Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

How quickly we forget. It's just under three short years ago that we were looking at a drought across the nation—and I'm happy to speak for the next four minutes on this government and how we have focused and how we have delivered over the past three years, whether it be on drought, floods, fires, floods or pandemics. But when I first came into this role, when we had that devastating drought, this government had the recovery allowance scheme for those who were struggling through the drought, the community support initiative, the isolated children scheme, the access to telehealth services. It was shortly after that that we had the fires. The former Deputy Prime Minister, the member for Riverina, came up to my electorate and spoke with David and Carolyn Duff, who were absolutely ravaged. They had lost almost everything. We stood there with them and tried to understand what they were going through, and it was absolutely torturous for them. But the federal government was there, walking with them, providing the $75,000 federal grant and then the low-interest loans of up to $2 million, which they described as 'a game changer'. We were there for them then, and, when floods ravaged Telegraph Point, Rollands Plains and Port Macquarie, the Prime Minister was there, front and centre, wading through the water, moving debris. He wasn't there for a photo opportunity; he was there because he cared. There were $50,000 grants for businesses and $75,000 grants for primary producers. We had thousands of dead cattle floating down the river onto the beaches in Port Macquarie. This can't be politicised. We have to walk a day in these people's shoes. The Whalebone Wharf had just completed a half-million-dollar renovation, which was washed away overnight. These are people's emotions, these are people's livelihoods, and the federal government has walked with them.

Then we faced coronavirus. The member for Goldstein referred to looking over that precipice. I remember the first two weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. I remember the panic and the fear in people about what was going to happen. And then the federal government stepped up with JobKeeper, which saved 700,000 jobs, kept employees and employers together and helped with the mental health of employees and employers. And we continued to work with them with JobSeeker and HomeBuilder, ensuring that the economy was strong. The result speaks for itself. We have worked together.

The biggest problem in my area when I was elected was that in Coffs Harbour youth unemployment was 20.3 per cent. It is now less than four per cent, which is below the national average. Unemployment in Coffs Harbour is less than the national average, and businesses are thriving. People are working their way out of the pandemic, and what they don't want to see is this rubbish, this garbage, in this place. All they want to know is: how am I going to make the next dollar? How am I going to look after my family? Where am I going in the future? And the future is this government because we will work out of this pandemic. We will work out of this debt that was incurred because of a one-in-100-year pandemic.

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