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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“According to this latest report, F inancial year 26 policy priorities : supporting Australia's restaurant and cafe future , published by the Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association or ARCA, 3.8 per cent is the average restaurant profit margin. That is meagre. So you can see the thin margins under which these restaurants are operating. The average cafe profit margin is 3.3 per cent. You can charge only so much for a cappuccino. You can charge only so much for a coffee. The power prices for these businesses are just going up and up and up. We can hear the climate change minister in question time going on all he likes about power prices falling—he isn't living in the real world. He's certainly not getting out and talking to the likes of Mr Lambert.”
“I've just had a very interesting meeting with Wes Lambert. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association Limited, and he painted a dire picture of where the hospitality sector is. Indeed, 11,000 hospitality businesses have collapsed in the past 12 months. As Mr Lambert just said, 'They've shut their doors and they won't reopen.' Eighty per cent of those are in metropolitan areas; 20 per cent regional. There are a number of factors as to why these hospitality businesses are going belly up, but it's on Labor's watch. Small business is doing it so very tough at the moment.”
“The councils do not want to have their landfill used up with these, which leach into the soil and which get in the waterways. They are saying that enough is enough. Debate interrupted.”
“I will fight every step of the way for and on behalf of the people who are pushing back and saying, 'Enough's enough.' Whether it's up at Crookwell, the Yass Valley or the Snowy Mountains, people are pushing back, and they don't want the 28,000 kilometres of transmission lines, much of which is going to end up in the Riverina. They don't want these BES systems, which could potentially be a fire hazard. They don't want their view and, moreover, their arable farmland taken up with these monstrous wind towers. People can fact check this all they like, but councils are not taking some of the blades from the wing towers and many of the solar panels for recycling. Some of it's recyclable, yes, but a large lot of it's not.”
“I will stick up for these people, and I will represent them. I hear their concerns, but, moreover, not only will I listen to their concerns; I will act on their concerns. This reckless rollout of renewables is having such an effect in my electorate. As Jasmin Jones, the mayor of Yass Valley, so correctly points out: why do we have to keep doing the heavy lifting for our metro mates who are not carrying their share of the renewable burden and are not carrying their share of the heavy lift when it comes to this supposed fairytale of net zero?”
“They are very concerned, in Bowning, at this proposal to place this number of wind towers in their beautiful backyards, and I will support them every step of the way. Elsewhere in the electorate, battery energy storage systems are being put in place at Gregadoo, Mangoplah and Talbingo in the Snowy Valleys. The difficulty there is that the local rural fire services say that they absolutely will not go and put the fires out because of the potential toxicity of the flames. When you've got volunteers who have lived in and around those districts for many, many years, and they are pushing back and saying, 'Enough's enough,' you have to listen. If you're not listening and acting then you're not doing your role as the member sent here to Canberra to do a job for them and on their behalf.”
“There are proposals by multinational companies to place a lot of wind towers, solar factories and battery energy storage systems in many of the new parts of the electorate and indeed many of the parts of the electorate that have been there for quite some time. The people—particularly in Bookham, Bowning and Binalong—are very, very concerned by a proposal from Wind Prospect to place 90 wind towers, 260 metres high, across their arable farmland. They are very much looking to me and indeed to others to support them in their cause to say that they don't want to see this spoiling their vista and, more importantly, taking up valuable, beautiful countryside that would otherwise be used for farming. In recent times, I've met Emma Webb, a sheep farmer who is married to Lachie, has three young children and is the daughter of Angus Oberg.”
“Hilltops, Junee, Lockhart, Temora, Wagga Wagga and Weddin have remained in the Riverina electorate boundaries, and I will do everything I can every day to give them the representation they need, expect, want and deserve. It's a great honour to be in this place, whether you are on the backbench or the front bench, and I've been in both places. I've been everywhere, man! I still very much love this job and this role. Whilst the electorate is now more than 52,410 square kilometres—and it is a lot more driving—the people are indeed just the same. They have the same aspirations. We've got everything from heavy industry to farming. We manufacture a lot. We grow a lot. It's a great area to represent. Interestingly enough, the new parts of the electorate have come with some challenges.”
