Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor has delivered a budget for all Australians—a budget that delivers a back-to-back surplus that will help reduce cost-of-living pressure and continues our commitment to improving the health system. This budget delivers tax cuts for every taxpayer and a $300 energy rebate. It also gives Australians cheaper medicines and makes it easier to see a doctor and access health care when most needed.

I'm particularly pleased the budget includes measures to improve the health and wellbeing of First Nations people. We know there is much work to be done to close the gap, but there are many important measures in this budget as part of a $160 million package. Australians have already saved more than $370 million since we introduced 60-day prescriptions and reduced the PBS co-payment last year. This budget will deliver even cheaper medicines for First Nations peoples.

We're expanding access to the Closing the Gap PBS co-payment for eligible First Nations people and investing $11.1 million. This will now apply to all Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme medicines dispensed by a pharmacy, public or private hospital, or approved medical practitioner. This means all eligible First Nations people who are registered on the Closing the Gap database will get their PBS medicines for free if they have a Commonwealth concession card. If they don't have a concession card, they will still pay only a discounted co-payment rate of $7.70. Those not registered will still benefit from the freeze on the maximum Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—PBS—co-payments. There will be a freeze for up to five years for concession cardholders and a one-year freeze for everyone else with a Medicare card. I certainly know this will make a real difference for many First Nations people.

The budget includes funding for more Medicare urgent care clinics. We've already delivered 58, and now we'll see that number grow to 87. In the Northern Territory, there have been more than 10,000 visits to the urgent care clinics on Larrakia country in Darwin and on the lands of the Arrernte people in Mparntwe, Alice Springs. Urgent care clinics will give more First Nations people better access to bulk-billed urgent care for conditions that are urgent but not life threatening without having to go to a hospital emergency department.

We know that, without a strong and growing health workforce, the impact of these investments will be affected. That's why the budget includes a suite of measures to build and strengthen the health workforce. I'm particularly pleased there are a number of important measures to grow and support the First Nations health workforce. First Nations health professionals play a critical role in delivering health care that is culturally safe and responsive to community needs and, ultimately, delivers better outcomes for First Nations people.

In this budget, the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association will receive $4 million to continue to improve cultural safety, increase engagement and support First Nations doctors to become medical specialists. We've seen some great outcomes with the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association. Recently, in a visit to the Torres Strait Islands that I made, I was able to see firsthand the 20 graduates, Torres Strait doctors, who come together on the Torres Strait not only to learn about Torres Strait culture but also to share their experiences in the medical world.

I'd like to share with the Senate that 20 years ago, when they had the first Torres Strait Islander doctor, it was an incredible challenge to think that we could try and grow the number of Torres Strait doctors. Now we have over 120 Torres Strait doctors. I commend the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association for the work it's doing. We also see over 800 Indigenous doctors—of course, a large component of Aboriginal doctors—just 38 of whom are in the Northern Territory.

We're also boosting the Lowitja O'Donoghue Foundation scholarships in enrolled nursing for undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students by $600,000. These investments will mean First Nations people will be supported to choose a career in nursing and deliver high-quality care to patients. In Darwin last week, alongside the member for Solomon Luke Gosling and with the support of the member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour, I announced $24.6 million in funding for Charles Darwin University to establish and operate a medical school and $3.4 million for the Northern Territory Medical Program to boost the number of doctors in the Northern Territory.

We certainly heard firsthand from staff and students about how much of a game changer this investment will be for them and for the Northern Territory. One student, Thevini Abeywardana, talked about how excited she was about the news. She said:

It gives a lot of students the opportunity to stay close to family and friends, and being in an environment that they already know and are comfortable in.

I'll be able to learn medicine, and then go to regional and remote communities and help out the communities there.

Supporting students like Thevinito study, graduate and then work in the health sector is going to help reduce the impact of health issues that disproportionately affect First Nations people, particularly those in remote communities.

This budget will support First Nations women and girls. Making professional indemnity insurance for midwives more available will safeguard culturally safe Birthing on Country services for First Nations mothers, with an investment of $3.5 million. Women and girls in rural and remote First Nations communities will also get free menstrual products like pads and tampons, and we're investing $12.5 million to ensure this happens across the country. These can be expensive and hard to get, and providing them for free will support girls and women to go on with their daily lives. I commend the Aboriginal community health sector for their support and advise on all of these initiatives, in particular NACCHO.

