2011 NSW Nationals State Conference - Port Macquarie
8th October, 2011
NSW State President Christine Ferguson, Federal Nationals President John Tanner, Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner, Members and Senators and delegates... Welcome.This is the first time we've all come together since the historic state thumping in March, so - especially - welcome to the newly-elected Nationals and government members of the NSW parliament.
Congratulations to Andrew Stoner and his team on a magnificent victory.
What a difference a year makes!
This time last year The Nationals were out of office federally and in every state and territory bar Western Australia.
Many were questioning the very survival of our party - but then we'd been written off before.
Today, The Nationals are pivotal to new coalition governments in NSW and Victoria.
Since your last state conference we have also made excellent gains in the federal election, and surely there will soon be more electorate defeat for Labor in Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and in the federal parliament.
In fact, since 2008 The Nationals brand across the country has undergone its greatest resurgence in 50 years.
While all credit for the election result in NSW justly goes to Barry O'Farrell and Andrew Stoner and their teams, the two Independents in federal Labor's pocket - Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor - have destroyed the Independent brand and any illusion that Independents can be some kind of honest broker in politics.
Even very Independents like Bob Katter are rushing off to create their own political parties because they know the Independent name has become poisonous.
Messrs Oakeshott and Windsor got it dead wrong last September. Voters have rejected their so-called 'new paradigm', including right here in Port Macquarie - congratulations to Leslie Williams MLA.
Andrew Stoner ran a proactive campaign and did not shirk from getting in among the people or the issues. Nothing can be taken away from you and your team. It will be much harder in government but I'm sure you're up to the task.
But the fact that The Nationals picked up seats from both Independents and Labor is telling. The spectre of the carbon tax hung heavy over those events in March and has been reverberating around the state and the nation ever since.
Both Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor sold out their core constituencies to support Labor, and people are not happy. Australians are outraged that the Prime Minister lied.
But it also makes Messrs Oakeshott and Windsor, as leading advocates for the carbon tax, complicit in the Prime Minister's lie - not to mention the policy stuff ups and scandals Australians have been subjected to since.
Is there no amount of mismanagement, incompetence, dishonesty and waste that these two people will not accept?
On every major issue and vote in the parliament, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor have been side-by-side with Julia Gillard.
Before the NSW poll people were dismissed by this Labor-Greens-Independents government as oddballs and climate change deniers. On March 26 in NSW they were just voters.
The people will have their say again... it's badly needed sooner rather than later.
Federal result
At the federal level we took Labor to the brink of collapse in its first term - and they have looked increasingly lost and incompetent ever since, lurching from one disaster to another.
The last election saw the arrival of new Nationals George Christensen in Dawson, Ken O'Dowd in Flynn, Michael McCormack in Riverina, and Senator for Victoria Bridget McKenzie in the best result for The Nationals in 50 years.
Of the 24 regional seats we contested, The Nationals won 12 - a better ratio than any other party and worth comparing with The Greens' strike rate of just one win on preferences from 150 candidates.
Remarkably, every sitting Nationals MP scored a big increase in their primary vote, an endorsement of their efforts over the past term as part of a team of local champions fighting for a fair share for regional Australia.
Over the past couple of decades, many commentators have written us off and questioned the very survival of our party.
But the voters have responded to the critics in the best possible way and I want to thank them for their confidence - as I want to thank the thousands of party volunteers across the nation who never lost faith and have worked so hard to achieve these results.
But there is still much to do.
The Gillard government has not heeded the warnings from the people a year ago. It has descended into a leaderless rabble, and the arrogance, waste, mismanagement and incompetence continues.
It's still a government that is all talk and no action - health reform that has withered into more bureaucracy, and no assurance of local control or improvement in services for regional Australia.
Nation-building infrastructure to overcome the global economic downturn - but three years later most projects have not even started.
A jobs plan - that the Auditor-General reports there was no application process, that Minister Albanese hand-picked the funded projects and not one was in a priority area for unemployment.
