Coalition’s $20 billion bucket for rural roads and services ‘overdue’

Regional leaders are welcoming a key Coalition election pledge to channel money into much needed services through a $20 billion future fund, but questions remain about how and when the fund will deliver dollars to the bush.

The Regional Australia Future Fund (RAFF) is one of two new funds the Coalition outlined plans for this week, using money from windfall receipts — where revenue raised from commodities exceeds what was projected. 

Money for the proposed fund will also come from scrapping Labor initiatives, including an initial $5 billion from the Rewiring Australia program, which the Coalition says won’t be needed under its nuclear plan.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said the regional fund would provide a $1 billion dividend each year to pay for infrastructure and services that local councils cannot afford.

For years, the Nationals have tried to get more money from their coalition partners for big projects like dams, railways and roads in regional areas. 

Through the future fund, they’ll also contribute money to address shortfalls in services, like child care, health, telecommunications and internet services.

Regional health response

The Australian Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) welcomed the funding proposal and said “it’s about time” rural Australia received a fairer share of federal money.

“Two thirds of Australia’s income comes from rural, remote and regional Australia, and 50 per cent of the tourism income — despite the fact that they are only 30 per cent of the population,” its chief executive Susi Tegen told ABC News.

Ms Tegen said she knew of local government and rural communities trying to “raise hundreds of thousands of dollars” to keep educators and health workers employed locally.

“This infrastructure funding is something that we’ve all been asking for,” she said.

The last Coalition government had a similar program called the Building Better Regions Fund, but a 2022 auditor-general’s report found it funnelled money to Nationals electorates against departmental advice.

Ms Tegen brushed away any comparison with the Coalition’s latest proposal.

“There is an underfunding of rural Australia in the first place,” she said.

“This is about equity and it’s about parity.”

The proposed investment in health and child care has also been welcomed by Jacqui Emery, chief executive of Royal Far West, a charity specialising in the health and development of rural children.

“We can see across health and education and just general life outcomes, regional Australia is so far behind city counterparts and it has been a gap that’s been widening and something really needs to be done.

“This future fund is potentially a pathway forward to ensure that, rural people are not forgotten about.”

She said a scarcity of health professionals in regional areas was caused by a combination of factors — including the availability of housing and services like child care — and required a “holistic, long-term approach.”

Money needed for regional road upgrades

Queensland Trucking Association’s Gary Mahon said a substantial investment in roads was needed in his state, and that he was on board with the Coalition’s plan provided it was not simply a reshuffling of finances.

“If it’s an investment fund that earns returns in its own right, that brings substantial increases to investment in our regions, that’s the fund that we would find a very supportable idea,” Mr Mahon said.

“If it’s just another way of moving money around … that is already available and at the disposal of the government, well that’s just an exercise in bureaucracy.”

Mr Mahon said while money had been committed to upgrading the Bruce Highway, many of the connecting roads and highways were in a poor state and needed significant improvement.

“We need much more reliable, sustainable, road networks across the state, to be able to sustain, efficient movement of road freight.”

In southern New South Wales, Murray River Council’s Mayor John Harvie said “any funding coming into regional areas is fantastic”.

But he wanted more detail on how the money would be distributed, and questioned how much would be available to the many regional communities across the country under the Coalition plan.

“While $20 billion seems like a lot of money, when you invest that, if you get 3 per cent for example, that’s only $600 million a year that will be available to do the things that the opposition has identified that they want to do,” he said.

Mr Harvie said in the long term he’d like to see sustainable federal funding for local councils restored.

“You go back to the start of the century, around 2000, and local government received 1 per cent of total taxation revenues from the federal government. And here we are 20 odd years later, and we only receive 0.48 per cent.”

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