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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“They realise they can make money in the area. They realise there's a need in the area. Some of them even fall in love with someone in the area. It's a romantic way of getting people to stay, but, I tell you what, it's also a romantic way of getting more doctors in the bush—and our regional areas do need more doctors. When it comes to the distribution priority areas, it's going to take a while to make up that shortfall. But make up that shortfall we will. The member for Macarthur, Dr Freelander, helped me open the Wagga Wagga facility. Even though Labor had nothing to do with the funding or the construction of it, I was pleased that the member for Macarthur was there. He, like me, shares concerns over health. I'm not verballing or disparaging him; he is a good man. He understands the complexities and shortfalls in many regional areas.”
“It is just so wrong, because we do need to have more medical services. I'm very, very proud of the fact that, whilst I was the Deputy Prime Minister under Malcolm Turnbull, we, as the coalition, managed to fund the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network. What that does is provide training for young potential doctors from start to finish in Mildura, Bendigo, Shepparton, Orange, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga. A six-year course is begun and completed within one of those regional settings. We know from statistics provided that, in three-quarters of cases—and it's not just in the medical field; it's in so many areas of endeavours—when young people go to university in a regional setting, chances are they'll stay in that regional setting once they graduate and get their diploma. They fall in love with the area.”
“One of the first things they did when they came to office in May 2022 was take away the DPAs, the distribution priority areas. Well, they didn't take them away; they actually extended them to Newcastle and Wollongong and areas of the Gold Coast. Good luck to those doctors who wanted to practice in those sorts of areas. But, for really remote regional communities, what happened? Don't just take my word for it; it was the Rural Doctors Association and other stakeholder groups in the medical field who complained bitterly about this because what the doctors in some of those areas did was take the shingle off the clinic and move to the seaside. They moved away from inland Australia, remote Australia. In some cases, some of those areas now do not enjoy the health services that they once did. It's such a shame, and it's so wrong.”
“The health minister, in response to a question about bulk-billing services—I'm paraphrasing, but they were words to the effect of: 'If you can't get a bulk-billing doctor in the first instance, just ring another practice. Just ring another doctor and use that one.' Well, that might be all well and good in the leafy suburbs of Adelaide, where the health minister resides, but it's not out in regional Australia, because the nearest bulk-billing doctor would probably be about 300 kilometres away. We just don't have the provision of bulk-billing services that you see in metropolitan Australia. The other great concern I have—and I know the member for Wannon will share this view with me—is the distribution priority areas. That provision of services was one of the first things that Labor changed.”
“That is a fall of 11 per cent. Labor cannot crow about having increased bulk-billing rates when, in fact, the recent statistics show quite the opposite. We talk often in this place about the urgent care clinics. Well, they might be fine if you're in an electorate that is served by one. But let me tell you that there are many, many regional seats that do not have an urgent care clinic. I hear the member for Lyne talking about Taree often; she would love for her constituents to have one of those clinics, to have the after-hours care and to have that provision of particular health services. But, right across regional Australia, there are so many areas where you just don't have bulk-billing doctors. I've given the health minister a bouquet; I'm now going to give him a brickbat.”
“I know the member for Lindsay has moved an amendment, and I commend that to the House. That particular amendment highlights the government's failings and actions in some areas of primary care. Certainly, we will continue to look at Labor's comments and statements around Medicare, and we'll continue to hold the government to account, as a good opposition should. We have to. I noted in question time today that the Prime Minister, in describing how good the government is and what changes are going across the board from 1 July, mentioned that bulk-billing rates are on the rise. Let me tell you, if you are in regional Australia, then bulk-billing rates are not on the rise. In fact, the last time I looked, bulk-billing rates were at 77 per cent, whereas they were at 88 per cent when the coalition was in government.”