This budget builds on the significant investments our government has made in First Nations health and wellbeing over the last two years. We've invested $5.1 billion under the Indigenous Australians Health Program for projects that directly support First Nations people to achieve the health outcomes that they want to see for their families. These projects are things like community controlled health services, infrastructure projects, new renal dialysis clinics in remote communities, and maternal and child health programs to support families to give their children the best, healthiest start to life. Our government has made $988.6 million of new investments since coming into government, and we're continuing to deliver on our commitments, including supporting 500 new health workers. The numbers are promising. Across the country more than 250 students are already enrolled in the program with 40 having completed it so far, and we only began 18 months ago.

Finally, this budget demonstrates the Albanese government's commitment to closing the gap, and we're making a landmark investment in new remote jobs and housing. The Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program is grounded in self-determination and will be rolled out in partnership with First Nations communities. In fact, those consultations are occurring now across the regions where the Community Development Program has previously been established, and we are seeking to transfer from that program into the new jobs program.

The historic 10-year housing agreement with the Northern Territory government will see 270 houses built each year. We know this will go towards reducing overcrowding—a huge issue for First Nations communities, but also a major health issue, in terms of what we're trying to do to reduce the health problems and close the gap.

I was out at Maningrida just last week actually, with Minister Linda Burney, to look at the new homes for families and also the significant work that we're doing towards improving water quality. All of these measures will make a significant difference to the lives of First Nations Australians.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just when you think this Labor government cannot get any more incompetent or stuff up any other government programs, they manage to exceed our very low expectations. This third Albanese government budget, the third in two years, is no exception to that. In fact, having had a look at some of the detail now, in relation to my home state of Western Australia, it is another complete disaster for Western Australians. It is very clear, very sadly, that Western Australians will be even worse off under this government than they were two years ago when Labor came into government.

What is very clear is that Western Australians, like all Australians, will be paying the price for Labor's disastrous policies and their appallingly bad decisions. Their policies in this, their third budget, continue to be highly inflationary—disastrously and unnecessarily so. The cost of living for all Australians is up. Energy prices are up. Mortgages are up. Grocery prices are up. The list of expenses that are going up for family households continues to expand. Labor had the chance in this third budget to address the pain that Western Australian households were already feeling as a consequence of the last two budgets, but, sadly, they squibbed it and failed very basic economic tests, as the media today has picked up on, right across TV, newspapers and online articles. The verdict is very, very clear.

So why are they doing this—apart from clear incompetence? They're very clearly trying to manufacture an artificial interest rate cut before the end of this year, in a desperate attempt to save themselves at the next election. This is clearly an election budget. It will leave disastrous deficits for this and the next generation to fill, over coming years. In these challenging economic times, which partially have been engineered by those opposite, we need a budget that goes back to basics. Instead, Labor are spending over $315 billion extra, which—despite their attempts, for the election, to get a lower inflation and lower interest rate result—is clearly inflationary.

What does this mean for Australian householders who are already struggling? It means less spending opportunities for household budgets and, most likely, increased mortgage repayments.

In Western Australia, wherever I go, I am constantly hearing from people about the stress on their household budgets and their concerns about cost-of-living increases, including the 12 interest-rate rises since this mob have been in government. Now, after three Labor budgets, the average Australian household with a mortgage is over $35,000 a year worse off. Instead of making things better, they have only made things worse.

The budget last night confirmed the unprecedented increase in net migration. Remember, we've heard so often from those opposite: 'Yes, we're a bit sorry. We did open the floodgates a bit too fast. We didn't think about housing, but it is a bit of an issue,' but, when you look at the budget figures of last night, there's an increase in net migration: 1.67 million new migrants coming to our country over the next five years. That wouldn't be so bad if the government hadn't forgotten to work with state and territory governments to create enough housing for all of these new migrants so that Australians would be able to afford to buy a new house—if they could find one and get a mortgage—but also so Australians could rent. The questions that remain unanswered are: where are these new migrants going to live, and what will be the additional impacts on Australians' mortgages and ability to find a house or land to build on, after which they actually have to have a house built within three or four years? There is simply not enough rental stock available for people who are already here and then for the new 1.67 million migrants who they want to come to Australia. Labor has unashamedly fuelled this housing and rental crisis through migration when housing approvals are at an 11-year low. It just does not make sense.

