Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister please inform the House how the Morrison-McCormack government's record level of investment in rural and regional Australia is ensuring prosperity and resilience for these communities into the future?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for her question, and acknowledge that she is one of those fine women—and there are many in the House; I appreciate there are many on this side, one or two on that side and, indeed, on the crossbench—who are celebrating International Rural Women's Day. It's an important day. It acknowledges exactly what our empowered rural women are achieving and what they are doing, particularly in this time of drought. Women, who are the backbone of regional Australia and regional farmers, are to the forefront. I also acknowledge what the member for Mallee did before she came to this place.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If those opposite would just be quiet, they might actually learn something about the member for Mallee, who provided a safe place and a safe haven for women in her area, in the Sunraysia, to get a job. She took in women who were victims of domestic violence. She took in women who were Indigenous. She took in women who were down on their luck. She took in women who didn't have the skill set to get a job. She took in some women who had just missed out on an opportunity, and she taught them great skills to be able to get them work, to be able to get them employment, and to be able to achieve for them a better future. That's the member for Mallee: a powerful, strong-voiced woman who is achieving great things in the Mallee and who is going to achieve sensational things for rural and regional Victoria and, indeed, through that state, for Australia, via this place.

I acknowledge the role that women have played in rural and regional Australia. There are none I'm more proud of than my two sisters, Denise Buchanan and Robyn Brill, who are participating in family farms. Women are doing it tough in and around Wagga Wagga and the district. In fact, they're doing it tough right throughout Australia, and we're there to support them all of the way. In the member's electorate, the shire of Buloke did a two-day conference, through the Building Better Regions Fund, empowering women to be their best selves. I acknowledge the shire and I acknowledge the member for Mallee for her continued work and support in this regard.

Just recently I was in the member for Calare's electorate, where Rosemary Blowes and her husband, Philip, are doing some great work providing feed for sheep in an innovative way, through sprouts. They're producing six tonnes of feed from one tonne of seed. Their fat lambs are then sent to the Breakout lamb processing centre at Cowra. That's providing hope and resilience for those particular farmers in Yeoval. They are great workers; they are great doers. We should exalt regional Australia in these tough times, because regional Australia is doing very well, despite the drought; we understand that. But there are some great and positive stories about rural and regional Australia. We should promote those, we should exalt those and we should acknowledge those.