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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“I will tell you what people who decry the value of vaccines would do well to do: go and visit a cemetery and look at the number of headstones from prior to the fifties and sixties—before vaccinations were made mandatory—with infants' names and ages on them. Go see the number of bubs who weren't able to make it into adolescence, let alone adulthood, because they passed away too soon because there weren't vaccines available. The other thing that the former coalition government was praised for, by the John Hopkins index, no less, was the fact we were ranked second in the world for pandemic preparedness, and that's something I think we should be very proud of. There were 502,413 people on the National Disability Insurance Scheme and we now see the problems with the NDIS.”
“We're not blessed with that many doctors in regional, rural and remote Australia—particularly remote Australia. Everybody would like cheaper medicines—and I acknowledge the government's push to have cheaper medicines—but let me also tell the House of a few of the things that we did, as a government, which are often scorned by those opposite, who maintain that, when they came to office, there was a trillion dollars worth of Liberal Party debt. That's not true either. It was nowhere near that. I'm sorry, it was not anywhere near that. It probably is now, but it was nowhere near that back then. We did have a global pandemic to deal with and over 93 per cent of Australians got protection from vaccines under the former coalition government. I know there are a lot of people out there who are scaremongering about vaccinations at the moment.”
“They are not insignificant numbers. They are not. I know that the health minister, from the leafy suburbs of Adelaide, came out and said: 'If you can't find a doctor to bulk-bill you, just make another appointment. Pick up the phone, see if you can find another appointment and go with that doctor.' It might all be well and good in Glenelg, West Torrens and anywhere else in Adelaide. It might all be well and good in Brisbane, in Sydney, in Melbourne and in any other capital city you care to mention. But I tell you what: when you live in remote Australia and the only doctor in town, if you're lucky enough to have a doctor, is not bulk-billing, you can't pick up the phone and get another doctor, because that other doctor might be five hours away—and that's by plane.”
“The member for Moore was not here when the health minister was forced, kicking and dragging his feet, to the table to sign the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement. I did note that the member for Moore quite correctly pointed out that a chemist is, as he said, the first doorway into the health system for many Australians—and indeed it is. For many of those regional centres, the friendly pharmacist is the only point of call they have into the health system, and we should be very mindful of the role that our chemists play in the first-class health system Australia boasts. We should never forget that, not just when the accord needs to be signed but at all times. Under this government, the cost of health has increased 15 per cent. In the last term of the Labor government, bulk-billing rates dropped 11 per cent.”
“Health care is not free, and the coalition was in no way ever going to tear down Medicare and what it stands for. It's all well and good for the Prime Minister to produce his Medicare card, that green card which many people use, and it's a great health system we have. If you don't think my words are genuine, then go overseas and get sick. See what other people, who aren't lucky enough to be born Australian, have to contend with when they get ill. We've got a great health system. We've got great health professionals. Is it perfect? No, by no means. But, let me tell you, it's better than anywhere else in the world, and we're very lucky. We've got people who genuinely care about health services and health provisions.”
“Importantly, though, I need to note that that was matched by the coalition. The bill amends the National Health Act 1953 to reduce the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme general co-payment, that general patient charge, by $6.60 from the current amount of $31.60 to the new amount of $25. If passed, that will begin on New Year's Day next year. I know that, during the election campaign and since—and I appreciate that the government has a mandate—there was and has been a lot said about how Labor is the party for good health outcomes and the Liberal and National parties are not. This is simply not true. I also know that what is not true is what Labor talks about—health care being free and that the coalition would have pulled apart Medicare.”
“The member for Moore has just outlined the critical nature of the National Health Amendment (Cheaper Medicines) Bill 2025 and given us a deeply personal insight into why it is important. I commend him for that revelation. I also know of a former colleague, Nola Marino, the former member for Forrest, and her deeply personal crusade about endometriosis. These are important, and I recognise and acknowledge the effort that the member for Moore is going to, in his brief career so far in this place, and I wish him well—and certainly on his health crusade. This bill is being supported by the coalition—although I note that it has been enhanced by an amendment put forward by the member for Lindsay, and I hope that that is very much carefully considered by the parliament. This bill is consistent with the election commitment of the government.”
