Ballina Information Blog

The back-drop to the Prime Minister’s press conferences proves what we have always known – even the Liberals think the National Party is irrelevant, according to Labor candidate for Page Janelle Saffin.

The back-drop says “Vote Liberal”, but contains no mention of the National Party or the Coalition, she said.

Ms Saffin said this proved the Nationals’ influence in the Coalition was now non-existent.

“The once great National Party has lost touch – and even the Prime Minister now thinks they’re irrelevant,” Ms Saffin said.

“The Liberals seem to have forgotten the Nationals even exist!

“But more importantly, after 11 long years in power, they’ve forgotten the hard working families of rural and regional Australia.

“So much so rural and regional Australia failed to even rate a mention in John Howard’s first campaign speech.

“The National Party of old would never have allowed this to happen.”

Ms Saffin said by contrast, Federal Labor Leader Kevin Rudd spoke about the need for “New leadership which understands the needs of rural and regional Australia”.

“Kevin Rudd and Labor have a plan for the future of rural and regional areas like the Northern Rivers,” Ms Saffin said.

“That includes a $2 billion health and hospital reform plan to improve local health services and a national network to improve broadband in regional areas.

“If the Nationals don’t even have the influence to push rural and regional Australia into the Prime Minister’s first speech of this campaign, they don’t have the pull in the Coalition to get things done for local families.

“After 11 long years, the Nationals have lost touch with hard working families in rural and regional Australia.

“They take us for granted – don’t reward them with your vote.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 11:49 am and is filed under 2007 Federal election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.