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

I want to get up and speak quickly about the cost-of-living relief that we're going to be giving in tonight's budget-in-reply, as some have alluded to, but also about some of the wonderful Nats candidates who are standing in this general election. As we saw, 70c a day, Labor's plan a year or two out, isn't cost-of-living relief. You wouldn't even get two-minute noodles on special at 70c. But ours is going to be immediate cost of living relief. If you fill up your tank, it's about 60 litres. You're going to be saving $15-20 every time you fill up the tank. That's real cost-of-living relief.

I know our candidates are excited about this. I wanted to go through a number of our candidates that are standing for us. We have Mia Davies in Western Australia standing in the seat of Bullwinkel. She is a wonderful candidate and was actually the Leader of the Opposition in the WA parliament in the last term. Her father, too, was a Nationals legend. She has real Nationals pedigree. She is standing in the seat of Bullwinkel and will be a great representative given the fact that she has been in the state parliament and has represented her seat over there very well. We are excited about Mia potentially being in chamber.

We also have a great candidate in Bendigo. You might say, 'Bendigo? The Nationals?' but yes, we have a strong candidate in Andrew Lethlean, a really well known small-business man in Bendigo. He's running a great campaign. He has strong local support, and we're excited about his candidacy in Bendigo. We're looking forward to him joining.

We also have Sam Farraway running in Calare. We're really excited about Sam being a candidate for the Nationals in Calare as well. Sam is an ex state MP, has a great record as a state roads minister and is a really strong local person. I was talking to Sam this morning. He knows that cost-of-living issues are the important issues for the people of Calare. We spoke this morning about the petrol excise cut, the tax cut on petrol, and Sam is very supportive. He's also very excited about our nuclear plan cutting energy bills. There is a proposition to have a nuclear generator at Mount Piper, and he says he wants that because it's reliable base load. We support and like renewables, but we need secure base-load power. He says he wants to know where all the candidates stand in Calare on this nuclear generator. As he says, if we don't have a nuclear generator there, where are we going to put the 1,500 wind turbines that we would otherwise have to have?

As for other things that I know are important to Sam, he speaks with great passion about the Great Western Highway. He was very disappointed in the Labor-Greens-teals-Independents budget this week in the sense that there was no new money for the $2 billion needed for the Great Western Highway. The $15 million Bathurst integrated medical centre is a very big passion of his. There was no money for that either. There was also no money for local roads in Calare. As Sam said, that's what you get when you get an Independent.

At the last election, Calare did elect a Nationals MP. He, for his own reasons on the voice referendum, left the Nationals. We were very disappointed that he left, but we are asking the good people of Calare. We are very worried about the election if after the election result we were to get a minority Labor-Greens-teals-Independents government. We think that wouldn't be good for the people of Calare. We don't think that would be good for the people of Australia.

We're asking the people in Bullwinkel, the people in Bendigo, the people in Calare, the people in Whitlam, the people in Hunter and the people in Richmond, where Kimberly Hone is running. We have some great candidates around the country. We're asking all those local communities to support their Nationals candidate, because, as I said, we want strong representatives, and I think the best result for this country after the next election is to have a majority Liberal-Nationals coalition. We have been proven through many decades of being in government to be strong economic managers. We have national security concerns as well, which we think we will be stronger on. We know we need cost-of-living relief, which is why the petrol excise is important to us. We know it's important to family budgets. We know 70c a day a year or two out isn't going to cut the mustard.

Again, I'm very excited about Sam Farraway in Calare and many others. We need strong representation in this chamber for the Australian people, especially in regional communities, not a Labor-Greens-teals-Independents minority government.

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