Shayne Neumann
Blair · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“The new service will be built at Rosewood State School to help local families avoid the double drop-off in the morning—and in the afternoon, I might add—and help students to make a smoother transition to school.”
“It builds on our landmark schools funding agreement with the Queensland government to provide a record $2.8 billion in additional Commonwealth funding to Queensland state schools over the next 10 years, all tied to reforms to lift education standards.”
“The second capital upgrade involved $850,000 for a new custom amenities block at Linville State School, a little country school in the northern Somerset region, which has delivered modern facilities to ensure students' health and safety needs are met.”
“Labor is the party of education. The Albanese Labor government is building the education infrastructure we need in my electorate and building a better and fairer education system from preschool to tertiary.”
“An upgrade to the Mount Crosby interchange on the Warrego Highway is critical to the lives, lifestyle and livelihoods of the people of Ipswich. Last night, I was appalled to hear media reports that the Queensland LNP government is proposing in this week's budget to cut funding for the Mount Crosby interchange in my electorate.”
“I remember being in this House, in this parliament, when the coalition voted against the natural disaster funding, much of which was going to local councils in Queensland. It cost $11 billion of taxpayers' funding to rebuild Queensland after the 2011 floods.”
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“A new national digital child health record makes it easier for families and health professionals to track a child's development and share information. There are important things that we need to do, and I call on the Crisafulli government in my home state of Queensland to do the right thing and engage properly and maturely with the Albanese government in the interest of people with disability living in Queensland. The NDIS is a statement of our national values and a measure of our national character. It's up to us as parliamentarians—there are 150 in this chamber, as well as those in the Senate—to provide the necessary leadership in this space. That means coming together to pass this legislation. We need to protect the future of the NDIS.”
“We want them back in the area of disability and disability support, in particular, with respect to children. That $2 billion we're providing is important for national information advice on child development and autism, because that is an issue. It cannot be the case that about one in six boys who are in year 2 are living with autism and are in the scheme. It cannot be the case; that is not sustainable. We need to provide additional supports for children with autism and their families—but often outside of the scheme. Not every child living with autism should be in the scheme. Medicare Healthy Kids Check is a Medicare subsidised health assessment for GPs to assess the health and development of a child at three years of age, which is important, and refer them to appropriate supports, including this Thriving Kids support.”
“When it comes to who will access the NDIS and who gets other support—many of these changes won't happen until 2028. We're giving the minister new powers, and I think this is absolutely vital to managing the scheme's growth on an ongoing basis. However, these powers will be used on the very clear advice of the National Disability Insurance Agency, and I think that's also important. The 2026-27 budget handed down on 12 May builds on our first term, providing significant investments in critical reforms. As part of this budget, we're working with the states and territories to establish the Thriving Kids foundational supports program to complement and take some pressure off the NDIS. This is where the states and territories need to come in. It's a $4 billion scheme over five years. We want the states and territories back in the game.”
“It's not a case of the federal government providing the NDIS for people who may have been injured or may have been suffering from an illness. All of us are one illness or injury away from any form of disability, but not everyone can and should be covered—and certainly not before it's significant and permanent. An assessment of a person's functional capacity is absolutely critical, and that will be done in consultation with the community with the support of a technical advisory group. This is absolutely vital. This will include disability reform organisations, the NDIS Reform Advisory Committee co-chairs and the Chair of Australia's Disability Strategy Advisory Council. In terms of timeframes, we expect some of these changes to start later this year.”
“That is important to get those health services, rehabilitation services et cetera going on. I practiced as a litigation lawyer, and I practiced for a long time in personal injury law. We couldn't—and we shouldn't—settle cases in terms of work cover or indeed personal injuries involving motor vehicle accidents until someone's injuries settled and we knew their levels of permanent disability. That's because they would be underdone in terms of the damages paid—whether it was general damages or economic loss—unless we knew the permanency of their injuries. It's the same thing when it comes to the NDIS. We need to know people's permanent conditions and what they're going to live with permanently on a long-term basis before we know.”
