Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A shout-out to the great people who I met for coffee at Mount Annan central on Saturday. Last weekend I was able to catch up with Ron Gloich and a bunch of his mates, many of them retired policeman. They're passionate about many things but they were particularly vocal on the weekend about our borders, about staying strong on border protection, and on government calling the shots for all Australians. It was another clear reminder about the depth of community feeling on this issue.

My team and I doorknocked around 500 or 600 houses on Saturday in Spring Farm. This is one of the newer, very high-growth suburbs next to Camden and Mount Annan, full of young families. Many residents have only lived there a couple of years. Commuting and transport, local jobs, the cost of living—these are the things that people in this area worry about. They want the government to steer a strong economy where there's real reward for hard work. But equal to the hip-pocket issues there was a lot of talk about borders. Across many parts of my electorate there has been a strong reaction to federal Labor's vote to weaken our borders. I see it in the emails from my constituents over recent days where securing Australian borders is the top priority mentioned. It came up many times in conversations at Spring Farm. The federal government is getting behind those hardworking young families: a strong economy, new business growth and more jobs close to where you live. This is what we're focused on delivering.

Latest figures from the department of industry show Mount Annan is one of the top growth areas for new businesses in my electorate. A total of 70 new businesses started up at Mount Annan in the 2017-18 financial year, the vast majority of them in the construction sector. Across Hume, more than 860 new businesses have opened up in construction in the past three years. This reflects the extraordinary growth in parts of my electorate, with connectivity improving and massive public and private investment flowing through the local economy—particularly around the north of Hume and the new Western Sydney Airport—creating local jobs and connectivity like we've never seen before.

This government will not waver on border protection. We are not wavering on building new infrastructure. We'll continue to drive the economy so that the aspirational young families in areas like Spring Farm can have a strong and prosperous future.