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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“We are going to need to ensure that those towns and cities which have only Rex flying into them—Parkes, Narrandera and Ceduna, for example—continue to have aviation support for those towns. My own home town, Wagga Wagga, has QantasLink and Rex. We need competition, so we need to keep Rex in the air because Rex in the air means jobs on the ground. For Wagga Wagga, that is $12 million of wages and 180 people at the maintenance hangar at Forest Hill airport. It is too vital to lose. We cannot afford to do that, and I would like to see the government of the future do whatever it can to keep Rex flying. The coalition supports this bill, which recognises the importance in the framework of national security, and the amendments as well. Question agreed to. Bill read a second time.”
“I mentioned this before, as did the shadow minister for defence. We do not need a disproportionate impost on regional airports. This absolutely needs to be considered and taken into every account when the government of the day, in the next term, is looking at this, whether that is a Labor government or whether that is a coalition government. I won't even frighten people with the prospect of what else we could have for the 48th Parliament, but, I say again, regional aviation at the moment is on its knees, is being crippled with the situation around Rex. I am pleased about and I've acknowledged what the government has done to keep Rex in the air—it is too vital not to—but we are going to need a long-term solution for that very serious situation.”
“That bill sought to address some of the elements canvassed in the current bill; however, the 2022 bill lapsed when parliament was dissolved. This parliament is also about to be dissolved, and many people are thankful for that because they can't wait to get into the ballot box and cast their vote and hopefully get Australia back on track by voting for the coalition. It is the only way to do that. If you vote for a teal, you vote for more of the same. If you vote for an Independent, you vote for more of the same. If you vote for a Green, you vote for more of the same, for what you have copped in the past three years, and Australians have had enough. Industry stakeholders raised a number of concerns through the PJCIS inquiry into the bill, particularly regarding the regulatory burden and the disproportionate impost on regional airports.”
“The Johns Hopkins institute—the American centre—recognised and acknowledged Australia's pandemic response as second best in the world, and we should be very proud of that, instead of knocking and mocking our response by way of the money that we spent to keep people alive, to keep people safe and to keep them in work. What we should be doing is applauding that effort and those decisions taken because, at the time, there was no manual you could have pulled off the shelf and said, 'This is how you react when you have a worldwide global pandemic.' According to the Johns Hopkins centre, our response was the second best in the world. This bill comes after the former coalition government introduced the Transport Security Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2022.”
“This review looked at, as a whole, Australia's aviation and maritime security settings and made certain recommendations which sought to ensure that Australia's security settings continued to be fit for purpose and supported Australia's economic recovery from the COVID-19 global pandemic. We've heard ad nauseam in this place, 'What did we get from all the spending that we did during the COVID-19 pandemic?' We saved lives and kept the doors of business open. With the spending, we kept people in jobs and safe from harm. As Deputy Prime Minister at the time, I was very proud of what former prime minister Scott Morrison did while leading this nation.”
“That's also so important because we need to have compliance in this nation that makes Australia easier to do business with and that makes Australian businesses which are doing the right thing always able to continue to do that without having to fill out paperwork after paperwork simply to keep a bureaucrat in a job. As the shadow minister indicated earlier, in September 2021 the former coalition government commissioned an independent review into Australia's aviation and maritime transport security settings, and it was a good move by a good government. It was led by Ms Kerri Hartland.”
“Of course, we know how important biosecurity is at ports, and making sure that we have the right security in the right places as the shipping containers come in and as the ships come in is of critical importance. We can't go through and test, examine and put sniffer dogs in every single shipping container, but what we can certainly do is make sure that we have the right number of people in place with the right training and the right framework to ensure that we can do the right thing by Australia's security. It simplifies regulations for vessels, allowing exemptions for vessels that infrequently travel overseas.”