In Western Australia, in fact, we have the second-lowest quarterly level of new housing starts since records began 40 years ago. I hear so many stories of desperate families visiting home opens while searching for rentals, only to be competing with large groups of people for the same very limited housing supply. Net migration will be increasing in Western Australia over the forward estimates while the 1.67 million people are coming to Australia, and they will be coming to Western Australia. Net migration is increasing in Western Australia more than in any other state. It is a complete disgrace that the state and federal governments have not stopped to think about this and take action that will work. According to REIWA, the demand for housing will continue to outstrip supply in Western Australia, because we now have the largest annual growth since 2009.

Another shocking discovery in last night's budget is the $1.4 billion in extra funding for the WA government's disastrous METRONET project. Those in Western Australia will remember how, seven years ago, Labor came into government saying they would build even more train lines in Western Australia. Seven years later, the original budget has gone from $4.8 billion to over $12.5 billion. Again, the state government that has rivers of gold has now had to be bailed out by the federal Labor government. And guess what? In seven years, there has not yet been a single train operating on a single train track. How incompetent is that? At a time when we need responsible economic management, the Albanese Labor government has yet again had to bail out the most incompetent state government in the history of Western Australia.

In the time remaining, I'd like to talk about another decision that is having absolutely disastrous consequences on Western Australians, and that is the Albanese Labor government's decision to ban live exports of sheep from Western Australia. It is very clear that this is a kneejerk reaction that was done with the encouragement and engagement of animal welfare organisations on the east coast, who have no regard whatsoever for the welfare of the sheep that will still be exported to our markets overseas. They also have no regard whatsoever to the thousands and thousands of not only farmers but local communities who rely on this industry.

I kid you not—get this—the brilliant Labor state government have said: 'Not a problem. We don't really like it, but we're not going to fight it. We're not going to stand up to the Albanese government. But we will encourage these sheep farmers to actually start selling and farming alternative protein.' That's grasshoppers, tofu and plant based meat. Can you imagine us going to the Middle East markets and saying, 'We're not going to sell you lamb anymore, but why don't you buy these crickets instead?' It is just insane. You know where they're going to go? Instead of buying from Western Australian farmers, who now have the highest animal welfare standards in the world, animals will be going to countries such as Sudan, South Africa and Ethiopia, where they do not have anywhere near the same animal welfare standards that we now have.

If the Greens and the Labor Party opposite and the animal activists who were working with them to get this ban actually cared about the welfare of sheep, they would be supporting the Australian industry. The mortality rate of Australian sheep before reaching their destination has gone from 0.53 per cent in 2018 to less than 0.17 per cent. We now have the best standards. I say to those opposite and the so-called animal welfare lobby: not only are you going to kill the jobs and the livelihoods of thousands of Western Australian families and farming communities but you are now going to condemn millions more sheep to death because they will come from countries that do not have the same animal welfare standards. It is inexplicable. Shame on you all.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Budgets are about choices, and the choices that governments make reflect what is in budgets and also what is not in budgets. I want to talk today about some of the things that are in the budget that was presented last night and some of the things that aren't.

Firstly, there is an epidemic of men's violence against women in this country. Many thousands of people recently joined marches and rallies across Australia calling for an end to gendered violence and for the declaration of a national emergency in the face of an unacceptably escalating death toll of women. This is a long overdue conversation, and it's something that we need to talk about.

