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

But, when I went back to university, I did agricultural science. What an incredible profession to be involved in—the growing of food, the technological advancements in growing food, trying to feed people and trying to make sure that South-East Asia, Asia and places further afield have the benefit of our sustainably produced agricultural produce.

I was disappointed with some of Labor's attitudes towards agriculture in the last term of government. It's just an area I don't think they get. The biosecurity tax was withdrawn eventually, but it was a bad idea. It showed disrespect for people who run agricultural businesses in Australia to think that you could introduce a levy that said, 'We're going to allow people to bring food products into the country to compete with you.' Okay, we're a trading nation. We've got to accept that. But to then say to those Australian businesses, 'And you're going to pay their biosecurity costs so they can bring the food in and compete with you'—it was a nonsense. Someone eventually saw sense, and it was withdrawn, but the fact it was put out there shows a bit of an anti-agriculture flavour to the government which I wasn't incredibly impressed and neither were the people in my electorate.

Then we come to the live exports. It's not an issue that I was hugely involved in. It was very much a Western Australian issue. I visited Western Australia as part of a backbench committee with the member for Durack, and she help me to understand the importance of these industries to her constituents. Again, it's an issue I don't think Labor got. They had an ideological fixation that we're going to ban live export. There were problems, many years ago, in the industry. The industry worked incredibly hard and was given an ultimatum by the previous coalition government to improve animal safety standards. They did so in a very impressive way.

What's going to happen now that we've banned it? The countries that still have markets for live sheep imports into their own countries are going to get it from places like those in Africa that don't have the animal standards, so it actually decreases animal welfare in that industry globally. There are things that people might not like doing, but, if we stop doing them in a way that's sustainable and responsible, other countries are going to take up the slack in a way that's not sustainable and not responsible. That's what's going to happen with live export. I also think that, in terms of labour, we had a really good plan that a lot of people were keen on in my electorate, before I came into parliament, called the ag visa, which was going to put people into agricultural jobs on a pathway to permanency, but, regrettably, that hasn't been followed through by the Albanese government.

Infrastructure is really important to the regions. Part of the reason I ran for parliament and part of the reason I ran for parliament in the National Party—I'm not a born and bred Nat; I came to it a bit later. I had a great admiration for earlier Labor governments of the eighties and nineties who got business, but I saw the coalition, driven by the National Party, take infrastructure in the regions very seriously. We saw both infrastructure that enabled productivity for farm businesses, manufacturing and the infrastructure that gets people to move to regional places in the first place. For example, the Echuca-Moama Bridge over the Murray River which has linked that Victorian town with the New South Wales town over the river has seen significant improvements in transport movement across the Murray River. It was driven by a Victorian coalition government, and it was acted on by a federal coalition government. I saw the coalition come in, take it seriously and try and get things done. I hope, one day, I'm part of a coalition government that will do that, because we've got another bridge that needs to be built across the Murray River—the Yarrawonga-Mulwala bridge. I am not blaming the federal Labor government for that at this point, because the Victorian Labor government are holding that up. The New South Wales government has decided which route it will take, and I'm hoping they can drive the project. Victoria don't even know it exists. When it comes time to fund that project, I really encourage federal Labor to do that, unless we're in power and we do it.

There are some other cultural areas where it's not as apparent how important this is to regional communities as a bridge, but it is important. The Shepparton Art Museum is a great example. It was funded by the coalition government and driven by the knowledge that we've got to move people to regional areas, particularly professional people, and, more particularly, health professionals. If we build cultural institutions, like the incredible Shepparton Art Museum, then we help to achieve that.

There are a number of other infrastructure projects that deserve funding, and it disappoints me that the cupboard is bare when it comes to regional funding at the moment. The Growing Regions Program has not had any new money put into. We try to explain to this parliament, in the best possible way, how important this is for regional communities. The link roads in Kilmore; the safety upgrades to High Street in Broadford—there's a bridge being built over what will be the inland rail route, but there needs to be some traffic safety features; the Shepparton sports and events stadium; the Seymour RSL club; and the completion of the Welsford link road are all important things to regional communities.

Shepparton is my home town and I love it. It's not as obvious a place for tourists to go as the Gold Coast or Noosa, but people go there for what's called 'the visitor economy'. There's always an event on in Shepparton, whether it be BMX or beach volleyball. If we could build the Shepparton sports and events stadium, we would get so much extra leverage in economic activity because of it.

In the minute I've got left, I also encourage the government to focus and look at the successes of the coalition government in the health workforce. The most important one of these is the Murray-Darling medical school, which has moved medical degrees outside the big cities to places like Bathurst and Shepparton. At the end of 2025, we are going to have 30 young people graduate with a degree in medicine. They have been living in Shepparton, Bathurst or wherever else for a long period—four years—and are more likely to stay there and practice, because they've put down roots in those communities. We need more of that.

In terms of education, I'm very honoured to be the shadow minister for regional education. I'm the beneficiary of a degree in agricultural science from Dookie, a university campus outside Melbourne, and an MBA from university campus in Shepparton. These are some of the things that we need to talk about in this term of parliament.

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