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

I rise today to speak about my recent trip to the great inner New South Wales city of Dubbo, located in the very vast seat of Parkes, for which I have the privilege of being Labor's duty senator. Dubbo truly is the capital of central New South Wales. Anything you need, if you live west of Sydney, you can get in Dubbo. There's incredible diversity in that town. Growth is happening in Dubbo in transport, tourism, agriculture, health and education because it is such a critical hub for the region. It's a strong and resilient town. But, sadly, it seems to have been forgotten by those opposite here in Canberra, because there's no sense of a plan for the town at a federal level, especially when it comes to the drought—and I'll get to that in a moment.

I visited Dubbo most recently in September with my friend and colleague Mr Jason Clare to speak with the local community, farmers, business, council and charities about the impact of the drought and the recently implemented level 4 water restrictions. It was great to be in Dubbo with my colleague the shadow minister for housing and homelessness and shadow minister for regional services, local government and territories. We had sunny weather, which is a feature, sadly, of that part of the country right now, because it would have been much better if we had been visiting during rain. Dubbo absolutely needs rain. Nonetheless, I was privileged to listen to the council, the chamber of commerce, organisations and small local businesses that are helping people suffering and struggling through that drought.

The drought doesn't just affect farmers—it affects the entire community—but it particularly affects farmers and their families. At the time of my visit it broke my heart to hear that Dubbo had already lost one young HSC student to suicide. This is a real crisis. It's happened in a time of incredible trauma for the entire community. That particular issue had the whole town in its grip, with families under extraordinary pressure. We met with CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes CEO, Anne-Marie Mioche, who noted a frightening increase in the demand for domestic violence services. When things get stressful, it is a very sad reality but nonetheless a fact that domestic violence tends to increase. We are seeing this vicious cycle created right across Australia as a result of the drought. When your government doesn't have a plan, things fall apart.

CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes are doing absolutely amazing work supporting those impacted by the drought. I'll name just a few examples. They've established a wellbeing mobile service that provides support to adults in rural and remote areas experiencing hardship from the drought. It is so important, because often services are provided in a town, but, when people are struggling to put petrol in their car and drive hundreds of kilometres, having mobile services is a critical way to respond. That's an innovation from CatholicCare.

The wellbeing mobile operates from Nyngan and follows the tracks of the Bogan Bush Mobile out to small communities and isolated properties in Nyngan, Warren, Tottenham, Collerina, Marthaguy, Hermidale and even Gerilambone. The wellbeing mobile addresses the needs of adults, with a focus on mental and emotional wellbeing in the context of the current drought being experienced by western New South Wales, but it's not a counselling service. One of the things they do is provide haircuts. There's a bit of a chat that goes on while the men are getting their hair cut. They also organise a range of drought support events, such as community movie nights, to get everybody out together. To date, CatholicCare Wilcannia-Forbes have held 10 drought support movie events in a range of rural and regional locations across western New South Wales. These have been a big hit and have made a huge difference to people's lives.

We also met with Councillor Greg Moore and Mark Rayner from the Dubbo Regional Council, who talked to us about the measures that they're taking to ensure that when you turn on the tap in Dubbo the water keeps coming out. The council's dedication to developing a plan to manage the situation was impressive. Dubbo has a plan. Dubbo is open for business and is thinking ahead to ensure it remains the economic powerhouse of the western part of New South Wales.

This is far more than I can say about this Liberal-National federal government, which still has no idea, no vision and no plan. It's frankly disturbing how poorly this government has mismanaged water policy in this contrary. Yes, we need it to rain and rain. But what we need, in addition to that, is a government with a meaningful, futureproof plan. I think we can agree that the rural sector is tired of the ad hoc, piecemeal approach to drought reform that they're seeing from this government. Labor has been saying for years—remember: this is the third term of this failed and failing Liberal-National government—that we need to change what's going on. We will support any measures to support drought-affected farmers and communities. But how many ad hoc, poorly planned, kneejerk drought announcements can this government make? They're making this up as they go, jumping from one lacklustre drought announcement to another, all of them failing the basic tests of prompt and fair delivery of services to people who need them, when they need them.

The latest political drought manoeuvrings come only weeks after the Prime Minister was caught out embellishing what he keeps claiming is a $7 million drought package. But everyone in Dubbo, everyone in the seat of Parkes, knows what a load of nonsense that is. Let's not forget the Prime Minister's bungled Drought Communities program, announced in September. Mr Morrison was left red-faced trying to give a slice of funding of his $100 million drought relief package to councils that aren't actually in drought, while ignoring communities, like the Cootamundra-Gundagai area, that actually are in drought and are livid that they've been overlooked. The Morrison government's inability to get it right simply comes down to what we're seeing constantly from them: a basic lack of planning, a withdrawal of funding from social services—on a scale we have never seen—and a failure to invest. It's a deadly combination which is taking away capacity from great Australians right across the country.

As I said, Dubbo is now on level 4 water restrictions. That means showers of less than five minutes and other extraordinary measures. But there's no extra help coming from the federal government for this community that's been in drought for a long, long time. I note that the member for Parkes, Mr Coulton, is quite silent on this, no doubt embarrassed by the government of which he is a part. A member since 2007, Mr Coulton is now the Minister for Regional Services, Decentralisation and Local Government. He should be in a position to be investing in the community that he has the privilege of representing. But what's he done over the last six years to provide infrastructure that will provide water security for his community? I want to note that the local paper is clearly reporting the vision of the local council, talking about pipelines that they want to establish out to towns like Wellington. They've got a plan. They've got a set of policy statements. But Mr Coulton seems to be ignorant of them, or he's ignoring them. Either way, Wellington is at risk because of this government. We saw Senator Canavan here yesterday talking constantly about the money they've got in the pipeline, but they're not putting any pipes in the ground! There is nothing actually happening in infrastructure except for a lot of nonsense talk and claims, week after week.

Dubbo is resilient. It's got a great zoo, and it's a great place to visit. I want to encourage Australians who want to spend a bit of money in regional Australia to get to Dubbo and support it, if you're going to take a holiday over Christmas. It is a great town There's enough water there for you to have a shower. There's enough water for you to look after your family. Support our local communities across this country, especially those in drought areas.

I want to acknowledge also the resilience of small businesses in this area. I'd like to talk about a very remarkable local Dubbo business that is powering through despite the drought conditions, ICaN Nursery. It's run by the Riley brothers, who are doing everything they can to continue supplying native plants to the broader community and provide training, skills, development and employment opportunities for locals of all ages and abilities. The programs that they run go beyond just helping participants to achieve qualifications, which is what many of the service providers seem to think is enough. They actually help people in a hands-on way to develop skills and learn how to grow plants in a relaxed and supportive environment. The brothers encourage people to just come in, put their head down and give it a go. That's acknowledging their humanity, not making them feel ashamed. They're about helping people face homelessness, face the problems that they have at home, manage to be successful with their disability or manage their way from unemployment to employment. Everyone is welcome, and they are achieving remarkable success—an inspirational business, no less.

I want people to understand that the Labor Party is standing up for regional Australia. We will fight for regional Australia every day in this place.