David Littleproud
Maranoa · National Party · Australia
“In those communities we enjoyed relatively normal insurance premiums for 10 years—around $2,000 or $3,000 to insure a home in those communities.”
“I would say to the Queensland government to go out; do not rely on the department that has allowed this planning monstrosity to take place to continue to advise you. Get in the car. It's less than three hours from Brisbane. Go and sit in the Duff and Franz front yards, look at this and understand the impact on nonhosts.”
“How can we let the insurance industry determine how the modelling of our premiums is determined, at whim and without any transparency or public oversight?”
“I want to bring to the parliament's attention a matter I raised previously, the Wambo Wind Farm and the human toll that it's taking on the Duffs and the Franzes—the Franzes in particular. They are 80-year-old retirees who have farmed, and want to continue to farm, next to their son.”
“A survey by the local council there said that 37 per cent of residents no longer have insurance—that's insurance for anything; forget just for floods. They can't get insurance on their homes for anything. Overlay that with a young couple that wants to go and get their first mortgage.”
“I rise to update the House on the unfolding insurance crisis in western Queensland. Just to recap, back in 2011-12, St George, Charleville and Roma had huge floods that inundated our communities. There was no protection. There were no levee banks.”
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“It's a major concern that this government is utilising federal funding that could otherwise extend these regional community programs to instead pay for 41,000 new public servants here in Canberra. It's shameful that this budget inflicts cut after cut, but in regional Australia there's no money to fix basic things like potholes. Even after being in government for three long years, Labor will spend less than one per cent of their infrastructure announcements in 2025-26. Going through the budget papers, this government is attempting to mislead the Australian public on infrastructure, because, if Australians are waiting to see work commence on recently announced projects, then they will have to wait, and they will be sorely disappointed.”
“This fourth federal budget has no funding for the Stronger Communities Program, the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, the Growing Regions Program or the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program. We know that, of these, the Stronger Communities Program and the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program are critical to building community infrastructure and engagement in regional Australia. The Growing Regions program is the government's own measure, intended to support regional communities. It has no new funding from last night's budget. This essentially means that no more Growing Regions grant opportunities will be available over the next four years.”
“This means that the threshold is set to drop to its rock-bottom legislated rate of $1,000 next financial year. In regional Australia, the decision will shock many small businesses who are planning capital upgrades, and it will spark major concern in a sector that is already doing a tough. When it comes to delivering infrastructure in regional Australia, we know that this government has an atrocious record. Over the past three years, the Albanese Labor government has cancelled, cut and delayed more than $30 billion worth of infrastructure projects across our nation, and this horror budget is no different. Last night, we saw that this government's appalling trend to cut and cancel regional infrastructure will continue.”
“We'll implement a two-year ban on foreign investors purchasing existing homes, and we'll unlock up to 500,000 new homes by investing $5 billion to fund essential infrastructure like water, power and sewerage at housing development sites, with up to 30 per cent of that secured for regional Australia. It's time to restore the dream of homeownership for young people in this nation, and these measures will make a real difference. Under this government, we've endured three years of economic vandalism, and businesses have paid a very high price. Since Labor took office, nearly 29,000 businesses have collapsed. In the budget last night, there was more bad news for business, with the government slashing the popular instant asset write-off scheme, ending the current $20,000 asset threshold.”
“We're experiencing a full-blown housing disaster, and it's hurting regional Australia as well. This is a crisis that's being fuelled by record-high migration, skyrocketing rents and scenarios where families with a typical mortgage are now up to $50,000 a year worse off. Meanwhile, the construction of new homes is at a decade low. After three years in government, the Labor government has not built a single home under its Housing Australia Future Fund, Help to Buy scheme or build-to-rent scheme. Australia needs a new approach to fix housing, one backed up by practical action. A coalition government will boost housing supply, rebalance migration, incentivise first home buyers and take pressure off interest rates and rents.”
“Under our plan, the coalition will deliver increased court-ordered penalties for more serious contraventions, and we will introduce sector-specific divestiture powers as another powerful deterrent. We will establish a supermarket commissioner who will cover the entire supply chain and provide a confidential avenue where farmers and suppliers can have their concerns heard and acted on without the fear of retribution. Our measures will help Australian shoppers at the check-out and support our farmers and suppliers throughout the supply chain in regional Australia. Supermarkets don't fear the Albanese government. That's why we will introduce real deterrence and real consequences for them. Across the nation, homeownership is one of the defining issues of our generation.”
“When families can't cover the cost of essential items, it's more important than ever that they can have faith that businesses, including the major supermarkets, are doing the right thing by their customers and their suppliers. In contrast to the weakness of those opposite, the coalition has a comprehensive plan of action to put integrity and fairness back into the market. It's a plan that will protect consumers, small businesses and farmers against any instances of improper conduct by supermarkets. A coalition government will impose stronger and tougher penalties for anticompetitive behaviour in the supermarket sector, starting with infringement notices of $2 million for breaches of the grocery code, which is 10 times higher than Labor's measly $198,000.”
