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.”
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“It lapsed, but it is good that it has been able to return. Should providers breach their obligations—or, indeed, pose a risk to consumers—ACMA would have the ability to cancel their registration to operate. This should be an absolute minimum in this day and age, because telecommunications are far too important to have people operating in the industry or the sector who could probably otherwise best be described as cowboys. People who are operating in this sector need to understand that there are minimum standards and that there are high fines now able to be imposed. They were high before; they've now very much got into the area of very severe, as they should be.”
“Particularly when the Minister for Communications is designating funding for vital telecommunications upgrades, that is so very important. The new carriage service provider registration scheme is going to require all telecommunications providers to apply to the Australian Communications and Media Authority for registration to operate in Australia. It should have always been the minimum, quite frankly. This will provide ACMA, as the regulator for the sector, with visibility of all operators in the Australian market, of which there are an estimated 1,500 at the moment. It will ensure that ACMA is able to monitor, to educate and, where necessary, to take rapid enforcement action for any breaches of any codes or standards. I know that this particular legislation passed through the House before.”
“I know that in my electorate there are people out Ardlethan way, in Ariah Park, Beckom, Kamarah and that district, who have to climb up on top of their silos, would you believe, to get a signal. You could imagine climbing up a silo, with one hand on the ladder and one hand on your phone, just to get a signal. That might be to be able to sell your grain, to be able to get the best price for your stock or whatever the case might be, but it might also be to get an ambulance. When it comes to getting help for these little communities and these farmers who do so much for our nation, just to try to get an ambulance is an exercise in itself—let alone having to climb a silo to do it. We need to remember that and we need to reflect on that.”
“I commend Mr Taylor for the work that he has done in my electorate and others besides to ensure that he keeps members of parliament and moreover—very much moreover—members of the public updated with what the big telco is doing when it comes to services. Ms Cawkell is looking after the shires I've just taken over—Snowy Valleys, Yass Valley and Upper Lachlan shires. She has others in her care as well. I respect the job that they're doing, and I emphasised again that there are still communities that are hurting from the changeover from 3G. I know Telstra very much acknowledges that and are working on it, but there are people—the member for Macquarie mentioned people on landlines—who are relying on their landlines.”
“That might seem a lot of money, and it is, but corporations have an obligation to do the right thing and to put in place the provisions, the measures and the personnel to ensure that customers are safeguarded—that the consumers who use their services are kept as much as possible away from those activities and those people who would otherwise do them harm. It also amends the existing two-step process for the application of penalty amounts for infringement notices. I had a visit to my parliamentary office yesterday by Chris Taylor and Christina Cawkell from Telstra, and it was good to get an update.”
“Because money's hard enough to earn in this cost-of-living crisis; you don't want to be giving it up to somebody who is not earning it but just wants to separate you from your hard-earned wealth. So I commend that particular publication to everybody. The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 before us does create a register of carriage service providers. It does enable the direct enforcement of industry codes and increases the maximum penalty amount from a quarter of a million dollars to $10 million.”
“The Little Book of Scams is good reading. It's sobering reading. It's actually helping people spot and avoid scams. And, when it comes to scams, telecommunications are the preferred method of choice by a lot of these people who would steal people's money. It's white collar crime and it's on an industrial scale. These nefarious characters are coming in from overseas—they're operating from overseas bases. They're also very much operating right here at home. They prey on older people. They prey on vulnerable people. I would advise people to take heed of what the government says when it comes to text or SMS scams, email scams, phone scams and website scams.”
“I do want to commend that aspect of this bill and the fact that, if there is a partner who is being subjected to domestic abuse, particular numbers will not showing up on telephone bills. That's absolutely, vitally important. Anything that can be done to protect and safeguard particularly women in domestic violence situations, obviously, is to be applauded and encouraged. When we come to scams, I would urge and encourage people to avail themselves of a copy of The Little Book of Scams . It doesn't matter who's in government—I actually had the former member for Whitlam come to my electorate and run a very worthwhile scams seminar in Wagga Wagga, and he was fabulous. These days, the scammers are so professional and so adept at separating people from their money for their own graft and gain that it is quite remarkable.”
