Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

They were very good at ribbon cutting but not very good at actually announcing projects of their own and funding and delivering them to their communities. In fact, Member for Riverina, I'm not sure about you, but I'd like you to fact-check this for me. I'm still waiting to see the first Growing Regions Program project completed and a ribbon being cut. I don't think they've finished anything in three years. There's no funding in their budget this year that provides a pathway to the community facilities that we need in our regional communities.

I have to draw a stark contrast between my electorate of Gippsland and the previous speaker's, who proudly said that about $100 million worth of projects were announced in Dunkley—the way the Labor Party treated the people of Gippsland with contempt during this election. They did actually make one promise. In the entire electorate of Gippsland, the Labor Party committed $500,000 to a senior citizens facility in Bairnsdale. Across the entire electorate of Gippsland, that was their sole contribution. Contrast that with the electorate of the previous speaker, Dunkley, with over $100 million worth of projects.

And contrast that with my experience on the ground in the seat of Bendigo, where, once the Labor Party realised that Andrew Lethlean was tearing the house down, was making massive inroads on their primary vote and was about to win the seat, suddenly we caught the attention of the Australian Labor Party, and the largesse started to flow. After 27 years of taking the seat of Bendigo for granted and starving them of resources, the Labor Party realised they were in trouble, and the money started to flow into Bendigo.

It's this approach which has infuriated rural and regional Australians. It's this approach which has made the people who work and live in rural and regional Australia so angry with an Albanese government which has no agenda for growth in regional Australia and is so obsessed with city votes that it's prepared to buy those votes with the HECS 20 per cent debt reduction. As I've explained previously, this was the most cynical, industrial-scale tertiary-level vote-buying scheme that I've ever seen in my 17 years in this place, because it disproportionately benefits the wealthiest students in those metropolitan areas and screws over the country kids every day of the week.

Time's against me, and I know that I'll have the opportunity to continue my comments at a later date, but, at that point when I resume, I'll make it very clear that only on this side of the House do we have a plan for the future of regional Australia, which stands in stark contrast to the Albanese Labor government's continued neglect and—

I can't hear you. You're so far back, Shayne. Why aren't you down the front? I can't hear you; you're so far away! Come closer.

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