Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Chandler for her contribution to this MPI debate, because it enables me to follow on and remind Senator Chandler and the chamber of exactly what the environment was that we entered into during the election campaign. We had a government led by Mr Morrison which was riven with waste, rorts and lost opportunities. This was the environment that led to the election campaign. On 21 March people responded by electing an Albanese Labor government and rejecting the rorts of the Liberal-National coalition. That's exactly what happened. It really is galling that you come in here with an MPI without any attempt to acknowledge what was actually happening in the region. In July—

Senator McKenzie, who's normally very polite, abides by the standing orders and sits politely, is really fired up now. She doesn't like to be reminded of how they shafted rural and regional Australia. That's exactly—

You can argue all you like, but I want to go back—not too far back, because this is a new government. This new government is in the lead-up to the very first Albanese Labor budget in October. I'm immensely looking forward to it delivering on our election commitment.

Senator McKenzie and other senators in this chamber would probably know that 28 July of this year was the day the Australian National Audit Office issued a scathing report into the coalition's management of the $1.15 billion Building Better Regions Fund. It was a scathing report. I want to take this opportunity because obviously, on the presentation of this MPI, the coalition have either forgotten their period in government or are trying to whitewash history. But it's not going to wash out in the community—not out in the regions; not out in rural Australia—because they remember the rorts, the waste and the lost opportunity. There was no strategy for these regions, just pork-barrelling, and that is not delivering—

I cannot believe Senator McKenzie believes that throwing in a bit of pork every three years makes up for not having an actual strategy for regional and rural Australia. This is what they're putting forward now. Seriously! They might not want to be reminded, but these are the actual facts. I know facts are not something that rate highly on the other side, but I'm going to remind people of a media release that the now Minister Catherine King put out when the ANAO report was released on 28 July 2022 about the Building Better Regions Fund.

I'm going to have to take back my remarks about Senator McKenzie normally being well-behaved, because she has proven me wrong. It's a terrible day.

This is what I want to remind the coalition, the chamber and, of course, those who are listening in to this debate: over five rounds of the program, 65 per cent of the infrastructure grants went to projects that were not assessed as having the most merit—65 per cent! Former coalition ministers made decisions on the basis of 'choose your own adventure' criteria that weren't fully explained to those applying for grants. They did not keep proper records of decisions. It's unheard of—seriously! The Audit Office also found that seats held by the Nationals benefited most from the decisions to ignore the merit list, which I find highly interesting, given, of course—