It was a pleasure to address the Regional Australia Institute earlier this week to provide a pre-Budget address on some new measures from the Federal Liberal and Nationals Government to support our communities.
Regional Australia has driven our nation through the worst of the pandemic and we are emerging in great shape.
Last year’s Budget was the best Budget that regional Australia has ever seen and this year’s Budget will build on that record again.
Our regional and rural communities are at the heart of the Federal Government’s National Economic Recovery Plan – we are backing them to drive our nation’s come-back into the post-pandemic future.
This year’s Budget includes $250 million for a sixth round of the Building Better Regions Fund. A record allocation for the fund, bolstering the future of regional communities. This popular program delivers essential local amenity and creates jobs in regional communities, driven by local applications.
We know water security is key to the success of all communities and our announcement includes $22.3 million for 8 more water infrastructure business cases across the nation. The Federal Liberal and Nationals Government’s commitment is now more than $3.5 billion to support the construction of new water infrastructure nationally.
We will also be providing more support for local community organisations in partnership with the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal with a new program of more than $5.7 million to provide necessary resources for eligible organisations.
The Budget on Tuesday 11 May will be about demonstrating to our local communities that we will always have their back as they navigate the post-pandemic future.
Whether it was through the tens of thousands of workers in the resources sector, or indeed the farmers in our agriculture industry who drove the value of agriculture in this country from a $60 billion enterprise to a $66 billion enterprise – it was the regions that kept the country going through the pandemic.
For more detail on the announcements, please feel free to watch my speech here: https://youtu.be/Pii13_tJqms
