MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS
Mr VENNING (Grey) (12:23): I rise to speak about the Regional Ministerial Budget Statement 2026-27. We are seeing a great divide in this country between metropolitan Australia and regional Australia, and no greater is that gap between regional South Australians and metropolitan South Australians than in health care, particularly healthcare outcomes. We're all familiar with the Indigenous healthcare gap and the 14 metrics that this government has set, the majority of which are actually going backwards.
But we're seeing a significant growing gap in regional health care. Whether that is access to GPs, access to surgeries, even access to things like pharmacies, we are getting left behind under the Albanese Labor government. Only last week, the birthing services in both Jamestown and Crystal Brook stopped; they are being diverted to Port Pirie.
At the same time, we saw a state Labor minister say that your postcode shouldn't determine your healthcare outcomes. Well, that flies in the face of what we're seeing in South Australia right now. We had birthing services close in Kapunda only two months ago, and now we understand that it's permanently closed.
As I said yesterday in the House, I'm calling on Mark Butler and the state health minister to address these issues we see in regional South Australia immediately. It is completely unacceptable that if you grow up in and live in the regions, you have worse healthcare outcomes. You do not live as long if you grow up in regional South Australia today as compared to our city cousins.
Child care is an enormous handbrake on the economic growth in our regions. The electorate of Grey has the lowest access to child care in the entire country. One-third of families in Grey do not have access to child care.
As I said before, we have a shortage of nurses in the electorate of Grey. Well, there are plenty of nurses that can't get into the workforce because they can't get their kids into child care. The Albanese Labor government talks about universal child care.
Well, it's certainly not the case in my region. The problem is that the economic model of our childcare system is based on fees per kids in a centre. A childcare centre cannot be profitable unless you have a minimum of 60 kids in your centre.
Well, in my electorate, we have a lot of towns with between 100 and 500 people. In those towns the childcare model simply does not work. That is why the electorate of Grey has the lowest access to child care in the nation.
It's simply not good enough. The one-size-fits-all approach to child care does not work in small communities. We have a universal education system in this country, and I'm proud of that.
When a community gets smaller, even if there are eight kids left in that community, we still seem to keep the school open, but it does not apply to our healthcare system. It's not good enough. I condemn Labor's 2026 budget.
For regional South Australians, this is the budget of broken promises. Regional Australians face at least $11 billion of cuts to vital sectors such as infrastructure, trade, drought funding and critical communications. This budget is a clear illustration that Labor has forgotten regional South Australia.
It is disappointing to see Labor axe critical communication funding for regional Australia. The previous coalition government delivered 56 mobile phone towers in the electorate of Grey. Two have been delivered in the last four years—two versus 56.
They have cut the Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia by reprioritising funding. This comprises $116 million in 2026-27 and a further $49.6 million in the forward estimates. The plan included future rounds of the Mobile Black Spot Program, the Regional Connectivity Program, the On Farm Connectivity Program, disaster and telecommunications resilience measures, the Regional Tech Hub and the National Audit of Mobile Coverage.
Regional Australians are crying out for better connectivity, and Labor are not listening. At a time when we need support for our regions struggling with the impacts of the fuel crisis, Labor has made massive cuts to regional funding. This includes $191.6 million from pest and disease, regional trade and drought funding.
There is a $52 million cut to the Future Drought Fund alone, just as farmers battle difficult seasonal conditions across South Australia. Meanwhile, Labor allocated zero additional support for regional tourism operators who are vital small-business owners to small country towns severely impacted by this fuel crisis. I want to add that I recently went up to the northern parts of the electorate, up to Innamincka, to Oodnadatta and to Coober Pedy, and the tourism numbers are much lower than they otherwise would be.
And it's not because the price of fuel is keeping away our grey nomads; it's because of the anxiety around access to fuel. Well, to all the tourists out there, there is plenty of fuel up in these remote towns. Get in your camper trailers, get in your Winnebagos and go visit the outback.
There is so much water up in Lake Eyre at the moment. It is beautiful. It looks like Florida with the amount of water and greenery up there right now.
Despite receiving a comprehensive, sensible report from the Australian Grape & Wine advocacy group, Labor dedicated no funding to our wine industry. Rather, they decided to phase out the $10 million Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant package. This is the opposite of what they should be doing right now.
The wine industry is absolutely on its knees—particularly in the Riverland but also in my electorate in the Clare Valley. This increases the pressure that our regional wine growers are facing. Looking at infrastructure specifically, less than two per cent of the infrastructure projects in Labor's budget are dedicated to the regions.
Only two per cent of the budget being dedicated to the regions is absolutely outrageous. Yet Australians will pay $40 million in tax for Labor's Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement, which is not free at all. It's just more carve-outs, including $38.6 million over four years, then $7.1 million annually to implement an agreement that sells out our farmers.
I am pleased that, due to my advocacy, Labor increased supplementary road funding for South Australian councils in line with indexation. However, even with supplementary funding, South Australia remains the lowest-funded state in the nation on a per-kilometre basis. And it shows: the roads in regional South Australia are completely unacceptable.
I want to call out a few areas. At the bottom end of the Yorke Peninsula, the roads down there are absolutely terrible. In the Adelaide Plains, the roads are absolutely terrible as well.
And, of course, the Flinders Highway, the road that runs from Ceduna down to Port Lincoln, is very narrow and unsafe for the road trains that travel on that road very regularly. Regarding the Nyrstar lead smelter in Port Pirie, this budget initially contained no new funding to ensure its long-term viability, leaving workers hanging in the balance after the previous $57.5 million package expired on 1 May 2026.
I was pleased to see the announcement of a $105 million transitionary funding package for Nyrstar's Hobart and Port Pirie facilities. While this does bring a massive sigh of relief, smelter workers in Port Pirie should never have been left in a state of limbo for over a month, wondering if they had a future. The delay in communications was totally unacceptable.
Minister Tim Ayres only found time last week to brief me through his advisers. Premier Malinauskas confirmed this package sustains operations until the end of November, and I hope the next negotiations are resolved before then so Port Pirie avoids another period of uncertainty. In contrast, Angus Taylor's budget in reply is a much more rounded and commonsense approach to the issues that matter to regional South Australians.
He will back small businesses to invest in vital assets through a permanent $50,000 instant asset write-off for anyone with a turnover under $10 million. Furthermore, we will establish a future generations fund to ensure resource windfalls are used responsibly to ensure the future of our children.