“It introduces an all-hazards security framework which will require entities to proactively identify and mitigate risks to physical security, personnel security, cybersecurity, supply chain resilience and natural hazards; enhances testing and compliance measures; and bolsters enforcement tools, including by enlarging the secretary's power to issue security directions and extending the demerit point system to the air cargo sector. The secretary does need to have his or her powers extended in this regard, which is so important. It clarifies port security definitions to ensure relevant infrastructure and operations are covered under regulations.”
“This bill, through its regulations and legislation, amends the definition of 'unlawful interference' and, in doing so, captures a broader variety of acts, including cybersecurity incidents. It introduces mandatory cybersecurity incident reporting, and that's always important too. If people do see something that they think is odd or not quite right, there are hotlines to ring anonymously. Do it for the sake of your nation. Do it for the sake of other people.”
“This is what the bikie gangs are doing. They are scum. I'll look straight down the camera and say it: bikie gangs are scum. We know that, and we need to do everything that we can to eliminate their trade, because shopkeepers and legal sellers of tobacco, who are trying to do the right thing, are having their profits undercut by these mongrels. There's probably no other word for them apart from the one I used before. They'll go on their little Christmas toymaking jaunts and pretend as though they are good for society. What they are doing is out of control, and you get honest, legal shopkeepers being bullied, harassed and threatened with baseball bats and all the rest. Having their shops and their business models ruined is just terrible.”
“This bill makes a number of amendments to the Aviation Transport Security Act of 2004 as well as the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act 2003. I've spoken about airports. It's not just about airports. It's very much about, and should be about, shipping ports. The number of illegal cigarettes being imported into this country at the moment is out of control, and what we know about what illegal tobacco is doing to our nation and the damage and harm it is causing is probably just the tip of the iceberg. I'm told that many cigarette shops that are very much legal cannot gain insurance in Melbourne for fear of the firebombings, the molotov cocktails that are being hurled into them, and the bullying and harassment done by illegal bikie gangs. This is their new level of moneymaking means.”
“That also goes to the Australian Federal Police and our various state police forces. They are there to serve the public, and they do an outstanding job. I want to acknowledge that. But what we saw recently on 6 March at Avalon Airport was disturbing. There is no question about that. A teenager allegedly boarded a Jetstar plane armed with a long-arm firearm and ammunition and claimed, 'I've got bombs in my bag.' That's what the court documents have revealed. This is worrying. You're always going to get people who are sad enough and mad enough and bad enough to do the wrong thing. That's the way of the world, unfortunately, and that's why legislation such as this is important. That's why, as I said in my very first sentence in this debate, national security has to be the first order of priority of government. It has to be.”
“What the bill proposes to do is strengthen Australia's transport security framework to ensure government and industry can manage current and emerging risks in a rapidly evolving threat environment. No-one would know better how volatile our nation is than the shadow defence minister and, dare I say, those members who sit on the National Security Committee. It is a worrying situation. We do live in troubled times. These are troubled times both abroad and, certainly, in a volatile Australia—nothing our agents cannot handle. I have always been impressed by the top-level public servants, security officials and intelligence agents who serve our nation irrespective of who's in government. They do a fine job, and we should honour and recognise the role that they play to keep Australians safe.”
“I'm very pleased that the shadow defence minister has raised that point, because it's a good one. He also talked about consultation and the necessity for stakeholders to be fully engaged in this process. Again, I commend the shadow minister for his commonsense approach, as in everything he does. He has certainly made the point that there needs to be good consultation in this process—in this case, 12 months of consultation—and then there are 24 months for transition to reform, as he quite correctly pointed out. These are important factors in this particular legislation. The coalition is supporting the bill. It is supporting the government amendments.”
“In some airports, you can board a plane without having to go through the necessary X-ray checks, whereas, for the next flight 10 minutes later on a different airline, you'll have to go through the full process, which requires passengers and all their carry-on luggage to be subjected to X-rays to ensure that they aren't carrying any sharp items or items that would otherwise be, and should be, prevented. We need to make sure that those towns and cities are not affected. For some of them, having different, competitive airlines with different security screenings means that they have competitive prices and that those towns and regions those airports serve can access health and business and tourism avenues that they would otherwise not be able to. This is important.”
