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

I've 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 three years of cuts, delays and broken promises making life harder for 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 causes me great sadness to get up and speak to this MPI because, unfortunately, the title is very true about the neglect under three years of a Labor-Greens-teals government. As we know in the Senate, the Labor government is in coalition with the Greens and the teals, and that has meant absolute neglect for everyone who lives in regional Australia.

I do this nearly every time I get up in this chamber because I don't think that those opposite can be reminded of these statistics enough. Last year, we in Australia sold $650 billion of goods and services overseas, and over $400 billion of that came from just four things—they're roughly about $100 billion each: $100 billion from iron ore, $100 billion from coal, $100 billion from gas and call it $100 billion from agriculture and food. I remind everyone—especially those opposite because they're very poorly represented in those regions—that all of that is from regional and remote Australia. None of it is with our sanctimonious and righteous teals and Greens. None of it is with the elite inner-city MPs, which the Prime Minister and the environment minister are. None of that comes from them. None of that comes from their communities. They don't understand us. They don't get us. That is why, as a government, they neglect regional Australia. I'm going to go through some examples here, Deputy Speaker Claydon, because you might say, 'Well, give me some concrete examples of how they neglect regional Australia.'

The first one—it was a decision made so early—was in the health area, actually. If you live in Rose Bay or Vaucluse, on one of those lovely tree-lined streets, you've probably got a rate of one GP for about every 500 or 600 people. In the regions, it's about one GP for every 5,000 or 6,000 people, and in some communities it's actually worse. There were some schemes we had in government to try and help that. What were they? If you were a Commonwealth sponsored student—that is, the Commonwealth government had helped you through your studies to become a GP—you had to, at the end of your studies, through a fair contract, go to a regional or remote community when you first became a GP and got your Medicare provider number. That seems fair enough, doesn't it? If you were a GP that came from another country, it was the same thing—you had to do some time in regional and remote Australia because that's where the real shortage of GPs was.

I won't even mention his name, but when the Minister for Health and Aged Care gets up in this place he's very confident. But what was one of the first things he and those opposite did when they got into government? If they were aware that $400 billion of our export wealth comes from the regions, you'd think they would have said thank you. When they charge their electric car at night, using coal fired power, and go for a drive in the country on the weekend, you'd think they would drive out there and say thank you to the miners and thank you to farmers for the wealth they're creating. But what do they do? Let's go back to the health minister. The first thing he did was change the formula for the distribution priority areas, which is where those Commonwealth sponsored students and foreign GPs have to go. What that meant was that you could work in Hornsby, just a little bit further out of Sydney. You could literally live in the Sydney CBD, travel to Hornsby and look as though you work in a distribution priority area.

What did that mean? I see the member for Parkes, and he's told me this, actually. They lost doctors overnight, and those communities didn't have any doctors after those doctors left. I know communities in my electorate who lost doctors almost instantaneously. Do you know what the sad thing about that is? Those opposite don't care. They actually don't care, because, if they did, they would have changed it. We've told them; many MPs on this side of the House have told them about this issue, but they seriously don't care.

The other thing is that—besides the fact they don't care and besides the fact they don't say thank you for the wealth that's created in regional and remote communities—they go further than that; they demonise us. They actually say, 'What you're doing'—I see some shaking heads, so I'll through some examples; I'm going to give you a few of them right now. They say, 'What you're doing is not okay.' God help us if, after the election, this government is in minority government with the Greens and the teals, because they don't like mining, they don't want coalmining and they don't want us to sell gas overseas.

But let's go to farming. One of the things this government has done—you can't shake your head, because it's a fact—is ban live sheep exports. I went with the member for O'Connor and Nola Marino to some parts of their regions, and those communities who are into live export and supply that industry are gutted by the ban of live exports. Why did they do it? Because the inner-city elite MPs said it's not okay. I'd love for them to go to those communities and talk to those people. But this is an insult not just to us, to our sheep farmers and to our remote communities who relied on that industry. It's an insult to every country who we sell live exports to. Those opposite are actually saying, 'If you want live export, you shouldn't.' What an insult that is to the countries who want that.

I've had a Greens candidate run against me as well. I don't think it's Greens policy, but I've certainly had a lot of Greens candidates say to me that they don't want cows in Australia. They don't like the fact that cows pass wind, and they don't like the fact that a cow's hoof system apparently isn't good for Australian soil. I said to a Greens candidate once, 'What do you want us to eat?' He had an answer. He wants us to eat kangaroos—try mustering those!—and grasshoppers, I think he said. Again, they actually demonise what we do.

The other thing I will just touch on briefly, another atrocious policy, another cut—and I know it was a really sombre day for a lot of Nationals MPs and regional Liberal MPs when this happened—was when they gutted and cut the water we can take from our rivers and streams. Even though that grows all of our fibre and food, the inner-city elite MPs over there and over there want all the fresh just to go out to the ocean because that's better than growing food and growing fibre. That's just another cut.

