Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Good on you, member for Paterson. You understand the importance of the coal industry, iron ore, gas and farmers. They are all country people and those are all industries that are in the country. In this bill, like in the live export one we saw earlier, we again have city elites saying, 'Live export's no good; you shouldn't do that; it's nasty; I saw it on Four Corners and they're telling me that it's a nasty industry, so shut it down'—and they did.

This bill is going to do exactly the same thing. This bill is going to have a harmful impact on regional communities. It's going to have a harmful impact on our exporting industries. It's going to have a harmful impact on our sovereignty, and when you talk about that you even hear other countries start to talk about Australia as a sovereign risk. We are becoming a sovereign risk. What do we mean by that? International capital—money—when it looks to invest in projects around the world, sort of looks at Australia now and goes, 'Uh oh; a bit dangerous; there's a risk in investing in that country for multiple reasons.' That's been stated by many people across the world.

Very sadly, I stand here to speak against a bill that the Labor Party has introduced. This is a bad bill for our country. It's especially a bad bill for regional communities. It's a bad bill for the investment it will scare out of our communities. And, again, it doesn't surprise me, coming from a government that represents and is a government of city elites.

Debate adjourned.

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