Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If that wasn't a case of the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is. I'm actually delivering this speech early in response to today's MPI, where Labor is alleging that the coalition government is failing to deliver for regional Australia. I asked to speak on it, but it was booked out in 20 minutes—no doubt because my colleagues on this side of the chamber are sick to death of Labor pretending to care about the bush. It is disgusting that Labor are exploiting the worst drought in a century in cheap, political pointscoring. If there is one party that doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to defending the bush, it's the Labor Party. Labor sold regional Australia down the toilet a long time ago.

Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we? First, it was the great neoliberal traders Hawke and Keating who decided to sell Qantas. What a great idea that was! Now regional Australia has to pay more for flying regionally than it costs to fly overseas. After that there was the privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank. In the old days, the Commonwealth Bank used to have a development bank that would lend to farmers. After privatisation, that got rolled into business banking and the CBA, like every other bank in this country, became obsessed with housing rather than driving business and investment, especially in the regions. Of course, selling the CBA also meant that branches would close down in regional centres—and they have.

The next thing Keating did was introduce superannuation, and what a boon that has been for the bush—not! Superannuation has destroyed the income of people in the bush. Can you imagine if we went back, say, 40 years to when people used to get their pay in little yellow packets and some white-collared finance shark with their hair slicked back drove around all the country towns, pulling up in a sports car and taking 10 per cent of your income and telling you to come and see him when you turn 60 and he may or may not give it back to you depending on how good a strategy he had investing and risking your money? Why would you give this guy your money? You wouldn't. But, of course, that's exactly what happens every week. Millions of dollars gets sucked out of the pockets of the battlers in the bush and sent to the blowhards in Sydney and Melbourne to manage, all for a small cost of around $37 billion a year in management fees. That's great for creating jobs in the inner city and for Labor voters, but none of this money is ever reinvested in the bush, is it? No. The Hawke-Keating Labor government destroyed the bush with their reckless, neoliberal privatisation and centralised saving agenda. The industry funds are laughing all the way to the bank. The unions can't believe their luck. I'll be honest: the coalition sold out its personal responsibility values when it didn't stop this cancer called superannuation.

Of course, no discussion about Labor and the bush would be complete if we didn't talk about the complete and utter devastation that Queensland Labor has imposed upon regional Queensland. When I first moved to Brisbane in 1988 to start my studies at UQ, after 30 years of responsible coalition government Queensland was the powerhouse state of the nation. We had the cheapest energy in the world, we were a tourist hotspot and, most importantly, there was very little difference in opportunities across the regions. That's no longer the case, as the only growing sector in the Queensland economy is the bureaucracy sector in George Street, funded by bribes from ditzy Anna and dodgy Jackie to try to win votes in their ever-shrinking inner-city base. The rest of the state is broken, thanks to Labor mismanagement.

Thirty years ago, my home town of Chinchilla had a maternity ward and no poker machines. Today it has poker machines and no maternity ward. There is no greater indictment of how utterly incompetent and morally bankrupt the Labor Party is than this statistic. The introduction of poker machines in Queensland by the so-called virtuous Goss government at the behest of unions was the start of the destruction of regional Queensland. As battlers in the bush became addicted to these dirty, stinking, one-armed, mechanical parasites, the royalties flowed to the corrupt Labor government. We never heard a word from corruption-busting Tony Fitzgerald about the destruction that gambling does to regional communities, did we?

Then, in the late nineties, Labor started shutting down regional maternity wards. Today, over 30 regional maternity wards have been shut down across Queensland and women in the bush are left to fend for themselves. The biggest cause of premature death of women in Third World countries is childbirth. Thanks to Labor, Queensland has become a Third World country.

Hospitals in the bush aren't just about health care; they are critical economic drivers. Just about every nurse at Chinchilla Hospital—

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rennick, there is a point of order. Senator Urquhart?

Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Acting Deputy President, I draw your attention to standing order 194(1), which says:

A senator shall not digress from the subject matter of any question under discussion, or anticipate the discussion of any subject which appears on the Notice Paper.