The other thing going on is the reckless renewables-only policy that Labor, the Greens and the Teals have. I've said it before in this chamber—don't do it on North Head; the member for Warringah will not have any wind turbines or solar panels there. The 60 million solar panels and the 20,000 turbines can go in regional and remote Australia. I can tell you right now that the Nationals don't want to see, in places like Sunny Corner, Oberon and Lithgow ruined by thousands of windfarms. It's only the Nationals candidate Sam Faraway who will show up and look at these communities and will not support them.

Let's go to the budget. You might ask, 'What was in the budget for regional Australia?'

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

You took the word out of my mouth: nothing. Not only did they cut programs that we had but they also didn't put any money into the programs that they started. I know my two colleagues and friends the member for Riverina and the member for Gippsland—the member for Riverina is probably a stretch for a friend, and I say that with a smile—would say to the infrastructure minister, 'Name one program that you funded and opened in the last three years. There isn't one. They talk about the fact that we pork-barrelled, but they've been running around the country for the last three years opening infrastructure projects that we funded. This is a list of the very important infrastructure programs we need. We do need infrastructure—because, remember, we sell $400 billion worth of the $750 billion we sell—and we need infrastructure to do that. They canned the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, they canned the Building Better Regions Fund, they canned the Bridges Renewal Program, they canned the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program, they canned the Community Development Program, and they canned the Stronger Communities Program, though it might be coming back to life. The energy security regional development program—canned. The region accelerator program—canned. The regionalisation fund was canned, and the educational infrastructure in regional Australia program was canned. It's a very sad story.

Everyone on that side of the chamber, everyone on the crossbench, the Greens and the Teals, when they are driving out into the country with their electric vehicles on the weekend, should be saying, 'Thank you.' They should be driving into every regional and remote community and saying, 'Thank you for what you do, thank you for the wealth and the jobs that you create for our country in mining and in agriculture, and— (Time expired)

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

The Member for Page clearly wasn't paying attention yesterday during the regional ministerial budget statement, because if he had been, he wouldn't be trying to rewrite history today. When we talk about cuts and delays and broken promises, we have only to look at those opposite us: a decade of cuts, of pork-barrelling, of colour-coded spreadsheets that left regional people behind, a mess that we've had to clean up and deal with from day one. Across our government's first term, our message to regional Australians has been loud and clear: your postcode should not be a barrier. That's why we're delivering record funding to rebuild critical services that regional people rely on—the services that have been left in crisis by those opposite.

There is record funding to help regional Australians to build a better future, important cost-of-living relief to ease pressure on regional families and businesses—which, let's not forget, every member of the opposition voted against as recently as last night. They voted against more tax cuts for every taxpayer, and we know they will cut everything except for tax, because they have committed to throwing that out the door if they are elected. That's right, they are going to the election saying, 'We are going to increase income tax.'

They've also confirmed that they will cut 41,000 jobs, but they're refusing to confirm which services and which towns are going to be impacted by that. How many of the 22,000 public servants who work in our regions will be left without a job? Will the Defence call centre in Cooma be cut, or will jobs be slashed at HQ JOC? Will it be Medicare urgent care clinics and services making a huge difference in our regions, including in the member for Page's own electorate in Lismore? Will that be cut by those opposite? You only have to look at the millions cut from Medicare when the opposition leader was the health minister to know that their only plan for Medicare is to cut. And just today, at 1.30 pm, a Canberra Times article said that 41,000 Public Service jobs are going; it's 'wasteful' spending. However, more than 22,000 public servants are employed in regional Australia. They spend money every day in our local economy. They provide services that we rely on.

How many of those jobs are going in every regional electorate that you guys represent? How many are going to go in the regional electorates that we represent? These are people who spend money in our local economies, buying coffee and restaurant dinners in businesses owned by people we know. How many of those Public Service jobs will go in our electorates? Let's be serious. When we talk about decentralisation, it refers to public servants working from home in our local regions. How many of those jobs are going to go? How many of those jobs are going to leave our regional towns? Before the 2022 election, Services Australia officers were on the chopping block from those opposite, including across my electorate. How many Services Australia offices closed in your electorate under your former government? Let's get serious here, because that's what it means—our communities lose services every time you cut the Public Service.

We have been dealing with cost-of-living issues. We know how important it is. We want every regional community to be able to address the challenges, harness the opportunities and take the issues in our community seriously. That's why we have been prioritising cost-of-living issues. The additional $150 in energy bill relief builds on the already $300 delivered to every household and $325 to every small business. There are the 127,000 free TAFE places that have been taken up in our regions, from construction to child care, and we are making them permanent, which is something that you want to reverse. Those opposite scream out for more workers to build more housing or staff our regional childcare centres, but they don't have a plan to grow the workforce, and they want to make it even harder for people to pursue those in-demand industries. We are delivering $66 million over the next five years to local councils for Roads to Recovery in the member for Page's own electorate. That's an increase of $27.2 million. We're making local roads safer. That follows what those opposite did when they delivered a funding freeze to every local council across the country, which stripped nearly a billion dollars out of the sector. That means that those roads that are problems now are problems that you created under your government.

