Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the chamber for giving me a few minutes to catch my breath! Thank you, Senator McAllister, for your question. I think the National Party have been very, very clear on the only thing that is exercising our minds this week and, in fact, on the only thing that's exercised our party room for the last 14 years that this place has had this debate—that is, the impact of our country's climate policy decisions on rural and regional Australia and the people that live there. The poorest people in our nation live out in rural and regional Australia, and when electricity prices go through the roof they are the ones that feel the impact. The transport workers who drive our food and fibre up and down the highways and byways of this nation are the ones slugged by former Labor governments' follies in this area. It was only one political party that stood in the way—