Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, representing the Minister for Regionalisation, Regional Communications and Regional Education. Yesterday, the minister for regionalisation said about government policy for regional Australia:

There are no friends for the National Party at the moment—not a friend in the country. The peak bodies have deserted us; there's not a friend internationally.

Does the minister agree that there is no support for this policy?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question and note that there was certainly no support for any Labor Party policy. That one fell right over. What I can also say is that what we are doing in the Nationals is what would be expected of us in our regional constituencies. One would think it would be the same that would be expected in the constituency of Eden-Monaro, where you would have the capacity to sit down and diligently go through it, as we have, to make sure that how we represent our people back in our area is an earnest representation of the efforts that they are going through on our behalf in making sure that our nation continues on with the standard of living it has.

We reflect and understand quite clearly that if it wasn't for our coal exports—which I wonder whether the member stands behind. I presume she does, being from Newcastle and Newcastle being the greatest coal-exporting port in the world. In fact, coal prices are determined by the price at Newcastle. It's the Newcastle price, and this is why we are making sure that the people of the Hunter Valley and in Newcastle clearly understand that we have their livelihoods foremost in our mind as we go forward—as we diligently and prudently assess what is before us in such a way that we can make the proper decisions on that.

That process continues on, and we will make sure that the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia has a response from us by the end of this week as to what we see as the pertinent issues, and we will have further discussions in that place. This is not grandstanding. This is not ransom, as has been put forward by so many people. This is making sure we do our job, and we'll continue to do our job.

What I can say is that the Labor Party have signed us up. They're going to legislate it, but they haven't actually told the people of the Hunter Valley what that means. So the people in the Hunter Valley are in a little bit of a quandary as to whether they're still going to have a job, whether they'll be able to pay for their house and whether they'll be able to pay for their car. The Labor Party are going to legislate it. They say so. They say they're going to legislate it, so the people of Central Queensland—whether they're in Emerald, whether they're in Rockhampton or whether they're in Townsville—are wondering whether, under a Labor Party, they're going to have a job, whether they can pay for their house, whether they can pay for their car and whether they can pay their children's school fees. The Labor Party have said they're going to legislate it, but they haven't actually told the people of Port Kembla or the people who work at the ports of Newcastle what that means for them. All the Labor Party knows—I know you want to wind me up now, but, I'm afraid, I'll just keep going right to the end, because the end is where you're taking your blue-collar workers. You no longer care for them. (Time expired)