“Changes to eligibility can only happen with the agreement of the states and territories, and I'm urging the states and territories to do the right thing. Importantly, $6 billion is being allocated by all governments to rebuild those local community supports for people with lower support needs. Not everyone living with a disability will be or should be eligible for the NDIS, but there should be other forms of support for them. In addition, a test of permanency is already required under the NDIS scheme, but we're tightening that definition to make sure it focuses on people with significant and permanent disability. This scheme was never, ever intended to replace health, rehabilitation and treatment services, but that's the mentality of so many people I've seen.”
“As I mentioned before, the tighter criteria for unscheduled reassessments and measures will reduce plan-cost growth. We never anticipated we'd see such growth in the costs of the plans. We're resetting participant budgets for social and community participation. As I said, it's grown completely out of control. We're introducing standardised, evidence based assessments, and we're looking to improve the quality of plan managers and support coordinators. We've seen such variability in this space, I can tell you. Most people do the right thing, but, by golly, I've seen some really shonky ones in my time in this place. We're expanding categories of mandatory provider registration and enrolling providers in a digital payment scheme so we've got some accountability of where the taxpayers' money goes.”
“People have controlled individuals who are vulnerable because they're members of the scheme. They see this as an opportunity where there are packages of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. They see this as an opportunity to rip people off, and that's why we've seen these criminal activities involved. We've already invested $550 million in tackling fraud and noncompliance and recently passed the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Integrity and Safeguarding) Bill of 2025, but there's more that needs to be done to protect participants and increase the quality of support services. That's why we're introducing legislation as a result of this particular budget. The changes we're making will reduce the growth and ensure that we can continue to support people. There are some changes that I think are really important.”
“I've met numerous people over the years who've got jobs and participated in community life because of the work that CATS did. They went to the wall when the state government funding was withdrawn because, of course, states and territories opted out. There are important things that we need to undertake, and I think that's a very, very important part of the reforms. We're making eligibility requirements clearer with standardised, evidence based assessments of someone's functional capacity. I think the need for independence is so critical in that assessment. We need to fight fraud and stop rorts so participants and their families have better quality services and experience less exploitation and harm. I've seen it. I'm sure everyone in this chamber at times has seen the undue influence and the levels of abuse.”
“That's why we need to take the steps we need to do to restore it to its original intent. We need to support people who've got permanent and significant disability. We need to secure the scheme for the future. What we're going to do rests on a number of pillars. One is delivering quality services and support to participants. I think the $200 million Inclusive Communities Fund is good. I'm looking forward to seeing how that will rebuild community organisation capacity to host genuine participation activities. One of the organisations that went to the wall in my community was known as CATS, Community Access Transition Service. They did a mighty job in providing assistance to people leaving places like the Ipswich Special School and other schools and getting people involved in civic life.”
“One of the things that's so obvious to everyone is the tripling of the funding in the last five years for social and community and civic participation. It's gone up from $4 billion to $12 billion. That is a massive challenge. I'm not going to insult people by giving the examples many of my constituents have told me about the rorts and the fraudsters involved in this, and the failures across this space where people have not got the social, civic and community involvement they deserve. We're all paying taxes for it, and the Australian public is as well. We need to manage this scheme more tightly, and there needs to be more rigour in the whole scheme. Without these reforms, the NDIS is going to cost more than Medicare and the PBS combined. It will fast catch up to the age pension.”
“We're introducing a new civil penalty provision which will act in terms of deterrence but also provide financial penalties to those people who do the wrong thing. As I said, spending in the NDIS has blown out. Those opposite, the Liberal and National parties, didn't do anything about this, really. We constantly saw media inquiries about it, and we constantly saw whinging and whining and carping and moaning from those opposite, but they didn't take the necessary steps that this Labor government is undertaking. NDIS growth was 22 per cent under the coalition, with no moderation in sight over nearly 10 years of government. We brought it down to 10 per cent. In January this year the National Cabinet agreed to work together to bring down cost growth to five to six per cent or even lower.”
“There are flaws in its design and increased susceptibility to fraud and crime. The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 contains effective measures which I think address that, including the registration of providers. It's quite inexplicable that one in 16 of the current deliverers of services aren't registered. If you're registered, it means quality of service and safety standards. It means reporting and auditing. It means employees having screening. These are all parts of registration. So it's critical that we lift the registration level. We're changing the definition of NDIS provider accordingly. Retailers and suppliers will be outside the definition. I think it's critical also that we provide deterrence and punishment.”