“The sad reality is that the colour coded spreadsheets for the telecommunications towers, in the first term of this government, were all red. They claimed that they were, as part of the rollout of towers, simply honouring election commitments. But they need to be fair about this when it comes to the spread of telecommunications towers, because everybody needs good telecommunications not just Labor electorates. I would urge and encourage the new communications minister, to consider that when they are funding those towers, which not just provide convenience and data sharing but indeed save lives—they absolutely do. The member for Macquarie also mentioned an important part of this telecommunications bill we are debating—domestic violence and scams.”
“The high point of Australian politics is Kosciuszko. The mountaintop, the summit, is in the Riverina electorate. I'm very proud of that fact. The fact is that they are very prone to fires and very prone to having emergency situations. We need the best telecommunications to enable our emergency service workers to communicate, get help and save people's lives when things happen. If you think about it, at the moment, we've got Australia's largest manhunt happening in Porepunkah in north-east Victoria, and they no doubt need good telecommunications, too, as they search for the killer of those two brave police officers. When we have a rollout of telecommunications in the bush, we need to be fair about it. I know many members have come in and talked about colour coded spreadsheets.”
“What we're seeing these days is farmers using groundbreaking GPS technology on their tractors and equipment so that they stay in line, each and every bit of valuable soil is utilised to its maximum benefit and each and every valuable droplet of water is used to its maximum benefit. That only happens when you've got the very best of technology, the very best of global positioning systems technology and good mobile communications. The member for Macquarie mentioned her electorate and the fact that the geography and topography of her electorate is wide and varied, which is very similar to the Riverina electorate that I now serve with the new alignment of boundaries of the Australian Electoral Commission, which came into effect at the May election this year. I've now retaken the Snowy Mountains, Kosciuszko and beyond. We've got hilly terrain.”
“But they can't do their research, and they therefore can't be even more environmentally sustainable than they already are, unless they have good telecommunications to be able to pass on the data, the analytics, the knowledge and the updates. Then they can have it at one central point so that they can learn from their research and their farms can be more profitable, sustainable and progressive. I really commend the work that each and every one of those young farmers are doing, because they are the future. It doesn't matter whether you're growing rice, or whether you are indeed growing any sort of food or fibre, you need to have the very best of telecommunications.”
“It has been enhanced by an amendment—an excellent one, at that—moved by the shadow minister for communications and shadow minister for women, the member for Lindsay. I acknowledge that she has put that forward, and I very much commend it to the House. These young rice growers, who are part of the Ricegrowers' Association of Australia's Next Generation Leadership Program, emphasised to me the importance of technology in what they do. They absolutely have to have the very best telecommunications as they do research into lowering emissions from their paddies and maximising every precious drop of water. They still call them paddies even though they're doing a flush method rather than a pond method on some of these modern rice farms these days out in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and in Coleambally.”
“Janelle Ruggeri and Graeme Kruger just brought along to my office some very impressive young people: Nathan Crawley, Emily Marston, Sarah McCaskie, Thomas Hatty and Daniel Andreazza from Griffith and Tocumwal. They're not from my Riverina electorate per se, but they certainly are from the geographic area of Riverina. They are rice growers. You might wonder why I'm raising this—before I get a point of order on relevance from the minister at the table—as part of the debate on the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025. Like the member for Macquarie, I appreciate that farming requires good telecommunications, and every place needs the very best telecommunications and the utmost safeguards for consumers. That is why the coalition supports this bill's second iteration.”
“We're going to carpet-bomb our pristine farmland, our wonderful producing farmland, with wind turbines—and for what? It's not going to change the weather. It's not going to lower the temperature. It is a nonsense and it is a crock.”
“If you cover that area with wind turbines and pit farmer against farmer and family member against family, how on earth are you going to continue to grow the world's best food and fibre? Our farmers will desert the land. Many of them will lease the land to companies that represent overseas superannuation companies, who send out these spivs and shysters, who then divide and conquer. An Old Junee farmer told me that he'd phoned five of his neighbours. Three knew about the wind turbine proposals and the others didn't. That area doesn't have great ridgeways. It isn't a very windy place. But these companies come in and buy off farmers. They are cruelling our area. I won't stand for it. That's why I'm against the net zero proposals being put forward by this government. It is going to ruin our farmland.”
