Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I want to get up to talk about a few things in my adjournment speech tonight. Firstly, I will acknowledge those opposite. The Australian Labor Party obviously had great success at the recent federal election, in the sense of the number of seats they won, so I certainly acknowledge that. I do make the point, though, that the primary votes of the Labor Party—because of the preferential voting system we have in Australia—are interesting. Thirty-four per cent to the coalition and 31 per cent to Labor isn't that stark a difference. But obviously the preferences and the way they work was very advantageous to them.

I also want to acknowledge, too, that there were three first speeches this afternoon by three of my colleagues, federal Nat colleagues. I want to acknowledge the three of them: Alison Penfold, David Batt and Jamie Chaffey. They were all just amazing speeches. There were themes in the three speeches, too. They all spoke of the importance of family and community to them, they all professed a belief in their Christian faith and they all spoke about their experiences as children and as adults in small business, and the importance of small business—and family businesses for some of them. So I just want to acknowledge those as well.

I did this in the MPI, but, to go back to the election results—and I don't say this with any pride or arrogance—I make the point that the divide in election results between the city and the country is quite interesting, as a federal Nat MP. The Nats haven't lost a seat in the lower house in a federal election since 2007. We've won seats back since then and haven't lost them through the period. It's interesting to observe that there's a stark contrast between city and country Australia at the moment. I make that as a casual observation.

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