E&OE
STARTS 10.00AM
ENDS: 10:15AM
Only The Nationals can be trusted with regional infrastructure. That is why I’m so proud to announce that $27 million is going to the 12 local government areas across the Riverina in our electorate. The new boundaries are for community infrastructure and vital road upgrades. We are reinstating the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program—a program I put in place when I was the Deputy Prime Minister, Infrastructure Minister, Transport Minister, and Regional Development Minister. Labor axed this program, and they had no regional funding in the recent Budget.
There was no funding for those local councils that do so much work for local people. The Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program is such a good initiative because it gives local councils the autonomy to decide, based on their community’s needs, wants, and expectations, where the money should be spent. Of course, it needs a tick-off from Canberra, but essentially, it’s local councils making decisions for local people, funded by the Federal Government. The Nationals in government will reinstate and restore this vital program.
So, Wagga Wagga City Council—$4.4 million. And you look right across the electorate, you’ve got Lockhart and Temora, $1.8 million each, and all the councils—Tumut, Coolamon, Cootamundra, Gundagai—throughout the area of the old electorate and indeed the new electorate, including Upper Lachlan and Snowy Valleys. All those local council areas are going to receive well over $1 million for community infrastructure and resilience, for fixing potholes, for grading roads that desperately need it, leading up to harvest, or for sealing roads.
It’ll be up to the councils. More than $27 million will filter through to local councils that do such powerful work—the heavy lifting—when it comes to potholes, aquatic centres, and all those projects that councils do, and do so well. We’re rewarding them. The Coalition Government will do that in the next financial year, 2025–26.
That money will roll out—more than $27 million throughout the 12 local government council areas in the Riverina, in our electorate. We’re in a time where local councils are struggling. What does this mean for ratepayers? I connected with each and every mayor yesterday, and they were delighted. What this means for ratepayers is they will get the infrastructure they deserve.
What it means is that potholes will be fixed. It gives councils the ability to identify and fix those potholes, to lay bitumen on roads that haven’t been sealed for decades, and to make decisions at a local level for the ratepayers. But this will only happen if the Coalition wins government. It will only happen if I win the Riverina seat.
People ask why this has to be an election promise. Well, I can’t control what a Labor government will do. We’ve seen in the last three years how they’ve stripped money out of regional programs and redirected it into the cities.
That’s not what The Nationals do. We’ve never done that. We always make sure the regions are looked after. That’s why people keep voting for us—we deliver for regional people and regional councils. It makes a difference. It saves lives. It builds convenience. People in the country led the way during COVID.
As I always say, when city types thought it was too hard and pulled the doona over their heads, country people were out there making food, producing the goods we sell overseas, keeping the balance of payments going, digging up resources, and strengthening our exports.
That’s what keeps the lights on. That’s how we address the cost-of-living issues. But you can’t trust Labor. They’ve stripped funding from regional development, and we’ve heard nothing from regional Labor ministers or members in Canberra. You can’t trust Labor. You can trust the Nationals.
EMILY FRANCIS:
When you introduced this initiative while you were a minister, what were some of the projects it helped get off the ground?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, there were roads right across the region. There were potholes right across the region that were being fixed. And we know that when you do drive around, the roads have deteriorated just in the last three years. And we’ve got 1,300 people who die on the roads.
The number of country people are overrepresented in those statistics. But just as badly, we’ve got 36,000 people being injured on our roads. And for them, that is life-changing. And so, for those people, they’re going to get their roads fixed. It’ll be up to the councils then to decide and determine which roads are going to be fixed, which potholes are going to be filled.
I’d like to think that all of them can be. I mean, you—Wagga Wagga—$4.4 million, that’s a lot of money in one financial year. To be looking at those potholes, to be looking at Bourke Street—and I travel on Bourke Street often, and it’s a shocking road really—it’s bumpy, it’s got potholes. Wagga Wagga City Council can address that.
But right throughout Junee, Lockhart, Temora, Cootamundra, Gundagai—all of those councils are going to have the money that they’ve been asking for, the money that they’ve been demanding, the money that Labor has not given them, has not provided them. And it was, quite frankly, a disgrace in the last Budget when we saw the Growing Regions Fund—it used to be called the National Stronger Regions Fund, then it became the Building Better Regions Fund, and then it changed when Labor took over to the Growing Regions Fund.