“But certainly, when it comes to health, we very much are because, whilst we can always have improvements in the health system, when it comes to making sure that people are looked after there is not only the safety net of Medicare and the safety net of bulk-billing, but we've got a medical system second to none in the world. I will always say that. It doesn't matter who's in power; it's there, and it's to be commended. The coalition supports Commonwealth health incentive payment programs. In fact, just like putting drugs on the PBS, we established several of these whilst in government. The coalition is not opposing the bill in the House, but we do believe earnestly that the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee needs to examine this and needs to give it further scrutiny because, often with Labor, the devil is in the detail.”
“I know the number of medications that former minister for health Greg Hunt, the former member for Flinders, put on the PBS, and I acknowledge that the Minister for Health and Ageing has continued that tradition. Aren't we a lucky country? People can afford their prescriptions, and I appreciate the work that has been done in that space, particularly in a cost-of-living crisis. I was at my friendly pharmacist only the other day, and the chemist was telling me about a particular drug that is used in IVF. A local woman availed herself of this particular medication, and it was costing a very small amount. But a relative of hers who lives in the United States was paying somewhere in the order of more than $30,000 for the same drug. We often talk about the lucky country.”
“The Health Insurance Amendment (Incentive Payments and Other Measures) Bill 2026 is important. Certainly, when it comes to health, I acknowledge that today, 1 July, we see, as we heard in question time today, five new drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. As I said earlier, in the discussion on the matter of public importance, this is important because it actually saves lives. Any time that any federal government—it doesn't matter what political persuasion they are—puts new drugs onto the PBS, that is going to make such a difference. It is going to make such a difference for those people who are on that medication. It's going to save them money. But ultimately, in the long run, it saves people's lives.”
“We've heard the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors in the last couple of question times—yesterday and the day before—going on about home-care packages. They're simply so hard to get that people are dying waiting for them. It's not good enough. Then we've got the rorting in the NDIS. Yes, the government said it's doing something about it, but you talk to NDIS operators, particularly in regional Australia—but more importantly, perhaps, those families who are so vulnerable and the children expecting those services that cannot get those services. Yes, we need to clamp down on shoddy operators, but it's not the shoddy operators who are going to miss out. It's the vulnerable children. We can be so much better than this. We should be so much better than this. We must be so much better than this.”
“But we hear the Minister for Small Business going on and on about how good things are for small business. Well, they're not; they're simply not. The Future Made in Australia manufacturing policy that Labor spruiks is just a fallacy. It is just a joke. We've got forestry products being imported at a rate never seen before because we are locking up our regeneration—our forestry sectors. When you have local economies such as Snowy Valleys Council, where 70 per cent of its gross shire product relies on forestry, and then you've got a government doing so much to inhibit and stop forestry happening, it is just a joke. We've heard so much about child care because it's 1 July. Good luck in regional Australia, where there's a childcare desert.”
“Not only are construction companies going bankrupt but also building approvals declined 1.1 per cent in May, and that's the third successive monthly fall on Labor's watch. It's simply not good enough. Then we look at the transport sector. We've got trucking companies going bankrupt and backwards at a rate that we haven't seen for some time. When you've got a group such as Don Watson closing after operating for 77 years, and Ron Crouch Transport in Wagga Wagga, a generational family trucking company, going into administration, it's simply not good enough. Transport operators are becoming insolvent in alarming numbers. It's not just that. In Victoria just this year we've had four caravan manufacturers also go into administration. What is happening?”
“Now the government is playing catch-up, as it always does. House prices are plummeting right across the board, in every market. Both regional and metropolitan house prices are falling. And we've seen the biggest slump in property values in four years. That's simply not good enough, particularly for somebody who purchased a property just prior to the budget, when they wouldn't have expected or thought about what was going to happen during the budget, given what the government said and the promises the Prime Minister made before the election. The Prime Minister promised one thing, and the Treasurer delivered another. And this is at a time when construction companies are going bankrupt in record numbers.”
