This is my first column as the Federal Member for Parkes, an electorate that covers more than 400,000 square kilometres of NSW. It’s an area bigger than Japan, Germany, or even Great Britain. I follow in the footsteps of some great Federal Members, most recently the Honourable Mark Coulton who ably represented this community for 18 years. There have been boundary changes to the Parkes electorate and we warmly welcome the Forbes, Bland and Parkes shires to the electorate. The Gwydir Shire has now become part of the New England electorate. I am committed to serving the people of the Parkes electorate, and it has been my great pleasure to meet and listen to people across this vast region over the past 10 months during the Federal Election campaign and in the weeks since. My respect has only grown for the residents and businesspeople across this region. As I travelled 36,000 kilometres during the election campaign, I learnt more about the challenges people face in Broken Hill and Bourke, in Moree, Narrabri, Parkes and Walgett, and in many more towns and villages. People on the land achieve great things despite the tyranny of distance, but they deserve the same levels of education, of healthcare, and of safety. They deserve to live as long as their cousins in the city, to have the same opportunities to thrive, and to enjoy a great lifestyle. Regional New South Wales is the heartland of so many vital commodities. It serves as the backbone of our state in so many ways. Our people need and deserve to be supported, so they can continue to stay and thrive in regional, rural and remote areas. I thank the people in the Parkes electorate for electing me to serve them. I remain committed to working for a better future for regional Australia, and look forward to meeting so many more people throughout this great electorate.