“I want to thank each of those mayors and, more importantly perhaps, the people in those councils for their wonderful contribution to Australia. They very much contribute mightily to this nation's fortunes—in West Wyalong, Forbes, Parkes and other areas in between—and I loved representing them. But the boundaries changed. The eastern end of Hilltops, taking in Boorowa, was added to the electorate, as was Snowy Valleys. The mayor of that LGA is Julia Ham. There's the Upper Lachlan, where we have Paul Culhane, and Yass Valley, where the indefatigable Jasmin Jones is the mayor. I have very much, in the short time I have been representing those three-and-a-bit shires, enjoyed that experience because they are wonderful places. Coolamon, Cowra, Cootamundraand Gundagai just de-merged, and that will be happening very, very soon.”
“At the outset I wish to thank the people of the Riverina for sending me back here to represent them for a sixth term. It is a great privilege, duty and honour to represent the Riverina in the federal parliament. The Riverina these days, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, extends from Matong to the Illawarra. The boundaries are vastly different from the ones I inherited when I first stood for and won the seat in 2010. There were changes made in 2016, and we saw another huge alteration again this election. We lost the local government areas of Bland, represented by Mayor Brian Monaghan; Forbes, where Phyllis Miller OAM is the mayor; and Parkes—Neil Westcott is the mayor of that fine council.”
“For a Catholic educated boy from the tiny Riverina village of Marrar—my mother, Eileen, was raised by the Presentation Sisters at Mount Erin, Wagga Wagga, after being orphaned at the tender age of nine, and she lived such a faith filled life, dedicated to the church and its gospel. It was a journey I dedicated to her. I also thank the local bishop at Wagga, Mark Edwards, for sending me to Rome with a lovely cross and some artefacts which I attended the funeral with and made sure I brought home. They will have a special place in either St Michael's Cathedral or the nearby McAlroy House, which is the head of the church in Wagga Wagga. Vale, Pope Francis.”
“Cardinal Re said: Faced with the raging wars of recent years, with their inhuman horrors and countless deaths and destruction, Pope Francis incessantly raised his voice, imploring peace and calling for reason and honest negotiation to find possible solutions. War, he said, results in the death of people and the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools. War always leaves the world worse than it was before: It is always a painful and tragic defeat for everyone. The level of influence of the Vatican, a truly global institution, demonstrates once again why Australia's embassy to the Holy See is essential. I thank Mr Pitt for making the arrangements for this visit, and I look forward to seeing his progress in that position. But this is about the pope. Pope Francis left a lasting legacy that we all admire, we all respect and we all love.”
“I had a third-row seat into an amazing historic event. The first ovation came 11 minutes into the homily, when Cardinal Re spoke of the late pope's first journey to Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea, an island that symbolises the tragedy of emigration. Less than a minute later, when Cardinal Re spoke of a mass Pope Francis celebrated on the border between Mexico and the United States, the rapturous clapping resumed. The timing and intensity of that applause, given that the homily was delivered in Latin, was perhaps lost on a certain world leader in a blue suit seated in the front row amongst a sea of black and navy. You don't need to be Einstein to work out who I'm referring to.”
“There were 4,000 officers on the ground, counter-unmanned aircraft system teams and an air defence guided-missile destroyer off the coast. That said, there was a buzz of official drone cameras over St Peter's, but, at the start, there was just nothing at all. Cardinal Re's homily began a little more than five minutes into the 1¾-hour service, and it lasted not quite 20 minutes, but I counted on at least nine separate occasions during this inspirational address a reverberation of respectful and spontaneous applause, starting at the very back of the square. It rippled its way forward like a wave, becoming louder and louder until it reached the pulpit, and I was not very far from the pulpit—about from here to the member of Hunter away, where the member Hunter sits at the despatch place opposite. It was not very far at all.”
“He officiated, and it was a memorable service—14 white-gloved members of the pontifical household, who support ceremonial activities of the Vatican, carried Pope Francis's casket, leading a procession of priests, bishops and red-robed cardinals. It was an unforgettable sight. There in St Peter's Square, a quarter of a million mourners waited in total silence as their cherished former pope arrived for his final mass. You can just imagine a quarter of a million people in the one large place and nothing, just pure, peaceful silence. It was quite amazing. Security was intense, given there were 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs attending. There was a no-fly zone that had been established over Rome. There were a lot of snipers on the roofs and a lot of people with long-lens cameras too.”
