Warren Truss - Keynote Address 2011 Nationals’ Federal Council
28-August-2011
Hon Warren Truss MP
2011 Nationals’ Federal Council
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Saturday 27 August 2011
Regional Investment Strategy
Nationals President John Tanner, Deputy Nationals Leader Senator Nigel Scullion, Members and Senators, delegates, and online viewers,
What a remarkable year it has been for The Nationals.
Last year when we met we were out of office everywhere except for Western Australia.
Today we are part of government in the two most populous states and Labor is staring at defeat in every other state and territory.
At the federal level, a year ago we took the first term Labor Government to the brink of defeat. An incredible turnaround.
In doing so, we saw the election of new Nationals George Christensen in Dawson, Ken O’Dowd in Flynn, Michael McCormack in Riverina, and Senator for Victoria Bridget McKenzie in the best result for The Nationals in 50 years.
Of the 24 regional seats we contested, The Nationals won 12 – a better ratio than any other party and worth comparing with The Greens’ strike rate of just one win from 150 candidates.
Remarkably, every sitting Nationals MP scored a big increase in their primary vote, an endorsement of their efforts over the past term as part of a team of local champions fighting for a fair share for regional Australia.
Over the past couple of decades, many commentators have written us off and questioned the very survival of our party.
But the voters have responded to the critics in the best possible way and I want to thank them for their confidence – as I want to thank the thousands of party volunteers across the nation who never lost faith and have worked so hard to achieve these results.
But there is still much to do.
The Gillard government has not heeded the warnings from the people a year ago. It has descended into a leaderless rabble, and the arrogance, waste, mismanagement and incompetence continues.
Now it is mired in the smell of corruption.
It’s still a government that is all talk and no action – health reform that has withered into more bureaucracy, and no local control or improvement in services for regional Australia.
Announcements of a mental health initiative – but no real money until after the next election.
Disability reform – but not until after the next two elections.
Perhaps even worse, the Prime Minister lied to the Australian people... ‘there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead’... words that will dog this government to its electoral grave.
Now we are about to get the world’s harshest carbon tax.
Federal Labor is turning on its leader. When will they learn that the problem is Labor itself – the party must change to earn the respect of the people.
At The Nationals, we are not content with popularity driven by despair at Labor’s incompetence. We are focussed on the issues that matter to regional Australians.
Today I want to talk to you about the future and the vision we share for the 97% of our landmass that lies beyond the capital cities and major population centres.
Today we add an extra dimension to our plan to revitalise and populate Australia’s regions.
I want to talk to you about our Regional Investment Strategy.
Background
In Opposition, The Nationals have been tireless. We’ve travelled extensively across the regions, done a lot of soul-searching and, importantly, a lot of listening.
Ahead of last year’s federal election we released a comprehensive policy platform – a vision for Australia’s regions.
Underpinning every one of our policies is the notion of a fair go for regional Australians… giving them a fairer share in this country’s wealth and opportunities.
That undertaking wasn’t an end. It was only the beginning.
Unashamedly, we believe and expect that with much of Australia’s real wealth generated in the regions it is only fitting that a fair share of the revenue it creates is returned to the regions.
To that end, last year The Nationals, with our Coalition partners, committed to a $1 billion funding guarantee, dedicated to the reions.
This principle has been implemented in new state Coalition governments in Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria – and is already funding worthwhile community infrastructure outside the capital cities.
More than a fair share
But it’s more than just a fair share principle.
We’re taking that idea and expanding on it. This new investment must be more than just funding programs or bricks and mortar – it must also focus on building human capital in our regions.
I say to you that the future must be bolder and wiser.
As a nation, we are overdue in recognising the role regional areas can, and must, play in overcoming Australia’s national challenges.
While our major cities struggle under growing population pressures, our regions cry out for more people, services, infrastructure, businesses and employees.
It’s time to correct that imbalance.
Australia’s concentration of population is the highest in the OECD, and is almost double the OECD average.
88% of our population is packed into small coastal areas – principally Sydney and Newcastle, Melbourne, Brisbane and the south east coast, Adelaide and Perth.
That’s around 3% of the country.
We need to seriously address this population squeeze and pull the policy levers that can re-energize and build the under-developed 97% of Australia that is regional.
That’s where the real untapped growth potential lies.
Certainly, there are challenges… but they can also be positive drivers of change. It’s how we deal with the challenges that matters.
The Nationals’ Regional Investment Strategy will recalibrate the scales of inequality set against the regions by driving policies to bring business and people to regional areas and, in doing so, benefit the entire country.
It’s an investment long overdue.
But it’s also a tonic for Australia’s city population ills – a proactive solution to our congested cities, bursting under a national population of just 22 million people.
Unless we, as a nation, can bring businesses and people to major regional cities and develop new commercial centres, 36 million people by 2050 will grind our cities into gridlock.
History tells us that in America, the call was to “go west”.
