Michael McCormack
Riverina · National Party · Australia
“She told the local newspaper, the Daily Advertiser : He shared his personal story and he was just such a brave, compassionate man— and we heard that from the member for Chifley a moment ago. She continued: He was the most warm, caring, generous man.”
“He knew that he was going to succumb to the diseases that were afflicting his body, and yet he used his final months, weeks, days and hours to send a message to the nation about what can be done, what should be done and how we should act.”
“The coalition has concerns from the sector itself about the consultation process, including but not limited to the fact universities had not seen the bill before it was tabled. There are elements of the drafting surprising the actual sector.”
“My thoughts and love and condolences go out to Katie and his children, Emily, Matthew and Lucy. It is a profound loss that they have suffered. I listened closely to the words of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Minister for Health and Ageing yesterday before question time.”
“There are a lot of Australians out there at the moment who are very angry, and, when there is anger, there is unfortunately a race to the bottom when it comes to healthy debate. I don't need to remind the House about the sovereign citizen movement and what that can do to Australia and the nature and discourse of debate.”
“I do believe that children should be allowed to be children. We saw it in the veterans legislation, where there is now going to be a $5,000 cap on allied health for veterans to access important services. The Labor Party said: 'Trust us. We'll do the consultation over the next 12 months.' It's not good enough.”
The complete record
Every one of 1,285 lines we hold for Michael McCormack, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 15 of 26.
“On 29 August I went to the meeting of the Wagga Wagga and district greyhound racing club. At that particular meeting, I was impressed by the number of young families who went to the track for a night's sport and entertainment—not only young families but a lot of young tradies. I caught up with a group of them. They'd had quite a few bourbon and cokes by this stage of the evening, and they were very pleased to see me—trust me! It was interesting. They wanted a few selfies and all the rest, but—I won't say 'through their alcohol fuelled or gambling induced vision'—I tell you what, they were very, very proud of the fact that they were working on the reconstruction and refurbishment of the eternal flame in Wagga Wagga's Victory Memorial Gardens. They went out of their way to tell me so.”
“Some of their actions have been, quite frankly, despicable. But we move on. What I would say to the previous speaker is that he perhaps ought to tell those protesters who turn up every week outside his office, 'Here's a thought: why don't you spend a few hours volunteering your time at a soup kitchen, at a Carevan, at St Vinnies or doing something like that instead of wasting your time outside the— Debate interrupted.”
“This legislation before the House tonight ain't going to stop that! It's not going to prevent that! We're seeing professional protesters everywhere, and they're protesting about everything. The previous speaker was talking about these wonderful people who came outside his electorate office. He invited them in, and good on him—I've done the same with the protesters that used to be 'Climate for Fridays' and then became 'Peace for Sunday' or 'Sundays for Peace'. They stopped protesting about the climate when Labor took office in May 2022 because, apparently, the climate became a whole lot better when that occurred. Now the same people—they're just Greens—are protesting about Gaza. Now they think that, on Fitzmaurice Street in Wagga Wagga, we can solve a problem that has been going on for decades, if not centuries, in the Middle East.”
“They are blocking every single project, whether it's gas, iron ore or forestry. No matter what project is proposed in this country, there are activists who want to stop it, activists who want to abolish it and activists who are just loving this sort of legislation, because it's right up their modus operandi. And we see in the Daily Telegraph only today that almost $11 million of taxpayers' money—that's all our money that could otherwise be spent putting in more aged-care beds, beds in hospitals, potential desks in classrooms to be filled by students and all those sorts of things that once were important—has been ploughed into the activist Environmental Defenders Office, helping fund bids to scuttle multibillion dollar gas and gold projects. Labor, how do you feel about that waste of money?”
“Seventy per cent of the economy in the Snowy Valleys Council area—Tumut, Talbingo, Tumbarumba—is underpinned by forestry. But, if Labor have their way—they're totally against forestry. Why? I don't know. How are they going to build a million homes if we can't have our own successful, reliable, consistent and sustainable forestry industry providing the timber for those homes? Under Labor's policies, they'd have it all imported from overseas. To hell with the rainforest wherever it's coming from. To hell with Indonesia or whatever country that, quite frankly, is going to provide those imports to build those million homes. What a fantasy! What a fallacy! A million homes, really? Come on. Get real! Then, of course, we've got this legislation before the House which talks about offsets, and then we've got green activists. Green activists!”
