Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I know it's part of your talking points to talk about a decade of delay in this policy area et cetera, et cetera, but you're in government now. We heard, through the Senate inquiry, the real impacts—positive and negative—that this change will have on rural and regional communities, on working-class people across this country. So for you to stand up and look backwards when you're about to bring down a budget—it was a very simple question: will you guarantee the projects and programs that were the first tranche of investment that our government put on the table while on a pathway to net zero by 2050? Things like $1.5 billion to diversify the Pilbara. Things like $2 billion for our Regional Accelerator Program for the regions, where communities that had the ambition to grow and diversify were going to be supported through developing and harnessing manufacturing capability and the like. Things like $750 million to diversify the Hunter. Things like over $2 billion for the Northern Territory. Actual money on the table for things to assist these communities and their working families to deal with what is legitimately coming. We've all got on the same page. Everybody had been talking a big game that there was not going to be anybody seriously impacted by this, but you were kidding yourselves. You are finally able to admit that, and I thank the union movement for assisting with that. The reality is when you look at the EU on this question, they put hundreds of billions of euros on the table to help regions overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities. It is a pretty simple proposition: The money was budgeted for, over $20 billion specifically to this end, in the last budget. Will you guarantee that money will continue to flow? We care about these communities; we thought very long and hard about the types of projects and programs that would help them over the next four or five years with this transition.