“Call it whatever you like. But nobody loves their rugby league more than those people in the Pacific islands. Unfortunately they all go for Queensland in the State of Origin, but, even that aside, we need to foster those relationships and we need to make sure that those Pacific island nations—those nine I mentioned and Timor-Leste—understand that Australia is their greatest friend. Let's not muddy the waters by having measures in place in the PALM scheme which are onerous or going to deter workers or Australian farmers from making sure that those strong bonds and economic ties continue long into the future.”
“There is no certainty for farmers or industry going forward as to what the rules will be. That is incumbent upon this government. It's good enough to spend $600 million on a Pasifika Rugby League team in the National Rugby League competition, and I'm not against that policy idea, because I think what we have that our friends further to the north will never have are those Fs that are so important when it comes to our Pacific friends: faith, family and football. They are going to be so important going forward. They don't play rugby league in China, but we play it here and we play it very well, and PNG is the only country in the world which has rugby league as its national sport. We should be doing everything we can to make sure that we maintain those bonds of friendship, those strong diplomatic ties. Call it soft diplomacy.”
“And we saw that the number of PALM workers in agriculture fell by more than 20 per cent, from 21,915 workers in July 2023 to 16,705 in September 2024, on the back of this unionisation by Labor—because they've got to make friends with the union movement; they've got to do what the union people tell them to do. The government backflipped in May 2024 when I belled the cat on this, and they enabled 120 hours to be guaranteed but averaged over four weeks until 1 July 2025. That date is important, because that date has come and that date has gone, and we are now seeing farmers not having, as the shadow minister quite correctly pointed out, clarity on this very important issue. Where does the government stand when it comes to hourly work, weekly work or whatever the case might be? Farmers need clarity, and so do the workers.”
“The fruits of the labour of those PALM workers should be being realised in those Pacific island nations, and I specifically refer to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and of course Timor-Leste. The PALM scheme is a good scheme. And here is the brickbat: you can't get it all your own way, Labor. I am aghast at the fact that, in its first term of government, Labor wanted to unionise the PALM scheme. I say that because Labor wanted to force a paid minimum of 30 hours a week, every week. Members from regional areas know that seasonally, and for a variety of other reasons, the work just isn't there to provide for a paid minimum of 30 hours each and every week.”
“I have a bouquet and a brickbat. I want to thank the government for putting in place the Pacific Banking Guarantee Bill, because I think it will ensure that Australian financial institutions support our friends in the blue Pacific, make sure they have a presence in those Pacific island nations and, hopefully, make sure they do the right thing when it comes to the remittances for those Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme workers when they go back home, or indeed when they're working here in Australia and sending their money back home—the fact that most of that money, if not all of it, should be going back to their families and villages, which benefit so greatly from it.”
“There should be a royal commission into child care, and I'll say that right here and right now. There should be, and that's not just on the back of that episode but on the back of what's happening in the childcare system. It is a system which is broken. Free visits to the doctor and lower taxes, the Prime Minister going out there with his green Medicare card—again, it's a crock. It's not right; it's not true. Labor might say it is—and they can say it all they like—but they know deep down in their own hearts that the cost-of-living crisis is the result of their policies.”
“There are older Australians who have worked so hard to build this nation to what it is today that cannot afford to turn the heater on in winter or the air conditioner on in summer because of the energy costs and the bills they are being forced to pay. That's on Labor's watch. I heard the member for Adelaide talk about the interest rates. 'They're coming down,' he says. Yes, they're coming down off 12 increases. The great Australian dream of owning their own home is a pipedream for young Australians. Some of them will never own their own home because of Labor's policies. This is so cruel; it is so unfair. You've got parents out there working two and three jobs. You've got kids being looked after in childcare centres, and anybody who watched the 60 Minutes episode last night knows what a crock that system is at the moment.”
