The Nationals WA 2010 State Conference Speech, Grylls
Author: Brendon Grylls
Published on: 27-March-2010
Returning to the Great Southern Region for this Conference is a chance to reflect on the new Nationals’ extraordinary journey. And what a journey we are on!
It was at State Conference at Denmark in August, 2006 that we began climbing the stairway to the balance of power in both Houses of Parliament and ultimately into our power-sharing alliance with the Liberal Party.
Denmark was the venue for the official launch of our plan to quarantine the equivalent 25 per cent of the State’s future mining royalties into a special fund and reinvest that money back into regional communities.
Royalties for Regions is now part of the vernacular and the Fund itself, a cornerstone of the regional economy.
It underpins the Ord-East Kimberley Expansion with $220 million and our $358 million injection into Pilbara Cities is rebuilding vital communities in the economic engine room of the State.
By the end of this financial year the Royalties for Regions program will have delivered into regional Western Australia more than $700 million in new community projects....over and above normal and budgeted Government expenditure.
On current estimates Royalties for Regions will have injected in excess of $3.0 billion into new regional community projects by time of the next State Election.
Te upcoming State Budget is likely to provide in excess of $600 million for the Royalties for Regions Fund, allowing us to initiate a number of new community and infrastructure projects.
While the Royalties for Regions Act has now been proclaimed, locking into future State budgets a 25 per cent share of royalties for future generations, we must never forget that the fund is forever linked to the rise and fall of WA’s royalty revenue.
Global events can affect the total royalty pool and from time to time some Royalties for Regions funding programs will need to be adjusted or deferred.
Eighteen months into our alliance with the Liberals we are confident that we are delivering on our pre-election commitments and meeting our key performance indicators.
Regional Western Australia now has a seat at the Cabinet table and there is general acknowledgement that at last, non-metropolitan communities do matter.
This financial year we will deliver our first Royalties for Regions instalment of $20.3 million towards construction of the new Albany Hospital. The fund will contribute a total of $60.9 million to this vital project over the next three years.
More than 27,500 country age pensioners are now receiving their $500 fuel cards. This program has made a significant difference to the aged people on fixed incomes who lack access to public transport and face higher fuel and travel costs.
Significantly, by the end of the 2010-11 financial year we will have provided $200 million in new grants to local governments under the Country Local Government Fund.
Currently, almost six hundred country local government infrastructure projects are either underway or completed. Right across regional Western Australia projects that have lain dormant for years are being nourished by this Royalties for Regions funding program.
While there are hundreds of smaller local government projects on the go we want to move to a more visionary, region-building approach and that’s why the next round of the Country Local Government fund will prescribe that thirty-five per cent of the total amount available will go to groups of councils who form economic alliances.
Royalties for Regions has its chorus of critics who brand it as unsustainable but we will not yield in our resolve to revitalise regional Western Australia. We have established rigorous governance protocols around each stream of funding.
We want local decision making and much of that is occurring through the nine Regional Development Commissions. By the end of 2010-11 we will have delivered more than $180 million to communities, organisations and individuals under the Regional Grants Scheme administered through the Commissions.
The Royalties for Regions fund will most likely reach its annual cap of $1.0 billion over the next five to eight years based on royalty projections.
It will have helped restructure many regional communities and rebuild regional confidence. But is there an even greater role for the Royalties for Regions fund? We believe there is.
Commonwealth matching funds
We are now exploring ways of levering the current and future Federal Governments into partnership with Royalties for Regions dollars, thereby doubling the pool.
I now put it to our own Federal Nationals representatives here today to commit to a policy around this objective for the upcoming Federal Election.
I put it to Warren Truss, Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash to use their political clout and political will to convince their Liberal partners in coalition that a State-Commonwealth Agreement with Western Australia will be core Opposition policy for the upcoming election.
I want them to tell West Australians that our Royalties for Regions pool will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Coalition if it wins government.