“The coalition will always put national security at the forefront, because keeping Australians safe is the No. 1 priority; it has to be. This bill, the Transport Security Amendment (Security of Australia's Transport Sector) Bill 2024, is important. I appreciate the shadow defence minister's sensible and practical words around what this bill entails, the coalition's position on it and what needs to be done to safeguard our future. As the member for Canning, the shadow minister, has just quite correctly pointed out, regional airports sometimes have differing regulations as far as security measures are concerned, and there are some airports in country Australia whereby different airlines, because of the size of their planes and the number of seats on those planes, have different security measures.”
“He said: I'd like to genuinely thank those members of parliament who took time to sit down and talk to farmers … The Coalition has been particularly strong on this matter, understanding the policy design failures, led by the strong voices of rural members who spoke with farmers in their local electorates. I'd also like to thank the CEO of that organisation, GPA, Colin Bettles. With friends like those opposite, who needs enemies?”
“My mum said, 'Always be careful of fair-weathered friends.' When it comes to farmers, there are no friends more fair-weathered than those opposite. Yesterday the Agriculture (Biosecurity Protection) Levies Bill was officially withdrawn from the Senate Notice Paper . This is a good thing, but it took so long to get there, and the farmers' fair-weathered friends over there said nothing. Where were those regional members when the biosecurity tax came in? Why would a country expect foreign imports to be having their levies paid for and their biosecurity measures paid for by Australian farmers? What country would do that to their own farmers? Those opposite would do it. The Grain Producers Australia chair and WA grain producer, Barry Large, welcomed news of the flawed biosecurity tax proposal finally being scrapped.”
“Families, often led by women, and sometimes single-parent families where the mother has custody, can't get access to child care, and they are expected to put food on the table and to earn the money. Some of them are seriously super mums, and we pay credit to them. We had a situation in Lockhart not that long ago. In the 2021 census—and the minister at the table and I have experience with the census, don't we, Member for Fenner?”
“You would think that a report from an organisation which has at its very heart the growing of grain would be talking about, perhaps, the instant asset write-off for harvesters, augers and silos—that happened under the coalition government—but they're talking about an early childhood education and care policy. You can see how society has shifted. You can see the concerns in rural and regional Australia about this very important policy area. I've said so often—and you do get sneered at by those opposite, who are quick to crow about the fact that they've got cheaper, more affordable child care—that the rub in regional Australia and especially in remote Australia is not affordability; it's availability and accessibility, because in some areas you can't find child care to save yourself.”
“They said: Grain growing takes place in rural, regional and remote areas of Australia, where children and families experience more limited access to a range of quality ECEC services relative to those living in metropolitan centres, and in some instances, have no access at all. The report continues: Access to ECEC supports working parents living within grain growing regions by enabling them to pursue employment and education opportunities, thereby helping to alleviate workforce shortages in the grains industry and broader supply chain, and allows for greater economic productivity for our communities. That's from GrainGrowers.”
“It was a big lift from when Labor had previously left office in 2013, when it was at 58.7 per cent. So it was quite a sizable and significant jump. With this particular legislation before the House, it is interesting to read the May 2024 report of GrainGrowers. They placed as one of their main, if not top, items of importance early childhood education and care. This is an agricultural group. In that report—and I will read from it because it is fascinating to hear—they said: Access to quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) services promotes children's cognitive and socio-emotional development, laying the foundation for academic success and fostering important life skills such as communication, problem-solving, and collaboration. Mind you, I'm reading from an agriculture report. That's the thing here.”