“We all come to this place trying to make the country a better place. But this matter of public importance is about the government driving the fall of living standards of Australians. Sadly, that is true. Let me just give you some examples, because we need to be doing so much better than what is being offered at the moment. First of all, we've got veterans. I appreciate that this morning we had the minister giving a very good speech at the establishment of not just the Veteran and Family Wellbeing Agency but also the Parliamentary Friends of Veterans. But the $5,000 allied health cap is going to lead to a fall in living standards for veterans. The government says that it will consult over the next 12 months. The consultation should have happened before the budget; unfortunately, it didn't.”
“I'm going to be a little bit more positive. I believe we live in the greatest country on earth, and I think everybody in this chamber would absolutely endorse what I just said. I believe our best days are ahead of us. And they certainly are. The member for Fenner was rather negative in his comments. First of all, he spoke of just the two parties. But you had Artie Fadden leading the Country Party, a former prime minister, dare I say, at a time when, yes, housing was a big issue, like it is now—he mentioned the new drugs on the PBS. I do thank the health minister, who's at the table, because every new drug on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is saving lives. Every single drug is saving lives. And the member for Hunter, who has just left the chamber, is doing some good work in the space of men and boys, as a special envoy in that regard.”
“There is sufficient lead time for a major sporting event of international significance—that is, world cups and the like, major test matches et cetera—to be recognised and protected under the current legislation. Whilst I get that there are long lead times for international sporting events a la the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics and while I realise also that stakeholders are not calling for this change, the government has seen fit and the government feels the need that this is important and that it needs to happen now, and, indeed, I don't believe that the coalition will be standing in the way to seeing a blocking of this particular bill.”
“The Albanese government claims that this bill modernises legislation to recognise a future major sporting event via a disallowable legislative instrument, making the process more efficient. I hope that piece is correct and right because I realise that, currently, to recognise a major sporting event, an amendment is required to primary legislation. We have a motion before the House to ensure that logos and trademarks and sporting events are protected. Let's not be overly bureaucratic about this. Whilst I realise that we can't have clothing companies and major media organisations pinching logos and the like to use commercially to make money out of, there has to be some common sense at the appropriate level.”
“I'm not quite sure whether they're the people from down the hill I've just mentioned. I haven't besmirched you. But I do have a long-held belief that ministers are ministers for a reason. It's because they have delegated power. They have appropriate power. At the end of the day, they are the ones who will ultimately wear the criticism or otherwise of decisions made. It's not the bureaucrats. It's not the Public Service. I've got a high regard for the Public Service. The member for Sturt will have heard me say many times that I do think there is a concern that we are giving up too many powers to people who are not elected officials. That does not sit entirely well with me.”
“There was some interesting legal activity and letters written in relation to that. I think we have to be a little bit sensible about what the law comes down heavily on and what it doesn't. The Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2026 before the House relates to the process by which a major sporting event will be recognised via a delegated instrument, moving power from the parliament—and this is the point I was making before—from primary legislation to the executive, into delegated legislation. I hope this won't take power away from the Minister for Sport. I stand corrected on that. We don't want to see any more usurping of power from ministerial control to the bureaucracy down the hill. I appreciate there are a number of people sitting behind Labor members.”
“The legislation protects indicia and images to ensure that there aren't illegal activities. However, I would just caution you. I know that, as a former newspaper editor, country newspapers often picked up logos and ran them on the scores to differentiate them from the rest of the regional scores. Whether or not there are going to be any regional newspapers left by the time 2032 comes around, I'm not quite sure, given the way they're, unfortunately, going. The printed editions are not faring that well. I know there was a bit of pushback to use the Commonwealth logo when I was the editor of the paper at Wagga Wagga. At the time, there was no legislation protecting such usage in the Commonwealth. It was one of those things where the actual logo of the rings was considered to be the Olympics.”
“I say 'current' because he had a lot to do with it when he wasn't the leader, but he is the leader now. There's nothing going on with the Nationals that anybody needs to chip me about. The member for Capricornia also had a lot to do with getting those rowing events and making sure that regional Queensland had a part to play in what is going to be something that will unite the whole nation. We will all get behind our Olympians and our Paralympians. It was also great to have Scott Reardon and his wonderful wife in Temora recently. They are both gold medallists in the Paralympics. Their speech to the young crowd was just outstanding. The Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act came about in 2014. There have been a few amendments along the way, with World Cup events in cricket and the Women's World Cup.”