“Labor does the politics very well—I must admit that—but there are people out there who are hurting. There are people out there who are doing it really, really tough. Labor promised cheaper power. It hasn't happened. Labor promised 1.2 million more homes, but the only policy they've brought in that may well help is a pause on the construction code, which is something that we fought for prior to the election. It's a coalition policy. Did you hear that coming out of the Labor ministers' mouths this week when they announced it? They had it as part of their productivity roundtable, a talkfest that did nothing for productivity—go figure! All it was was a talkfest for the unions. Housing targets are being missed. Our out-of-pocket costs are skyrocketing, and there are people living in their cars.”
“The implementation of an unrealised capital gains tax is something they never spoke about before the election but is something that is going to cruel our farmers, my farmers, who have their land connected to their superannuation. It doesn't take too much to have $3 million in your superannuation account when your land is connected to it. They are going to get a tax bill on farm land that they haven't even sold—call that fair? How is that going to reduce their cost of living? Then we go to all the other things that Labor is obsessed about at the moment, like Palestinian statehood. How about Labor actually concentrates on real and meaningful cost-of-living policies? It won't, because Labor's always about the politics. It's never about the policies.”
“When you have a town in your electorate, as I do—Crookwell—which is surrounded by wind towers and provides somewhere in the order of 50 to 60 per cent of New South Wales's renewable energy projects but which has to have diesel generated backups for its power supply because of the number of times that it just goes off the grid and has blackouts for up to six or more hours, you know something is palpably wrong. Labor can come in and talk it up all they like, but the fact is that Labor is not reducing the cost of living, and that's what this motion talks to. It also talks to the fact that this is their No.1 priority, the cost of living. Well, I call bunk. Labor's first priority was the Voice. How well did that go? Kowtowing the unions was high on the list, and that continues unabated.”
“Just a very friendly warning to the member for Adelaide: I'd be very careful having the member for McMahon in my electorate. Your high vote will go down, in fact, if you have him visit too many times. He has wrought destruction on regional Australia. Whilst the Minister for Climate Change and Energy may well have a mandate to lower emissions, he does not have a mandate to destroy regional Australia, and I will stick up for regional Australia every day of the week. I heard the member for Adelaide talking about the importance of renewables and the fact that Labor is bringing down power prices. No, no, no, Labor is not bringing down energy prices. In fact, the opposite is the case.”
“If we follow the Greens, that's where they will take us—and not too far behind will be the Labor Party because, unfortunately, the Labor Party relies on Green preferences, many of them to get elected. They're one and the same. But we in the coalition do believe in those people who put on hard hats, go underground, get themselves dirty and get dirt under their fingernails to make sure we have a mining industry, and we should not demonise the mining industry. We should be very proud of what the mining industry has done for our nation. I heard the member for Moore talk about the Murray-Darling Basin in his address. The proposals and the changes to the draft plan for the Murray-Darling Basin put forward by me and other National Party members and regional Liberals have saved the very best food- and fibre-producing area in this nation.”
“This is where we used to produce items and minerals to be able to produce steel, to be able to have a construction industry—to be able to do all the things that made Australia's export and balance of payments great, but now we do not.' This is on Labor's watch. It's on the Greens. They are not an environmental party—make no mistake. They are about changing the social fabric of this nation. That's what the Greens are. Gone are the days of Bob Brown and environmental activism; now it's social activism. Now it's marching on the streets for every cause, with every protester and with every rent-seeker in this nation. Make no mistake—that's what the Greens are about. The Greens are about changing the way we live and making sure that we follow every little trendy thing on TikTok that is going to ruin our nation.”
“Woodside has been made to do everything in its power, and others besides, to get this project up and running. A final decision to approve the proposal would enable the North West Shelf joint venture to continue its present operations beyond 2030, and that's important because we're talking about royalties here. It's not only that; it's also an economic lift for Western Australia and, indeed, jobs. If the Greens had their way, we'd all be ecotourists. We'd be going out to the Murray-Darling and saying: 'Oh, this is where we used to grow fruit and vegetables. This is where we used to allow irrigators and farmers to do what they did best in the world.' And then we'd go to a mine site and say: 'This is where we used to dig up iron ore.”