“If elected, that's what the coalition will do. We'll take decisive action to immediately pump more Australian gas into the system to bring down power prices, we'll remove the moratorium on nuclear for a long-term transition and we will ensure that we deliver a mixed and balanced energy grid, one that sets Australia up for the future without carpeting our regions with renewables. To ease financial pressures, we need to do more. In regional Australia, we know that Labor's cost-of-living pain is being felt at the checkout. Groceries are getting more expensive. Right now, Australians are struggling to put food on the table and our producers need a fair go.”
“The reality is that, under the Albanese government, Australians are paying more for their food, more for their rent and more for their power and gas. Under Labor, the cost of food is up 13 per cent, health is up 10 per cent, housing is up by more than 14 per cent, rents are up by 18 per cent, insurance is up by 35 per cent and gas is up by 34 per cent. Instead of seeing a $275 reduction to their power bills, as Labor promised, families have seen them increase by up to $1,300, while the government's new $150 energy subsidy is simply an admission of failure and won't touch the sides. When it comes to effectively tackling the cost of living, what Australians desperately need is a federal government that gets back to basics—a government that has the courage to pull the fundamental policy levers to help fix a broken energy system.”
“This government has waged a relentless war on regional Australia, and last night's budget shows that this pain is far from over, because there is absolutely nothing in it for regional Australia other than more ruthless Labor cuts. Right now, regional Australia finds itself at a critical crossroads. The men and women who live in this part of our nation simply cannot afford another three years of the Albanese government. Over the past three years, Australia has descended into a cost-of-living crisis—a crisis that has pushed families and households in the regions to the brink. We've seen the biggest fall in living standards in the developed world. People in regional Australia are asking the question: are we better off now than we were three years ago?”
“A cost-of-living nightmare crushing Australian families; a farming sector strangled by workforce shortages, made worse when Labor scrapped the dedicated agricultural visa and damaged the PALM scheme; billions slashed from regional infrastructure and water projects; an outrageous proposal to tax Australian farmers to pay for the biosecurity risks of their foreign competitors; a healthcare crisis worsened by the gutting of distribution priority areas for overseas trained doctors, which is ripping GPs from small, rural communities and sending them to the cities; prime agricultural land, native bushland and pristine coastlines sacrificed for industrial-scale transmission lines, solar panels and wind turbines, all to prop up Labor's chaotic renewable agenda; bipartisanship torn up on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to push through damaging water buybacks; a new emissions reporting burden on primary producers, threatening the productivity and competitiveness of our agricultural exports; a hike on popular vehicles, forcing up the costs of SUVs, four-wheel drives and utes; and, in Western Australia, sheep producers seeing their livelihood shattered by Labor's decision to shut down the live sheep industry.”
“Under Labor, our regions have been abandoned and forgotten. Under Labor, our regions have been held back and left behind. Year after year, budget after budget, we've seen damaging policies inflicted on regional Australia by a government obsessed with ideology and out of touch with reality. The results?”
“It's been three long years since the Albanese government was elected, and we all remember the election night, when the Prime Minister stood before the nation and declared, 'No-one held back; no-one left behind,' a pledge that was supposed to be the government's guiding principle. However, with another dismal Labor budget handed down last night and with a federal election on the horizon, those words ring hollow in regional, rural and remote Australia. There are millions of men and women in the regions—the people who drive our economy, grow our food and fibre, power our resource sector and work tirelessly in healthcare, small businesses, tourism and manufacturing. This government has failed them. These proud, resilient Australians deserve better. After three years of a weak and incompetent government, regional Australia is hurting.”
“To solve the nation's problems, you need common sense, courage and strength in leadership. Anthony Albanese and the Labor government have shown nothing but ideology, unable to meet the practical reality of what's been bled out of Australians' wallets for the last three years. Ask yourself if you are better off after three years of Anthony Albanese.”
“To give some hope to young people that they'll finally own a home, we're going to bring in people who might build them—not the martial arts instructors and dog groomers that this mob have prioritised, but some plumbers, electricians and roofers. We're going to ban foreigners from competing with Australians at auctions on a Saturday. We're going to give Australians the first chance at buying a home. We're going to say to them that they're the most important people in this country and should have a roof over their heads. We're going to give the states some time to help with supply. That's the common-sense solution that a coalition government will bring. They're the solutions that will fix the fundamentals and won't keep spending the Australian taxpayers' money.”
“'Where are the priorities when there are Australians who will not eat tonight?' I ask those opposite. They all have their heads down. You have to fix your fundamentals. This is about making sure in the short term you can get gas into the grid quickly. That brings energy bills down quickly. In the long term, it's underpinning our energy grid with nuclear energy and then taking on and bringing down the food bill. It's also about making sure we have some common sense about building some homes. We've gone to a seven-star construction code, adding $50,000 to $60,000 to the construction of a new home. It's absolute madness. We will pause that and we will actually go line by line to try and reduce those costs to give some hope.”