“I say 'organisation' because it's almost an industry rather than a sport. We've also got a lot of Twenty20 cricket being played at an international level in the 2028 season. We've always got touring teams coming to Australia. Most importantly, perhaps, are the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics. I shouldn't say Brisbane, because it's going to be far wider than just Brisbane. Whilst I appreciate that the Queensland capital is going to enjoy the benefits of hosting most of the big events, I'm particularly pleased that regional Queensland is going to be hosting some of those events, including, as I understand, rowing at Rockhampton. That always runs off the tongue in a very nice way. I appreciate the efforts of the current Leader of the Nationals.”
“But that said, as the member for Leichhardt quite correctly pointed out, these sorts of amendments, this sort of legislation, are there for a purpose. Sometimes it would be nice if the government did a little bit more consultation, and I say that with all due deference. I appreciate we've got a lot of sport going on at the moment too with the FIFA World Cup. This also will protect important major sporting events such as the International Cricket Council's T20 World Cup in the future world cup. I appreciate that it has protected previous world cups in cricket, the Twenty20 series. The 2027 Rugby World Cup is coming along. I know the member for Leichhardt mentioned the 'world game'. The Rugby World Cup is a massive event. I appreciate that he mentioned his fiance and the All Blacks. What a powerful organisation that team is.”
“These days, given the amount of AI, the amount of technology, the number of nefarious activities that do happen on a commercial basis, it's important that we protect sport, sporting competitions and clubs at an elite level from illegal knock-offs and from misuse on trademarks, logos and the like, because it does happen. The companies doing it know they're doing it. I don't think there was a lot of consultation. There could be an argument that the bill does reduce legislative transparency and concentrates powers to the executive because members of parliament will only see decisions about proposed changes to legislation and inefficiencies et cetera once they are in law. But look, the legislation change has been initiated from the minister, not stakeholders, and there's no time imperative on this change.”
“They'll go and watch the Sydney Swans or the Greater Western Sydney Giants play. But out in the country, it's not uncommon to have a football oval, be it Australian Rules or Rugby League or indeed rugby or soccer, ringed with cars not once, not twice but three times. Deputy Speaker Aldred, just yesterday you spoke about the funding that the Sandy Creek ground received, and rightly so. I remember many times as a teenage football reporter going to Sandy Creek for the Tallangatta and District Football League grand finals. Wasn't that a day when the Mountaineers came down to cheer on Kiewa-Sandy Creek against whoever they were playing in the Tallangatta league—great memories, great days. Sport is important. It's important that we protect sport. It's also important that major sports are protected.”
“It was interesting that Joe Heaney, who organised the Wagga Tigers ladies day, actually said at the end of the day when she was thanking people for coming along, 'This is what country communities are all about,' because there was camaraderie. Both teams, Turvey Park and Wagga Tigers, went back into the clubrooms at the end of the game, mixing with one another, mingling, and there were hundreds of people there. I can well recall going to a game between inner West Magpies and Manly-Warringah in the Sydney AFL, where there were three supporters at the ground—myself and two from Manly. Not rubbishing the competition—the standard of football is probably second to none—but it just doesn't have the support because, these days in the big cities, if people are going to go to the football, they go to the big competitions.”
“This legislation is important because it will protect the logos and images used in future sporting competitions. It was interesting to attend the Wagga Tigers Football and Netball Club two Saturdays ago when they had their ladies day. Interestingly, Narrandera Sportsground had its ladies day on Saturday last. A number of women attended, some of them very frocked up. Some dressed up with interesting pink hair for the special occasion and others just came as they normally would to the football. But having followed my youngest son Nicholas, who played for Inner West Magpies for a number of years in the Sydney Premier Division, the difference in the crowds that suburban competitions attract and country leagues attract is chalk and cheese.”
