Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It's great to get up and talk to an MPI that talks about representing farmers, producers and regional communities, because it's something that this side of the chamber gets very well—and I'm sure they do internally. If you were to look at a map of Australia and if you were to look at the representation of that and the landmass you would see blue for Liberal and green for the Nationals all over that map, because in regional Australia, where there are larger seats—bigger landmass seats—that's where the Nationals and the Liberals have such strong representation. We take up regional communities. Regional communities are represented largely—very largely—by the Nationals and the Liberals. It's a structural issue for the Labor Party that they have so few regional seats. That's because regional Australia know that Labor don't get them. Regional Australia know that Labor do not understand them, and that's why the Liberal Party and the Nationals have such strong representation in regional Australia.

Deputy Speaker, you, like me, are a regional representative, and you know that regional Australia, right now, as we've come out of COVID, has been an absolute powerhouse for this country. We have a whole lot of different sectors that are just powering, Deputy Speaker, and you know that as a regional representative. The agricultural sector is powering, the mining sector is powering and domestic tourism is powering—in, I am sure, your region as well, Deputy Speaker. It is in my region—it is absolutely powering. People from the cities have discovered just what a great place Australia is to have a holiday and they're flocking out to the regions. So right now we are flourishing.

The one thing I would agree with the member for Franklin on is staff shortages. We have staff shortages in everything, because everyone is so busy. Everyone is so busy, in just about every sector. They're looking to grow and expand, which is obviously a good thing. A lot of it's on the back of what we've done as a government. One of the most popular things in my area is the instant asset tax write-off. I was talking to an agribusiness that supplies tractors and farming equipment just last week, Ongmac in Lismore. They have had a record year, as have a lot of the businesses in my region, on the back of the policies of this government.

Going to agriculture: we have an agricultural sector worth about $70 billion this year. Obviously the ag sector can fluctuate a bit with the seasons; right now, we've come out of a drought and a fire season that was crippling. The latest season has been a very good season across most of the country. We're looking to grow that sector to $100 billion by 2030. Economically, regional Australia, through a number of sectors, has been a real powerhouse as we have come out of the COVID recession.

We have done other things as a government that are really important. Regional Australia is a big exporter, a huge exporter, of a number of different products. The free trade agreements we've negotiated as a government, the most recent one with the United Kingdom just a week or so ago, are exceptionally important for regional Australia. That's why we are focused on it and that's why we have done so many deals since we've been in government, because we get regional Australia and regional Australia gets us. That's why it votes for us and not Labor.

I also want to look at infrastructure. I will go through a few infrastructure projects in my region, which are reflective of regional Australia across this nation. We have an unprecedented infrastructure program going on across the wider regions. I'm going to take you all on a little tour of my electorate. Kyogle, up near the New South Wales-Queensland border, is quite a small shire with quite a small rate base. They had 300 wooden bridges—all built around the same time, all decaying at the same rate—and had an unprecedented backlog that they couldn't, as a small rate base, cover. We and the state government—fortunately we have a coalition state government in New South Wales as well—working with the council, have together cleared that backlog from about 300 bridges that they had about seven or eight years ago to 20 bridges.

Now, why are those bridges important? Some of those bridges might only have three, four, five or six properties at the end of them. But those bridges are as important to them as the Sydney Harbour Bridge is to Sydney. It's a very productive area. They're growing things, selling things and exporting things. Those bridges are also important for kids to get to school and get to hospitals in emergencies. We saw the priority in that. That's why we went in to bat for them and made sure we helped them with that backlog.

Also in Kyogle, a beautiful part of the world—I encourage you, Mr Deputy Speaker Llew O'Brien, to go for a tour through there; I know you're a motorbike rider—Whiddon aged care came to me a few years ago. We, as a federal government, as you would understand, Mr Deputy Speaker Llew O'Brien, fund the places at an aged-care facility, and then the provider will usually build the infrastructure. Because of the size of Kyogle it didn't add up, so we as a government have gone in and helped them with the infrastructure side of that as well. We've helped them upgrade some really important roads that are really important economic drivers. I helped the Kyogle Council upgrade one of them, Culmaran Creek Road, because it is the home of Mara Seeds. If you haven't heard of Mara Seeds, it's a really big soy production area; they have a soy processing facility. In fact they supply Vitasoy with 80 per cent of their product. So that road was crucial for the economic driver of that region. We helped them with that and a number of arterial roads as well.

If you come over to Lismore, close to where I live: we have been working with the Lismore council and a whole lot of other areas in Lismore to make Lismore a sporting precinct. We are doing a $40 million upgrade of Crozier Field and Oakes Oval, where they play soccer and cricket and rugby league—all the major sports. We will get a whole lot of preseason games when it's completed. We've already had a preseason League game and a preseason AFL game. These are economic drivers. We have done a hockey upgrade and a baseball upgrade just last week, and this is why this is important: that upgrade we did with baseball means we can now host national tournaments. The national Little League tournament was held in Lismore, at the baseball facility. We had hundreds of people there in our community spending money at the cafes and at motels, because we get it; we get regional Australia. We have done the same with hockey.

We have Norco in Lismore. Norco produce great dairy products—great milk, probably the best milk in the world, and the best ice cream in the world too. In fact we are working with Norco to do an upgrade of the Lismore ice cream factory; we are going halves. They employ hundreds of people there. It's a really important economic driver for Lismore. We are going halves in upgrading the ice cream factory so it can be the latest state-of-the-art facility and be world's best practice. Again, we as a government get regional Australia, and that's why regional Australians vote for us and Labor. A number of years ago I worked with the local university to get the Farming Together program, which encourages the growth in mutuals and co-ops. It's a great model where the producer or grower becomes an owner of the processing plant, so we formed that as well.

Part of the Ballina shire is in my electorate, although the airport isn't. The airport at Ballina is a major economic driver. In fact, through COVID last year, Ballina airport was the either second or third busiest airport in the country because people weren't leaving the country, but they were looking for somewhere to go, so they were flying into the Ballina-Byron Bay airport. They came to me a year or so ago saying they needed to widen the runway. It's a 30-metre wide runway and now it has to be 45 metres wide for the new generations of jets. We saw the importance of that, so we've put up half the money for them because, again, we know that that airport is an economic driver for our region. We get the regions, Labor don't. That's why they vote for us and not Labor.

I now go to Richmond Valley and Casino. There's been a lot of misrepresentation in this chamber over the years I've been here, none more so than when people called Rockhampton the beef capital. It's not; we know that Casino is. I've worked with the Richmond Valley Council to do a $14 million upgrade of the saleyards. The council contributed, the state government contributed and federal government contributed to have state-of-the-art saleyards there. We also have the meatworks across the road, the Northern Co-operative Meat Company. They employ over 1,000 people when they're at full tilt, a really important economic driver for the region, not just Casino. We've given them some assistance to completely upgrade their frozen storage area, which will enable them to produce a new product. We get this, we understand this. We're also helping them do an industrial precinct because we know that, although high streets in towns are important, probably the most important place in a regional community is the industrial precinct. Getting land so businesses can set up is very important, and we're helping them there as well.

In Clarence Valley we have Grafton, a beautiful part of the world, as is the Lower Clarence. We've done a lot of work there. We've just finished the duplication of the Pacific Highway, a $5 billion project with the Commonwealth government contributing 80 per cent of that. It's a huge economic driver and it's saving lives as well. We've just finished that and it's been a wonderful project over the last seven or eight years. Yamba Welding & Engineering is getting Defence contracts. There are riverside precinct upgrades in Maclean and in Grafton itself. With headspace we've increased mental health services. We get regional Australia; Labor don't. (Time expired)

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