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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“More recently, they've been dealing with significant increases in fuel costs resulting from instability in the Middle East and the crisis in Iran. Many regional airlines operate on very thin margins—you could almost say they operate on the vapour of avgas—yet this legislation risks imposing additional compliance obligations and unknown additional costs on small regional aviation operators to solve a problem largely created by the major airline duopoly of Qantas and Virgin Australia. The coalition remains concerned that regional airlines and regional airports may ultimately bear a crippling cost for failures that are not of their making. The government has said that regional airports with fewer than one million passengers per year should be exempt from the framework. However, they have not put this in the bills before the parliament.”
“Yet this legislation will do nothing to protect consumers' Virgin flight credits, one real consumer issue currently facing Australians. This legislation does not guarantee that, in the future, consumers will be offered refunds for cancelled or significantly delayed flights. This legislation fails to properly recognise the challenges faced by regional aviation. For many Australians living outside our major cities, aviation is not a luxury; it is an essential service. Regional aviation provides access to health care, education, employment, tourism, business opportunities and family connections. Regional airlines are already facing significant financial challenges. They are dealing with increasing airport charges. They are dealing with rising fuel costs. They are dealing with maintenance challenges and difficulties obtaining aircraft parts.”
“Indeed, many stakeholders who initially described the legislation as 'better than nothing' ultimately concluded that the bill should not proceed without significant amendment. Major airlines, regional airlines, airports, industry bodies, consumer groups and regional stakeholders all identified substantial deficiencies in the framework. One example of why stronger consumer protections are needed can be seen in the current controversy surrounding Virgin Australia's COVID travel credits. On 30 June, 2026, Australians stand to lose access to up to $93 million in unused COVID-era Virgin Australia travel credits. Those funds belong to consumers. They do not belong on an airline balance sheet. Australians should be able to access those credits when they choose to travel or alternatively receive a refund.”
“This bill creates a new authority, two new statutory ombudsman schemes, a new levy and additional layers of bureaucracy. It creates a complaints framework rather than a genuine passenger-rights framework. The government argues this legislation will improve consumer outcomes, yet many of the protections contemplated under the proposed Aviation Consumer Charter are already provided by major airlines today, including rebooking accommodation, meal vouchers and refunds in certain circumstances. The coalition notes the proposed charter has not been presented to this chamber for determination by the House. The question remains: how will this framework materially improve airline performance and at what costs to the industry and ultimately to Australian travellers? That question was repeatedly raised during the Senate inquiry.”
“Last parliament, Senators Bridget McKenzie and Dean Smith introduced the private senators' Airline Passenger Protections (Pay on Delay) Bill. That proposal would have provided direct compensation to passengers when airlines fail to meet their obligations through lengthy delays, cancellations or lost baggage. Unlike Labor's proposal, a genuine compensation scheme creates a real incentive for airlines to improve performance. If an airline fails to deliver the service that a consumer has paid for, for the reason that is within the control of the airline, there should be consequences. Where travellers have incurred real additional costs for delayed cancelled flights, that should be recognised. Labor has chosen a different path—we could say a different flight!”
“Millions of Australian families and small businesses have been inconvenienced and left out of pocket. Whether it's for a family holiday, a business meeting, a medical appointment, a wedding or a funeral, Australians expect airlines to deliver the service they have paid for. This is not to mention the concerns raised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about companies selling tickets for ghost flights and cancelling flight credits. And, at a time when Australians were hit with higher airfares, Qantas turned political actor, funding corporate promotion for the government's divisive Voice referendum campaign. Australians have every right to be frustrated. Australians deserve better. That is why the coalition has argued stronger passenger protections are required.”
“We find just today that budget carrier Jetstar is blaming rising government taxes and charges and less-than-expected demand for the axing of two trans-Tasman services from late October. Sunshine Coast to Auckland and Cairns to Christchurch will go on hold indefinitely in the very latest route cuts by the low-fares airline. This is a concern, as are some of the other things I'm about to outline. In 2025, one in four domestic flights were either delayed or cancelled. In Labor's first term, more than 50,000 domestic flights were cancelled and more than 427,000 flights were delayed, according to the government's own data provided monthly by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics. Australians have witnessed a step change for the worse in airline performance and reliability compared to what was happening pre-pandemic.”
