The regions will remain unloved: Truss

Regional Australians feel unloved by Labor and the decision by two country
independents to back the ALP ultimately will be judged by their electorates,
Nationals leader Warren Truss says.
NSW independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor threw Labor a political lifeline on
Tuesday, giving it the numbers to form a minority government.
Mr Truss said the two former Nationals would be judged by their electors,
traditional conservative rural voters.
"That's a decision for their electorates ... They are areas where there's a strong
traditional coalition vote and, naturally, their electorates will ask them for ...
the reason for the decisions that have been made," Mr Truss told reporters in
Canberra on Tuesday.
"But that judgment will, ultimately, be provided by the electors in those
electorates just as my judgment is provided by the electors in my electorate."
A deflated Mr Truss could not hide his disappointment the pair had not supported the
coalition.
"I think we could have delivered, I've got no doubt we could have delivered a real
new deal outside the capital cities," he said.
The promised billions for regional Australia would not make "much of a difference"
because most of it would come from the mining tax which would put thousands of rural
Australians out of work, Mr Truss said.
Of the nearly $10 billion pledged by Labor for the regions, $3.9 billion would be
from existing programs.
Mr Truss said he wanted to see the restoration of some of the services taken away by
Labor in its last term of government.
The Nationals leader attacked Labor's promise to have parity on pricing under its
national broadband network.
He said two million Australians did not have access to broadband.
"They are not so interested in equalisation of tariffs, they just want access to
broadband and our program would have given them access to broadband faster and more
reliably than Labor was able to offer."
Not one Labor cabinet minister lived outside a capital city and that was unlikely to
change, Mr Truss said.
"They (regional and rural Australians) feel unloved by this government."
Mr Truss praised Liberal leader Tony Abbott for his handling of the negotiations
with the independents and backed him to retain the coalition leadership.