“But the country people that I represent are proud and passionate. Many of them are farmers, and they are having their areas carpet-bombed with wind turbines. That is a huge challenge when it comes to agriculture. I think the greatest challenge that is facing humankind—people say it's the weather; people say it's climate action et cetera—is actually growing food to feed a hungry world, and Australia can play a big part in that. People will say that the two are linked. They'll say, 'Well, without good action on climate, you won't be able to grow the food.' Yes, there's an argument to that, too, but you can't grow food and produce fibre if you're going to carpet-bomb one of the best growing areas, which is the Riverina, whether it's the AEC boundaries or the geographical boundaries.”
“Stopping the buybacks is important. Buybacks divide and conquer irrigation communities. It's not just the farmer. The farmer is well looked after. They get their price bought at a premium amount. It's the hairdresser. It's the mechanic. It's the schoolteacher—because they have fewer children to teach, the school decreases in size. That is the peril that is facing and awaiting our river communities. At the moment, we are in a drought in the Riverina. When I say 'the Riverina', I represent the electorate by name these days, not necessarily by nature. Not much of the Riverina geographical area, or any other quantum you put on the place, is actually in the boundaries as determined by the Australian Electoral Commission. My electorate now wraps around Canberra and goes all the way into Whitlam and Illawarra. Go figure that one!”
“He was in the parliament at the time and he no doubt voted against it too. I think there were only five who voted with me at the time, and that included the then member for Melbourne, who did so for the complete opposite reasons; the member for Kennedy, who's still in the parliament and probably still will be for quite some decades to come; the then member for Murray, Dr Sharman Stone; and the late Alby Schultz, who was the member for Hume. That was the five. There was a celebrated photo of us five. Mr Bandt was very much up the back of the chamber. I don't think he really wanted to be associated with our disallowance. Then, of course, we had everyone else on the other side—everyone else from every other part, and the Independents. But we made the point. And I know that, when we got into government, we stopped the buybacks.”
“It should not be happening in Griffith, a place that produces, last time I looked, up to a quarter to a third of all the wine bottled in Australia. They produce some of the finest wines not just in Australia but in the world. And when you've got one of the biggest wine growers, one of the most established winemakers—as De Bortoli is—pulling out vines, what does that tell us about government policy? I know Darren would point the finger, long and loud and passionately, at both sides of government—and, yes, both sides of government have been at fault in not having the best water policies, particularly for our irrigators. But I was proud to say that I was the one who put in the disallowance motion back in 2012 against the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. I see the member for Makin over there.”
“Every valley thinks that the farmers north of them, or the farmers living wherever the water is otherwise coming from, are pinching the water and that those below them are wasting water. But they think: 'We're okay. We're doing everything right when it comes to utilising the water that we have or have been allocated.' That is, the water they have bought—I shouldn't say 'allocated', because they pay for every precious drop. We very much need to continually look at the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. I know Darren De Bortoli, a wine grower from the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, has made a lot of comments about water and about its allocation. Sadly, this week he pulled out a lot of his vines, and that should not be happening.”
“I worry about how they are demonised—not just irrigation farmers but also those who grow fruit and vegetables in the Murrumbidgee and Coleambally Irrigation Areas and down in the Goulburn and Murray Valleys in your state of South Australia, Deputy Speaker Sharkie. Our cotton growers out west too are maligned continually for the role that they play. Our farmers are expected to grow more with less—and when I say 'less' I mean less water. Famously, it has been said that, 'Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over.' Mark Twain apparently said that. It was as true then, when he said it in the 19th century, as it is today. The water battles will go on.”
“We're very lucky that we've got the world's best farmers, but government policy is important. It's also very important that the agriculture minister goes and visits farms—not just the ones that are environmentally friendly, not just the ones that might be doing wonders with organics, not just the ones that might be tilling the soil and putting soil science front and centre, but also those generational family farms that, at the moment, are doing it as tough as they ever have. When it comes to farming, I do really worry about the continual impacts of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan upon irrigation farmers.”
