Thursday, 30 July 2026

 Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (09:49): Talking about backing our country towns, I want to talk about the Regional Worker Accommodation Fund. It has been incredible. I was out at Leongatha looking at aged care, Bairnsdale looking at healthcare worker accommodation and out of Bairnsdale farm worker accommodation. It is so incredibly popular. I think this is a policy that is just supported absolutely through and through communities. No-one has a bad word to say about it, because what we are doing is making sure that country towns can get the workforce they need. Whether it is for aged care, whether it is for health care, whether it is for tourism, whether it is for farm workers, we are building housing that that workforce can be in in country towns to serve those communities and taking pressure off housing for everyone else that lives in those towns. It is a great project. It was great to be out across so many towns celebrating it.