Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the address-in-reply debate. It is a great honour to represent the seat of Cowper in the 45th Parliament. This is the sixth time that I have been elected to represent this extraordinary district in the Australian parliament. I am proud of the progress that we have made in our region since I was first elected in 2001. In the early 2000s the unemployment rate in Coffs Harbour, for example, was routinely above 10 per cent. Over the last year, it is regularly below the national average, which is a fantastic result for what is very much a lifestyle destination. Areas such as the Nambucca Valley have had unemployment rates in the high teens; today, that unemployment rate is in single digits, and the economy is growing.

Over the past 15 years, we have seen massive progress on the Pacific Highway, starting with the completion of the Bonville deviation, which has saved probably over a dozen lives since it opened. We are expecting to see another 57 kilometres of dual carriageway opening, reducing travel times and saving lives in our region over the next 12 months, which is a further exciting development.

I am proud to have successfully fought for more Public Service jobs in our region. The latest figures show that the total number of positions at the Department of Human Services call centres in Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie have increased from 441 in 2013 to 718, which is a really huge increase. These are new jobs that are supporting our local community, providing local jobs for local people.

Of course, the big change in Cowper has been the very significant redistribution that occurred prior to the last election. Coffs Harbour's northern beaches and the lower Clarence Valley were moved from the electorate of Cowper into the electorate of Page. It was certainly a great honour to represent communities such as Maclean, Ulmarra and Corindi in the northern beaches of Coffs Harbour; regrettably, they were redistributed out of the electorate of Cowper. But I certainly welcomed the opportunity to get to know the people of Port Macquarie and to represent Port Macquarie in this parliament.

There was much discussion about the changes in the electoral boundary that were confirmed by the AEC in 2016. People were not sure how the changes would work, and how it would work having two major regional cities in the one federal electorate. I have always argued that it is important to have a strong, vibrant electorate, and having Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie in the one electorate certainly does mean that the electorate of Cowper is very much a growth engine in regional Australia—a very strong economic unit, showing strong growth in population, showing strong economic growth and showing relatively low unemployment as compared to historical figures. We have actually seen those two major centres of Coffs and Port building the critical mass of the North Coast, which is a really exciting thing. I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to represent Port Macquarie, North Shore and Telegraph Point since the election, and I certainly thank those communities for putting their trust in me.

Port Macquarie is a growing region, with huge potential. Last week I attended the launch of the Sovereign Hills master-planned community in Port Macquarie. Over the next 10 years, this new community will grow to include more than 2,000 new homes. This is really exciting—living in an area that is growing as strongly as the North Coast.

In November last year, we saw the opening of the Charles Sturt University campus—a magnificent new facility which is a huge driver of growth. In the electorate of Cowper, we are certainly blessed to have a number of regional universities. We have a presence, quite clearly, from Charles Sturt University, and there is Southern Cross University up at Coffs Harbour, the University of Newcastle in Port Macquarie, and the University of New South Wales operating the rural clinical schools in Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie. So the universities have a great presence in Cowper, which is certainly buttressing the economic prosperity of our region and providing training so that we have the skilled workforce that regional and rural Australia needs for the future.

In the 45th Parliament, my focus will be on delivering on the commitments that I have made to the electorate. These include the $1.25 million commitment to help fund the upgrade of Port Macquarie Airport. I am very pleased that this commitment is already well on the way to being fulfilled, with the deed of agreement for that project being signed this week at a federal level. The project is being supported by all three levels of government, and the winners out of this will be the travelling public. It is great seeing local, federal and state governments working together to provide upgraded transport infrastructure. And there will be better amenities for travellers, with a new baggage claim area—a much-upgraded facility to assist in handling the ever-increasing passenger load that travels through Port Macquarie Airport.

I am also committed to delivering the promised funding to improve sporting facilities in Port Macquarie at Oxley Oval. These improvements will build on the major redevelopment of the Port Macquarie indoor sports stadium that I recently opened with Mayor Peter Besseling. Port Macquarie has a strong sporting heritage, and this collection of improved facilities will provide the next generations of champions with better training and playing options.

Further north, in the Macleay Valley, I am continuing to work with Macleay Vocational College, a great local educational institutional that is providing opportunities for many young people who would not make it in a conventional setting, who have faced huge barriers to their learning. The Macleay Vocational College is a great facility and certainly welcomed that funding, which will assist in the upgrade or development of a hospitality training centre.

The Australian government is also funding a significant upgrade of security equipment with Kempsey Shire Council, covering Kempsey CBD, and a further expansion of CCTVs in the Kempsey CBD as well as South West Rocks and Crescent Head. It is a $300,000 investment in safer towns, more secure towns, adding to the confidence of people shopping and doing their business in those areas.

On top of these commitments we made during the election campaign, the coalition government is also delivering $2 million through the National Stronger Regions Fund to support a new cinema development in Kempsey. This will be a major driver of economic growth, buttressing the existing commercial CBD, providing greater opportunities for recreation in Kempsey without people having to travel outside Kempsey to visit the cinema.

In the Nambucca Valley the big-ticket item we are seeing at the moment is the replacement of the Macksville bridge, which is a fine piece of infrastructure—built in 1932—but a piece of infrastructure that is way past its use-by date. The bypass of Macksville, getting the trucks out of the main street and getting the bypass of the Macksville bridge, which is so overcapacity at the moment, will be great to see. The bypass of Macksville is a major part of the Pacific Highway upgrade, creating around 350 jobs in the process and creating faster travel times and safer motoring. The construction of the bridge is well advanced and we would hope to see traffic on that bridge, weather permitting, by around the end of the year.

