John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a very big thing when regional areas see that government is willing to back them when necessary. I am happy to say that CareWest in Orange received $750,000 on top of their own money to set themselves up as a group in the region—it is not just about Orange; it about the whole region—to look after people with disabilities.

My part of the world—and I am very proud of it—is the oldest part of regional Australia since Europeans came to the country, and Bathurst is older than any capital city in Australia apart from Hobart and Sydney; probably the only other city which is older is Parramatta. But I digress; what this area can do and will do is get into productivity. It is something that will pull Australia through the debt situation that it is in. I always say: in regional Australia—they are not paper shufflers, and they are not money transfer centres—they actually do things; they dig them up, they make things and they grow things. We are the producers. Cities may sell and buy it, but we make it, we produce it and the world stands still without us.

I would like to mention some of those things which I believe our government has to look at over the next year or so as to what more Calare needs. Industry is not just about the production of physical things. Industry is also very much about tourism and sport, especially when it is international. I have to say that one example is the Bathurst races at the car track on Mount Panorama. There is a plan—and it is going to be quite an expensive plan—to have a second track in Bathurst. As I have already run by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Infrastructure, this will do a lot for the region.

The Bathurst car races are not just the biggest car races in Australia; they are well known throughout the world, and people do come from around the world. The Bathurst 12 Hour, which is probably not as big domestically as the October races, has entrants from all around the world. But the racetrack is limited by an act of parliament, because it is part of the normal road work in the metropolis of Bathurst, so it is only allowed to shut down and run races five times a year. So a second track would actually allow two things: one, to hold events all the time; and two, once again, to have bike races. Apart from Phillip Island, there is no really big bike centre these days. Given how big Bathurst is as a race centre, it would certainly be enormous. So that is something that I think we have to look at.

The other thing is not talked about as being done in Bathurst, but it is very much about the university based in Bathurst. In the Riverina and Wagga, I believe, is the other part. This other thing, which we really want to get going, involves Wagga, it involves Orange and it involves the Victorian university, and it is a new medical school. It will not need a big amount of capital—nothing like the amount that is being put into the new medical school in Perth. What that new medical facility in Perth shows us is that, if it comes to training doctors, the money is there. I am pleased that the announcement was made about the new medical training facility for training doctors in Perth, because it shows that, when necessary, the money is there. What the member for Riverina and I will tell you is that the plan that our university has for training doctors means that those doctors will want to work in the bush, because students will be chosen by interview in the same way as at the veterinary school which CSU has at Wagga. That veterinary school has an enormous success rate—I believe that over 80 per cent of all vets trained there—because it is done the same way. It is done by interview, and the university assures itself that that student wants to work in the bush or outside of the metropolitan area. This plan will work.

I was a big fan of the clinical medical schools, and I have a few of them in my electorate. They are in Orange, they are in Bathurst and they are in Lithgow. They have done good work, but they have not substantially lifted the number of doctors that are working in the bush. In fact, the figure is not all that much different to what it was quite some years ago. I am really pleased, and I congratulate Perth for getting a new medical school. I am so pleased, and I am sure the member for Riverina is too, because it shows that, if the need is there, we will find the money to open a medical school, especially one that will go across three different areas, involve two states and two universities, and have a total of 120 students with 40 students in each location. The money involved is small by comparison. If they go into the hospitals on current numbers, so be it. Between Wagga, Bathurst and Orange, we can find the places, presuming that we can have them. I think has to be a priority over the next year for the next budget.

I was a big fan of the previous Deputy Premier of New South Wales when he picked up on the need for water storage in central western New South Wales. The site for the dam is at Cranky Rock, and it is just below Needles Gap, where the original site that we all wanted was. We wanted that site because it was narrow and it was deep. It was a very good site, it was higher and it would have had less evaporation. However, because of the need for the dam, I will go with Cranky Rock. Let us just make sure that we do it. The reason that I mention that here today is that I think, at the end of the day, the state have worked out how they can do a lot of the building but we will have to come in at the end. This is enormous for the whole region. More water storage means more confidence in urban development and more real estate confidence, but beyond that—which adds to it all—there are untold numbers of mine sites, some of which, I believe, have not started at this time simply because of the cost of getting water to them. This is quite a serious dam: three-quarters or perhaps 70 per cent of the size of our current Lachlan dam. It is a big thing to do. It is a necessary thing to do. I think the past Deputy Premier was a hero for getting it to where it is, and I am sure that Troy Grant, the current Deputy Premier, will make sure that we go ahead with it.

Further west, around Forbes, there are two projects that, over the next year, we have to look very seriously at funding. They have a very good stock exchange. Half of western New South Wales heads to Forbes, Dubbo or, perhaps, Wagga lower down. The Forbes one is a very big, fat lamb one; it is also a big cattle one. They want to expand that. I have to say that some 12 years or so ago—it might have been even longer—we were successful in getting regional partnerships money to help them build it in the first place.

The other thing is once again to do with sport, but it would be a huge thing for people travelling around Australia. There are not many serious drag strips in Australia. For anyone who has been to a serious drag race, let me tell you: when the big guys get out there, they blow you away. Alicia and I went to Western Sydney to the racetrack—the name of it escapes me for the moment. When the big guys get out and you are standing 150 feet away, it is like a flamethrower in front of you and a 747 on top of you—the noise! It makes your eyes water. Let me tell you, the earth does move when they take off!

Those are the sorts of things which would absolutely increase the ability of our region to get up and have a go, quite apart from the things we do so well: our mining, our forestry, our agriculture, our pet-food processing and all the other food things that we do. These are the things that our government needs to look at very seriously to add to the great work that has been done in this budget for rural and regional business and agriculture.

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