Portfolio — 13 May 2026

Minister McBain's 13 May activity was dominated by her regional ministerial budget statement to the House — the centrepiece of her day — and reinforced by a PM media release covering the same material, making this a high-density, dual-stream day with full thematic convergence across both sources.

The headline commitment is the $14.8 billion Australian Fuel Security and Resilience package [TA-260513-house-ee1b85aea947:s020], which McBain framed as the primary response to regional cost-of-living pressure driven by the global fuel shortage. The package halves fuel excise, reduces the heavy-vehicle road user charge to zero until June, secures 250,000 tonnes of agricultural-grade urea for the planting season, and establishes a government-owned fuel reserve.

The PM media release confirms the same package and adds that the instant asset write-off will be made permanent — allowing small businesses to immediately deduct equipment up to $20,000 — alongside a permanent Working Australians Tax Offset of up to $250 per worker annually from 2027–28 [TA-260513-infras-c9ccbba49b5d].

On infrastructure, McBain detailed $12.1 billion in new transport and community spending, including $10.3 billion for transport projects and $976 million for community works [TA-260513-house-ee1b85aea947:s020]. A $2 billion Local Infrastructure Fund targets regional enabling projects — she cited the $112.3 million Marong sewer upgrade in Bendigo as a worked example [TA-260513-house-ee1b85aea947:s020].

The Growing Regions and Thriving Suburbs programs receive an additional $750 million, bringing cumulative investment since 2022 to over $1.7 billion. Roads to Recovery funding also increases. These transport and community infrastructure figures appeared identically across the ministerial statement and the media release, confirming coordinated messaging [TA-260513-infras-c9ccbba49b5d].

On health, $579.6 million annually funds 137 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics — 47 in regional, rural and remote areas — and $25 million establishes up to six new fully bulk-billed general practices across the Central Coast, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Hunter regions. During Question Time, McBain repeated these health figures in response to a question from the member for Paterson, linking fuel security and health investment explicitly to regional affordability and opportunity [TA-260513-house-ee1b85aea947:s183].

The $160 million Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships Program and the $47 billion Homes for Australia plan — targeting 1.2 million new homes by 30 June 2029 — completed the cross-portfolio sweep. McBain also noted that AusAlert, the national geo-targeted emergency messaging system, will be operational by October 2026.

The parliamentary day included a second, distinct item: McBain moved the second reading of the Treasury Laws Amendment (The Survivors Law) Bill 2026 [TA-260513-house-ee1b85aea947:s024]. The Bill allows courts to order offenders to repay outstanding compensation debts from their superannuation after 12 months, and makes those debts survive bankruptcy. McBain cited the 2023 bankruptcy of Maurice Van Ryn — which would have extinguished a $1.4 million judgment for victim Edan Van Haren — as the direct impetus for the reform.

She acknowledged Attorney-General Michelle Rowland and Assistant Treasurer Dan Mulino as co-contributors to the legislation. The Bill is a cross-portfolio instrument sitting across the Attorney-General and Treasury domains, and its carriage by McBain in the House reflects her broader representative function beyond the regional development portfolio [TA-260513-house-ee1b85aea947:s024].

McBain also moved to refer the ministerial statement order of the day to the Federation Chamber, and the motion was agreed to [TA-260513-house-ee1b85aea947:s023].

Across both streams, the portfolio's messaging architecture is consistent: regional investment is framed as a coordinated, multi-sector response to cost-of-living pressure, with fuel security, health access, housing supply, teacher retention and transport infrastructure presented as mutually reinforcing rather than discrete line items.