Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There's often very little that we agree on in this place, particularly during matters of public importance. But I think one thing we need to agree on is that elections are effectively opportunities for the citizenry of Australia to pass their judgement on the relative performance of governments. Now, news flash for those opposite: we had one of those occasions on 18 May this year, and the people of Australia passed their judgement.

Effectively, the member for Hunter and those opposite's thesis on this matter of public importance is consistent with what I heard directly after the election—that is, the people of Australia got it wrong. I had hoped that they had come to their senses at least one or two days after the election. I understand the pain, when you've taken out a mortgage on a new flat in Canberra based on your new purported ministerial salary, that you're struggling with the hangover from the pre-election victory celebrations that were to no end. But, surely, in the middle of July, you shouldn't come into the House of Representatives and suggest that the people of Australia got it wrong. And what you definitely shouldn't do, in the middle of a drought—which is gripping rural, regional and remote Australia—is come in here and say that the farmers of Australia got it wrong. They didn't get it wrong. They know who stands up for them.

You heard the member for Groom indicate that total farm production, in the years since we came to government, has gone up 25 per cent to $59.5 billion. That didn't happen solely because of the actions of this place. That happened because of hundreds of thousands of farmers around the country and the support. But it was supported by the work of this place. In particular, I want to draw the House's attention to the free trade agreements we established in the course of the last two terms. What they're doing is opening up markets. What they're doing is giving farmers in my electorate the opportunity to take agricultural outputs from a certain value to another value. It's providing export parity. It's doing all of those things.

Those opposite want to say, 'Hang on a minute. In the last 12 months, total farm agricultural output has gone down.' News flash: there's a drought on. Do you know what happens during droughts? Maybe those opposite don't. There are very few of them that live in rural and regional Australia. When there's drought it's not as easy to produce what you produce when you have average rainfall or above average rainfall. No wonder the wool clips are down. There have been lots of sheep that have had their heads cut off, because they're in drought. There's no livestock out there.

It's one thing to look at the outcome of the 18 May election. I note that those opposite achieved, I think, close to a historically low primary vote, but I want to reflect on the electoral success or otherwise of the member for Hunter. He is, effectively, the agricultural spokesperson for those opposite. To his credit, he's someone who does represent a rural and regional electorate. Regarding my colleagues on this side, I've really struggled to find anyone who went backwards. Most of them achieved a higher primary vote than they did in 2016, and many of them had strong swings to them. That's the people of their electorate voting for their strong performance.

I wish the member for Hunter was here. A quick review of the AEC website shows close to a 9.5 per cent swing against the member for Hunter—yet he comes in here and has the audacity to say that his opposite number has underperformed. The people of Hunter think differently. It was a 9.5 per cent two-party preferred swing. It was close to a 14 per cent reduction in the primary vote. That speaks volumes. What it says to those opposite is: the people of Australia cast their judgement on you. The people of rural, regional and remote Australia, I hasten to say, were even harsher than the rest of Australia were on average. Accept their verdict, get on with working with us collaboratively, stop playing the politics that we saw last night, stop getting on with those parlour games, because the people of South Australia and regional Australia, and the rest of Australia, will continue to punish you for it if you don't.

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