Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was perusing the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, as I do on a daily basis, and I came across this article which talked about Sydney's median house prices and the deposit now costing around $320,000. That is more than the cost of a house in some city suburbs and regional markets, including the area I represent in the Riverina. It talked about the fact that a house in Cootamundra, in the south-west slopes of the Riverina electorate, sold the other day for $300,000—a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with scope to improve.

There's a message here—that is, move to the bush! Heavens knows we need you there! Particularly for those people seeking work there, the unemployment rate in regional Australia is now 3.8 per cent. That's on the back of the policies we have put in place, as Liberals and Nationals, to make sure the regional areas can be their best selves. I've always said about the regions that they're big enough to get a good cup of coffee in but still small enough to care. Indeed, we welcome people to move to country areas, as they have done through the COVID pandemic, knowing that regional areas are the safest and best places to be during this pandemic. Great places to live, affordable housing, friendly people—why wouldn't you want to move to the bush?