Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Trevor William Hicks, born in 1966: if you need something in Eden-Monaro, he's the one to get it fixed. What we have now, going forward for Eden-Monaro, is a great National Party candidate who exemplifies what we want to present to the people of Eden-Monaro—an automotive electrician, an automotive engineer, a person who has worked with his hands, a person who has had a trade. He's going to be a great complement to what we have in this parliament. We have enough solicitors. We have enough white-collar workers. We need somebody who has a trade, who understands business—someone who's been in business for 22 years. I was speaking to a mayor this morning. He said, 'One of the problems in council now is that you have so many people with degrees.' Degrees are wonderful things—I've got one myself—but those with them don't understand business. They don't understand the realities of what it's like to work with your hands, of what it's like to understand the sweat that runs down the back of your collar because you are wondering if you are going to be able to pay the bank manager or the wages that week, of understanding how you build a business. They don't understand what it's like to be a person who's not determined by the agenda of somebody else but a person who determines their own agenda.

I know that Trevor Hicks has a vision for Eden-Monaro: the Barton Highway duplication, driving more business out to Yass, helping those shops in Yass, helping people who are recovering from the drought. He understands his electorate and all the privations they have had to deal with by reason of the bushfires. Having been at the forefront, as a deputy mayor, he understands this, and that is why he'd be a great member of this parliament, if the good people of Eden-Monaro give him that chance. I might also note that he's a person from the side of the range where the water runs west. He understands Queanbeyan. He understands that Eden-Monaro, on the other hand, needs to develop its deepwater port and that it is vital for the economic development of this area.

Mr Trevor William Hicks empathises and understands what's happening in the dairy industry. In my discussions with him, he's talked about making sure he drives for a royal commission so that farmers get a fair price. I know that with the loss of people such as John 'Wacka' Williams we have lost people who, in their previous lives, got their hands dirty and worked for a living in a blue-collar way. It's incumbent on us to make sure that we have those types of people in this parliament. I am not, for one second, belittling other candidates who might be running in the election, but I say that, with Trevor Hicks, we have something unique, something that's special.

I look forward on the weekend to working with Trevor Hicks and going to Batlow, Tumut, where my mother came from, Adelong and Tumbarumba. I know that, with the Deputy Premier of New South Wales, John Barilaro, he has absolutely got his shoulder to the wheel on behalf of the people of Queanbeyan. Mr Trevor Hicks of Captain's Flat understands not only the big centres; he understand the small ones.

It is emblematic of the National Party to reach out to those on the corners, to make sure that those people are not forgotten, to make sure that the person in Tumbarumba knows that they've got a champion in Canberra, fighting on their behalf, for their issues—a person who's not going to follow the Zeitgeist, the instructions and the decrees of the two major parties. We've seen the National Party, as recently as yesterday, standing up on behalf of regional people in the Northern Territory, making sure that they get properly represented, breaking away from following edicts, making sure that this thing is pursued through. In the National Party we take pride in ourselves, and if you wish to cross the floor you can. You just have a good reason and tell your colleagues first—and we do.

This is why I believe Trevor Hicks, as a person who's run his own business, as a person who's been a deputy mayor, as a person who understands the dairy industry, as a person who was at the forefront of understanding, empathising and working with those dealing with the bushfires and the drought, is most definitely the best candidate to represent the people of Eden-Monaro and to come to Canberra and make sure that he delivers an outcome for them that takes them forward.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 12:20