Mr RONALDSON (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport and Regional Development)(4.18 p.m.) —It is a great pleasure to have 10 minutes to talk about my electorate. I do so in the context of the significant initiatives that the Howard-Fischer coalition government has introduced since the election in March last year and how they relate to matters that have affected my electorate and some of the real advantages that have been delivered by those initiatives.

The advent of communications as we march towards 2000 has enabled a changing face in regional Australia, one that this parliament must certainly take advantage of. Just as an example, my electorate was fortunate enough to get what is called a Department of Social Security teleservice centre, or call centre, which provided 100 new jobs. It went into the Central Highlands Water Building, which was underutilised. They are new jobs. Indeed, it is providing employment opportunities for rural and regional Victorians. There are a large number of people from both within Ballarat and the outlying areas of Ballarat who have been able to access this centre. It basically means that people in non-metropolitan Australia are able to take advantage of new communications technology which will deliver them jobs.

The other interesting thing is the government's move to outsource some of its information technology. That has quite directly advantaged the IBM Geoplex complex in Ballarat. It is now one of the largest computer data storage facilities in the world. It not only brings jobs and infrastructure to Ballarat but also, in association with the Ballarat University, makes the region an educational and career magnet for information technology, meaning that young people can stay in our region, study and find employment in locally based industries.

There has been a large amount of moneys in relation to the regional telecommunications infrastructure fund, otherwise known as Networking the Nation. I am very pleased that last week an announcement was made that the University of Ballarat and a group known as the Volunteers for Isolated Students Education have secured $150,000 to assist families and business in rural Australia to acquire the skills and confidence to access and utilise services and facilities available on the Internet. Networking the Nation will assist the economic and social development of regional, rural and remote Australia by funding projects which enhance telecommunications infrastructure and services, increase access and reduce disparities between urban and rural Australia.

At the end of the day, it is absolutely incumbent upon this parliament to ensure that non-metropolitan Australians are able to access the advantages that their metropolitan counterparts enjoy. We need to stop this appalling drift from regional and rural Australia to metropolitan areas, which has been going on now for some 20 years—unfortunately, greatly speeded up by the effects of the recession. I think that some people in the House today do not realise that areas such as mine, the electorate of Ballarat, the electorate of Bendigo and other surrounding electorates, actually went into recession well before their metropolitan counterparts. Indeed, we are struggling harder to get out of it, but I am pleased that the coalition government is at least making moves which will enhance our opportunities to drive job growth.

The Natural Heritage Fund has put a considerable amount of money into my electorate. I am very proud that we have had several Green Corps programs, which are operated by the Ballarat based Australian Trust for Conservation Volunteers, in my electorate—and all have been highly successful. The black spot program is a great initiative of the member for Hume, who has been mentioned several times today, which is providing safety to rural and regional Australians. Indeed, it was part of the program guidelines that at least 50 per cent of those funds go to regional and rural Australia.

The work for the dole scheme has been very enthusiastically endorsed by my constituents in the electorate of Ballarat. There are now two projects where young people will start within the next week. They have been queuing up for this opportunity. I am pleased they have taken this opportunity. It reinforces my very strong view that people basically want a chance. I get very angry when I hear our young people being attacked for not being interested in working, in making their mark on our country's future. I believe they do. I believe they are ready, willing and able to do so; they just need the opportunities. They have enthusiastically endorsed the work for the dole program.

Just out of interest I jumped on my calculator the other day and in the last 18 months—just from the matters I could add up—some $52 million has gone into my electorate. I am not saying that that is to all new programs, but there are new initiatives, with which I am very proudly associated, which cover a range of things across the board, including marriage and relationship services, special jobs funding for disadvantaged young people and a new carer respite centre. Carers are the unsung heroes of Australia, with nearly two million carers in Australia. They are great people doing a marvellous job and they deserve every bit of support that they can get. We are still doing it tough in non-metropolitan Australia. This parliament must drive the opportunities for non-metropolitan Australia. I am very pleased that some of the initiatives we have put in place since coming into power have very much helped my constituents.

I now want to turn briefly to the 10-point plan. I want to give two quotes to put this whole debate into some sort of perspective. I have had a group demonstrating outside my office for the last five days. They are decent honourable people, most of whom I know well and have a great deal of respect for. But the point that needs to be made is that in 1993 when the Native Title Act was passed by this House and the Senate I did not have one single person knocking on my door to talk about pastoral leases. Not one single person came to me and said, `We are demonstrating out the front of your office because you have extinguished native title on pastoral leases.' Not one single person!

Just to put this into perspective, I will quote two people who made it quite clear that the effect of the Native Title Act was to extinguish native title on pastoral leases. The former Prime Minister Paul Keating said on AM on 19 October 1993:

. . . I negotiated an agreement between the Aboriginal community and the National Farmers' Federation on the question of pastoral leases and, I think, with a very good outcome.

What it will mean is that native title will be extinguished on pastoral leases—that is, not to the extent of any inconsistency but extinguished.

Probably the most telling, though, is a comment by Mr Noel Pearson on 10 November 1993:

. . . I rule out the possibility in Queensland of people pursuing any rights in relation to pastoral leases owned by non-Aboriginal people. I rule that out categorically . . .

I plead with everyone in this House to read a letter from the Hon. Bill Hayden AC written to the Hon. Rob Borbidge on 21 March 1997. I am sure this man is a man of honour. He is a decent, credible man. His role as the chief negotiator with the right to negotiate team in respect of the Century Zinc mineral project and the comments he made are absolutely pertinent to this. I am terribly sorry that my time is just about to run out. He said—and this is just a start:

What became abundantly clear to me quite early is how complex, even confusing, the drafting of the relevant legislation is.

(Time expired)