Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

As we speak, the electorate of Parkes is in the grip of a major drought and it is impacting on pretty well all the farmers in the half of New South Wales that I represent. However, it's not all bad news in my electorate. Last year, the electorate of Parkes had the third biggest drop in unemployment rates: the electorate-wide unemployment rate now is under four per cent at about 3.8 per cent. More importantly, the city of Dubbo has an unemployment rate of 2.2 per cent, which is very close to being full employment.

There are great opportunities in western New South Wales at the moment for people to come and get a good, high-paying quality job with the very strong possibility of a magnetite mine going in at Broken Hill—1,500 jobs for construction and 500 permanent jobs; the cobalt mine at Fifield down near Condobolin—another large number of jobs; and the expansion of the Vickery mine by Whitehaven at Gunnedah—another 450 jobs there. The construction of the Inland Rail will bring thousands of jobs into the area from construction but, in a more permanent way, we'll see a real growth in the economy and businesses moving there for jobs. It's a very positive place at the moment, and quite often that message doesn't get out.

The Murray-Darling Medical School will mean that Sydney University will now be offering end-to-end training for students and specialisation for medical students in Dubbo. If you have skills and qualifications in any of the trades, whether it's welding, fabrication or sheet metal work, or you're a diesel fitter, mechanic, aged-care worker, health professional, educationalist or transport operator, there are great opportunities to be had in New South Wales.

We are a great community at welcoming people from overseas—skilled workers. I firmly believe that migrants who come to the bush have better opportunities. They're welcomed and become part of the community much faster. I would encourage people who live in the cities to look over the range: come to a place where you can own your own home; where you're five minutes from work; where your kids can ride a bike to school; and they can play sport on the weekends—a quality of life that you can only dream about. All that could happen, and so the electorate of Parkes is, apart from the drought, in a very good place at the moment.

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