When it comes to talking about Building Regional Australia’s Future, it’s hard to find a more fitting place than Wagga Wagga.
It has a history of ambition and bold vision. In the lead-up to Federation, the people of Wagga put their city forward to be the capital of our new nation.
It remains a place of energy and ambition, a city that plays a key role in the security of our nation – from the paddocks to the barracks.
A city infused with the spirit with which we must look ahead, knowing that while success is never guaranteed, we have what we need to achieve it.
We come together in a time of significant global economic uncertainty, but also what – for our nation – is a moment of profound opportunity.
And so much of that opportunity begins in regional Australia.
I thank News Corp for bringing us together to continue the ongoing conversation that is Bush Summit.
The communities that make up regional Australia are as diverse as our landscapes.
Each with its own challenges and opportunities, each one powered by the greatest resource possible – its people.
Everything I talk about today is a reflection of our Government’s commitment to all Australians, regardless of where they live.
And it is informed by one incontestable fact: When regional Australia does well, the Australia does well.
To build Regional Australia’s Future, we need to make it easier for younger generations to stay and to build their lives in the communities they grew up in.
That's something that I'm very conscious of.
I had and aunt and uncle at Halfway Creek in between Coffs and Grafton, and every one of their children would come down to Sydney when they finished school to undertake work and would stay where I lived as a young boy with my mum and our grandparents.
Wherever I go in Regional Australia, one of the things that is a recurring theme is that they want people to be able to stay there, for families to be able to stay in the communities that they grew up in.
One of the reasons why we are so committed to our $43 billion Homes for Australia plan is to make it easier for people to buy their own home. And that's why just this week we brought forward the start date for the 5 per cent First Homeowner Deposit Scheme from 1st of January to the 1st of October
This will open doors metaphorically and literally.
The scheme will make it possible for the average first home buyer in Wagga to save the deposit in a couple of years, rather than the nine years it would take to save a 20 per cent deposit.
They will save $27,000 in mortgage insurance, and pay up to $170,000 towards their own home rather than sending it out the door as rent.
We're helping people get into their own home sooner.
Since coming to office, the Government has helped over 38,000 first home buyers in regional areas to buy a home.
Current income caps will be removed and price caps will be increased in nearly all regional areas across the country, making it even easier for regional Australians to buy a home in their area.
We’re also building a brighter energy future for households, businesses and community organisations with our Cheaper Home Batteries Program.
Not only do batteries reduce electricity bills permanently for those people who then use that to store energy from the solar panels in their home, they also reduce costs for everyone because they reduce peak demand -making an enormous difference and making our electricity grid more stable.
And this region is spearheading the way.
Indeed, the Riverina is in the top 10 per cent nationally, with households in and around Wagga installing batteries at a rate five times more than the electorate of Wentworth.
When you look at the electorates around Australia, it is regional Australia that are all in the top 10.
In NSW, Gilmore is first, Richmond is second on the far north coast, and Page is third around Grafton, Casino and Lismore.
It is regional Australia that are leading this change because it makes an enormous difference and makes economic sense. It's as simple as that to them.
We have also committed to progressively double funding of the Roads to Recovery program to $1 billion annually.
The funding increase will allow local governments to plan for the long-term maintenance and upgrade of their road network, shielding critical road safety measures from the uncertainty of budget cycles.
New South Wales councils will receive $1.2 billion over five years. This is an increase of $461 million.
We are improving access to healthcare through our record investment in Medicare, slashing the price of medicines on the PBS, to just $25 - the same price that they were in 2004.
You often hear people say nothing ever goes down, well the price of medicines so essential for people is certainly going down, to be the same price that they were more than two decades ago.
And we're prioritising mental health. Here in Wagga we've provided a million dollars for the youth mental health centre here to be able to move into more appropriate facilities, as just one example.
The other issue which is so important, was keeping Australians better connected.
This month, NBN Co – a proud Labor creation – signed a deal with Amazon to bring quality broadband to the bush.
It will deliver faster and more reliable broadband to up to 300,000 homes and businesses through the new Low Earth Orbit satellite technology deployed 600km above Australia.
And as communications technology continues to erode the tyranny of distance, making the move to the regions is becoming an increasingly logical choice for people and businesses alike.
We have also prioritised keeping communities connected in emergencies, strengthening local radio broadcast services across the country through the $20 million Broadcasting Resilience Program.
