To RAI, thank you for all your efforts and your organisation’s efforts in highlighting what is a very important part of Australia to me in particular. I’m the product of regional Australia. I’ve never lived in a capital city and don’t intend to. I’m the product of regional Australia and I’ve got all that I have out of life from regional Australia. And my purpose in politics is to give back. But you, Liz (Ritchie), and your organisation is giving back by giving the regions currency, currency with facts and data. And that is what we need in Canberra to be able to articulate the reason why we deserve our fair share in the regions.
That’s what gets me up in the morning as the Leader of The National Party and the Member of an Outback Queensland electorate, to make sure that we get our fair share to unlock the potential of those 30 per cent of Australians that live outside a capital city, to give them the opportunity that those in a capital city get and take for granted every day, to give them the opportunity, the next generation, to fight and to live a better life than what I have and beyond.
To leave a legacy for us in regional and rural Australia and I’m proud of what we did in Government, in leaving a legacy of infrastructure and making sure that you did get your fair share. And it’s important that this government understands that the recalibration of that infrastructure money, the billions of dollars in dams, the billions of dollars in roads, is having an impact, not just in regional Australia, it’s having an impact on Australia. We are the economic engine room and we simply need the tools and the environment put around us to be able to make sure Australia is stronger and that that is the recalibration after the next election.
If we’re fortunate enough and I’m fortunate enough to be Deputy Prime Minister, we will bring, I made it clear to the Prime Minister, that if he wanted to actually look at infrastructure in regional Australia in a different way rather than this big pendulum swing of politics, that we actually have a formula that’s cut out and designated to regional Australia every year then we’d all be better off for it. But instead, it’s only when we can get in there with our Coalition partners, we hold them to account and we get that recalibration and we make up for the lost years and that’s not healthy for regional Australia. I think there’s a better way and I’ll continue to try and work and reach out to this Government. I’ve been constructive and in Opposition as the Leader. I went to the Jobs and Skills Summit to make sure regional Australia had a voice about the skills deficiencies that we’ve had and continue to have about understanding the need for better childcare.
Our issues in regional Australia for people and families to get back to work is not affordability of childcare, it’s accessibility. It’s about making sure that the $4.7 billion that they put aside, to actually give subsidies to those on $300,000 to $400,000 a year, giving them an extra $20,000 in subsidies for their childcare, that some of that should have gone to creating more childcare places in regional Australia and let me make this clear.
Childcare and education will be the heart of what The National Party takes to regional Australia at the next election. Not only around childcare, but about that accessibility issue about making sure that those families that want to go back to work and to get ahead to grow regional Australia have that tool to be able to draw on. Make no mistake. Also we’ll be continuing on the pathway that we create on regional university centres, country university centres, giving our young kids an opportunity to go to university without having to go to a capital city.
I’m sick of losing generations of young people from regional Australia. It’s time to bring them home and keep them home and if we are able to educate them in regional Australia, then they’re there to contribute and grow regional Australia for the better. So, education will be at the heart of what The National Party takes to the next election in making sure that that legacy of the next generation to grow regional Australia is there for perpetuity.
We’ll also make sure that regional health that has been neglected over the last couple years, the priority designation areas are taken away. We know outback towns are competing with peri-urban areas for foreign doctors. We’ve got communities now without doctors at all because we’ve decided to change that and give priority to those metro areas over rural and remote areas. That’s going to change and investment in educating our next generation of medical professions will be at the heart of what we take to the next election about making sure that they have the opportunity to get that training, to get that degree in regional Australia.
Because we know that if they’re educated and trained in regional Australia, 40 to 60 per cent of them will stay and practice in regional Australia. That is the opportunity that lays ahead of us. That’s the recalibration that needs to happen to give regional Australia the tools they need, to give the confidence of people, not just to live there but to come here and know that they’re going to have the services they need and we want to be part of the solution around the pathway to net zero.