“I rise to speak on behalf of the opposition on the Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026 and related bills. At the outset, let me be clear. The coalition supports stronger protections for airline passengers. Australians deserve reliable air services, fair treatment when things go wrong and confidence that the aviation system is working in their interests. The reality is that the performance of Australia's domestic aviation sector has deteriorated significantly post COVID. Too many Australians have experienced flight delays, cancellations, poor communication and difficulties obtaining remedies when airlines fail to deliver the service that has been purchased.”
“It is said that one in every four jobs in Australia is reliant on trade, and perhaps, if we really gave that a lot of thought, it would actually be a lot higher. Three million full-time equivalent Australian jobs, or thereabouts, rely on international trade. They're big numbers. Trade related activities underpin more than a third of national economic output and support international supply chains. You have many key sectors in this regard. You've got trade supported employment, including mining and resources. There we had the interesting situation in the parliament this week where the teals and One Nation were lining up to take away the situation where mining gets the diesel fuel rebate. They wanted to cap it.”
“Yet, if you're a farmer now and you're trying to clear a property, trying to get rid of a tree, good luck! You'll get in trouble through the EPBC Act. You'll get in trouble from every single angle. We've got drones overhead monitoring what you're doing on your own property. You can't do anything in this country unless you fill out a form, unless you tick all these boxes. There's a myriad of paperwork that you've got to fill out. It is just ridiculous. It is just nonsensical. We are faced, here, with these four schedules to the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill. What we should be doing is making it easier for businesses to do business. What we should be doing is making it easier for farmers to farm. What we should be doing is making it easier for everyday, ordinary Australians to just get about their business with less government, not more.”
“Already, some of those river gum forests have had so much water through them that the river gums, I'm told, are dying because they've had too much water. The Australian landscape was not designed that way. It was not. The early explorers, quite often, when they were doing their explorations, carried their river craft more often than they paddled it down the streams because, at the time, many of them were experiencing a drought. We are not Europe. We cannot design our Murray-Darling system on what is in Europe. I was just talking to Michael Murray, the general manager of Cotton Australia, before I came in here to speak, and he reminded me of the fact that many soldier settlers got in trouble in some cases and had to forfeit the blocks that they were allocated because they hadn't cleared them in time.”
“When you take 34,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools out of productive farming and agricultural use and you're still expected to grow as much food, what is that going to lead to? What do you reckon it's going to lead to? I'll tell you what it's going to lead to: it's going to lead to less food, and, when you've got less food, that equates to higher grocery prices. None of us want to pay more for our groceries. We do not. But this is the Labor way. And yet this is just a portent of what is to come, because the Labor Party says it's going to deliver the basin plan in full and on time. That just equates to taking more and more and more water out of the river system and flushing it down the mouth of the Murray.”
“I know you're a rational and balanced person, a practical person, who wants the best for this country. I acknowledge that. But, sometimes, South Australians and I have different views on what we need to do in the Murray-Darling Basin. I'll tell you what we do need: we need a better, more balanced and fairer approach. When we talk productivity, when we talk compliance and when we talk regulatory reform, regulatory reform and compliance and balance and fairness do not equate to buying 86 additional gigalitres out of mainly the southern connected system and flushing it down the river system under the guise of better environmental outcomes. They do not. That equates to 34,400 Olympic-sized swimming pool equivalents.”