It was the promise of a new frontier with boundless opportunities. As people moved and resettled, along the way the landmass was populated and, today, the US has a well populated and growing interior, boasting major inland cities.
In the new world, the modern story in China and India is similar – large and growing inland centres.
In Australia today we need to be bold.
Ignoring the development of regional Australia is no longer an option this country can afford.
Correcting the imbalance
A 2009 study by the National Institute of Industry and Economic Research shows that, on average, it costs rural residents five-times more to access essential services as it does metropolitan residents.
The biggest disadvantages are for hospitals, residential care services, secondary schools, TAFE colleges and universities.
In addition to our $1 billion funding guarantee, our Regional Investment Strategy embraces new initiatives to correct the imbalances.
Let me cite a few…
Taxation
We can’t make people move to regional areas, but we can create the business case for start-up or relocating operations with help from innovative tax breaks – people will follow worthwhile employment opportunities for themselves and their families.
We need to bring business into the regions. With them come jobs, prosperity and growing communities.
And the government can take the lead by relocating government departments and agencies in regional centers.
Healthcare
When it comes to healthcare, residents in capital cities enjoy many more services in their communities than people living in rural and regional areas.
We know that lack of services is a major deterrent for people, especially families, to move to jobs in the regions.
Despite the best efforts of dedicated local doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, medical services in rural areas are woefully and dangerously inadequate.
That is why we want health and hospital services to be locally run and why we have been so committed to incentives that attract and retain medical professionals in the regions.
We will enhance incentives for doctors and health professionals to take up regional practice and stay there.
And we will go further with the advent of a dedicated Federal Minister for Regional Health to specifically oversee regional healthcare and the needs of regional patients.
Education
Anyone who cares about equality of opportunity in this country must be dismayed at the small proportion of rural people who hold tertiary qualifications.
The Fiona Nash and Darren Chester-led initiative for a Tertiary Access Allowance would help restore equity in student income support for regional students, enshrining assistance for regional tertiary students who must move away from home to study.
We will also reinstate agriculture and horticulture apprentices on the National Skills List. Labor dumped them in 2008.
Infrastructure
Good infrastructure – whether it be roads, rail, telecommunications, schools, hospitals, bridges, dams or airports – is a vital key to truly unlock regional Australia’s potential.
But we also acknowledge that the lack of soft infrastructure – such as health and allied health services, education resources, childcare and other social institutions – are barriers to regional relocation.
The obligation of the federal government on these issues is more than money and a clearly defined regional component is essential. It demands a commitment to long-term planning.
Infrastructure Australia was created to deliver a key part of this integrated approach. But little has manifested since its inception in 2008. We will make it happen.
Domestic relocation
Overwhelmingly, the majority of unemployed Australians reside in our capital cities. Government policies must attract them to regional areas.
Along with the carrot approach we have built into this strategy, it must also come with a stick.
Young, mobile welfare recipients who refuse to take up gainful employment in the regions should not expect to continue to receive those benefits.
Welfare and disability reforms must take account of the opportunities in the regions and the great lifestyles that are available.
Bonded migration
The drought, global financial crisis and floods this past summer have masked a critical workforce deficit across regional Australia.
In agriculture alone the National Farmers’ Federation calculates that as farmers get back on their feet over 100,000 jobs will go begging – 80,000 for skilled labour and 22,000 entry-level positions.
Tying new migrants to regional locations experiencing skilled and non-skilled labour shortages for a specified period can help fill the gaps.
It’s not a new idea. Under the Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship Scheme, doctors are required to live and work in rural areas for a minimum of six years.
Foreign Ownership
I want to spend a moment on foreign ownership of agricultural land and agribusiness.
In this era of global food shortage, together with Australia’s international reputation as a leader in farm system efficiency, it’s little wonder we’re coming under increasing attention from foreign investors.
At the outset I want to say that The Nationals are not anti-foreign investment. In fact, investment has been, and is, essential to grow our country, including agriculture.
Foreign investment has delivered much of the innovation and strength of our agriculture since the first free settlement.
But the rapid growth of foreign ownership is another issue.
Anecdotally, we hear that foreign interests – both government and privately owned – are targeting farms in Australia to shore-up their own food security.
Only Queensland maintains records of foreign land acquisitions. These records show that the area of Queensland owned by foreigners actually declined slightly for most of the last decade.
But over the past two financial years to July 2010 the land owned by foreign interests tripled to 4.45 million hectares – about 2.5% of the state.
Interests in the UK own half of that land, with the US, Germany, Holland and Switzerland making up the top five.
Korean, Singapore and China top the list in value of purchases, suggesting they are active in city property investments.
Foreign takeovers of Australian agribusiness have, however, increased 10-fold since the election of the Rudd/Gillard Government.
You have all heard of major takeovers of Australian companies in industries like grain, beef, sugar, wine, food processing, chemicals and fertiliser.
In many sectors Australia has already lost effective control over its food supply chain and decisions about our food security are being made in foreign boardrooms.