The Leader of the Nationals said those opposite would deliver a strong infrastructure pipeline, which regional communities needed. He delivered a bunch of press releases with 800 additional projects, with not a single dollar extra added to the budget. In our latest budget, there's $7.2 billion for the Bruce Highway for safety upgrades; there's $200 million to duplicate the Stuart Highway from Darwin to Katherine; there's $40 million for the Main South Road upgrade in South Australia; and there's $1.1 billion for upgrades along the Western Freeway in Victoria. We don't need colour-coded spreadsheets. We're delivering on those commitments in an established and transparent way.

That's how we're dealing with it from our grants program perspective as well. There's $600 million for the Growing Regions Program. There's $400 million for the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program. In the member for Page's electorate, the Clarence Valley Council received $1.6 million for the Clarence Regional Aquatic Centre waterslide development, because pools are the beating heart of our regional communities. We've delivered $3 billion to NBN Co to finalise the rollout of full-fibre connections, including over 334,000 additional regional premises. But we know that the NBN will just get sold off under those opposite.

We're serious about supporting regions. That is why I'm so proud that we have launched the National Emergency Management Agency, which continues to support regional communities, most recently in Queensland and New South Wales during ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

We have just heard from the Leader of the Nationals, the member for Maranoa, how grateful he is that the National Emergency Management Agency is preparing and doing the work, something that wouldn't have happened unless we created that agency and got it working. It wasn't the case in 2022 when the member for Page had serious flooding issues in Lismore, because the response and the recovery wasn't handled well. Communities in my own electorate have felt that firsthand. Unfortunately, the Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate has said she can't confirm or deny whether public servants from the National Emergency Management Agency are on the chopping block with the 41,000 public servants they want to cut if they are elected. Just think about that. Every regional community, every community across the country, that feels the brunt of a natural disaster gets help. But that could be put at risk if you cut public servants from the National Emergency Management Agency. It's outrageous.

We have delivered the $1 billion Disaster Ready Fund which is supporting regional communities to be better prepared for disasters. We have supported an additional $35 million to boost our national aerial fleet, because most regional communities need emergency support and, when they need it, they shouldn't have to wait. We have invested in it. But it's not just during disasters when our regions need aviation. We need a strong regional aviation sector. I said it yesterday. It is so important. We are not going to let what happened when the other side were in government be perpetuated. They were handed the Sydney airport slot review in 2021 and sat idle at the departure gate. We have responded with an aviation white paper. We've said that we will keep Rex Airlines operating regional routes through voluntary administration. I am proud that we are supporting Rex's regional flights in the air with $80 million loaned to the administrators and additional support to reduce what Rex owes, because for regional communities like mine these flights are critical to our economy and they are critical to accessing important health services and for getting around. This is why we will continue to stand up for a strong regional aviation sector.

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

Hear, hear!

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

The member for Riverina is saying, Hear, hear!' He is a supporter of Rex. If only the shadow transport minister, Senator McKenzie, over in the other place, would get on board. I'm not sure what airline she relies on where she lives, but, in our communities, it's Rex. If it's not operating, nothing happens. You should go and talk to her about supporting Rex.

After a wasted decade of nothing but cuts, regional Australia can't afford to slash even more from our services, which is exactly what those opposite are promising. You only have to look at the $600 billion nuclear thought bubble to know that regional Australians were not consulted. It's a plan that is so expensive all it is going to deliver for the rest of the country is cuts.

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

I am so glad the Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories, the member for Eden-Monaro, has raised Rex Airlines, because there is a petition that's been distributed within the Riverina and Farrer electorates to save Rex and protect regional Australia from the Liberals and Nationals. Please don't go, Minister. Please stay and listen to this, because—

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm staying.

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

Thank you, Member for Isaacs and Attorney-General. It says: 'By signing I support Labor's efforts to keep Rex flying.' Okay. It's a petition and so you'd say: 'Well, that's fair enough. They want to get people to support the government's initiative to keep Rex flying.' You have no bigger supporter of Rex than right here speaking right into these microphones. I am a supporter of Rex and I urgently encourage people who have a flight to take, if they have the option, to please fly Rex, because we won't know how valuable it is until we lose it. Let me tell you, if we lose it, the prices are going to go up and up. For communities such as Ceduna, Parkes and Narrandera, those towns which only have Rex flying into them, it is a matter of life and death. They won't get Rex to fly in to make their vital medical appointments, for tourism, for business, for all the rest of the appointments and for the business activity that they need.

Getting back on to Labor's petition, I really need the Labor members to listen to this. Question 1: 'What is your first name?' Fair enough. Question 2: 'What is your last name?' Question 3: 'What is your email address?' Question 4: 'What is your mobile number?' Question 5: 'What is your house address?' So they're the first five questions. Then we get on to question 6: 'Do you have any other issues the federal government can help you with?' I'm thinking, 'Okay,' but wait for this one. Question seven: 'Do you wish to be contacted about volunteering opportunities for the upcoming federal election?' Under it, they've got a Rex logo and then a Labor logo. That is disrespectful to Rex. That is disrespectful to regional Australia. That's what it's worth. You know what? If people sign that petition, they're going to get Labor paraphernalia and they're going to get bombarded with Labor material: 'How to vote for Labor.'

