SPEECH: NATION-BUILDING FUNDS BILL 2008 - Consideration of House of Representatives Message

Senator NASH» (New South Wales) (11:55 PM) —I rise tonight because I believe we absolutely should be insisting on these amendments. We stood here in this Senate this afternoon and we agreed to these amendments because they were right, they were proper and they were good for rural and regional Australia. I have not changed my mind in the last few hours. The same reasons that I agreed with those amendments a few hours ago still exist. Absolutely nothing has changed—not one single thing. Let us have a little look at why the Communications Fund was set up. The Communications Fund was set up because we need to protect rural and regional Australia—it is as simple as that. We went through a whole process of looking at the sale of Telstra, and we here in the Nationals made sure that rural and regional Australia would be protected. There is absolutely no moving away from that. We did it because it was the right and proper thing to do. We knew back then, in 2005, when the Communications Fund was set up, that if we did not move to put that protection in place, rural and regional Australians would miss out on equity in telecommunications. Why did we do it? We did it because of the sale of Telstra. We had to be absolutely sure that there was a mechanism in place to provide funding in perpetuity to future proof rural and regional Australia, and that is what we did. And we did it in good faith and we did it with the trust of people in rural Australia. As Senator Joyce, my good colleague, said earlier, it is about trust. They trusted us and they said, ‘You go and proceed with the sale of Telstra but we know that the Communications Fund is in place to look after us.’ And why now, just a few years down the track, should we be moving away from that position? We should not be. We should not be moving one step away from that position. Communications in rural and regional Australia is absolutely a priority for us—absolutely. To sit here now, a few hours after we have agreed to the amendment not to move the Communications Fund funding to the Building Australia Fund— Senator Boswell —And after they voted for it in the House of Representatives. Senator «NASH» —I will take that interjection, Senator Boswell: yes, after they voted for it in the Reps. Senator Xenophon —An hour ago. Senator «NASH» —Thank you, Senator Xenophon: an hour ago. Why is it that we are standing here now in this chamber potentially changing our minds? It is just completely wrong. That funding that was set up is there to ensure that we deliver those services. My advice is that in the House of Representatives this evening one of the reasons given by Labor for rejecting the amendment was that the national broadband network is expected to deliver significantly improved telecommunications services to rural and remote areas. Quite frankly, that is just a blatant lie—because, guess what? Those of you in the chamber who do not know: Labor has absolutely no requirement that that $4.7 billion gets spent in regional Australia—not one bit of a requirement. And they are talking about taking this $2 billion and putting it towards that $4.7 billion. That $2 billion was set aside to future proof rural and regional Australia, and there is absolutely no requirement from Labor to ensure that that goes to bush—not a single bit. So what are we going to see? We are potentially going to see this $2 billion fund go into the $4.7 billion for the national broadband network and potentially see it rolled out in the cities. That is just wrong. We are going to uphold the trust that has been placed in us by the people of the bush. We are not going to step away from that for one second. It was okay three hours ago; it was okay an hour ago; and, to the Nationals sitting in this chamber, it is still okay—it is still right. My good colleague sitting behind me, Senator Boswell, just said that he would walk across the floor before he would walk away from the people of the of the bush. That is exactly what we will do. We will not sit in this chamber and agree to the hiving off that fund, taking it away from rural and regional Australia, the very people in this country who are probably doing it the toughest at the moment. I think that is the second time I have said that in this chamber this week. These are the very people who are doing it the toughest in this country, the very people who we ask to provide sustainability to this nation, the very people who we ask to provide food and fibre to this nation, and we say, ‘Oh, by the way—don’t worry about it—as for your telecommunications, we’ll let Labor just take off that $400 million every three years and throw it in the cities, because we don’t really care about you out there in the bush.’ That is not going to happen. That is absolutely not going to happen, because those people out in rural and regional Australia need our support. They trust us. As Senator Joyce said in his remarks earlier, they gave us their trust. We will not walk away from it. Our view in the Nationals is exactly the same as it was a few hours ago. It has not changed for any reason whatsoever and we will not be walking away from the people of rural and regional Australia.

Source: Senate Hansard