“He was the first pope to stand aside since Gregory XII in 1415 and the first without what was termed 'external pressure' since Celestine V in 1294. So Francis came into the role in interesting circumstances. The call to his papacy was made, and he stepped up. And, as we've heard, he did so much good for so many people, but he was the first pope raised outside of Europe since the eighth-century Syrian pope Gregory III. A lot of people have asked me, since my return, what it was like being at the Pope's funeral. It began at 10 am. The cardinal who said the mass was Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91 years young. He's the Dean of the College of Cardinals.”
“It was not just a vessel but a message to the world that even the most prominent religious figure on Earth bowed to simplicity, reminding everyone spiritual wealth far outweighs worldly possessions. Pope Francis was ordained a priest on 13 December 1969. He was consecrated as a bishop on 27 June 1992. He was created a cardinal by John Paul II on 21 February 2001. He was the 266th pope. He passed away on Easter Monday, 21 April, at 7.35 in the morning in Vatican City. He was aged 88; he was the third-oldest pope in history. There are some interesting aspects about his papacy, about his life and about who he was. He served as the visible head of the Roman Catholic Church since 2013 after Benedict XVI announced his resignation. Benedict cited a length of strength of mind and body due to his advanced age.”
“Beneath the Christogram, the coat of arms included an eight-pointed star, representing the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, and a spikenard flower, alluding to Saint Joseph. Both were key figures in Pope Francis's spirituality. Below the coat of arms, the ribbon with the motto 'Miserando atque eligendo'—'He looked at him with mercy and chose him'—no doubt summarises Pope Francis's vocation marked by service to the world's most humble. The casket design honoured Francis's lifelong rejection of luxury, echoing his decision to reside in a modest guesthouse rather than the lavish Apostolic Palace during his pontificate. Both in meaning and material, the casket embodied Pope Francis's teachings—people over protocol, service over status. This was Pope Francis.”
“Not only was this a departure from ritual but a deliberate spiritual statement: humility in death as in life. The wood bore no gold trim, no ornate embellishments—just a simple cross below which there was Pope Francis's official coat of arms, deeply linked to the Society of Jesus, the religious order to which he belonged. In the centre, the Christogram HIS, the first three letters of Jesus's name in Greek, was visible. This was accompanied by a cross over the central letter and three nails below, all surrounded by a sun. The symbol is the Jesuits' traditional emblem, evoking the centrality of Christ and the evangelising mission, and Pope Francis did live his mission.”
“In a break from what often happens with papal burials, Pope Francis asked to be buried in a simple wooden casket, something Pope John Paul II also insisted on before he passed away in 2005, when he was 84, after a 26-year papacy, the third longest in history. Pope Francis's casket said much about how he lived his life, and it was a powerful symbolic choice reflecting the very essence of his papacy. The late pope explicitly requested a single zinc-lined wooden coffin, breaking away from the usual opulence of traditional papal burials. Unlike the triple layered coffins often used in many previous papal funerals—cypress wood sealed in lead and then enclosed in oak—Pope Francis's casket consisted of just one layer of plain, untreated wood, lined with zinc for preservation.”
“I was deeply honoured, as a Catholic, as a parliamentarian, as an Australian, to be asked to represent the nation and its people at Pope Francis's funeral on Saturday 26 April. I want to thank, from the outset, the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See. He was the Ambassador to the Vatican Designate at the time, as he hadn't presented his credentials because, sadly, the Pope had passed away, but he has since done that with the new Pope, Pope Leo—Keith Pitt, the former member for Hinkler. I want to also thank the head of mission, the Ambassador of Australia to Italy, Julianne Cowley, for the arrangements put in place for the Australian delegation. The delegation comprised the Governor-General, Her ExcellencySam Mostyn AC; her husband, Simeon Beckett; senior government minister the Hon. Don Farrell; his wife, Nimfa; and myself.”
