Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am sad to have to participate in the debate this afternoon on a matter of public importance with regard to the failure of the coalition government to deliver for rural and regional Australia. So much of Australia's identity resides in our belief in the great people in the rural and regional parts of this country—their resilience and their capacity. But what they face is a government that does not stand with them—not practically, though perhaps in word—but is absent. This is a government that continues to deny that it is mismanaging this country and this economy and that it is not serving the people of the bush. They have no plan. Perhaps most egregiously, the headline figure of $7 billion that the government continues to sprout as the amount that was supporting the drought has been found to be a complete misrepresentation of what was going on. That's just the beginning. Let me count just some more of the ways in which this government has failed to deliver for rural and regional Australia.

Let's just start with the ABC cuts and the impact that that is going to have on people in regional Australia. The ABC bought the rights for the Olympic Games, and it brought that wonderful event into the households of Australia for almost 70 years. But after years of cuts at the hands of the Liberal National government, and with a further three years of cuts ahead for the ABC, they've been left with no choice. The ABC has decided to end its 67-year run as the official non-commercial Olympic Games radio broadcaster. Budget pressures and competing budget priorities have been cited by the ABC as critical reasons for it not continuing this great tradition. The ABC warned that the latest round of budget cuts, totalling $83.7 million over the next three years, would make it very difficult for them to meet the charter requirements and audience expectations. But Scott Morrison locked in—