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Real information.

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

No, not real information, Member for Isaacs—not at all. It is information that is going to only allow them to get a Labor government, which has been very, very bad for the regions—a Labor government which offers you 70c a day of tax cuts in 15 months time. What's that going to give you? It won't get you Regional Express, let me tell you.

Then we've got the Labor candidates running around Riverina and Farrer, and what are they doing? They're also getting people to sign a petition which has been put forward by the Nationals member for Cootamundra in the state parliament to absolutely condemn the state Labor government about cuts to regional and rural health services, including ambulance services and including centralising pathology services in Cootamundra Hospital—putting them in Young. We've got the Labor candidates running around condemning state Labor. This is just perverse and so is that petition that Labor is circulating around Rex.

This comes from the federal Labor government, which we know in the budget put 'nfp'—'not for publication'—beside 'Murray-Darling Basin' because they don't want people to know how many water buybacks they are going to do. This is from the Labor government which took away the distribution priority areas, which forced doctors, which caused doctors, to leave rural and remote Australia and to go to the outer suburbs of Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong, Gold Coast or wherever else. We now have fewer doctors, and that is a truism. The best thing that any parliament, any government, has done for the doctors is the Murray-Darling rural medical network. I put that in place, and you can see the benefits already at Wagga Wagga, Dubbo, Mildura, Bendigo and Orange. We're making sure that we've got young doctors training from start to finish and doing their course, because we know that, if we train them in the bush, chances are they'll fall in love with somebody in the bush, they'll fall in love with the bush and they'll stay in the bush. That's what it's all about.

It's not about Labor taking away the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program and all those other regional grant programs. That is on your watch. That is on your heads. At the next election, the only way to get Australia back on track is to vote Nationals, to vote coalition.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just want to put something on record. I was listening to our Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories when she was talking about our first term of government, and the message to regional Australia has been loud and clear, as well as the support. Often those guys opposite forget that for seats like mine—in terms of Lingiari, in the Northern Territory—the most forgotten Australians by that government have been years in the making. It was only in the election of 2022—

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

They said it was a lifestyle choice.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, that's right—and that we should move from there. In 2022, it did change, and I can say that I am proud to be on this side, within this government. Listening to the media since the budget, we've had CLP senators and we've had the CLP government in Darwin saying that the Northern Territory has missed out and there hasn't been any investment in the Northern Territory.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not true.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're absolutely right, Attorney-General—not true. But what we've got is L-plates on the back of the Northern Territory Treasurer, who maybe needs a little bit of help to understand budget papers and who, a week ago, when he received the biggest news that any treasurer in the Northern Territory—and I can tell you that there would have been Territory Labor treasurers who would have loved to have had the federal Treasurer say that they've just landed the biggest windfall in terms of the GST.

Those guys opposite gutted the Northern Territory by over $350 million in GST funding, so the Northern Territory has been fighting to have the GST reinstated so that the Northern Territory's regions and our remote communities can be better off through an increase in the GST payments.

A week ago the Northern Territory Treasurer said, 'This is a windfall, and this is great for the Northern Territory.' Then they must have got the phone call from the Leader of the Opposition's office or someone, and they came out negative and said, 'Oh no, this is bad; the Northern Territory has been left behind.' Which is it? The hypocrisy and the contradictions that are coming out of the Northern Territory CLP government are the same as what you see on the other side of this chamber.

I was with Minister McCarthy, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, last week. We were in a community, Maningrida, and we launched a subsidy—and I want to thank every member of our cabinet and the executive government for the decision that was taken to put a subsidy in place for 30 food items. Now, people might think that that's not much, but, as I'm going around these communities, everyone is saying thank you. In terms of the cost of living, what that has done for the families in those remote communities is remarkable.

It was fantastic to go to those communities with Minister McCarthy and to talk to those mums and dads and those families that have been doing it really tough, and to know that they are humbled by this government's subsidy of 30 essential food items—often things that we take for granted, living in the big cities where we can have choice. In a remote community you don't get that choice. So I do want to acknowledge the Prime Minister and all of the ministers of the cabinet for that single decision, because a lot of people are saying, 'This will be life changing for us. This will help us with the cost of living.'

I was with the Prime Minister when he made the announcement about $842 million for what they call the NTRAI. There has been $200 million on roads, continuing our investment in terms of infrastructure. So I disagree, of course, with the CLP government but also our other NT senator, who think that the Northern Territory has been left behind. I think that they need to read the budget papers properly. They need to give credit where credit's due. The Northern Territory's in a better place than it was.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rewind three years, and the then opposition leader Anthony Albanese was telling everybody that no-one would be left behind. Fast forward three years, and the addendum to that is 'unless you live in the regions' and 'unless you live in a National Party seat'. What we saw immediately after Labor was elected into government was a 90-day review of infrastructure projects across the country.

