Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

It is a good opportunity this afternoon for me to speak against this motion, the debate on which was resumed in the Senate this afternoon. Labor absolutely understands the challenges facing Australia’s rural and regional communities. Whilst I am not an expert on the Tasmanian drought, I know that Mr Adams particularly is very aware of the issues facing Tasmanian farmers, particularly in his electorate. I am quite sure that he would happily receive representations on behalf of his constituents when it comes to dealing with the drought that we are very well aware areas of Tasmania are suffering from. But I do speak against the other elements of the motion.

In November last year the Rudd government made a commitment to govern for all Australians, and that is what we will do—all Australians, whether they live in regional areas, rural areas, remote areas or the cities. At the last election we went to the people arguing that there was much to be done in order to secure a prosperous future for Australian rural communities. After 11 years of Howard government inaction—and, can I say, rorting—Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Labor recognised that there was a need for new leadership and a new direction in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry areas, and also in terms of regional development. I will deal with the latter shortly.

The Rudd government’s commitment to regional Australia is about building a strong economy through responsible economic management. We hear the bleating on the other side on the question of economic management—and it can only be regarded as bleating. In the Senate this week we saw the raid on the surplus by the other side. It absolutely underlines that the other side of the chamber are continuing what they did when they sat on this side. History will show that what has happened in the parliament this week absolutely underlines the fact that the Liberal and National coalition members can never describe themselves as responsible economic managers. Only those who sit on this side can carry that tag.

The Rudd government’s commitment to regional Australia is about building a strong economy through responsible economic management. On 24 November 2007, the Australian public said ‘no’ to a government that was willing to spend taxpayers’ money on anything that would buy a vote. The previous government’s spending had been growing at an unsustainable rate and Australian taxpayers have paid for it with no fewer than 10 consecutive interest rate rises.

Due to this government’s good economic management, interest rates have now fallen for the first time since December 2001. If passed on in full, this will put an average of more than $146 per month back into farming families’ budgets, or around $1,755 per year. That is real money that farmers on average will receive if the interest rate cuts are passed on in full.

Unlike the previous government, the Rudd government has a strong commitment to ensuring high standards of public administration, accountability and transparency. The Rudd Labor government is committed to investing in regional Australia so that it can meet the challenges of the 21st century. This government’s new vision for regional Australia is based on building partnerships to ensure the government is responsive to local priorities and needs, but it is underpinned by major new investments in the areas of infrastructure, broadband, housing, health care, education, skills development, innovation and, most importantly, water. Our government is working with rural communities. We are bringing fresh ideas and a new approach that will harness the potential of our regions and develop them for a better future.

As part of our long-term plan, the Australian government will deliver the new Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program from next year to encourage economic development by investing in local infrastructure. In line with the Rudd Labor government’s national approach to infrastructure investment, our new program will be accountable, it will be transparent and it will be based on community needs. To ensure that the program is developed properly and reflects the needs or regional communities we will be consulting widely with the community.

The new Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program and our Better Regions election commitments will replace the Sustainable Regions and Regional Partnerships programs, which the Australian National Audit Office discredited last year as having fallen short of an acceptable standard of public administration. I have only been in this place for nine years but in that time I have read many ANAO reports and none of them have been as big as that report or as critical of any government department or program as that particular report. In that report, the Auditor-General found that the grants were approved by ministers before full applications had been submitted. Ministers overruled departmental advice and gave grants for no more apparent reason other than the fact that the money would be spent on marginal coalition seats. They were buying votes. More than one-third of the programs’ money was pumped into 10 rural coalition seats, including the seat of Mr John Anderson, a former minister responsible for the Regional Partnerships program. An amount of $4.6 million was earmarked for 22 projects in the electorate of Lyne.

The government, though, will honour all existing contracts under the Regional Partnerships and Sustainable Regions programs. But unlike the National Party, in particular, the Rudd government will deliver properly for regional communities. The fact is, the Nationals in particular said and did anything in a desperate bid to get elected. They made promises they were never going to keep.

There are a number of other investments that the Rudd Labor government is making in regional communities. We have $176 million to honour our election commitments through the Better Regions program to invest in the revitalisation of towns, major sporting venues, community centres and facilities; $1.9 billion in financial assistance grants for local government; and we will fund critical rural medical projects under the Rural Medical Infrastructure Fund.

In the other place the government has established an inquiry into the Audit Office report and on future directions for regional programs. We have to use the report to ensure that mistakes that happened, particularly under the watch of Parliamentary Secretary De-Anne Kelly, and other ministers of the previous government, never happen again. The Rudd Labor government will deliver up to $74 million for a new Regional Development Australia network to provide genuine engagement with regional communities. It has been a pleasure working with the organisations in Townsville and Cairns in order to ensure that their concerns and their issues about how it will be established are promoted. AusLink 2 commitments will deliver more than $10 billion for rural and regional roads.

We take rural and regional infrastructure extremely seriously, and there is no clearer indication of that fact than our first budget. In our first budget we put aside $20 billion for the Building Australia Fund—$20 billion to undo 11½ years of neglect of infrastructure in this country. Worse than all of the past neglect of those opposite is their current attempt to raid the Building Australia Fund. Every cent they knock off the surplus comes out of the Building Australia Fund. That is what is going to happen. Every time they block a budget bill they block further funding for national highways and rail networks that service rural and regional Australia. Whenever money is going to be taken out of the budget, those opposite need to understand it has to be found somewhere. We are a responsible economic management team and we intend to make sure that the budget is balanced. So every time you take some money out it has to be found from somewhere else.

There is a lot of work happening in primary industries. I advise the Senate that Labor is committed to securing a prosperous and sustainable future for Australia’s $38 billion primary industry sector. We heard from Senator Colbeck before about the drought in Tasmania. We know that the continent we live on is the driest continent in the world. One of the biggest challenges that this country has ever faced is in dealing with the reality that climate change is upon us and with the immediacy of the fact that the Murray-Darling has been in drought for such a long time. But the reality is that we have to deal with climate change not only in the immediate future but also for the medium and long term.

This is a challenge that, I am afraid, those opposite for the last 10 years simply avoided. It was really only in the last eight to 10 months of the previous government’s life that the former Prime Minister even acknowledged that climate change was in fact an issue. If you leave your head in the sand that long, of course you are going to be behind the eight ball. But can I say how proud I have been of our government and the way that we have seriously engaged with rural communities, trying honestly and openly to address the fact that the water in the Murray-Darling is not enough to do what all of us would like to do with it.

I commend Senator Wong on the work that she has done to face the hard questions and make sure that we are making the right decisions. She is going through the process methodically but, most importantly, honestly with rural communities. This is not about putting $50 million together, as the opposition leader is suggesting, to fix the problem. A long-term solution has to be found.