Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

In respect of the historic first annual Ministerial Statement on Rural and Regional Budget Outcomes, delivered by the Deputy Prime Minister in the other place on 8 October and tabled here today, I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

As the National Party Senate leader and a very proud rural Australian, I welcome and endorse this statement. It is our plan for a rural-and-regional-led economic recovery. The Nationals are proud barrackers for the bush in good times and in tough times. The 2020-21 budget is a budget for regional Australia. It is a plan to ensure we emerge post-COVID in a stronger position.

The year 2020 has been like no other in living memory. Many of our regional communities continue to navigate through years of drought and communities across northern Queensland faced the worst flooding on record. Large areas of the country were ravaged by summer bushfires which tragically claimed 33 lives and decimated more than 17 million hectares, and we sadly saw the death of more than one billion Australian native animals. Then, as the recovery process started, an equally tragic pandemic swept the world. It brought so many of our already hurting rural and regional communities to their knees.

However, out of every tragedy and hardship there is cause for hope. This is an opportunity to review and to reset our targets and goals. From the rubble of these hardships, we've already seen the opportunities we've been able to create for an even more prosperous and vibrant future. From COVID-19 we've seen the rapid expansion of telehealth, increasing connectivity gains, greater remote-working opportunities and agile and flexible manufacturing from our regional manufacturers. We've seen the migration of so many city residents to their new homes in the country, who we welcome with open arms. Bernard Salt has been mapping that transition of urban Australians embracing our lifestyle and liveability out in regional areas. We've seen the ability to truly collaborate with some, not all, of our state and territory counterparts to deliver sensible policy with less red tape for our industries—like the code achieved for our national freighters—and that's kept us going.

As the Deputy Prime Minister outlined in his statement on regional Australia, the regions offer opportunity and, along with that, a quality of life that is second to none: a life with less traffic; homes with big backyards; reliable, well-paying, sustainable jobs and careers; and affordable living. This is regional Australia, where you are connected to your fellow Australians in a very human-like community and you can tap into and connect with the natural environment in ways that you can't in our capital cities. It's not just the National Party that have been saying it, the Business Council of Australia has penned an opinion article recently which recognises the key role our regions will play in securing Australia's economic and social recovery.

We have the jobs too. I continue to hear and read of unfilled jobs out in regional Australia in everything from high-paying professional careers, to hospitality and to jobs in our fabulous, globally focused agriculture industry. It's absolutely dire for so many in agriculture right now. Many farmers are at their wits end, having to plough-in bumper crops after fabulous rains to start off the season because they can't get the workers. In Maranoa, in the Darling Downs, we've got 10,000 jobs in agriculture that need to be filled just this season. Farmers in Cairns and Wide Bay need 15,000 workers right now. The New South Wales grain industry alone was calling for 3,000 workers at the start of harvest. Not to mention there are the tens of thousands of job vacancies in agriculture in my home state of Victoria, in Shepparton, the Mallee, Gippsland and beyond.

The Nationals back incentives to help fill the worker void in the region. There's up to $6,000 available to cover relocation costs for Australians wanting to head inland. We back the incentives to help those who want a better life with us out in regional communities. We back tax relief that will boost GDP by $3.5 billion in 2020-21 and $9 billion in 2021-22. Our lower-tax approach will help create 50,000 jobs by the end of 2021-22. The key indicator of success in economic recovery is the number of jobs we create. When we think back to National Party governments of the past we think of Black Jack McEwen and his backing of the manufacturing, mining and agriculture sectors, driving reforms across international trade frameworks. His one KPI for himself and the Menzies government was full employment: how would we get the increased number of immigrants who flooded our shores post World War II employed in sustainable careers not just in our capital cities but right throughout regional Australia as well?

We're supporting young people to get into tertiary education so they can get the jobs they want in industries where they're needed. And we're supporting the millions of small businesses, who are the heart and soul of rural and regional communities, with a $32 billion cashflow boost to around 800,000 small businesses. More than 99 per cent of businesses with a turnover of up to $5 billion can write off the full value of any eligible asset they purchase for their business. The Nationals back small businesses because they employ local people and support local communities, like our footy and netball clubs. Small businesses are our innovators, our adapters to change and the value-add champions. This budget is for them, to help them rebuild their communities and our economy through value-added manufacturing. Our $1.5 billion modern manufacturing plan sets six priority areas that include regional industries, because the regions are the perfect place to build advanced manufacturing across foods and beverages, minerals and critical resources, defence, and sustainable forestry products. I'd like to see the government back not just our food and beverage industry but our fabulous fibre industries—our timber harvesters, who have world-class processing facilities; our wool producers, including our growing alpaca-farming community; our cotton gins et cetera. We want to value add to those primary products in regional communities, and I'm looking forward to seeing government support for that.

As we've seen firsthand through the pandemic, Australians are resilient and adaptable. No longer do we need to rely on congested cities and high-rise office towers to collaborate and innovate. Our regional small businesses are perfectly placed to pick up the manufacturing baton. We need to encourage businesses out of the city. City based small businesses should make the move and make their mark in regional Australian manufacturing. The Nationals' vision is that Australia will make the products Australia needs right here at home. We need to make Australia make again by investing in industries in the regions, where we already produce 32 per cent of total manufacturing, to create jobs.

We're building water infrastructure, through the national water grid, to build on our potential. Just add water—we've got everything else we need out in regional communities! We're building rail infrastructure, such as the $10 billion Inland Rail project, to connect producers to markets like never before. Our $5 billion Future Drought Fund, for instance, is about preparing for the future. In communities right across regional Australia the Nationals are backing infrastructure. We're backing connected communities, which isn't just about ports, rails and roads but about digital connectivity as well. We're proud to be part of a government that's investing $4½ billion in new upgrades to the NBN. Our Mobile Black Spot Program now has more than 850 activated base stations so businesses can connect to their markets and customers anywhere in the world. We've also backed connected communities through our $100 million commitment to regional airports over the next four years. This will ensure our regional airports maintain their vital link for regional communities, from food deliveries to health care, from transporting our fabulous fresh, clean, green produce to the markets of the world to ensuring that our medical professionals can get into regional communities and towns and service their residents.

The $50 million Public Interest News Gathering program will provide financial support to our 91 regional media outlets at a time when we need our fourth estate more than ever before. We don't want capital city newsrooms reporting on us; we want news gathering and news reporting that is from us, that is embedded in our communities, that understands who we are and what we need to hear—not some romanticised version of who they think we are.

The fact is that the Nationals are working to ensure our nation's recovery through practical investment in regions and industries that will deliver jobs, drive economic growth and give confidence to Australians that, together, we will get through this pandemic. We are building our sovereign capability and, by doing so, we are securing the future of Australia and our nation.