“That budget—what a joke that was, just a few short weeks ago— and making it more sustainable. That was the Economic Reform Roundtable, once called 'the productivity boosting gathering'. I'll tell you what, here are a few tips for the Treasurer and anybody who cares to listen about making sure that we get productivity—maybe block your ears for a while, Deputy Speaker Sharkie, because you're from South Australia, and you might not agree with what I'm about to say next. How you're going to boost productivity is not by buying $430 million of water out of mostly the southern connected system of the Murray-Darling Basin and then expecting to boost productivity. That water is going to flow out of the mouth of the Murray. Deputy Speaker Sharkie, I'm not verballing you. You're a good person.”
“Anyway, supposedly, it 'built consensus on ways to improve productivity, enhance economic resilience and strengthen budget sustainability'. Yeah, right! It says: It brought together a mix of leaders from business unions— do you remember those unions? They are the ones that all you people opposite have to agree with and pay suitable tribute to— civil society, government and other experts. Experts—my father used to tell me an expert was a drip under pressure, but, anyway, we digress. It was held from 19 to 21 August in Parliament House, 'led by the Treasurer and supported by other key ministers': It focused on lifting living standards for Australians by looking at 3 main themes: yeah, right— yes, we do have that; we do have a lot of global uncertainty— strengthening the budget? Let's not even go there.”
“The member for Sturt, in her contribution—I've got a bit of time for the member for Sturt. She speaks on just about every piece of legislation, and that's commendable; like I said, it's a shame we haven't got more people on both sides speaking on this particular omnibus bill before us. She referred to the productivity summit—the roundtable, the big productivity roundtable. I don't know whether people remember this: it was a productivity roundtable, but, all of a sudden, the name was changed to the 'Economic Reform Roundtable'. You can't call it 'productivity', because it was just a gabfest. It was just a talkfest. It was just an excuse for the unions to come to Canberra to tell the Labor Party what it needs to be doing.”
“They have to do the right thing according to the National Construction Code. These three volumes cover commercial and multi-residential building standards, residential housing and BCA provisions, and the Plumbing Code. That sort of reading would be enough to send somebody to sleep. But, I tell you what, if you're a construction company—and it's no wonder the construction companies are going backwards, by the way—and you are running that company, you've got to comply. It's no wonder that much of the employment in this country in small businesses, medium-sized firms and particularly large businesses is taken up by people who do nothing more than compliance. That's all their jobs are—just making sure that they tick every box. Is it productive? Probably not, I would argue.”
“If you're a businessperson, you're about to approach the end of the financial year and you're worrying about how to make sure you're doing everything right by your business activity statement, by the Australian Taxation Office and all the rest, and then you hear the budget and that it's changed—it's enough to send people spare. The amount of compliance—consider, for example, the National Construction Code. The primary regulatory framework which governs building compliance in Australia spans roughly—wait for this—2,000 pages across three volumes, including the building and plumbing codes. Imagine you're a chippie, a builder, a sparky or a plumber. I know they're not all supposed to read the 2,000 pages. I tell you what; if they're working for someone, that someone has to comply and they have to meet the codes.”
“To the recent federal budget, if you were a businessperson and you were trying to comply and do the right thing amongst myriad regulations, amongst the mountain of paperwork, could you possibly imagine this: you hear the budget; you see the member for Rankin, the Treasurer, produce his economic blueprint for the nation; he talks about capital gains, about trust—trusts, sorry; I won't say 'trust' because there's no trust in this budget—and the changes; and then, just a few short weeks later, there's this whole raft of amendments and changes.”
“The Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2026 contains four schedules, but it's interesting to note that the cost of complying with federal regulation has increased from $65 billion in 2013 to $160 billion today. We have four schedules before us—amendments to simplify business regulation, amendments to streamline regulation, amendments to support a 'tell us once' approach, and technical and other amendments. There is so much to unpack in this legislation. It's a shame we don't have more speakers on this particular bill, because while it might sound fairly mundane and perfunctory—some might even cruelly suggest 'boring'—it's important. It's interesting that the government is bringing this forward when the cost of just doing business is so much more these days than it was when the coalition was in government, than it ever was before.”