“I've also got a very good memory for sport. It's one of my favourite pastimes. But I was a sportswriter. My very first job, in fact, was as the ground announcer at Eric Weissel Oval, the rugby league oval in Wagga Wagga. As a 16-year-old, I would, with a booming voice, kick the kids off the ground at half-time. Most of the kids I was kicking off the ground and preventing from stealing the corner posts I was actually younger than. But, anyway, I digress. I'll move on. I'm supposed to be talking about the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2026. The member for Leichhardt is right when he says that sport galvanises Australia like nothing else. It truly does. At the moment we're all cheering on the Socceroos.”
“It actually is very good to follow on from the member for Leichhardt, who might have been a little bit humble there, because not only was he a very, very good basketballer in the National Basketball League, which is the top competition for clubs in Australia but, indeed, he played a lot of regional basketball at a very high level, including in Albury-Wodonga, near my electorate. It's good that top-line players can get out into the country and show their wares too. I commend him for his basketball career. I well recall from when I was a basketball writer a very good basketballer by the name of Greg Hubbard. The member opposite would remember, having been a Wollongong Hawks player, Greg Hubbard's exploits not only with the Wollongong team but also as a national player. Indeed! I always do my research.”
“I appreciate that the member for Lilley, the minister, has done some good work in this space and place. I appreciate, too, that there are different views on this legislation. I commend the government, of sorts, for some of the elements they've put forward—and the minister too—because our children do matter. Our children do need protection. I grew up in—well, I began reading in the late sixties, and, certainly, by the seventies, I was very much a fan of Enid Blyton.”
“It continues via TikTok, it continues via Snapchat, it continues via Facebook, it continues via any other social media platform for children and for adults. And it's not nice. Sometimes, when the schoolchildren visit Parliament House, we are hardly an example of good behaviour, I'm sad to say. We should reflect upon that. But this is a robust debating chamber, and there are things said across this table that are contested. Whilst I don't always agree with the members opposite, I respect their views, for them to be able to represent their electorates, their policies and their philosophies—even though I don't necessarily always agree with what is being said. On other elements to this particular amendment which worry me, I do believe that this is the government scrambling and playing catch-up.”
“The other bit of advice I always give the children—these days, the primary school ones are not or should not be on social media, but I always say this to them—is, 'When you do get on social media at a later age, don't write something about someone else that you wouldn't like said about yourself,' because online bullying is every bit as bad as every other type of bullying. Face-to-face bullying, bullying by exclusion, bullying by any means—it is unacceptable in the schoolyard, in the classroom and anywhere else. The difficulty for children these days is that bullying doesn't just stop at the school gate. It doesn't just stop a little bit after three o'clock, when the school bell tolls to end the school day. It continues online.”
“I certainly support the amendment put forward by the member for Lindsay in relation to the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. Today, I spoke to and listened to the Lutheran School Wagga Wagga, a primary school of children visiting on their excursion to Parliament House in Canberra. I gave to those youngsters, as I do to all school groups, two bits of advice. One of those bits of advice is to not smoke, because it's dumb, it's unhealthy and it's expensive.”
“It is the nation's biggest irrigator, yet our irrigators are being told they're the ones wasting water. The coalition has a better way; it's to make sure that we put the infrastructure in place, that the CEWH is accountable and that we stop the water recovery by stealth and stop the insidious buybacks.”
“It equated to 34,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools taken out of farming use, taken away from irrigators to be able to use potentially for fruit and vegetables, rice and cotton and anything else, and sent down the river for the environment—now, our farmers are the world's best environmentalists. They pay for every drop of water. They want to see the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, Simon Banks, be accountable for the water that he and the CEWH overseer hold and maintain in the water space. The CEWH is taking water out of the system—and it's legislated; I appreciate that. There's no accountability over every drop of water, but there is for our farmers because they're paying for it. The CEWH holds, retains, manages and owns 72 per cent of the available water in the Murray-Darling basin.”