“It is just a nonsense, because what we're actually doing with these offsets is punishing companies, developers and people who want to construct such things as, heaven help us, aged care homes by having offsets somewhere that's not even in proximity. In this piece of legislation, if they don't do that, well, as the Labor members say, there will be consequences! Stronger enforcement will follow. It's like the Labor Party don't want to build anything. They've got a housing minister who talks about the prospect of building a million homes. Good luck with that! At a state level, they're preventing every forestry company and developer from ever trying to succeed. I resumed representing the Snowy Valleys Council in the Riverina electorate in May this year, having represented it previously between 2010 and 2016.”
“Thank you to Michael Ferguson and others for helping me in that task. Trying to get other states, mainland states, to go with me on that journey was in fact, unfortunately, a lost cause. But the point is this: we've got a country where we now think it's wise and sensible to lock up and leave it to feral pests, rabbits and weeds, all in the name of nature. We've also got this propensity, whenever we build something in this nation—and we used to be a nation of builders—to think we have to have these offsets which perhaps aren't just covering the piece of land that is being taken up by the actual infrastructure we're constructing but indeed a whole heap more.”
“A fellow called Thomas Austin also brought a whole heap of rabbits in for sport later on, in the 19th century. But the point is this: we have politicians in this place, and in Macquarie Street in New South Wales, in particular, at the moment, who think that they can turn a land of droughts and flooding rains into something that resembles Europe all the time—of green hills and running rivers. We know that Australia has ephemeral streams. We can't turn Australia into something that it wasn't designed to be. Nature will always have its way—'her way', I should say; it's Mother Nature—and she will always beat any efforts of Australians. We could do a whole lot more. We can build a whole lot of more dams. I tried that. I built one in Tasmania with the good help of the then Liberal—and still Liberal, thankfully—Tasmanian government.”
“The five fluffy, lovable little English rabbits that Captain Phillip had brought in a hutch to Port Jackson in 1788 had become 500 million. An army of occupation marching west to the conquest of a continent, eating it bare as a billiard ball, honeycombing it to nightmare and multiplying all the way along. At dawn and at twilight, the sheep pastures were a moving blur of rabbits. Every blade of hope went down before them. They demolished the leaves of the shrubs and the bark of the trees. They burrowed into the sandhills to devour the roots of the few cast-iron tussocks that held them together, leaving a trail of starvation and [inaudible] of blowing sand.' That was the 1880s. And yet we've managed the rabbit infestation. It wasn't just Captain Phillip; I think he probably gets a bad name there.”
“Even the meagre 10 inches of rain a year that are heaven's tender mercies in this part of the world were denied. Day after day, for five years, the sun was a copper gong in cloudless skies, earth cracked with thirst and pallid with heat. Green had faded to brown, and little enough of that. The puny wheat withered on the stalk, and the stock were famished. On the Murray and Darling stations, the sheep died in their tens of thousands, perishing out on the plains, lying in rotting heaps on the very riverbanks, bloated with water and too weak to climb again for the feed they could not find. Skeleton poverty had the pioneers in its grip, and settlers everywhere were leaving their farms—stark madness to send others to follow them. And, as though drought were not enough, a pharaoh's plague of rabbits descended.”
“Our farmers not only feed Australians; they feed many others besides. I love this book. It's called Water Into Gold . It's the seventh edition, from 1946. It was written by Ernestine Hill, and she was a great Australian—1899 to 1972. She was a journalist, a travel writer and a novelist. She was known for her various travels across Australia and her writings about diverse landscapes and cultures in the country. In this particular book, which, coincidentally, ironically perhaps, is water damaged, in chapter 4—I want to read this into Hansard , because it's so, so good—under the heading 'Apostles of Irrigation', she writes: 'In the early eighties'—that's the 1880s—'the fiery breath of a terrible drought seared the land. Western New South Wales and north-western Victoria became barren wastes.”
