Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to start by thanking all the business owners in my electorate for the efforts that they have put in over the past two years, over and above COVID. For almost six months in Port Macquarie we had bushfires and a peat pit that burnt, causing disruption to many of the local trades, particularly tourism. And then, over the last 18 months, small and medium-sized enterprises and mum-and-dad businesses have worked tooth and nail to ensure that they have financial viability and to ensure the economic stability not only of the local area but also throughout Australia—and, furthermore, to ensure that there are jobs in regional and rural areas, because at times they're like hen's teeth. So I would like to thank those business owners for pivoting, for being resilient and for being there for our communities.

Just like those businesses, governments at both state and federal levels have had to pivot and have had to change, and that's exactly what we have done. And I have never stood in this place and criticised any state government, whether a Labor state government or a Liberal state government, because, just like the federal government, they do not have a crystal ball. Things change day on day, and governments are required to make those informed decisions to ensure the health of the nation and the economic health of the nation. Hindsight is a very comfortable carriage to travel in. We shouldn't stand here and be critical of any government. What we should be doing is looking forward and ensuring that we as a nation move through this together.

That's exactly what we have done as a federal government over the past 18 months. We saw the implementation of JobKeeper and JobSeeker. There is no doubt that that was a complete success. We've seen the rollout of the vaccine. The Prime Minister, in his own words, has apologised and has acknowledged that it could have been done better, but, again, we didn't have that crystal ball. We have pivoted. We have moved. We didn't know—nobody knew—we were going to see the delta strain of this virus come into this country and hit us as hard as it has. But in my own electorate we've had nearly 171,000 vaccine doses administered since the program began, and in the past week a record 12,330 doses have been administered.

We have also seen, and I have also tried to champion, support for the regional aviation industry, for travel agents, and for business operators in tourism in my electorate. These have included $1.2 billion for the Tourism Aviation Network Support program; the expanded Domestic Aviation Network Support program and the Regional Airline Network Support program; $250 million for the consumer travel support package; and registration fee waivers for higher education.

What I would like to highlight in the last minute that I have, is that the international aviation training sector is in my electorate but it's not limited to my electorate. There are 38 across the nation; 20 of them are in LNP seats and 18 are in Labor seats. What we have here is an industry that has, unfortunately, fallen through the cracks. It does not fall into any of the categories which have been very generous and which have been very well received across the nation, such as the RANS or the DANS—the domestic Aviation Network Support program. These are businesses that employ up to 50 people in my electorate and support over 200 businesses.

I would urge both sides of this parliament to come together to assist those people in the international aviation industry, to help them through this pandemic.