A regional development program - where most of the money has been allocated to marginal Labor electorates and on pet projects of the Independents, even though Labor and the Independents represent only a small part of regional Australia.
Announcements of a mental health initiative - but no real money until after the next election.
Disability reform - but not until after the next two elections.
Perhaps even worse, the Prime Minister lied to the Australian people... 'there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead'... words that will dog this government to its electoral grave.
Now we are about to get the world's harshest carbon tax, starting 400-times higher than the European emission trading scheme - the only carbon tax in the world that hits manufacturing, food processing, domestic air travel and even electric trains.
Federal Labor is turning on its leader. When will they learn that the problem is Labor itself - the party must change to earn the respect of the people.
At The Nationals, we are not content with popularity driven by despair at Labor's incompetence. We are focussed on the issues that matter to regional Australians.
Today I want to talk to you about the future and the vision we share for the 97% of our landmass that lies beyond the capital cities and major population centres.
Today we add an extra dimension to our plan to revitalise and populate Australia's regions.
I want to talk to you about our Regional Investment Strategy.
Background
In Opposition, The Nationals have travelled extensively across the regions, done a lot of soul-searching and, importantly, a lot of listening.
Ahead of last year's federal election we released a comprehensive policy platform - a vision for Australia's regions.
Underpinning every one of our policies is the notion of a fair go for regional Australians... giving them a fairer share in this country's wealth and opportunities.
That undertaking wasn't an end. It was only the beginning.
Unashamedly, we believe and expect that with much of Australia's real wealth generated in the regions it is only fitting that a fair share of the revenue it creates is returned to the regions.
To that end, last year The Nationals, with our Coalition partners, committed to a $1 billion funding guarantee, dedicated to the regions.
This principle has been implemented by new state Coalition governments in Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria - and is already funding worthwhile community infrastructure outside the capital cities.
More than a fair share
But it's more than just a fair share principle.
We're taking that idea and expanding on it. This new investment must be more than just funding programs or bricks and mortar - it must also focus on building human capital in our regions.
I say to you that the future must be bolder and wiser.
As a nation, we are overdue in recognising the role regional areas can, and must, play in overcoming Australia's national challenges.
While our major cities struggle under growing population pressures, our regions cry out for more people, services, infrastructure, businesses and employees.
It's time to correct that imbalance.
Australia's concentration of population is the highest in the OECD, and is almost double the OECD average.
88% of our population is packed into small coastal areas - principally Sydney and Newcastle, Melbourne, Brisbane and Queensland's south east coast, Adelaide and Perth.
That's around 3% of the country.
We need to seriously address this population squeeze and pull the policy levers that can re-energize and build the under-developed 97% of Australia that is regional.
That's where the real untapped growth potential lies.
Certainly, there are challenges... but they can also be positive drivers of change. It's how we deal with the challenges that matters.
The Nationals' Regional Investment Strategy will recalibrate the scales of inequality set against the regions by driving policies to bring business and people to regional areas and, in doing so, benefit the entire country.
But it's also a tonic for Australia's city population ills - a proactive solution to our congested cities, bursting under a national population of just 22 million people.
History tells us that in America, the call was to "go west".
It was the promise of a new frontier with boundless opportunities. As people moved and resettled, along the way the landmass was populated and, today, the US has a well populated and growing interior, boasting major inland cities.
In the new world, the modern story in China and India is similar - large and growing inland centres.
In Australia today we need to be bold.
Ignoring the development of regional Australia is no longer an option this country can afford.
Correcting the imbalance
A 2009 study by the National Institute of Industry and Economic Research shows that, on average, it costs rural residents five-times more to access essential services as it does metropolitan residents.
The biggest disadvantages are for hospitals, residential care services, secondary schools, TAFE colleges and universities.
Our Regional Investment Strategy embraces new initiatives to correct the imbalances.
Let me cite a few...