“There won't be any money to fund schools and hospitals. This is the sort of motion that we have in this parliament. It's a time-waster brought in to stop Woodside—a good company; a responsible company; a company that is helping to pay royalties to keep the lights on, to keep hospitals funded, to keep people well and to keep children educated. The federal government announced a proposed decision to grant environmental approval to extend the operating life of the North West Shelf project in May 2025. This followed six years of rigorous environmental assessment at both the state and Commonwealth level. Let me tell you—you don't get approval to mine anything, to dig anything up, to drill anything and to extract anything in this nation unless there are proper protocols and processes followed.”
“Speaking of political theatre, I appreciate what the member for Moore has said, but Labor and the Greens still would have swapped preferences at the last election. The member for Moore and the member for Ryan both would have enjoyed and benefited from each other's preferences in their respective seats. This motion was brought in by the leader of the Greens in the House of Representatives, the member for Ryan—and she is the leader because she is the only one left. It's a bit like The L ast of the Mohicans . I do respect the member for Ryan. She is alone for a simple reason. It's because Australia has woken up to the woke Greens. Australia knows full well that, if we let the Greens take charge of the treasury benches and financial policy, then there won't be any money to keep the lights on.”
“Centres which have put profits before children's safety—those centres, those facilities, should be shut and shut permanently, and the monsters who have perpetrated these evil acts should never see the light of day. That is why we need a royal commission into child care.”
“Sadly, he is very right. But, if we can weed out some more of those bad eggs, then that has to be a good thing. If we can put proper processes in place and get the federal government, the states and even local councils, some of which run childcare centres, together on the one page, working cooperatively and collaboratively, then surely this must be a good thing. At the end of the day, our children are worth more than what we're giving them at the moment. It must be such a bad thing for those Victorian parents whose children have been subjected to some of the things that are being alleged. Could you imagine the worry, the hurt, the anguish and the angst of those parents who sent their children in good faith and now have this future for them and their children and their families?”
“They are babies, and they are in child care because their parents are working. Their parents need to work. There is a cost-of-living crisis. They also learn a lot. They develop a lot whilst they're in child care, before kindergarten and before primary school. Child care should be a loving place. It should be a supportive place. It should be a place where the workers treat those children as if they were their own. Yet, albeit in very minuscule numbers, this is not the case. But it only takes one monster to cast a very poor light on what is actually happening, and I think what we now need to do is shine a much bigger light to see what is actually happening. If this leads to better processes and protocols in the system, then that is a good thing. As the minister said in question time today, there will always be bad people.”
“Charge after charge has been laid against monsters in this system—workers who had a history, who, for whatever reason, were allowed to continue in the system, who should never have been re-employed in child care and who are now before the courts on multiple charges of heinous, unspeakable crimes against beautiful, helpless, innocent, vulnerable tots, because that is what they are. When the former coalition government put in place a royal commission into aged care, we did it because we needed to protect those vulnerable members of the community who were in their twilight years. But in one sense, if you think about it, the difference between those in the aged-care system and those in the childcare system at the opposite end of the spectrum is that our bubs can't speak for themselves.”
“There needs to be a royal commission into child care. I listened very closely to the minister, and I have every respect for the member for Blaxland. I do. I listened closely to him in question time. I heard what he said, and I appreciate the approach he has taken, but it's not enough. If it's good enough to have a royal commission into aged care, then we should be, at all costs, protecting our children. What we've seen in recent weeks and months has been beyond the pale.”
“I do thank her and her parents very much—Georgina in particular, who has never missed one of my campaigns. I actually think she likes it a bit more than even I do. It was a tough campaign. It was a challenging campaign. It was probably the nastiest campaign—not probably; it was the nastiest campaign—I've ever been involved in, but the Nationals came through because the Nationals deliver. I do thank all of those people who voted for me. I do, very earnestly. But I also thank those people who didn't, because I will represent them as fiercely, as proudly and as passionately as anybody in this parliament.”
