Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for New England for his question, and I contrast it with the interjections just received from the member for Murray. I would have thought that the member for Murray, representing a rural area, would have stood up for her constituents, would have stood up for farmers in her area and would have voted for these payments we are making to farmers in these distressed circumstances. Within her electorate, I am sure, the member for Murray would pretend every day of the week that she is out there, concerned about the interests of farmers. But when the rubber hits the road in this parliament, when she was asked to vote on the simple question of: ‘Are you going to provide support for more than 20,000 farmers to receive this farmers hardship bonus’, what did the member for Murray do? She voted against it. That is where the rubber hits the road. The member for New England voted for these measures. I have referred to the ways around the circumstances which he described. Each member of the National Party and each member of the Liberal Party representing a rural area has voted against it—and they should hang their heads in collective shame.

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