“They were ahead of their time. They began in the 1970s, trying to get access to the pill when it was difficult to do so in Wagga Wagga. It was a very conservative city. They formed that centre. They didn't receive any funding but for some philanthropic donations. They did it on their own. I appreciate there are now calls for a similar type of arrangement for a men's centre and demands that there be state and federal funding for that. But the women, to their credit, did it on their own. This was in an era where we were just starting to have more women in the workforce. When we were in coalition, I was very proud of the fact there were so many women in the workforce. In fact, the coalition saw women's workforce participation reach record highs, at 62.3 per cent. That was in May 2022, just before this Labor government took office.”
“Late last year, the director of the Wagga Women's Health Centre, Johanna Elms, who I have a lot of respect for for her vision of what society could look like and certainly how Wagga Wagga could improve, organised, conducted and led a men's forum. It was held at a venue out on the Oura Road. It was to see what community leaders could do about domestic and family violence and how we could be achieving zero violent crimes against women. Ninety to 100 community leaders gathered. It was a men's-only affair. There were no women present. But Ms Elms arranged that particular forum. Everything was on the table. I have supported the Wagga Women's Health Centre very much. My mother-in-law, Beverley Shaw, worked there for many years. I have supported that centre in my 14 years in the parliament because it has women's issues at the forefront.”
“That was pretty much the norm: dads went out and worked and mums stayed at home. But, today, it's very different. It's very much changed. Mothers are now, in fact, in some cases, the sole breadwinner. In other cases, they're the highest-wage earner. Society has become very, very different. I noted the previous standing committee reports and listened very carefully to the member for Cowper talking about men being the problem and men also being very much at the heart of the solution to domestic and family violence. Being a former police officer and having prosecuted cases of family violence as a lawyer, I can say the member for Cowper is very much right.”
“I want to associate myself with the remarks of the earlier contributions of the members for Macquarie and Cowper in relation to the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiries into domestic and family violence. This legislation before the House, the Early Childhood Education and Care (Three Day Guarantee) Bill 2025, goes to the core of families. Families mean a lot. The meaning of family is vastly different in 2025 than it was just 10 short years ago and certainly back in the sixties and seventies, when I was being raised in a family situation where my late father, Lance, worked the farm at Brucedale between Wagga Wagga and Junee and, prior to that, at Marrar. My late mother, Eileen, stayed at home, and looked after the children—five children.”
“What happened when they made the change is that doctors in those areas, in those remote and regional areas, took their shingles off their surgeries and moved to the coast. This is outrageous, because when you are in pain you shouldn't have to catch a plane; you should be able to have a doctor's appointment in your own country town. Yet, unfortunately, Labor has just ignored that. Many women—and I appreciate that Labor has been spruiking its new women's health plan this week—are missing out. Why is Labor shunning country areas and medicine like this?”
“Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting with immediate past president of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, Dr Megan Belot, who is a Charleville based rural generalist in outback Queensland. Indeed, today I had a meeting with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Rural Council chair, Associate Professor Michael Clements. They both expressed to me great disappointment—huge disappointment—that the Labor government had changed the distribution priority areas for doctors. They changed it such that, when Labor took government in May 2022, what happens now is that Labor consider Newcastle and Wollongong and coastal and peri-urban areas of capital cities to be priority areas, whereas we know that those doctors should be staying in regional and remote areas.”
“There has to be some consideration. What we have before us is the Electricity Infrastructure Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. It was introduced to the House, rather unexpectedly, with a view to being passed before the parliament rises. Many people in the corridors here will be telling you that this is the last parliamentary sitting week. We saw what happened on the last parliamentary sitting day last year when Labor rushed through a whole heap of legislation. Debate was guillotined, debate was gagged and bills went through—to hell with people's local concerns. People who have been sent here to represent their local constituents weren't able to speak on a bill. They weren't able to raise objections against a bill. Labor just bulldozed it through. Labor, which came to office in May 2022, said it was going to be—”
“State-significant priority supersedes all local development plans. It overrides any community concerns. It rides roughshod over what a local government or a council can do about a particular project. Whether it's powerlines and towers, solar farms, wind turbines—you name it—it's stamped 'state significant' and locals do not get any say in that project. Generally, that project will be financed by an overseas company or a superannuation firm. They'll claim a whole heap of jobs in the construction phase, and that's all well and good—we all want more jobs. But often these projects come at a huge cost to local people, their amenity, their views and their environment. I think something really needs to be done with the EPBC Act, with these 'state significant' projects, to say 'enough is enough'. Locals must get a say.”
