Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lingiari for her question. If we want to see what delivery in regional and remote Australia looks like, we need look no further than the member for Lingiari. She does such an amazing job representing her communities, and our thoughts are with communities that may be impacted by the Daly River flood, which is coming soon.

I'm proud to be part of a government that's delivering for our regions. We're investing billions of dollars in remote, rural and regional Australia whilst those opposite are investing in self-interest. Just yesterday I joined colleagues to announce the Regional and Remote Airport Support Program, providing financial relief to regional councils who were impacted when Rex Airlines went into voluntary administration—and while those opposite were exercising voluntary self-destruction.

We are delivering in programs across all portfolios to help regional Australians with health, with housing and with education, from home batteries to cheaper child care to more home-care packages. We're delivering $10,000 payments to assist housing apprentices with cost-of-living pressures while ensuring Australia gets the workforce it needs to build more homes across our country. We've waived HECS debts for doctors and nurse practitioners working in our regional communities, to attract them outside of our big cities, while those opposite have waved goodbye to one another. We're delivering cheaper medicines from 1 January this year. Our plan is to make the biggest cut to the cost of medicines on the PBS—

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