Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. We do know that he is a member who, along with his colleagues, is working against the people of regional Australia. I hope he goes down the street in his own electorate, goes to Kurri Kurri or Cessnock, and says to the people down there: 'I'm here to put you out of a job. I'm going to Canberra every day to shut the coal industry down and to put you out of a job.' This member has the hide to come in here to feign concern for the people of regional and rural Australia. He's quite happy to sell them down the river so that they can win the Batman by-election. No wonder he has that tag that I won't refer to again—but the reality is that it is true.

By contrast, we are a government that supports regional Australia. We are a government that supports farmers. The white paper has had great success in improving farm gate prices and in supporting farmers. If you look at the achievements of the Labor Party in relation to the farming sector, it is a very short list indeed—in fact, I think it barely exists. Look at the work that we're doing on the Pacific Highway: $5.64 billion invested by the coalition government to restore the 80-20 funding split so that the duplication of the Pacific Highway can be completed some seven years faster than if the Labor government had remained in power. We are seeing duplications rolled out from Sydney almost to Grafton. There are two small sections to be completed and then we will have in the order of 600 kilometres of dual carriageway from Sydney almost to Grafton, a massive achievement. We've recently seen the opening of the Kempsey to Kundabung section of the highway, the new Hastings River Bridge, the Port Macquarie section of the highway, the Macksville bypass and the opening of the Phillip Hughes Bridge—a massive achievement and a massive investment in regional Australia. I'm certainly working hard as the local member in the seat of Cowper to move towards the commencement of the Coffs Harbour bypass.

We've introduced the jobs and investment package, a $220 million package, with $25 million being invested on the North Coast of New South Wales. Two million dollars is going to a great air-conditioning company, Faircloth & Reynolds, to build a facility to manufacture air-conditioning duct work, to construct a testing facility and for software upgrades. OzGroup received a million dollars under the regional jobs package to help them become more export-ready and to allow them to invest in research and development and advanced technology and robotics. We saw $338,000 for Stonelake to establish an advanced manufacturing facility to commercialise their patented facade system. This great local company has patents in 50 countries around the world. Those three projects will produce 60 jobs during the construction phase and 140 ongoing jobs. In Port Macquarie, Biodiversity Solutions received a grant of some $300,000 to assist that company establish a facility for the trading of biodiversity credits. There will be six jobs during the construction phase and 12 ongoing jobs.

We are a government that supports our farmers through free trade agreements. We've negotiated high-quality free trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea. Only on Monday this week we saw the signing of the Peruvian agreement, or the PAFTA, which reduces beef tariffs down to zero over five years and provides access for our local universities into the Peruvian market. Education is our third-largest export industry. On mobile phone black spots, our Mobile Black Spot Program is delivering for regional Australia. Labor did not spend one cent on mobile phones in six years in office—not one cent!

We are a government that supports regional and rural Australia. We are providing the infrastructure that is so needed, like the Pacific Highway upgrade and the Inland Rail. We are providing programs like the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages to support greater job opportunities in regional areas. We're assisting our farm sector through drought support, through free trade agreements and through negotiating access to markets for our products. We support regional Australia, and the member for Hunter didn't even stay for the debate.

An opposition member: Neither did yours.

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