Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is my first grievance debate. When I heard about a grievance debate, I thought: I don't need 10 minutes; I probably need half a day. Anyway, let's give it a run in the park! Mr Deputy Speaker Hogan, I would like to bring to your attention some of the things that we're doing in New England—and the grievance, of course, is how little happened before the coalition government got in. When I first arrived, there was a thing called the Legume-Woodenbong Road. It is a road that goes from my electorate to your electorate. It is vitally important that we keep that road safe. I had a meeting at Woodenbong the other day—Woodenbong is in your electorate—and I didn't tell you because I didn't think I had to. I really enjoyed it. They were really friendly to me. They said it was great to see me—and I put in an apology for you! It is so important that we get the Legume-Woodenbong Road up and running. It is safe for the kids. It moves about 430,000 head of stock along it. It is great for the economy of Casino. It is great for the economy of the tablelands. I went there with Mayor Peter Petty from Tenterfield. He is such a good fella. You can put him in the car and listen to him and it's an absolute joy. He is the only person I know who, when you talk to him, gives you your full name. He says: 'I'll tell you what, young Kevin Hogan'—it is an absolute joy. We are spending about $11.8 million on getting Mount Lindesay Road and the Legume-Woodenbong Road up and running. I would also like to commend Thomas George, the member for Lismore, who has done so much to work with us in that space.

The Tenterfield bypass is another big issue. We've got money on the table for Tenterfield bypass and we are getting that done. We are making sure the New England Highway is a corridor of commerce. And just below the Tenterfield bypass we have the Bolivia Hill realignment. The deck of that bridge is going to be only slightly lower than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This is great. They have a work camp out on Pye Road, and we have completely booked out the town of Tenterfield. We have got people in there. It is important, during the drought, that we get these infrastructure projects happening and get the town moving. There is not much money coming in from the cockies because things are a bit tough. But, by gosh, we have got some money coming in from some of the work we are doing on infrastructure.

I would like to also note Michael Hartmann—a good fella and a good mate. Unfortunately, Michael Hartmann died of a brain tumour. I used to drive around with Michael Hartmann, and I asked him, 'What can we do for Guyra?' And he brought one thing to my attention—the Kolora aged-care facility, which is used for dementia care. He said, 'If you've got a little bit of money in the whippy tin, you should try and help them out'—and we did that. It was great to get that opened the other day; it was really important.

All around the electorate, we have upgraded 24 bridges. This has been part and parcel of making sure we can get those B-doubles—those trucks and all that transport—to markets and also create greater safety. That is really important. For so long, these bridges stayed in a sort of a twilight zone. To see new concrete bridges that can take a B-double means so much to people in the local area—and obviously it means a fair bit to me.

Armidale—who can forget! By gosh, didn't we have a fight for the APVMA! There were so many people arguing against us about the movement of the APVMA and real decentralisation. And now the people of the city of Armidale are saying there is a real buzz in the town. It is actually happening. They are seeing people move in. We are getting new scientists moving in. Of course, as the regulator moves into the town, the chemical companies will want to be there as well because they'll want to be near the regulator. So that is basically a centre of excellence there. And that, I think, could be a template for decentralisation in so many areas—and it is something we have got to do. It is no good for Sydney and Melbourne to complain about housing prices if they don't want to participate in a program of decentralisation. People are not going to leave Sydney unless you give them a reason to. In the regional areas, we'll give people a reason to do that. It is part and parcel of what the National Party stands for and, I imagine, what the Liberal Party stands for. And the Labor Party? We'll hear from them in a little while. We upgraded the Armidale airport—that was very important.

Mr Perrett interjecting—

No, I'm not. You just replied to me, so I can't be. You just heard me. We upgraded the Armidale airport. It was very important to get access to a new industrial area we are building there. In Tamworth, when we first arrived, we expanded Chaffey Dam. We took it from 60,000 megs to around about 103,000 megs. If we hadn't done that, Tamworth would have run out of water during the drought. We had to fight the green movement all the way. They were worried about the Booroolong frog. I thought a dam with more water would be absolutely great for more frogs, but we had to fight that. We got it through, and that's why the city of Tamworth now has water.

We also upgraded the instrument landing system at Tamworth airport. What's the importance of that? It's because we're fighting as hard as we can to get the new training school for Qantas into Tamworth. That's 300 jobs, if we get that in there. We're working very closely with the council. I want to commend Col Murray and also the local state member, Kevin Anderson, for trying to make sure that we get those jobs into Tamworth. We're working on that all the time. We're building the ring-road around Tamworth, and the upgrade of Appleby Lane was vitally important for that. Also the busiest bridge in northern New South Wales is Jewry Street Bridge, and we're upgrading that as well. It's very important. We're still trying to get Dungowan Dam upgraded. This would, basically, plumb up Tamworth for further growth into the future.

There is the Northern Inland Centre of Sporting Excellence, which is vitally important. As you go into Tamworth we'll have a multimillion-dollar sport facility that sits right beside AELEC, which is the big horse facility that's so good for cutting horses for rodeos. Rodeos are big in our area. We love our rodeos. This sporting facility means the kids will be there, the netballers will be there, the athletics tracks will be there and the equestrian area will be there. They'll all be working and showing people that Tamworth is a great city to live in.

In Quirindi—I love water infrastructure—we upgraded the connection between Quipolly Dam and Werris Creek. Not much happened in Werris Creek for a long while. It's strange that, because the previous local member came from Werris Creek. I used to live in Werris Creek. I bought a house for $73,000 and rode that bull market in real estate until I sold it years later for $69,000. I was always very aware of how far that town had been left behind, so to upgrade that water supply into Werris Creek gives it the potential for commercial growth.

We're spending over $130 million on the Scone bypass to make sure that when you're driving from Brisbane down to Sydney along that New England Highway you do it in a quicker form. That's a vitally important piece of infrastructure that's happening right now at Scone. We're also upgrading the Scone saleyards, just as we're upgrading the Inverell saleyards. We put money on the table for Middlebrook Bridge, and we also have put planning in place for the upgrade of the airport. There's also the equine centre there.

All these are part and parcel of what you do, because your primary responsibility here, always, is to look after your local seat, and to try and be a champion of your local seat. I say this because sometimes you have to remind people that you're hard at work for them. In the background we are fighting now to make sure we get cheaper power prices. The pensioners and the people doing it tough want cheaper power prices.

On a more sombre note, to hear from the Salvation Army that people in my electorate are going to bed at half past five in the evenings when it's cold because they can't afford their power bills is a total and utter disgrace. I'll be making sure that I do whatever I have to do to make sure we get them cheaper power bills; otherwise, we are not doing our jobs as local members. You've got to look after the most vulnerable, and, by gosh, they are the most vulnerable. It was great to have discussions with the Prime Minister today about precisely how we do this, and to work with our colleagues to make sure that we do this. We are fighting for lower power prices, and we've got to secure lower power prices if we take the dignity of people, especially those doing it tough, seriously. Stock sales over in the member—what's your seat?

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