“My late father, Lance, farmed at Marrar and Brucedale, midway between Junee and Wagga Wagga, all his life up until his death in 2008. He always said that, in any given decade, there'd be three very good years, three average years, three very bad years and the other year—just take your pick. That was up to the vagaries of the weather. It was a mere matter of luck. I can remember he only ever protested once, and that was when he came to Canberra. Bob Hawke was the Prime Minister. The farmers ringed Parliament House. They were very concerned about the policies of the then Labor government. Lo and behold, it rained, and Prime Minister Hawke took the credit for it. The farmers went away and did what most farmers do—and that's not complain as a matter of demonstration but just get on with the job.”
“When it comes to the state of agriculture, I don't believe that we have seen before as wide a chasm between city and country, and that is a great shame. I appreciate that we've got many people here for whom agriculture is their livelihood, whether they're in the bureaucracy or elsewhere. But out there, often listening to these broadcasts, are people working the land, farmers, and we owe a debt of gratitude to those farmers. At last count I think there were 135,000 famers in Australia, tilling the soil and making sure that they grow the food and fibre to feed and clothe not just our nation but many others besides. They are under threat like never before, and they're under threat from a number of things. They rely on the weather to make money.”
“Even though the risk is said to be minimal, any risk at all of this happening is totally unacceptable.' That's the sad reality—we've got volunteer rural fire services that are saying they are going to refuse to go out to these fires. This is the sad reality of the pursuit of net zero in the Riverina. We are going to be covered with these industrial turbines. People don't want them—some do and others don't. The fact is, it is dividing families and it is dividing family friends who have been friends for many years. The minister might have a mandate to govern, but he doesn't have a mandate to ruin my electorate.”
“This is because: (1) most grid-scale battery energy storage systems today use lithium ion batteries, containing lithium iron phosphate, nickel, manganese, cobalt et cetera; (2) if a cell overheats it can trigger thermal runaway spreading to other cells; and (3) this creates intense heat-up to 1,000 degrees Celsius via the venting of highly toxic gases. In addition, fire services are generally unable to control these fires and they allow them to burn out, which means there is a long toxic smoke exposure, and the land, livestock and humans for hundreds of metres to many kilometres down could be severely affected.”
“Tom's son, Tony—my late uncle—and his son John have farmed there near Coffin Rock Lane. My constituent says: 'While it's in the very early days of discussions, and my conversations with him—' a neighbour '—are amicable at the moment, I fear that I will eventually have a falling out with neighbours that I have had a close and good association with for many years. I find this unfair given that I am at a stage of my life where I'm currently looking to retire.' He has been a generational family farmer. He says, 'Apart from the undesirable aesthetics of the turbines and fins themselves, my biggest concern lies with the battery storage facility.”
“It is an odd thing to have a constituency statement where I cannot and will not name the constituent to whom I refer. I cannot and will not because, if I do, this constituent will then probably face the fury of his neighbours and, potentially, of a company that is threatening to cover—litter—his farmland and that of others with these insidious wind turbines. They'll do it on his farmland only if he allows them, but what is happening in the Riverina and regional Australia is we are getting wind turbines all over the place. It's turning it into an industrial junkyard on the back of this pursuit of net zero. My constituent lives in Old Junee. It's an area I know well, because the McCormacks have been farming there for more than 100 years. My great grandfather James and my grandfather Tom are both buried in the Old Junee cemetery.”
“This is not Australian, and I just don't understand why, when there are so many other things we could be discussing, you've brought this bill, as a minister, to this place. It's not too late, Minister, to admit that this bill should not be taking effect. It's not too late to say that you were wrong. It's not too late, and I'm sure we will not criticise it as coalition members if you do admit that this is not, and will never be, the correct time to put in place this sort of legislation, which would prevent the Richard Nordens of the world getting their rightful recognition.”
