2015 Nationals Federal Conference
12th September, 2015
My friend and political partner Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Nationals President Christine Ferguson, State Parliamentary leaders Troy Grant, Peter Walsh, Terry Redman, Deputy LNP leader John-Paul Langbroek, Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, Members, Senators, ladies and gentlemen.May I begin by thanking our out-going President Christine Ferguson. Who is retiring at this conference. You have served our Party with distinction, providing both long and very faithful service in New South Wales and, now, as National President.
Christine has been a true Nationals champion, she has worked tirelessly to make the Party stronger and kept the moving parts working with a unity of purpose.
The party has enjoyed considerable electoral success both at state and federal levels under Christine's leadership, but we have had tough times, too, and the Party is more resilient in representing regional Australia as a result.
So, Christine, you leave us as a much-admired local champion and we wish you well in retirement - though I have no doubt you'll be just as forthright in letting us know what you think.
The sands that make up the political landscape are ever-shifting.
After state election results in Victoria, and especially Queensland, I think everybody had a few nerves about what might also happen in New South Wales.
Thankfully, it wasn't to be. There are lessons from all of these results... good governments must stay the course and take the people with them on much-needed reform, earn the trust and respect of the electorate.
Politicians who work with the community are given the opportunity to fulfil their promises to the people they serve.
It's a lesson we know only too well in The Nationals.
We live in regional areas. They are the communities we love and a way of life we have vowed to represent and defend. It's in our blood.
People where we live have no fear in telling it the way it is.
So in paying tribute to my colleagues, I know that the focus they have is forged in the frank feedback they have received at home.
We are making a difference - with our Coalition partners. Two years into our three-year term, I want to repeat to you what we have achieved over this time.
I thank my Deputy Barnaby Joyce. As Agriculture Minister he has delivered the much-anticipated $4 billion Agricultural White Paper and overseen a new $2.5 billion deal for farmers across the drought-devastated parts of our country.
These represent both evolutionary and revolutionary changes for the long-term prosperity of our farm sector, which is the envy of the world and growing in national significance for our country. It's not declining... it's in high global demand and ever-growing.
And, let's not forget, Barnaby saved us from the menace that was Pistol and Boo. Some may have thought it 'ruff' justice... but we must take quarantine seriously.
Has there been a more engaged and connected Indigenous Affairs Minister than Nigel Scullion? Through programmes in Indigenous Affairs, more than 16,700 Indigenous Australian have been supported to start jobs in the past financial year.
Both the Commonwealth public sector and the private sector, through the Employment Parity Initiative, will increase Indigenous workforce to 3% by 2018 and 2020, respectively - that's 7,500 people in the public sector and an additional 20,000 Indigenous Australians in work in the private workforce.
The Indigenous Advancement Strategy Nigel has led commits over $1 billion to support frontline services, including in priority areas of getting children to school, adults into work and maintaining community safety.
As Assistant Minister for Employment, Luke Hartsuyker has reformed employment services to help more job seekers into work. He has led the introduction of the Government's new $6.8 billion Jobactive employment service, established new Work for the Dole arrangements and led the development of the Government's new $331 million Youth Employment Strategy.
Jobactive includes a $1.2 billion wage subsidy to help employers with the upfront costs of hiring and training staff so as to create more opportunities for job seekers. Employers can access up to $6,500 if they hire an eligible young job seeker, an Indigenous job seeker, or someone who has been out of work for 12 months or more. A subsidy of up to $10,000 is also available if they hire an eligible job seeker aged 50 years or older.
This is real, tangible help where it's needed, when it's needed.
Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash has found $50 million-a-year to boost incentives for doctors to work in rural towns of less than 15,000 people. This is a gutsy and important reform which will help small rural towns attract more doctors - one of the biggest challenges in rural health.
Fiona is tackling the Ice epidemic afflicting our communities and tearing families apart, head on. She has driven the creation of the National Ice Taskforce, and has personally held 12 community consultations in regional Australia, the results of which have been fed into the Ice Taskforce final report to government this month.
Michael McCormack, in his capacity as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance, has been caring for government property and steered a number of important public works through the Parliament, including upgrades to many of our Defence bases.
Prime Minister, I think he hopes to live long enough to see repairs to The Lodge finally completed.
As Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, Darren Chester is at the pointy end of national security, supporting our investment in new ships, new aircraft, new vehicles and new facilities on many of our bases.