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

How long did that last?

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A very good question. How long did the 90-day review take? It took 206 days to complete that review. It would be funny but for the consequences of that review. What we saw was the slashing and dicing of essential infrastructure programs and social programs within National Party held electorates—not Labor electorates; National Party electorates. I will give you an example of some of them that were slashed in my electorate and I will tell you about the one that hurts me the most. That is the slashing of $5 million for a veterans centre—in fact, not just one but three veterans centres. The usual model is $5 million for one, but they had worked together and had worked out a way to have three. Do you know why we need three? It is because my electorate has the largest number of veterans in New South Wales. We have 9,000 veterans, and then you include their families because the families are the ones that have to prop them up when they need the help in the absence of the veterans centre. So they took away that $5 million, and what did they do with it? They put it in a Labor seat, in Richmond, which has half the number of veterans. Veterans need to be above politics, and the first thing that we need to do is allocate that money for a veterans centre in Calabar.

The other funding they took away was $5 million for Wrights Road in Port Macquarie. If you live in Port Macquarie, you know what I'm talking about. You have congestion not just in the morning and not just in the afternoon; it's at all times of the day. The worst part of it is that it's not just congestion; it's right outside the base hospital. I was talking to a nurse the other day. It takes her 45 minutes to get out of the hospital. Imagine if there is a medical emergency. Imagine if the congestion is so bad that the ambulance can't get through or somebody trying to get to the hospital can't. But it was deemed not a priority. The infrastructure minister, Catherine King, has not been there. She has not come up and had a look, yet it was gutted.

We've seen applications refused over the past three years. There was the Valla Urban Growth Area, which would see up to 7,700 lots opened up. Labor talk a big game about housing, and the local council put in an application to open this up under the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program, but they were denied. They were rejected. That was 7,700 lots. There was the Sewering Coastal Villages project in Bellingen. Sewerage is a basic service. An application under the Sewering Coastal Villages project was deemed not a priority. Well, the people in Bellingen, Repton and Valla consider it a priority when their sewers backflow or they can't get clean water.

You have a choice. You have a choice at the next election to make sure that that funding comes back into the regions, and that choice is to vote Nationals.

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

It's been interesting to listen to the whingeing and the complaining in this debate. I had to listen to the member for Cowper, who came in wanting to talk about veterans. As he scurries out the door, let me remind the member for Cowper, who might want to listen once. Don't come in here and say veterans should be above politics when your own minister resigned because your government—

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

Order! It is really disorderly to do that. If you're going to leave the chamber, please leave the chamber. Interjections are unhelpful. Let's try to have a respectful debate.

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

It's disgusting to think that those opposite said to the veterans of Australia that they weren't of a political advantage. These are not my words; these are the words of Scott Morrison when he was here and forced their own Minister for Veterans' Affairs to quit and quit the party. So please don't lecture us on this sort of stuff, because you have absolutely no credibility over there.

It's amazing that they sit there and talk about these things. It's like talking about Rex Airlines. How many regional workers lost their jobs at Virgin during COVID because those opposite made a decision to fund their mates at Rex Airlines, to look after them instead of Virgin? Virgin went into administration because they couldn't get support from the Morrison— was it you or Joyce, your other mate?

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

No, it was me.

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

It was you? Well, that explains it—to actually go there, to support Rex over Virgin and put thousands of people under stress.

When you live in country areas, one of the things you want to do is get access to trade and schooling. What was one of the first things that they did when they got into government in 2013? They cut the trade training centre. The member for Nicholls can laugh, but it was actually his electorate that benefited from the trade training centre that we built and they closed.

It's also about getting education in schools. One of the great things we did was the BER. It was ridiculed by those opposite, but, of course, they turned up for every photo opportunity. I went out to Eildon, which had a school building replaced, the first since 1967. That's how much they neglected schools, and they've done nothing since. They panned our programs and they've done nothing to support it.

We talk about medical, and we talk about doctors. The reason we have a shortage of doctors in rural and regional areas is that they removed the DPA. Greg Hunt removed it and decided areas like Wallan and Kilmore should be treated the same as Elwood, where Bridge lives, and Williamstown. It is unbelievable that you can't get doctors in the middle of country areas—

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

Member for McEwen, I didn't understand the reference, but you must use correct titles when referring to a current member.

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

The minister who was caught rorting was Bridget McKenzie, the senator. If you want to sit there and talk about what was happening in medical, let's have a look at that. Let's not talk about road funding because they know that they actually have a—

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

Member for McEwen, you need to withdraw the allegation.

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

I withdraw. It's quite simple. Those opposite cut funding to roads right across Victoria. In fact—the member for Nicholls might want to get his crayon out and note this down—what did they do to the black spot program for mobile phones? They cut every tower in the Black Saturday bushfire area, a place that passed every single test that they had. They took those towers out to fund and look after the member for New England, to try and save his backside.

