Yesterday Deb and I flew in to Canberra and drove to Queanbeyan to meet with our candidate for Monaro, David Madew. David’s family are very well known in the Queanbeyan region and he is passionate about protecting and serving his community.

David told us that as he has moved around the Monaro electorate, people constantly complain that Labor has failed to properly invest in regional communities, especially in this part of the world, and that the people of Monaro deserve better.

Today Deb and I were back in regional NSW visiting Orange with Nationals MP Russell Turner. Russell has been the Member for Orange for the last twelve years and has been an outstanding advocate for his community.

In Orange, Russell and I met with representatives from the local Police Association. The Nationals have been fighting hard for more country cops – and it’s no wonder when you look at the top 20 Local Government Areas across the state for the incidents of assault, break and enter, domestic violence, sexual assault, and steal from a motor vehicle.  Rural areas dominate the list.

The local Police here are doing a great job, but they need more support. They know that since 2003 the Government has ripped 650 Police from the service and are only just starting to plug the gaps before the election.

Today I started off the morning at Central Station with Shadow Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian, our MPs and candidates to announce our “If it’s late – it’s late” transport policy.  After twelve years of Labor, CityRail has been ignored and commuters are suffering. Under Labor, on-time running has been woeful and their only answer has been to cut services and change the definition of a late running train.

The first step to fixing something is to admit you have a problem in the first place. As I move around the state commuters know that our transport system is in a mess – they have to live with it every day.

Today Deb and I flew out to Dubbo where we met with Leader of the Nationals Andrew Stoner, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner and our candidate for Dubbo Greg Matthews.

This morning we launched our Rural Health Policy outside Dubbo Base Hospital. Our $53 million policy will breathe life back into rural health care in NSW. We will ensure people in country NSW have access to the same high quality health services as those in the city, by increasing the number of country doctors and other health care professionals.