Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

What about Taree? What has this government got against Taree, against the Lyne electorate and against regional Australia? As a new MP, I had hoped that the PM would live up to the comments he made on 3 May. He said:

This is a time of profound opportunity for our nation.

We have everything we need to seize this moment and make it our own.

And we must do it together, all of us.

Because for Australia to realise our full potential, for our nation to be its very best, every Australian must have the opportunity to be their best.

To serve our Australian values—we must value every Australian and Labor will govern for every Australian.

Well, let me tell you, this government, after just four months, is not governing for all Australians. Regional communities like mine are being left behind.

I think the reception the Prime Minister received at the recent bush summit exemplifies the divide in this country and the feeling of being forgotten by this government. It's already clear that this government is playing favourites, and I've been around long enough to sniff a whiteboard in the air from that side. The Prime Minister's favouritism for his city-centric base and this government's neglect of the regions and regional Australia can be seen in my electorate in a myriad of ways. I know I've been in trouble this week in question time for being a bit too exuberant in my interjections. I do respect the fact that members should be heard in silence, but it's too much to expect me to sit silent while this government has gloated about policies that are hurting my electorate.

During the election I called for an urgent care clinic in Taree. It's a policy and an initiative that will benefit my electorate. I'm here for outcomes, and that's why I support it. Bulk-billing rates in my electorate have fallen by 10 per cent in the last four years. It's only getting tougher to see a GP, and Manning base hospital gets slammed as a result. The question is: how many of the government's 137 urgent care clinics operate or will operate in my electorate? The answer is zero. Labor failed to match my election commitment and, despite writing to the minister and my persistent calls to the minister and the government in this place, I've been told no. There will be no urgent care clinic in Taree. There will be nothing to break the seismic service gap that exists between Coffs Harbour and Newcastle, which my electorate sits squarely in the middle of. This is not the government governing for all Australians. The government's response feels like partisanship on health, the last place where this should be played.

Now, on energy, again, my electorate, like those of many of my colleagues on this side, feels the ire of the Albanese government. The Prime Minister and his minister for climate change and energy are recklessly driving Australians down a renewables-only path. Like I've said repeatedly this week, renewables are not reliable for base-load power, and they do not have a social licence. It's costing Australians today—and future generations—in their hip pocket and in their energy security.

The Prime Minister expects my electorate to bear the brunt of this transition. His policy is riding roughshod over regional people. He expects my constituents, from Seal Rocks to Hawks Nest, to have their livelihoods, pristine waters and way of life jeopardised for the sake of his industrial wind turbines and his ideologically driven energy policy. He expects farmers across regional Australia to sit back as he installs thousands of kilometres worth of transmission lines through their prime, private agricultural land—land that our nation, and indeed the world, relies on for food and fibre security. He expects industry and businesses like Jamestrong—Taree's second-largest private sector employer, which produces over 100 million aluminium cans per year—and Tomago Aluminium, Australia's largest aluminium smelter, to pay exorbitant prices for electricity as the result of a rush to an intermittent, unreliable source of energy, placing them at a significant competitive disadvantage to their offshore competitors.

This government says it governs for all Australians, but in Lyne we're not feeling it. Regional communities aren't asking for more; they're asking for a fair go. You can't call yourself a government if you don't govern for all Australians. (Time expired)

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