Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Williams, pull your fingers out of your ears and listen very carefully. If you miss a bit, I will send you an email. But mine you can show. Feel free to flash it around. And I will write it myself; I do not need any moles to write it or flash it around for me. I will actually write it and send it to you, Senator Williams. Part of our national building infrastructure plan goes out to rural and regional Australia. This is where I also have a lot of frustration because in this chamber there is a little war that goes on all the time. You get the doormats in that corner there who stand up and say, ‘We are the ones that represent regional Australia.’ Then you get the other side, their coalition partners, who have been tickling their tummies every time they need something, saying, ‘Don’t worry about the doormats. We represent regional Australia.’ So you can come in here and listen to the rubbish that gets put out, but I want to talk about what a wonderful opportunity this nation building infrastructure package will be to save jobs in rural and regional Australia.

This government knows only too well the fine contribution rural and regional Australia make to Australia’s economy and I am happy to say that, despite all the gloom and doom in the last 12 months, the agricultural industry is heading upwards. The National Farmers Federation told me the other night in Brisbane just how happy they are that agriculture is on the rise. They are making a wonderful contribution. We are helping them too, because $26 billion will be spent over six years in rural and regional Australia. It is going to be spent on some really worthwhile projects that, lo and behold, will even save jobs—projects like the interstate transport network. For 11 long years that lot on that side did everything they could to ignore the valuable infrastructure of ports, hospitals, roads and railways. What did they do? They did one railway line, and unfortunately it is losing a lot of money. They did nothing else. They sat on the greatest commodity boom in history, with billions and billions of dollars coming from those mines and commodities, and they did nothing with it. They did absolutely not a thing. They call themselves fiscal conservatives, and they are very happy to come in here and lecture us, because we are doing our best to save Australian jobs. We should be applauded for it—not like you lot. Put your head back in the sand; that is the best place for it.

In 2008-09 and 2009-10, $800 million will be going into the Community Infrastructure Program. This will provide critical local infrastructure such as community centres, town halls, parks, playgrounds, pools and sports facilities, and a lot of them will be in rural and regional Australia. That lot over there, the tummy ticklers and the doormats, between them pretend to represent rural and regional Australia. What an absolute joke. In fact, it is not a joke; jokes are normally funny. This is not funny. This is disgraceful.

There is $650 million in the Jobs Fund. There is that four letter word again that I keep repeating: jobs. I am sorry, but that is what it is all about: jobs. It is about keeping Australians employed. Not only that, but there is broadband—$43 billion over eight years. How many jobs will that create in rural and regional Australia? How many small businesses in rural and regional Australia will still be able to keep their doors open?