Senator the Hon Bridget McKenzie
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
Leader of the Nationals in the Senate
The Hon Michelle Landry MP
Member for Capricornia
Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing
The new Labor Government is continuing their vendetta against rural and regional Australia with the confirmation it will abolish the Coalition Government’s Building Better Building Regions Fund (BBRF).
The BBRF is a highly popular program which supports projects in rural and regional communities create jobs, drive economic growth and build stronger regional and remote communities into the future.
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure Transport and Regional Development, Senator Bridget McKenzie has said the Labor Party has confirmed rural and regional communities’ concerns in the lead up to the budget by completely scrapping the BBRF.
“The Labor Government continues to prosecute the mistruth that regional funding projects are a waste when these projects actually deliver social and economic benefits to local communities and our nation as a whole.
“It becomes clearer every day to us that creating jobs, driving economic growth and building stronger regional and rural communities into the future is not a priority for the Labor Government,” Senator McKenzie said.
Hundreds of regional communities across Australia have benefited from important facilities taken for granted in the cities such as art galleries, museums, sporting precincts, aquatic centres, health facilities, community halls and upgrades to regional water infrastructure.
Federal Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry said vital projects in Capricornia funded through the Building Better Regions Fund have brought social and economic value to the region.
“Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party have no idea what programs like Building Better Regions mean to Capricornia.
“If Labor’s rhetoric was to be believed, deserving projects like Multicap’s specialised disability housing in Rockhampton, which was partially funded through BBRF, is pork barrelling.
“Labor don’t understand the regions and they don’t know how to govern outside of the capital cities. We have seen it already with commonwealth funding being delayed for the Rockhampton Ring Road just so Anthony Albanese has enough money in the coffers shore up votes in the Victorian State Election.
“Regions like Capricornia are the engine room of the economy and the families and workers who kept the country going throughout the COVID 19 pandemic and Labor is turning their back on them,” Ms Landry said.
