ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS - NEW SOUTH WALES: ROADS
We have set the scene early. It's state election day this Saturday. Pre-polls opened on Saturday, just gone, and already Labor is out bashing the Perrottet-Toole government, saying they don't deserve to be re-elected, talking up Chris Minns, talking up Labor in the state. The last thing Australia needs is wall-to-wall red, wall-to-wall socialism! The last thing we need is to have a Labor government in Macquarie Street and a Labor government in Canberra. That's what the voters of New South Wales will get if the polls go that way this Saturday.
The Perrottet-Toole government deserves to be re-elected. We should be concentrating on federal matters in the federal parliament. But Labor—in true, typical Labor style—will spend all of this week talking up Labor in New South Wales. They'll spend all week disguising the fact that energy prices are going up and up and up on their watch. They'll spend all week talking about everything but what they should be doing. There will be one little rider: they'll be taking credit for AUKUS. They'll be taking credit for the subs deal, which came about because of a coalition federal government.
I'm glad that the shadow defence minister is at the table, because all of that Defence spending, all of those measures and the new pact between the United States of America and the United Kingdom, came about on the coalition's watch, as you'd expect it would. I'm also glad that the member for Eden-Monaro is at the table. When it comes to infrastructure in New South Wales and the black spot program for mobile phones, she did very well—she's nodding; she knows she did very well—yet 25 out of 26 of those mobile phone towers went to Labor seats. Talk about disingenuous! Talk about hypocritical! It is writ large with those opposite.
(Government members interjecting)
The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Dr Freelander ): Order!
Mr McCORMACK: Yes, you should call them to order, Mr Deputy Speaker, because they know—
The DEPUTY SPEAKER The member is entitled to be heard in silence.
Mr McCORMACK: Indeed I am, thank you. It is an absolute abomination that no National Party seat received a mobile black spot tower in the latest round, which was said to be an election commitment round. But it was not described as that. It was described as an 'improving mobile phone coverage' around. If it's securing better mobile coverage, some of that money, some of those towers, should have gone to National Party seats, because we hold the majority of the landmass in New South Wales. And thank goodness for that.
The member for Robertson comes to this place, with this private member's bill, talking about neglect. There was no neglect when the coalition was in power. There was $120 billion of infrastructure supporting 110,000 or so jobs. That is delivery. If we want to talk about delivery and we want to talk about New South Wales, let's talk about Rose Jackson, the New South Wales water spokesperson who, not that long ago, when asked if a future potential Labor government in New South Wales supported raising the Wyangala Dam wall, said, 'Never mind increasing the dam wall; let's just improve the roads out of Forbes so people can escape quicker.' That is disgraceful. That is disgusting to regional people who have been flooded out six times, at least, in the last 12 years. Here they were, knee-deep—in some places even higher—in floodwater, and you've got the person who will potentially be the minister looking after water and possibly even infrastructure in a future Minns Labor government—it'll be coerced by the Greens, of course, as Labor always are; they are always bedmates with the Greens—talking about making better escape routes, rather than raising a vital piece of water infrastructure. That's the Labor way. They don't care about regional areas. They don't care about infrastructure in country towns and country districts, which provide the food and fibre for this nation and will continue to do that despite what Labor may say or do.
So the best those voters in New South Wales—seeing that we're going to be spending a lot of time talking about it—can do is to re-elect a Liberal-Nationals government and get Sam Farraway continuing to create road infrastructure in New South Wales.