Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Canberra for her interjection. Just so we are perfectly clear: the relevance of my comments is the absolute squandering and irresponsible demolition of the Australian government's budget by the previous, Labor government. It has meant that this government has to make some tough decisions to get the budget back in line. That is the relevance of what I am saying here. I am pointing out the absolute stupidity of some of the programs that the previous government put in place. It was bad for regional Australia and squandered the money that was there.

I also say that next year we will fund $200 million a year that regional communities will be able to tap into for programs that will boost the economies of their area. The member for Grayndler has hide to bring this motion in. It is completely wrong.

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