CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mr BUCHHOLZ (Wright) (16:44): My electorate is predominantly agriculture; the largest contributor to GDP is agriculture. I live in an electorate where men and women who work on farms often get up before the sun gets up. Their faces are tanned, and their hands are cracked and blackened with earth and soil.
But they live by certain principles: honour, integrity and loyalty to their friends. They still believe in the principle that when you shake a man's hand the deal is done—that 'my word is my bond'. So they took particular umbrage when the Prime Minister said to the nation that his word was his bond and then backtracked on that.
My electorate is changing. It's evolving. It's a regional-rural electorate, but I'm getting more and more urban encroachment in communities like Greenbank, Plainland, Jimboomba and Yarrabilba.
We proudly welcome every one of those families that choose to relocate to Wright purely because of the level of representation at federal government. There can be no other reason. As a result of the impasse or people coming to the electorate, I now find myself with an electorate constituency base of around 150,000, and it is incumbent on me to be the voice for them here in Canberra, and I do that proudly.
In the last 12 months, I have conducted no less than roughly 20 mobile offices around the electorate to ensure that these new people and personnel coming to my electorate have a voice. I engage with them in a way where—at that shows or agriculture shows or my mobile booths, I'll ask them to put a sticker next to hot topic issues so I can get a visual snapshot of what's important to them.
It would not surprise anyone within these rooms that, when I take a snapshot of these boards and bring them to the House, the cost of living is far and away the most predominant. I did, however, change my lists of issues that they could raise with me. Cost of living, housing affordability, crime and anti-social behaviour, roads and highways, defence and national security, immigration and population—that always gets a good run.
They do have great concerns about immigration and the population base. But I put a new category in there: politicians telling the truth. I was surprised how high it is on their list of priorities.
Maybe this side of government should start telling the truth. My people deserve better.