“I'm a tree-hugger on land that was once farmed, a dissident who bludges off the taxes of hard-working Australians.' That's where we've got to. We hear members opposite from the Australian Labor Party, the party that once represented those hard-working Australians, come in here and use words in the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025. There will be consequences and strong enforcement—stronger enforcement. It's almost as if they want to take the big wack, the big stick, to those farmers, who we celebrate in that song, 'I am Australian'. Heaven help if my father, the late Lance McCormack, were still alive, because I know when he took over the farm in the 1960s he dynamited trees out. He was one of those people who cleared the land, and he did it so that he could grow wheat. He did it so that he could help feed a hungry nation.”
“We've all attended those functions in our electorates, often on Australia Day—one of our most important national days—where we've gathered together and sung 'I am Australian', that 1987 Bruce Woodley from The Seekers and Dobe Newton from the Bushwackers hit which unites us all and makes us feel really patriotic. The second verse goes like this: I came upon the prison ship bowed down by iron chains. I cleared the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains. I'm a settler. I'm a farmer's wife on a dry and barren run A convict then a free man I became Australian. The way we're going, we're going to have to change a verse or add a verse, and it'll go something like this: 'I was elected on the back of a whole heap of Greens votes. I sip lattes, weave baskets and welcome illegal boats. I'm a protester.”
“I think we can all agree that regional people punch way above their weight when it comes to doing the right thing by this nation.”
“I'm more than happy to come to the member for Lingiari's seat any day of any week. She knows full well that, but for me, her seat would not exist. She is nodding—yes, she knows that—because I supported the Northern Territory having two seats. Capital city people don't get that. I acknowledge the work that she has done, particularly with Aboriginal women and particularly in remote communities. I also want to acknowledge the member for Hunter's contribution to regional Australia, to sport and to the Olympics—thank you—and I want to acknowledge the former mayor of Bega Valley Shire Council and now member for Eden-Monaro for her contribution to local government and now federal politics. Why are we being so nasty? Let's get to the nub of the matter. The nub of the matter is regional people.”
“My question without notice is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, and I refer to Labor's disastrous solar sharer program. Senior energy analyst Saul Kavonic has slammed Labor's thought bubble as 'another poorly thought-through market intervention' and warned, 'The window of free electricity during the day will have to be offset by higher prices at other times to cover the fixed costs.' Minister, how much will other electricity users have to pay to subsidise this folly?”
“They just won't, because they'll never be around the cabinet table. They'll always make a big song and dance when they go out in the public and go out in the media about the fact that they're running the show. Well, they're not. The cabinet does do the administrative hard yards for and on behalf of the government, for and on behalf of the parliament and for and on behalf of the people. That's the Westminster system. I applaud and admire that. It's served us well since 1901, and may it long continue. We can't have Independents running the show. I mean, they're a rabble—the teals, particularly. I'm glad you can't interject on me, Deputy Speaker Wilkie, but I mean that with all good intentions, having sat around those cabinet tables. But this bill needs a lot of work, and we don't agree with it. (Time expired)”
“I know that's why we have an amendment process. That's why we have Senate inquiries. That's why sometimes we have to bring bills back and change them. Sometimes the unintended consequences are worse than what the minister thinks as they're putting bills before the parliament. Even the bureaucrats just don't often realise everything that could evolve as a result of a bill going before the parliament and getting royal assent by the Governor-General. It expands the grounds for refusing information, especially through new broad exemptions on cabinet and deliberative processes. I have been on about this, about the cabinet. There has to be a certain amount of secrecy with cabinet. Pardon this, Independent; it might be an idea to block your ears for a minute. Independents will never get that.”
“I often wonder why House of Representatives members sometimes scratch their head and wonder and worry about what the Senate gets up to. The Senate inquiries play a really important part in improving legislation and in getting the answers to issues put to them. In relation to ignoring the key recommendations, it's particularly on resourcing timeframes and cultural issues within the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. It does impose new barriers, such as fees and the ban on anonymous requests. It reduces access and discourages legitimate applicants. You can look at that either way. I know the Attorney-General and others have put a ruler over this. They've really looked at this particular legislation, trying to jump ahead and see the unintended consequences, which aren't always obvious when governments put bills in.”
