Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was you? Well, that explains it—to actually go there, to support Rex over Virgin and put thousands of people under stress.

When you live in country areas, one of the things you want to do is get access to trade and schooling. What was one of the first things that they did when they got into government in 2013? They cut the trade training centre. The member for Nicholls can laugh, but it was actually his electorate that benefited from the trade training centre that we built and they closed.

It's also about getting education in schools. One of the great things we did was the BER. It was ridiculed by those opposite, but, of course, they turned up for every photo opportunity. I went out to Eildon, which had a school building replaced, the first since 1967. That's how much they neglected schools, and they've done nothing since. They panned our programs and they've done nothing to support it.

We talk about medical, and we talk about doctors. The reason we have a shortage of doctors in rural and regional areas is that they removed the DPA. Greg Hunt removed it and decided areas like Wallan and Kilmore should be treated the same as Elwood, where Bridge lives, and Williamstown. It is unbelievable that you can't get doctors in the middle of country areas—

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