“He was incredibly proud of the people he served and the region he represented. He served as a federal government minister under five prime ministers in a 22-year political career. He passed away at the age of 97. But even after his long, distinguished and decorated political career, he continued to serve. I know that he was one of the movers and shakers in the Australian Football League. Football was one of his great passions. But more than that, there were so many other areas of endeavour that Peter Nixon put his mind to. We certainly mourn his loss. We certainly know that his family will greatly miss him. He lived a long life, but it was very much a productive life. He was very much still contributing right up to the very end. We admire him. We respected him. We will miss him.”
“Peter James Nixon AO was an amazing contributor to public life, to the life of this parliament, to the growth of the Country Party—now the National Party—and to cabinet processes. He had a number of ministerial appointments, but, more than that, he never forgot the people in Gippsland, because that's where he was from and that's who he represented. Certainly he wanted to make sure that the people of Orbost, where he grew up farming, and the people of the wider Gippsland area were always first and foremost in any of his considerations. Yes, he played a big game on the national stage and on the international stage, working with the likes of Anthony and Sinclair and McEwen—those great names of the Country Party past—but he ensured that Gippsland was indeed always remembered and always advocated for.”
“In those days, anybody who worked anywhere was a trade unionist. And so, we had a high wage level compared to our competitors internationally . The more things change, the more they stay the same! It goes on: Tariffs were the answer. And sometimes the unions would strike for a wage rise and that was granted by the wage body at the time and that would put the damn industry at risk. Again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Peter Nixon, Doug Anthony and Ian Sinclair were people who Mr McEwen could look to as people who would very much take the Country Party forward. He mentored them. He supported the Liberal Party. They formed the coalition, which has been the best form of government, obviously, that could possibly be put in place. But rest assured, the Hon.”
“We were trying to increase our trade. We were doing as good Country Party or National Party members do, and that was protecting the interests of our farmers. Mr Nixon was no different in that regard. Here's another really interesting quote, because it relates very much to how we're faring now with the tariffs being imposed by the United States. The book says: As Nixon recalled: He (McEwen) believed that the tariffs granted were too high. What used to happen , a company would be given tariff protection and then the unions would squeeze the company for higher wages. What people don't understand is that when the war finished We're referring to the Second World War here. It goes on— we had migrants pouring into the country that had to be employed. There was a hell of a strong trade union movement in those days.”
“" Peter Nixon and Black Jack McEwen, the former Country Party leader, had a great affinity. They understood, as the trade storms swirled around the world, the importance of Australia as a trading nation and as a trading partner and what we needed to do more of in this regard. Furthermore, in her book, it says: What did McEwen try to protect Australia's infant industry from? " What ' s been lost in the debate is dumping, " Peter Nixon explains, " A hell of a lot of countries in those days were over-manufacturing and dumping. We were always within the world trade rule with our operations. " And it's a very compelling insight, this particular book, into what was going on at the time. What it spelled out was the fact that the likes of Peter Nixon and John McEwen—we as a nation were playing within the rules.”
“In her very good book of 2020, John McEw e n: right man, right place, right time , Senator Bridget McKenzie interviewed the late, great Peter Nixon. Trade is an important thing at the moment. We're often talking about the need to boost trade and increase our trading relations with other countries. In the interview that Senator McKenzie did in her book, she referred to Mr Nixon in several pages, because they formed such a good relationship—Black Jack and Mr Nixon. She interviewed him: … former Country Party Minister Peter Nixon says that history has misremembered McEwen's trade philosophy. " McEwen was wise enough to know , and he would have changed as the world changed, " Nixon says on tariffs. " It's something people never understand. He was far sighted. He'd look ahead to see what the storms were and he'd be ready to meet them.”
“We might sometimes provide different infrastructure than what our major trading partners often seem to find themselves providing, but, rest assured, the assistance that we will give in financial services, cyclone-proof buildings, road networks, strengthening seawalls, health, vaccines, helping women, helping people with disabilities, foreign aid and foreign development—we will be providing that, but I don't think China will. Question agreed to. Bill read a second time. Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced. Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.”