“I've said on a number of occasions in this place that I admire the work that public servants do. I do. I always want that to be known. They do a great job. They're often criticised. You'll often hear about the bloated bureaucracy and all the rest, but public servants do a mighty job for this nation and don't always get the credit they deserve. Sometimes they really have to be able to do the work that the government requests of them, not just follow through on FOIs. The bill allows the Australian Information Commissioner to remit review applications to agencies for reconsideration. As I said, there a lot of things in this bill that would improve efficiency. The charging of a fee disturbs me. It worries me; it really does. I think the bill ignores key recommendations from the 2020 Senate inquiry.”
“They just appear as 'private player' on these lists, with an asterisk after their name, even if they've kicked five goals or been best on field—that's in the men's and the women's footy competitions—because they don't want their former intimate partners or somebody else knowing who they are, where they live, where they're playing or what they're doing. This is part and parcel of modern society, and modern society has changed a lot from the days when I was a newspaper editor, mainly through the 1990s. The bill also introduces a discretionary 40-hour cap on processing FOI requests, to limit agency workload. Good luck with that. I know that it burdens public servants when they get these requests. What I would like to see, as I said before, is public servants sharing the workload. They have to do all of the workload. They do enough already.”
“The Freedom of Information Amendment Bill proposes to require FOI requests to be made with applicant identification, banning anonymous or pseudonymous requests. There are two ways of looking at that. Sometimes people who are making those requests can't be in the public domain for all manner of reasons, and I get that. This is drawing a long bow, but it is a point. I notice that, increasingly, even in the football lists in the local park competitions that exist around my electorate, you'll get a lot of players who can't be identified.”
“I have always believed that the government of the day, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have always had the nation's best interest at heart; I do. Again, we'll agree to disagree, but that's why I do believe that they should have the ability to send the nation to war and to send troops into action. They shouldn't have to come back to the parliament, because imagine that sort of ability being held up by the Greens political party, or even the teals, because the teals, quite frankly, are often Independents masquerading as Greens or, the other way around—take your pick—Greens masquerading as Independents. These are important discussions that we need to have as a parliament and as a nation.”
“But the difficulty I have with it—and I am a former journalist and a former newspaper editor—is that there is a public right to know, and this is clamping down on that. I've also been the second in charge, and sometimes acted as the person in charge, of national security, and I know the sorts of things that come across that table at times. This is where you and I, Deputy Speaker Wilkie, might disagree. You haven't been at that table. Sometimes the public doesn't have a right to know until the 30 years have passed, when everything becomes obvious and is made free. You sometimes do have information that is a potential threat to this nation, and you don't want to have runs on banks and panic and people, quite frankly, setting their hair on fire about something that won't happen but potentially could happen.”
“This is where I will differ from the member for Sturt: it is a tax on truth. The difficulty that I have with that particular part of this legislation is that the people who put these vexatious and 'speculative'—to use the member for Sturt's word—FOIs in have deep pockets and are sometimes bankrolled by organisations that would waste the government's time. People who I know are genuine—some of those people I know Deputy Speaker Wilkie is passionate about—who just want something to be exposed because they can see a wrong and want it put right, don't have deep pockets. They don't have, quite frankly, the time and the money that this legislation would put into law. There is a lot to unpack in this legislation.”
“Please know that. The crossbench adds another level of requests. In my next life, I will come back as a teal. I want to be a pontificator, and I want to be pious and perfect every time on every issue. I do want to be that person. At the moment, I just get complaints brought against me from everybody on Facebook and Twitter—my goodness, X! The point I'm making is that transparency is important, but we also need to try and work through what are just vexatious, what are just based on fallacies and fantasies from the internet and what are just political try-ons and then what are genuine attempts to uncover something that needs to be exposed, that absolutely needs to be out in the public domain. I'm not so sure that placing a charge on this is right, as the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025 would have us do and would have us believe.”
“Hopefully, we're back in government in 2028. But you're both young. You've both got time. When you are ministers, you will understand what I mean. You do get a lot of requests, and a lot of those requests are just try-ons, usually from the other side of politics. I don't mind mentioning this: I thought the Prime Minister gave such a good answer in question time the other day that I texted him. He said that in some instances—and I don't think I'm speaking out of school, but, if I am, I'm sure he will rap me on the knuckles!—it is becoming unworkable because it is bogging down government and bogging down the processes of government. I didn't have the crossbench, but the Prime Minister does, and the crossbench brings another level of requests—and this is not a reflection on you, Deputy Speaker Wilkie. I'm talking about the teals.”