Australia has a massive problem with men being violent to women. We've got a problem with sexist jokes. We've got a problem with the 'boys will be boys' rhetoric. We've got a problem with toxic masculinity. We've got a problem with media coverage which is far too often harmful and biased. We've got a problem with coercive control. We've got a problem with emotional violence. We've got a problem with financial abuse. We've got a problem with sexual harassment and gendered violence. We've got a problem with sexual assault and rape. We've got a problem with women being murdered by men. We've got a problem with boys and men not understanding or respecting consent. I say to all the blokes out there in Australia, if someone is not enthusiastically expressing affirmative consent to you or if someone is not capable of expressing such consent, don't try to have sex with them! This is not difficult. It's just common basic decency, but far too many blokes don't seem to get it. They need this explained to them: don't try to have sex with someone unless they are enthusiastically expressing affirmative consent and are capable of expressing such consent.

Violence against women is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men. Yet, historically, men have been happy to leave the heavy lifting in this space to women, as we collectively leave the heavy lifting in so many other areas to women. It has been left to women to organise. It has been left to women to rally and to work to end men's violence against women. Can you see the problem there? It is men's violence against women. That's why men in this country—Australian blokes—need to man up. This is a problem with men. It's a problem with masculinity. So men need to man up and do the work because it is men who need to change. We men need to have conversations with our family and our mates. We need to organise and rally. We need to find ways to be part of creating safe places for women in our workplaces, in our sports clubs, in our homes and in public. We need to make this country a safe place for women. We need to work to change the culture that has allowed us, as men, for far too long to behave in a way that puts women's safety at risk. We need to call out poor behaviour when we see it and we need to be ready to feel uncomfortable while we're doing it. Of course we're going to feel uncomfortable calling out sexist or misogynistic behaviour in a group of our male mates. But I'll tell you what: calling out that behaviour is not going to result in the physical harm or death that is faced far too regularly by far too many women in this country. So I say to Australian men: man up and do everything you can to help women feel safe and be safe in Australia.

The budget was also a massive missed opportunity to invest in protecting nature. Particularly in my home state of Tasmania and also in New South Wales, we are still seeing the industrial-scale logging of our beautiful, biodiverse, carbon-rich native forests. The planet's climate is breaking down around us, yet we have an industry, in industrial native forest logging, that is a loss-making mendicant industry, that relies on public subsidies to survive, that destroys biodiversity, that indiscriminately slaughters millions of creatures every year and that emits massive amounts of carbon into our atmosphere. While our climate is breaking down around us and while ecological systems are crumbling at a global scale, there is no excuse to engage in the industrial native forest logging of carbon-rich, biodiverse, beautiful, magnificent forests. They are home to precious creatures, beautiful and unique creatures, like the Leadbeater's possum and the swift parrot. Both are endangered species.

The swift parrot in Tasmania is being logged into extinction by the political duopoly of the Labor and Liberal parties. It's getting harder and harder to tell those two parties apart with their enthusiastic support for new coal and gas mines, their enthusiastic support for public subsidies to burn fossil fuels and their enthusiastic support for the destruction of our beautiful, precious native forests. The Greens are here to fight. We're here to fight for the Leadbeater's possum. We're here to fight for the swift parrot and the masked owl. We are here to fight for our forests, the cultural heritage that they contain, the carbon that they contain and the beautiful creatures that they are home to and that are slaughtered in their millions through the clear-felling and burning of our native forests.

In Tasmania right now it's logging-burn season. They choke our skies, they choke the lungs of far too many Tasmanians and they choke the economies of regional towns and communities that rely on tourism for jobs and prosperity. And why do they do it? Because the Labor and Liberal parties publicly subsidise this behaviour. If you pulled all the public subsidies out of the native forest logging industry, it would end overnight. It cannot survive without its public subsidies. It employs next to no people in this country, and we can and should transition regional economies out of destroying forests and into rewilding places, establishing forests and helping us to repair some of the terrible scars that we've left behind on our landscape.

We know that ending native forest logging would be of benefit to our emissions profile. We know that because in my home state of Tasmania, when we significantly reduced the amount of native forest logging under a Labor-Greens government between 2010 and 2014, we saw Tasmania transform on an economy-wide basis from being a major emitter of carbon to being a major sequesterer of carbon—all because we stopped destroying so much forest.

We need to take action. The time to end native forest logging is now. Let's do it for our climate. Let's do it for our biodiversity. Let's do it for those beautiful, precious forests that sustain and nurture our spirit.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night the Treasurer delivered Labor's cost-of-living budget. It's a budget designed to help people who are under pressure, while setting us up for a future of prosperity. We're delivering immediate cost-of-living relief while putting downward pressure on inflation. Every Australian is a winner out of this budget.