“If Australian banks withdraw, others, as I said, will fill the void. Alternative financial networks often lack transparency or fall outside of regulatory standards. In other words, they are rip-off merchants, and they will take advantage of you as quick as they will look at you, particularly in the Pacific. What we then see is people basically being robbed. If Australian banks withdraw, others will move in. The bill is about helping Australian neighbours stay connected to the global financial system and maintaining Australia's financial presence in the region. At this critical juncture, when the Pacific is a very, very contested space in this precarious geopolitical environment that we have found ourselves in, we need to be the very best of friends with the Pacific.”
“If there's a space to be moved into, if there's a vacuum, it leads to people who are not of good intent coming in and taking advantage of those people who just want to come here to Australia to do the hard work that we can't find workers to do here of our own accord and send their remittances home. Many Pacific countries depend on correspondent banking, where larger banks such as ANZ help local banks process payments and currency exchanges. Since 2011, correspondent banking relationships in the South Pacific have fallen by—wait for this—60 per cent. Without corresponding banking services, Pacific nations lose access to foreign currencies and international payment systems, and that stymies the flow of payments such as remittances, which I mentioned before, overseas investments; and foreign aid.”
“What you end up with when you have a withdrawal of the big four banking services—it's hard enough to keep them in the regions, as you would well know, Deputy Speaker Sharkie, from your experience in South Australia, no doubt—is other players moving into the space. 'Other players' is often code for rip-off merchants. What you see is international organisations—and we can't always rely on some of those banking providers from overseas—who move into the Pacific and take advantage of what you could almost term the financial illiteracy or good intention of some, but it wouldn't matter whether they were Pacific or anybody else.”
“We need a system that's going to be put in place to help them, but this particular bill does provide the government with an ongoing, uncapped appropriation to cover any future costs that the Commonwealth may incur in providing a Pacific banking guarantee to an Australian bank. As I said before, Australian banks do need to participate. On 14 March, the ANZ announced it would be the first recipient of the Pacific banking guarantee. It was a maximum of $2 billion for a decade-long bank guarantee to support its operations in the region. I thank NAB, National Australia Bank, for its previous iterations and its previous involvement with the Pacific, but, unfortunately, what we've seen in recent times is a withdrawal of banking services from the Pacific.”
“What ends up happening is the farmer does not want to pay a minimum number of hours, because they may not have that work available at the time. They then don't employ the PALM workers. They either do the work themselves, or they just don't have the PALM workers onsite, so the PALM workers miss out, and the farmers miss out. The number of farmers who were not participating in the PALM scheme dipped, and it dipped alarmingly. That is why I insisted that Minister Conroy as well as Minister Burke do something about it at the time. Thankfully, something was done, but those provisions were only for until July this year, and it remains to be seen what will happen with that, because Labor was trying to unionise that scheme, as only Labor can do. The people who were missing out were our Australian farmers and the Pacific workers.”
“That's all well and good, and people should be paid for the work that they do, but that shouldn't come at the expense of the farmers, who are then, under the Labor government scheme, ending up paying for people who are doing nothing, paying for people who are idle. We all know how seasonal the work is with farming, particularly in the horticultural industry and in some of the other industries that are part of the PALM arrangements. Because I complained loudly and bitterly about this, it was changed. But, as I understand, it was only changed up until July, this month. It was about to be re-examined by the future government, at the time, but the future government unfortunately ended up being Labor re-elected, on 3 May. However, we can't make the system work with minimum numbers of hours.”
“Requiring foreign-exchange providers to have transparent, upfront pricing by eliminating the fees in the exchange rates would empower the individual worker to make a more informed choice, instead of—let's face it—preying on the financially illiterate. Not everybody reads their financial documents when they're signing contracts and arrangements when they're signing up to a bank. While this is the case in Australia with a lot of people, it certainly happens in the Pacific. They just want much of their remittances to go back to where they are intended, and they do a power of work. I was really disappointed with how the government treated the PALM scheme as a union grab. It attempted to unionise the workforce that came here under the PALM scheme and other arrangements, such that they were going to get a minimum number of hours.”
“We share values and principles of family, of faith, of football and, of the Pacific banking arrangements, with finance. We will continue to work constructively with the government on these particular issues. Remittances are really important. My active work in this regard, when I was the shadow minister, did lead to some constructive changes, such that more of the remittances were actually ending up in the pockets of those who did the work, rather than in the pockets of perhaps the bank et cetera, where it was just not necessary; they make enough money. At that time, the government had a program called Empowering Pacific Migrants through Remittances. The money went to funding a website. While it might have ticked some boxes on paper, it did very little to solve the problem.”
