ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE - Regional Australia

I think there's one thing that all of us in this chamber can agree on, and that is that we should be thanking our farmers. We should be saying thank you to our farmers and applauding our farmers for the work they do. It's not easy. I'm sure those regional Labor members would agree with me that farming is a tough caper. It truly is. I'm glad that the regional development minister quoted WA opposition leader Shane Love, the Leader of the Nationals in Western Australia. I've also got a quote that I'd like to read to the federal parliament from one Mr Love, who described the shutdown of the live sheep export industry as a 'very black day for WA'. He said:

Minister Watt has furtively slipped unannounced into Western Australia, coming from Beef Week in his home state of Queensland, where he has no doubt been lauding cattle exports, to kill the live sheep export trade in our state.

That is what Mr Love said. He continued, and this is powerful stuff:

It is a gutless move from a belligerent minister who does not care about the impact this announcement will have on families grappling with a dry season, in the middle of seeding.

Imagine what Mr Love is thinking now. That was when the agriculture minister, Senator Watt, slipped into WA. Imagine what he's thinking now that the member for Ballarat, just on Monday, moved the legislation to ban the export of live sheep.

This is a black day for our farmers, not only in Western Australia but indeed right across the nation. I applaud the Western Australian police officer who put a 'Keep the sheep' sticker on his motorbike. Well done to him. That's a brave move. His view is shared by many in that state because they are appalled at the fact that an industry which operates under world's best practice, with world's best animal welfare standards, is being shut down by this government. They tried it with cattle in June 2011. They failed miserably then and they will fail miserably again because people power will rise to the challenge. It is a terrible move. I tell you what, Madam Deputy Speaker, when we take back government, whenever that is, we will reverse that move.

We're talking here about the neglect of regional Australia, and one of the dreadful changes made by this Labor government was to change the distribution priority areas for general practitioners. The distribution priority area classification means GPs can put up their shingle in, say, Newcastle, Wollongong or the Gold Coast and claim that they are in a priority area. What this change has meant is that GPs in regional, rural and, particularly, remote Australia are forced to compete with metropolitan centres, let's call them, for GPs. It's just wrong. Three hundred and twenty-four country towns do not have a doctor; the pharmacist is the only health professional in town. Yet we saw the member for Adelaide, the Minister for Health and Aged Care, being dragged by the nose by our pharmacists to reach a better deal when they signed the latest accord. Had it not been for those white-coat warriors, this government would have ridden roughshod over those pharmacists, those health professionals who were deserted in their hour of need by the Labor government.

The new rules around 24/7 nurses in aged-care centres, whilst I appreciate 24/7 nursing was one of the recommendations of the royal commission, have had a lasting adverse impact on regional aged-care providers, and they are closing down left, right and centre.

Then, of course, we've got the budget papers with the water allocations marked 'NFP', not for publication. Under this subterfuge, the government will not say how much water it's going to buy out of the Murray-Darling Basin, and this is causing alarm and panic within the river communities. The farmers will get a very big Commonwealth cheque and you won't see them for dust. But, let me tell you, the cafes and small businesses right across those river communities will be affected, because they'll have fewer customers and less money running around their economy. And this is at a time when businesses are going bust in New South Wales at a record level. Business insolvencies in New South Wales are up 61 per cent year on year on Labor's watch.

Labor are not protecting and preserving our regional Australians. Shame on you lot!