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

How predictable—the member for Melbourne doesn't like Tony Abbott, and the member for Shortland doesn't support coal workers. Well, there you go.

What I'm here to talk about is something that's going to be crucial to rebuilding our nation—the infrastructure that will be required to start paying back the debt that inevitably is there by reason of expenditure surrounding the COVID virus. To the Labor members, I might just suggest that you suggested that we borrow even more. We're going to need rail, road and water infrastructure. One of the crucial pieces of infrastructure in the seat of New England is the Kempsey to Wollomombi road, otherwise known as the Kempsey to Armidale road. By reason of the drought, we had the issue of vegetation being denuded. Then we had the fires that went through, and then we had a massive flood. This road will cost tens of millions of dollars to rebuild, and finance will be needed to do it. As it is a council road, it needs to be shifted back to the state realm so it will get state funding. I note that the member for Cowper is here. This road is a linkage between our two great seats. It has to be rebuilt so that we can get the economies that reside along it—in the cattle industry, in the tourism industry—up and running again. I want to note to this parliament, for those people, that I will be putting my shoulder to this task.

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