Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. The coalition government is committed to supporting rural and regional communities, which remain a core strength of Australia's economy and identity. Will the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House the government's support for regional economies, and are there any threats or uncertainty posed to their prosperity?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. As always, I note his service to our nation and thank him for his service to our nation, and his service goes on. I also thank him for his support of the CopperString project, which is so vitally important for our nation. It's vitally important to make our nation as strong as possible as quickly as possible.

It's also noted that many of our major exports, in fact, eight out of 10, come from regional Australia, whether it's iron ore, coal, gas, bauxite, gold, cattle or sheep. These things are incredibly important because they give value to our currency. Value to our currency allows us to import products and get the terms of trade in place to support our standard of living, which is vitally important. If we lost those major exports, that, of course, would have major inflationary effects on our imports and would affect our standard of living. Things would become more expensive, and people would become poorer. That's why this side of the House believes so strongly that we maintain our standard of living by maintaining a strong balance of payments and strong terms of trade through our exports. But look at the other side. I had a look, and Mark Butler says—

Honourable members interjecting

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Prime Minister will use the correct names in the chamber.

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

The member for Hindmarsh says there's no room for gas in Australia's prosperity—no room for gas. That's going to make things rather difficult for us in the future, isn't it?

The deputy leader of the Labor Party—and this is the best one—said: 'The global market for thermal coal has collapsed, and at one level that’s a good thing …'. Hear that, Central Queensland? Hear that, Hunter Valley? He thinks you losing your job is a good thing. That is going to be very interesting. I went back to the member for Hindmarsh, and I just put in his name—which I can't mention—and coal. The first thing that comes up—five words—'Labor say no to coal.' So things aren't looking good for the Hunter Valley. They're not looking good for Central Queensland. And the reason is the Greens-Labor alliance. The galahs over there on that side are going to put at risk the people of Central Queensland. They are doing it at this very moment. They are in coalition in the ACT. We live in an area of a Greens-Labor alliance. They were in coalition in Tasmania, and they have been in coalition federally. And we remember the wedding photo: the Prime Minister, the Greens and the 'Independents'—

Honourable members interjecting—

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! When the interjections have ceased, I will call the member for Corangamite.