Transcript - Interview with Sky News, Newsday with Kieran Gilbert

KIERAN GILBERT: Let’s go live to Port Augusta now and the Minister for Regional Development, Kristy McBain, joins me. Minister, thanks for your time. You’ve announced $45 million for some regional roads, bridges upgrades. How were these roads or hotspots chosen for the funding?

KRISTY MCBAIN: Good to be with you, Kieran. It’s great to be in Port Augusta today.

I’ve just met with the Flinders Alliance of Councils here and spoken with the District Council of Mount Remarkable. $3.2 million going to two key bridges in that council area to make sure that we can continue to get produce from the farms into our cities and to consumers across the country. This is a grant program that doesn’t have a close date. It’s a rolling grant program and councils put in their applications when they’re due and ready. We go through them every quarter. This is a great announcement – $45 million going across the country, from Gladstone in Queensland to Port Hedland in WA. Projects from right across the country.

GILBERT: It’s a good initiative to see safety upgrades. One of the things that’s been raised with me in recent times by the Australian Automobile Association is that the states aren’t transparent. They don’t release the data on what roads are safe, what aren’t– or what roads aren’t safe. That would help, wouldn’t it, as part of a funding program like this, to have a bit more transparency about it all?

MCBAIN: This program, in particular, is about the Bridges Renewal and Heavy Vehicle and Freight Productivity - making sure that we can get our produce to the markets from the farms.

Many rural councils across the country have older style one-lane bridges, in many cases old timber bridges. We know that vehicles are getting heavier, especially our trucks. It’s really important that we’re helping provide those upgrades that will allow produce to get from farms to markets. When we’re talking about data and safety numbers, absolutely, the states and territories can look at how they share that data and make it more accessible across the country. 

That’s why we’ve increased Black Spot road safety funding from $110 million to $150 million a year. We’re really focused on making sure we’ve got safe local roads, which includes doubling Roads to Recovery, so that every local council across the country, all 546 of them, will get an uplift in that Roads to Recovery funding.

GILBERT: So, this initiative you’re announcing today, we can expect many more of them over coming months, over the next 12 months in the lead up to the next election?

MCBAIN: Absolutely, our increases to Roads to Recovery funding commence from this budget. From 1 July this year, we will make sure that every local council across the country has an uplift in Roads to Recovery funding. We know councils have been stretched, especially with natural disasters and heavy rain really impacting road surfaces across the country. This is in recognition that every community wants safer local roads to drive on.

GILBERT: The Prime Minister spoke about the energy bill support for families and small businesses at an event in Sydney today and said it will be a focus again to help families and small business around the nation in the next budget coming up in a bit over a month from now. It’s pretty important the government delivers on this front, particularly when it comes to energy bills, given the expectations are high right now.

MCBAIN: It’s something that we’ve been doing now for a long time and as you know, we recalled Parliament in December 2022 to put a cap on coal and gas prices, because we knew that families and small businesses were struggling with the increase in the cost of electricity, a cost increase that was hidden by the former government prior to the last election. There’s already been a number of rebates for people on fixed incomes and small businesses flowing through into those bills. It’s clear that people are asking us to do more and we’ve got a budget coming up in May, as you said, and it’s clearly still a focus of this government to work on how we can help people with their cost of living relief. 

That’s on top of the $100 million announcement that we made with Minister Bowen last year to help local councils deal with the increase in their electricity costs, too. We want community assets not to be shut down, but to be more energy efficient. It’s really important that we continue to help small businesses. In my electorate alone, with the small business energy grants that went out last year – we had a swim school, Pete’s Swim School in Queanbeyan. A big shout out to you guys, who upgraded a water heat pump. They’ve now got over 500 kids enrolled in that swim school and the costs of their electricity have gone down because they’ve been able to upgrade that heat pump. More work to do there with energy-efficient grants coming out again.

GILBERT: Minister for Regional Development Kristy McBain live from Port Augusta today. Appreciate it.

MCBAIN: Just before I go, Kieran, I do want to express the condolences of my community to Zomi Frankcom’s family. Zomi actually volunteered in Bermagui after the Black Summer bushfires at a World Kitchen destination, which became Eastwood’s Kitchen in Bermagui. I want to say on behalf of our community, our condolences to her and her family. She was so fantastic in the work that she did in our community following a natural disaster. It was clear that being able to support communities in need was in her blood, and I really do want to express the condolences of all of Eden-Monaro to Zomi’s family.

GILBERT: Yeah, well said. Appreciate your time and thanks for making that point as well. Appreciate it.

MCBAIN: Thank you.