Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for her question. I know she, as the member representing Devonport, Bernie and King Island, was very pleased to meet today, as was I, with the Air T CEO, board and executives, the new owners of Rex airlines, to further reiterate this government's commitment to regional Australia. I, like the Speaker, welcome Air T and Rex to the gallery today. We look forward to working with you to see you deliver the valuable service for our regional communities across this country.

Our government backed Rex. We committed to keeping it flying until we could secure a buyer. And now Rex is moving on to a new chapter of regional aviation. Because of the work of this government, whether you're travelling Moruya to Sydney, Coober Pedy to Adelaide, Monkey Mia to Perth—or, in fact, from the opposition benches maybe to the crossbench—Rex will continue to get you there. Ensuring Rex kept flying is just one of the ways that we have invested in our regions to keep them connected.

Back here on the ground, while the Nationals are busy playing musical chairs, we're building major infrastructure in their electorates, because someone has to actually do the job of delivering for the regions. In the former shadow assistant treasurer's seat of Cowper, we're making strong progress with the Coffs Harbour bypass, a project promised for decades, announced but not delivered, but now being delivered by the federal and state Labor governments.

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