Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was a very entertaining speech from the member for New England. If you want to talk about water, Member for New England, you might want to ask your government where the money is for the second stage of water security for Townsville. We are currently having to pay $34,000 a day to pump water into our city. Seventy per cent of Queensland is drought declared.

If we want to talk about the LNP, which we believe are letting down rural and regional Australians, let me tell you, it's not a matter of letting us down; it's a matter of totally destroying us. This government is cutting our health funding, cutting our education funding and cutting remote Indigenous housing, which is a major issue for me as Palm Island is in my electorate.

The only thing this LNP government has increased in my community is unemployment figures. Unemployment in Townsville has almost doubled under the LNP government. Townsville has the seventh highest unemployment rate in Australia. We have experienced the highest unemployment figures in our recorded history, thanks to the Abbott and Turnbull government. But we weren't always this way. No, we were not. Under a federal Labor government, Townsville thrived. Townsville's unemployment rate, when Labor left office in 2013, was lower than both the state and national averages. Now Townsville's unemployment rate is higher than the state average and almost double the national average.

However, the picture only gets worse. Since the LNP came to power, Townsville has lost 3,000 manufacturing jobs. We have lost 149 Australian tax office jobs. We have lost 50 Defence staff jobs, 40 aviation jobs, 19 CSIRO jobs and 30 regional Customs jobs. We've lost 442 construction businesses and 153 retail businesses. We are now the insolvency capital of Queensland, and I haven't even finished painting the nightmare picture that consecutive LNP governments have caused in my home town.

Let's not forget how this government hates to fund health and education in regional Australia. If you live in Townsville and you don't have a job let's hope that you or your family do not get sick under this government, because this government is cutting funding to our hospitals and making it harder for families to visit a bulk-billing GP. The Turnbull government is cutting $9 million to the Townsville Hospital and Health Service. These cuts mean the loss of four beds, 12 doctors and 25 nurses—more job losses for Townsville, the home of the only tertiary health service outside the south-east corner.

Then there's the Medicare freeze, which we now know is impacting on regional Australians more than any other citizens. The people in Townsville are paying double to see their GP, according to the national health report released today. And, with the increases in fees, guess what that leads to? The front page of today's TownvilleBulletin reads, 'Minor health concerns flood hospital.' Because, at our hospital, we are treating 55 people a day for minor ailments—ailments that people would normally take to their GP. But now they are flooding to the emergency department, because they cannot afford to go to a GP. Around 26 per cent of patients—that is, 6,475 people—just over the last six months presented to the Townsville hospital with minor ailments like coughs. This is ridiculous, and it is putting absurd pressure on a hospital that this government is already taking an axe to.

Then there are our schools. This out-of-touch Turnbull government is cutting $17 billion from our schools whilst giving the big banks a $17 billion handout. This government puts banks before children. This cut is the equivalent of losing almost one in three teaching positions. The picture is one of job cut after job cut under this government. In Herbert we will lose $14.8 million from our schools.

Let me get to the universities. James Cook University will experience a cut of $36 million and Central Queensland University a cut of $38 million. This attack on JCU, a genuine regional university, has resulted in the axing of the only on-campus arts degree in a university in North Queensland. As well, 14 people are losing their job at James Cook University because of this government.

The picture for regional Australia isn't pretty under the Turnbull government. And the Turnbull government has done absolutely nothing for the NBN in Townsville. That will require a Labor government. Without a Labor government, the picture for Townsville becomes bleaker and bleaker, as the picture is one of job cuts and funding losses under the LNP. There is absolutely no good news for regional Queensland in the seat of Herbert under this government.

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