The #COALition has announced it would establish two future funds – one to pay down national debt, and the other to invest in regional infrastructure.
The regional Australia future fund (RAFF) would amount to $20bn and spend around $1bn per year on infrastructure to improve access to childcare and healthcare access and increase regional connectivity.
The Nationals leader, David #Littleproud, told ABC AM a little earlier that some of the money for the fund would come from Australia’s exports:
“What we’re saying is that regional Australia is contributing about $350bn worth of exports every year … over the coming four years, we’re going to take a little bit of that to set this fund up that’ll get … a return every year to invest a billion dollars above and beyond the normal … infrastructure spend.”
Things got a bit stickier after #SabraLane asked whether this fund would mirror the previous building better regions program (established by the Liberals and then cancelled by Labor in 2022). Littleproud says it would be similar.
Lane says an auditor general found back in 2022 that “funding decisions weren’t appropriately informed by departmental advice that the basis for funding decisions weren’t appropriately documented and in some cases deficient. It sounds like a #porkbarreling exercise”.
Littleproud immediately gets on the defensive, saying:
“I think this is so sad that we’re going to go in and try and tear down regional Australia’s future.”
There’s a bit of back and forth on this point, and Littleproud says there “are probity measures” that will ensure the funding is appropriately dispensed. #auspol
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/apr/10/australia-election-2025-live-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-economy-tariffs-cost-of-living-labor-coalition-ntwnfb?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-67f6f0eb8f08be867e215e39#block-67f6f0eb8f08be867e215e39
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