Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to ask the federal government and the Victorian state government to look incredibly seriously at the extraordinarily dry conditions across south-west Victoria and across south-east South Australia. In many parts of western Victoria, south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia, we haven't had rain since January. Obviously, we're now in winter, and we have the makings of what is called a green drought. High interest rates have been added on top of the prices that farmers are now having to pay for fodder and the other cost-of-living issues that farmers are facing. We now need both state and federal governments to seriously look at providing some sort of relief to farmers in our region. I will be writing to both the federal government and the Victorian state government for them to look at this, because farmers are starting to do it really tough as a result of the fact that we haven't had serious rain in some parts since the middle of January.

Brotherly love is a unique thing, and we have seen a great example of it recently—as a matter of fact, at Easter this year. Sam Bellman saved the life of his older brother, Ryan. He heard an unusual snoring coming from Ryan's room. He went in to investigate what was going on, tried to wake him and couldn't. The ambulance service triple 0 was called, and they asked the family to do CPR on Ryan while he was waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Their father tried but wasn't doing it successfully, so young Sam stepped in because he learned CPR at school. The ambulance and hospital officials said his ability to give CPR to his brother saved his life. So a big shout-out to Sam, and obviously Ryan will, no doubt, be doing all he can to show his appreciation for your life-saving work. Well done.

Ambulance services right across Victoria and right across the country play an extraordinary role in protecting our citizens, keeping them safe and making sure they're there when they are most needed. Our paramedics do an extraordinary job. Paramedics in Victoria at the moment are calling for additional resources from the Victorian state government, and the paramedics in Hamilton came to my office seeking my help and assistance as they try to deal with an issue that they have for 13 hours throughout the night: there is only one ambulance service for the Southern Grampians region in and around Hamilton.

What I agreed to do along with the paramedics was start a petition to help those paramedics in Hamilton get those additional resources to help them over the night shift. At the moment, if an ambulance is called out to a serious accident and then there is another accident or another need for paramedics, the only available ambulances or paramedics are 30 to 50 minutes away. What they would like to see are additional resources so there can be an additional crew on at night. Jim Falla is leading the petition. Jim has been in and around the service in Hamilton for many years, and I thank him and everyone else at the Hamilton ambulance service for the wonderful work that they do. I look forward to working with you and helping you get those extra resources at night that you so dearly need and that I know the community wants you to have.

At the moment, infrastructure funding right across the nation is being cut. It's a time when we have never needed more investment in our roads and in our rail—most particularly in our roads. In Wannon, we've seen, sadly, much-needed road funding cut from our budget, and it means that, over the next three to four years, we're going to see less funding and we're also going to see blowouts in the time it's going to take for roads to be fixed. This is simply just not good enough. What I am doing, along with many other coalition members, is highlighting the need for us to get more infrastructure funding and much-needed road funding. We have begun a national road survey, and, for anyone in the wonderful electorate of Wannon who wants a particular road fixed, a particular intersection fixed or a particular part of any state or local government road fixed, please do the national survey because it will help me campaign for additional road funding for our region and it will mean that we can go to the Albanese Labor government and say: 'We've had enough of the cuts to road funding. We actually need additional investment in our roads.'

I know there are particular roads that need addressing. We put additional funding in for the Henty Highway, and now we've seen that taken out. We put additional funding in for the Princes Highway, and now that has been taken out. We put money in for the Princes Highway between Port Fairy and Warrnambool, which was much needed, but it's been taken out by this government. Funding for the Blue Church intersection near Colac, which was very much needed, has sadly been taken out, and we're going to see delays which will not only cause damage to vehicles but also potentially risk people's safety as they travel these roads. Sadly we've seen the need for the use of the local helicopter, with three serious road accidents in south-west Victoria recently. Once again, to those paramedics who have been on the scene and been able to assist and help with those accidents, I give an incredibly big thankyou. But it's once again shown us the need to make sure that we're getting much more funding into our road network, not less.

I say to the state government in particular: forget your silly folly of spending billions upon billions on the Suburban Rail Loop and think about the existing road infrastructure right across Victoria. Those billions that you are planning to spend on the Suburban Rail Loop are needed on your road network right across Wannon and right across Victoria. Even the Deputy Premier of Victoria has said to the Premier that the Suburban Rail Loop is a folly. It is not needed, and there are going to be huge blowouts in both costs and time. We need that funding for our local road network. I'm calling on the state government and the Albanese Labor government to make sure that we get that much-needed road funding.

The last thing that I would like to mention is that we are starting to see the benefits of the coalition's investments into mobile phone towers in the electorate of Wannon, and we're starting to see those phone towers not only be erected but come online. It's going to be terrific for the people of Orford to have the benefits of the phone tower that has been erected at Orford. That small rural community will, thanks to the coalition's investment in mobile phone infrastructure, benefit from the wonders of having proper mobile phone reception, and my hope is we're going to see more of that coalition program's towers come on board in the near future.