Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

That is right—and growth underpinned, particularly in regional areas, because regional areas are already hard hit by rising unemployment? The member for Calare chronicled the loss of jobs in his electorate. Some 1,000 jobs in mining have gone in the last few months. I know that in the electorate of Cowper, which I represent, across all the small labour market areas unemployment is rising in the order of about one-half of one per cent to, in some cases, 0.7 per cent and, in the Nambucca Valley, 0.9 per cent. Those latest figures in relation to small labour market areas were only for the September quarter. That predated the December quarter, when we know unemployment accelerated. Quite clearly, in the current quarter, unemployment is only going to continue to rise at a far more rapid rate. The needs of regional and rural Australia are urgent. We do not want to see suboptimal expenditure of government funds, as is the case with this stimulus package. The opposition have opposed this package for precisely that fact. We believe the money could be better spent. We believe this current debt binge is only going to put a burden on the people of Australia into the future, and it is about time that the members opposite woke up to that and brought some sense into the package that they are putting forward.

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