“This is the Australian Labor Party that has overseen a cost-of-living crisis and has done nothing to fix it, bar bringing in legislation which just makes it more difficult for more people more often. The government would do well to go back to the drawing board, look at this legislation and review it. And yet there are no Labor speakers on this bill. Labor members so quickly and readily want to talk about unionising and making sure their unions get their fair share, but, when it comes to small business, to the construction sector and to the transport sector, they are nowhere to be seen defending their shoddy legislation.”
“And yet this government just want to ram onerous legislation that is going to make it so much more difficult, particularly in the small-business sector, through the House of Representatives because they can and because they have the majority. They think that that mandate gives them permission to ride roughshod over stakeholders who happen to employ a lot of Australians and are sick to the back teeth of compliance and costs and regulation and union activity on their worksites and in their workplaces. This is the modern Australia. This is Australia in 2026. This is the Australia governed by this Australian Labor Party, which has no modicum of care for small business or for getting out of the way and out of the road to make sure that small business can succeed and prosper.”
“On the capacity of builders to deliver the homes Australians need, how many homes was it that this Labor government said they were going to build? Was it a million? Then they changed the figure. But, on their watch, they've built hardly a home. Mr Collins added this: The Federal Government is making a bad habit of tabling substantial workplace relations reforms with no notice, no industry engagement and no consideration of cumulative impact. This is particularly concerning given the large number of legislative reviews currently underway that will impose future workplace relations reforms. HIA's immediate concerns with this Bill are numerous. But it's not just the HIA; it is so many other stakeholders besides.”
“The Housing Industry Association's executive director for compliance and workplace relations, Stuart Collins, has some advice for this Labor government. He said: This bill— the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026— is being sold as a modest administrative tidy-up of the Fair Work Commission. It is not. He's right. Mr Collins said: It contains wide-ranging reforms with significant implications for the residential construction industry, procurement frameworks, workforce costs and the capacity of builders to deliver the homes Australians need. There's a lot in that sentence, and there are a lot of construction companies going out backwards thanks to the policies of this failed Labor government. What our small-business sector does not need right now is more onerous costs and compliance.”
“That war memorial has been made an even more special place of remembrance because of the construction work that has gone on. To each and every person who has had some large or small part I say, 'Congratulations.' Lest we forget.”
“on indulgence—I acknowledge the Prime Minister and the opposition leader for making sure that all parliamentarians were able to attend what was a nationally significant event. All of us who went to that special event will remember the fine words spoken by each and every body but particularly Matt Anderson, the Australian War Memorial director. He has overseen the construction of something very, very special to our nation's heart. He's done so with COVID and so many other setbacks, but done it he has. There are 103,000 names of men—and women, too—on the roll of honour. We should never forget that the front doors of the parliament—indeed, from the Prime Minister's office right through—line up with the front doors of the War Memorial, right through to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”
“This is hard labour, and the government is inflicting it upon the people of Australia—the small-business people, the farmers, those people who keep the lights on, our miners. Indeed, it is a budget which has caused so much hardship and so much heartache, particularly in regional Australia. And last week— Prime Minister, I know you're interjecting on me, and I'll take the interjection. But last week why did you spend $430 million buying more water out of productive use for our farmers that could have used it to grow food?”
“I appreciate the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has a lot on her plate with the avian flu situation at the moment—and I commend her for her work to ensure that we are, as a country, on top of that—but, Minister, why oh why, through the chair, have you cut, in the budget, $191.6 million for pest eradication? There are more feral pigs than there are people in this country. We've got a mouse plague in Western Australia. We've got rabbits everywhere and foxes out of control—and what does the Labor government do? Well, it cuts money away from— It's true, Minister—eradication measures through the states and through councils and through regional areas. And, not only that, we had a prime minister who told the public one thing prior to the election, and then the Treasurer did another thing on budget night.”
“They're always in there, trying to make sure that they can elicit funds, somehow, some way, from those big taxpayer funded projects so that they can stay in business—the business of being thugs on worksites. I was a union member once. I was a union member for 21 years with, firstly, the Australian Journalists Association, which then became the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. I ran into the new head of the MEAA in the corridors this week, and I will say this. I don't wish my colleagues to think any less of me, but unions have a role to play. They do.”