“There's a major problem with respect to plan reassessments. One in five of these reassessments is unscheduled. The average increase as a result of this unscheduled reassessment is 20 per cent higher than the old, so the changes are being foisted on people. People are being encouraged to apply in those circumstances. It's going to be limited, henceforth, to significant and ongoing changes to functional capacity. I think that's the right thing to do. The Fraud Fusion Taskforce has been operating in Australia since 2022 across many portfolios at the federal level. The multi-agency task force comprises 24 agencies, and it's co-led by the NDIA and Services Australia, and a number of other people, including the AFP, are involved. It found that there are serious criminal activities inside the NDIS.”
“I saw a number of organisations locally who went to the wall because that ongoing grant funding from the states dried up. In the past 13 years, the NDIS has become entrenched and, really, a national institution—a great reform. But various reviews have found that it is in major need of reform and a major overhaul. There are unfair outcomes. There are higher numbers in the scheme, as I said, than we anticipated originally. It has changed lives and changed our country for the good, but the costs continue to rise rapidly. Participants don't often get quality supports and often have to undertake reviews again and again. As the previous speaker said, in my experience as a federal MP, they often are successful on reviews, so what's the problem initially? It also became target for shonks and fraudsters.”
“We need to take the necessary steps to ensure that the costs do not blow out even further. So we're going to limit NDIS costs in the short term and put a stop to the fraud in the scheme, which is so rampant and so evident. As federal MPs, we see the fraudsters, the shonks and the crooks. The vast majority of providers deliver quality services, act with the best of intentions and do good work. But there are crooks in the scheme. It has been rorted by many people. We're going to continue working with the states and territories, the disability community and the NDIS workers, who need to be involved in the next stage of reforms. But, of course, when the NDIS came in, the states and territories opted out, and the only game there was indeed the NDIS.”
“We're looking at almost 50 per cent more than that. Indeed, in terms of the cost, it's nearly four times as much as we initially anticipated. Reasonable and necessary supports for people with significant and permanent disabilities—these words are in our lexicon. They're in our nomenclature. We use them day in and day out as federal MPs. Hundreds of thousands of people in the scheme use them as well, as do the plan providers, the reviewers and the people working in the NDIA. We created this scheme, and we need to fix this scheme, ensuring that we have the capacity to convince the Australian people that this scheme is worthy of continuing. The NDIS is projected to grow to $70 billion per annum by 2030. We're reducing the projection to $55 billion. That's what we need to do.”
“Pensions, paid parental leave, superannuation, Medicare, the National Broadband Network, the National Disability Insurance Scheme—it is Labor that makes the major economic and social reforms in this country. I want to pay tribute to former prime minister Julia Gillard and former ministers Jenny Macklin and Bill Shorten for the work they've done and to the many advocates who pushed for that Productivity Commission report which recommended a national disability insurance scheme in this country. The initial cost was supposed to be $13.6 billion, roughly $20 billion in today's terms. In the 2013 budget, about $14.3 billion was allocated for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We've now seen an almost 50 per cent increase in the number of people we anticipated initially, which was 300,000 to 400,000.”
“Based on feedback from industry, we've committed a further $1.75 billion to improve productivity, resilience and the reliability of Australia's freight rail network alongside a $55 million incentive to get more freight off our roads and onto rail and sea. It's very interesting to hear National Party members being concerned about emissions, by the way, for the first time I've heard in nearly 20 years. This means we can now get Inland Rail to Parkes and finally get a return on our investment. We've committed $2.8 billion in our network investment program, and it's really critical that we do it.”
“I met landholders along the proposed routes, including the Ivorys Rock convention and events centre, which brings millions of dollars into Ipswich at Peak Crossing, who raised concerns about the impact of noise and vibration from freight trains. The route was to go 500 metres from the centre. There were also concerns about the impact on local environment and wildlife, particularly around the Purga-Peak Crossing area, where the government has funded koala conservation projects. The school at Grandchester in rural Ipswich was impacted, and the population of all the township in the rural community of Rosewood would have been impacted.”