“Mayor Ford and GM Brown told me a tale—the member for that area, the member for Parkes, understands this well, and he, like me, is very passionate about this topic—that these towns, which have provided so much for so long, are now being held in the grips of a Murray-Darling Basin Plan which does not serve our river communities well. Just last week we saw yet another 86 gigalitres of productive water being taken out of the system—and for what? To be flushed down the mouth of the Murray. That cost is at a time when Labor's debt is spiralling towards a trillion dollars. $430 million.”
“They are very worried, as is the member for Parkes, about Bourke, the wider shire and wider western New South Wales, and, as the shadow minister for water, I would add the Murray-Darling Basin system in its entirety, because we have a government now that doesn't understand the intrinsic value of water. In her book, Ernestine Hill—it's a 1937 publication—writes of Bourke: Bourke had 32 hotels and 1,000 thirsty men in the main street— Oxley Street— on Saturday night—in Australia you estimate the size of a town by its hotel-power. And you also measure the size and worth of a town by its productivity.”
“In the book, Colleen McCullough wrote that rural folk were under pressure and continued: 'Only urban centres possess voting reservoirs large enough to matter politically. There are more members of the parliament seated on or around the Cumberland Plain than seated in the rest of New South Wales. City people matter. Country people do not. That leads to a national populace grossly ignorant about the intrinsic qualities and functions of water. Politicians whose foresight extends only to getting re-elected in the main share this ignorance.' That's pretty telling—it's pretty insightful. I just had a meeting with two very passionate people. The member for Parkes, who is sitting beside me, knows these two people very well. They are General Manager Leonie Brown and Mayor Lachlan Ford of Bourke Shire—good people.”
“The late, great Governor-General and Chairman of Soils for Life, Michael Jeffery, in a book written by Colleen McCullough—a mighty writer—entitled Water is Life and published in 2016, had this to say: 'River systems and water have played a central role in sustaining human populations, but the United Nations reports that one-fifth of the world's population now live in areas of river water scarcity. Australians have the know-how and ingenuity to redress this situation, but to date we don't seem to have the national will to protect our primary natural asset or make better use of the water we have.' The Hon. Major-General Michael Jeffery did so much in the space of ensuring that we had the best-quality soils and also wanted to ensure that we used water wisely.”
“But the difficulty with the recent changes in the budget is it is taking funds away from those children and others who so desperately need it, and it's simply wrong.”
“It is to restrict, gatekeep and dismantle the supports of the very people who had nothing to do with the corruption—the vulnerable, the children, the adults, the families who were navigating the system in good faith, working with legitimate, ethical, highly trained providers to build capacity and access a life with dignity.' Her statements, her heart-wrenching, heart-rending appeal, is not isolated. She is not alone. She is like so many who turned up to a forum I conducted to hear the stories, to listen to these people throughout Wagga Wagga and the region. I do feel for Nicola because she genuinely, like every good mum and parent would, just wants the best for her child. We know the NDIS needs a complete audit. We do know that.”
“I need to say this clearly: the fraud and corruption that has occurred within the NDIS is real. It is devastating. It has robbed participants of funds they desperately need. But that fraud was committed by unscrupulous providers—providers that successive governments allowed to register, operate and continue unchecked for years. Families like mine reported it. Advocacy groups reported it. Other providers have reported it. The systemic failures were known. The systemic failures were ignored by the government. And yet the response to that failure is to punish the participants.”
“I did not understand disability, not the way I do now, until I became the primary carer for my beautiful six-year-old son, Hux, who has autism spectrum disorder level 2, childhood apraxia of speech, oral apraxia, sensory processing disorder and hypermobility.' She is concerned, as are so many people across the Riverina and the nation, about the changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. She told me that her son cannot get the therapy he needs in a group setting. He cannot get it under the Thriving Kids program, is what she said. He cannot get it from a generic therapist assigned by a government system. He needs a specialist. She had this to say: 'Changing his therapist because of parliamentary changes will be to his detriment. It will cause regression. It will cause distress. It will undo years of work.”