“Thankfully, and appropriately, because we had a system in place—a process, a pathway—he has now posthumously—because he died in a motorcycle crash patrolling with the ACT police when he was 24—been awarded, or his family were awarded, a Victoria Cross for Australia. The minister and I were there that day, along with Prime Minister Albanese and the Governor-General, Sam Mostyn AC, when that announcement was made. I was very proud, and I'm sure the minister was too; he's nodding. He was very proud, and he made some very good comments. But, Minister, had that process, that pathway, not been in place—and, under this bill that you are proposing and that you've put before the House, it will not be in the future—the Richard Nordens of the world would not be granted a Victoria Cross for Australia. This is wrong. This is not right.”
“I rang Tim's widow, Judy Brewer, earlier this year and recalled the fact that Richard and her late husband were in different platoons, but, as she reminded me, they were still good mates. When Richard returned to Australia, he continued serving with the Australian Army. Nineteen years young he was. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, and that is etched in gold on the cenotaph on the eastern end of Sheridan Street—facing Canberra, if you like. I encourage the minister, when the statue on Sheridan Street is unveiled next May, to come along and take a look for himself, because those initials etched in gold, DCM, are going to be replaced with VC. They should have been VC back in 1968. He got a Distinguished Conduct Medal, and he was very proud of that, but he should have gotten Australia's highest military honour.”
“Using his pluck and showing care for his mates, he rescued a wounded soldier and recovered the body of another with little cover and under intense enemy fire. The rifleman's audacious actions prevented further casualties; he saved lives. Army headquarters announced the names of Australian casualties in the Bien Hoa reconnaissance, with the Canberra T imes reporting Richard as 'wounded but in a satisfactory condition'. Amongst the many 1RAR who were wounded that week, but in a very satisfactory condition, were two of Riverina interest: Private John Milton Rands, 21, single, of Temora; and—wait for this; the Nationals in the room will be keen to know this—one Second Lieutenant Timothy Andrew Fischer, 22, single, of Boree Creek—later, of course, Australia's 10th deputy prime minister.”
“One of my most recent proudest moments as a parliamentarian was standing beside the Minister for Veterans' Affairs on Remembrance Day, 11 November, last year, when Richard Leslie Norden of Gundagai was announced as the latest Victoria Cross for Australia recipient. The actions for which Dick Norden received the award came at the Battle of Coral-Balmoral. On 12 May 1968, Australian and New Zealand forces set up Fire Support Bases Coral and Balmoral in Bien Hoa, Vietnam. As part of the daily routine at FSB Coral, Richard Norden took part in infantry patrols, where the soldiers ventured kilometres away from base doing reconnaissance and seeking contact with the enemy. On 14 May, Richard's platoon sustained heavy fire during one of a series of contacts outside the FSBs, and these contacts were part of the larger Battle of Coral-Balmoral.”
“The Gillard government did some good things. And Julia Gillard, had she been given more of an opportunity, would have been a great Prime Minister, but unfortunately we had that cabal of the Greens at the time with the Democrats and others—anyway. She brought in a couple of things which were quite good. One was the Soils Advocate.”
“I've been administering many portfolios. I've been lucky enough to do so. I know departments will often bring you their letters, their recommendations, their suggestions. You don't have to accept them all the time! You can say no—send them packing! You'll often get bureaucrats, public servants and unelected officials wanting you to change legislation. 'No' is an easy word to say when it's a dumb piece of legislation. That's what this is. Minister, will World War II veterans or Vietnam veterans or Korea veterans have review rights under this bill that you are proposing? Will they? Why, Minister? Why? I just don't understand it. I'm a voice of what I'm sure will be many veterans and many RSL clubs. Good luck when you and members of the Labor Party who've already voted against this go out on any given commemorative day in the future.”
“What they should have received was a VC. We don't present VCs lightly in this country, nor should we, but, when we do, it's special. When we do, all the nation knows that that person, through their deeds of valour, through placing their life on the line and through their gallant actions, has saved others, has won the day and in some cases—in many cases—has caused the loss of their own life. We don't give them out lightly. Then, of course, we had the 10 members of D Company from Long Tan. Their actions were on 18 August 1966. They were also given medallic recognition years after—half a century after, in fact—their gallant deeds. Yet now we're being told by the minister that all of those dozen awards would not have been awarded in the future. Why? It's a really easy question, but I just don't know why.”