“It is just the opposite of what the coalition claims. The reality is that Inland Rail in its current form was simply unsustainable. There are more efficient and effective ways to support national freight tasks across regional Australia. I can tell you that this is a very good outcome for my local community. Many residents in Blair and surrounding areas had serious concerns about the impact of Inland Rail. I heard 'high impact, low value' numerous times. These residents don't want a 1.8-kilometre long double-stacked freight train going every hour through their properties or near their properties on embankments without noise abatement, and that's precisely what they would have got.”
“They said very clearly that the cost had blown out by $45 billion. We have an independent actuarial assurance again, which confirmed the ARTC estimate of a $45 billion cost blow-out. Frankly, the former coalition government has a lot to answer for—especially the member for New England when he was the Leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister. Even that former National Party leader, the member for Maranoa, has admitted this. That's why we made the sensible decision to get Inland Rail to Parkes by the end of 2027 as well as preserve the corridor north and protect sites for future intermodal terminals in Queensland. I can assure you of this: it wasn't a decision the government took lightly. We're not opposed to the concept of Inland Rail, freight rail or, indeed, regional development in general.”
“Of course, when Labor came to office in 2022, the Australian Rail Track Corporation, or ARTC, told the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government that the project would need substantially more funding to finish it, but couldn't say how much. So the Albanese government commissioned respected infrastructure expert Dr Kerry Schott to review the project and, based on the ARTC's own figures, she found it was going to cost an additional $31.4 billion but couldn't be sure because ARTC started construction without having done the proper planning and cost assurance for where it would start and finish, or where it would stop on the way, or what it would actually carry. So then we got ARTC and Inland Rail, having accepted all of Dr Schott's recommendations, to have another look at it.”
“In 2013, the former Labor government provisioned $1 billion for the planning for the Inland Rail, but it was never done after we lost government in 2013. Then in 2017, the coalition government announced a $9.3 billion plan funded by debt to build the Inland Rail without any planning or any idea about how it was going to get into the Port of Melbourne or into the Port of Brisbane. It was going to go to Acacia Ridge, for heaven's sakes, many kilometres from the Port of Brisbane. They had no idea about noise abatement and no idea about the impact on local communities. Under the former coalition government, by 2020, the cost estimate had risen to $16.4 billion—again, funded from debt.”
“This motion gives me the opportunity to set the record straight on Inland Rail and explain the reasoning behind the Albanese government's decision to cease construction on the project north of Parkes. The reality is Inland Rail became a case study in waste and mismanagement. It was bungled by the former coalition government from start to finish. One of the chief proponents of Inland Rail and widely called the father of Inland Rail, Everald Compton, said recently this was 'probably the worst managed infrastructure project in the history of Australia'. He acknowledged it was 'grossly mismanaged from the start politically and financially' and described it as a 'disgraceful exhibition of waste of money'. Now here's a quick history lesson for the member for Parkes.”
“In a huge investment, we've now got 30 bulk-billing medical practices in Ipswich and Somerset in my electorate and, of course, in the Karana Downs region. This is a massive increase. Those opposite thought that was a waste of time. They claim they don't believe in socialism or anything like that. Perhaps they should tear up those green cards they hold in their wallets. Medicare has made a huge difference. This bill—and this budget—provides a massive investment in health care, PBS and pharmaceuticals, and those opposite haven't supported it one little bit.”
“I can tell you that John-Paul Langbroek, the minister for education in Queensland, doesn't think it's a waste of money. He stood up and did a press conference with us, thinking it's a good idea. Here, of course, the Liberal and National parties think that sort of funding is a waste of time, but when they go back to Queensland they say something very, very different. And the Crisafulli government says something very, very different, I can assure you. My electorate is one of the fastest growing in the country. In fact, I've got more electors in my electorate than has any federal seat in the country. One of the big things we've got in my electorate, which I'm so pleased to see, is the nearly 37,000 visits to the Ipswich Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, which those opposite would have closed down if they'd won the last election.”
