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

As a regional MP, what I like to remind everyone in this chamber when I get up—everyone opposite and especially on the crossbenches—is that regional Australia is the economic powerhouse of this nation. To give you some examples, the four biggest exports from Australia are all from regional Australia. Coal is one of our four biggest exports, iron ore is one of our four biggest exports, gas is one of our four biggest exports, and, obviously, food/ag is one of the four biggest exports. None of them are produced in the cities. Of our $650 billion of exports, $400 billion of those come from regional Australia. It's actually more than that, but it's $400 billion just from those four exports.

You would think that, when the teals, the Greens and the inner-city Labor MPs charge up their EVs overnight with coal fired power and they go for a drive in the country, they'd be driving out there to say—guess what— thank you. You'd think they'd be driving to the country to say, 'Thank you, regional Australia, for the wealth that you produce for this country and the jobs that you provide across Australia.' But, no, what we get from the inner-city teals, Greens and Labor MPs is demonisation. It's not good enough.

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