Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to outline yet again how destructive the National Party have been on the New South Wales North Coast. As I've said before, National Party choices hurt. Their harsh choices continue to hurt families and pensioners in regional Australia. All we have ever seen from the National Party on the North Coast is cuts, chaos and neglect. That's it. This sums up their legacy in our region. This is how the National Party will be remembered. On a federal level, we see them responsible for cuts to Medicare, cuts to the age pension, cuts to schools, cuts to hospitals and cuts to penalty rates, which hurt local workers and damage our economy. At every turn, we've also seen cuts from the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments occurring with the full support of the National Party. They support every single cut and they pursue every single agenda that hurts local families and pensioners.

Not only do the National Party pursue these unfair policies locally; they also attack and condemn locals who would ever dare to question them. In fact, in one of the cruellest acts I've ever seen, the Nationals candidate in Richmond, Matthew Fraser, showed just how out of touch and arrogant the Nationals are when he posted a Facebook video calling locals 'the great unwashed'. That's right: he called our community 'the great unwashed'. This is despicable. This comment and this video angered and distressed so many locals, who are rightly offended by this gross insult. He made this comment in reference to a rally which included a large group of farmers protesting outside the office of the state Nationals MP Geoff Provest, a person who has betrayed local farmers by destroying their state significant farmland and trying to impose a nine-storey hospital on Cudgen farmland. This despicable statement by the Nationals candidate Matthew Fraser shows exactly what the National Party thinks of our community. I challenge any National Party members to condemn these vile comments and condemn their unhinged candidate. That is what he is—an unhinged candidate. To date, those National Party members haven't condemned him, and their silence is an equal insult to locals.

The Nationals have a long list of broken promises and a long list of cuts to frontline services which are hurting our community, particularly the cuts to our vital police, nurses and teachers. What locals tell me on the North Coast is that they don't trust the National Party and they've had enough of their cuts, because you can't trust them with health, hospitals or Medicare. You can't trust them with age pensions or supporting our seniors. You can't trust them with schools, TAFE or university funding. You cannot trust the National Party with any frontline services. You especially cannot trust them with your family's future, and you can't trust the National Party with your vote.