Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:50): My constituency question is for the Treasurer. This government loves to take credit for the strong fiscal and economic management of the federal government, which has been providing jobs in regional Victoria. Unfortunately it seems that Labor Geelong MPs are not fostering favourable economic conditions in their own constituencies. In Mr Eren’s seat of Lara, North Geelong has an unemployment rate of 7.2 per cent and Corio, 18.7 per cent. In Ms Couzens’s seat of Geelong, for Newcomb and Moolap it is 11.4 per cent. In the Minister for Police and Emergency Services’s seat of Bellarine, in Portarlington it is 9.1 per cent. Meanwhile, mind you, Colac has a rate of 2.7 per cent; Lorne-Anglesea, 2 per cent; and the Otway area, 1.6 per cent—a testament to the member for Polwarth’s fostering of a pro-business culture. My question for the Treasurer is: what is the government doing to rectify its bad economic management in Labor-held seats in the Geelong region?