Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always a great pleasure to speak on an appropriation bill because it gives me an opportunity to speak about some amazing things that are happening in my electorate.

I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge some of the local government representatives that are going around again. My electorate is made up of four or five different shires, some completely within it and some on the fringe. It starts over on the Gold Coast, bordering up to Robina, and finishes over at Toowoomba—just under 8,000 square kilometres, quite a significant landmass. I will start from the western side and work across.

The current mayor of Lockyer Valley is Tanya Milligan, who has done an amazing job and has probably done—I'm probably not doing her justice and not getting the number of years of service correct—around 20 years service in local government. She's full of energy with the way she represents her community with empathy, and the way she is able to somehow extract money—particularly from the federal government when we were in government—is nothing short of magician like. Her deputy mayor is a fellow by the name of Jason Cook, who goes by the nickname of Jughead. This is his first term in council. He's not going to go around again, so I want to acknowledge his contribution. Jughead and I both had a very similar arrival to politics; we were both transport operators. He has a very similar style of directness and lack of empathy for fools. He was an incredible local councillor. To you, Jughead and your darling: when you travel through France, enjoy the wine. Take as long as you need to get over there to flip a few homes. Learn the language. I look forward to both of you returning to the beautiful Lockyer Valley.

To each of the other candidates in the Lockyer Valley—I don't believe any others might be standing down, but, if they are, I want to acknowledge their service.

In the Scenic Rim we've got a number of personalities standing for Mayor: Tom Sharp and the existing deputy mayor, Jeff McConnell—both incredibly talented man who will be contesting the mayoralty. They are equal in strength and, if successful at the other end of the election process, will serve our community well.

I want to acknowledge some of the local councillors in my electorate, in particular a gentleman by the name of Duncan McInnes, probably the oldest counsellor, who was until recently the most significant dairy grower in the region. Duncan has done it tough in the last six months; his wife Mary passed away of cancer. Mary's dying wish was that he contest council elections again. I think she said that he'd crawl up the walls if he didn't have something to do, and council gives him that engagement. He is incredible with his work ethic. To you, Duncan: I wish you every success through the campaign. I note that you have been challenged, and at this stage I'm just unaware who that person is, but it is public knowledge.

To the rest of the counsellors who are contesting seats: to step up into higher office at a local government is a great privilege and something I want to acknowledge and encourage because, the greater the diversity of candidates that come forward, the stronger our community is.

Over in the Logan City Council, part of my electorate picks up a couple of divisions. One of the divisions there is not being contested by the current holder, Counsellor Laurie Koranski. She is such a ball of energy. I've worked with Laurie for the last 10 years, building a suburb called Yarrabilba. She has been nothing short of an Energizer Bunny; she just goes and goes and goes. She and her husband, who used to be the local dentist, are going to some time to sit back and maybe buy a caravan and travel around Australia.

The Mayor of the City of Logan is a fellow by the name of Darren Power. Darren's been 33 years in local government and is not going to go around again. He has made an incredible contribution and commitment to public life. Darren has 10 or 15 years on me but looks like he's 40. He spends time in the gym, his shirts are tight, his biceps bulge. I normally run into him each morning at the gym, actually! You should be pulling me up for misleading the House, Deputy Speaker!

To you, Darren, in all seriousness, my friend: your contribution has been steady, steadfast and balanced. Logan has had its bag of headaches, with the administrator being appointed to the council for corruption allegations of previous councils. He weathered that storm, got through it and has put Logan city on a course that he should be able to leave feeling a sense of great pride.

The two candidates running for mayor there are a fellow by the name of Jon Raven, who I just sent a text to as I will be unable to attend his campaign launch at short notice, and a former member of this place, the honourable Brett Raguse, a Labor member. Both candidates are Labor candidates, both equally up to the task, and I wish them well. Whoever wins that battle, I look forward to working with them for the betterment of our communities.

Over on the Gold Coast is Tom Tate, who hosted the Commonwealth Games. I worked closely with him during the Christmas period, where we had the devastating tornado that went through the Gold Coast, Tamborine and Logan. Tom is a former developer. He brings that commercial common sense to the office of the Mayor of the Gold Coast. He is a no-nonsense guy. He gets to the root of the problem as quickly and effectively as he can. He does have the best interests of Gold Coast residents in mind, and, in particular, the residents who are in the areas of ours that overlap.

There is Councillor Glenn Tozer. Most of his division takes in Springbrook, Mudgeeraba and the surrounding areas. He is another guy noteworthy for his incredible work ethic. The community is truly blessed to have someone as energetic and committed to the community. It's a pleasure to work with all of them, and I wish them all the very best and success.

With the few moments left available to me, I want to take up some of the points that the member for Bruce made about being better economic managers. It's particularly salient with the appropriation bills that are before us. He came in waxing lyrical that the Liberal Party shouldn't be saying they're the better economic managers. It goes without saying, but I thought I'd just outlay some facts; the realities. Before I got to my feet, I googled 'who do Australians believe the better economic managers are for our country'. The poll that I looked at had 73.4 per cent support for the coalition as better economic managers.

The member for Bruce also mentioned that we had left this incredible debt when Labor came to office. He claimed it was nearly $1 trillion. The reason that Labor will never be better economic managers than us is that they can't read the numbers. The debt is still not $1 trillion. When we left, net debt was about $500 billion and gross debt was about $800 billion.

Don't let a good story get in the way. I also want to remind all those about the debt situation when we went through COVID. Love him or hate him, former prime minister, the member for Cook, Scott Morrison's legacy will be the contribution he made to our country in steering us through COVID. He and the then Treasurer had tough decisions to make when it was time to wind back the JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments. I remind all that those on the other side, who were in opposition at the time, cried blue murder. They said the economy was going to fall off a cliff. They wanted to continue the spending. They were committed to continuing the spending. We had to fight them tooth and nail to say: 'No, that's enough. We have to start getting people back to work. We've got to get our economy back to some type of normality.' The member for Hinkler is in the room. Do you remember when we had those desperate fights with the then opposition, trying to say to them that enough is enough?

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