Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on how the government is supporting regional Australian families and strengthening local communities by investing in critical infrastructure? How would different views affect regional Australia?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the good member for Flynn for his question. Thanks to our good economic management, our good economic plan, we can look after regional families. We can look after regional farmers. We can look after drought affected communities, and we can back small, family owned regional businesses. And that's what we're doing. We're supporting regional families throughout the drought. Unfortunately, it is prolonged, and it is ongoing. We've provided $1.8 billion worth of assistance. We can, we need to and we must do more, and we will. We're supporting local governments in 60 drought affected regions—60 drought affected councils—to speed up local infrastructure works and generate local jobs in those councils. We're also supporting strawberry farmers, and of course that's important. I appreciate the bipartisan support that's been offered; we obviously need to support our strawberry producers during this crisis. We're also supporting places as the Gladstone St Vincent de Paul. St Vinnies do a wonderful job right across the nation, and certainly in Gladstone. We've provided $492,000 through the Building Better Regions Fund, providing air conditioning, better storage and a much-needed face lift for the centre there in Gladstone.

We're also providing money for farming families. I was asked about regional farming families. There are family owned and operated trucking transport companies, such as those who operate the road transport link between Gracemere saleyards and the North Rockhampton abattoirs. It's not, as Labor would have it, a measure under the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal—that ill-conceived, ill-named tribunal. They would force those sorts of companies that operate that sort of route off the road. They would send them off the road, but we're supporting them through better infrastructure—a $30 million piece of infrastructure that I know the member for Flynn and the member for Capricornia are so supportive of.

We're getting on with the job of also fixing Labor's mess that they left behind, such as the independent youth allowance. We're helping country students to get a fair go. There are 17,000 small businesses in the member for Flynn's electorate. We're backing them. We're backing them with lower taxes. We're backing them with lower power prices. But, if those opposite get into government, they'll jack the prices up for power. They'll jack the taxes up. That's what they do. They'll put a wrecking ball through the economy—a wrecking ball! I can just see the member for Maribyrnong on his wrecking ball going right through retirees' savings in the member for Flynn's electorate. The regional funding programs: they'll be gone. There will be higher taxes. And the Queensland land management laws—those ill-conceived, ill-named native vegetation laws—will become national. That's what this man stands for. That's what he stands for: higher taxes, higher power prices. God help those small businesses in Flynn and elsewhere.