At the beginning of his contribution, Senator Rennick spoke about the MPI which is coming up later and said that he is speaking now in anticipation of a discussion that appears later on the Notice Paper for today.

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Seselja on a point of order?

Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance, Charities and Electoral Matters) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, Madam Acting Deputy President. As you'd be aware, senators' statements are wide ranging and the senator is quite within his rights to talk about his concerns for regional Australia. There is no gag on talking about regional Australia simply because there will be an MPI later on in the day.

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order; I'm advised that that standing order has been interpreted liberally in the past. I call on Senator Rennick to continue his contribution.

Honourable senators interjecting—

Senator Rennick will be heard in silence; senators on both sides will cease interjecting. Senator Rennick, you may continue.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. Just about every nurse at Chinchilla Hospital was married to a farmer, and when years were tough it was the nurses' incomes that kept the farms going. I know that because my mother was a nursing midwife who would keep the ship steady when the family farm was going through drought. I would like to add that when the LNP did govern in Queensland between 2012 and 2015, they reopened three maternity wards, and we will do that again next year if elected into government.

Then there were the council amalgamations. My home town once had its own council, as did many other small towns. My father was a third-generation councillor, back when it was unpaid. Now we take orders from another town up the road—great for democracy and regional representation that is!

I should point out that it was a Queensland Labor government that introduced vegetation management laws that have restricted property rights for farmers. Today, farmers are being locked up for feeding mulga to their stock to keep them alive in drought. Seriously, some of the people in Labor should come out to Charleville and Quilpie to see just how much mulga is out there. You've got to manage this stuff, as you do with all vegetation. You just can't leave it. If you do, when there is a fire the impact is devastating. That's not just my opinion; even the hippies in Nimbin are blaming the Greens for being against fire hazard reduction.

And there is more: Labor is shutting down agricultural colleges. If you care about the environment, why would you shut those down? Our farmers are the ones who manage the land. If you want to look after it, then surely the best way to do that is to make sure they're up to date with best practice land management skills. But the reality is that Labor doesn't give a rat's pyjamas about the bush. They never have, and they never will. Labor is throwing beekeepers out of state forests, throwing fishermen off their boats and throwing roo-shooters off properties.

And last, but not least, there is privatisation. Queensland Labor went on a selling spree—lotteries, the trains, airports, ports, forestry plantations, gas assets, wind assets and motorways. One of the chief architects behind this was none other than Senator Watt, another typical Labor neoliberal traitor. Compare and contrast with what was built in the 30 years prior to Labor coming to power back in the eighties: Burdekin Dam; Wivenhoe Dam; the industrial powerhouse of Gladstone, with its aluminium smelters; the opening up of the Bowen Basin; Stanwell Power Station—

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rennick, please resume your seat. Senator Gallacher on a point of order?

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I raise standing order 193(3). Senator Rennick has called Senator Watt a traitor, which is clearly in breach of that standing order and highly disorderly.

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Rennick, it does impugn an improper motive and it would help the business of the Senate if you could please withdraw those remarks.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw, Madam Acting Deputy President.

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Rennick.

Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another Labor neoliberal sellout. Compare and contrast that to what was built in the 30 years prior to Labor coming to power: Burdekin Dam, Wivenhoe Dam, the industrial powerhouse of Gladstone with the aluminium smelters, the opening of the Bowen Basin, Stanwell Power Station, Callide Power Station, Tarong Power Station, the Townsville casino, regional universities, world-class tourist facilities, and so on. And I should mention Brisbane, which was once just a big country town, but, like a frangipani blooming in the tropical paradise of Queensland, it came of age with the Commonwealth Games, World Expo, the Riverside Expressway and the opening of the Gateway Bridge. The Morrison coalition government, like all coalition governments of years gone by, believe in the bush. We'll stand strong, lending support to the regions as they endure the worst drought we've seen in a century.