Mr RONALDSON (5:02 PM) —This will probably be the last time that I speak in a grievance debate, so it is with a note of sadness that I do so today, but I want to speak about a number of issues in the 10 minutes available to me. First, I express some very real concerns on behalf of my constituents in relation to the plans of the Australian Labor Party for the Regional Solutions Program—

Mr Kerr —You're wasting your last 10 minutes.

Mr RONALDSON —That is a very interesting comment from the member because, coming from a regional area, he should know better than to attack the Regional Solutions Program. I am a bit surprised, given Tasmania's problems, particularly under a state Labor government, that he would attack from the table the Regional Solutions Program. The honourable member is as aware as I am that in the 13 years of his government absolutely nothing was done for regional Australia. As soon as we do something, such as put in this innovative Regional Solutions Program, the first thing the Labor Party does is attack it. Why the member for Denison would want to attack the Regional Solutions Program really is a matter of great surprise to me. Whether it is with a measure of guilt for not having done it when he was in government, I am not too sure, but what is even more surprising is that the Labor candidate for the seat of Ballarat is also attacking the Regional Solutions Program.

It is one thing being preselected in Melbourne and moving out to a country seat, but it is another thing altogether actually having some understanding of what the requirements of regional and rural Victoria are. The simple fact is that there has been a notion running around the country for a while that rural and regional communities have some expectation that everything will be done for them. That is not right. Indeed, what regional and rural communities want is the ability to maximise their own advantages. Part of that is to be able to take back some ownership of their own future—for instance, their own future economic and social wellbeing, et cetera. There are many great things about the Regional Solutions Program, but the one thing that is absolutely pivotal is that decision making is going from Canberra out to the regions. This is the first program in this country's history that takes the decision making ownership back to regional and rural communities.

Many listeners of this broadcast around Australia today will be acutely aware that every single area and district—indeed, towns and cities within those districts—has different needs. In my electorate, the needs of Daylesford are different from the needs of Halls Gap. The needs of Marnoo are different from the needs of Ballan. The needs of Avoca are different from the needs of Haddon. Every town has different needs. The beauty of the Regional Solutions Program is that solutions are determined by the communities themselves, as opposed to a narrowly defined set of bureaucratic principles which in the past have made it extraordinarily difficult for regional and rural communities to maximise their own advantages that I referred to before.

This is a fantastic program. I am yet to hear from the Labor Party that it will continue it. The community of Haddon, I can assure you, Mr Deputy Speaker Andrews, 10 days ago were very happy when, with the Liberal Party candidate, I announced $220,000 for the Haddon community centre. The Haddon community, with the assistance of the Golden Plains Shire Council and the Haddon Lions, are driving their own development and taking ownership of their own solutions. I congratulate the Golden Plains Shire Council, Councillor Gerald Dupe and his fellow councillors on meeting the $220,000 funding.

I can see that the member for Denison is anxious to get to his feet, but I still have five minutes left and he will have his opportunity in due course. I want very briefly to talk about that Haddon program because it will enable a number of community activities to come under the one roof. There will be provision for maternal and family child care and there will be some visiting doctors' rooms. All those sorts of things enable a community to be self-sufficient.

I want now to turn briefly to the Deer Park Bypass. Many of our listeners may or may not be aware that funding for the national highways system comes from the federal government, but the state governments are, in effect, our agents. They carry out the maintenance. The member for Mallee has just walked into the House. He will be acutely aware of this and he is a great supporter of our national highways system. Like me, he is a great supporter of the federal government's Roads to Recovery program, which is another huge initiative at great risk under an ALP government.

There has been a lot of talk about the Deer Park Bypass because we are getting squeezed. The Western Highway, and the Western Highway users, are being squeezed by the encroachment of residential development in that important area, that great strip between Adelaide and Melbourne which is the lifeblood of Western Victoria. It is being squeezed by residential development and lack of planning. That will need to be addressed by the Deer Park Bypass.

The priorities for the spending of national highways funding are determined by the state governments. I thought we were getting there. We had a long delay from the state minister, Peter Batchelor, about the route. That took over 12 months to decide. It should have been a fairly simple process, but it was dragged out. We thought we might be getting the Deer Park Bypass up towards the top of the state government's priority list but, when the transport minister was away, the state member for Bendigo West, who became the assistant transport minister, was trying to push the Calder Highway back up the list. The Howard government has already invested $100 million into Calder. We think it has had a fair slice of the action. We are always happy for more funding to be put into Calder, but that should not happen to the detriment of the Deer Park Bypass.

I know that the Calder Highway is an important area to a number of my colleagues, and to the member for Mallee as well—and I know he has been a great supporter of the funding that has gone into it. Some $100 million has been put into that, and it is appalling that an assistant transport minister has utilised his position to protect himself in his own electorate when he knows as well as I do that the Deer Park Bypass should be right at the top of the list.

There was a terrific announcement last week about the Australian prisoner of war memorial. How entirely appropriate that this magnificent Minister for Veterans' Affairs, the Hon. Bruce Scott, happens to be in the House. He has been a terrific minister and a great friend of veterans in this country—a very good friend. After considerable contact by me and after a direct approach from the Liberal candidate for Ballarat, Russell Mark, in relation to funding, I am very pleased that a further $150,000 was allocated to this project last week. That brings to $200,000—

Mr Bruce Scott —Very deserving.

Mr RONALDSON —It is a fantastic project. It brings to $200,000 the direct Commonwealth funding on top of that tax deductibility via an act of parliament passed through this House earlier last year. That is a significant contribution. On behalf of the people of Ballarat, and on behalf of former POWs throughout Australia, I would like to thank the minister most sincerely.

Very quickly in the time that is left, we have Knowledge Nation—or noodle nation as it is now affectionately called—and Networking the Nation. The only similarity between those two is that they rhyme. Networking the Nation has put $7 million into my electorate in direct funding. That is averaged across other electorates, so it is not double dipping. It constitutes 30-odd projects into my electorate. They are about making sure that regional and rural Australians are able to access a modern and quick information technology system which their metropolitan counterparts—(Time expired)