Australian premier puts rural communities on agenda

By Boyd Champness

THE Federal Government has launched a bid to win back enraged country voters by promising to stop the removal of Commonwealth services and defence bases from rural Australia.

The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, said on Sunday that he wanted to put “a floor under regional services”, and that the needs of rural communities were more important than the strict application of efficiency arguments.

According to a report in The Age newspaper, he nominated medical services as his top priority, and said people in the country should have the same access to doctors and medical facilities as those in the city.

And while number-crunchers argue defence bases in some rural areas should be moved to cut costs, Mr Howard said he did not want to do this because it would have negative social and economic ramifications on rural communities.

Mr Howards comments have given rural leaders renewed hope that important services such as post offices and job and welfare centres will be saved.

According to the report in The Age, Mr Howard has already taken his new policy to Cabinet ministers and received their backing.

Mr Howard, currently on a week-long tour of country towns throughout New South Wales and South Australia, said he was taken back by the number of complaints he had already received from country people angered by the loss of Government services.

“People havent wanted to talk about the GST (Goods and Services Tax, which will be introduced in July) or anything else, but the loss of services in the bush,” one source told The Age.

“Hes decided to ensure that as far as possible, there is no further withdrawal of services that the Commonwealth has power over, and he has mentioned specifically defence facilities.”

Mr Howards Liberal-National Party coalition – traditionally supported by conservative country voters – suffered a massive swing in the 1998 federal election but managed to hold power.

But the Liberal-National Party coalition in Victoria was unable to withstand an even bigger swing from country voters in the state election last year, resulting in a shock loss when most pundits had predicted a comfortable win for the conservative forces.

On both occasions the Liberal-National Party was accused of ignoring the plight of country voters and becoming city-centric in its policies.