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

I thank the honourable member for his question and know what a champion he is for the remote towns away from the large cities—regional cities such as Dubbo in his electorate. I know that in so many areas we have the forgotten roads but not the forgotten people—or not for the Nationals and the Liberals. We know how he stands up for people around Mungindi and Gravesend and how he took me just recently to roads around Moree.

It's the Nationals and the Liberals that have put money on the table for these forgotten roads, these roads of neglect that are so vitally important for people. And it's not just in the member for Parkes's electorate. The member for Cowper has made us aware in his electorate of the Taylors Arm Road and the Willawarrin to Macksville Road and the South Bank Road from Eungai Rail through to Tamban. And in Nicholls we know of the Tungamah Road, which is a forgotten road that can apply for money through this program, and the Bangerang Road. In Flynn, there is the Bauhinia Downs to Woorabinda Road and the Taroom to Bauhinia Downs Road. And in Barker there is the Dog Fence road off Browns Well Highway at Loxton, South Australia. It takes the Liberals and the Nationals in coalition to look into these corners, these disparate areas of our nation, and say that, if no-one else has worked on these roads for nearly 50 years, going right back to the Depression, and these roads need to be made safer so that we don't have accidents and people can get to the hospitals and get their kids to school, it is the dynamics of this side of the House that will look after these people and reach out to them so that they can be a part of our nation and be attached to services, like everybody else.

The member for Parkes also asked about any alternative policies. Of course, it was the member for Moreton who immediately, when this came out, suggested that this was not needed and was a waste of money. We have Greens senators who tell us that roads are things of the past. They're not going to utilise roads. Of course, that is what Australians are focused on. They're focused on the Greens-Labor coalition.

The Greens-Labor relationship was on last week. We had the leader of the Greens talking about the relationship that was on. But they had a bad Valentine's Day. They had a bit of a tiff and the relationship is off again. It's on; it's off. It's like Liz Taylor and Richard Burton: it has lots and lots of episodes, but we know where it ends up. And where it ends up is with a road to perdition—a road to perdition for Gladstone, a road to perdition for the Hunter Valley, a road to perdition for so many regional areas that see a Greens-Labor alliance as the mechanism that would bring about such a loss of standard of living, a loss of income prospects in the future and a lesser nation.

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