STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms PENFOLD (Lyne) (13:45): Regional Australians are bearing the brunt of this Labor government, and we've had enough of being told how to live our lives, as living standards slip further behind. Housing, fuel, food and groceries and rents are all up, and, in June, electricity prices were a staggering 22.4 per cent higher than a year earlier. Persistently high inflation is inflating the economic pain.

These numbers hit home in regional communities like mine. It's the pensioner in Tea Gardens who can't turn the heater on, the young worker in Forster who cannot find an affordable rental, the small business in Laurieton trying to absorb another power bill, and the young family in Largs going without the supermarket. While regional Australians battle rising costs, the government keeps dictating to us how we should live, what cars we should drive, what farmers can do on their land, what energy we should use, where transmission lines and renewable developments will go, which regional industries apparently have a future and even what we can and can't say.

We've had enough. Instead of trying to run and ruin our lives, how about the government focus on doing its job and start delivering? Start delivering affordable power, affordable homes, durable roads, infrastructure for the future.

Regional Australians deserve a government that understands our contribution, values it and makes it easier to get ahead. When will this government finally start doing that?