These services are critical. All 131 projects have now been completed and delivered.
We are also investing significantly in telecommunications infrastructure through the Mobile Black Spot Program, delivering up to 1,400 new mobile base stations across Australia.
And under the Mobile Network Hardening Program, we are upgrading and boosting the resilience of mobile telecommunications, including permanent generators, transmission upgrades and greater battery back-up.
For much of regional Australia, the viability of communities is tied in no small part to the strength of our exports.
One of the good news stories of the past couple of years is that we are back in business with our biggest trade partner.
China has removed all trade impediments, without Australia compromising on our interests or values.
Every loaded ship leaving an Australian port for China is a victory for a regional community.
Last year, Australia exported $19.5 billion of previously affected products to China – from coal to rock lobsters, from cotton to wine.
Barley exports alone reached $1.8 billion in 2024.
Now, before impediments were put in place, that was $600 million in 2019.
So a range of these products, absence makes the heart grow fonder, as the saying goes, have not just bounced back to where they are, they've bounced back much stronger as well.
Exports of red meat hit $3.1 billion in 2024. Wine exports are bouncing back stronger than they were before as well.
The relationship is extremely valuable to regional Australia and is one that I worked to strengthen when I went to China last month, and importantly, took a delegation of business leaders, as I have, to Indonesia, to Lao, to the ASEAN Conference, as I have consistently as well to India.
We are a trading nation and regional Australia jobs are created because of our trade. One in four of Australian jobs is trade dependent and the relationships that were put in place have been so important.
The new arrangement that we've put in place, the Free Trade Agreement with the United Arab Emirates will open up that Middle East market enormously as well because Dubai and Abu Dhabi are so important for that region.
To underpin the farming sector on which the nation depends, the Government is also committed to ensuring Australia’s long-term agricultural productivity and food and fibre security.
We’re providing funds to state and territory governments to drive the implementation of the National Soil Action Plan and to the National Farmers’ Federation to develop and implement the Australian Agricultural Sustainability Framework.
We are supporting emissions reduction efforts in the agriculture and land sectors and providing funding to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Science to give the agricultural sector better access to climate, economic and market insights.
This all builds on our other investments, including: $470 million in matched funding delivered to our 15 Rural Research & Development Corporations, and $519 million allocated in this next phase of the Future Drought Fund.
I have seen firsthand the toll that natural disasters take on regional communities.
I have stood with locals and heard their stories, most recently on the Mid-North Coast with the devastating floods.
While we can always be proud that the worst of circumstances brings out the best in Australians, no community should ever have to stand alone
That is why the Government has been supporting farmers experiencing hardship through the Regional Investment Corporation.
And that is why our Government and the Minns Labor Government are announcing that we are jointly investing $43.2 million to help farmers strengthen their drought resilience and climate adaptation, as drought continues to affect communities across NSW.
As we look to the future, we are working to make it easier to get ahead and stay ahead.
Our legislation to cut student debt by 20 per cent was the first bill since the election to pass the Parliament.
My government has been laser focused on cost of living measures over the last four years following the hardship that Australians have experienced, first because of COVID and then secondly because of the global inflation spike. In part coming from the biggest energy crisis that the world's seen since the 1970s.
And since the advent of Free TAFE in 2023, nearly a third of the 650,000 enrolments have been in regional Australia.
We have also more than doubled the number of University Study Hubs across the country. There are now 49 Regional University Study Hubs up and running, with another seven expected to open by year’s end.
And a child born this year, who goes on to attend regional and remote Government schools, will attract an average of nearly $32,000 Commonwealth funding due to the agreements that we put in place in New South Wales, but the last state to sign up was Queensland just the day before our budget. They signed up on the 24th of March.
These agreements, $32,000 for every child on average across the board, just means that the Gonski vision that was there of every child receiving appropriate funding that they need will be delivered. And that's been done in partnership with state and territory governments right across the country, Labor and Coalition. And it's something that will make an enormous difference and something that I'm very proud of.
Our Government is focused on delivering for all Australians, repaying and building the trust they again placed in us at the election.
Where a majority of seats now in regional New South Wales are held by the Labor Party, more than any other particular party.
We are ambitious for Australia and we look to the future with optimism and vision. The same optimism that I see when I go to regional communities.
It is a future we will build together – and it begins in the bush.