Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Scrolling through the headlines this morning to see the response to last night's budget, I came across a comment from one Luke Douglas, who said:

Watching Dr Jim presenting the budget last night was like watching Santa bypassing your home on Christmas Eve.

I couldn't have put it better myself. It would be funny if it weren't so serious. The Treasurer's budget sleigh, pulled by reindeers renamed Slasher, Dashed Hopes, Cut It and Victims, flew straight past the homes of regional Australians, gleefully calling their empty stockings pork barrels. One notably empty stocking in my own electorate belongs to Southern Cross University in Coffs Harbour. The Treasurer has slashed the $27 million previously budgeted that was allocated to complete the campus's health services precinct. The precinct would have had a health clinic with speech and voice labs, mental health and therapy rooms, rehabilitation and exercise studios, and consultation rooms. These facilities would have created local jobs, guaranteed essential healthcare services and contributed to the growth and prosperity of the region. Are jobs, health and education not supposedly the focus of this new government? Or was that just for their metro mates? There was no, 'Ho, ho, ho.' It was all, 'No, no, no.'

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