Senator BOSWELL (Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) (10:06 AM) —The Senate today is debating a motion to refer the administration of the Regional Partnerships program and the Sustainable Regions Program to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee. In other words, rural Australia is to feel the pain of Labor's defeat at the last federal election. Labor has no leadership, no policies and no confidence. They do not have support for any of those things from the electorate so they resort to using rural Australia as a whipping boy. This is a move designed to attack the self-determination of rural communities who come up with plans to diversify and broaden their economic base so they can future-proof themselves against bad seasons, poor commodity prices or changes.

I have said this in the Senate before and I will say it again: when John Anderson took leadership of the National Party, his first public statement was that there are two Australias. The economy is moving at a rapid pace in the cities and suburbs of Australia but it is not moving that fast in rural and regional Australia. He wanted to put programs together that could give equality of job and economic opportunities to the electorate. This was the way he proposed to do it.

I am particularly disappointed by Senator Andrew Murray. I just want to make some reference to the Democrats. As long as the Democrats try to outflank the Greens to the left, they are going to get absolutely decimated. I say to the Democrats: if you are supporting this proposed resolution, you have not learnt your lesson from the last election. It is your proposed resolution too. You tried to go out to the left. You tried to outflank the Greens to the left. There is only room for one far left party in Australia. That is not what you guys were designed to do 25 years ago. You were designed to put some sense into the Senate. But all you have done for the last three years is to play second fiddle to the Greens. You got what you deserved—annihilation. That is what has happened. Senator Murray—I refer to you because I think you have more sense than the rest of the people over there combined—surely you could have given some wise counsel and said, `Hey, let's not go there, because all we're trying to be is “me, too” with the Greens.'

Labor wants to stop locals identifying their own solutions. Labor wants to punish local rural leaders who come up with ideas for local communities to survive and prosper. As former Labor senator Peter Walsh pointed out in today's Australian, Labor's idea of helping the bush is for Australia to sign the Kyoto protocol. The National Party is to be persecuted because it does the job it was elected to do—that is, represent the interests of regional and rural Australia. We are to be persecuted for doing what in many cases the Labor Party has come to us to do. After all, 76 per cent of all projects in Labor electorates have been approved, as opposed to 79 per cent for coalition electorates. There is not a significant difference there. The inquiry is going to stymie the ongoing work of these important programs. There are approvals coming through all the time. Just yesterday, I was asked to make an announcement in Rockhampton, which is in the Labor Party electorate of Capricornia. It was a very good program. Obviously Kirsten Livermore, the federal member for that electorate, would have been supporting it. But I wonder if I should put that program on hold now.

Senator Carr —Was she invited?

Senator BOSWELL —I imagine she would be invited. I do not blame some senators for taking some actions, but is Labor saying that I should do that? Is that what Labor is saying—that the government should hold off because there is something amiss about these programs? That would be letting down a lot of people, including the local member, who, I would presume, asked for this program, perhaps in writing to the minister. The National Party is to be persecuted in a witch-hunt because it listened to representatives of rural Australia at the Regional Australia Summit who wanted innovative and flexible programs designed to meet the variety of circumstances facing regional communities. The National Party is to be persecuted because it listened and it delivered.

Why are Labor so bereft of leadership and policy that they are reduced to picking up the modus operandi of an Independent who is upset because he did not get invited to a government tea party? The reason is pretty obvious. If you are part of a government that listens and delivers then you are part of a local victory. If you only carp from the sidelines, chances are you will always be a gatecrasher, never an invited guest. Labor pin their hopes on the ways of an Independent. That is pathetic. The worst of it is that rural Australia will be the loser.

After this committee gets through with its witch-hunt, who will ever stand up in a local rural community again and say, `We need government to help our community'? Who will ever put up his or her hand and apply for funding in case they get put through the mill of a Senate inquiry? Who will ever follow through on a local job creation idea to keep young people in country areas if they have to front up before a Senate committee out for political blood? This motion is a terrible disincentive to rural and regional communities and to political leaders to ever devise innovative and flexible programs to help their constituents. Well done, Labor! What a Christmas present to farming families who have survived through drought, low commodity prices, high dollar values and oil prices, only to be hit with a low blow by a force that cannot face up to their own lack of leadership and their defeat.

This is a very sad indictment of the Senate—a particularly sad indictment. We expect that from the Labor Party and the Greens but we thought wiser counsel would have prevailed in the Democrats. I know Senator Murray must be embarrassed about this. I expect that he was defeated in his party room, because I know that he would have the decency not to put up this sort of proposed resolution. I know that he does have concern for rural and regional Australia, which is more than anyone in the Labor Party has. If you ever want to see the error of your ways, just examine the Senate result in Queensland, where the conservative vote went up by around 58 per cent. That was the conservative vote. It was probably a bit higher.

You have neglected rural Australia. You have paid the price out there and you will wear the consequences in the Senate when you come back in July. You are not scoring any political points. You are driving away the very little remaining support that you have in rural Australia. The National Party has put these programs up and you have attacked it on Dairy RAP and you are now attacking it on the Sustainable Regions Program and the Regional Partnerships program. All you ever do is attack anything that goes on out in rural and regional Australia. No wonder you got such a miserable, depressed vote out there—eight or nine per cent in some electorates. I do not know how you can look yourselves in the face when you put up these sorts of resolutions to score mean political points. You are not scoring them against the government. You have tried that for the last six years and you have failed. You keep doing it and you keep failing. All you are doing now is continuing your vendetta and taking out your vengeance on rural and regional Australia. You should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves and so should the Democrats—I know that Senator Murray would have been defeated in the party room—and the Greens.