Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Kingsford Smith for letting me bat right through the innings. It's obviously been great to have a full day of questions. I reject the premise of the question on the basis that I have not seen, in my electorate—which is a major renewable electorate—the thousands of jobs that he claims that they support. I can assure you that, as you go past the major renewable precincts, you certainly see lots of wind towers but you don't see the so-called thousands of jobs. That is why we make sure that we support where the jobs are. That is why the job of the National Party is to diligently go over this proposal in such a form that we can report back to our people that we have done our best to make sure that we protect their jobs, that, over the coming decades, we protect their standard of living and that we protect their capacity to pay off the houses that they have bought for their families, the cars and the education. That that is the role of the Nationals in regional areas.

I'm happy for the member for Kingsford Smith to come to New England. It's an open invitation. We can travel around, and, if he can find these thousands of jobs, then I would thank him very much for that—because they are just not there.

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