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

It causes me great sadness to get up and speak to this MPI because, unfortunately, the title is very true about the neglect under three years of a Labor-Greens-teals government. As we know in the Senate, the Labor government is in coalition with the Greens and the teals, and that has meant absolute neglect for everyone who lives in regional Australia.

I do this nearly every time I get up in this chamber because I don't think that those opposite can be reminded of these statistics enough. Last year, we in Australia sold $650 billion of goods and services overseas, and over $400 billion of that came from just four things—they're roughly about $100 billion each: $100 billion from iron ore, $100 billion from coal, $100 billion from gas and call it $100 billion from agriculture and food. I remind everyone—especially those opposite because they're very poorly represented in those regions—that all of that is from regional and remote Australia. None of it is with our sanctimonious and righteous teals and Greens. None of it is with the elite inner-city MPs, which the Prime Minister and the environment minister are. None of that comes from them. None of that comes from their communities. They don't understand us. They don't get us. That is why, as a government, they neglect regional Australia. I'm going to go through some examples here, Deputy Speaker Claydon, because you might say, 'Well, give me some concrete examples of how they neglect regional Australia.'

The first one—it was a decision made so early—was in the health area, actually. If you live in Rose Bay or Vaucluse, on one of those lovely tree-lined streets, you've probably got a rate of one GP for about every 500 or 600 people. In the regions, it's about one GP for every 5,000 or 6,000 people, and in some communities it's actually worse. There were some schemes we had in government to try and help that. What were they? If you were a Commonwealth sponsored student—that is, the Commonwealth government had helped you through your studies to become a GP—you had to, at the end of your studies, through a fair contract, go to a regional or remote community when you first became a GP and got your Medicare provider number. That seems fair enough, doesn't it? If you were a GP that came from another country, it was the same thing—you had to do some time in regional and remote Australia because that's where the real shortage of GPs was.

I won't even mention his name, but when the Minister for Health and Aged Care gets up in this place he's very confident. But what was one of the first things he and those opposite did when they got into government? If they were aware that $400 billion of our export wealth comes from the regions, you'd think they would have said thank you. When they charge their electric car at night, using coal fired power, and go for a drive in the country on the weekend, you'd think they would drive out there and say thank you to the miners and thank you to farmers for the wealth they're creating. But what do they do? Let's go back to the health minister. The first thing he did was change the formula for the distribution priority areas, which is where those Commonwealth sponsored students and foreign GPs have to go. What that meant was that you could work in Hornsby, just a little bit further out of Sydney. You could literally live in the Sydney CBD, travel to Hornsby and look as though you work in a distribution priority area.

What did that mean? I see the member for Parkes, and he's told me this, actually. They lost doctors overnight, and those communities didn't have any doctors after those doctors left. I know communities in my electorate who lost doctors almost instantaneously. Do you know what the sad thing about that is? Those opposite don't care. They actually don't care, because, if they did, they would have changed it. We've told them; many MPs on this side of the House have told them about this issue, but they seriously don't care.

The other thing is that—besides the fact they don't care and besides the fact they don't say thank you for the wealth that's created in regional and remote communities—they go further than that; they demonise us. They actually say, 'What you're doing'—I see some shaking heads, so I'll through some examples; I'm going to give you a few of them right now. They say, 'What you're doing is not okay.' God help us if, after the election, this government is in minority government with the Greens and the teals, because they don't like mining, they don't want coalmining and they don't want us to sell gas overseas.

But let's go to farming. One of the things this government has done—you can't shake your head, because it's a fact—is ban live sheep exports. I went with the member for O'Connor and Nola Marino to some parts of their regions, and those communities who are into live export and supply that industry are gutted by the ban of live exports. Why did they do it? Because the inner-city elite MPs said it's not okay. I'd love for them to go to those communities and talk to those people. But this is an insult not just to us, to our sheep farmers and to our remote communities who relied on that industry. It's an insult to every country who we sell live exports to. Those opposite are actually saying, 'If you want live export, you shouldn't.' What an insult that is to the countries who want that.

I've had a Greens candidate run against me as well. I don't think it's Greens policy, but I've certainly had a lot of Greens candidates say to me that they don't want cows in Australia. They don't like the fact that cows pass wind, and they don't like the fact that a cow's hoof system apparently isn't good for Australian soil. I said to a Greens candidate once, 'What do you want us to eat?' He had an answer. He wants us to eat kangaroos—try mustering those!—and grasshoppers, I think he said. Again, they actually demonise what we do.

The other thing I will just touch on briefly, another atrocious policy, another cut—and I know it was a really sombre day for a lot of Nationals MPs and regional Liberal MPs when this happened—was when they gutted and cut the water we can take from our rivers and streams. Even though that grows all of our fibre and food, the inner-city elite MPs over there and over there want all the fresh just to go out to the ocean because that's better than growing food and growing fibre. That's just another cut.

The other thing going on is the reckless renewables-only policy that Labor, the Greens and the Teals have. I've said it before in this chamber—don't do it on North Head; the member for Warringah will not have any wind turbines or solar panels there. The 60 million solar panels and the 20,000 turbines can go in regional and remote Australia. I can tell you right now that the Nationals don't want to see, in places like Sunny Corner, Oberon and Lithgow ruined by thousands of windfarms. It's only the Nationals candidate Sam Faraway who will show up and look at these communities and will not support them.

Let's go to the budget. You might ask, 'What was in the budget for regional Australia?'

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