Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Well, they spent $450 million on a referendum. Imagine what they could have done with that instead of dividing the country on a failed referendum.

An honourable member interjecting—

We should be here, supporting our regional communities and putting back that $50 million. You've just implemented a whole heap of new public servant jobs. In fact, it's the largest-growing employment area in Australia. Why don't we look after our people in the regions? Why do the people in the regions always have to suffer? Another example is Coffs Harbour, which received $900,000 to put up desperately needed lighting in and around the area. It has worked incredibly well. If we didn't have that—there's already increasing crime on the ground—one can imagine how much more the police resources would be stretched.

I say to the Albanese government and the Prime Minister: come outside and have a look at our regions. Talk to the people on the ground. Talk to the people who have implemented the programs for youth through this Safer Communities Fund, like those in Bellingen and Kempsey, where it actually makes a difference on the ground, because it is led by people on the ground and not by bureaucrats in the bubble in Canberra. That's where the problem lies. Mr Albanese, come and visit us in the regions, and I'll show you how it works.

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