It doesn’t matter what it’s called. The important thing—it was actually doing projects and building the projects, such as the Equex Netball Centre, such as the museum at the Botanic Gardens. And you look around Wagga Wagga, and you see the development and the money that I have invested in this city: the levee bank, the Murray Darling Medical School—which is just about to be opened, which is already taking students and will produce 30 new doctors for regional areas each and every year going forward from here on.
You know, those are significant projects. The PCYC—it’s all Federal funding. Yes, we work with the State. Yes, we work with local councils. But this is direct funding from the Federal Government to the local councils. It can’t have its ticket clipped by any State Government. It’s going to go directly to them, directly into their bank, and then directly into bitumen on the ground.
And that’s the important thing about this. Obviously, it’s not just roads—it’s community infrastructure. You’ve been able to boast thousands of kilometres, such as the Riverside Precinct—projects like that. You know, they don’t happen unless there’s federal funding. But they don’t happen when there’s a Labor government, because they don’t care about—they don’t care about regional areas. They don’t care about regional people.
And I know that sounds like I’m politicking—and I am—but it’s the truth. It’s absolutely the fact. The only thing I would have thought is thousands of kilometres around the electorate—not just in the last few weeks, but the last two years.
EMILY FRANCIS:
Is there anything in particular you would like to see this money spent on?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, you look at the potholes that I mentioned. I mentioned Bourke Street bridge. You drive right across the streets of Wagga—well, right across the roads of the electorate—and you see roads that do need upgrading. They’re not necessarily Federal roads. They’re streets. They’re suburban roads. The highway—well, not even the Hume Highway—that’s already looked after under separate funding streams, but they’re those roads much-travelled that people are sick and tired of seeing potholes.
And I could start naming roads, and I could go right through. But people know where the roads are. They’re outside their front door. They ride across their cities and towns across the Riverina, and they want them fixed. They haven’t been fixed for three years. Councils haven’t had the money.
I went to RFROC (Riverina Eastern Regional Organisation of Councils) just last Friday. They’re talking about rate variations – going to the IPART body to seek ratepayer rises. And ratepayers don’t need that, certainly in a cost-of-living crisis. The last thing people want to see—when their power bills are going up, when their petrol prices are going up, when their grocery bills they can’t afford—is a rate notice from their local council, and it’s higher than what it ever was.
And then there’s another slug for a rate rise they didn’t expect, that they didn’t budget for. And that’s why we’ve got a plan to get Australia back on track. That’s why we’re halving the fuel tax. That’s why we’re going to make it so that people driving around can go to their petrol bowsers for $15 off per tank.
That’s why we’re going to lower the power bills. And we will. We’re going to have a reliable mix, an affordable mix in the energy grid—in the energy sector—so that people aren’t paying exorbitant prices every time they pay power. So of course, we’re going to put a supermarket commissioner in place, making sure that people pay a fair price at the checkout, but also making sure that our farmers get a fair price when they sell their goods to the big duopoly when they sell their goods to the big supply, and we’ll make sure that people are paying a fair price at the supermarket so they get more in the grocery trolley. Because all people tell me these days is they’re getting less and less.
JARRYD ROWLEY:
During the last election the two R’s that we heard were “rates and roads.” And you know, leaning into this current election with the Federal election, we’ve had more candidates than ever. Is it fair to say that you believe that The Nationals and the Coalition are the only ones who will be able to address these two issues — rates and roads, properly?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Yes, absolutely. And look — and it is true because you’ll have Labor promise — promise very, very little, certainly for regional areas. They don’t have a plan for regional Australia. I haven’t seen the Labor candidate come out and say, “We will reinstate, indeed, any of the regional programs that were expunged.”
Jim Chalmers — I mean, Jim Chalmers doesn’t understand farms or country people. He might own a pair of RMs — they’d be brand new. And all of the independent candidates — I mean, what, seriously, can they offer? They’re like people outside the tent throwing rocks at the tent. They’re never going to be around the Expenditure Review table when decisions are being made about where funding is going to be allocated.
Some of the independents who are in Canberra now and in Parliament now — I mean, you know, we look after their electorates as Nationals because some of them are in regional areas. We do look after them.
