Ms LEY (5:55 PM) —My pleasure, Mr Deputy Speaker. The government will provide funding of $25 million over five years for the incentives for environmental management systems in agriculture program to support primary producers who adopt an environmental management system. This will take the form of cash back, up to $3,000. We know that it is the farmers who are the best environmental managers, and any measures that any government takes towards environmental sustainability must bring the farming community with them.

We are also providing funding of nearly $72.7 million over four years for radiation oncology initiatives. This will provide six new regional radiotherapy centres and the support measures that ensure there are staff to treat patients. Our commitment to rural health is strong. The Greater Murray Area Health Service in New South Wales will receive $1.96 million over the next three years to provide a range of primary health services aimed at reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease and offering occupational therapy for cardiac, diabetes and chronic pain patients.

The health work force in rural Australia is a very special group. In many cases, they work far longer hours than their city colleagues and they do not have the same access to locum support, to regular working hours or to tertiary teaching hospitals, adding to the general difficulty in their working and professional environment. In this Year of the Outback, our distinctive rural health approach and the way we recognise the valuable role of the regions in the Australian economy is certainly something to celebrate and to continue.

One of the biggest issues facing the electors of Farrer is the US farm bill. This is an obscene piece of legislation and as a farmer I am outraged. This is something quite disgraceful that the US has visited upon us, its friend and ally. We are the largest direct foreign investor in the US, at $90 billion, and we employ 85,000 citizens. US golfers play on Greg Norman golf courses which are owned by Macquarie Bank. The two-way trade between Australia and the United States totals $26 billion. The US farm bill distorts the world market. As an example, I was recently told how in the prairie states of America, which may experience eight or nine dry years out of 10, land that has never before been cultivated is now being ploughed up and planted to crop. Do farmers care? No, because they are subsidised for up to 80 per cent of the cost of insuring the crop, which will almost certainly fail. We have a valuable two-way relationship with the United States and we must build on this. Our ministers are working well towards a free trade agreement with the US and I am cautiously optimistic that some positive results will emerge. Any free trade agreement must include farm products to ensure greater access to the US market for our agricultural products. These things take time; this government is doing all that it possibly can.

I spoke in my first speech to the House about the city-country divide. Latest census figures confirm the drift from country to city and the changing nature of Australian families. Consider the example of the life story of a former Prime Minister, Sir John Gorton, who grew up in Kerang. He grew up in country Australia and I believe he went to Geelong College and then overseas to Oxford University. But he returned to the farm, to the orchard industry that was his family's lifeblood. He gave back to regional Australia all that he had learned, in knowledge and wisdom, and the country was richer for it. But this no longer seems to be the case, with our young folk leaving the country, not returning and becoming increasingly disconnected.

I see the city and the country as two halves of the same whole: neither side can live without the other, changed though their roles have become. Advanced business services have become a dominant force in the global economy. Cities provide the networks, research institutions and facilities that country areas feed upon. Our capitals used to support rural areas but now it tends to be the other way around, with advice, direction and services being transmitted to the regions, where we gain inspiration and produce remarkable results.

I have touched on just some of the positives for regional Australia from the budget. There are always challenges and we will cope with them. I have just finished speaking in the House about the pharmaceutical benefit measures—the firm, responsible, equitable actions that we plan to take to rein in the almost exponential rise in health care costs to ensure all Australians continue to have affordable access to existing medicines and to the new, expensive medications that are yet to be researched.

I am disappointed that members of the Senate have indicated they will not pass crucial measures of the appropriation bills. They bear no risk and take no responsibility. We the government bear the risk and we take the responsibility because, as the Treasurer says, doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing and allowing government spending to rise, as it surely will do, is not an option. The electors of Farrer want lower government spending so they can look forward to lower taxes and lower interest rates. I urge members opposite and members in the Senate to support our government's budget.