Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

and we get that kind of interjection: 'My mother's second cousin twice removed once visited a farm.' That's Labor's link to the bush. They simply do not understand regional Australia, so they cannot represent it in this place.

Lake Grace is a small county town in Western Australia where the current price of unleaded is over $2 a litre and diesel is $2.36 a litre. These are families that need petrol in the tanks of their cars just to live their lives. They live hundreds and hundreds of kilometres from a major centre. They live in a very isolated part of this great continent and of our great state. In a major centre like Geraldton, which has a population in excess of 60,000, I think—Senator Smith might correct me—it is $1.95 for unleaded and $2.13 for diesel. In Onslow, further north—admittedly a bit more remote again—it is $2.42 for unleaded and $2.35 for diesel. These are people that need to fill their tanks. It's not an optional extra; it's life. The cost-of-living pressures on Australians living in regional Australia are even more heightened than they are on those living in the city. We understand the pain that those in the city are feeling, but those in the bush are feeling it even more.