Pat Conaghan
Cowper · National Party · Australia
“Yesterday, we heard Labor spruiking their changes that came into effect with the new financial year, and there was a lot of chest beating and oversimplified statements around the standards of living that would make anyone not living in the real world think that things have never been better.”
“Small businesses, we haven't forgotten you. We know that your input costs are already through the roof and your profit margins are even slimmer. We know that the number of annual insolvencies has tripled this financial year when compared with 2022.”
“Insurance is up 42 per cent. Household electricity bills are up 38 per cent. Gas is up 37 per cent. Rents are up, and your weekly food shop is up 17 per cent.”
“Australians deserve honesty. They don't deserve to be treated like mugs by their own government. But yesterday we saw the Prime Minister call those on this side of the floor 'the axis of grievance' while evading giving an actual answer to any question posed by the opposition on behalf of those we represent.”
“As representatives, we are here to make sure that the collective grievances of our constituencies are heard by those opposite—that their legitimate and real pressure points are being expressed and considered in the policies we create and not swept aside by spin and gaslighting.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister: I refer to another mean-spirited act by the Prime Minister—cutting the private health insurance rebate for Australians aged over 65.”
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“Even if they don't realise it consciously, Australians are feeling it every single day. The coalition remains committed to reversing the decisions that have led to the biggest hit to Australian living standards this century. We will get back to basics with a sensible tax system that rewards aspiration and productivity. We will put in place an energy policy that ensures affordability over ideology. We will support small businesses and family households. And we will put Australians first.”
“Small businesses, we haven't forgotten you. We know that your input costs are already through the roof and your profit margins are even slimmer. We know that the number of annual insolvencies has tripled this financial year when compared with 2022. But we're going to kick the boot in a little further and raise your labour costs by increasing the minimum wage, which sounds good on paper but actually means business owners will be forced to reduce their staffing numbers and unemployment is set to rise. Oh, and, if you're thinking about selling your business, we'll take an increased chunk of that too. But it's okay, everyone. Labor's groundbreaking income tax cut will put $4.80 back in your pocket to cover it.' A tiny cut doesn't release the pressure created from failed policies that favour ideology over prosperity.”
“Insurance is up 42 per cent. Household electricity bills are up 38 per cent. Gas is up 37 per cent. Rents are up, and your weekly food shop is up 17 per cent. For those young Aussies with a mortgage, you've seen 15 interest rate rises since Labor came to power, and it is a direct result of inflationary policies— A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 10 : 43 to 10 : 54 Before I was interrupted, I was reading from the new Labor talking points. They go on to say: 'For Aussies with a mortgage, you've seen 15 interest rate rises since we came to power as a direct result of our inflationary policies, so, on average, you're spending another $29,000 on your mortgage. And, as a result of our May announcements, your house is now worth 10 per cent less—congratulations!”
“Yesterday, we heard Labor spruiking their changes that came into effect with the new financial year, and there was a lot of chest beating and oversimplified statements around the standards of living that would make anyone not living in the real world think that things have never been better. But the average Australian knows that's not true, and they're feeling the pressure of household budgets at breaking point, and, at the same time, their salaries are not buying what they used to when Labor came in. It's simply Labor's 'divert, deflect and deny' talking points. I've taken the liberty to change the script, and it sounds a little bit like this. They say: 'As of today, we've hit new heights when it comes to the cost-of-living pressures, with increases in prices over the past four years that this country has never seen before.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister: I refer to another mean-spirited act by the Prime Minister—cutting the private health insurance rebate for Australians aged over 65. The CEO of National Seniors Australia, Chris Grice, has said: The cuts could push people to downgrade their cover, potentially leaving them underinsured when they need it most. At the same time, this will add pressure to an already stressed public hospital system. Prime Minister, how many older Australians will be worse off under this broken promise?”
“As representatives, we are here to make sure that the collective grievances of our constituencies are heard by those opposite—that their legitimate and real pressure points are being expressed and considered in the policies we create and not swept aside by spin and gaslighting. After four long years under this government, we are at a historical flashpoint when it comes to the erosion of living standards for the average Aussie. They deserve a government that listens, answers and acts, not one that diverts, deflects and denies the problem exists.”
