Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

Congratulations to Labor on their victory in May. I warn Labor against the hubris that sometimes come with big majorities. Unfortunately, we saw it with the Prime Minister ripping up 30 years of convention between the government of the day and the opposition by personally cutting the opposition's staffing allocation. That not only puts people working in this place out of work but also makes it difficult for the opposition to hold the government to account, and I'm sure that was the intent of it. I think that, if the Prime Minister says that he respects the parliament and respects the conventions of parliament, that act did not show that.

I want to acknowledge the departed colleagues of mine, in particular Senator Perin Davey, Nationals senator for New South Wales, whose home town is Deniliquin. Perin Davey was an incredible advocate for the people of regional Australia and did an amazing job in the shadow water portfolio. I'd also like to acknowledge the former member for Menzies, Keith Wolahan, one of the finest people I have ever worked with in my life. I thank the Nicholls voters. It's an honour and privilege to be re-elected, and Nicholls is one of the finest parts of Australia, producing enormous amounts of food products and exports for Australia. It is a magnificent part of the world.

But their problems are more acute than ever. The cost-of-living issues still reside with us. Electricity prices have gone through the roof. Energy is unreliable and expensive. We still have incredible problems with irrigation water allocations and uncertainty around our agricultural businesses because of the changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan—regrettable changes—that were made in the last term of government and also because of infrastructure. We'd like to see the Albanese government get on with delivering regional infrastructure.

I fear there are policies that the Albanese government are pursuing that will make things worse for Australian people in the long term. The superannuation bill—this friendless policy to tax unrealised capital gains in superannuation—is going to be reintroduced, and regional businesses, including farm enterprises, will be affected, as will people who are putting money away into their super now. It's a blatant money grab, not indexed, which will hurt agriculture and hurt people in regional Australia. The concept of taxing unrealised capital gains has so many technical problems around it, including who is responsible for valuing assets and properties, that it's going to be a very complicated and difficult policy to implement. When there is complicated policy to implement, what does that mean? It means costs for people.

I'd also like to say that it's a great honour to be asked to serve as assistant shadow minister for regional health and regional education along with my friend the member for Flinders. These are two areas that I'm incredibly passionate about and have had personal involvement in. Indeed, in regional health we are about to see the blossoming of a great piece of coalition policy: the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network. That moved Commonwealth-funded places for a medical degree out of cities and into the regions, up to the Department of Rural Health at the University of Melbourne's Shepparton campus. That means we've had kids studying there for over four years—in some cases longer because there is a Bachelor of Biomedicine that you do before it—and they have developed roots in the country. They've met people. In some cases, they've bought or rented houses. When they graduate with their medical degrees, they're going to stay practising in regional Australia. That is a great policy step forward, and it just shows you what you can do if you put in some long-term, visionary policy. It was put together by the coalition in 2018, and we're about to see the first graduates of that medical degree.

Regional education is a great passion of mine. I wasn't able to get to a big city to study in tertiary education, but, to my fortune, the government of the day had supported the University of Melbourne having an agricultural campus in Dookie, which is near the town of Shepparton, and I was able to do my agricultural science degree there. Also, La Trobe University ran their MBA program in a great facility at the Shepparton campus, and that meant I was able to get a master's degree while still living in a regional area. The coalition government supported La Trobe to expand its offering and its campuses into Shepparton, and that's a great thing for people who live in the regions.

So health and education are very important, and it's very important not to forget regional people when we're delivering on these policy areas.

See this speech in context