Taxation
We can't make people move to regional areas, but we can help create the business case for start-up or relocating operations, maybe even with the help of innovative tax breaks. People will follow worthwhile employment opportunities for themselves and their families.
And the government can take the lead by relocating government departments and agencies to regional centres.
Domestic relocation
Overwhelmingly, the majority of unemployed Australians are in our capital cities. Government policies should enable them to move to jobs in regional areas.
The drought, global financial crisis and floods this past summer have masked a critical workforce shortage across regional Australia.
In agricultural alone around 100,000 jobs - some 80,000 skilled jobs and 22,000 entry-level positions - will go begging as farm production kicks back into full gear.
Young, mobile welfare recipients who refuse to take up gainful employment in the regions should not expect to continue to receive those benefits.
Welfare and disability reforms must take account of the opportunities in the regions and the great lifestyles that are available.
Welfare and disability reforms must take account of the opportunities in the regions and the great lifestyles that are available.
Bonded migration
In addition to getting more Australians into the regions, tying new migrants to regional locations experiencing skilled and non-skilled labour shortages can help fill the gaps.
That's not a new idea. Under the Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship Scheme, doctors are required to live and work in rural areas for a minimum of six years.
Infrastructure
Good infrastructure - be it roads, rail, telecommunications, bridges, dams or airports - is a vital key to truly unlock regional Australia's potential.
But we know that a lack of soft infrastructure - such as health, including allied health services, education resources, childcare and other social institutions - are barriers to regional relocation, especially for families.
The obligation of the federal government on these issues is more than money and a clearly defined regional component is essential. It demands a commitment to long-term planning, which is currently lacking.
Healthcare
When it comes to healthcare, people in our capital cities enjoy access to many more services than people living in rural and regional areas. This lack of services is a major deterrent for people, especially families, moving to jobs in the regions.
That is why we insist that health and hospital services be locally run and why we are committed to incentives that attract and retain health professionals to regional practise.
And we will go further, with the advent of a dedicated Federal Minister for Regional Health to oversee regional services and the needs of regional patients.
Education
If education is the bedrock of equality of opportunity, then we must all be dismayed by the small proportion of rural people who hold tertiary qualifications.
The Nationals-led initiative for a Tertiary Access Allowance will help restore equity in student income support for regional students, enshrining assistance for regional tertiary students who must move away from home to study.
We will also reinstate agriculture and horticulture apprentices on the National Skills List. Labor specifically dumped them in 2008.
Wrap up
Our 'Regional Investment Strategy' recognises that unless we, as a nation, can bring businesses and people to regional cities and develop new commercial hubs, 36 million people by 2050 will grind Australia's cities into gridlock.
We can no longer afford to abandon concerted development of regional Australia. We must refocus population growth and spur commercial opportunities in our regions for the good of the entire country.
The Nationals
Today I have referred to just a few of the suite of new policies we've developed and enshrined in Nationals policy.
Even the commentators are starting to take notice. In fact, the Australian newspaper's Greg Sheridan has noted:
"centre-right politics in Australia is more coherent, at the moment at least, than centre-left politics. Central to this is the astonishing, and much under-reported, near nationwide revival of The Nationals."
Without the combined and single-minded focus of each within our parliamentary team, Labor's so-called Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme - more correctly the great big new tax as Barnaby Joyce coined it - would now be a reality.
It was the Nationals who first said no to the CPRS and we explained why.
The Liberals joined us sometime later and eventually even Labor discarded the notion that buying and selling pieces of paper could change the climate.
Our opposition to the carbon tax and the mining tax is no less vehement.
Ladies and Gentlemen, our federal Nationals party room is energised, determine and focused on what matters to regional Australians.
I say to regional Australians, The Nationals' have a united team and plan to deliver... we are ready for government.
Congratulations, again, to the NSW Nationals on your outstanding election result and now bring on the next federal election!
Thank you.
[ENDS]