We're delivering a tax cut to every taxpayer, with an average cut of $1,888 per year. We're lowering your energy bill by delivering $300 in relief to every Australian household and $325 for small business. We're tackling the housing crisis by increasing Commonwealth rent assistance by 10 per cent, on top of the 15 per cent increase last year—the first back-to-back increase in rent assistance for over 30 years—and by investing $32 billion to build 1.2 million new homes over the next five years. We're making health care cheaper and more accessible by delivering the largest investment in bulk-billing in Medicare's history, freezing the copayment and the cost of medicines and investing in another 29 Medicare urgent care clinics on top of the 58 we've already delivered. We're also abolishing $3 billion of student HECS debt and reforming debt indexation to make it cheaper and fairer for everyone to go to uni. Whether it's higher wages, lower taxes, cuts to energy bills or record investments in housing, health care and education, Labor's budget is delivering for all Australians, especially those who we know are still doing it tough.

We believe that we can and should make things right here in Australia. When the Liberals and Nationals were in government, they told our car-manufacturing industry to pack up and leave the country, destroying many small businesses and many medium-sized businesses in the supply chain, thousands of jobs and many communities across the country. What did they do? In the case of car manufacturing leaving the country, the vision from Mr Dutton for our economy was to dig up minerals, ship them over to China and then buy back everything we needed at a massive mark-up. That's the Liberals and Nationals' vision for the economy.

Our vision is for a future made in Australia. The entire world is transitioning to net zero over the next few decades. That means that, here in Australia and around the world, we'll see massive demand for solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and cables—all products that we have the materials and expertise to manufacture right here in Australia. We can be a renewable energy and manufacturing superpower, and our $222.7 billion Future Made in Australia package is a first step in delivering that vision. And, would you believe it, the Liberals and Nationals oppose it. They oppose investing in local manufacturing. They say investing in local jobs, local manufacturing and economic opportunity in our regions is a waste of money.

Instead, they want to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on building nuclear power plants around the country, only they won't tell us where they're going to put them. They won't tell us the final cost, how long it will take to build them, how they'll pay for it or where they'll dispose of the toxic nuclear waste. I don't want a nuclear power station or nuclear waste being dumped where I live, and I doubt Mr Dutton does either. So why should he expect anyone else to cop it?

According to the Treasury forecasts, our cost-of-living policies are taking three-quarters of a percentage point off inflation this year and half a percentage point next year. We know people are doing it tough, but the forecast is for inflation to be under three per cent by Christmas, compared to 5.1 per cent, which we inherited from the Morrison government. We have also delivered the first back-to-back budget surplus in almost 20 years, taking more heat out of the economy.

Of course, those opposite have been intentionally vague about what things they're going to cut and what they're going to slash and burn, but we know that the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has already said that she wanted to get rid of Labor's tax cuts. She said on national television that she absolutely supports repealing the tax cuts for every Australian. So we know the tax cuts are on the chopping block if Mr Dutton gets in. What else? We saw the shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, on Insiders on Sunday boasting about how he opposed $45 billion of services in the last budget. That's before we even get to this week's budget and look at where the cuts are going to be. We know that when Mr Dutton was the health minister he tried to end bulk billing by making everyone pay to see a GP. So Medicare is under threat. He voted against the Housing Australia Future Fund. At a time when housing is so unaffordable for renters and first home buyers alike, he would cut the supply of new homes. He voted against our previous energy bill relief when every dollar counts in the weekly budget. They've called our investment in fee-free TAFE a waste of money. I know TAFE students trying to make ends meet don't think having education paid for is a waste of money. The Liberals and Nationals will cut the support from under people when they most need the government's help.

