From the Newsroom

Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan says $100 million announced by the government for 20 projects across the Northern Rivers won’t lower flood levels. Image: supplied

Kevin Hogan’s fourth term, Shadow Ministry appointment

Rodney Stevens

 

Member for Page Kevin Hogan has secured his fourth term in Federal Parliament and vowed his electorate will come before his newly appointed Shadow Ministry position of Trade and Tourism.

“I am firstly the Member for Page, my Shadow Ministry is certainly second,” he said.

“My primary focus is flood recovery in my electorate.

“There is a lot of work to be done locally, especially with flood recovery, plus wider across services and infrastructure, that will always be my focus.”

With 91.1 per-cent of the votes counted in Page, Nationals Member Mr Hogan saw a 4 per-cent swing against him in the first preference count, while Labor’s Patrick Deegan suffered a 7.7 per-cent swing against, and Independent, Hanabeth Luke picked up 13.1 per-cent of first preference votes.

Of the 112,013 votes in Page, Mr Hogan had received 47,572, Mr Deegan 19,455, Ms Luke 13,634 and The Greens Kashmir Miller 8,860.

Informal votes lodged in Page were at 7.0 per-cent, more than all other six candidates individually, meaning 8,000 people incorrectly filled out ballot papers which won’t count toward a candidate’s tally.

Since February 2020, as part of the Morrison government, Mr Hogan had been the Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister(s), Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce, plus, since July 2021, Assistant Minister for Local Government.

Now, under new coalition leader Peter Dutton, Mr Hogan said he was honoured to be awarded a Shadow Ministry.

“I am approaching it in a bi-partisan spirit, cooperatively,” he said.

“I was delighted to get the shadow position of Trade and Tourism; I’ve always had an interest in trade.

“It’s a really important ministry, I think, especially for regional Australia, and we are a big exporting area as well.

“When I’m in Canberra I’ll be reaching out to stakeholder groups, both within Trade and within Tourism Industries, about what they want to see from Government and what they want to see implemented.”

Mr Hogan has wasted no time since his appointment on June 5, contacting ministers to continue to push the flood recovery of the Northern Rivers region.

New Minister for Emergency Management, Senator Murray Watt, was visiting the electorate on Friday, June 10, Mr Hogan said to take scope of the recovery and rebuilding.

“I’ll be chatting to him, and we’ll be having a look around the flood affected regions,’ he said.

Mr Hogan said he had also contacted Minister for Trade and Tourism, Don Farrell about how they can work together to deliver for the nation.

While he will strive to work cooperatively with the Labor Albanese Government to achieve the best possible outcomes for taxpayers, Mr Hogan said the coalition will adjust to being on the other side of the parliamentary chamber.

“We are also the opposition as well, so we will be holding the government to account, and so will I, when we see the need to do that,” he said.

Over the past nine years the Clarence Valley had seen unprecedented infrastructure spending, Mr Hogan said, which he will continue to advocate for.

He said he is hoping for some ‘wins’ for the Clarence Valley out of the $1.38 billion Building Better Regions Fund.

To the south of Page, the Federal seat of Cowper was retained by the Nationals Pat Conaghan, while to the north, Labor’s Justine Elliot retained the seat of Richmond, after a close battle with comedian turned Greens candidate, Mandy Nolan.