“That's not to say that some of the FOI requests, as the member for Sturt quite articulately and eloquently described, aren't vexatious, because they are. Deputy Speaker Wilkie, you would know this. I know you're very much about giving whistleblowers all the protections that they need, and I very much respect the role that you have played in that in your 15 years of service to this parliament and to this nation. I do. I genuinely mean that. But this isn't just about whistleblowers. This is also about, as the member for Sturt said, getting through some of those voluminous in-trays of FOI requests which, quite frankly, in many cases, are a try-on. I appreciate we have two new members here in the chamber, the members for Bass and Moore. One day I hope you're ministers. I genuinely do—a long way off!”
“Rest assured, you knew when stakeholder groups were being primed and prompted by those two formidable members of parliament; it just jumped out at you from the pages of the FOIs you received. I had the department spend an inordinate amount of time going through the many FOI requests that were conspired and inspired by the Australian Labor Party. Not only did it cause a lot of angst and wasted time; it also chewed up considerable energy in my office. You should ask what you would rather have your public servants do. Should they be shuffling papers, doing FOI responses, or should they be getting on with developing programs, policies and project ideas that may build an even better nation? I know what I would prefer.”
“I want to hark on the facts that the member for Sturt put forward in relation to my three-and-one-third years in cabinet as the Deputy Prime Minister and as the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. At the time, I oversaw a $110 billion—110 thousand million dollars—rollout for projects, programs and infrastructure across this nation. They were heady times. We got a lot done. Yet, most of the FOI request that came to my office and to the departments in that time were from the Labor Party. They were. They were generally from the chairs of committees. Some of them were from joint select committees. I had the member for Grayndler as the infrastructure shadow. I had the member for Ballarat as a shadow for some time.”
“The coalition opposes this bill, but I do want to make some remarks about the contribution of the previous speaker, the member for Sturt. It was a thoughtful contribution. I respect her as a lawyer and I absolutely admire some of the points that she put across based on her experience in that law firm. When she mentioned the vexatious and speculative freedom of information request based on rumour, misinformation and innuendo, she was 100 per cent right. The member for Sturt was absolutely spot on, so thank you for those very wise words. Having said all that, you'd wonder why I would then say that we are opposing the bill, but we are, and I will tell you why in the contribution that I will make.”
“Lawler, Casey and Capricornia are cracking the whip! Come on! Cheer them home! Grayndler has a huge lead! Greenway is laying down the law now! Corio is steady—on the wrong course, though; thought it was a golf course. Rankin wants to be leader! Little chance! Birthday Boy Watson wants to be in front. No hope! Senator Thorpe is burning down the outside! Question Time is fast approaching, and here comes the Speaker! Everyone's favourite! Can he make it back-to-back? Speaker! Question Time! Speaker! The place is on fire! Photo finish! Speaker!”
“Drama before the start of the 2025 Melbourne Cup of politics! The anti-fun teals and the Greens are refusing to enter the barriers! Their jockeys are carrying anti-racing placards. Who would believe that? The gates crash back and the race is on! Canning has gone hard and fast, early—maybe a bit 'hasty'? Ballarat and Hotham are building expectations but nothing else. McMahon is charging, more and more! All wind, no power! Blowing hard, but no energy, his chances of winning are net zero! Why are New England, Riverina and Chifley so far back? Word is New England may soon be changing stables! Maranoa is safe for now, surrounding himself with stablemates. Farrer is trying hard—so, too, Fairfax. Leadership aspirants are looming, thick and fast! Canning is still in the picture, and Hume thereabouts. Goldstein and Hindmarsh fancy themselves!”
“It's hurting them because they can't find a house to rent. It's hurting them because every quarter, when they open that energy bill, they should see the Prime Minister or the member for McMahon's face staring back at them, because they're the ones forcing the prices up 40 per cent over and above what they were when Labor came into power in May 2022. That was a disastrous day for this nation, and this is a disastrous six months for this nation as well.”
“Well, that's not the Future Made in Australia that Labor purports to represent. Of course, it's not just that. Every time people go and fill up their cars, they're paying through the nose at the petrol bowser, and they're paying through the nose at the cash-out register in their local supermarket, because of the higher costs foisted upon them by this government, and something has to give. We can't afford to keep saddling future generations with the costs that we are putting on them. And if Labor thinks that this is a novel exercise, celebrating their achievements after six months, well, I tell you what, there's a lot more work to do. Yes, while there have been some good little achievements, the cost overall to everyday, ordinary Australians is hurting. It's hurting them because they can't put a roof over their heads.”
