Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those who have followed my parliamentary career with some interest—that would only be a few people—would know that very rarely do I criticise the other side of the parliament. As a former VFF president I now look with some concern at the Victorian election coming up. Those who live in Victoria, and northern Victoria in particular, will remember the lies and broken promises about not taking water from the north of the state to the south of the state, only to see the previous Labor government in Victoria introduce the North-South Pipeline. Water is wealth, and when you take it from the north where it grows food and send it to Melbourne you are robbing northern Victoria. I see the same people are now wanting to take over government again, and they are choosing to spend their money on 50 rail crossings in the city instead of committing to the Murray Basin rail link, which will be very important if we are going to take our high-value agricultural products to the market and to the world.

I ask that all northern Victorians think long and hard about whether they want to put a terrible, corrupt government back into power under Mr Andrews, if he is able to form government in a number of days, and to remember that they have been betrayed once and from everything we have seen in the election commitments so far they are going to be betrayed again. Daniel Andrews has not visited my part of the world, northern Victoria, since March 2013. Let us not vote for them on Saturday.