On the Coffs Coast the government is committed to delivering $12 million for the construction of a new allied health facility at Southern Cross University. It is one of our election commitments and an important upgrade to the university's presence in Coffs Harbour. This vital piece of educational infrastructure will allow more young people to train in the region and more young people to stay in the region. It is a fact that when young people train in a regional area they tend to stay there. So that is great news for Coffs Harbour and great news for our region.

The government is also supporting, through the stronger regions program, a $4.1 million upgrade of the Jetty Foreshores in Coffs Harbour and a half-million-dollar upgrade of the international sports centre to help with its hosting of the World Rally Championships. It is a great event that brings tens of thousands of people to the North Coast and places the North Coast on the international stage. Having that improved upgraded facility at the international sports centre makes it easier to host what is a huge event for the region—and a huge event for Australia. It showcases Australia, showcases the North Coast and, particularly, showcases what is on offer in the beautiful hinterland that surrounds Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley. It is a great event indeed.

We also have—as a result of the coalition winning the election—an ability to deliver the $29 million North Coast jobs package. We know on the North Coast the huge competitive advantages that exist in doing business in a regional area, and the North Coast jobs package will allow more businesses to be attracted to the North Coast and will allow provision for funding of high-quality local businesses to grow and expand. It is a great program and will have the potential to yield huge benefits to the North Coast. The local committee for the North Coast jobs package has been formed and is working to develop a localised investment strategy to administer the funds under the North Coast jobs plan. It is a great initiative and one that will create a lot of local jobs.

We have strong and growing industries on the North Coast that are driving our regional economy. Horticulture is making a massive contribution to our region with a massive growth in blueberries at the rate of around 30 per cent per annum. We also have strong growth in avocados, macadamias and other products, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to our region each year.

In the early days of the Howard government I actually secured funding to allow the Oz Berries cooperative to build a packing shed. They were almost a victim of their own success, because, by the time the new packing facility was finished, they had already outgrown it and they needed to expand it again. They have been a huge success story, as they grows from strength to strength. They have recently moved into a former Bunnings Warehouse site, where they have around 4,000 square metres of cool rooms. It is a massive facility, allowing local blueberries to be packed and exported from the region. It is a fantastic facility, showing the massive growth in the blueberry industry and showing how horticulture can contribute massively to our local community. It is a great facility indeed. I have been a very strong supporter of the industry since day one and certainly hope that the industry goes from strength to strength.

I recently visited Indonesia as part of the Indonesia-Australia Business Week and had the opportunity to promote a whole range of Aussie products, including Aussie summer fruits and Aussie beef, and I also took the opportunity to promote blueberries. It is a superfood. We on the North Coast know that, but it was a great opportunity in Indonesia—a market of some 255 million people and on the way to growing to 300 million people—to promote blueberries to the Indonesian market as part of Indonesia-Australia Business Week.

As I said, the education sector is making a massive contribution to our region with those universities that I have mentioned. I am confident that growth in education will continue in our region. I see education as a major driver, as I see agriculture as a major driver. We see our local Norco Co-operative providing fresh milk straight into Shanghai. It is air freighted from the east coast of Australia into Shanghai. Norco is an innovative local co-op that has been growing steadily and progressively, increasing jobs and delivering good farmgate prices to farmers as a result of its ability to provide high-quality products into the local market and its ability to export.

The government has a very ambitious agenda for the 45th Parliament. We have the constant challenge of keeping our nation safe and secure, and we have the constant challenge of ensuring that, as a government, we support strong economic growth and increased job creation. We want to continue to implement important economic reforms, like small business tax cuts, to keep our economy competitive. For an electorate like Cowper, where small and medium business is the core of our regional economy, it is vital that we continue improving the business environment and continue to work to reduce red tape, to streamline paperwork and regulation and to lower taxes. A strong economy is the only way that we can sustainably provide the services and programs that Australia needs to be at its best.

In my portfolio area of agriculture, as Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister, we are continuing to implement the measures in the agriculture white paper—striving to open new markets for Australian produce and striving to streamline processes and reduce red tape in the agricultural field. We have to ensure that we continue to strive to do that. We have introduced new country-of-origin labelling so that consumers can make informed decisions about the origin of their food—a vitally important piece of information that consumers have been calling for for a long period of time. Country-of-origin labelling allows people to buy high-quality Aussie products. People around the world recognise Aussie products for their clean, green reputation—and so do Australian consumers. The new country-of-origin legislation that we are transitioning into will certainly allow consumers to make informed choices.

It will be a challenging three-year term ahead, and I have great confidence that we will continue to see strong growth in the electorate of Cowper. I am very focused as the federal member to meet the challenges of that growth and to assist the community in meetings its aspirations. I am absolutely focused on working towards the commencement of the Coffs Harbour bypass just as quickly as possible. There is significant planning work underway. The geotechnical work and test-drilling started some months back. There is still a lot of design work to do before that project can go ahead—an important billion-dollar project—and it is one that I look forward to seeing commence in this term of government. It is an honour to represent the electorate of Cowper in this term of parliament. I look forward to working with the community to further their interests, and to ensure that we create jobs and opportunities for the people of the North Coast.

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