Even before taking his seat in the House of Representatives, new Maranoa MP David Littleproud last week managed to entice Local Government Minister and Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash on a whirlwind two-day tour of his electorate, meeting with 15 local and regional councils in five towns.
Winton, Longreach, Charleville, Kingaroy and Dalby were all visited, with tourism, value-adding to agriculture, the Great Artesian Basin and telecommunications front and centre as mayors jostled to bring a multitude of ideas out in front of one rural Australia’s influential politicians.
Ms Nash said she had been very impressed with the passion shown by community leaders in trying to drive a strong future for their area, in traditional and innovative ways.
"I was impressed by the positive, can-do attitude of all the local councils,” she said.
“There’s no one answer to rebuilding, but (Agriculture Minister) Barnaby Joyce has already recognised the need for cluster fencing, and the partnership with local government is very strong.”
She raised changes made to the National Stronger Regions Fund, excluding capital cities from what she said had been set up as a regional disadvantage fund.
“It’s entirely appropriate that we invest in rural Australia if we’re looking at economic cases.
“We’ve expanded it from an infrastructure program to a community investment scheme, and given it more flexibility.”
Ms Nash said the priorities in Maranoa must be driven by local communities.
“It’s my job to be an extension of local councils at the federal level to help empower our regions and deliver better outcomes - whether that relates to dog fencing and improving stock numbers, improving our road networks, rolling out the nbn and mobile phone towers, or building new water infrastructure to drought-proof our areas.
"It was fantastic to get out there on the ground and hear the issues which are affecting shires and councils in Maranoa firsthand.
"Local knowledge knows best and the best appreciation of a region's issues come from actually visiting a region and seeing it for yourself.”