Our MPs and Senators have been staunch advocates for local roads and highways, supporting their local communities and backing their initiatives.
They have been standing up for small business, drought-affected farmers, canegrowers, responsible gun owners, unhappy bank customers, country students and many more.
And I must also thank my friend and electoral neighbour of more than 25 years, Bruce Scott, who will retire at the next election. There have been few more persistent and strident advocates for inland Australia than Bruce Scott, especially for his community and Western Queensland.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we wish you and Joan every happiness... but, in the meantime, there's work to do.
It has been two years since we were given the privilege of forming government by the Australian people.
Government is not an end in itself. It is the means by which we deliver the things needed to make the lives of all Australians better.
And from the record debt and deficit we inherited, it's a long way back to get in the black.
In a speech prior to the 2013 election, I outlined the things we intended to do to help our country get ahead. I said...
"We'll abolish the carbon tax because you don't improve the environment by damaging the economy.
"We'll make substantial savings in government expenditure because governments, like families and businesses, can't keep living beyond their means and because lower spending will make it possible to reduce taxes responsibly.
"We will restore border protection policies that have been proven to work so that people come to this country the right way.
"We'll re-invest in the regions and agriculture, which have been gutted under Labor.
"We'll cut $1 billion a year in red tape and introduce a one-stop shop for environmental approvals to slash green tape.
"We'll scrap the mining tax because you don't improve the economy by penalising successful industries.
"We'll maintain education, health and aged care spending.
"We'll restore jobs growth by creating 1 million new jobs over five years."
Those were the commitments that we made two years ago and I can faithfully say, as I stand here today, we've delivered!
The carbon tax is gone - saving households $550 a year and up to 10% on the cost of electricity for small businesses.
The mining tax is gone.
Though Labor has committed to bringing them both back - bigger and nastier than ever.
We stopped the boats. And because we stopped the boats we are able to bring genuine refugees to Australia from war-torn Syria.
In spite of the difficult economic times, we have reduced Labor's $48 billion budget deficit to put a real surplus on the horizon.
We've re-invested in the regions and in agriculture. Our $6 billion-plus Northern Australia package is a transformational commitment to the north of Australia.
It includes:
* $200 million from the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund for the north;
* $600 million in additional Funds to improve infrastructure;
* $100 million Beef Roads Fund to help producers get their livestock to market; and
* The establishment of a CRC for the North to provide leadership in tropical science, education, health and agriculture.
The Agriculture White Paper delivers new tax write-offs and income tax cuts for virtually all farmers. There will be an improved farm management deposits scheme, doubling the investment ceiling from $400,000 to $800,000 and new labour programs to bring the workers to the farms that are so much in need.
Our mobile phone black spots program will deliver 500 new mobile phone towers across the nation, and the NBN is rolling out across the nation - connecting thousands of small communities to wireless broadband for the first time. Next year two new high performance satellites will deliver fast broadband to the most remote locations in our country.
We've over-achieved on our $1 billion a year commitment to reduce red tape. We've done better than we promised, and we're just getting warmed up!
Not only have we maintained expenditure on health, education and aged care, it has actually gone up every year and is still increasing.
Funding for schools up 28% over the next four years. We have kept the commitments we made at the last election, including putting back the $1.2 billion in school funding that Bill Shorten personally ripped out of schools in Queensland and WA on the eve of the last election.
Funding for hospitals is up 25% over the next four years. And any savings from health expenditure will go into the Medical Research Future Fund - a really important reform already delivered.
In spite of the mining downturn and difficult global economic circumstances, we are on track to create one million jobs over five years.
Helping to create those jobs is our $50 billion infrastructure commitment, which has become $57 billion over recent months through the boost in expenditure to Northern Australia.
That's $57 billion to build the better and more productive infrastructure we need as a nation for this century and beyond - and all the while creating jobs right across the nation.
And I'm not just talking about big projects in our capital cities, though many of those projects are truly transformational, but we can see a real difference in the regions.
* $6.7 billion upgrade to fix the Bruce Highway;
* $5.6 billion to fully duplicate the Pacific Highway from Hexham to the Queensland border;
* $1.28 billion for the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing;
* $508 million for the Warrego Highway;
* $208 million for the Cape York Region Package;
* $541 million for the Western Highway in Victoria;
* $185.5 million for the Princes Highway West;
* $210 million for the Princes Highway East;
* $615 million to build Northlink WA, Swan Valley Bypass on the Perth to Darwin Highway;
* $308 million for the Great Northern Highway;
* $172 million for the North West Coastal Highway; and
* $400 million to continue the Midland Highway upgrade in Tasmania.
