Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

In the spirit of that somewhat impromptu agreement, I will be as brief as I possibly can. It's very important that I indicate the opposition's intentions on these amendments and on this bill. We will be supporting the member for Indi's amendments, but we will, in any case, oppose this bill. We do that because this bill is fundamentally flawed. Obviously the government has done a deal with the crossbenchers and this bill will go through the parliament, notwithstanding the fact that the opposition will oppose the bill.

We support the amendments because the amendments will improve a bad bill. They introduce some accountability into the bill and put some constraints on a National Party that is out of control. They can't fix the bill because the fundamental flaw in the bill is that it's robbing money from regional road projects to fund a drought fund. We welcome the fact that, after five years, they are prepared on the other side to embrace a long-term, sensible way of addressing drought. But if that project is worthy, it should be funded in the budget, as the opposition is committed to doing. We have an alternative plan to spend the same amount of money, but in a responsible way that is quicker and more efficient.

Ms McGowan interjecting—

I do take the interjection from the member for Indi. I have had a great working relationship with her. I have no doubt that she comes into this place with all of the right intentions and she comes with great energy, but sadly on this occasion she has been conned by this government. What she doesn't understand is that they will now go to this election campaign and they will have that first tranche of $100 million spent in the first week. They will pick the marginal seats and they will say, 'If we do this project, this is drought resilience.' They will make the promises. I'm sorry, Member for Indi. They will make the commitments before the end of the election campaign. There will be no panel of experts making the decisions. If they win government, it will just be a tick. You have made a bad mistake. I'm sorry, Member for Indi.

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