Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We live in a time right now, especially with issues coming before us such as the referendum for the Voice, where governments say: 'You've got to trust us. Can't you see that what you're doing is being divisive and that what we say is the truth?' I want to give just one example from the electorate of New England. We get a clear statement of what is said, which then turns out to be something that is just not the truth. It is just not the way it was put forward. And it's much smaller, but it matters to our electorate.

Ms Laura Hughes, who was the Labor candidate for New England, said in her own media release:

Labor has already made two significant local announcements in this campaign which will go ahead if an Albanese government is elected, regardless of the result in New England.

That's quite clear. She continues:

Labor has committed to establishing an Urgent Care Clinic to relieve pressure on the Tamworth hospital and $58,000 to establish more crisis accommodation for 52 families escaping domestic violence, including four staff to support these families through their crisis.

They said it: 'Labor has committed'. There is nothing vague about that at all. Let's test the honesty of this statement. That's just one.

In Senate estimates, the question has been asked. It was asked by Victorian Senator Bridget McKenzie:

Can the Department advise whether either be Investing in Our Communities or Priority Community Infrastructure Program are delivering the Government's election commitment to establish more crisis accommodation for 52 families escaping domestic violence in the New England electorate, costing $580,000?

That's an absolute clear repeat of what the Labor Party promised. Here is the answer:

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts has no record of any commitments to crisis accommodation projects being delivered by our department in the local government area within the New England region.

That's a clear example, that you can't trust the Labor government. Don't fall for the trap. Don't listen to the rhetoric. Just understand the facts. What they say and what they do, and their ultimate purpose, are distant islands from one another.