Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last night's budget took me back to a time when I was younger and I worked hard for a few years and bought myself a little sports car. Looking back, I think it would be considered a bit of a hairdresser car now, but at the time I was pretty pleased with it. I came back from Sydney—I don't know why I'd gone down there—walked along the street to the car, and there was glass on the ground around it. The windows had been smashed, the car had been gone through and things had been stolen. Others had pilfered something I'd worked very hard for.

That's what the budget was last night. On Friday I'm going back to the Hunter, where we mine coal, build things and do things—just like in regional Queensland, where Senators Hanson and Roberts are from, where they mine things, make things and do things. In Western Australia they mine things, make things and do things. Those people have worked to make this surplus. Those people have run to create an Australia that has a good economy, a growing economy, that can deliver these windfall gains. What have we got back? Not a thing. The regions have been pickpocketed like my car was pilfered. There's glass on the ground as we sprint towards ending these people's jobs and crawl towards replacing the energy that they make.

There is a massive disparity in Australia, and it is this. If we go back to last year and the regional ministerial statement of the last government, we see there were 381 pages on what we'd do for regional Australia. Yesterday there were 81. If you don't live near a capital city, you don't count under this government. And that is sad, because it is the regions that deliver this country's wealth. We are in such a blind philosophical rush to shut down these people. They deserve more; they aren't getting it. You tax them $1,500 more and give them nothing.