“When I refer to taxpayer funded infrastructure, I particularly refer to schools and to hospitals—those things which educate our children, those things which keep all of us alive—as well as roads. We know that we pay too much for roads. That's if we could get it in regional Australia, Member for Parkes. Your electorate is massive. So is mine. The upkeep, just the maintenance, of our roads has slipped markedly under this Labor government, let alone the construction of our roads. We know that when there's a Labor government in Canberra the split between federal and state is fifty-fifty. When there's a coalition government in Canberra, it's 80-20. So it's little wonder why the states delay construction on some of the bigger projects, particularly roads. And, of course, the unions are always in there, trying to get their chop.”
“One would ask why an organisation such as the ABCC should be abolished. I have to give it to the Labor legislation title writers; they whacked in 'secure jobs, better pay' as if it were necessary, fair and much-wanted legislation. They've got a clever way of disguising what really is in the detail of any particular bill. That was one of the best examples of the worst kinds of bills. It was going to dismantle a group which was having such a positive and profound outcome on building sites. The ABCC was a necessary watchdog. It truly was. It prevented unlawful union behaviour, the sorts of which are now on an industrial scale by the CFMEU. The ABCC also reduced project delivery costs for taxpayer funded infrastructure.”
“When I was the infrastructure minister, I worked with—and worked well, I might add—the now Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, and we got some good things done. But, particularly in recent years, the CFMEU has become out of control. We hear terrible stories about the strong-arm tactics and the bully-boy worksite tactics used by John Setka and others. It's shameful. It's just not good enough. The date 6 December 2022 was a dark day in the construction sector, particularly in Victoria, because that was the day when the Albanese federal Labor government put through the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022. What that did was it dismantled the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the cops on the beat, those who at worksites made sure that everything was as it should be in a fair and disciplined way.”
“We learned that there was $15 billion of misappropriation. Let's call it that. It was $15 billion of taxpayers' money. It was $15 billion of funds that could have and should have been spent on things other than just going into union thugs' pockets. Let's call them what they are; they are union thugs. They are ruling the roost in Victoria. The sooner the Labor government is jettisoned from the Treasury benches in Victoria the better. The sooner they are a long way away from Spring Street the better off the nation will be—not just Victoria and not just Melbourne but, indeed, the country. Geoffrey Watson SC found the enterprise agreement system in Victorian construction had been 'thoroughly corrupted', describing it as old-fashioned 'pay to play' corruption. It's not good. It's simply not good enough.”
“There's a lot not to like about this bill, and you can tell there's a lot not to like about a bill when no Labor member has their name on the present speaker's list to defend the bill, to spruik the bill or to promote the bill. And I ask: why? Where are the Labor members when it comes to talking about the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026? They're missing in action. There's a reason why they're missing in action. We just heard from the member for Grey, talking about the particular report by no less than Geoffrey Watson SC entitled Rotting from the top . He investigated the corruption and the misconduct in the notorious CFMEU's Victorian construction branch. This report became public because it was tendered at Queensland's commission of inquiry into that union and its activities.”
“There are so many areas of endeavour that this Labor government has failed the nation on. People are hurting, and it's up to the government to fix these problems.”
“I had a forum last week where I listened to service providers and families in the National Disability Insurance Scheme space. They are some of Australia's most vulnerable. They have also had cutbacks to their services. Yes, a full audit of the NDIS needs to be done—no question. There are spivs and shonks and shady operators in that space. But the cuts that Labor has brought about in its budget are going to affect Australia's most vulnerable. There were heart-rending and heart-wrenching stories from these people, who are now going to be forced to go without and won't have quality of life. It's just plain wrong, and so are many of the measures in the budget. Labor will crow about making the $20,000 instant asset write-off permanent. It should've been permanent. It was unlimited under us.”
