Anthony Albanese says his desire as prime minister is to unite Australia, with “no one left behind, no one held back”, but for many living outside the capital cities in Coalition-held seats, being left behind is exactly what they fear.
Chief executive of the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal, Natalie Egleton, says despite the federal election results indicating the Nationals’ base is declining, the party held all their seats, meaning “there’s still a sentiment in the bush about the need to have parties focused on rural communities”.
Labor’s election win, Egleton says, offers an “optimistic message for many rural communities on the frontline of climate change”.
But while the party has tailored its policies in areas like the NDIS and aged care to account for the added challenges regional Australians face, important questions remain unanswered around agriculture and rural industries.
Tyson Cattle, a spokesperson for of AUSVEG, the peak body for the vegetable industry, said agriculture and horticulture “hasn’t been a strong portfolio or a highly regarded portfolio within [Labor’s] cabinet”.
“However there’s been a long history of where a Labor government has delivered good outcomes for Australian agriculture and horticulture,” Cattle said.
Speculation still surrounds who will be the Albanese government’s minister for agriculture, though Julie Collins has been the shadow minister.
So what does a Labor government mean for regional Australians?
Agriculture workers
Foreign agricultural worker visa rules was one of the most contentious agricultural policies during the federal election campaign.
Labor announced it would create a dedicated agriculture visa stream under the established Palm (Pacific Australia Labor Mobility) scheme. It says this version of the visa has 55,000 workers ready to go.
The National Farmers Federation has been critical of Labor’s decision to scrap the Coalition’s new visa for workers from south-east Asia. No workers have arrived under that scheme yet.
Labor’s visa plan pays workers’ upfront travel costs for the seasonal worker program, while arrivals under the Pacific labour scheme will be permitted to bring their partners and children to Australia.
However, Cattle says “we’ve already got avenues to access those [Pacific Island] workers”.
Cattle welcomes Labor’s national labour hire licensing scheme, as he says the agricultural industry relies on labour hire and a licence will provide stronger safeguards.
Water
Labor has committed $34m to establish a National Water Commission aiming to drive reform, future-proof water resources and increase policy transparency, after Barnaby Joyce dissolved the national advisory body to scrutinise major water projects in March.
Labor has also committed to uphold the Murray Darling Basin Plan in full, delivering on water commitments including 450GL for South Australia.
David Papps, the former commonwealth environmental water holder, said the delivery of the plan by 2024 would require a “remarkable change”.
Labor’s five point plan for the basin includes improving metering and monitoring with a “no meter, no pump” policy, and increasing transparency through market surveillance and making data publicly available.
The Albanese government has also committed to increasing First Nations ownership, including $40m of cultural water promised in 2018, as well as incorporating First Nations’ knowledge into planning for environmental flows.
The plan has a strict 2024 deadline for water recovery, but the Productivity Commission has warned for years it is lagging. Labor has not ruled out water buybacks, unlike the Coalition.
The Labor government will also broaden the National Water Grid mandate to include town water supplies.
National disability insurance scheme
Fixing regional access was one of the six key measures outlined in Labor’s plan to restore the NDIS.
The then shadow minister for the NDIS, Bill Shorten, said that Labor would appoint a senior officer within the NDIA to tackle the concerning barriers to service in regional areas.
Shorten said regional people with disability have had to “battle to get on the scheme and to access services in increasingly thin markets” as there is a only a small number of providers in regional locations, leaving participants with nowhere to go if a provider terminates their service provision.
Aged and health care
As two-thirds of aged care homes in regional areas are operating at a loss, Labor has committed to fully fund an aged care worker pay rise decided by the Fair Work Commission.
As shadow minister for aged care, Clare O’Neil described the aged care system as “in crisis in our cities – but even more so across regional and rural Australia”.
Labor has pledged aged care homes will have registered nurses on site 24/7, mandated that every resident receives an average of 215 minutes of care a day, and promised mandatory nutrition standards, in addition to giving new powers to the Aged Care Safety Commissioner. However the number of nurses available in regional areas remains an issue.
The CEO of Rural Doctors Association, Peta Rutherford, welcomed Labor matching the Coalition’s commitment of $146m of rural-specific initiatives, including the rural generalist pathway, the changes to the medical stream of the workforce incentive program, as well as the expansion of the single employer model.
Future-proofing the regions
Labor has committed $16.7m towards establishing an agri-tech hub in Richmond, New South Wales, as well as reserving $500m of its national reconstruction fund to help regional businesses enter new markets, adopt new technology and adapt to a low-carbon economy.
They have also committed to improve regulations for accurate and clear food labelling.
The National Farmers Federation has welcomed Labor’s commitment to improve biosecurity including addressing the potential spread of lumpy skin disease in cattle, reforming livestock traceability, pest and weed controls, and doubling the number of Indigenous Rangers.
Labor has also promised to replace the emergency response fund with a disaster ready fund, which will invest up to $200m a year on mitigation projects to help reduce the effect of natural disasters.
Unanswered questions
Labor has not provided a drought strategy for regional communities. The Coalition had the future drought fund, allocated for drought resilience and preparedness, but there was no national strategy on how aid would be distributed in the next severe drought, apart from farm household allowance for food and loans.
The new government has pledged to ban live sheep export, which will predominantly affect Western Australia, but has not provided a timeline.
There has been no commitment from Labor whether they will continue initiatives that measure and create incentives for farmers’ environmental performance such as the Coalitions’ national biodiversity stewardship market.
The emissions reduction fund remains in turmoil after a whistleblower alleged major failures in the carbon credit scheme, as well as a plunge in the price of credits, triggered by a contentious change by the previous emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor.
Infrastructure
Regional and outer-suburban areas will be the focus of the $250m Labor have committed to the local roads and community infrastructure programs.
The government says its decisions regarding nation-building infrastructure will be guided by the Infrastructure Australia model. This means uncertainty for controversial infrastructure projects such as Hell’s Gate Dam with Labor set to delay the $5.4bn project in favour of further consultation.
Labor has committed support for the inland rail but will be closely guided by the recommendations of the senate inquiry, over half the recommendations of which the government did not support.
While the Coalition repeatedly told communities that it was too late for amendments, Labor says it will listen to those concerned by the project. The Albanese government has also said it will continue the business case into extending the project to the Port of Gladstone.
Telecommunications
The better connectivity for rural and regional Australia plan commits $400m to expand multi-carrier mobile coverage along roads, as well as for regional homes and businesses.
Labor says in order to guide future priorities they will spend $20m on an independent national audit of mobile coverage in 2022.
A tender will be released to place mobile phone signal measuring devices on Australia Post vehicles to gather the necessary data.
