Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It was our very own member for Hunter. The member for Hunter was a record-breaker. He was the face of country Australia for those opposite and he actually recorded the highest swing against any sitting member in the current parliament. It went down to 52.98 per cent, a drop of 9.48 per cent. I think that shows that those opposite took policies of lies and deception to the last federal election, which were repudiated by electorates right around Australia, but particularly in country Australia, where on the one side of the ledger the National Party, with all these healthy margin increases and our record spending on hospitals, was endorsed, yet those opposite, including the member for Hunter, suffered what I would have to say are pretty embarrassing swings against them.

Against this we have some wonderful projects happening right across country Australia including, for example, the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network. In the seat of Calare it was $22 million for the school that's going to be operated by CSU and WSU. Folks in this House know all about it. It's going to be training doctors for practice in the bush for generations, building the next workforce for country Australia. We have the $18 million world class medical research facility which is going to be built in Orange, which, again, is going to be operated by CSU and WSU. That facility is going to bring together the best researchers in rural health and rural medicine.

Let's not forget mental health—very important for people in country Australia and particularly so in the face of this devastating drought. The government has boosted mental health funding by $73.6 million, with $46.1 million focused on addressing youth mental health and suicide prevention. In the wonderful city of Lithgow in our seat of Calare we're just about to open a new headspace facility to support better mental health outcomes for young people. That was following an investment of over $1 million by the government, spearheaded by the Minister for Health, who really understands what country Australia is all about. Those opposite have perpetuated lies. They seek to do it again now, and those lies have been repudiated.

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