Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) Share this | Hansard source

The regions are the key to Australia. They are the key to our history, our culture and our future. They are the key to our recovery from this crisis. The regions are home to about a third of our population, but they punch well above their weight in accounting for almost 40 per cent of our national economic outlook and contributing half of our nation's growth since the global financial crisis. Too often our regional communities are talked about in terms of crisis—of drought, flood, fire and lack of services—when in fact their story is far more complex and their contribution to our nation far more significant. From farming to resources, energy production, manufacturing, tourism and service provision, our regions contribute so much to our nation—often more than they are given credit for.

Labor knows and recognises this. It is only a month ago that Mr Anthony Albanese delivered his vision statement on regional Australia, talking about the talented, ambitious Australians who work hard and work smart in our regions—the regional people who do so much for our country and who have the potential to do so much more. Over recent years and, most accurately, over the last 12 months, those strong communities and proud people have been tested. I won't pretend that times have been easy. The regions of Australia have borne the brunt of multiple challenges—drought, flood, fire and the pandemic. Alone, each of these challenges would have historical significance and would have been remembered as markers of a period. Instead, we had all four over the course of a few months. Through it all, regional Australians have shown their best and stood up to everything demanded of them. Communities stood by each other through fire, flood and drought. Through COVID, communities came together in new ways. They met on Zoom. New businesses emerged, and walking outside became the new meeting room.

Now, as we recover, regions are poised to lead the way. The Deputy Prime Minister and the shadow minister for infrastructure have had many political differences, but they truly are on a unity ticket when it comes to the joys of living in regional Australia. I cannot understand why anyone would live anywhere else; we know all the regional members of the House share that feeling! Regions are joyful places, marked by strong communities and proud people. They are the economic powerhouse of our nation, contributing a third of our national output and providing employment for a third of all working Australians.

Our regions have been central to the economy of our nation through times of crisis in our history. Labor has long known this. In 1942, with war still raging, John Curtin looked to the regions as a source of untapped economic growth to drive postwar reconstruction. In the 1970s Gough Whitlam looked to the regions as a source to tackle the entrenched social inequality that marred our nation. Bob Hawke helped build regional centres such as Geelong, Newcastle, Mackay, Townsville, Bunbury, Launceston and Hobart into wonderful, vibrant places to live, with strong local communities.

Last time Australia faced an economic crisis, back in the global financial crisis, another Labor government looked to the regions. We focused on sparking regional growth and building connections between regions and cities, knowing that doing so would build regional resilience. Today, as we emerge from these crises, the regions can do it again. However, to drive regional recovery you need a regional policy and a plan, and this government, despite the statement of the Deputy Prime Minister, does not have a regional policy, let alone a plan for regional Australia. As you heard, all they have is a grab bag of programs and funding initiatives, without a central policy to guide them. They have no clear vision of where regions are now and where they want them to be in the future.

You cannot get to your destination without a map. The Morrison government is driving blind. The government's own Strategic Regional Growth Expert Panel—chaired by Peter Ryan, former Victorian Deputy Premier and Nationals leader—highlighted just this point. In their final report, which the government belatedly released only after a Senate order, this expert panel recommended the Commonwealth implement a regional development framework. They also recommended that the government deliver a white paper on regional Australia as soon as possible and be completed no later than July 2020. It's now November 2020 and we ask, 'Where is it?'

Instead, regional policy has continued under Prime Minister Morrison the same way it did under Prime Ministers Abbott and Turnbull—a grab bag of funds largely in the control of the National Party for their use in pork-barrelling. When it comes to the regions, this budget is more of the same. Now they have gotten so brazen that they don't even try to hide it. Last month on ABC Ballarat the Deputy Prime Minister was asked why that part of regional Australia again missed out in the budget. His answer: 'Maybe you need to look at your federal member.' I'm not making this up. You can't make this up. He isn't even bothering to hide it. The only regions he cares about are those that elect members of his party room. This is nothing short of disgraceful. The Deputy Prime Minister openly said to residents of regional Australia that he will only deliver the infrastructure and services they need when they vote for a member of his party.

Maybe that is why we don't have a regional plan—because it might involve supporting, God help us, all of regional Australia. Instead, we have a grab bag of funding schemes and endless pork-barrelling. Guess what? It ain't working. Health, employment and education outcomes are generally poorer for regional Australians than for people in metropolitan areas. In the regions they also have greater difficulty in accessing services. The Morrison government is doing too little to fix it. Geographic distance, small markets and economies of scale all contribute, of course, but the government needs to provide the services that can make this better.

The Nationals like to talk to themselves and whoever might be unfortunate to hear them. They talk themselves up as the party of the bush, but their stranglehold on allocating regional funding continues to the detriment of regional cities and remote Australia. It has got to change. The local governments across the country that worked so hard to submit applications to the main regional funding program—that is, the Building Better Regions Fund—describe it as nothing short of a lottery. If it were a lottery, at least each region would have an equal chance of winning. But under the Morrison government money continues to flow to the favourites and, unfortunately, the others miss out.

Funding under the Regional Jobs and Investment Package, the Building Better Regions Fund and the Drought Communities Program has been so highly partisan that it is no wonder that the ANAO is now taking an interest in these programs. Under round 3 of the Building Better Regions Fund, 155 of 165 projects were in coalition seats or coalition targets—155 of the 165. Ahead of the last election, four regional Labor seats in Newcastle and the Hunter shared just over $200,000 through the Community Development Grants Program, with two of them receiving nothing, while the two Nationals seats received—are you ready for this?—$20 million each. And who can forget the North Sydney pool? In the shadows of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, this pool scored a $10 million upgrade through the Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream, a program designed to remove barriers to women participating in sport 'in our regions'—the proud regional community of North Sydney! So much for the Nationals being the party of the bush!

At its current rate, the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility will take 150 years to spend its $5 billion. It's just been extended again, because you cannot get the money out the door. That's the truth of the matter: you can't get anyone to apply for it. This in no way grows the regions. It serves only to entrench disenchantment, pit regions against each other and deliver worse outcomes. No-one talks up regional Australia like the Nats, but no-one lets down regional Australia like them either. Mr Acting Deputy President, I seek leave to continue my remarks at a later time.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.