Peter McGauran (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Hunter, a frontbencher, on 10 February, made a thinly veiled attack on the Leader of the Opposition for his failure to support other frontbenchers under attack by ambitious union officials with the aid and support of branch stackers. He said:

In recent years, federal Labor has struggled in rural and regional Australia ...

He noted that the ALP holds:

... just 4 of 45 rural electorates in the House of Representatives.

Their own frontbencher, the shadow Assistant Treasurer, has condemned the Leader of the Opposition and his own party for their systemic failure over decades to properly represent rural Australia and which has left them with four seats out of 45. So, when the Leader of the Opposition thinks that he can turn over a new leaf and, on the basis of some generalised criticisms of the government on issues such as workplace reforms—which country people and their representatives very broadly and enthusiastically support—he is sadly mistaken. The opposition has four out of 45 rural representatives in this House. Quite frankly, as the realistic frontbenchers of the opposition themselves know, that is a dismal performance. It says a lot about the Leader of the Opposition himself. For all of his years in opposition, he has never sought to properly represent people in rural Australia. They are not going to fall for a three-card trick that suddenly the Leader of the Opposition and his party have seen the error of their ways.

I have been looking forward to this matter of public importance. I consider myself very fortunate that I, amongst some serious competition from a number of my colleagues, have the opportunity to address it. This matter of public importance is a test of which party has the credibility to best represent rural Australia and is best credentialed to represent rural Australia. Until now, rural Australia has voted literally for the Liberal and National parties in overwhelming numbers. That is not a vote we take for granted. We know we have to constantly prove ourselves. We have to be relevant and we have to be effective.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I take you back just three weeks. I know that in Australia we have political memories that are extraordinarily fleeting. But only three weeks ago this government brought down a budget that was universally praised and endorsed by rural Australia for its funding of roads and bridges and support for social security reform and assets tests for farmers and landholders. The government was also widely praised for its capital gains tax reform. That is concrete delivery of reform and benefits of a measurable and concrete kind to regional and rural Australia. The Leader of the Opposition, being out of touch with the aspirations and needs of rural Australia—and it is very hard for him, having but four of them to counsel and guide him—is doing them a disservice.

The backdrop for today’s debate is not as the Leader of the Opposition would have us believe of a disunited or divided government, but rather it is one of a chaotic opposition. We have seen over the course of this week a deliberate and calculated strategy to bring the House into disrepute by way of uncontrolled, disorderly behaviour—so much so that the Manager of Opposition Business and the Deputy Manager of Opposition Business, the two supposedly most responsible servants of the parliament, are absent. They were both evicted for disorderly and rowdy behaviour—that is quite unprecedented—together with a number of their colleagues. That is what desperate oppositions will do. They will seek to pull down the institution of the parliament because they have nothing else to say. Look at their questions. I ask any fair-minded and balanced observer to go through the Hansard of the questions of this week and see the opportunism and shallowness of the opposition.

But the Leader of the Opposition would have us believe that today is a new day, because he has announced a new initiative for rural Australia. He is going to establish a new dialogue directly with regional Australia. He has been Leader of the Opposition for several years. The Labor Party have been in opposition for 10 years, but as of 1 June 2006 they are going to develop a dialogue with rural Australia. Better late than never, but do it on a meaningful and respectful basis. Do not treat them like fools. They can see through the political hyperbole and the political manoeuvring. You will have no credibility with rural Australia—not that it behoves me to give tactical or political advice to the opposition on regional politics—but it is self-evident that you must take rural Australia seriously.

Simply having a new task force is not nearly enough, particularly when it is headed by the member for Hotham, who is the shadow minister for regional development—and I will come to that in a just a moment. That may be a surprise to people; it certainly was to me. I did not know that the Labor Party had a shadow minister for regional development; when you go to his website and the ALP’s website, you will understand why.

The co-chairman of this task force or talkfest is the member for Corio, the shadow minister for agriculture. The shadow minister for agriculture no longer has a seat at the next election. He has been stripped of his preselection and, as a result, will not be returning to this parliament after the next election. For several months, he has been heavily distracted. He has been railing against the branch stackers and has these matters on appeal within his ranks. All of us on this side of the House feel more than a passing sympathy for him. I do not believe that the member for Corio is an effective shadow minister, but I am biased and happy to admit it. But I will say one thing about the member for Corio that I cannot say about any other member of the Australian Labor Party in this place—and that is, he has a rural background. On the few occasions that he ventures into rural Australia, he gets dust on his boots; nonetheless, instinctively and intuitively, he understands agricultural needs, farmers and rural and regional communities. I will give him that. However, I will not make the same concession about the member for Hotham.

Today the Leader of the Opposition was on Country Hour, which is the principal voice that deals with country people on a daily basis. He was interviewed by James Martin, a serious journalist, who does not give anyone a free ride, me least of all—and fair enough. James Martin put this question to the Leader of the Opposition:

So then you’re talking about a new dialogue with the bush. Your regional development spokesman, Simon Crean, just survived a preselection battle—

which was notable for the Leader of the Opposition’s total abdication of responsibility and total absence of support—

Gavan O’Connor has been disendorsed by the Labor Party. He’s your agriculture spokesman. Does this show the sort of level of commitment that you’ve got towards regional Australia, that you have these two people heading this campaign?

The answer to that is self-evident—they have little regard. This is purely a stunt and a publicity gimmick. Shall I say that the Leader of the Opposition’s answer was prolonged and hardly focused? The key line is when he answered immediately by saying:

The Labor Party was founded in the bush.

Great. Your credentials to represent regional and rural Australians in 2006 come from the fact that 90 years ago the Labor Party had rural origins.

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