Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Williams for his question. Can I say, with a great deal of confidence, that there is no greater advocate for regional New South Wales than Senator Williams. Like myself, he's focused on delivering more secure jobs and greater opportunities for all those who call regional Australia home.

It was fantastic to recently see the Minister for Regional Development, Territories and Local Government join the members for Page and Cowper, both valued National Party colleagues of both Senator Williams and myself, to announce the successful recipients of the coalition government's regional jobs and investment package for the North Coast region of New South Wales. Each successful project will help to generate more jobs and more opportunities. After an extensive assessment process, involving strong community input and more than 70 applications, 23 projects totalling $25 million will be delivered across the North Coast of New South Wales, providing residents with a range of employment and investment opportunities.

The success of this program is that it's built on partnerships with local communities and businesses, which are matching the support they are receiving from the coalition. This means that, across the New South Wales North Coast, a total investment pool of almost $53 million will flow through the shops and the main streets of the North Coast. This includes transformational projects like $4.7 million to deliver a new 23-bed wing at the Kyogle aged-care centre, $2 million to upgrade manufacturing capacity at a local air conditioning manufacturer in Coffs Harbour, and over $1 million for a blueberry cooperative near Woolgoolga to help streamlining and updating the equipment to increase processing capacity.

This upgrade will actually increase their competitiveness and their efficiency, because they are actually competing with places like South-East Asia and Canada. They're a local example of the projects delivered by the coalition. These projects are the types that have helped 403,000 more Australians into jobs in just a year, with around three-quarters of them being full-time jobs.