities in regional Australia.

Last night's budget was a deeply disappointing one for Australian agriculture. Although the budget papers show that the production value of agriculture, fisheries and forestry is projected to be worth $98 billion in 2025-26, this government can only throw a few crumbs their way. Despite driving our nation's wealth and feeding the world, there's virtually nothing in this budget for our primary producers. The Treasurer couldn't even utter the word 'farmer'. The government's lack of action on agriculture only highlights their ongoing mismanagement of this portfolio.

One glaring omission from last night's budget is the absence of Labor's failed biosecurity protection levy. First announced in the 2023 budget, this $150 million fresh food tax proposed slugging Australian producers with a levy that would make them pay for the biosecurity costs of their international competitors to bring their products to this country. What sort of government would do that to their own farmers? As soon as it was announced, the biosecurity protection levy copped a fierce and universal backlash led by the agricultural sector and the coalition. As soon as the legislation was established, this levy was withdrawn from the Senate earlier this year because of the resounding victory of strength from Australian farmers and the coalition. We fought hard against this disgraceful new tax, and we are pleased that we were able to deliver a good outcome.

In stark contrast to the wrong approach of those opposite, the coalition government will substantially fund Australia's biosecurity system by targeting the risk-creators: the importers. We'll do this by introducing an import container levy, as recommended by the independent Craik biosecurity review. This is the sensible way forward to fund biosecurity in this country. But when it comes to the scale of the pain, anguish and trauma being inflicted on farmers right now by the Albanese government, their harmful policy to shut down the live sheep export industry in Western Australia is a shameful stand-out.

As this government continues to push ahead with this appalling measure to end what is a lawful and sustainable industry, all over rural WA, we are seeing the consequences and the human toll. We've seen world-leading animal welfare standards abandoned, the science ignored, a botched consultation process, abattoirs actually closing down, jobs being lost, trading relationships threatened and innocent livelihoods thrown into turmoil. We've seen the impacts of this policy reverberate, with the WA sheep flock declining by 25 per cent last year and more production in the state—which is intrinsically linked to live exports—at its lowest level in a century.

Then there's Labor's inept transition package—the sort of package that allocates $2.3 million to a media company based in the USA to promote the closure of Australia's live sheep trade, while not a single cent of transition funding has gone to helping an impacted farmer. This insanity and cruelty must stop. On behalf of the federal coalition, I reaffirm our ironclad commitment that, if elected to government, we will legislate to reinstate the live sheep export industry.

Over the course of its first term in office, reinforced by four disastrous budgets, the Albanese Labor government has failed regional Australia. Our nation urgently needs to change course. Australia deserves new leadership, a vision and a new government that has the right priorities for the regions—a new government that can fix the basics and restore some common sense. On this side of the House, the coalition is ready to govern and ready to deliver. A coalition government will provide the economic leadership that's needed in regional Australia to ease the cost-of-living pressures and to get a fair deal for consumers and farmers at the check-out. We'll bring down energy prices by unlocking our massive reserves of Australian gas and invest in a balanced long-term energy plan. We'll secure regional Australia's fair share of funding by properly investing in roads, rail, local infrastructure and water. We will provide the workforce that our primary producers need by reinstating the ag visa and fixing the PALM Scheme. We will sustainably fund our biosecurity system with an import container levy instead of taxing farmers. We'll protect our prime agricultural land from being destroyed by ideological renewable projects, and we'll stop water buybacks. We will reverse the disgraceful ban on live sheep exports. We'll invest in essential infrastructure, like water sewerage and roadworks, to build more housing across our nation, and we will stop foreigners from competing with Australians at auctions on a Saturday. We will back local solutions to provide flexible access to child care for families living outside the major cities, and we will make it easier to see a GP by bringing in more doctors, specialists and nurses to rural communities by providing more incentives to work in the regions. This is the coalition's commitment to regional Australia. It's all part of our ambition and our comprehensive plan to end the Labor rot and to get regional Australia back on track.