Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens are pleased to hear of the negotiations that have occurred since we last were discussing the Regional Investment Corporation Bill 2017, as some measures are going to increase elements of transparency and accountability as to how the Regional Investment Corporation is run. But, in doing these negotiations, the government's agreement to these amendments—we're told they're about to agree to these amendments, which are essentially the same amendments that they rejected last year—just highlights the political nature of the whole Regional Investment Corporation.

The Regional Investment Corporation was a political invention. It was created to shore up government support in an area of Australia where their stocks were low. It was created to be able to direct money to particular areas where it was going to have the most political gain—and, fundamentally, the Regional Investment Corporation is still going to be able to do that. The government is going to agree to these measures that are improving accountability—and don't get me wrong; I welcome that—but it's clear that the reason that they are agreeing to them today is that they want a political win. They want to be able to say, 'Tick; we've achieved the Regional Investment Corporation.' I'm not sure what else is going on or not going on, but obviously it's important for them to be able to do that today rather than next week. It just underlines the political nature of this whole corporation that's being set up. These amendments are welcome; the Greens will be supporting them, but they do not address the fundamental nature of the RIC, which could end up being a political slush fund, without the full level of transparency and accountability needed for determining where our precious financial resources are being directed.

Senator Macdonald was ranting and raving about the NAIF and the Adani coalmine. In fact, in one way, linking the two of them is accurate because they are both institutions that have been set up in order to deliver on particular political initiatives without the full range of transparency and accountability, without looking at whether the investments that the money is being put towards are actually in the long-term interests of the country. It's very clear when you're talking about the NAIF and its, hopefully, now completely knocked over prospect of providing finance for a rail line to serve the Adani coalmine, that this investment—the whole Adani coalmine and the rail line—was not in the public interest, not in the long-term interest. It would be climate-destroying to dig up so much coal. It would add to climate change. It would add to dangerous global warming just at the time when the rest of the world is shifting away from fossil fuels and rapidly shifting to renewable energy—'Here's Australia, continuing on with the old, dirty, last-century polluting industries.' But the NAIF was going to be able to do that. Similarly, I expect that we will see potential investments from the Regional Investment Corporation made not in the long-term interests of Australia. Even with the amendments that are going to be passed today, there won't be the accountability, there won't be the transparency and there won't be the assessment needed to know if these investments are really the right thing for the long-term future of Australia.

I'm going to finish by putting on the record that we're certainly going to support the amendments that have been negotiated, and we welcome the fact that that's happened. But we remain opposed to this bill and the Regional Investment Corporation overall as being not in the interests of the long-term, sustainable development of Australia.