Former Wagga city councillor Paul Funnell has criticised the Federal Member for Riverina for his response to One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts visiting the Riverina to launch the local branch of the party. Photo: File.
Former Wagga Wagga city councillor Paul Funnell has called out Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack for questioning the knowledge Queensland One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has regarding NSW-related issues.
In an interview with Region during Senator Roberts’ visit to Wagga Wagga, he said Riverina residents were tired of National Party leadership, using the current conversations around net zero as an example.
Mr Roberts said the issue was causing a rift within the National Party and that many Riverina farmers were opposed to the development of renewable energy projects.
“The Nationals are just sitting back and allowing things like net zero, which many local farmers have come out and opposed, to take place,” Mr Roberts said.
“The Nationals are starting to be torn apart by it, and the people who are most affected by it are the voters.”
Mr McCormack responded to the call by questioning Mr Roberts’ knowledge of the subject.
“He’s a senator for Queensland; what would he actually know about what farmers in Riverina want?” Mr McCormack said.
“I live here. I’m off the land. My father, his father and his father before him all farmed the land around here.
“How would a senator from Queensland have any concept, any idea, about what the farmers in the Riverina are thinking?”
Mr Funnell, who invited Mr Roberts to Wagga Wagga to help launch a One Nation Party branch in the Riverina, responded to Mr McCormack’s dig by saying many in the Riverina were calling for new representation and that Mr Roberts visited to aid in delivering opposition to the National Party’s stronghold in the area.
“We are begging for proper representation and leadership and we can’t find it,” Mr Funnell said.
“It’s missing in action. So I had to call someone that I know listens to the Australian people and does not make a comment until he has fully researched it and is across it. And that’s what I had to do. I had to go to someone in Queensland to come to the Riverina to do that.”
In addition to responding to Mr McCormack’s question, Mr Funnell asked what Mr McCormack had accomplished during his time in office.
“McCormack claims that I must be living under a rock because I’m so disconnected with all the great things he’s done, then he quoted a billion dollars on military spending.
“That is absolutely insulting to the entire Australian population, given it is actually the obligation of any government of any persuasion to create the defence of our nation; it’s first and foremost the responsibility of the federal government.”
Mr Funnell said that of the accomplishments Mr McCormack had claimed, little extended beyond Wagga Wagga.
“He does things in his own backyard because he knows that that’s where the vast majority of votes are, because of population and the demographics,” he said.
“He’s meant to be a representative of the entire region, the electorate of Riverina. Where are the highway improvements? Where are the dams they promised?
“Where’s all that critical infrastructure?”
Mr Funnell concluded by saying the issues Riverina residents had voiced concern about had been relayed to Mr Roberts and the One Nation party, leading to his visit to Wagga Wagga last week.
“At the beginning of every speech Mr Roberts conducts, he says, ‘I am here to work for you, the people. It doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Mr Funnell said.
“I and many others can fill him in on what’s going on down here, or should I say, what’s not going on down here.”
Mr McCormack was contacted for his response to these criticisms, but said he had nothing to add to his previous comments.
