Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the Deputy Prime Minister blusters and the Prime Minister is all at sea in the Pacific islands, where this year the focus was on climate change, we can expect little more from a government that has failed to innovate or legislate, even on energy, an area of such importance to our rural and regional areas.

The frustrating part is that innovation exists. We have a wealth of ideas blossoming out of our regional and rural areas, such as hemp seed to fight PFAS contamination, an idea coming from the University of Newcastle in my seat. Our farmers are still the most innovative in the world, yet they are served by a National Party and a government that do not back them.

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