“We had it at Whyalla with $2.4 billion, Nyrstar with $135 million, Glencore with $600 million and now—Tomago. Tomago, where the Prime Minister stood and said, 'This is the vision for a future made in Australia.' And now that aluminium smelter is, potentially, facing bankruptcy. Well, if that is a future made in Australia, then Labor has to go back to the drawing board as to what it is doing to charge those high energy costs that companies simply can't afford. It'll probably be a boon for the minister for climate action and energy, the member for McMahon, because it will take 11 per cent of New South Wales's power supply, and that will therefore reduce emissions. But is this the way we want to go? Do we want to start sending everything manufacturing and factory-wise and industrial-wise offshore?”
“There has to be a conversation with the insurance industry as to why this is so. Then, of course, you've got legitimate businesses next to legitimate tobacco sellers who cannot even get insurance because of the fear that insurance companies have of those legitimate cigarette sellers being firebombed by the illegal gangs that are using it as their MO for making money. This is costing the government, through illegal tobacco excise, millions upon millions of dollars, and something has to give. I feel for those state police officers who are pulling up people on the Hume Highway all of the time, and then—what do we do? Well, we just let them back into society. This has got to be something that the government should take in hand, because it's costing revenue—millions of dollars. We've got bailout after bailout.”
“Instead of coming in here and crowing about what they've achieved in six months, Labor should be tucking their tails between their legs, going back to their electorates and listening to the small-business community, listening to Mr and Mrs Average, listening to everyday, ordinary Australians who are hurting, who are crippled with the debt foisted upon them by this government. Indeed, when you talk about insurance, you've got a complete market failure there, a complete collapse. You have got in some of those river communities, where they have been put in place thanks to coalition infrastructure spending—some of those opposite have no idea what I'm talking about—levee banks that were not there before. And yet people are still paying higher and higher insurance rates.”
“When you have households across Australia paying 15 per cent more for food; 15 per cent more for health, with bulk-billing rates going from 88 per cent to 77 per cent, so down 11 per cent; 19 per cent more for housing—that's if you're lucky enough to get a roof over your head, either through ownership or rent; paying 37 per cent more for insurance; and nearly 40 per cent more for power, for electricity, then you know that something is seriously wrong with the government of the day. And something is dreadfully, horribly wrong with the administration of Australia right at this point in time.”
“Certainly the end wouldn't have been the way that he would have liked it. But we record that moment in time. I'm pleased that the now Governor-General Sam Mostyn is also acknowledging this time and its importance with some activities and events because, as Australians, we should mark this very important milestone. Debate adjourned.”
“Today, only a small number of Commonwealth government agencies have established rural or regional offices in support of decentralisation. That is such a shame, because Gough did have that vision for this nation. One of his other great legacies I would like to talk about is his late marvellous wife, Margaret. He was married to Margaret from 1942 until her death in 2012. Of course, EG Whitlam outlived her by a couple of years, dying on 21 October 2014 at the age of 98. But what a partnership they were. What a pair they were when they were either doing domestic duties or, indeed, on the world stage. There are many, many university graduates who owe their degree to Gough's vision for Australia. He wanted to make this country a smarter, fairer place. Yes, like for all prime ministers, there were ups and downs along the way.”
“As I said, it's a shame that the decentralisation program he pursued vigorously at the start really hasn't been taken advantage of as a legacy of Gough Whitlam and we haven't got the big cities in inland Australia that we see in other countries, such as, for example, the United States of America. Eighty per cent of Australians—I think it's probably even higher—live on the eastern seaboard, They live on that coastal strip. We have such amazing opportunities for Australians and for migrants to avail themselves of in inland Australia. Gough had that vision. He tried to develop Albury-Wodonga as another big Canberra perhaps. But, whilst Albury-Wodonga is doing very nicely, it probably hasn't realised the vision that Gough had when he went there, when he stood on top of the hill and when he looked at the marvellous vista that there is.”
