Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, representing the Minister for Regional Development. Will the minister update the House on the importance of affordable and reliable energy in regional Australia? What impact would higher electricity prices have on jobs and hardworking families in regional Australia, including those in my electorate of Durack?

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for Durack for her question. She is a member who is very much in touch with the real issues in her community. The member for Durack represents a vast electorate, and she is focused on issues that really matter to regional Australians.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit sections of her electorate. It was terrific to see work happening on the ground delivering important infrastructure investment in roads, in rail and in community-development projects. There's a long list of achievements for the member of Durack in recent times. She has the Great Northern Highway upgrades, totalling more than $200 million. There's the Northern Australia Road Program, where $130 million worth of work is underway; the Roads to Recovery Program; and the heavy vehicle safety program, all delivering in her electorate. And it's the Turnbull-Joyce government that's delivering for the people of Durack.

And as the member indicates, affordable, reliable energy is critical for her community. It's critical for businesses and it's critical for households in the community of Durack. It seeks to underpin local jobs and growth in regional Western Australia, and it also helps to take the pressure off the household cost of living. So I congratulate the member for Durack for the work she's doing on behalf of her electorate both in Western Australia and here in the federal government.

The Turnbull-Joyce government is delivering on all these fronts right throughout regional WA. Those opposite have been wasting parliament's time in recent weeks asking questions about citizenship, and that just demonstrates how completely out of touch they are with the issues that are impacting on people throughout Australia. Out in the real world, people are coming to us as we move around regional Australia and asking us about jobs. They're asking about energy security. They're talking about national security. They're asking about cost-of-living pressures.

The question they're asking most of all is: who should they trust to keep delivering for all Australians? I know one thing: I know who they can't trust, and that's this Leader of the Opposition or the Labor Party. Why would they trust them? Labor has sold out—they will go quiet now, Mr Speaker, because they know this is true—they've sold out blue-collar workers for Green votes. They cheered when the Hazelwood Power Station closed because that was their policy contract, to close it. They cheered when it closed.

Do you really want to know how much they care about words, Mr Speaker? The Leader of the Opposition actually donated $100,000 of Australia Workers' Union money to GetUp!. Did the workers know that, when they paid their union fees, the fees would end up with GetUp!? Did they know what GetUp! would do with that money? GetUp! says, 'Let's close Australia's dirtiest coal-fired power station.' GetUp! gets money from the AWU to run campaigns against blue-collar workers. That's how the modern Labor Party works. It sells out blue-collar workers for Green votes in the city. GetUp! wanted Hazelwood to close, and the Labor Party delivered it. The Leader of the Opposition is very shifty. He can't be trusted on jobs or energy security— (Time expired)

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister can resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business can pause for a second. The members for Lyons and Moreton—both regular customers—will not interject for the rest of question time; otherwise, they can go back and shout at their televisions rather than everyone here.