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

Senator Brockman, you know that we have a shortage of workers right throughout regional Australia. The job ads go on and on. And it's not just fruit pickers we need; we also need sustainable, high-paid careers out in rural and regional Australia. So we need a workforce not just from capital cities and from other states but also internationally.

There is only one way out of this global pandemic to give regional and rural Australia the workforce that they need and the access to global markets that they need to grow and prosper, and that is through the national plan. Your home state, I'm sorry to say, Senator Brockman, has a very, very poor vaccination rate. We have to, as leaders—

Senator Pratt interjecting—

I will take the interjections from Senator Pratt. A $5 billion surplus—fix your own hospitals! (Time expired)