The WA Nationals Federal election campaign is unashamedly based around a demand for greater share of funding from the Commonwealth.
Our WA candidates have a clear Federal election agenda and they will want to see candidates and sitting members from all parties outline their position on this issue.
West Australian seats will be vital in the election and we have an opportunity to leverage policy that secures partnership funding for generations to come.
The Nationals will soon launch our formal discussion paper entitled “Reverse the Rip-off” that will make the following recommendations:
- The Royalties for Regions Funds to be matched under a new State/Federal partnership.
- Funding is to be over and above current and budgeted Commonwealth expenditure in Western Australia and should not impact on the Commonwealth’s allocation of funding through the Grants Commission formula.
- A single advisory body be created to report to both the State and Commonwealth Government on regional priority issues and projects.
The Royalties for Regions policy has been the stepping stone for the WA Nationals to not only form government but also to re-energise the regions from Esperance to Kununurra.
We now need to take the next step and leverage the Royalties for Regions Fund to the maximum extent possible.
The Fund has already leveraged $195 million in matching dollars from Canberra for the Ord East Kimberley Expansion project’s social infrastructure program and we are now talking to the Rudd Government to match the $358 million for the Pilbara Cities project.
Indigenous engagement will continue to be a cornerstone wherever Royalties for Regions dollars are invested.
The positive effect of Royalties for Regions investment in the Pilbara is now manifest and we are beginning to see a complete reshaping of communities like Karratha, Port Hedland, Tom Price and Newman.
Pilbara Cities is an exhilarating project inspired by the Liberal-National Government that has finally opened to the door for key private developers to express their imagination and innovation.
We have just announced a preferred proponent for the first high-density development in Karratha –a magnificent ten-storey 300-unit residential and commercial development in the centre of town.
This is the direct result of the Premier and I chartering an aircraft and taking more than 70 leading developers and investors on a show-and-tell to Karratha and Port Hedland just four months ago.
Believe me when I say big things are unfolding on this new and exciting development frontier.
We are now in the process of establishing a high-level Pilbara Cities office based in Karratha to continue the stimulation of Pilbara communities that have suffered years of neglect.
The Nationals have, because of the one-vote-one-value legislation, moved away from the traditional base of agricultural politics.
We often see raised eyebrows over our focus on the Pilbara but this investment is critical if all of regional Western Australia is enjoy the benefits of a growing and sustainable royalties stream.
An estimated $2.4 billion is likely to be generated from mining and onshore petroleum royalties in 2010-11, with the bulk of that revenue provided by the Pilbara iron ore industry.
We must sustain the Pilbara as a matter of priority because its wealth generation sustains all other regions and the nation.
Our mantra on Royalties for Regions is to attack areas of high need and to partner wherever possible with other State, Commonwealth or private money. The State Government cannot single-handedly rebuild communities but we can use our funds to stimulate private sector community investment as we are doing in the Pilbara.
It will be the private sector that builds the first high-rise residential tower in the Pilbara, not Government.
The greatest challenge in regional development is to convince the major resources companies to increase their role in community development and community infrastructure.
The fly-in-fly-out culture continues to dominate in the WA resources sector but little can be done to change that until we create the sort of liveable, affordable communities that convince families to settle in those remote regions.
If the Pilbara is to be the locomotive that drags the Australian economy back into surplus we must convince the Commonwealth Government to commit immediately to help us deliver modernised communities where high quality education and health delivery is a standard component.
The Royalties for Regions Act is now proclaimed and provides a high-governance funding framework to which new money can be attached.
The real future of the Royalties for Regions Fund is in sustainable partnerships where the politics can be washed away.
I am committed to working with the Commonwealth no matter who is in power. The Nationals WA is an independent political party and I will be urging our candidates at the Federal election to think carefully how their preferences are used.
Regional Western Australia must have Canberra representatives who are prepared to lock a future Federal government into those matching dollars.
Thankyou
