Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The most arbitrary disenfranchising of what are probably the most vulnerable communities in Queensland is about to be undertaken by the Queensland Labor government. At a time when we should be encouraging Queenslanders to decentralise and removing the pressure on water, the Labor government is giving every indication that the only place to live is Brisbane. In Queensland, the Labor government, which is supposed to look after the worker, is about to put many jobs, household incomes, house repayments and hopes under threat. It is going to drown the lives of those on the Mary River and create a poverty corner at Cunnamulla. The Labor government has perfected the ruthless delivery of its arbitrary nastiness. It has devolved into a regime that partakes in a regional annihilation of the social fabric of hope in sections of Queensland. Labor has proved that all can descend through the folly of self-aggrandisement to verge on the tyrannical. A government which spends hundreds of millions of dollars on art galleries in a city that is running out of water, and which then distracts attention with a Mugabe-like attack to clear the regional council squatters, is no longer a vestige of the just deliberation of power but has become an anathema.

Hundreds of thousands of anxious Queenslanders—from the coastal strip of Noosa to the Tasmania sized shire of Boulia—are waiting to see if the character of their communities will be irrevocably damaged by the Beattie government’s plan to forcibly amalgamate their councils. A seven-member reform commission will hand down a report in August. This is the axe hanging over the head of many local communities in Australia’s most decentralised state. Queenslanders are not unusual in their desire to have a government that is close and responsive to the people. Local government is all about Queenslanders having the freedom to solve their own problems locally. They do not want the ever-present hand of a distant government, state or federal, treating them like children and telling them how to organise garbage collection or where to build roads. In essence, there are many who believe that this is clear sign that the community of interest has now diverged so far that they must ask whether they need to have new states or new premiers to lead them. Alternatively, others ask whether we need states at all. Both questions are motivated by the Labor government’s butchering of the ‘fair go for all’ Queensland ethos.

Local government is older than parliamentary government. Our political institutions arose out of the consent given by local communities to the larger entities—whether state or federal. This was clearly understood by founding fathers such as our first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton. During the Constitutional Convention debate in Adelaide in 1897, Barton quoted from the British historian Edward Freeman. Freeman believed that true federations were unions of pre-existing city states. Barton’s use of Freeman’s quote at the Constitutional Convention in 1897 is worth repeating in the context of a state government seeking to destroy local representation:

The greater aggregate was simply organised after the model of the lesser elements, out of whose union it was formed. In fact, for the political unit, for the atom which joined with its fellow atoms to form the political whole, we must go to areas yet smaller ... That unit, that atom, the true kernel of all our political life must be looked for ... in England—smile not while I say it—in the parish vestry.

What Barton and Freeman understood is that other levels of government derive their legitimacy from the smaller units. What we see in Queensland at the moment is not inspiring but, rather, dictating—confusing strength with belligerence and riding roughshod over the vulnerable. In common-law countries, local government did predate parliamentary government. While kings unified England politically, there has always been a strong tradition of respect for local self-government. In the United States, there is a particularly strong tradition of this as people went out and settled regions which they effectively governed themselves. This has also been a factor in the Australian experience. Yes, we are parochial about where we live and we do not like others telling us how to govern our local affairs. This is steeped in our consciousness from hundreds of years of local government in Western communities. What is happening in Queensland today is a reversal of that history and a progression of what began in Queensland under a previous Labor political figure.

Queensland towns were once better endowed with local courthouses; clerks of the court; branch railway lines, preserving local roads from being carved up by heavy trucks; two-person police stations, which were open on weekends; and local hospital boards. The demise of these local services was instigated during the Queensland cabinet office tenure of its then departmental head Mr Kevin Rudd. The Beattie government’s assault on local government is a repeat performance of an ALP government of yesteryear which also did not care about rural or regional Queenslanders. The instigater of this gutting of regional and rural Queensland, whose legacy lives on in the Beattie government’s move to further damage communities by amalgamating councils, is now seeking to lead the Australian government.

