Mr SERCOMBE —I am inspired to rise by the rantings of the member for Corangamite (Mr McArthur) in relation to the results in Dunkley and on the recent state election. I make the fairly obvious point that, no matter how strong the personal qualities may be of the new member for Dunkley (Mr Billson), he is here simply because the Electoral Commissioner changed the boundaries very significantly. I point out that on your side, from Victoria, you no longer have Mr Beale in Bruce and you no longer have the former member for Isaacs, essentially for the same reasons. I am sure the member for Dunkley can take no great comfort from the fact that he is here simply courtesy of electoral boundary changes.

In the state election there was something approaching a three per cent swing against the Kennett government, a large swing in normal circumstances. A most significant factor in the result was the decimation of the vote in rural Victoria for the conservatives—an Independent won in Mildura. In National Party seats people turned their backs on the National Party in large numbers, for example, in the Deputy Premier's electorate of Benalla. In electorates like Portland, there was an eight per cent swing to the Labor Party. In that respect, the speech this morning by the new member for Murray (Mrs Stone) was very instructive, and I congratulate her on an excellent speech. She pointed out that rural people are increasingly sick of the neglect of so many important infrastructure services by the Kennett Liberal government in Victoria. She referred to health and education. Those are areas which the Kennett government in Victoria has neglected and that is why they lost so much support. (Time expired)