Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I really wonder what the point of the National Party is. Why are they in coalition with the Liberals? They haven't achieved anything in regional and rural areas for nearly a decade. We've seen on display this morning the political strategy and tactics of the Liberal and National parties. The National Party want to forget they were in power. It's all about forgetting they were in power for 10 years. And, for the Liberal Party, in the last few weeks it's been all about fear; you've got to be fearful of everyone. So it's about forget and fear. That's the modus operandi of the coalition parties' strategy and tactics.

This motion is so important to the member for Barker that he's just left the chamber and hasn't bothered listening to his erstwhile honourable colleague, the member for Flynn. He's not a bad bloke, actually, even though we might disagree on politics from time to time. But he hasn't even stayed here. He's put forward a motion in the chamber and he's got so many people here to support him, but he hasn't even stayed to listen to his Queensland colleague or Victorian National Party colleagues. So have a yarn to the Liberal Party, member for Flynn, because I can tell you that they've deserted you and done nothing in regional areas for a decade.

The member for Barker talked about wages. Now, we've had three consecutive quarters of wage growth in this country. During the ATM government—that is, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government—they could spend money everywhere in areas they wanted to, except in National Party seats, because they didn't get anything, apparently, according to these members here opposite. Under the ATM government, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government—the second-biggest taxing government in the history of the Commonwealth government, after the Howard government—wages grew by two per cent on average per year. Under us, wages are growing by almost four per cent, and that's what the data from the December quarter said recently. The member for Barker can come here and give us lectures! We've changed industrial relations law. We've got enterprise bargaining agreements in the health area and the education area, and we've regulated increases in aged-care funding for people who work in the sector.

Now, I live in a regional and rural area in Queensland, and I can tell you that I won't take lectures from those opposite, who spent election campaign after election campaign opposing upgrades to roads in my electorate, including the Ipswich Motorway between Brisbane and Ipswich. That motorway is important for the rural areas up towards Toowoomba, south to the New South Wales border and up to the Brisbane Valley Highway. Those opposite opposed—election after election—upgrades. In fact, they went to the 2010 election saying they were going to stop construction. That's the need of the National Party. Warren Truss stood here in the parliament and said, if they win the election, they'll stop construction on that important regional road. So I won't take lectures from those opposite when it comes to regional roads and rural infrastructure.

They opposed the recovery of Queensland after the 2011 floods. When we put forward stimulus packages and massive road funding increases when we were last in government, the coalition members—including the National Party members—voted against that road funding. They voted against it. They were claiming that they were against school halls and libraries, except in their own electorates when they turned up to open them and said that they weren't against them. But they opposed the road funding. They voted against road funding projects in the federal parliament that were crucial for the rural and regional areas in South-East Queensland—including my electorate, the member for Oxley's electorate and the member for Moreton's electorate.

We've had major floods, as the member for Barker in his motion talks about. In my electorate, we had floods in 2011, 2013 and 2022. I experienced, in 1974, the '74 flood as a kid and I saw how devastating it was and the adverse impact it had on my local community of Ipswich. It's important to rebuild—and we did. When I was the assistant minister to the Attorney-General, we actually provided $11 billion for road infrastructure and other community infrastructure for South-East Queensland and Queensland generally. Those opposite sat in this chamber and voted against that funding. They voted against it. Don't listen to what they say. Look at how they vote and what they do. They've got political amnesia. The only time they remember anything is when they go on the ABC and Nemesis; otherwise, the last nine or 10 years don't exist because they didn't achieve anything over the last nine or 10 years. This motion should be treated with the disrespect that I give it, and I'll sit down because I think it's a ridiculous motion.

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