As far as mobile phone towers, Labor just takes mobile phone towers funding away. I mean, people talk about allocated spreadsheets, but all Labor’s telecom spreadsheets are just red, they’re just red. I mean, and you saw the Mobile Phone Black Spot program, it was all Labor electorates. Only The Nationals can be trusted.
I mean, many of the independents quite frankly Greens masquerading as Teals masquerading as independents masquerading as somebody who can deliver in the country. They can’t and they won’t. They’ll say they can, they’ll say they will, but they simply can’t.
I mean, they’re just noises shouting angrily at the tent. And inside that tent are The Nationals and Liberals, deciding what’s best for this country. And we know what’s best for this country. We’ve got policies there to address the housing crisis. We’ve got policies to address the cost-of-living crisis. We’ve got policies that are going to put Australia back on track and make regional Australia the heart of that.
Regional Australia should be the showpiece of this country. But under Labor and the independents, it’s been ignored. And if the independents get a say on the government going forward — God help Australia.
And let me tell you, Adam Bandt gets a say with these Greens I mean, they are wanting to have rave parties as Greens fundraisers on ANZAC Day. I mean, just think about that. Just think about that.
So, it’s only The Nationals that can get Australia back on track. It’s only The Nationals that care about regional Australia. It’s only The Nationals that will put back in place that Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program with two streaming funds — Resilience and Community Infrastructure and the Roads — that’ll help the 12 local councils that I’m hopefully going to represent after the 3rd of May election.
Again, to make sure that people know the ratepayers know that they’ll pay less under us, and they’ll get the infrastructure they deserve.
Getting back on track to the resilience that was the long answer to your question.
EMILY FRANCIS:
Jarryd Rowley mentioned it earlier — rates. You also mentioned it with the rate variations. Just to clarify this funding won’t go into the councils’ budgets just to bring it back into balance to work, right? Will it?
MICHAEL McCORMACK:
It is actually for community. They will be required to show us the streets and the roads and the answer right that they endeavor to put bitumen on, and the community infrastructure like the holes in the aquatics and the pools what they’re going to spend it on. They will be required to show us what those projects are, what they’re planning to do, and to get the tick-off.
But rest assured if they’re going to just bank that money and sit on it and pay down debt no, that’s not going to happen. That’s not going to happen.
And look, the Peter Thompsons, the Melissa Boxalls of the world, I know them. I work with them very closely. I don’t just work with the mayors. I work very, very closely with the General Managers.
I’m blessed. I’ve got very, very good Mayors and very, very good General Managers and very, very good councils right across the region. And I work closely with them every day to bring about outcomes and options and opportunities for local people because that’s what I do.
That’s my job. And I’ve been up to Upper Lachlan, Yass Valley, and Snowy Valleys on any number of occasions talked with the Mayors, talked with the General Managers. And I’m excited about what lies ahead.
I think our best days do lie ahead, but we’ve got to address this cost-of-living crisis. And we’ve got to address regional funding. It’s not happening at the moment.
I mean, Albo can go round and talk until he’s blue in the face — you hear him talking about farms and farmers and the need to get regional Australia ticking and clicking again. No, you don’t.
He’s just concentrating on Perth and the western suburbs of Sydney. And they welcomed all these new immigrants. They didn’t do the proper tick-offs. I had a huge citizenship ceremony the other day where they just rushed through thousands and thousands of new Australians.
They’re not concerned about the cost of living. They’re not concerned about addressing the housing crisis. They’re just concerned about the cities.
I’m here for the regions. Always have been. Always will be. That’s my promise to regional people.
This is always going to make such a difference. And don’t just take my word for it ask the mayors. They are very, very excited.
And I know that the Country Mayors Association Chair, Rick Firman from Temora, he heads up that important body. He was delighted.
I spoke to him a number of times yesterday via text, via messaging. And he’s been strident in wanting to get more regional funding.
He’s the answer. But the only answer now people have — the only thing that they’re required to do is to vote Nationals and make sure they fill out every box on that ballot paper. Because that’s important in the federal election. Because otherwise, your vote will be informal.
But remember who your friends are. And your friends are The Nationals. Your friend is the bloke right here — Michael McCormack, who will look after regional people’s needs. Always.
Thank you very much.