Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm a first-termer, as everyone knows; I've been here not quite two years. People ask me if I'm enjoying myself, and I say: 'Generally, yes. I enjoy the debate, and it's a great honour to represent your people.'

One of the things that I find the most frustrating is the lack of understanding that things are a bit different out in regional Australia, and broad-based policies that treat everyone the same disadvantage regional people. It's really frustrating, because you have a government like the Labor government that just doesn't understand or prioritise regional communities and regional people.

We have seen that in so many ways—firstly, in infrastructure. I listened to the speeches of those opposite. It sounds fantastic. The thing is: we haven't seen any of it roll out. The roads are getting worse. The infrastructure projects aren't being built.

I hear those opposite say, 'In 10 years you did nothing.' Well, for 10 years I wasn't in this place; I was just an ordinary community member in Shepparton, in the Goulburn Valley. I saw so much happen—and not only in my community, which was represented by a National Party member; I saw infrastructure development in the neighbouring electorate of Bendigo that was represented by a Labor member and still is. I saw a terrific grant program help them expand their regional airport, which now links them to Sydney, which is great for Bendigo. It's fantastic. And that was delivered by the coalition government, with the assistance of my predecessor. It was a government that got regional Australia; it was a government that understood that the economic growth is based on agriculture and on manufacturing and it needs infrastructure to thrive.

The member for Gippsland, who proposed this MPI, was the infrastructure minister when the funding was developed for the Echuca-Moama Bridge. Now, that community had all sorts of problems before that: one narrow, not-fit-for-purpose bridge over the Murray River. There's so much agricultural produce that goes from New South Wales to Victoria and vice versa. They needed a second bridge—a second river crossing. The state coalition government developed the program and started it off; the federal government came in with the majority of the money—80 per cent of the funding. All I could see the Victorian Labor government do was cut the ribbon!

Now, this 80-20 split that used to exist in regional development funding was necessary to get these projects off the ground—and it's even more necessary now in Victoria, because, for those Victorians in this chamber, I don't know if you've noticed but the state's finances are not in a good state at all. The Victorian government has not managed Victoria's finances well. That is frightening for future infrastructure projects, especially when it's a 50-50 split, because now the state government can't afford 50 per cent of most of the projects—particularly those in regional Victoria. So we're being dudded on regional infrastructure under this government. There are a lot of announcements, but I don't see anything rolling out.

Then there is the new-car tax. The issue with this is that it's a bit different living in regional areas; sometimes you need different vehicles, and to do the jobs required in regional areas you need, in some cases, diesel vehicles. You need diesel four-wheel drives or utes; that's true for tradies and farmers. I'm a big supporter of people in cities using EVs. If people in country areas want to buy EVs, good. But they're not suitable for a lot of the people living in regional and remote areas. If you impose extra costs on the existing diesel SUVs and utes that those people require, it is a tax because it's forcing them to pay more for, in many cases, a necessary tool of the trade. It's this type of policy that is: 'Well, let's just paint it with a broad brush. If it suits metropolitan areas but duds regional people, well, it's too hard to make any exceptions, and they're only out there in the country, so why bother.' That's what's so frustrating and disappointing about being in this parliament with a Labor government that doesn't get regional communities.

See this speech in context