“The government were finally dragged to the table, kicking and screaming, and agreed to it. And then you look at the capital gains and the trust changes that the government has finally relented on, finally reneged on, and yet the veterans are being slugged. It's not higher taxes as such, but it is a cruel cut to the benefits that they once—I won't use the word 'enjoyed'—deserved. The $5,000 cap per year on their allied health is just wrong, and I would implore the government to revisit that. It is a cruel cut to our veterans who had this nation's back when we called upon them, and now, when they need us to have their backs, we're turning our backs on them. That's what the government are doing. No, Member for McEwen; you be quiet. That's what the government is doing.”
“They're spending $430 million buying productive water from farmers and flushing it down the mouth of the Murray—the equivalent of 34,400 Olympic sized swimming pools. Eighty-six gigalitres of water—to do what? Well, it's not to grow food! Growing food and feeding a hungry world is the moral challenge of our times. Don't worry about anything else, forget everything else that you have been told, that is the greatest moral challenge of our times because many people in Australia, and other nations besides, who rely on our farmers go to bed hungry every night. That's wrong. It's morally wrong. It's morally bankrupt. This budget does nothing to address the issues besetting our farmers, our regional Australians. Yes, the government has extended the fuel tax relief, and so they should. We called for it.”
“Unfortunately, she had to go down that path to get the numbers to form government. That's going to cause hardship. That's going to cause higher taxes. The budget is going to be responsible for $77 billion of increased taxes for everyday ordinary, hardworking Australians. This matter of public importance, 'The economic harm caused by the government's plan for higher taxes,' moved by the shadow treasurer, the member for Goldstein, is correct because at the nub of it is higher taxes. If you had said 10, 15 or 20 years ago that in Australia we'd be talking about the sorts of issues that we are in this House now, they would look at you and think that you were stark raving mad. But in Australia today we have a government facing $1 trillion worth of debt and what are they doing?”
“Back in 1976, AC/DC, one of my favourite bands, released a song called 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap'. Today, in the Senate, we saw a sequel to 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' when Labor sided with the Greens, their old friends. As much as Labor try to deny that they are best mates with the Greens, we see it writ large all of the time, and again today in the Senate with Labor trying to get through their bad budget and getting help from their old friends the Greens. I've been in this place long enough to remember Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister—I don't think she really wanted to, but she had to do a deal with Bob Brown and the Greens. What did we see after that? The carbon tax. 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead,' she said as Prime Minister.”
“When our veterans, who had our backs when we sent them as a parliament to do the duty for this nation, need us to have their backs, we desert them in this way. I say to Labor: reconsider this. Just like you reconsidered the capital gains and the trusts and the Invictus Games and the Doug and Kaye Baird travel benefits, reconsider the cruel cuts to the allied health cap that you imposed in this insidious budget.”
“Great War historian and Australian War Memorial founding father Charles Bean said this of the institution: Here is their spirit, in the heart of the land they loved; and here we guard the record which they themselves made. Tonight we will come together as a parliament to commemorate and celebrate the opening of the atrium and the new galleries in the Australian War Memorial. But the government cannot crow about doing things for veterans when at the same time it is slashing benefits to our veterans by capping the allied health services to $5,000 per annum. What this does is make $748 million of savings to the Treasurer's bottom line in the budget, in the insidious budget, in the cruel budget. This is not right. This is not fair.”
“There are way too many people suffering because of the cost-of-living crisis brought about because of the poor economics of this Labor government. I started by saying we are resources rich, and we are, but we're politically poor, and we are. We've got resources underneath our feet. We wouldn't have to go down this path if we bothered to dig them up, if we bothered to drill, if we bothered to have a policy whereby we not only extracted our own energy and fuel but refined it and used it for our own sake instead of importing all of our energy. We should be smarter than that. We are smarter than that. We have to be smarter than that for the sake of ourselves, our children and our children's children.”