“The thing that often concerns me when companies and organisations and, dare I say, governments put in place infrastructure that is going to affect people's vista, communities or environment is that all too often when the representative is sent out to knock on the door or to visit the farm, they come there with only scant details of the actual project. When they come there again, it's a different person altogether. When they line up at the community forums which often happen as a result of community concerns being raised and not answered or met, again, it's a different representative. I'm not saying this is the case on this particular project, but it also bothers me greatly that these days we seem to have in this nation—particularly in New South Wales—projects placed under state-significant status.”
“Last Friday in Yass I had the opportunity to sit and talk at length with three concerned advocates, Hansie Armour, Rebecca Tobin and Andrea Strong, in relation to the powerlines on huge towers that are going to go through their wonderful part of the world. There has been a lot of controversy about these powerlines and the height of the towers upon which they will sit. These three advocates are genuine in their desires to see the lines placed underground, and had a number of cogent and reasonable arguments as to why this should be so.”
“It's 12.4 kilometres through the pristine wilderness. Kristy knows exactly what I'm talking about. I heap praise on Julia Ham, the Snowy Valleys mayor, and her council staff. They do an amazing job to hold this annual event. Grant Harris; his wife, Deb; Glen McGrath; and his wife, Vanessa, were at the front and the back of the walk. They kept everybody located. It's an amazing walk, and I urge and encourage anybody to do it. There were 150 people who took part. It was fabulous, and it does promote Tumarumba. It's a beautiful area. It's part of the Snowy Valleys Council. Like I said, it was one hell of a walk on Saturday. Big Hill was very well known. It took quite some doing, but may Tumbatrek long continue, whomever is representing that beautiful, pristine part of the world.”
“He dobbed me in to say that I would revive it. I had no knowledge, of course. This was two-minute Tim. We loved him. We still do, even though he's passed. When the Riverina boundaries changed and it went into Eden-Monaro, the member for Eden Monaro, Kristy McBain, the minister sitting opposite, continued the famous walk. I passed on Tim's famous walking stick to the minister. It was a little bit longer than she really would have liked, and she did request that she might take a couple of centimetres off the bottom of it. I said: 'Don't do that. It's Tim's stick. We need to keep it intact.' She subsequently passed it back to me because the boundaries are coming back into the Riverina. The poor people of Tumbarumba would just like to be in the one electorate for just a little given time. Tumbatrek on Saturday was just wonderful.”
“On 9 January 1997 Tony Bullimore, the lone yachtsman from the United Kingdom, was plucked from the Antarctic great Southern Ocean. The waters were freezing. His vessel had upturned, and he was in the capsized hull. Tim Fischer, then acting Prime Minister and Leader of the Nationals, announced to the world that the rescue had been made by our wonderful Defence people from Big Hill on the Hume and Hovell Track. It was on Tumbatrek, and he had a bevy of journalists there. Tim was a great raconteur. He was great at getting promotion for the tourism aspects of Mount Kosciuszko and the beautiful snowy valleys. He made every moment a winner. He was on his fabled Tumbatrek. He started it in 1985. When he left the parliament, the Tumbatrek went into recess. It was revived after a radio interview on the ABC at Junee.”
“When we talk about the childcare desert we are being genuine and meaningful, because we are desperately worried there are not enough childcare places in regional Australia.”
“I know the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network will ease some of the problems of the doctor shortage in times to come, and I'm pleased to say that we're getting upwards of 30 young people—often, locals—going through the UNSW facility in Wagga Wagga. I'm very pleased to say that that is going to be an outstanding success in the future, but the results will take time to take effect. A lot has been said in this place about child care. I have to say, it's interesting that some rural organisations, grain producers and farmers et cetera placed child care as their No. 1 item, above all other considerations, in their pre-budget submissions. The minister might be interested to know that that is so. And I appreciate the efforts that she's going to, but it is not just about affordability; it's about accessibility and availability.”