“Certainly the Taxation Office going to Albury and, indeed, the establishment or promotion of Albury-Wodonga as united, as one, are hallmarks of what he did and what he achieved. Perhaps not many people know this but when he was 81 and contemplating his own mortality, in characteristic fashion he said, 'I first saw an aircraft in December 1919 when my father took me to Middle Head to watch Ross and Keith Smith when they flew to Mascot at the end of the first flight by Australians from England to Australia. I first boarded an aircraft at RAAF Cootamundra.' So the Riverina has an important piece of aviation history connected with the great man. Certainly he became a pilot of renown. He was obviously somebody who loved his country. All prime ministers love their country as all MPs, I would like to think, love their nation.”
“'Well may we say God save the Queen because nothing will save the Governor-General.' That is one of the most famous sentences ever uttered. As Edward Gough Whitlam spoke those words, hovering around on the steps of Old Parliament House was one Norman Gunston. That was an only-in-Australia political moment. Could you imagine any other country where such an historic event was taking place—the dismissal of the country's leader—and you've got a comedian there doing almost stand-up comedy, talking with Kip Enderby, discussing the moment with Bob Hawke and others. Billy Sneddon was there. Of course, that statement has gone down in the annals of Australian political history. There are many things we could say about EG Whitlam but I want to praise the great man—the great man—for that decentralisation program that he undertook.”
“Labor's change with the Excise Tariff Amendment (Draught Beer) Bill 2025 and the associated bill, and the carry-on that they are putting to this debate, is little more than a political stunt. It doesn't address the cost-of-living crisis that Labor has forced upon everyday ordinary Australians. Those everyday ordinary Australians love a beer. They love a punt. Tomorrow is Melbourne Cup Day. I know there are some people in this place from the Greens political party who say 'nup' to the Cup. I say: 'Have a drink. Go, Buckaroo!'”
“But, again, I do implore those members opposite: when we are talking about the Australian Energy Regulator, when we're talking about the power grid and when we're talking about servicing the nation with reliable, affordable energy, the government must do more. It has to bring about policies, and use those levers that it can, to help the economy and to help the Australian people that it purports to serve.”
“The point is that we have to make sure that Mr and Mrs Average out there can pay their power bills and so can pensioners. Right across the board, it is not right—what we're doing at the moment. That is why we opposed this particular bill when it was first put on 24 July this year. The member for Wannon, in his capacity as the shadow minister for energy and emissions reduction, as well as the shadow assistant minister for energy and emissions reduction, Senator Dean Smith from Western Australia, were briefed on this bill. We see the need for it, given the fact that, as I say, the Public Service has modernised. We understand why it is necessary.”
“I appreciate that the government has brought in some subsidies, and they will say, 'Well, this is designed to help those ordinary, everyday Australians doing it tough and struggling.' But we can't impoverish pensioners. We can't see the likes of Tomago going to the wall. The Tomago aluminium smelter and plant uses up about 10 or 11 per cent of New South Wales's power, and having it not functioning will indeed lower emissions, and that might meet the Minister for Climate Change and Energy's remit in trying to bring emissions down. But that's not the point, is it? The point is that we cannot de-industrialise our nation. The point is that we have to give our farmers the reliable, affordable energy to be able to grow the world's best food and fibre.”
“In the lead-up to the election, it was our clear view, as a coalition, that the government should be focused on lowering the cost of electricity and not making bureaucratic changes. That was the view we had then. We still believe that the government should and must do more to focus on lowering those power bills and to do whatever the government can do, indeed, to bring energy prices down—not because it's a political debate, not because it's something that we can differ from the government on in this chamber, but because people out there in our electorates right across the nation are demanding, are crying out, are pleading, for energy relief.”
“They hold statutory accountability for meeting the requirements of the PGPA Act and the Public Service Act. In essence, the buck stops with the ACCC chair—one could say, as it should. These governance arrangements were considered appropriate when the Australian Energy Regulator was first established, 20 years ago. As to the bill's intention, the AER's statutory functions and powers, and the number of staff required to assist in performing these functions and powers, have materially changed over those two decades, and, as the Public Service changes and modernises, you have to bring these sorts of bills before the parliament to keep up with those changes in the Public Service. This bill was introduced to parliament last year. It passed the House earlier this year, but it wasn't considered by the Senate prior to the May 2025 election.”