Tax benefits and local defence procurement appear likely to be front and centre of the Coalition’s push to win northerners’ votes at next year’s federal election.
Improving tax benefits and bolstering local defence procurement appear likely to be front and centre of the Liberal Party’s push to win northerners’ votes at next year’s federal election.
Opposition northern Australia minister Susan McDonald has also hinted she will pursue agricultural investment, increase funding for the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, sealing of roads, and tackling rheumatic heart disease.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Developing Northern Australia conference in Karratha, Ms McDonald said zone tax offsets were overdue for an update.
The offset provides between $57 and $1,173 for residents of remote Australia to account for the higher cost of living.
“The amount hasn't been indexed for so long that the number is a carton of beer in some communities,” Ms McDonald said.
“It is not really relevant to people making decisions and being offset for the higher cost of living in remote places.
“A tax rebate… is not a handout, it is saying you are growing, building, doing something useful in your community, but the costs of living in your place are egregious.
“We are certainly looking at what we could do to offer a more comprehensive solution.”
On sky-high insurance premiums, Ms McDonald said a reinsurance pool introduced under the former government was “heading in the right direction”, in particular for strata insurance, but admitted there was still work to do.
She said WA’s view that it was being punished for Queensland’s lax building standards was “not unreasonable”.
“When you've got private certifiers signing off on houses, we need a way for the council or the state government to be able to come back and audit those private certifiers so that it's been done to code,” Ms McDonald said.
Defence procurement was another central theme, with Ms McDonald saying a local pasta maker should be able to win catering contracts to sell their product to local Defence bases.
The Townsville-based senator was wary of backing in broad grants programs for the north, citing them as “expensive ways to facilitate growth” and arguing investor confidence would unlock private capital interest above the 26th parallel.
Private investment has long been a bugbear in the north-west, particularly in housing where high insurance premiums, onerous bank requirements, and exorbitant build costs hamper investor interest.
Ms McDonald said the impetus was on governments to not add to housing pressure in northern towns by renting from the market, instead calling on agencies to build or buy.
While primarily a state issue, the federal government has taken upon itself to “raise awareness” of housing investment issues in the north in its refreshed northern Australia white paper.
“Feel free to come and give me a clip over the ears if I talk about some of the biggest issues in Australia, and my response is raising awareness,” Ms McDonald said.
“That is the job of conferences and advocates for a region, but it is the government's job to identify who's responsible and come up with a solution.”
The federal government in February flagged broadening the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility’s remit into regional housing projects.
Ms McDonald said NAIF needed more funds to consider projects such as the Outback Way road seal.
“That work is completely stalled in Western Australia, completely stalled,” she said.
“That will revolutionise mining projects, remote communities, tourism, it will be like Route 66 in the US.
“I'm not sure NAIF needs more places to loan money to, but we need more money for them to be lending.”
Ms McDonald said local governments were “massively underfunded”, and that the City of Karratha’s push to have 1 cent from every dollar of GDP created in the region returned to the local government to solve its own problems “doesn’t sound unreasonable”.
The sole Western Australian federal seat in northern Australia has been held by the Libs since its formation in 2010.
Incumbent Melissa Price survived a scare in the 2022 election courtesy of support from the Mid West, narrowly holding the seat against a 9 per cent swing to Labor.
Every town in the north-west except Kununurra, Carnarvon, and Denham backed Labor.
Next year’s ballot is expected to run more favourably for the Liberal Party.