“She did a power of work—she and so many other young people who helped out with the campaign, Young Nationals such as Josef Winkler and many others besides. They are the future, and I do thank them for the work that they contributed. You cannot do this job without a supportive family, and my beautiful wife, Catherine, I do thank so very much. This was the first ever election in which I kissed a baby, and I'm proud to say I did. It was my granddaughter Adeline Bell. She brought her parents, Georgina and Daniel, up from Melbourne, to support me in the campaign. She had a 'Vote 1 Michael McCormack' onesie on, a little yellow and green number. I took time out from a press conference to kiss Adeline on the cheek. She was just three weeks old.”
“I want to give a few thanks to the people who've been very close to me and very supportive of my re-election. Ken Grimson recently retired after having served my office so splendidly well since 2017, but before that he worked as a journalist at the Daily Advertiser at Wagga for 33 years. He and I worked together from 1985 until I left the paper in 2002. Ken has been such a loyal servant to me, and I owe him the greatest debt of gratitude. I wish him and his lovely wife, Robyn, all the very best for a healthy and happy future. I want to thank Barney Hyams, who was my campaign director for the fourth time. Barney from Batlow, as always, did a good job. I also want to pay tribute to Mikelli Garratt, without whom the booths would not have been as successfully supported as they were.”
“But that is 1,221 people per day arriving in this country—1,221 people who need housing; 1,221 people who, arguably, need jobs, though some of them will be children. But we've got a situation where we've got open expanses in regional Australia. You go down any high street, any main street, in a rural setting and you will see signs in windows that say, 'Apply within. Jobs available.' And yet we've got city based politicians in state governments—and in this place; I don't let the city based politicians here off the hook—who think that the only way to address the housing crisis is to go up, to build more blocks on top of one another, and to clog up our cities and make sure there's more pollution and there are more traffic jams. And I for one don't get it. I just don't understand it.”
“And it's not just New South Wales; it's endemic right across all of our capital cities and all of our state parliaments, where you've got city based politicians who cannot see the wood for the trees, quite frankly, because they think that the only way to proceed, to address the housing crisis, is to build high-density housing in already choked, clogged-up central business districts and beyond. We've got a real situation in Australia. We've got a housing crisis, but we've also got an immigration crisis. Now, I know there's been a bit of to-and-fro between the Australian Bureau of Statistics—an organisation I know well—and media outlets about migration numbers. But data published by the ABS in December shows that net overseas migration was 446,000 in 2023-24—albeit down from a year earlier.”
“Yet we have the Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, and, dare I say, the Liberal opposition leader, Mark Speakman, who want to just go up and up and up. Why? And they're looking for ways and means to have epiphanies when it comes to policy. Well, here's a policy idea: What about the regions? What about west of the great divide, in those great expanses, where we've got cities large and towns small looking for people to come west—looking for employees and for families to establish themselves? But we've got two leaders of two major parties who seem oblivious to the fact that regionalism is the way to go. I just don't understand why this is so.”
“There are only so many green spaces in metropolitan cities. This is madness. Just the other day, on Sunday 17 August, at two o'clock in the afternoon, a light plane was forced to crash-land at Mona Vale golf course. If we fill in all our green spaces with high-density housing, what happens to those planes which take off from the new Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport, or indeed from Kingsford Smith at Mascot, if they get into trouble? But, more than that, for the life of me I cannot fathom the shortsightedness of our city politicians when it comes to housing. As an aside: on Saturday, I drove from Picken Oval in Croydon Park to Gladesville. It took me nearly an hour to travel the 15 kilometres. It was bumper-to-bumper traffic.”
“Speaking of ministers and state governments, particularly New South Wales: in Sydney at the moment, the leaders of the two major parties are working themselves into a lather over how high to go when it comes to the housing crisis. High density housing is the only way to go, they say. We're looking at a situation—I appreciate that this is state politics, but it does have a lot to do with what we are discussing in this chamber and in this place. Sydney's Moore Park Golf Course was partially repurposed into parkland to provide open space for a high-density development. They're looking at TG Millner Field in Marsfield, the home of Eastwood Rugby Club—and indeed at Rosehill Gardens racecourse, which first operated for thoroughbreds in 1885. And what do they want to do there? They want to build high-density housing.”
