From the Canberra Press Gallery: Regional Australia is the engine room of private sector activity in Australia. With the Budget set to see a reversal of the public sector’s growth that has hidden the real cost of living pressures experienced by most Australians, it is difficult to see how the Budget’s public sector and Net Zero focus will help the regions. To put it another way, regional Australians are the biggest losers in this Budget, with no relief in sight.
Almost every aspect of funding that will impact the regions has an ideological and climate change focus to it. Regional university hubs will be increased, but there is no tangible reform to the ideological agenda pursued by the education sector. Staffing increases in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet are focused on the Net Zero Economy Agency, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, and the National Indigenous Australians Agency. The staffing increases here pale in comparison to the modest increase in Office of National Intelligence staff.
Defence spending will increase to 2.3 per cent somewhere in the future, but this is mostly focused on jobs with no real idea of what it means the next time we are circumnavigated by warships. South Australia will likely be the major beneficiary.
Speaking of South Australia, there is some assistance for improving water infrastructure, but this likely means desalination plants powered by renewables, a fantasy we are already paying for in droves.
Green steel gets a re-run, along with hydrogen and other failed Net Zero policies, too.
Rex Airlines, a lifeline for most regional communities, continues to receive a necessary bailout but with no real vision for how such an essential service can be provided economically into the future.
But the crux of the matter is that the regions will be subjected to more Net Zero nonsense.
According to the Regional Ministerial Budget:
‘…the Government has worked to support the long-term strength of regional industries and economies – recognising the importance of Australia’s regions in transitioning to a Net Zero economy.’
One of the biggest problems is that most people in the regions are tired of having their private property rights trampled by wind and solar ‘farms’ and the transmission wires needed to bring electricity to the major cities. That is unlikely to change.
For example, the Net Zero Economy Authority, established in December last year, will:
‘…promote a Net Zero economic transformation for Australia through facilitating investment, supporting workers, fostering inclusive engagement, and ensuring coherent and effective policies to empower communities, regions, and industries.’
It will do this through:
‘Building community engagement and coordinating Net Zero related policies and programs.’
In my opinion, this is code for leading rushed community consultations in an attempt to overcome community resistance to Net Zero projects. The offshore wind debacles off Port Stephens and the Illawarra are cases in point.
Most of the regional support in the Budget is provided obliquely through ideologically focused measures.
For example, the government will support the regions by ‘building a Future Made in Australia’. This will include $22.7 billion to build ‘new clean energy industries … including … the $1.7 billion Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund’.
For the regions, one of the most repeated words is ‘sustainable’. Even biosecurity gets the climate change treatment with:
‘$1.0 billion investment towards a strong and sustainably funded biosecurity system, and support to deliver more sustainable and climate-smart agriculture.’
However, the ideology is more virtue signalling than evidence-based. Anecdotal evidence suggests regional towns are losing residents to the cities because childcare places are limited. But rather than focus on regional childcare, one of the key drivers of women’s workplace participation, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency aims to increase ‘women’s workforce participation across male-dominated industries’ to close ‘the gender pay gap’ and to support the ‘transition to Net Zero’.
And as if confirming the absence of support for the private sector in the regions, the Australian Public Service Commission will receive ‘$3.4 million over two years from 2025–26 … to continue to pilot APS Academy Campuses in regional Australia to provide digital and data training and employment opportunities for regional Australians’.
The biggest issue for the regions is that the private sector is forecast to resume its ‘rightful place’ as the main driver of economic growth. Treasury forecasts private sector growth will ‘more than double next year, compared to this one’.
At the same time, the Budget refers to the high level of uncertainty in geopolitics.
It is difficult to see how the public sector can continue to grow while at the same time the private sector will drive economic growth. You can’t have it both ways, but a ready excuse is at hand.
If global turmoil continues, it is as if the Budget has been set up to provide a ready excuse for expensive energy policy in future. The mileage from the Ukraine war putting up the cost of energy in Australia is done, so a new issue is needed. Global uncertainty tied to optimistic private sector growth may provide a future Albanese government with a ready exit clause.
While there are some ‘modest’ tax cuts, these will barely reign in bracket creep. There is some forecast reduction in national debt, too, but with no surpluses in sight for the next decade or so.
Unfortunately, the overly optimistic return of private sector growth with so little stimulus for the regions, other than Net Zero projects, does not bode well for regional Australians.
It is a sad state of affairs when regional Australians are neglected in favour of big city ideas that do not reflect the reality of ordinary Australians’ lived experience. But that has been the government’s modus operandi for the last three years.
Regrettably, there are no pleasant surprises for the regions in this Budget other than more of the same.
Byline: Dr Michael de Percy FRSA FCILT MRSN @FlaneurPolitiq is a political scientist and political commentator. He is a member of the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, Chairman of the ACT and Southern NSW Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, and a member of the Australian Nuclear Association. Michael is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon and was appointed to the College of Experts at the Australian Research Council in 2022. All opinions in this article are the author’s own.