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

Thank you, Senator Davey, for your question and your strong advocacy for the regions. The Liberal and National government are the only government that can deliver for regional Australia, because, after all, we're the most in touch with the millions of Australians who actually live and work in these beautiful parts of our nation. Many of us from both the Liberal Party and the Nationals actually live and raise our families in these regions—not, I must say, the Greens, who do their very best every single day in this place to shut down sustainable, best-practice rural industries like forestry, or the Labor Party, who continually turn their backs on blue-collar workers who are slogging it out in our mining, resources and manufacturing industries. It is the Liberals and Nationals who have the track record of delivering for regional Australia, and we'll continue to do so.

Based on the current and previous investments that our government have made, we'll be providing over $100 billion to the regions to 2030. Over 2021 we've delivered a multitude of programs that have supported regional Australia, in the infrastructure, telecommunications, health, education, agriculture, tourism and resources sectors. We're supporting local businesses to create jobs. More than 2½ thousand Australians have been employed in constructing the Inland Rail alone, which has seen more than 400 companies across the nation share in over $2.2 billion worth of contracts for supplying. And we haven't stopped there. We're about getting people, produce and products to where they are needed. The success of the regions that we're currently experiencing and which accelerated under COVID-19 didn't just happen. It took hard work and on-the-ground leadership. It's a direct result of the entrepreneurial spirit and drive of the local people, infrastructure investment and government policy to connect regional Australia to enable our products to reach markets across the globe. And we wouldn't have all got through this year had it not been for our farmers, truckies, doctors, nurses, community pharmacists, teachers and emergency service personnel. (Time expired)