“I now the represent the entire Hilltops Council area. I have picked up Boorowa and all that eastern end of the Hilltops Council local government area and, of course, have added Upper Lachlan, Yass Valley and Snowy Valleys. I have represented Tumut and Tumbarumba shires before. I'm pleased to say the New South Wales minister Ron Hoenig visited the area just last week to talk about a demerger. Irrespective of the boundaries and the local government areas, I am very happy to be back here and I thank the people of Riverina—albeit by name, not necessarily nature—for placing their faith in me to continue the representation that I have given.”
“But Riverina, if you look on the Riverina Wikipedia page—not that Wikipedia is anything to gauge anything by; it's only as good as the editors who upload information to it—for the area designated on that particular web page for Riverina, I do not represent any of that area, geographic, weather or otherwise, in the federal parliament. The Riverina is basically from Narrandera west. Riverina was long considered the gateway to the Riverina. Throw in Wagga Wagga to get the population necessary to form a federal seat, which at the time which was about 100,000 to 110,000 people. These days, that Riverina area belongs now in Farrer, represented by the Leader of the Opposition. The Riverina in the boundary changes of 2016 added Grenfell, Weddin Shire; Parkes; Forbes; Cowra; and part of Hilltops.”
“Compare Labor's primary vote this time, at 34½ per cent, with 94 seats gained, to the coalition losing government in 2022 on the back of a 35.7 primary vote. That's extraordinary. That's absolutely remarkable. They have about 1½ per cent less primary and yet they have 94 seats and are crowing about being in government again, compared to the coalition losing government in a rather resounding way at the 2022 poll. You also look at the changes in boundaries. You look at the fact that New South Wales and Victoria each lost a federal seat, Western Australia picked up one and the House of Representatives has gone from 151 seats in the 47th Parliament to 150 in this term. I mentioned before the boundaries of the Riverina. The Riverina is the most altered seat in federal history. Indeed, my seat almost represents from Matong to the Illawarra.”
“It is a great honour to be returned to this place for a sixth term. Indeed, I will continue to work just as hard for the people of the Riverina, albeit a vastly different Riverina than the one I was first elected to represent in 2010. I have some interesting statistics from the most recent election. In the federal election held in 2022, the coalition went from 77 seats to 58 at a 35.7 per cent primary vote. In the same election, Labor went from 68 seats to 77 to form government on the back of a 32.58 per cent primary. When you look at the figures from this election just completed in May, the 2025 election, you see the coalition went from 58 seats to 43 with a 31.82 per cent primary, whereas Labor went from 77 seats to 94 with a 34.56 per cent primary.”
“We value the impact of supporting children in their natural environments and have continued to provide these supports'—that's what she says. But they can't keep providing the supports if it's going to cruel their business. It's not only cruelling their business; it's cruelling those people who rely on the support: Australia's most vulnerable people who live in rural, regional and remote Australia. And it's on Labor's watch. They've turned a blind eye to those people. Shame on them.”
“She says, 'My entire speech pathology service is delivered via mobile therapy, with each client requiring me to travel at least 27 to 67 kilometres, which is between 30 minutes to an hour travel.' And she says: 'Due to recent NDIS travel price cuts, I've had to absorb 50 per cent of travel costs. If I stop travelling to clients, I would have no clients as my service relies entirely on reaching families in their communities.' So either she absorbs the costs, or she doesn't go to help the people who need treatment as she's done in the past. Georgie is very good at what she does. Then we have Donalee Gregory, a director and physiotherapist at Kids I Can in Wagga Wagga. She too has been left high and dry. 'These changes will have a significant impact in regional areas where providers often travel large distances to support their clients.”
“They should be caring at least for those vulnerable people who live in regional Australia who can't help themselves. These people are suffering. They have disabilities and they've had their help stripped away because of the selfishness of, and the cruel and callous contempt that they have been shown by, this government. It's simply not good enough. Regional people are demanding better. They are demanding that people who have disabilities should be looked after. Georgie Butt, a sole trader, of Teach Me Speech speech pathology, looks after the towns of Cootamundra, Harden and Temora.”
