Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Go, Cats! And he has obviously done a lot of work back in the community, using sport as a facilitator of social cohesion and to break down barriers.

What really resonated on the ground in regional Victoria for the National Party was our commitment to ensuring jobs in local areas. Our voters out in regional Victoria were not concerned about a whole range of issues that maybe those voters in Brunswick were. What they wanted to know was whether we were going to get the economic settings right to ensure that their communities could grow and prosper, not only in their traditional industries but also in the new industries and the adapted industries of tomorrow, so that their regional communities would not be left behind in the 21st century but would grow, prosper and provide jobs for their young people. As we know, whilst nationally our unemployment rate is not bad, it can be incredibly high in certain regional areas for our young people. That is why the National Party under Senator Nash developed a specific, targeted regional jobs program that will be trialling local initiatives developed on the ground. One thing we do know in the National Party is that a 'one size fits all' policy does not work. People out in the regions, from Echuca to Eildon, were very keen to hear how we as a government were going to assist them to grow jobs and maintain the jobs that they already had.

These people were also concerned about the provision of education and how their children would be able to access university. We hear this time and time again: many families in the regions have to stump up upwards of $30,000 per child per year for their young person to shift away to the city to take up their choice of university degree. These families in typical households—a police officer and maybe a mother who might work part time as a nurse—were unable to access any support to assist with that additional cost, which only went up as you had more children going off. We were able to deal with that issue. We were able to offer a package at the election campaign that went part way to assisting those families. I am very proud to have been part of that.

To enable people to access education and all the opportunities of the 21st century and overcome some of the challenges they face, we need to ensure that we are providing digital infrastructure out in the regions. Our government is not just getting on with the NBN; it is providing a suite of technology options to ensure that every Australian can have access to that digital technology. When we were travelling around during the election, we heard so many times about young people at the local state school who, by the time they got back out to the farm to do their homework, did not have enough internet or they had used all their download for that week et cetera. That was really making it hard for them to achieve in their secondary school education, and that had a flow-on effect on their ability to undertake tertiary study. There is a whole suite of options there, and I know our mobile black spot program is just so welcome out in the regions. We have to ensure that country Australia has access to the same sort of technology, the same sort of provision of services, that is available in our cities.

I would also like to thank the ministers in the National Party who assisted us in Victoria during the election campaign. Minister Barnaby Joyce was down there several times, going through the seat of Indi and the seat of Murray, making significant announcements and making sure these communities understood our commitment and our promise to them and our pact with them. I have already mentioned Darren Chester. Fiona Nash made regular visits to all of the electorates that we were fighting in during that campaign—again, specifically Murray and Indi—and her presence was very much appreciated. Michael McCormack came down and, in his former role, looked at defence manufacturing industries and the local jobs that they provide out in regional Victoria. Also, Keith Pitt, who at that time was assisting the Deputy Prime Minister, talked about the agricultural programs and the Landcare issues that we were championing. All in all, the Victorian Nationals had a fantastic election campaign. I am very proud of all of our candidates and particularly of our volunteers in the National Party. We turn 100 this year; we had our centenary last month. We are still going strong and we are still standing up for regional Victoria. I would just like to thank our president and all of our organisation for getting behind our candidates and our members and senators and ensuring that we had the support we needed to represent them and our values in this place.