“It's a good word, bolshie, because that's a word they really don't like. They're really bolshie about that. When they go back to their electorates, they think, 'Oh, this is a good idea. It's very, very nice to see this happening in my electorate.' But when they come here, they vote against it again and again. For example, they don't think the $1 billion we put aside for the Building Early Education Fund is a good thing. We've worked with the Crisafulli government for five sites in Queensland. We've done that, including in my electorate of Blair, where the Rosewood State School will get funding to improve access for early childhood education, helping children transition to primary school. They think that's a waste of money.”
“They paused the funding; we doubled the funding, in terms of Roads to Recovery. We've increased black spot funding by 40 per cent and provided extra funding under financial assistance grants. The coalition, in government, paused it and didn't do anything about it, much to the chagrin of local government associations around the country. We're doing things like building 24 social homes with the $14.2 million North Ipswich social housing project in conjunction with the state government. This is funding that we delivered but that the coalition opposed. They think it's a good idea to go to these projects and think it's a good idea for housing per se, but, when push comes to shove, they won't vote for it. They won't. They just will not vote for it. Despite what they say in this place, they're all bolshie.”
“They talk about their $5 billion plan for local infrastructure. I want to tell the member for Nicholls, who spoke here in this chamber, that our $2 billion extra in the local infrastructure fund adds on and accumulates to $6.3 billion to get up to 65,000 new homes. They claim that's a good idea. It's a pity they didn't vote for our housing bills in the last parliament. Now, in opposition for a second time, they've had a sort of road-to-Damascus conversion and, somehow, think this is good. I want to tell you we've doubled the Roads to Recovery funding from $500 million to a billion dollars. We've increased by 40 per cent the black spot funding. They claim we don't do it. These are the people that paused funding to local councils when they were last in government.”
“Those opposite, who couldn't even find a housing minister for most of their term, are voting against that sort of legislation and then applauding, for example, in my home state of Queensland, when we do a deal with the Crisafulli government for 51,000 more homes across fast-growing areas like Yarrabilba and other places in South-East Queensland—and 20,000 being geared for first home buyers. Those opposite, the Liberal and National parties, who think this is a good idea—even the Crisafulli LNP government think it's a good idea—voted against the funding. These people in this chamber voted against it. So, when they lament, when they claim they've got some real concerns about housing and when they want to link migration to housing, look at how they vote. They vote against housing for young people and for other people every single time.”
“There are a range of factors at play, but I think these reforms will have a significant impact on housing affordability. When it comes to housing, I can tell you there are more than 5,100 people in my local community, first home buyers, who got their first home as a result of Labor's five per cent deposit scheme. I hear those opposite make speeches about wanting to get more homes. It's a pity they voted against every housing bill in the last parliament, and I anticipate they're likely to vote against housing bills in this parliament. The Homes for Australia Plan is a commitment of 1.2 million households—more homes for Australia.”
“It's about getting people to own private property, which is the heart of capitalism and the free enterprise system. People who own private property contribute to the economy. They look for jobs, they engage in jobs and they contribute to their local communities even more. They feel a sense of ownership. That's not about communism; that's about capitalism. That's about free enterprise. The party of Menzies and the party of 'Black Jack' McEwen opposite—honestly, where have the Liberal and National parties gone in relation to this issue? It's early days, but, in recent days, we've seen some reports of the housing market moderating and normalising after the post-COVID highs, including in Brisbane and Ipswich, in anticipation of these tax changes.”
“When the Howard government introduced the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount in 1999, they saw too much—and we've seen too much—investment going into the property market, as opposed to more productive parts of the economy. Shareholdings actually reduced; house prices skyrocketed. That distortion made housing unaffordable for a whole generation. What we need to do is address this issue, and that's what this budget is about. We're fixing the tax treatment of capital gains to remove these distortions and help to ensure investment flows to where it's most productive. And, can I just say, that is good for the economy, that is good for private enterprise and that's good for aspiration. I heard those opposite say on numerous occasions, 'It's socialism, leading to communism.' That's what they say. Realistically, that's just nonsense.”
