Tomorrow marks one year since this government was formed with a promise for a new deal for regional Australia. At the time, the Prime Minister said she would 'deliver' for regional Australia in a deal with the independents.
The independents' agreement with Labor amounts to lots of words but little action. If all I was going to get were words then I would have preferred a deal with Tennyson, Keats or Byron. What we have instead is a deal with Gillard.
The government promised $10 billion in funding but a year after the agreement the biggest "regional" project they have funded is $480 million for the upgrade of roads around Perth airport. There is still no guarantee that the money in the regional agreement will actually be spent on regional Australia.
Over half the money relies on a mining tax which disappears every time a State government delivers a budget.
After a year of promises the government is still yet to announce one project from the $1 billion Regional Development Australia Fund, even though they promised to announce projects by July.
Regional Australia has been dudded by this government and the regional independents who gave them power.
Instead of increasing economic opportunity this government has actively shut down regional Australia's strongest industries and put thousands of jobs in regional Australia at risk.
In the north, this government overnight shutdown the $320 million live cattle trade to Indonesia putting thousands out of work.
In the middle, the government announced a plan that would devastate the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia's food bowl.
In the south, the government is shutting down the forestry industry.
For the rest of Australia, the government is introducing a carbon tax. A carbon tax will hurt regional jobs the hardest because that is where our mining, our manufacturing and our electricity jobs are.
Why again did the independents support a Green-Labor government?