Not only is our cost-of-living budget delivering tax cuts for all Australians and record investments in making health, housing and education cheaper but our government has also been laser focused on getting wages moving again, after a decade of the Liberals and Nationals' deliberate strategy to keep wages low. We know people are doing it tough, but our policies have delivered real wage growth of 4.1 per cent, the highest wage growth since 2009. We've delivered the highest wage growth in 15 years while creating a record number of new jobs and keeping unemployment at a record low. We've also passed laws to make jobs fairer, safer and more secure for millions of Australians. We've passed minimum standards for gig workers and truck drivers, who were trapped in a deadly race to the bottom. We've made it easier for casuals to seek conversion to permanent work. We've closed a Qantas labour loophole. We've made wage theft and industrial manslaughter crimes.

We've made the biggest increase to paid parental leave since the previous Labor government introduced it in 2011. We've introduced paid family and domestic violence leave. We've introduced a right to disconnect from your job outside of your working hours. We've supported record wage increases for aged-care workers, and we've successfully campaigned for the biggest ever increase to the minimum wage. These policies have delivered the biggest real wages growth since 2009. Under the Liberals and Nationals' scheme for our economy, you're going to be working longer hours for less pay.

I want to say, when looking at some of the parts of my home town of Sydney, that there are some big winners from this budget. We know people are still doing it tough, but, in the seat of Lindsay in Western Sydney, taxpayers will receive an average tax cut of $1,521. That's more money in your pocket for your weekly shop or to cover all unexpected costs that might pop up. People in Lindsay have already saved over $2.4 million on medicines on the PBS, and we're ensuring that people continue to have access to cheaper medicines by freezing the maximum cost of filling a script. The Penrith Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, delivered by the Albanese government, has already had 3,209 visits. That's freeing up emergency rooms and cutting waiting times at Nepean Hospital. We're helping students in Lindsay by cutting the HELP debt of more than 19,000 residents and capping HELP indexation. Students I've spoken to are doing it tough too, and this will help them avoid being stuck in a debt trap.

Of course, we're investing in infrastructure across Western Sydney, in preparation for the opening of the Western Sydney airport. We're investing $115 million in the Mulgoa Road stage 2 upgrade, $100 million on upgrading Western Sydney rapid bus infrastructure and $400 million on upgrading Elizabeth Drive. The list goes on for so many electorates around the great state of New South Wales and across the country. It's a great budget. It's a great opportunity. It's time for people to get behind this great success story.

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

This is actually a budget for billionaires. It's a budget that gives billions of dollars in tax subsidies to billionaires like Twiggy Forrest and Clive Palmer but overlooks the battlers who live and work across our regional communities. What a sad indictment on the Australian Labor Party, which once prided itself on being the party for workers, that the big winner out of last night's budget is actually Andrew Forrest.

Labor's third budget—and most probably the last before the next election—does three things. Firstly, it throws any hint of fiscal discipline from Labor out the window, with budget deficits as far as the eye can see and $122 billion being added to our national debt, which is rapidly ratcheting up towards the trillion-dollar mark. As I look up at the gallery, I see some young students. It is those young students who will end up having to pay off Labor's debt and deficits that were announced and showcased in the budget last night.

Secondly, it also embarks on a risky and reckless government-knows-best investment strategy that discards decades of bipartisan economics that Keating and Hawke championed in favour of a picking-winners policy. Yes, picking winners is back in vogue, and the main criterion for eligibility is having mates in the Australian Labor Party who can get you swiftly, quietly and secretly through the vetting process.

Finally, this is a budget that once again, in a most calculated and cruel way, disregards and disrespects the future prosperity of regional Australians. Thirty per cent of this country doesn't live in a capital city, and once again our communities, our projects, our future have been put on the chopping block to meet Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese's political desires. This budget continues the funding drought that the regional communities have been subjected to since Labor came to power. But, worse, it dashes hopes of any regional assistance beyond the next election. This is an unprecedented and targeted attack on the prosperity and sustainability of regional Australia, as we continue to suffer through an Albanese Labor government. They were very happy to come up to Beef Week in Rockhampton last week, with their shiny new akubras, only to jump on a plane and, within the next 24 hours, dash the hopes of Western Australian live sheep exporters, thinking regional Australians wouldn't notice.