“We've got a younger population that even Brisbane does; our average age is 33, and, in suburbs I've referred to in this speech, it's even younger—below 20. Brisbane has an average age of about 36, which is still below the national average. We've got young people moving into the corridors in places like Ripley. I was there last week, at the Stockland Providence shopping centre's opening. This is really important in terms of housing affordability. There are houses going up everywhere in that area. It's people like these who we want to help get into the market. This budget is about helping these workers and first home buyers, as well as businesses, so that more people can earn more, keep more of what they earn and get ahead. That's aspiration—to get ahead.”
“From 1 July 2027, we'll limit negative gearing for residential property investments to new builds to ensure investors contribute to housing supply and give first home owners a fair go. We're replacing the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount for individuals, trusts and partnerships with cost base indexation and a 30 per cent minimum tax rate on capital gains. As former prime minister Paul Keating—and I heard the previous speaker laud him—pointed out recently while backing in these changes, the simple fact is that, in our current system, income is taxed too heavily while capital is taxed too lightly. That was a point Paul Keating made very clearly. These changes will rebalance our tax system, make it fairer and allow government to take pressure off wage earners and first home buyers. This will be warmly received in my electorate.”
“In particular, we're focusing on helping people get an opportunity to get ahead. We want to make sure there's a level playing field for young people and first home buyers, with a fairer tax system. We're reforming how capital gains tax and negative gearing work, to help 75,000 extra homeowners into the market for the very first time. This is about putting householders first and helping more people in Blair buy their home, whether they live in Ripley Valley; South Ripley, where I was last week; Springfield; or Spring Mountain. Right now, first home buyers are being priced out of the market by property investors—I've received story after story in relation to that issue—backed by tax breaks like negative gearing. We want to level the playing field.”
“When we talk about energy costs, who can ever forget those opposite voting against energy bill relief? I want to commend Stacey Schinnerl and the Australian Workers' Union, particularly the Queensland branch but across the country, for their strong advocacy in relation to that gas reservation scheme. They took it to regional conferences, state conferences and national conferences of the Labor Party and pushed and pushed this, and I want to commend them for the work they've done in relation to this. This is a good outcome, I say, for people in my electorate. We've seen reforms to the petroleum resource rent tax, which, for the budget, will see and has seen an uptick in tax revenue from offshore gas projects. It's a pretty uncertain world, but we're preparing for future energy stocks.”
“We're investing to buy more fuel and fertiliser and keep more here, with a $10 billion Australian fuel security and resilience package, which will help Ipswich and the Somerset region keep moving. Again, I received positive feedback about that at the Ipswich Show last Saturday, and I was there for three days. With an interest in electric vehicles up in Blair as a result of the global fuel crisis, we want to encourage the take-up of EVs. We've introduced some pretty sensible changes, I think, to the fringe benefit tax exemption for EVs to deliver fairer and more financially sustainable tax incentives. On top of this, there's a 20 per cent domestic gas reservation scheme, which will secure more gas supply and put downward pressure on gas prices for local residents and businesses.”
“The 2026 budget also includes important tax relief for small businesses, the backbone of my community across Ipswich, the Somerset region and the Karana Downs area. The government will make the per asset $20,000 instant asset write-off for small businesses permanent to support greater business investment and productivity. The budget is focused on helping households, businesses and farmers in Blair get through the disruption caused by the conflict in the Middle East. We've already slashed the fuel excise, which is flowing through to local motorists at the bowser, saving them money when they fill up. That has been reported to me, and I discussed it with people at the Willowbank area group just last Monday night.”
“We've also introduced a $1,000 instant tax deduction for work related expenses, to offset employment income. This automatic deduction will make tax time simpler and deliver more cost-of-living relief from 2026-27. This will benefit 6.2 million workers, with an average tax saving of $205. We've already cut income taxes five times since coming to government, a record that those opposite cannot claim, despite having served nearly 10 years on the Treasury benches. The combined effect of all of this, on top of the government's existing tax cuts and instant deduction, is that the average worker in Blair could benefit by almost $3,000 by 2028, and they would not experience that if the coalition had won the last election.”