So right across Victoria we can see everything that has been cut: education, health, veterans, workers—whichever way you look at it, they have had nine years of doing absolutely nothing. We saw this last week. We announced $7 million for a northern railway upgrade to help bring electrification and more trains out, with more jobs and more opportunities. They couldn't even wait for the election. They've come out and they want to cut it by $5 million. It's no wonder, when you talk about Peter Dutton—sorry, the member for Dickson. When he cuts, you'll pay. That means people are going to be paying more no matter what they do, whether it's in food, roads, education or health. They cut and destroy every single thing that you look at.

We knew that. We'd seen it with the regional programs. Remember, they stopped funding stuff in regional areas to fund a pool in North Sydney because they think the Sydney Harbour Bridge is regional. There's one thing you can be sure of with the nats. When you have a look at their record, you'll see Nationals seats have poorer outcomes, poorer education and poorer job opportunities. The one simple reason for that is that they've got poor representation by the National Party.

The only way this country will go forward and keep building a better future is for an Albanese Labor government to be re-elected, because only Labor actually invests in regional areas. They don't care about farmers; they only care about what's under the ground.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll try to make an intelligent contribution to this debate about cuts, delays and broken promises. The first cut, the most important and deepest cut affecting farmers in my electorate, is the cut to the amount of water that farmers can use to grow food for Australia and for food exports. That's the biggest cut. It's a cut that's been delivered by the minister for the environment, trying to rework the Murray-Darling Basin Plan into something that is going to satisfy the Greens breathing down the neck in her electorate and the other electorates of Labor Party people who are worried about losing their seats in inner cities.

That's all very well from a political perspective, but that agriculture is so important to our nation for our sovereign food manufacturing capability and for our exports. You need water to be able to grow this food. I did agricultural science at university, but even those who didn't should be able to understand that you need water to be able to grow food. So much good food is grown in the Goulburn Valley: apples, pears, peaches and dairy. It's processed and then exported. I've got some fantastic people doing things in my electorate, earning money and, as the member for Page said, earning export dollars for Australia, and the Labor Party is taking away the tools that they need to do it; that's all they're getting from the Labor Party.

Cutting water for food is not the only thing they're cutting. They're also cutting the important grant programs that provide infrastructure that we need in the regions. We had a lot of good infrastructure programs, and one of the most important ones was the Building Better Regions Fund. It was a great bucket, and it funded a lot of important things in my region and other regions. It funded regional seats across the aisle, not just National Party or Liberal Party seats. It's been taken away and replaced with their own programs. I acknowledge there was some money in those programs but not enough to satisfy demand. When we got to the cruel hoax of a budget the other night, we found there's no more funding for the regional grant programs—no more funding! If anyone didn't get a look-in the last time, they're not going to get a look-in again—cuts and delays!

Now, broken promises—well, the whopper of the promises is $275 off your power prices. It should never have been made, because the Prime Minister didn't understand that the model was so threadbare that their policies weren't going to deliver it. But clinging at something to try and win the next election, he ran around saying, 'If you vote for the Labor Party, you will get $275 off your power prices.' How many times did he say it? How many?

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

97!

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How many times has he said it since he was elected?

Opposition members: Zero!

It's a broken promise. It's terrible. Every time you ask them about it, they say: 'We've taken money out of your taxes to give you a little bit back to compensate for the amount it's gone up, to say sorry that we told you it was going to go down.' Is that $275 their re-election pledge? Unbelievable! Also in the cruel hoax of a budget about the other night were the tax cuts. Here's a tax cut: I've got three 20c coins and one 10c coin; you will get that much off your tax a day. When do you get it? Do you get it now when you really need it? Did they legislate it so that it kicks in in June or July? No, it's 15 months away, and that's what you get: 70c a day. Unbelievable!

Have a look. If you want to see what immediate pain relief looks like—and I know we feel pain in the regions a lot—just watch tonight.

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

Member for Corangamite, you'll get a chance very soon.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I reckon you'll see a speech that has a bit of an idea about some leadership, that cares about what's actually hurting people and that shows a bit of vision for the future. When I was a young man growing up and thinking about politics, I used to like the Labor Party.

Honourable members interjecting—

No, I did, because we came off the Hawke-Keating government, a reforming government that cared about business and wanted to reform the economy. What this government shows is that that was an aberration. People are saying they are the worst government since Whitlam. I think we need to change a word in that. They are worse than Whitlam.

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

There were way too many interjections in that speech from both sides. I'm going to ask for people to listen to the member for Corangamite.

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Page for raising this matter of public importance today because it provides a fantastic opportunity to update the House and those opposite on how the Albanese Labor government is backing in my regional communities. Here's just a sampling of the projects this Labor government is rolling out in partnership with my communities.