Since the Foreign Investment Review Board declined to intervene in a Spanish bid to buy 100% of Australia’s rice industry, one wonders whether there are any circumstances where it would intervene.
In the wake of these developments, we’re entitled to know more about what’s going on in our own backyard.
Foreigners wanting to buy residential property this country must gain FIRB approval, but international interests can basically buy rural land to the value of $231 million without any checks or balances.
For US interests, the figure before the FIRB gets involved is $1 billion – and soon New Zealand will have this same billion dollar buffer.
This differentiation in the treatment of city and rural land is bizarre.
It has been alarming to us, as well as to many in the sector and more broadly the Australian public, that there is so little transparency and scrutiny over who owns what in this country – especially in farm land.
I wonder why other states do not have a foreign land register like Queensland?
In Federal Parliament recently, John Cobb successfully moved that the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with the assistance of ABARES and the Productivity Commission, compile data and analyse the extent of foreign ownership of agricultural land and agribusiness.
This data will shed light on these issues and can be used to ensure that the interests of our farming communities, and the nation as a whole, are protected.
A new Coalition Working Group has been formed, which I chair, specifically to examine these issues. We are currently receiving submissions and will be developing a new Coalition policy to deal with the issues.
Coal Seam Gas/Open Cut Coal Mining
The rapid rise of the Coal Seam Gas industry and spread of open cut coal mining into areas of high quality agricultural land is causing another serious land use conflict in regional Australia, as well as some urban areas.
Mining has made a magnificent contribution to the prosperity of our nation since the 1800s. It has given our country great wealth and it can do so for centuries to come.
We need a strong mining sector to sustain our living standards.
But the land rights of farmers and landowners must also be respected and our nation will always need its prime agricultural land to secure our food supply.
A big open-cut coal mine is not a minor inconvenience to a landholder – it takes everything they have worked for.
Sometimes we will need to forgo a short-term bonanza to guarantee a longer-term greater good. In evaluating whether a project should proceed, The Nationals insist this long-term view must be paramount.
I do not agree that one or two landholders should be able to prevent a development from proceeding that is in the national interest, but I do argue that those who have lived on and worked the land must be treated with respect and consideration.
Landholders must be entitled to fair and generous compensation for the inconvenience and lost productivity they and their families will endure.
Parties need to sit down and work through their issues in good faith. The two sectors are not always mutually exclusive and we need them both.
The giant gas or coal companies cannot move like a juggernaut through properties and communities just because they are big and have a bucket load full of government approvals and licenses.
They also need a social license from the community and they must earn it every day by being good corporate citizens and continuous contributors to the areas they are working.
Some companies have left the building of relationships with communities too late, allowing ill-will to fester.
They failed to properly inform and reassure communities that what they are doing is safe and that local industry, water supplies and infrastructure will be protected.
Near bankrupt State Governments, especially NSW and Queensland, just saw dollar signs in their eyes and are not trusted to have been independent arbiters of the issues.
These projects now face understandable community resentment and even fear and resistance. The developers will now need to devote extra effort and deliver flawless performance to win public support.
The CSG industry is already providing an enormous boost to local regions and to the national economy, accounting for billions of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs.
Governments must ensure that a significant part of the earnings from these developments are returned to the local community through better infrastructure and services.
The industry must be a good corporate citizen and work with affected landholders to make sure issues are always understood and problems constructively resolved.
The Nationals support these great industries but we are determined to ensure landholders’ rights are protected, water concerns are addressed and land values are preserved.
It is in the national interest that we get this process right.
Wrapping up
I put these measures on the table as examples of where The Nationals are driving regional rejuvenation and national prosperity – just as we have been for the last 91 years.
Today in Australia, with the best terms of trade in 140 years, our economy should be firing on all cylinders.
Instead it is wallowing at near record lows of business and consumer confidence, mired by a series of government dampeners – a carbon tax, a mining tax, the wasteful NBN, school halls, pink bats, live exports bans, a deceitful Prime Minister, an inept Treasurer and a government that has simply failed to govern.
I have no doubt that an Australia freed from those policy shackles and personal shortcomings can achieve anything it wants.
Australians – business and families alike – seem to be waiting for the next election in the hope that a change of government will get our country back on track.
As Nationals we pledge ourselves to keep the ball rolling. We are positive about the future and regional Australia – and the key role regional Australia must play in resuscitating our country.
When I look at the chronic mismanagement and waste of the Gillard government, I put it to you that a government with a genuine vision and the capacity to live within its means and grow the economy can do great things.
Some of the initiatives I’ve outlined today come at a cost and the longer Labor remains in office the harder they will be to deliver.
However, others come at no cost. They simply require a new approach – and a new respect for non-metropolitan Australians – and the will to deliver.
With our capital cities already bursting at the seams it’s time to take off the city-centric blinkers and make a concerted push to populate and service regional Australia for the sake of the entire country.
The Nationals are ready to lead the charge.
Thank you.