“Nicola Cave is a constituent of mine, a young Wagga Wagga mother of three, as she says, 'incredible' children. She writes: 'If you'd asked me seven years ago whether I understood disability, I would have said yes. Of course I did. I spent my high school and uni years teaching children with autism, Down syndrome and physical disabilities to swim. I've been a nurse for 11 years and a midwife for eight. I've cared for people with all kinds of abilities. But I was wrong.”
“I now move the second reading amendment in my name: That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House: (1) notes that: (a) in the Government's first term, one in three domestic flights was cancelled or delayed, with 50,000 cancellations and 427,000 delays according to official data; (b) major airlines' performance and reliability has worsened post-COVID, inconveniencing millions of families; (c) two regional airlines have collapsed under the Government, yet the bill risks further costs on remaining regional airlines for problems not of their making; (d) the bill provides no support for families who are about to lose up to $93 million worth of unused COVID-era flight credits held by Virgin Australia; and (e) excluding Airservices Australia creates a gap in consumer protections for travellers affected by air traffic control failures; and (2) calls on the Government to develop and implement an aviation consumer protection framework that: (a) does not penalise regional airports and airlines for failures of the major airline duopoly; (b) provides timely refunds and compensation for cancellations, significant delays or lost or damaged baggage within the control of airlines, airports or Airservices Australia; and (c) protects COVID-era flight credits for future use or refund".”
“It imposes unquantified costs on regional aviation, and it does not ensure consumers retain access to their own money through unused flight credits. The coalition will propose amendments in the Senate to protect regional aviation, enhance consumer protection, strengthen accountability and deliver fairer outcomes for Australian travellers.”
“The representations we have received suggests the government's proposal lacks the confidence of the affected public. There are broader stakeholder concerns with the development of the legislation itself, including the lack of an exposure draft or opportunity to properly scrutinise many of the scheme's operational details before the legislation was introduced. Parliament should understand the full costs, obligations and consequences of legislation before it is asked to approve it. The coalition strongly supports the objective of improving consumer protections for travellers. However, in our view, this legislation falls far short of community expectations. It creates new bureaucracies but fails to address many of the concerns passengers have had. It does not provide direct compensation. It leaves too much to regulations.”
“However, the consumer sitting in an airport terminal does not distinguish between a delay caused by an airline and a delay caused by a failure to staff the air traffic control tower. They do not. They simply know that they paid for a service that they did not receive. Yet, under Labor's framework, airlines will be subject to obligations under the scheme while Airservices Australia remains exempt. The exclusion of Airservices Australia creates an obvious gap in the framework and a double standard in consumer protection. The coalition also has concerns about the proposed aircraft noise ombudsperson arrangements. This bill proposes bringing the aircraft noise ombudsperson into the transport department itself. That raises legitimate questions about independence.”
“If accountability is the objective, accountability should follow operational responsibility. Airservices Australia plays a significant role in the operation of the aviation network. Early this week, Sydney airport experienced delays and cancellations linked to staffing issues within Airservices Australia. Shortages of air traffic controllers contributed to flight disruptions affecting passengers across the broader aviation network. Airlines were forced to cancel services and rebook passengers because of these issues outside their control. Australians understand if acts of God, severe weather events, cause delays to flights. Australians get that. They know that airlines cannot control the weather. Australians value the safety of our regulations which ensure flights only occur when it is safe to do so.”
“The government proposes to leave this to the discretion of the minister. All airlines and airports should meet minimum requirements of consumer protection. However, the coalition agrees that small and regional airports should be exempt from the cost of the government's proposed scheme and the exemption for small and regional airports should be included in the primary legislation. Regional airlines operating smaller aircraft on essential regional routes should also be protected from unnecessary regulatory burden and cost. The coalition will propose amendments in this regard in the other chamber. A significant flaw in the legislation is the failure to include Airservices Australia within the framework where failures of the regulator to resource and deliver its air traffic control functions result in delays or the cancellations of flights.”