Regional Australians – Labor’s new forgotten people
7th May, 2008
Regional Development has fast become the part of Anthony Albanese’s portfolio that dare not speak its name.Six months after the election and Mr Albanese becoming the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, he has put out only two press releases that directly concern regional communities and the more than seven million people that live in them.
“That dismal tally looks even worse once you examine what was actually announced in these releases,” the Leader of The Nationals, Warren Truss, said today.
“Mr Albanese’s revelation of an inland rail study in March was a brazen re-announcement of something the Coalition commenced 10 months earlier and which was supported by Labor at the time. The Office of Northern Australia announcement last month was simply a re-badging of Coalition policy.
“I am the first to applaud Labor ripping off the Coalition’s policies, but regional Australians are quite entitled to ask of this Government: is that all there is?”
Mr Albanese represents Grayndler in Sydney - one of the most highly urbanised electorates in Australia – and has trumpeted a new “Major Cities Unit” to be established within his department. This body would be “central” to the work of his new bureaucratic roadblock, Infrastructure Australia, which he says is “the new body charged with prioritising billions of dollars in investment in infrastructure”.
“There you have it in a nutshell – anyone living outside the capital cities is going to get little more than the crumbs from the table.
“City people shouldn’t get too excited either. What this means is that we will have another level of Labor incompetence on top of the existing Labor State and territory governments who have monumentally stuffed up infrastructure across the country.
“Mr Albanese has spent his first six months as minister bagging Coalition programs that had been greatly appreciated by rural and regional communities. These programs brought back services and development, or introduced them for the first time. Labor is planning a horror Budget that would demolish this good work and kill off projects that are in the pipeline for local communities around Australia.
“Country Australia deserves better than the ragtag collection of old news and criticism of the regions that Mr Albanese has so far dished out.
“We hear today that Mr Albanese has spent six months counting the number of questions asked in Parliament by The Nationals and the Liberals,” Mr Truss said.
“Meanwhile, 116 regional projects approved around the nation by the Coalition last year are waiting for a contract. As of last month, another 474 projects in communities in every state and region are waiting for assessment.
“Surely taxpayers deserve more from someone paid more than $220,000 a year?”
