Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton yesterday [Monday 18 November 2024] delivered his valedictory speech, just a few days short of 17 years since he was first elected as the 1029^th Member of the Australian Parliament.

Mr Coulton took the opportunity to thank his family, friends, supporters, and current and former staff – many of whom travelled to be there in person – as well as his National party and Coalition colleagues for their support over the past 17 years.

He paid special tribute to his wife Robyn who he said has been by his side every step of the way.

“We decided to do this as a team,” Mr Coulton said.

“So, for the last 18 years – we spent a year campaigning beforehand – we’ve travelled together, and in a big year we’ve probably spent the equivalent of 20 40-hour weeks a year in the front of a car – Robyn reading the emails and me dictating messages back to the office.”

Mr Coulton spoke of the great diversity and uniqueness of the Parkes electorate which he said is much more than just the agricultural and mining industries that underpin the economy.

He said there are so many projects and “shiny things” he could highlight as achievements over the years, such as the Western Cancer Centre in Dubbo, the Australian Opal Centre in Lightning Ridge, the Baaka Cultural Centre in Wilcannia, the library in Broken Hill, the small animal abattoir in Bourke, and of course, the Inland Rail – “just build it for God’s sake!”

The Hon. Mark Coulton with his most valuable supporter, his wife Robyn. IMAGE SUPPLIED.

But Mr Coulton said some of the achievements he’s most proud of are those that are more difficult to point to.

“Sometimes your successes with issues become invisible, because if you fix the problem people stop talking about it,” Mr Coulton said.

“A lot of the things that are achieved here are done without recognition.

“When I was Regional Health Minister, I introduced] the generalist pathway, which is training doctors with more skills to work in rural areas.

“The medical school at Dubbo had over 520 applicants for the 30 places, so we’re training local doctors in the area.

“I graduated the rebate for Medicare. I don’t know that anybody here even knows that if you’re a doctor working in the more remote areas, you get a higher rebate for every patient you see than the ones in the cities.

“[As Assistant Trade Minister], I represented the country a couple of times at APEC in tourism and trade. I was at the first ministerial meeting of the TPP-11, which was the biggest trade deal done in the history of the world. But what people wouldn’t realise now, when the farmers are going to the silo and looking at the price of barley, that one of the buyers now is Mexico. They're buying barley to make beer in Mexico because of that agreement that we made.

“When [farmers] are having their big crop now and they’re filling up the grain storages that [were funded by a tax deduction] in one year, as a policy to prepare farmers for drought so that they can store their grain and manage it better, they're probably not thinking that that was a decision and a discussion that came out of our party room. But those sorts of decisions are making big changes for people.”

In contrast, Mr Coulton said sometimes decisions made in Parliament are not always for the better.

“When the distribution priority area changed straight after the last election - and the doctors could now declare Wollongong, Geelong and Newcastle as regional - western New South Wales lost six doctors that week,” Mr Coulton said.

“Six that week from some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country. So, decisions here can make a difference.”

In his final message, Mr Coulton said regional Australia shouldn’t be taken for granted. He expressed his concerns that regional Australia is being compromised so that city-dwellers can feel good about doing something to lower emissions and “save the planet”.

“When you take your family to Disneyland and you tick the box that you want to offset your carbon emissions and pay a bit more money, and that money goes to plant trees on a productive farm, you are then sending a future generation to have to worry about food security,” Mr Coulton said.

“If we're going to treat regional Australia as a magic pudding, that every time we want to do something we just pinch a bit away, and every time you lock up a western New South Wales sheep farm and turn it into a national park or you buy productive water out of the Murray Darling Basin, then you are subjecting future generations to have to worry about food security.

“And it's not just us. We feed 50 million people outside of Australia, so we've just got to keep that in mind.

“I said in my first speech that I have a deep and unshakeable belief in inland Australia; and I still believe that today. It holds the keys to the future prosperity of our country.

“There would be no better place to live in the world than Australia, and no better place in Australia to live than in western New South Wales.

“It's been an honour and a privilege to serve as the 1029th member elected to the Australian Parliament. But it's time to move on, and I thank you very much.”

Please note: the video of the valedictory speech can be viewed online here with timestamp 16:24:23.