It is worth revisiting how Mr Rudd paved the way for today’s council amalgamations. Forty-six courthouses were closed under Mr Rudd. They included: Allora, Aramac, Augathella, Babinda, Bell, Biggenden, Boonah, Calen, Cambooya, Canungra, Capella, Cardwell, Carmila, Cecil Plains, Clifton, Collinsville, Cooyar, Crows Nest, Dimbulah, Edward River, Eidsvold, Eton, Eulo, Finch Hatton, Forsayth, Gin Gin, Biru, Goombungee, Gordonvale, Harrisville, Helidon, Herberton, Home Hill, Inglewood, Injune, Jandowae, Jericho, Jondaryan, Kilcoy, Kilkivan, Killarney, Kumbia, Laidley, Malanda, Many Peaks, Marburg, Millaa Millaa, Millmerran, Miriam Vale, Miles, Mitchell, Monto, Morven, Mount Garnet, Mount Larcom, Mount Molloy, Mount Morgan, Mount Perry, Moura, Mundubbera, Nebo, Peranga, Prairie, Proston, Ravenshoe, Rolleston, Rosewood, Silkwood, Springsure, Surat, Texas, Thallon, Theodore, Tiaro, Torrens Creek, Wandoan, Wondai, Wowan, Yarraman, Yelarbon and Yungaburra. I put them on the record to show the sort of gutting that Mr Rudd has been responsible for.

Rail closures included the Inglewood to Texas line, the Takura line, Pialba to Urangan, Melawondi to Brooloo, Goolara to Theodore, Cobarra to Greenvale, Cloncurry to Kajabbi, Duchess to Dajarra, Hendon to Allora, Dalby to Bell, Oakey to Cecil Plains, Rannes to Wowan and Murgon to Byee. Only widespread condemnation and backlash saved more than one-third of the state’s rail lines. In addition to rail closures and associated loss of jobs, eight rail positions were cut at Home Hill, six positions were cut at Ayr, 23 positions were cut at Cloncurry, and the closure of the Townsville rail workshop resulted in the loss of 420 jobs. Ipswich and Banyo rail workshops were also closed. This is from the party that is supposed to protect the worker.

Six hundred jobs were cut at the department of primary industries. DPI suffered a 20 per cent reduction in its budget. DPI offices were closed at Miles, Mitchell, Millmerran and Wandoan. Extension officers were removed from country towns and research stations were closed. Police stations were unmanned on weekends. One-man police stations were closed and two-man stations became one-man stations. Four hundred and three teaching positions were lost. Many small country schools were closed. Many country school principals were either transferred or sacked. Funds for rural school libraries were cut. Rural TAFE projects were cut. Funds for rural education projects were cut.

The downgrading of education services in rural Queensland forced families to move out of those centres. Hospital boards were sacked and all administration moved to Brisbane and/or regional health authorities, which were an unmitigated failure, paving the way for the Dr Patel scandal. Local fire services boards were sacked and all administration was moved to Brisbane. Local ambulance boards were sacked and all administration was moved to Brisbane. This was the legacy of the head of the department of cabinet in the Goss Labor government—one Mr Kevin Rudd.

Emboldened by Mr Rudd’s reform agenda, Mr Beattie felt free to unilaterally pull out of the Size, Shape and Sustainability process of voluntary reform that was proceeding in cooperation with Queensland’s local councils. The Size, Shape and Sustainability process had been running for just 14 months, not two years as claimed by the state Labor government. In a true spirit of cooperation and partnership, local government was participating in the SSS process in good faith. More than 30 major changes were proposed at the time the voluntary reform process was scrapped. But even before SSS, councils recognised the need to change. Since 1994, Queensland elected councillors had voluntarily reduced their numbers by 200 positions. I do not recall any politicians voluntarily agreeing to abolish their positions in the name of smaller, more efficient government.