Our party has signed up to a pathway to net zero. It’s not a linear one. It’s not one that has to be achieved by 2030. It’s one that must be achieved by 2050 and we must make that commitment because if we don’t, make no mistake, those of you who export will have a border adjustment mechanism placed on you. It’s called a tariff. And those of you that borrow money will have your capital weighted anywhere between 1.5% and 3% extra. So, if we don’t want to engage with the world, if we don’t want to trade with the world, there is a penalty.
But we can achieve this in a uniquely Australian way and in our time to make sure that the regions are part of this and we are not the ones that bear the entire burden to it. I’m not against renewable energy, but we have had this reckless race that is tearing up regional communities and tearing up the very thing we’re trying to protect, the natural environment.
We’re tearing up our food security and pushing up your food prices. Regional Australians should have a say in that pathway, rather than those with ideological views from coloured parties from the city that tell us the only way is an all-renewables approach. The core principle in the core tenet is to reduce emissions. And we should do that a uniquely Australian way. And that’s why we’re saying that if we are to transition some of our coal-fired power stations, then we should transition them to nuclear power plants and the capacity of those plants, let me give you confidence, will be limited by the extent of which the existing water licences that those coal fired power stations currently exist. We will not be taking water away from the consumptive pool of our agricultural sector. We’ll use the technology available to make sure that it has that capacity. Zero emissions technology.
We will have gas with carbon capture storage in the right place, not in the Great Artesian Basin, but in the right place. Many countries around the world are already adopting this technology. The Biden administration alone are spending $1.2 billion on carbon capture storage projects to be able to abate their carbon from gas and coal. It doesn’t matter how we get our energy, if we’re able to abate it, we get back to that core tenet of reducing our emissions and it’s good for Australia, then we should do it. And I’m not against renewables, but there’s a place for renewables.
And much of the large-scale renewable projects that are being done now have been done close to existing transmission lines. And that’s a good thing. That’s a great thing that we’ve done. But now the government pressing towards an all-renewables approach means that we’ll have to go beyond those transmission lines.
We’ll need 28,000 kilometres of extra transmission lines to plug all this in. Regional Australia’s future should not be littered with kilometres of transmission lines, wind turbines and solar panels. Renewable energy should be on an environment it can’t destroy where the population and where the energy is required on rooftops. We should be supporting rooftop solar in metropolitan areas where the concentration of population and power is required and therefore alleviating the need for the transmission lines.
But we should have a mix. Little old Chinchilla State High School taught me in grade eight around concentration risks. We should not put all our energy eggs in one basket, particularly in a country like Australia where we have sovereignty of all our resources. That is pure madness. No country of the industrial scale of Australia has gone to an all-renewables approach. And if you look at our neighbours like Japan, they are now reopening all their nuclear power plants and in fact building a new 1200-megawatt nuclear power plant.
They’re importing our gas, burning it, capturing that carbon and storing it back out of Australia. And they’re having renewables. They’ve got a mix. They’ve learned about concentration risk, they’ve learned about making sure there’s redundancy in our system to make sure that there’s reliable, affordable power. Manufacturing in this country can only exist if you underpin it with the fundamentals base load, reliable, affordable power and proper industrial relations policy, because you cannot continue to subsidize and keep manufacturing going in this country.
Because ultimately your money runs out. Australian taxpayers money should be spent wisely. That underpins a future and a legacy. A legacy of a nuclear power plant lasts for 80 to 100 years. A renewable project lasts at best 15. So, let’s leave something of a legacy of spreading our risk that I can look back hopefully one day when I have grandchildren, that I’ve left something for them and I’m going to back Australians to do this safely and better than anyone else.
We’re about to put our submariners, we’re about to sleep our submariners right next to a nuclear reactor. We are going to have the best technology in the world. We can do this as Australians if we back ourselves. The culture of this country needs to change of finding reasons why not to do things, to how do we and to do it. And let me give you this assurance that Peter Dutton and I are going to look every one of you in the eye. We’re going to tell you how it is. We’re going to get back to basics and we’re simply going to do it. We’re simply going to get on with the job of using common sense and pulling the levers that don’t cost you money.