“From 1 July 2027, every working Australian taxpayer will receive the $250 working Australians tax offset, a permanent annual tax offset of up to $250 for income earned, increasing the effective tax-free threshold for workers by nearly $1,800 to $19,985, or $24,985 for workers eligible for the low-income tax offset. This is the largest permanent increase in the effective tax-free threshold since 2012-13 under the Gillard Labor government, and it's a big win for workers in my electorate. I'm going to be very interested in how the Liberal and National people opposite vote in relation to that particular bill when it comes into the chamber, having opposed income tax in the last parliament and having gone to an election opposing income tax cuts as well.”
“Don't forget that at the last federal election, this mob, the Liberal and National parties, were going to increase people's taxes—that's what their platform was—and create a greater debt and deficit for the public. So they weren't exactly a prudent, pragmatic, sensible, economically responsible opposition when it came to the last budget, and the people marked them down accordingly. That's quite clear. Eighty thousand taxpayers in my electorate of Blair will benefit from this cost-of-living relief, with the second of the three tax cuts to come into effect this year.”
“I look forward to the membership of the HR Nicholls Society as well. I grew up under the Bjelke-Petersen regime, and I can recognise someone that doesn't actually adhere to National Party values. The highest taxing government in the history of the Commonwealth of Australia, by the way, was the Howard government. The highest spending government in the history of the Commonwealth of Australia was the Morrison government. That's a fact—not a belief, a fact. Those opposite think that, when we make some modest, reasonable and just changes to the tax system, somehow we're creating a sort of a Berlin Wall. It's quite an astonishing claim from those opposite in relation to the reality of what we're doing here. It'd be even more sensible if they had voted at any stage for the income tax cuts that we took to the last election.”
“This budget is about relief, recovery and resilience, and I'm proud to speak on the appropriation bills associated with it. It delivers more tax cuts and a fair go at buying your own home, and it strengthens Medicare for all. It's about getting workers, families and businesses in my community through the current global fuel crisis while building a stronger economy that works for more people. At the outset, I want to say that the budget is a budget dedicated to tax relief for 13.3 million Australian workers, helping more people realise the great Australian dream of homeownership and creating a fairer and more sustainable tax system for all Australians. I listened to the previous speaker—who, by the way, should be changing his party room, the National Party, the great agrarian socialists of Australian politics, into the Liberal Party.”
“My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How does the Albanese Labor government's budget build on the government's commitment to backing Australian workers? How does this compare to other approaches to supporting Australian workers?”
“The stark contrast for a big game opposite and failure to deliver. It's absolutely vital that we support regional Australia and that's what this budget is precisely doing.”
“Also, it was going to go right beside Grandchester State School—right beside this rural school through koala habitat, through the food bowl of the Lockyer Valley, through into rural Ipswich with the cattle farms et cetera in those areas. The decision to stop Inland Rail was the right outcome for the people in my community. I am very pleased we made that, and the people in my community are supportive of that in relation to the decision the government's made. That is critical, and I'm very disappointed that the coalition can't see it. The member for Wright knows how important that decision was. He knows that people in the Lockyer Valley in his community, which I used to represent, absolutely hate the concept of the Inland Rail going through the Lockyer Valley. Our government is getting on with the job of delivering for regional Australia.”
“The rail was going to go 500 metres, and when they sought assistance from ARTC on noise abatement—crickets, no support whatsoever. The Inland Rail is disliked immensely in my community, and I'm very pleased the government has decided what it's done. It was high impact with no value for rural Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley. So the decision we made is absolutely vital for koala protection and conservation in our local area, including farms. The Inland Rail was going to go just south of Rosewood with an intermodal, affecting the people in the township of Rosewood. Imagine their lifestyle and their livelihoods in that area.”
“That will build, the $9 billion, the whole of the Inland Rail,' which, by the way, initially went to 43 kilometres west of the Brisbane port, finishing at Acacia Ridge, going through the Lockyer Valley into rural Ipswich. Now the farmers and small business residents and homeowners in the Lockyer Valley, Toowoomba and rural parts of Ipswich are very pleased with our decision not to proceed, because two-thirds of the cost was going from Toowoomba to Brisbane. I don't think they want 1.8-kilometre-long rail freight trains going every hour on embankments without noise abatement. That's precisely what was going to happen in my community. I've met with landholders across the proposed route, like Ivory Rock's convention and events centre at Peak Crossing who raised concerns with me.”