David Littleproud campaigning in Queensland in March. Photo: David Littleproud Facebook.
The Coalition has turned its federal election focus to the regions, promising $20 billion in funding for a Regional Australia Future Fund (RAFF) aimed at delivering a guaranteed annual funding stream for rural and remote Australia.
The policy is designed to boost access to health care and childcare in regional Australia, as well as improve roads and an additional Future Generations Fund infrastructure will help pay down local council debts.
The $20 billion RAFF would exist in perpetuity, with the Coalition preserving a portion of commodity windfall receipts to establish the fund and grow it to $20 billion.
The Opposition insists it won’t be subjected to rorting, but neither will public servants have the final say as to where funds are allocated.
Nationals leader David Littleproud said the fund was all about “putting regional people first” and leaving a legacy for future generations.
“Once established, the fund will invest a fair share of the profits created through the hard work of regional Australians back into the regions,” he said.
“It means we don’t have to fight for funding shortfalls to provide infrastructure in regional areas.
“The fund will deliver secure and sustainable long-term funding to tackle challenges that hold back regional communities and invest in building the long-term economic foundations of regional Australia.”
The Nationals leader committed an initial $1 billion from the federal budget to kick the fund off.
“The fund would need to be legislated, so while that’s happening, we would take that first billion dollars because we understand it will take time for the windfall to start topping up,” he said.
Mr Littleproud said the Coalition would also take $5 billion in seed funding from Labor’s Rewiring the Nation program, which was set up to move green energy around the country.
The Coalition will scrap that Labor program.
“That $5 billion sits there and makes a return and then every year after that, we will take 25 per cent of the 80 per cent windfall that we get every year from the under-budgeting of the price of our commodities,” Mr Littleproud said.
Funding would be distributed through competitive grants processes.
But Mr Littleproud rejected the suggestion that community grants could be subjected to pork-barrelling, similar to the notorious Sports Rorts scheme rolled out under the previous Coalition government.
“It’s a competitive grants process, and you set the parameters within each program to make sure that the parameters go to the most needy and the most competitively with the best bang for buck for the Australian taxpayer,” he said.
During one media interview, when asked about the possibility of pork-barrelling, the Nationals leader said “public servants in Canberra” and even the Australian National Audit Office didn’t have a sense of how much hardship regional Australians faced.
The Coalition says it has conducted extensive consultations with local communities to identify initial key priorities of the Regional Australia Future Fund.
These include fixing local road and transport networks; growing the regional health workforce so families can access health and aged care; developing regional industries to drive economic growth and create secure jobs; and delivering flexible childcare solutions for families in regional, rural and remote areas.
Other priorities would be boosting tourism industry opportunities for regional communities, supporting regional businesses to market and export their product to new markets, improving regional mobile and internet services, and building and upgrading economic and community infrastructure.
Shadow infrastructure, transport and regional development minister Bridget McKenzie, who oversaw the Sports Rorts episode when in government, said the fund would be a transformative investment.
“This is a historic moment for the one-third of Australians who live outside the big capital cities – a perpetual fund to future-proof regional Australia against short-termism and governments who leave regions behind,” Senator McKenzie said.
“This will give confidence to regional communities, by investing in their economic future over coming decades, not just each electoral cycle.
“Geography should not be a determinant of success. Regional Australia contributes significantly to our national story and economy.
“This fund will ensure the regions can take advantage of opportunities and overcome the challenges that the coming decades bring.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers dismissed the Coalition plan as a “harebrained idea” from shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, which would be open to rorts.
“This latest harebrained idea from Angus Taylor will mean bigger deficits and will push debt up, not down,” the Treasurer tweeted.
“David Littleproud has already said today the National Party will spend it all, and that’s a recipe for more rorts.”
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