We’re going to reinstate the live sheep industry. We’re going to remove the Scope 3 compulsory emissions reporting that this government is about to impose on the 1st of January on every farmer in this country.
Now they went to Toowoomba and made it very clear that they would never do this to Australian farmers. Well, they’re not. They’re asking their banks and they’re asking elders and Nutrien, who are their customers to do the dirty work for them. By the 1st of January, every farmer will need to know their emissions profile. Now, Treasury themselves have already outlined that that will cost the national economy $2.3 billion in extra administrative costs. And say what you will about Joe Biden. But Joe Biden at least had the common sense not to go anywhere near this.
We can reduce our emissions in agriculture and I’m proud of the Biosecurity Biodiversity Stewardship program that I put in place. The government kept it, albeit changing it to the Nature Repair Bill, which I have an issue around the name of, I think it disrespects regional Australians, disrespects farmers about the custodianship of the land in which they have been in charge of for generations.
It disrespects the work that they’ve done, but nevertheless it’s giving farmers the tools to participate not just in abating carbon but improving biodiversity. We’re the first country in the world to come up with it so farmers can play a role in this. We can all play a role in this. We don’t need to do it by 2030. We can do it by 2050 in a uniquely Australian way. We also will be very upfront, very clear around, we will reinstate an Ag visa and while we’ve made announcements around reducing the number of people that will be coming into this country, we won’t be bringing in 1.67 million people that’s bigger than the city of Adelaide.
And we will be determining who comes to this country, the skills they have and where they should go. We will have the courage to say to these people who are being given the greatest gift in the world, a ticket to Australia, that there is an opportunity to come here and be part of this country because you have a skill that can grow our country.
But it won’t necessarily mean that we’re going to put you all in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The opportunities of Australia are far more vast than those of a capital city. We’re going to tell them, here’s an opportunity to come to this country and contribute with the skills. We’re not going to bring in dog groomers or martial arts specialists that’s currently on the list. We’ll be looking at it critically and looking at it in a bespoke model of what the regions need, what the economy needs and what the nation needs. We’re going to buy some time for state and local governments to build some capacity and to build supply and housing stock.
I’ve got to say that the challenge that we face with housing has been squarely at the feet of state and local governments not planning properly, but a federal government can exacerbate it by overreaching on immigration. And that’s why we’ve got to give the states and local government the time to catch up and we’re going to have a housing policy to support local councils and particularly those where there is market failure in many of our small, regional and remote councils.
The cost to develop a block is well beyond what the market price is to buy. So, we need to help them where there is market failure, but we need to make sure that state and local governments, not with the generosity of the Australian taxpayer, continue to push up head works charges and gain the system to gain more revenue, pushing up prices anyway. So, if there is money handed out by a Dutton Littleproud Government, it’ll come with caveats. It’ll come with responsibilities because we’re spending your money, we’re spending it and we want results from it.
We’ve got national crisis and we’ve got to make sure we’re bringing the skills in and we’re building the supply with your money in the most effective way possible. That’s the common sense that I want to bring and the opportunity that I’ve been given as a privilege of being a Member of Parliament.
I believe in the regions and I will live in the regions probably for the rest of my life. And when I don’t have the fire and the tenacity to go and fight for the good people of Maranoa or stand as a National Party Leader, then there’ll be time for me to leave and I need someone else to come in because this is too important. But we are at a nexus point and the challenges that we face will be exponential if we do not face up to them and pull the policy levers that protect regional Australia in the next 12 to 18 months, the price that we will pay will be far more significant than what we paid before at a time when there is confidence in regional Australia.
And much of that, I’ve got to say even when we were in government, wasn’t necessarily all about money. It was also from what fell out of the sky. That all obviously helps as a former Ag Minister, I can tell you. But our story is about adding some water, giving us the tools, creating the environment around us to be the Australians that has created this nation to what it is today and continue to make what this nation will be to the future. Thanks for having me.
