Nats Promise $1b A Year ‘Forever’

April 10, 2025

Nationals Leader David Littleproud has unveiled a $20 billion Regional Futures Fund which he says will guarantee $1 billion every year “in perpetuity” for projects in rural, regional and remote Australia … if the Coalition wins power at the upcoming election.

Speaking on Thursday, the Member for Maranoa said the program would be a legacy project that would ensure continuity in funding for regional Australia, despite changes in government.

“It will go to critical infrastructure, community infrastructure, for councils and community groups, whether that be increased childcare centres, medical facilities or even training,” Mr Littleproud said on ABC Radio.

Funding programs similar to the former Local Council Road Infrastructure Program and Building Better Regions programs could also be reinstated.

Applications to the fund would be competitive.

Speaking later to reporters in Bathurst, Mr Littleproud described his announcement as an “historic day for regional Australia”.

“We’re not going to have to fight over the scraps, year after year, trying to get that little bit extra to make sure that we have the amenity of life that people in capital cities enjoy and take for granted. We produce around $350 million worth of Australian exports. And what I’m saying today is we just want a little bit of that back,” Mr Littleproud said.

The money for the fund would come from “windfalls” the Federal Government receives from resources and agricultural products in boom years.

These “windfalls” come from underestimating commodity prices when the Federal Budget is formulated.

The new fund would sit under the existing Future Fund structure.

“Over time we just want to create a wealth fund of $20 billion that’ll create that dividend that’ll give a return of a billion dollars that regional Australia knows they can rely on,” Mr Littleproud said.

“We’re seed funding it with $5 billion from the Rewiring the Nation program that’s already making a return. And then the first windfall will be seen on July 1.”

The Rewiring the Nation program, which the Coalition has previously promised to axe, was set up to fund new power transmission lines as part of the rollout of renewable energy.

These new transmission lines would not be needed, the Coalition says, when nuclear energy generators are built on the site of existing coal-fired power stations.

The Coalition also plans to axe Labor’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund – which it says has not built a single house – and the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund which had been set up with the aim of diversifying industry.

Mr Littleproud said the government collected $24 billion last year in “windfalls”.

He said creating the new fund would require legislation, but while this was being passed an extra $1 billion would be committed towards regional programs.

Quizzed on whether $1 billion could be guaranteed every year, Mr Littleproud said sovereign funds had an average return of about 7.68 per cent.

“You do the math, on $20 billion, we are going to make that that billion dollars every year pretty easily,” he said.

Mr Littleproud said local councils, rather than people sitting at desks in Canberra, should devise the projects which were important to their communities.

There would be provisions in place to ensure taxpayers would be getting value for money.

However, he also had some bad news for councils, saying their Financial Assistance Grants would not be lifted to 1 per cent, the level sought by the Australian Local Government Association.

• External link:  David Littleproud on ABC RN 

  Rural