“Good luck to those areas that have an urgent care clinic. I appreciate the fact that the member for Cowper received one in his electorate because of his advocacy, I have to say—and also the need. The people of Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and that region of the Mid North Coast of New South Wales deserve as good a health service as anywhere in a capital city. Every part of Australia needs and deserves and wants and expects the same, but urgent care clinics have been given to too many, I have to say, Labor electorates and to not enough of those electorates that are probably in the most dire need.”
“It's sad to say that one of the first orders of business that this Labor government introduced was to change the rules around the distribution priority areas. What you saw was doctors in rural, regional and, particularly, remote areas take their shingle off their GP surgery and move to the suburbs. They moved to the peri-urban areas of our capital cities. They moved to the coast. They moved to Newcastle, Wollongong or the Gold Coast, because, according to Labor, those were areas of distribution priority need. I don't deny that people on the Gold Coast or Wollongong or Newcastle need to see doctors too, but what we've been left with is areas of Australia where people can't get in to see a doctor for weeks and weeks. These are people who are in pain. These are people who are ill. Labor tells a big story about its urgent care clinics.”
“With Mark you got a two-for-one deal, because you get his wife, Robyn, as well. I pay special tribute to them for the way that they have represented that electorate. I say 'they' because it has been a duo, been a team performance, a team effort. I know Jamie Chaffey will continue. He's got the commitment and the dedication to travel the length and breadth of that outstanding electorate. Whether the people are in Parkes, Riverina or in my great friend the member for Cowper's electorate, people have to travel long distances to make those commitments. When it comes to medical appointments, it should not be so that, when in pain, you have to catch a plane. You should have those doctors, general practitioners and specialists in your home town.”
“When you have to travel in the Riverina, you have to journey long distances to play your games. It's costly. There are women who play in that competition and families who are, unfortunately, having to make that tough decision for their kids—that they just cannot afford to fill the car up and journey to the away games or the away events, or cannot afford to take their kids to the annual agricultural show in a neighbouring town. All too often the neighbouring town is 100 kilometres away. In the Parkes electorate, which is now more than 50 per cent of the land mass of New South Wales, the candidate for the Nationals, Jamie Chaffey, talks to me all the time about the huge distances that people have to travel for health appointments and business commitments. Mark Coulton has represented that electorate superbly for 17 years.”
“People in country areas use their vehicles much more than those in the city. You have families in country areas who are choosing to not take their children to sport, dancing lessons, dancing competitions, events and the like. Sport plays a huge part in regional Australia. Last Friday, the Southern NSW Women's Australian Football League began its eighth season. It involves 15 teams, from Wagga Wagga through to Griffith, in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Women's Australian football is the fastest growing sport in the nation. I admire what AFL Riverina has done in trying to consolidate the draw so that there's a series of double-headers. The tyranny of distance is such that they're trying to reduce the amount of away games that teams are playing, but, still, quite often teams will have to travel.”
“We want to make sure, in conjunction with the Liberals, that we do put that supermarket commissioner in. We will ensure that farmers are paid a fair price at the farm gate for the toils of their labour, as they should be. Whether they are providing those supermarkets with vegetables or meat or whatever the case might be, they should be paid a fair price. All too often we know our farmers, the best in the world, are price takers, not price makers. We should also ensure, through this food commissioner, that people are getting value for money when they take their trolley to the cash register and pay for their goods. Then you have the high power prices, as I mentioned previously, but more than that we've got people in regional Australia hurting because the price at the petrol bowser is going up and up and up.”
