David Littleproud says budget will neglect regional Australians

Regional Australia will be left feeling like “forgotten Australians” when Treasurer Jim Chalmers hands down his budget Tuesday night, Nationals leader David Littleproud has predicted.

Regional Australia will be left feeling like “forgotten Australians” when Treasurer Jim Chalmers hands down his budget Tuesday night, Nationals leader David Littleproud has predicted.

“We lost $23 billion in the last budget, and there will be billions ripped out of infrastructure, roads, dams, rail, and there will be no expenditure on critical things like regional health, even though they are raising tobacco taxes which will disproportionately affect the regions,” Mr Littleproud said.

“We feel like forgotten Australians.”

Mr Littleproud was particularly critical of the government’s renewable energy plans, saying that productive farmland and native bushland was going to be under threat from wind and solar projects.

“We’ve taken all the low hanging fruit and put it as close as possible to existing transmission lines,” he said, noting that while Victoria would soon see the first 400km of some 27,000km of poles and wires needed to meet the government’s renewables targets, NSW would not be far behind.

David Littleproud says regional Australia are going to be dudded by the budget. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“My point is, we don’t need to rush this, we can hit pause and rethink this … turning productive agricultural landscapes over to wind and solar is bad for food prices and bad for food security.

“What is happening now is renewables are losing their social license, and clearing native bushland farmers would never dream to touch.

“Meanwhile the government’s defunct energy policy has taken away any investor confidence in gas that was supposed to have been there to make renewables work.

“Ideology is not meeting the practical reality if what is coming out of peoples’ wallets.”

Mr Littleproud added that leaving people to rely on “direct payments” to offset their energy bills would not be necessary if the government followed “good sensible policy.”

David Littleproud says the government’s defunct energy policy has taken away any investor confidence in gas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The Nationals leader said that a variety of other policies including childcare were tilted against the regions, saying that it was one thing for the government to provide subsidies but another thing again to provide actual spaces.

“People need to go back to work to cover the bill from the cost of living crisis, but they can’t get a space in regional Australia for their kids.

“The issue is accessibility, not affordability.”

Stan Moore, who farms on the Gundary Plains near Goulburn and is campaigning against a proposed local solar project, said his region is already being “sacrificed on the altar” of renewable energy targets.

Mr Moore said that two proposed “solar factories” proposed near his property was fraying his community while taking productive land out of circulation.

“These green groups purport to support the environment but they are allowing it to be destroyed by putting panels over it, with no proper discussion of what happens at the end of the project’s life,” Mr Moore said.

“This is just inappropriate to put here, and if you look at the numbers at the end of the day solar is pretty dumb.”

Originally published as David Littleproud says budget will neglect regional Australians