We have the stage 2 upgrade of the Barwon Heads Road, with more than $190 million in federal funding to transform this road into a four-lane highway that links our fast-growing communities with Geelong. There's a duplication of the rail line between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds, an almost $1 billion project that is reshaping how local travel between south-western Victoria and Melbourne is taking place. We are delivering a $40 million indoor pool for the North Bellarine Aquatic Centre, and construction of the Surf Coast aquatic and health centre in Torquay is now underway. It's worth pointing out that our government invested more than $2.7 million to top up the upgrades to Grubb Road in Ocean Grove after it was left underfunded by the former Liberal government.

We are also delivering upgrades to Murradoc Road in St Leonards. Then there are new sporting facilities including a new pavilion for the Barwon Heads Football Netball Club, women's change rooms for the Torquay Football Netball Club, new clubrooms for the Portarlington Football Netball Club, new lighting for night games and training at the Queenscliff Football Netball Club, new netball courts for the Bannockburn Football Netball Club and a $1 million commitment to upgrade the courts at the Burdoo Reserve for the Grovedale Football Netball Club if elected.

There is more. We are also undertaking upgrades for local roads, the Esplanade Beach Road and Fischer Street in Torquay and Sugar Gum Drive in Waurn Ponds have all been upgraded as part of Albanese government's expanded Black Spot Program and the Roads to Recovery Program. Under the Albanese government, Black Spot Program funding will reach $150 million per year while funding for the Roads to Recovery Program will progressively rise to $1 billion per year, and at least $200 million is also available each year under the new Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program to address current and emerging priorities in road infrastructure.

We are boosting environmental protections and protecting the Karaaf wetlands in Torquay, backing in local farmers on the Bellarine through the On Farm Connectivity Program and delivering a water reclamation plant alongside Barwon Water and the state government in Portarlington because the Albanese Labor government knows just how important water security is to local agriculture.

Unlike those opposite, the Albanese Labor government understands that a thriving region needs access to quality health care. We recognise that no-one should have to travel long distances or wait hours in emergency departments to see a doctor, and that is why a re-elected Albanese government will fund a Medicare urgent care clinic in Torquay. Open seven days a week, fully bulk-billed, it will be free in providing urgent care when and where locals need it. It will mean fewer hospital visits, less pressure on families and better access to care close to home. All you need to access care is a Medicare card, not your credit card.

Whether it is through a new tax cut for every taxpayer, more energy bill relief, free TAFE, groundbreaking funding for our nation's public schools, cheaper medicines or practical measures to ease financial pressures while keeping inflation down, the Albanese government is working hard to back in people across the nation and in our regions. It is why we are backing in apprentices with the $10,000 subsidy. It is why, if re-elected, we will deliver HECS debt relief of, on average, $5,500 per person. This will help our young people to live and work in regions just like mine and prosper. The Albanese Labor government is getting on with the job of delivering a better future for all Australians, helping to build economic opportunity and thriving regional communities.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As these sun sets on this sad 47th Parliament, what have we got to show for three years of parliament? We have more debt, deficits as far as the eye can see and over $1 trillion in debt. Regional Australia is also a lot worse off. There has been this passive-aggressive attack on agriculture, food bowls, food and fibre production, with cuddly sounding names like 'restoring our rivers', which is code for taking 750 gigalitres out of the Murray-Darling Basin. We have got this idea that nature repair involves putting covenants on good productive land and letting it turn back to native bush, putting covenants on land for lazy farmers, usually based in capital cities, who don't want to farm but think they are going to fix nature by letting productive land go back to bush. We have got the threat of methane pledges, which will reduce so-called bovine methane. We've seen what has happened with those sorts of policies in Ireland, where they suggested a 30 per cent cull of their dairy herd—same in Holland.

Also, we have had passive obstruction to our energy system, and they have abandoned a lot of regional and rural road programs, putting in place amorphous road and bridge programs which, funnily enough, favour metropolitan Australia. We've had passive aggressive behaviour towards gas and oil exploration, yet the nation runs on diesel. When has there been an oilfield struck in this country? There hasn't been one in decades. We have survived off the Bass Strait, and we are now dependent on imported oil and gas.

Long gone are genuine changes to Medicare. This government is making out that it's saving everyone by having these Medicare urgent care clinics everywhere. Well, in regional Australia, we're not seeing them. They're all in metro Australia. There are no new buildings, no new doctors, no new nurses; there's just a block grant and new Medicare stickers over existing clinics. I've looked through the website. They're all based in existing clinics. All these big super clinics that the corporates run are pocketing the $600,000, or however much the block grant is, and there are no new doctors. There is just, maybe, extra hours practice. The distribution priority areas have been destroyed so that the areas that have no doctors are the least likely to get a doctor.

