Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

We really saw in the recent budget the new Labor government's lack of commitment and what their real story is. I call the recent budget the no-hope, no-solutions budget. It had predictions of higher power prices and higher mortgage costs, but there were no solutions. It was a no-hope, no-solutions budget. The great disappointment in the budget obviously was the real cut to infrastructure projects and programs within regional Australia. That was a real kick in the guts obviously to regional Australia.

Added to that is the insult, not necessarily to me and people in this chamber but to the people who live in regional Australia, by those opposite—and many have done it, including the now Prime Minister—saying that National and Liberal MPs in regional Australia were pork-barrelling. When we advocate for money and get funding for projects in our regions—for our bridges, roads, hospitals and sporting upgrades—those opposite insult every single person who lives in regional Australia by calling that pork-barrelling. It's an absolute insult.

Rubbed into that is them pulling money from regional programs. We've seen them pull the BBRF. We saw in the budget about $9.6 billion ripped out of regional grants programs and $4.7 billion ripped out of the forward estimates for regional programs. At the same time there is the absolute hypocrisy of those opposite because suddenly they gave to Dan Andrews, for the Suburban Rail Loop, $2.2 billion of the money they ripped out of the regions. There was nothing from Infrastructure Australia on that. Not only did they insult every person who lives in regional Australia but also they were hypocrites with what they did with that.

We shouldn't be surprised that they don't understand regional Australia. Regional Australians know that the government don't get them. When you look at a map of Australia, you can hardly see the red bits in the regions, because regional Australians know that those opposite don't get them. They know that the Labor Party don't get them. That is why they reject Labor and you don't see much red on the map.

This actually goes back a long way. This actually goes back in the Labor Party to Paul Keating's day. Do you know what Paul Keating once said about National MPs? He said all Nat MPs want to do is build roads to nowhere. What an insult that is. He probably thought it was funny as well. That's how far this goes back with the Labor Party. They're not roads to nowhere. It was the Nationals that established the Roads to Recovery Program. We institutionalised that into spending because we know how important those roads are. They're not roads to nowhere; they're roads to our houses, our communities, our farms, our hospitals and our schools.

Another program that Paul Keating and Labor would think was for roads to nowhere was the Bridge Renewal Program which we brought in when we came into government in 2013. That was another very important program. We know and hear that Labor don't get regional Australia. Obviously regional Australia understand that, too, because you don't see a lot of red on the map.

The other thing I want to add is another example of this. They were talking about skill shortages and job shortages. That is hypocrisy. We as the previous government did work to bring in the ag visa program. As the Leader of the Nationals said, we have a huge shortage of workers in regional Australia. We negotiated the ag visa. We were going to roll it out through South-East Asia to get more workers into regional Australia to help. Guess what the Labor Party did on their first day? They chopped it. It's gone. They are not going to extend the ag visa program. So, again, they have no understanding of regional Australia. They don't care, and they insult us with their hypocrisy.

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