Since the Beattie Labor government’s betrayal of communities there has been a massive backlash: 22,000 people have attended rallies and 36,000 people have made submissions to the Local Government Reform Commission. That the seven commissioners can consider 36,000 submissions and make recommendations for amalgamations across Queensland in three months is a complete and utter nonsense, and it shows the sort of regime that is currently in place in Queensland. This is the sort of government I imagine we can expect on the ascension of Mr Rudd. It is obvious that this is a sham process. A case for compelling, urgent arbitrary action has not been made. While he was the architect of the last round of the gutting of services in regional areas, even Mr Rudd realises the case for forced amalgamations has not been made. I doubt his sincerity but, nonetheless, on 17 May he told ABC radio:

If you’re going to seek to bring about greater economic efficiencies with councils, and let’s face it a number of them need to see that happen, there are other ways other than forced amalgamations to achieve that.

If you look at their current terms of reference I believe they are skewed far too much in the direction of bringing about forced amalgamation options.

They’ll make up their own mind, but my request to the premier to look at a review and reappraise the powers they have been given is based on that principle.

Despite his form in destroying rural communities, Mr Rudd has now had a road to Damascus experience. It is amazing how the electoral imperative suddenly focuses the mind. But secure in the knowledge that he is doing this at the start of a new term of government, Peter Beattie has refused to listen to Mr Rudd. Some would suggest that this is just contrived theatrics to get Mr Rudd off the hook. Sure, there are a small number of shires sailing close to the wind, but this is hardly a reason for wholesale forced amalgamations. But without taxpayers’ dollars the state government would also be in financial trouble. All it has to do, as we have seen in the latest budget, is increase taxes and borrow more. Surely, if financial trouble were a determinant of amalgamations, then after the federal Labor government left us with $96 billion in debt we should have amalgamated with—I don’t know who—Samoa or New Zealand, perhaps. The last federal Labor government was in such a financial mess that it left Australia with a $96 billion interest bill that cost $8 billion a year to service. Had the coalition not been elected with its policies of strong economic management, a case could have been made for amalgamation—with whom, one could only suggest.

Local government, while not having access to a growth tax like GST, had to make do with prudent financial management to survive. The Rural Doctors Association of Queensland is worried that council amalgamations will impact on the effectiveness of health services in rural and remote areas with Indigenous communities. Cloncurry doctor Sheila Cronin says many western councils, like Diamantina and Cloncurry, have dramatically improved their health services in recent years. But Dr Cronin claims that super shires will take away local decision-making powers and make it harder for council—run health services to operate. Dr Cronin said:

Remote communities are trying to get through to people in Brisbane that their communities, they are hundreds and hundreds of kilometres apart.

They cannot just travel half an hour and then sit down with a CEO or mayor of their local shire. If these amalgamations happen, these communities are going to be hundreds and hundreds of kilometres from where the shire chamber might be.

Towns with a significant local government presence that would be adversely affected include Birdsville, Bedouri, Cunnamulla, Tambo, Ilfracombe, Boulia, Noosa and Chinchilla. People in most of these shires already face some of the biggest travel distances in the free world to get to their first level of government. In Cloncurry shire, shire engineers are moved around by helicopter, as the towns are at least 200 kilometres apart. Councillor Kelsey Neilson is a councillor from Boulia. This is a shire of more than 60,000 square kilometres—the size of Tasmania. She says: ‘We choose to live here, we love our towns and the state needs us to live here. We look after the outback.’

We should be encouraging decentralisation in Australia, not trying to squeeze everyone onto the coastal fringe. Gutting services in the bush by forcing councils to amalgamate into super shires bigger than many European countries will not encourage people to move away from the south-east corner. This is economic rationalism gone mad and it is completely out of step with the realities of Queensland.

I am a long-time supporter of inland Australia. I choose to live in the inland and make my life and that of my family’s there. Without the services of my local council and the flow-on effects of the economic activity generated by it, it would not be tenable to live inland. The cynic in me says that there is another agenda here. Mr Beattie is the master of political diversions. A huge fight in the bush takes up valuable news time— (Time expired)