Funding for John Anderson's flagship Roads to Recovery program to support the upgrade of local roads and streets, has trebled to $1 billion to be paid to local governments in each of the next two years.
We have committed $500 million to fix dangerous and accident-prone sections of local roads and streets through the ongoing Black Spot Programme.
Our new $300 million Bridges Renewal Programme is covering 50% of the costs to repair and replacement for bridges across the nation. We have already announced $111 million of projects under Round One, with a further $100 million to be provided for local council bridges this year.
We are continuing the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Programme with $200 million available for projects such as road enhancements for heavy vehicles, rest areas and technology trials.
I have been coming to our conferences a long time, and a subject on every agenda has been Inland Rail.
The iconic Inland Rail project - connecting Melbourne to Brisbane with a high performance freight line - moved closer yesterday when I received the Delivery Plan from Implementation Group chair John Anderson.
It outlines a 10-year construction timeframe to complete the 1,700km project - including some 600km of new track, and puts the cost at $10 billion. A detailed Business Case was developed by the Australian Rail Track Corporation.
The Report and Business Case provides the information needed to consider how best to build the Inland Rail network to meet the freight challenge of the coming decades - expected to treble along the eastern seaboard to 2030.
Inland Rail will complement existing road and rail networks and will dramatically boost productivity. Initially, it will provide for 1,800 metre long trains carrying containers stacked two high and, in the longer term, much heavier 3,600 metre long trains.
The new freight line will reduce transit time between Melbourne and Brisbane by more than 10 hours - reducing the journey to less than a day. It will remove 200,000 trucks, or 5.4 billion net tonne kilometres of freight, from roads each year.
For the first time, south east Queensland will connect by rail to Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, avoiding the need for freight to transit through the congested Sydney network. Sydney's trains will not be held up by trains that are only in Sydney to get to another state. It will reduce the distance between Melbourne and Brisbane by 200 km and carve 500 km from the Brisbane to Perth trip. It is the fastest growing freight route in Australia.
When we came to government we got things rolling with an upfront $300 million to get pre-construction activities underway, including detailed corridor planning, environmental assessments and priority land acquisitions. This work is continuing.
The project will create up to 16,000 direct jobs during a 10-year construction period and a regular 600 jobs once operating.
The Delivery Plan indicates Inland Rail will generate economic benefits of around $22.5 billion.
An early commitment to Inland Rail will give certainty for businesses and will allow the private sector to invest in complementary projects leveraging Inland Rail's enhanced logistics benefits.
I have now referred the business case to Infrastructure Australia and I am confident that we could see construction on early stages of this proposal in this term.
We also expect to see construction of an airport at Badgerys Creek before the of this term. We have broken the inertia - we need to start building or there will be no runway slots left in Sydney for new flights. Providing Western Sydney with an airport of its own will deliver thousands of permanent jobs in the growing part of our nation's biggest city.
We have delivered on strengthening scrutiny and transparency of foreign investment in agricultural land and agribusiness by reducing the threshold for FIRB review and we are establishing a register of foreign ownership of agricultural land.
We have re-opened the livestock export trade to Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Cambodia, Thailand and Lebanon - vital markets for Australian cattle and sheep producers.
And we are repairing the trade with our biggest market - Indonesia - so irresponsibly destroyed by the Gillard Government.
We are introducing better Country of Origin labelling so that Australians know more about their food and where it comes from.
We have overhauled biosecurity laws to protect agricultural industries and to help grow and export the highest quality and sustainably produced agricultural goods to the world.
Our new $500 million National Water Infrastructure Development Fund will support the planning and investigation for construction of viable water infrastructure in partnership with other government or industry. We are determined to end dam phobia and get water conservation and storage projects underway.
Round Two of our $1 billion National Stronger Regions Fund will provide funding for infrastructure projects in disadvantaged regional communities, with $212 million already being provided under Round One.
Our new Stronger Communities Programme will deliver social benefits across Australia by providing $45 million over two years from this financial year, to fund small capital projects in local communities.
