Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Hope, reward and opportunity—certainly, because it was not there before. It was just an arid wasteland. But you can drive through Griffith, Leeton, Narrandera, Hillston and all those wonderful areas in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area or the Coleambally Irrigation Area and, whilst they were not helped by Labor, they certainly will be helped by us. We have stepped into that space by capping water buyback. The Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, is putting forward a white paper. Whereas under the previous government there was a man-made drought, we are getting on with the job of helping farmers, world's best-practice farmers; we are getting on with the job of helping agriculture; and we are getting on with helping those communities which rely so heavily on the agriculture industry. We all like to eat, and we need to do our very best to help regional Australia in this regard.

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