Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This will be my quickest speech in this place because I want to give the Independents an opportunity to make a contribution. This is an MPI allegedly about economic security in rural and regional Australia, so I will very quickly make five points. The best way to give people economic security is to give them a job, and the unemployment rate in the Hunter region is 3.5 per cent—a level I would never have dreamed of 10 years ago. The second is to invest in education and skills, and this government's record in that area is without challenge. The third is to keep interest rates low, to take the pressure off families. Our budgetary strategy is about just that. The fourth is to support families with family budgets when they need that assistance most, and this budget does that writ large. The fifth is to build physical infrastructure so our local economies in the regions can expand, and earlier speakers on this side have indicated that we are investing record amounts of money in physical infrastructure—projects such as, in my electorate, the $1.7 billion Hunter Expressway and the $1.2 billion third rail track to take coal to the port. These are allowing our economies to expand.

We could do so much more if the opposition would just get out of the way on the mining tax issue and allow us to return some of that mining tax to the regions. They have been an embarrassment today. The member for Parkes was a late inclusion into the debate because they suddenly realised that the Leader of the National Party did not have one member of the National Party backing him up. Then the member for Parkes bravely came along. All they can do is scaremonger and talk about carbon. We will get on with expanding the economy, growing jobs and giving people economic security in rural and regional Australia.

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