Regional Development Minister Catherine King urged to stop rural budget cuts

Labor has openly admitted it was looking to slash spending and the more than $21 billion promised to the regions by the former government is a prime target.

Coalition regional development spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie said the October budget would be a marker for whether the Labor government's regional rhetoric matched its commitment.

"I hope as the minister responsible for protecting and growing the regions, Catherine King stands up to [Treasurer] Jim Chalmers when he comes with a big red pen over her budget lines," Senator McKenzie said.

"You can't simply set the vision, we've got to actually set funding commitments to underpin that vision."

Senator McKenzie also slammed the government for increasing Australia's emission reduction targets without increasing the support for the communities that will be affected by the more ambitious goals.

"You can't on one hand increase the level of ambition to lower our emissions and with the other hand run a red pen through the money that was garnered to support communities to do that," she said.

"The Nationals secured $21 billion to assist in the transition to net-zero.

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"The question for the new government is how are they going to support regional and rural communities that are going to be impacted by our pathway to net zero by 2050?"

Senator McKenzie pointed to Europe, where emission reductions are being aggressively pursued, which has set aside billions to offset the impact of climate policies.

Labor has declared budget cuts were necessary in the face of a declining economic outlook and openly admitted regional funding would be a primary target, believing much of the money to be wasteful or pork barrelling.

Senator McKenzie rejected accusations of pork barrelling.

"One person's pork barrel is another person's awesome project they've been waiting two decades to fund," she said.

"I'm yet to meet a local mayor to say 'my project doesn't need federal support, send the money to Sydney'."

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