“It doesn't help matters when they want to go and spend $430 million buying productive water and doing what with it? Flushing it out of the mouth of the Murray. How is that good economics? It is not. We're not going to oppose this, because we want to see relief at the bowser. We do. But the other things that Labor are doing are only going to push the price of groceries up. We want to see our trucks being able to go up and down the busy byways and freeways and little country roads, that last mile to the farm gate. We want to see people paying less at the cash register in the grocery store. That just makes for good economics. It also makes quality of life much better. At the moment, there's way too much homelessness.”
“It was nowhere near that amount. I'll tell you what we did during COVID—we saved lives and we saved livelihoods. What did Labor do at the time? They wanted us to spend more and more money. JobKeeper was put in place by the member for Kooyong before this one. He wasn't a teal. He was a coalition member and a good one. That JobKeeper saved businesses. It kept the doors of business open when businesses across the world were going bankrupt, were going out backwards. The Johns Hopkins centre rated Australia second in the world for COVID preparedness for the number of lives we saved—tens of thousands of people who would, but for our assistance, not be alive today. We kept them alive and we kept their businesses going. But the debt that we're now faced with, grappling with and struggling against? That's on Labor's watch.”
“And, yes, those farmers will see that there's a little bit of relief here. But I'll tell you what—they should be getting it, too. They deserve it. They deserve every bit of help we can give them. I'll tell you what the government shouldn't be doing, and that's continuing to go into the Murray-Darling Basin and buying water out of the productive consumptive pool. They should not be doing that, but they won't stop, even though we've got a nation in crisis, heading towards a trillion dollars of debt. What really galls me in this place is when the Treasurer goes to that dispatch box and talks about the trillion dollars of debt that Labor inherited. It is a fallacy. ABC Fact Check says so. It says it is a fallacy. It says it's not true. And yet he continues to spout this misconception that Labor inherited a trillion dollars worth of debt.”
“I've had example after example of companies that went into the electric vehicle space and then their employees were stranded and couldn't get home in time because either somebody hadn't put sufficient storage in the battery or, for whatever reason, they came to a town where they didn't have the charging points. It's all well and good for these city MPs. They've got blinkers on and always have had. They don't know about the hardships of regional Australia. There were none of them around the table yesterday when I had a group from the southern basin of the Murray-Darling here talking about how tough they're doing it. There were no city Labor MPs looking into the tear-filled eyes of those people who grow our food, listening to their stories of how they're paying more and more for water.”
“When you get funded by Simon Holmes à Court and you take money from that billionaire, when you have the same policies, when you have the same talking points, when you meet in your caucus together and you've got the same colours, you're a party. Don't ever think that you're not, because you are. They come in here and give almighty praise to Labor as though they're doing something in this space. Then the member for Kooyong started to talk about the need for more EVs. That's all well and good, but I'll tell you what—out in regional Australia, they don't cut the mustard, because they don't go far enough.”
“That might well be another story altogether, but that equated to 86 gigalitres, the equivalent of 34,400 Olympic-size swimming pools, taken out of the productive consumptive pool and flushed down the mouth of the Murray. And for what? For the environment. We heard the member for Kooyong just a minute ago praising the Labor government, as though we should all get down on our knees and say: 'Oh, thank you so very much for the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief No. 2) Bill 2026! Thank you, oh great ones, for providing this relief!' I have a different view. I have a very different view to the teals. They're arguing at the moment about whether they should become a party or not. They've been a party ever since they got in here.”
“Discounting petrol, helping out some small degree, will go a little bit of the way, but this government has the levers by which to pull, to manage, to control and to do a lot more in the economic space to help particularly regional Australia. I think it gets forgotten in this place that regional Australia keeps the lights on. It gets neglected in this place that regional Australia ensures that food gets delivered and put on the table. When every Labor member tucks their knees under the table three times a day, every day, they should be mindful of that. They should be well aware of where their food comes from. But I don't think they are, because, if they were, last week they wouldn't have been spending, as our debt spirals towards $1 trillion, another $430 million buying productive water out of the Murray-Darling Basin.”