“They were teenagers, mere boys, lads. As I said, Sheean fought in the Battle of Timor in 1942 and Richard Norden was in the Battle of Coral-Balmoral on 14 May 1968. Years on—decades, in fact—from their gallant actions, those two were justifiably, deservedly awarded Victoria Crosses for Australia—well, their families were, because Teddy and Richard, better known as Dick, were no longer with us. Teddy died on that day; we lost him. Dick died serving in the Australian Capital Territory Police Force, on Hindmarsh Drive in a motorcycle accident at just 24. He continued to serve, even though his days in the khaki were over. Teddy was given what's called a Mention in Despatches. A Distinguished Conduct Medal was presented, at the time, to Dick. These were honourable awards and very well deserved, but they weren't what they should have received.”
“I ask this question of any member in the House: what were you doing when you were 18 or 19? I can tell you what I was doing, and I think the member for Gippsland was probably doing the same, because he's about the same vintage: rat-tat-tatting away on a typewriter, producing stories for a newspaper. What we weren't doing was rat-tat-tatting away with a gun. What we certainly weren't doing was hanging off an Oerlikon 20-millimetre cannon and firing away. Teddy Sheean was doing that. Richard Norden was going across no-man's-land, again and again, to rescue comrades. Teddy Sheean, from the Navy, was 18 years young—just 18. It was 1 December 1942; it was the Battle of Timor. He was a Tasmanian—one of the bravest the island state has ever produced. Eighteen years! Richard Norden was 19. As in that famous song by Redgum, he was only 19.”
“You've got a situation where winemakers, like Darren de Bortoli, are pulling up vines and where river communities are put on hold because of the Murray Darling Basin Plan. You've got decisions being made by a government that, yes, does have a mandate. But they don't have a mandate to pull apart regional Australia. I know that I, the member for Nicholls and the member for Lyne will fight the government every step of the way if they try to do that.”
“But it's also important to note that in government, whilst those opposite might tell you that this is not the case, we had a good record when it came to the environment. The Great Barrier Reef was going well under our government, under the policies that we put forward and under the funding we gave. Don't shake your head, Member for Hughes; it's absolutely true. But when you've got decisions being made like the McPhillamys goldmine near Blayney being put on hold for no good reason, you start to worry about—I won't say the environmental credentials or the Indigenous credentials—the commonsense credentials of those opposite, if I may, because that was not stopped for any good reason.”
“If they were just an environmental party, you could understand it, but these days they have much more of a 'Let's change Australia's social fabric' remit. That's the Greens. That's their mantra. They don't always come with good intent. Once upon a time, under Bob Brown, they wanted to solve the world's environmental problems and the climate et cetera. You knew where they were coming from. These days they want to solve the Middle Eastern situation, they want to cut out traditional sports such as horseracing—and where will it stop? I don't know, but it is a concern. This particular legislation is crucial if it goes through the House—and it will, because the government has a big majority, and we're not objecting to it.”
“We absolutely do. When it comes to overreach, nobody does it better than the Victorian state government. I appreciate they've got a mandate to govern, but goodness gracious they do go a bit beyond where their governance should go. This government is currently planning reforms to the wider EPBC Act to be introduced into the parliament apparently in November. I could say I look forward to seeing what that entails, but 'looking forward' would not be probably the correct terminology, because while this bill is not controversial, what may come about possibly is. Even though this government has got a massive mandate in the House of Representatives, 51 seats, it doesn't necessarily have that wide a mandate over in the other place, in the Senate. They have to take legislation through the Greens, and the Greens are a worrying lot.”
