Regional Australians duded on childcare and more, say Nationals

NOTWITHSTANDING the $5.7 billion boost to Medicare, providing more bulk-billed visits to GPs, $79.5 million over 4 years to double the Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance, $1.8 billion over 10 years for roads and bridges; the Nationals’ leader David Littleproud says regional Australia has been duded by an ungrateful government.

He was responding to the first full-year budget handed down by Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers on Tuesday night this week, May 9, saying the modest surplus was only made possible by taxes and earnings from miners and farmers.

“The Treasurer didn't have the courage to say it and that was to thank regional Australia for the surplus that has been delivered tonight. So regional Australia should get its fair share and unfortunately this budget hasn't done that and what they've also done before you even get to the expenditure, the revenue is very interesting,” Mr Littleproud said.

“This budget, they're introducing a fresh food tax. They are actually asking Australian farmers to pay a tax to pay for the biosecurity of international importers to send products to this country. And they asked our farmers to pay for that.

“it is absurd to think that Australian farmers are having to pay for their competitors to send their products to this country to cover the biosecurity costs by the Department of Agriculture.

“And when you couple that also with the ‘Truckee Tax’, a 6% compounding tax as a road user charge.

“That means that every Australian is going to pay a bigger bill at the grocery store because this government says hey, ‘Fresh Food Tax’, that has been imposed for the first time by this government tonight.

“Then you look at the expenditure side of it. This is the insanity of it, not only have they cruelly and maliciously ripped away in their last budget $23 billion worth of infrastructure, they have just doubled down again tonight and taken away our future, removing a further $852 million worth of infrastructure in dams alone. That's our future. That's our children's future about growing more food and fibre to reduce your cost of living.

“Then there’s a $120 million review of infrastructure across regional Australia that means it'll cost us more to get product off the farm and on to your plate or to port and it means you're going to pay more and they've taken that away from us.

“Then you have to look at the fact that if you're living in regional Australia, we have just as big a cost of living crisis as you do in a capital city, but not $1 has been spent on increasing the number of childcare places in regional Australia so there are families out in regional Australia tonight that want to be able to go out and fight this cost of living crisis by going back to work and there are jobs in regional Australia, but they can't because they can't find a childcare place.

“They’ve spent $4.7 billion on childcare affordability, but not one cent not one cent on childcare accessibility for people in the regions.

“We had a program that was going to partner with providers to build new places and you know when you see these groups running around lauding this budget, but they’ve forgotten about regional Australian mothers and young families out there trying to get back to work.

“And there's not any real major spending in regional health. We become the Forgotten Australians in this budget and unfortunately, what's going to happen is every Australian’s going to foot the bill, whether it be the new Fresh Food Tax, right through to the fact that they're not investing in our future, which means it's going to cost us more to get our product to your plate.”

He said the housing crisis in Australia was just as acute in regional Australia as it was in the city and there was effectively nothing in the budget to alleviate it.

There were, however some positives for regional Australia, in the funding for agriculture, small business and health.

• New funding to build 8 more of our Urgent Care Clinics, so people in regional communities and growing suburbs can see a GP.
• $400.0 million over 4 years from 2023–24 to establish the Industrial Transformation Stream to support reduction of direct and indirect emissions at existing industrial facilities, or clean energy development, in regional Australia
• Funding of $89.0 million has also been provided through the Powering the Regions Fund to support energy transition investments important to regional Australia, including the  2023–24 Budget measures titled Capacity Investment Scheme and Ensuring the Supply of Reliable, Secure and Affordable Energy.  The Powering the Regions Fund will continue to support Government purchase of Australian Carbon Credit Units.
• The Government will also extend the 2022–23 March Budget measure titled Indigenous Voice – Local and Regional Voice Implementation until 30 June 2025, to enable the investment of $20.0 million to progress Regional Voice arrangements.
• $79.5 million over 4 years from 2023–24 (and $19.9 million ongoing) to double the Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance to ensure the ongoing viability of pharmacies due to reduced dispensing income 
• $2.3 million in 2022–23 to extend the Regional Small Business Support Program Pilot until 30 June 2023 to continue existing support to regional small businesses, with costs met from within existing uncommitted resources of the National Emergency Management Agency
• The Government will provide $1.8 billion over 10 years from 2023–24 for infrastructure priorities to support productivity and jobs. Funding includes: • $1.1 billion in 2032–33 to continue existing road maintenance and safety programs, with:  – $500.0 million for the Roads to Recovery Program  – $350.0 million for national road network maintenance – $110.0 million for the Black Spot Program  – $85.0 million for the Bridges Renewal Program 
• $159.7 million over 4 years from 2023–24 to establish the Urban Precincts and Partnerships Program to support investment in place-based priorities of local urban communities through a collaborative partnerships approach with state, territory and local governments and communities.