Look at our energy system. Their obsession with renewables is just a giant merry-go-round of subsidies. Where are we now? We got the most expensive energy; we should have the cheapest energy system. That's what kept our industry alive in this country. Not only have we had 29,000 small businesses go broke; we've got all the big industrial companies going off shore to Asia and back to America, because they've got cheap energy. We've now got subsidies for solar and wind for large-scale generation certificates and small-scale technology certificates—that's for rooftop solar and large solar. We've got subsidies for wind. We've got subsidies in the road budget for oversized and overmass special roads to go to renewable energy zones. That's another subsidy. And now we've got the ultimate paradox: we are relying on batteries that don't generate energy; they just storage and consume energy, and they're getting subsidised! Plus, the poles and wires expansion is also being subsidised. The Capacity Investment Scheme is running into the billions of dollars, and that will add to the ever-increasing network costs.

Solar and wind are not a cheap system. As a one-off, a solar panel is cheap or a solo wind turbine, but all the other bits are expensive—the extra poles and wires; everything. And the ultimate irony is that everyone in this country still relies on coal 65 per cent of the time. The New South Wales Labor government and the Victoria Labor government are all subsidising their coal plants to keep the lights on, yet you guys are trying to get rid of them all. It is just a joke. Nuclear is the answer. (Time expired)

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

I'm going to remind the House again that I don't want this slanging match.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For too long, regional Australia was treated like an afterthought, a place the previous coalition only remembered when they needed votes. For a decade, they promised the world but delivered nothing but empty press conferences and broken roads. They talked up big but, when it came to action, they couldn't build a Lego set let alone infrastructure for our communities in desperate need.

Under this government, we're getting things done for the Hunter and regional Australia. We believe your postcode shouldn't determine your future. Whether you live in Singleton, Muswellbrook, Toronto, Barnsley, Cessnock, West Wallsend or Kurri Kurri, you deserve more than just leftovers from a government that spent a decade fumbling regional development like a bad amateur football team.

For years, local communities begged for critical road projects. What did the coalition do? They ignored them, just like they ignored everything outside their Sydney and Melbourne bubble. Now, we're making up for lost time. We're actually building the Singleton Bypass—not just talking about it. We're building the Muswellbrook Bypass—a game-changer for the Upper Hunter. We're delivering the duplication of Mandalong Road so locals don't have to risk their lives dodging potholes bigger than their cars. We're repairing Coulsons Creek Road, which is something that the coalition and the member for New England couldn't even manage to do despite a decade of being in government, having photo ops and making empty promises. For too long, it's been us having to fix their roads.

Unlike the previous government, who treated sports funding like it was a raffle prize for their mates, we're actually delivering. We've given $52 million for the Hunter Sports Centre and millions in funding for grassroots sporting clubs, giving to local facilities so they don't look like they still belong in the 1950s. The coalition had 10 years to get these projects done. What did they do instead? They squandered their time, slashed funding and somehow made a bad situation even worse. We're cleaning up their mess.

The previous government butchered our healthcare system, slashing funding and leaving regional Australians with fewer doctors, longer wait times and a Medicare system on life support. We're fixing that. We've established Medicare urgent care clinics in Cessnock, Maitland, Charlestown and Lake Haven, because seeing a doctor shouldn't require a road trip. There are Medicare mental health clinics in Cessnock and Muswellbrook, because mental health shouldn't be an afterthought. We've delivered $7.9 billion in investment in bulk-billing so that people can see a doctor without selling a kidney to be able to afford it. That goes alongside the biggest cut to medicine prices in the history of the PBS. This is what real investment in health care looks like—no slogans, no fake funding announcements. Just results.

The previous government left regional students behind while pretending TAFE didn't even exist. We're changing that by delivering a regional university study hub in Currie so local students can get a quality education without moving halfway across the country. There are over 500,000 free TAFE places, including 7,000 in the Hunter, training the next generation of workers in construction, child care and essential trades and services. We made a $626.9 million investment in apprenticeships, including a $10,000 incentive payment for construction apprentices, because we actually care about building Australia's workforce and also our houses.

And let's talk about small business. The coalition love to call themselves the party of the small business until it comes to actually supporting them. Instead, they let costs skyrocket and shrugged their shoulders while business struggled. We're stepping in, providing $450 in energy bill relief for households and $475 for small business plus a $20 million investment to boost Australian-made products, because supporting local industries is more than just a talking point for us. We're investing in local manufacturing, steel production, battery technology and solar panel production because we actually believe in making things in Australia instead of a outsourcing things overseas.

We're not stopping there. We're giving $2.2 billion to strengthen regional communications, particularly in disaster prone areas, because reliable phone service shouldn't be a luxury. We have also given $3 billion in NBN upgrades, finally delivering high-speed internet to thousands of homes and businesses across the Hunter.

This government is doing what the previous one never could: delivering real outcomes of the Hunter. We're building the roads, hospitals and schools our region deserves. We're making health care more affordable, investing in jobs and ensuring our local businesses can actually compete. The coalition treated the Hunter like a second-class region, ignored our infrastructure needs and left families struggling with rising costs. We are fixing these failures. But the pork-barrelling has already begun from those opposite and will continue all throughout this, so I will continue to push hard to make sure Hunter gets its fair share. Under this government, that will never change, because commitment to regional Australia is more than just a slogan and an RM Williams puffer vest.

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

The time for this discussion has now concluded.