Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's my great pleasure to rise and speak on this MPI, at a time when our nation is facing so many bushfire emergencies. I want to make the point that I regret that we are at odds with each other across the chamber, on a contentious proposal by Labor senators, when our nation is in the grips of a national emergency. After the terrible loss of a number of lives and several hundred homes and buildings, all in regional and rural communities—and we know only too well that rural and regional Australians cop the brunt of so many national disasters—it is regrettable that today's MPI is not about the people in those communities at this time of national emergency. I salute the thousands of people working so hard on the frontline in rural and regional New South Wales and Queensland to fight these fires and to protect communities—our volunteer firefighters, and our other emergency services personnel.

I want to correct some of the comments that Senator M Smith made in her contribution. I believe that one of the reasons Labor did not succeed at the last federal election is the Australian people saw through Labor's mistruths. I want to correct Senator M Smith and make it quite clear to the Australian people that this government has not cut pensions, has not cut family payments and is delivering record amounts of education and health funding. When you carry on making ridiculous claims which are not substantiated by any fact, the Australian people lose faith in politicians. I think that's one of the very major reasons why Australians lost faith in Labor.

In fact, in Labor's own review, released a number of days ago, one of the key issues identified on why Labor did not succeed at the federal election was that it turned its back on so many rural and regional communities. I saw that well and good in my former role as the member for Corangamite. I spent a lot of time mopping up the damage from Labor's failed policies and its failure to invest sufficiently in roads, rail and essential communications infrastructure. When Labor was last in power, it did not provide one single dollar for mobile communications. Its carbon tax had such a major impact on our farmers—on our dairy farmers in particular—as well as our manufacturers. Where I am located in regional Victoria—I am proudly based in Geelong and I am looking after Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and the Mallee, as well as parts of Melbourne's west—we see notorious offenders in the likes of Catherine King, Richard Marles, Libby Coker and Lisa Chesters, and many Labor members in Melbourne's west who have not stood up—