“I was there in Vanuatu when one of these boats was launched. The locals were very, very happy with it, let me tell you. It's good enough for China to come in and build these lavish and grand buildings that they then have to maintain and upkeep; they much prefer having vessels they can operate as coastguards against illegal fishing in their waters, because that's one of the biggest dangers to them. We know why China is making investments in the Pacific, and we know why they are absolutely wanting to roll out communications infrastructure in the Pacific. We know why that is the case. But the Pacific also understand that Australia will always be the very best friend that they have, and that goes back to those Fs I talked about.”
“The coalition also very much stepped up when we were in government, and I commend the work that started under the Howard administration, particularly through the work of Marise Payne, former foreign affairs minister and senator for New South Wales. In government between 2013 and 2022, we as a coalition delivered a record $2.7 billion in Pacific support. Indeed, that was just for the 2021-22 year across aid, infrastructure, health and security. We became the first and only country with diplomatic posts in every Pacific Islands Forum nation. We heard the Prime Minister yesterday talking about the PIF and its importance. Well, we had an ambassador, a diplomatic post, in very one of the island nations. We expanded regional security through the $2 billion Pacific Maritime Security Program, including the delivery of Guardian class patrol boats.”
“We must as a country make sure that as much of that money as possible is ending up in the hands of the intended relatives to stimulate the local villages, the towns and the cities of our Pacific region and not as a profit line on the balance sheets of major banks—banks which, I have to say, as part of their social licence to operate in Australia, should be helping out in the Pacific. And, whilst they mightn't make the generous profit lines that they make here in Australia, the fact that they are able to make such generous billions of dollars of annual profits here in Australia means there must be some responsibility and social licence to also operate in the Pacific. Yes, they won't be making billions of dollars, but they will make money. Banks don't operate if they don't make money. I commend the ANZ for stepping up; I do. It's important.”
“The United Nations estimates that 15 per cent of each migrant worker's pay cheque is sent back home, with Australian government figures suggesting that this amount could reach as high as 40 per cent. The problem is that about 10 per cent of that amount is then lost in the foreign exchange, meaning that tens of millions of dollars that could be going back to the Pacific are not. When I was the shadow minister for international development and the Pacific, I spoke out against this because if it's good enough for hardworking individuals to come here and to do all the jobs that Australians either won't or can't do, then it should be good enough for Australians to protect their remittances to ensure that their families and friends back home are benefiting from the fruits of their labour.”
“Treasury says the risk is low, but what does that in fact mean? So far, only the ANZ guarantee has been announced. Will there be any others? The impact that the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, the PALM scheme, has on local economies in the Pacific is absolutely enormous. According to World Bank figures, 44 per cent of Tonga's gross domestic product is made up by remittance which is sent home by those working abroad. In Samoa it's 30 per cent, in Vanuatu it's 21 per cent and in Fiji it's nine per cent. From 2018 to 2021, an estimated $64.15 million in savings and remittances were sent to the Pacific, and it paid an amount of $22 million in income tax.”
“If we believe that all the important words on the Pacific begin with the letter F—faith, family and football—we should add 'finance' as well. Certainly, the Pacific Banking Guarantee Bill 2025 does that. We need to be as agile and as adept with the Pacific as anything at the moment. If it's good enough to spend $600 million on a National Rugby League club to come out of Pasifika, with both Port Moresby and Townsville potentially hosting home games, then surely it is good enough to guarantee the banking provisions of our Blue Pacific friends. There are, however, some questions that need to be answered. Why is there no limit on the total amount of taxpayer exposure? That's a very good question. Why is there no sunset clause with the provisions of this bill? What oversight will apply to future guarantees?”
“I don't go along with the Greens—thank goodness there's only one of them in the House of Representatives—wanting to have all sorts of oversight on these. God help us if ever the Greens get anybody anywhere near the National Security Committee, because then we'd all be in trouble. But I do recommend these bills. They're important, they're necessary, and they will keep Australians safe. Question agreed to. Bill read a second time. Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced. Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.”
