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

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance. I am going to be followed by the member for Bradfield, who was in my electorate last week talking about the $100 million black spot telecommunications program that the coalition is putting in place. It is going to fix mobile black spot problems throughout rural and regional Australia. He will be followed by the member for Hume, a good rural politician, who will be followed by the member for Durack, who represents the interests of people in Western Australia. They are all good members.

We heard the Minister for Agriculture, the member for New England, talk up regional Australia. All we ever heard in the last six years was that side of politics, who were actually on this side then, talking down rural and regional Australia. The only time the Prime Minister ever really cared about rural and regional Australia was when there was an election looming. She got brand-new RM Williams and went to some peri urban centre and made a miniscule announcement that really did not affect rural and regional Australia. It was just about the only time she really ever cared about rural and regional Australia.

Let us compare our record to Labor's record. When we had the Asian bee incursion Labor did absolutely nothing. It took David Mumford from my electorate to go to Queensland to help eradicate the Asian bee incursion. We had the live cattle fiasco. There was a program on Four Cornersand what did the then Prime Minister do? She cut the live cattle trade off forthwith. It is an absolute shame. Then we had the Murray-Darling Basin fiasco. It took 8,000 people the first time at Griffith to protest and then 14,000 people to protest, to use people power, to get the Labor government to do something and to care about the people who grow food and fibre rather than just let all the water go out of the mouth of the Murray. It was an absolute travesty by that side of politics. The people who grow the food and fibre were treated like second-class citizens. It took people power and Tony Abbott to say he was going to cap the buyback at 1,500 gigalitres, which means that there is only 249 gigalitres to be recovered, to bring about some fairness and equity in the Murray-Darling Basin fiasco.

People in rural and regional Australia understand that you cannot spend more money than you earn. I represent 4,615 farms in the Riverina, all of which are affected by your carbon tax. The very week that the carbon tax was introduced Cement Australia closed its doors at Kandos. It was in the member for Parkes's electorate then, but it is in the member for Hunter's electorate now. One hundred jobs. Over 100 years that cement factory was producing cement on behalf of Australia. Did we hear the member for Hunter complaining about those jobs? No, we did not, just like we did not hear Labor members give two hoots about the farmers who have cattle, about the people who grow food and fibre in the Murray-Darling Basin, who I represent in the Riverina, and about the beekeepers in Australia. They could not care less.

They might get all chirpy now. We heard the member for Perth a minute ago. I am not quite sure how many farmers she represents. We on this side represent farmers. They are the lifeblood of this nation and they deserve better than what they cop from you lot. Farmers right around Australia were deserted by Labor. It was an absolute disgrace what you people did to rural and regional Australia, particularly to farmers. They have not forgotten and they will not forget next time there is an election. They will vote for a National-Liberal coalition that provides hope, that provides surety, that provides confidence and that gets on with the job of paying back the debt. It is $1 billion a month in interest alone to fix up the mess that we inherited from your mob. That would build a hell of a lot of hospitals and a hell of a lot of schools in rural and regional Australia, but what do you care? You could not care less.

We had six years of mess, six years of economic disaster. We are getting on with the job of fixing it on behalf of rural and regional Australia, the people who trust us with the job of fixing your mess. We will do it. We will do it methodically. We will do it with calmness. We will do it on behalf of future generations.

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