“But when you've got the travel component being virtually taken away from people who are our most vulnerable, it is going to leave them without allied health help—without podiatry, without speech therapy, without physiotherapy. It's simply not good enough in this day and age. Take Diana Martin and her son Grant Cain. He's 43. He lives in a group home in Cowra as well. Grant's occupational therapist has contacted Diana to say that they can't work with Grant anymore because the NDIS has cut funding for travel. It's simply not good enough. These people need our help. These people were getting our help, and these people have been taken off that help by the Labor government—a Labor government which does not care about regional Australia. It's simply not good enough.”
“Write instead, if you are a member of parliament, to Senator Jenny McAllister. She will at least respond, and I've at least got some faith in her ability to fix any issue which I take to her. That is a great shame and it's on the minister's head. But don't just take my word when I say that the NDIS is in a mess. Take the words from constituents of mine, such as Patricia Veney and her son Michael. He is 34, and they live in Cowra. She says, 'I believe this scheme was introduced to help people who need it, with "choice and control" and "reasonable and necessary". They have taken choice away, leaving us with no control, and it is not reasonable and necessary.' She says that living in rural and remote areas of Australia presents unique challenges, particularly for people with disabilities who rely on the NDIS.”
“The National Disability Insurance Scheme is a complete shambles at the moment, on Labor's watch, and something must be done to restore and fix this broken system. It is one of the most important things that we, as a parliament, do: to look after our most vulnerable people. But we are letting them down. The Labor government stands condemned for its new pricing payment system which came into effect on 1 July. This affects NDIS providers and clients, particularly in regional Australia. There's no point writing to the Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the member for Hindmarsh. You'll get a letter back from his chief of staff. I should not know his chief of staff's name but he's the only one I ever get a letter from when I write to the minister's office, and that is a disgrace.”
“Labor needs to get back to its real values—that is, helping the workers in the building and construction sector and in the hospitality industry.”
“The trouble is, they're not building walls—they've hit the wall! It's a brick wall and it's causing such pain. Again, we come back to the situation where Labor is talking up its HECS debt relief. What about the tradies? What about the bricklayers? What about the sparkies? What about those people who are building houses? Labor wants to build 1.2 million homes—good luck with that! We heard in question time yesterday the number of homes that Labor are suggesting they've already built. No; Labor hasn't built a single house. It's the bricklayers, the sparkies and the tradies who are building the homes. The number of homes quoted yesterday is in no way, shape or form in line with what is occurring in real time.”
“Labor can talk it up as much as they like. They can pretend there's free TAFE, but there's not. There are a lot of asterisks with 'see the clause beneath' here. I think the government would do well to listen to and meet Mr Lambert—and I know a couple of ministers have—and, more importantly, get out to their local restaurants, get out to their local cafes, meet the people there and ask them about energy prices, because they're going through the roof and it's on Labor's watch. It's not only that—today we've had a report in the Daily Telegraph about construction insolvencies per financial year. Again, this is grim reading. In 2014-15, construction insolvencies were 611. I'll just go forward to 2019-20, which had 498. What is it today? In 2024-25—wait for this—it's 1,567 construction firms going to the wall.”
“He's probably enjoying his latte—his magic—but he's certainly not speaking to the person who's making it, or to the owner of the business who is employing that barista, because the power prices are going through the roof. In this report ARCA is talking about staff shortages. There is a total of 48,217 staff shortages, everything from chefs to cafe managers, wait staff, baristas, bar tenders, hosts and hostesses. It is a dire situation. They suggest that the government fund a nationally available, fully subsidised hospitality job-ready short-course program covering RSA, food safety, barista, bartender and knife skills—not a bad idea. The government talks a lot about—and talks up—its HECS relief that it has put in through the parliament this week. It talks up free TAFE—there's no such thing as free TAFE, it's actually not happening.”