“If you don't fix your electricity bill then you don't fix your grocery bill, because food processors are paying two or sometimes three times more than what they were before Anthony Albanese came to power. That means people are paying more at the check-out. We have a government that's not even prepared to stand up to the supermarkets when there is clear evidence that they've been gouging Australians. We, in this parliament, including the Prime Minister, voted for divestiture powers in 2019 to stand up to the big CEOs of energy companies. But, when there are Australians that will not eat dinner tonight, who cannot afford to eat dinner, why wouldn't we come into this place and send a very strong message and hold the supermarkets to account to make sure there is fairness and transparency from the farm gate to the plate?”
“Appreciate this number: since Anthony Albanese and the Labor government were elected, the average mortgage in Australia has gone up by $50,000. I hope that that 25 points is granted by the RBA governor. That will take $1,875 off that bill. That's a start, but there's a long way to go. That's because this government hasn't faced up to the fundamentals of what needs to be fixed and what's keeping interest rates higher longer. They've tried to paper over it with $6.5 billion worth of subsidies to keep electricity bills down, after promising a $275 reduction at the last election only to see it go up by thousands. Discretionary spending is dropping but fixed costs continue to go up.”
“That will cost jobs and that has cost jobs in this country. It has torn away at the very fabric of what's underpinning our economy. It has driven people's energy bills up. That is about the fact that they have taken away supply and they have not replaced it. When you reduce supply, prices go up. That is what has happened under this ideology. It has seen premiers pleading with their citizens to turn off their dishwashers so that they can keep the grid going. That's how desperate we are. In a country as resource-rich as Australia, that's the path that we have gone down. That has put inflationary pressure on us and kept interest rates higher. While the rest of the world's interest rates are coming down, Australia's are sticking there. We hope that on Tuesday the RBA reduces interest rates by 25 points. That's important.”
“Everyone remembers the words of the Prime Minister on election night—'No-one held back, no-one left behind.' But fast forward 1,000 days and every Australian is being held back and everyone is being left behind. Our standard of living has reduced by eight per cent since the Anthony Albanese government was elected 1,000 days ago. Every Australian is worse off because of the ideology of this Labor government in not addressing the fundamentals of what has kept inflation and interest rates higher than what they need to be. It's about getting the fundamentals right about proper energy policy, not living in an ideology of an all-renewables approach that no country of the industrial scale and size of Australia has gone through or is going down, because you cannot do it and keep your industrial base going.”
“In Parkes, we have the former Gunnedah mayor, Jamie Chaffey, a hard-working, former business owner who will be a powerful voice for those diverse communities spanning from Moree to Dubbo and onto Broken Hill. He's determined to travel the Western Plains and continue the Nationals' great legacy of delivering for Parkes. In the Northern Territory, Lisa Siebert is leading the charge in Lingiari. A Federal Police officer, Lisa Siebert is committed to taking local action on crime and putting an end to Labor's waste in the territory. A vote for these proud Nationals candidates will continue to help us turf out a bad government and bring some common sense back to Canberra.”
“Regional Australia is under siege by the Albanese government, and, for the next election, the Nationals have endorsed strong candidates who'll stop the Labor rot and fight for our fair share. Alison Penfold, our candidate for Lyne, is a local champion from Hannam Vale and Taree, and she's worked at the highest levels of agriculture, industry and government. Alison Penfold is fighting hard to improve roads, telecommunications and access to better health care. In the mighty Hunter Valley, our candidate is local business leader and former registered nurse, Sue Gilroy. Sue Gilroy has a vision for cost-of-living relief, cheaper energy, and she will proudly back our resource sector and all the jobs that depend on it in the Hunter Valley.”
“My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Water. I refer the minister to her previous answer. Will the minister rule out the future introduction of the federal environmental protection bill?”
“Quality access to education, health, child care and aged care is what drives her as our candidate in Bullwinkel. Over the next hundred days, the forgotten communities in the Perth Hills and outer suburbs have a chance to make history by electing Mia as their Nationals candidate. In Bendigo, we have the amazing Andrew Lethlean. Born and raised in Bendigo, Andrew's a local champion who, with a 22-year career in hospitality, has the business experience to make a difference in Canberra. Andrew knows that, when it comes to funding for roads and local projects, this region's been left behind by Labor. As the next federal member, Andrew Lethlean has the passion and commitment to get Bendigo back on track.”
“Under this incompetent Albanese government, regional Australia is hurting. So at this election, it's time to turf Labor out. On the ground, The Nationals have some incredible candidates who are leading this fight. As our man in Calare, Sam Farraway—he's a lifelong resident of the Central West and a former small business owner—brings a proud track record of community service, and, as a former state government minister, he knows how to deliver. Sam's vision for Calare is about authentic leadership, cost-of-living relief, securing a reliable energy future that doesn't destroy the landscape and getting us back to basics. In WA, we have Mia Davies running for the new seat of Bullwinkel. A former leader of the WA Nationals with more than 16 years of experience in the state parliament, Mia has a reputation for hard work and common sense.”