The suffering commenced on 22 May 2022 and was given full effect in the October budget of that year when more than $10 billion was axed from regional programs by Labor. By the time of that budget, we were well and truly in the funding drought. The two-year funding drought for regional communities continues with confirmation that not one cent of money for regional economic development or community infrastructure will be delivered this year. Not one new program to support regional economic development was announced in last night's budget. Despite claiming that $1 billion would be made available to strengthen regional communities, commencing from 1 July last year, it has now been confirmed that no money will be paid out this year under either the Growing Regions Program or the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program. There are councils and community organisations right across Australia who made applications for funding under one or other of those programs, way back in the middle of last year, who are still waiting for feedback on the projects. It's not just the immigration ministers who are incompetent. These ministers cannot run a chook raffle. You've got councils and community organisations who have done the hard work and put the application in, and no-one has bothered to get back to them since the middle of last year. 'How's the application going? When can we expect to get through the decision-making process? When do you think we'll be getting up to signing contracts? When do you think our community is actually going to see this new piece of infrastructure?'

Organisations have had to go out and obtain quotes from contractors and suppliers on the basis of those funding guidelines that were supposed to have commenced—wait for it—by 15 May at the latest. The guidelines for these programs stated that you had to be ready to start the project by—guess what, Senator Lambie—today. But we haven't heard back from the government as to whether they've even been successful. These quotes and the reputations of our local councils and community organisations are now at risk simply because Minister Catherine King cannot get her or her department's act together.

The reality is that many applicants will now face higher costs than the original quotes would have led them to believe. This is because of Labor's own homegrown inflation problem. These organisations will be left out of pocket, because you can guarantee the government won't be paying for the shortfall between the quote they obtained and the new price. Is it any wonder that the Australian National Audit Office is investigating the Growing Regions Program? I encourage any council or local organisation who has applied for funding under that program to make a submission to the ANAO.

In total, our regions have been robbed of $130 million worth of investment that was meant to be delivered this financial year. That's what the budget actually says. The government is supposed to be establishing new programs for our heavily congested suburbs. That was supposed to commence on 1 July this year. Every council and community or sporting organisation in the suburbs of our capital cities should look hard at the experience of the regional grant programs. Don't look at the budget papers, because they suggest money will be paid in the 2024-25 year, but in the experience of the regional programs that hasn't been the case.

All of this could have been avoided had the government not chosen to axe the Building Better Regions program, where community organisations and councils put in applications that had been assessed by the department and were sitting there ready for the funding to be delivered. That was axed by the Labor Party on their coming into power. The government and the Prime Minister and the minister need to apologise to these communities.

Of course, not only have this government and this budget been disastrous for the regions; they have also been shocking for the infrastructure rollout. There have been more cuts and delays to infrastructure in the 2024-25 budget. After the government cancelled or cut over $25 billion worth of projects across the country since coming to power, this budget last night reveals another $2.1 billion of cuts. It just beggars belief, as we have seen record immigration flowing into our already congested cities, exacerbating the housing crisis. And now we have the government continuing to cut the road and rail infrastructure funding that our congested suburbs and cities need to deal with their own influx of people. It takes a lot of front—more front than Myers, shall we say—to think that you can get away with that type of joke.

The result of these cuts has been that Labor has cut more than $906 million from road investment in 2024-25 and more than half a billion dollars from rail infrastructure investment in the same timeframe. That means Australians are driving on potholed and crumbling roads and the road toll continues to rise right across the country. Whether I'm speaking to a truckie or to other road users in our suburbs or around the regions, the failure to invest in road maintenance across this country is an indictment. Once again this government is not listening to the Australian people. They are much more interested in achieving political results than actually servicing the communities that produce the wealth.

Labor is all talk and no action. The budget paper show that only $2.86 billion has been allocated towards new infrastructure projects across the entire forward estimates. Catherine King talked a big game—

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. Remember to use the full title of members opposite.

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

Minister King?

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you.

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

She was very vocal in her criticism of the delay between announcing projects and their delivery when we were in government. I quote her now:

… 55 per cent of their newly announced infrastructure spend will be off into the never-never beyond the forward estimates.

Guess what that number is in this budget? It's 82 per cent. She was complaining about 55 per cent when the coalition was in charge of the spend. She is now in control, and it has blown out to 82 per cent. This minister is hopeless and if this Prime Minister cared about infrastructure— (Time expired)