“I appreciate people are now forbidden or discouraged from climbing Ayers Rock, Uluru. But these days it's going to cost you money to take a photo of Ayers Rock to post a holiday snap online. Anyone wanting to shoot content at Uluru national park needs to pay for a photo permit. It cost $20 a day for commercial photography or $250 a day for filming. Some might see that as fine. I appreciate that the Indigenous rangers and people who look after the park need to make the most of their investment and their labours; I get that. But the ban that the Victorian government has placed on some of the rock climbing in that state is getting to the point of overreach. It actually is. People who do this as an adventure sport are now forbidden to climb on the various landscapes they once enjoyed. We just need to be a little bit careful about overreach.”
“I think sometimes we all take too much consideration of the environment at the expense of those people who eke out a very meagre existence, and it's their relatives, the people who have followed in their family lines, who continue to make sure that the Murrumbidgee and Coleambally irrigation systems are vital to our nation. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Board of Management Functions) Bill 2025 does acknowledge that the Commonwealth reserves—namely, Kakadu National Park, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Booderee National Park—are located on Indigenous land. We understand that. We understand the importance of our Aboriginal people in the context of this particular debate, but we must also not go too far. We must not have overreach.”
“John Oxley, when he went out to the land beyond Griffith, came out with the statement that no European man—that's what he said; I'm not being a misogynist—would ever see fit to use that land, because it is just beyond use. It was our soldiers who were then sent out to soldier settler blocks, and they turned a virtual desert into a Garden of Eden and grew food. They did so through a channel system. Later on they did so through the decades of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, which was an irrigation system. Those dams were built for irrigation; hydroelectricity was just a benefit of the scheme. They did so with the Barren Jack Dam and, as it later became known, the Burrinjuck Dam, turning what Oxley described as an 'inhospitable environment' into something quite special that we should be very, very proud of.”
“They actually pay for that water, and they pay a lot of money to be able to access that water, use that water and work for and on behalf of those people in this country who—wait for it—eat. I don't think that we give them the credit that they deserve. When it comes to our river communities, when we go and buy back large parcels of water and bank them for environmental purposes—and, let me tell you, the government, through the CEWH and other means, is the biggest owner of water in the system—we also take away productive water which can then no longer be used for productive purposes. The EPBC Act is important. The environment is important. But so, too, is making sure that those river communities are functioning. They will do so in an environmentally sustainable way. We sometimes forget our explorers.”
“You've got farmers who are very reliant on having sensible policy not just from this place but from our states as well, and I'm not quite sure that our irrigators have benefited all the time from sensible policy from this place. Again, I state that our farmers grow the very best food and fibre, and at times they have been demonised and maligned by the Greens. Thankfully, we have only one representative—probably one too many—in this House of Representatives now. The Greens have bedevilled our farmers. The Greens, by their very policies, want every drop of water to run through our river systems and out the mouth of the Murray, and that's just not how it should be. That's just not how nature was meant to work. Our farmers need that water. They are allocated that water and—here's a thought—they pay for that water. Who would have thought it?”
“I'm not so sure they are now. I speak often to the former Liberal senator Bill Heffernan. He can quote chapter and verse where any river system in Australia flows and how it flows. We have good discussions, but these days I find that children don't know as much as they should about the river systems upon which our nation depends. I see the shadow assistant minister at the table. His communities, like mine, are very reliant on the Murray-Darling system. We have this perception in Australia that, when it comes to the environment, our river communities must cede. But our farmers are the world's best environmentalists; they are. Thank you for nodding, Deputy Speaker Chesters. I know that, at Bendigo, you, too, are very much in the Murray-Darling system.”
“In 1829-30, he backed it up by tracing the Murrumbidgee River—Murrumbidgee meaning 'deep or wide water'—to its junction with the Murray River and continued down the Murray to its mouth at Lake Alexandrina. It was a crucial discovery that showed that the western-flowing rivers of New South Wales discharged into the Murray River—in good times. In dry times, many of the river systems that Sturt explored were in fact dry gulches or dry river beds. His third expedition of 1844-46 set out to explore the interior of Australia, travelling along the Murray and Darling rivers before the expedition headed north. He crossed the Sturt Stony Desert and pressed on into the Simpson Desert—he was a tough fellow—before being forced to turn back due to extreme conditions and ill health. Once upon a time schoolchildren in Australia were taught about this.”