“There's an interesting thing about the tile put out by the Labor dirt unit at the time to say, 'Well, this is what's going to happen if you vote for a Labor government.' It wasn't that many months after the election the tile was slightly changed; an asterisk was placed beside the $275 and a disclaimer added. The disclaimer put the $275 saving off into the never-never. And you know what? That's the Labor way. That's what they do. They say something before an election and then they do the complete opposite after it. It's sad to say, but you can't take the Labor Party at its word. You cannot. You don't judge the Labor Party by its words; you judge the Labor Party by its actions. People are hurting. They're hurting because they're paying too much for groceries. The Nationals in government would have a better way.”
“I regularly talk to my volunteer organisations, namely the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, which has a care van, and they report to me that the number of clients is increasing. They have not seen this volume, this number of people needing the generosity of the rest of the community, needing the spirit of giving that they are being called upon to provide. It's because people just can't make ends meet. It's because people are finding the cost of living too difficult. This should not be Australia in 2025. People are getting their power bills—they were promised on 97 occasions by the then opposition leader, the member for Grayndler, the now Prime Minister, that they would receive a $275 saving to their power bill. And do you know what? A lot of people were duped by that. A lot of people fell for that.”
“Cost of living is an impost and having such an impact on ordinary everyday Australians, many of whom cannot take any more. They are making decisions based on the disposable income that they have. They are making decisions as to whether they, depending on the season, cool or heat their house as opposed to putting food on the table so that their families can sustain themselves. This should not be Australia in 2025. This should not be happening in a country as wealthy as Australia. I was amazed some time ago when a volunteer-run van arrived at the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga, down near the beach—the visit was well advertised—to provide free food hampers for people. Wagga Wagga is a good sized city, 70,000-plus people, and the number of people who came out to avail themselves of that generosity was quite remarkable.”
“They want to make our farmers pay for the biosecurity measures of foreign goods coming in to compete with our own products on the supermarket shelves. Could you imagine any other country in the world doing that? Charging our own people, our own farmers—the best farmers in the world, the ones who grow the food and fibre—and making them pay for foreign competitors biosecurity measures so that they can compete on the same shelves in the same supermarkets for the same customers—that is, the Australian people. When it comes to Australian people paying through the nose at supermarkets, and they are doing that, the Nationals and the Liberals have a better plan. We want to put in a supermarket commissioner as part of a suite of measures to ease cost of living. Cost of living is hurting household budgets.”
“All of a sudden, we had a lack of toilet paper. Yet, it was so much more. It was groceries. In some instances, it was the vaccines. Our truckies helped to run and manage this country. At the time, I can remember the then prime minister, the member for Cook, tasked me, as the transport minister, with the role and responsibility of getting our state transport and roads ministers around the table to agree on a national logistics code. I am still thankful to those transport ministers, most of whom were Labor ministers, as they did the right thing in the national interest. I'm afraid to say that the same cannot be said for this federal Labor government because they do not do things in the national interest. They want to whack taxes on our truckies.”
“What this government did in its early phases and stages of running the nation's finances was to propose a 10 per cent annual increase to the heavy vehicle road user charge, which would see the tax truckies pay on fuel rise from 27.2 cents per litre at the time, up to 36.2 cents per litre by 1 July next year. They were figures produced by the National Transport Commission, and we should be doing everything we can as a parliament to ensure the smooth running of our trucks because they largely, and literally, carry the nation. All the goods that are ferried around our nation are done by a truck, and certainly during COVID, the worth of truckies was writ large because they were getting all those rolls of toilet paper to people. Every time someone went to the toilet, it seemed as though they needed 10 rolls.”
“The Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2024-2025 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2024-2025 are necessary appropriations to ensure the continued delivery of essential government service funding decisions made since the 2024-25 budget, which was announced in May last year. Now, that said, there is a lot to unpack when it comes to appropriations and this government. I'm always amazed about how many truck drivers listen to the federal parliament whilst they're traversing this wide, brown land. I'm always impressed by the number of truckies who contact my office when I speak in parliament about certain things. Sometimes they agree; sometimes they do not.”