“Whether it's a Labor government or a coalition government, we cannot afford to water down any provisions to keep Australians safe. I do have confidence in the government to do the right thing, because the protection of our people is too important not to get right, and we need to make sure we do everything we can in that regard. Bill No. 2 also amends the Intelligence Services Act 2001 to permit the PJCIS to undertake further review of the operation's effectiveness and implications of the framework three years after the commencement of the bill. We have Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security oversight of this. That's important so that parliamentarians get a say along with the National Security Committee and the relevant ministers right up to the Prime Minister. That's the way it should be.”
“They take every course of action, legal and otherwise, to ensure what they're doing is the right thing and is covered under international rule of law. The same does not apply to our enemies—it does not. These bills also introduce additional reporting requirements to ensure the Attorney-General—and I compliment the member for Greenway in her ascension to that role; I think she'll do a fine job—is made aware of any relevant information regarding conduct under a compulsory-questioning warrant. It will require that post-charge questioning occurs only before a prescribed authority who is a retired judge and will make the framework permanent by repealing the sunset provision. We do what we need to do to keep Australians safe.”
“If a member has signed those people in—well, whatever the Speaker has at his disposal to admonish that member, he should use, too. Let's remember they were in the Speaker's gallery. They had to have a ticket to get in there, and that ticket had to be signed off by a member. So I hope that member who signed in those three unruly people is shaking in their boots as I speak. These bills also amend the eligibility and termination provisions for prescribed authorities to ensure the independence and impartiality of persons appointed to the role. We know that, if we have people questioning those of ill repute, as a nation, we will abide by the international rule of law. We do that always, even with our military. I've been with our military on those parliamentary trips where we've seen our military in action.”
“I'm sad to say that we have seen examples of every single one of those in recent times, and it is worrying. Not to place too much of a thing on it, but even our parliamentary process was interrupted in question time today by three people protesting—and they shouldn't have. I'm not against protestors—I am not—but it should not be in our house of democracy when we're trying to debate important topics. At question time, we should not see people standing up and being unruly and disorderly. I do hope that the Speaker finds out who those people are and gives them a lifetime ban. Why muck around? Don't give them a 12-month ban; give them a lifetime ban from this place. They hold up a sign today; what do they do tomorrow if they're allowed to get away with it?”
“We have to make sure that we have not only the right defence personnel—in our Navy, Army and Air Force—but the right intelligence officers. We need the right investment to ensure that ASIO and other intelligence and counterintelligence organisations have the right resources and people in the right places right now to ensure they can continue to keep Australians safe. These bills amend the compulsory questioning powers in the ASIO Act to expand the scope of adult questioning warrants to include sabotage, promotion of communal violence, attacks on Australia's defence system and serious threats to Australia's territorial and border integrity in addition to espionage and politically motivated violence, including terrorism and acts of foreign interference.”
“We need to send the strongest possible advice to our largest trading friends that friends don't do this to one another. I can well remember when then prime minister Tony Abbott made his 'shirtfront'— An honourable member: Remarks. remarks—yes—over the downing of an aircraft by the Russian military, and the next thing we knew was, off the Queensland coast, we had the Russian fleet. Now, Putin obviously wanted to flex his muscles. We've all seen him with the shirt off, pumping out his chest—yeah, good on ya—but this is not behaviour we should be seeing from world leaders and from countries with whom, quite frankly, in this day and age, we should be doing everything we can to promote peace. We live in a troubled world—we really do. I mentioned AI before. We just have to be on our guard.”
“The member for New England was, I think, not being alarmist when he said we all, as members of parliament, particularly those who hold ministerial positions, need to be very careful about who we meet, what we say and what we agree to, because there are people out there who would take people of good faith and intentions down as quick as look at them to promote their evil. The member for New England also mentioned the situation with China circumnavigating Australia. It was for no good reason that China did this. I listened very closely to the defence minister saying, 'Well, it was in open, international waters.' Yes, it was, but why would China be circumnavigating our nation? Why would they be doing live firing exercises in the Tasman Sea off the Sydney coastline for any good reason? This is not good.”