We are delivering more than $300 million for hundreds of local projects around the country under our Community Development Programme.
$33.7 million over four years will be available to improve air access to remote communities across Australia through the Remote Airstrip Upgrade Programme.
Regional students will benefit from the new Commonwealth Government Scholarship Scheme which will provide support to students including scholarships to meet cost of living, fee exemptions and tutorial support.
We are introducing more generous means-testing for youth allowance to help regional and rural family's better support the transition of their children from school to further study - removing the Family Asset Test and Family Actual Means Test.
We have given environmental approval to more than $1 trillion worth of projects - despite being held up by Labor.
We've funded a $5.5 billion package to help small businesses, including income tax cuts for virtually all small businesses, lower taxes, and immediate tax deductions for purchases up to $20,000.
Australia's free trade agreements with Japan, South Korea and China will set our country up for the long term.
We have achieved in less than a year what Labor could not do in six.
Modelling by the Centre for International Economics shows these three agreements will create some 15,000 new jobs by 2020, making households $4,348 better off and boosting GDP by $24.4 billion between 2016 and 2035.
The Korea and Japan FTAs are already delivering for Australian exporters: like frozen beef prime cuts up 34% to Korea, up 56% to Japan.
It's essential the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement take effect before the end of this year.
Coming into force by then, it will deliver to our exporters not one but two tariff cuts - first, when the agreement comes into force and second, on 1 January next year.
Over 85% of Australia's exports to China, by value, will be duty-free on coming into force - rising to 93% in four years' time and 95% when fully implemented.
The China FTA opens opportunities for Australia in the world's second largest economy and one of the fastest-growing.
Meat and Livestock Australia estimates an $11 billion boost to the meat and livestock industry to 2030; our red meat industry estimates benefits over the next 15 years of $3.3 billion to the beef industry; $1.8 billion in sheepmeat exports; and $6 billion for the sheepskin, hides and offal industry.
Our services exporters are getting the best market access China has ever given any foreign country, including in areas of growing Chinese demand such as health and aged care. The Financial Services Council estimates a benefit of $4 billion and 10,000 jobs in financial services to 2030.
These are real benefits Labor is putting at risk.
Militant unions are running a very short-sighted and blatantly political campaign against the China-Australia FTA. Their fear and smear are shameful.
Bob Carr is right when he says: "There will be more jobs and higher wages in Australia if the China FTA goes ahead."
Modern Labor is fond of evoking the memory of its former leaders... well, I wonder what Gough Whitlam, Mick Young and Tom Burns would make of Labor's resistance to China in 2015?
In April 1971, Gough's cable to Premier Zhou Enlai requested that he accept a delegation on the basis of discussing "the terms on which your government is interested in having diplomatic and trade relations."
Writing for the Sunday Australian immediately after the visit, Whitlam said that its success "all depends on whether Australia is mature enough, and self-confident enough, to face squarely the facts of life in our region..."
There is also a natural fit between our emphasis on developing Northern Australia and the priority we have placed on international trade liberalisation.
It is a staggering statistic, but Australia in one year has signed Free Trade Agreements with three countries - China, Japan and the Republic of Korea - that account for just over 80 per cent of Asia's GDP.
Of course, the progress we have made to date in modernising our international trading relationships does not constitute the end of the journey, not by any means.
Australian and India have agreed that the top bilateral priority for our two nations is to complete negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement before the end of this year.
And we also are progressing economic partnership agreements with Burma, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Together, these efforts demonstrate Australia's abiding interests in and commitment to Asia - and at this juncture in world history, Australians consider themselves fortunate to be a part of the region.
Ladies and gentlemen, as we head into the next 12 months, we do so backed by a strong record of achievement over our first two years.
Through what I have outlined today, we are making Australia - and, in particular, regional Australia - a better place to live, work and raise a family. But there is still so much more to do.
We are starting a long way behind in getting Australia back to where we all expect it to be - economically and socially.
We face the next 12 months with a strong Party organisation, backed by the best people on the ground. They have always been The Nationals strength. And we will need them again if we are to prevail.
I said at the beginning that people reward governments that deliver on their commitments.
Despite a hostile Senate, we have achieved a great deal - but there is still more to be done.
We have started to fulfil the promise that is the birthright of every Australian... an Australia with more opportunity and better living standards than the one we inherited.
We will not let you down.
Thank you.