“Australians deserve honesty. They don't deserve to be treated like mugs by their own government. But yesterday we saw the Prime Minister call those on this side of the floor 'the axis of grievance' while evading giving an actual answer to any question posed by the opposition on behalf of those we represent. But I think he misspoke; rather than 'axis', he meant to say 'apex'. I do understand, Prime Minister; they're easy words to mix up. Yes, we on this side of the floor are absolutely the apex of grievance. By definition, the apex of grievance is a legal phrase referring to the absolute peak or breaking point of a prolonged complaint or injustice. It refers to the climax of a dispute or a historical flashpoint.”
“To hear from local providers that they had clients in palliative care who were forced to go on a waitlist and subsequently passed away before receiving any level of support isn't just heartbreaking; it's indefensible. And it is demoralising for the providers who are genuinely there to do the best they can for their clients. As Ben Kleeman from UPA Aged Care Solutions in Port Macquarie, in my electorate, told me last month, 'We want to help. We have capacity. We have been through reforms before, but right now we are disempowered from providing care.' In the last few months, I've reached out to advocates asking for their input, and the picture they paint is one of negligence through government ignorance. I'm asking for their input, and I want to share that input on a bipartisan nature.”
“To date, we've seen a few press releases touting new processes or a small number of packages being released, but, cruelly, every announcement and adaptation being made has ultimately left older Australians increasingly vulnerable. The number of requests for urgent assistance through my office has increased 10-fold in recent months. The issues range from inhumane wait times for a home-care package assessment and newly implemented algorithms arbitrarily stripping some recipients of basic essential supports without warning to a significant escalation of service costs. They are some of the common issues. The compounding effects of every new hurdle are leaving many elderly Cowper constituents in significant distress and providers at their wits' end.”
“This is the age group in our community that can least generate additional income. It's not like they can go to Coles and stack shelves at night-time to make ends meet. Moving the goalposts in these circumstances, at their stage of life, is cruel and unusual punishment. This Labor government needs to listen to the real issues facing older Australians, and not just those in metropolitan areas. I suppose this lack of acknowledgement and practical care was foreshadowed months ago when the ill-considered unconsulted changes were introduced to the aged-care home-care packages in November. Those flick-of-a-pen changes have now been in effect for over six months, with the snowball now a full-blown avalanche.”
“In many cases, these people are already sacrificing other essentials in order to afford the health cover they vitally need. They are choosing between eating three meals a day or having their cover. While we live in a region rich with natural beauty, that wealth does not extend to the average weekly household income, with a significant number in my electorate relying on pensions. Regional Australians are acutely aware of the shortcomings and extended waitlists seen in our public hospitals, so these considered, older Australians have taken the necessary steps not only to safeguard their own health and wellbeing but responsibly take the pressure off the public health system. Labor's reward for that careful planning is another bill to their ever-increasing cost-of-living pressures.”
“I know the topic today is Labor's failure to govern for older Australians, but, given the snowball effect of announcements over the last six months, it seems more appropriate to say that Labor seems intent on punishing our older Australians. Under the changes in the FY27 budget announcement, older Australians will now be forced to pay up to $1,600 more for their private health insurance per year, which is going to put significant pressure on their household budgets, particularly those of retirees on limited or fixed incomes. Since the day of that disastrous policy announcement, my office has been literally inundated with pleas from directly affected constituents asking for my help. In my electorate of Cowper, over 26,000 residents will be negatively impacted.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. What assurances was the Prime Minister given by the Victorian Premier on whether Commonwealth taxpayer funds, directly or indirectly, made it into the hands of convicted criminal and underworld figure Mick Gatto or any of his associated companies?”
“They are now being told by the Australian government: 'Well, you're over 65. Thanks very much for not clogging the public health system for the past 40 years, but we're going to reduce the rebate, and it's going to cost you, as a couple, up to $1,600 a year more in a cost-of-living crisis.' I had a mobile office last week and again I received a waterfall, a deluge, of emails and phone calls. I received a visit from Mr and Mrs Spagnolo at my mobile office. They said that when this comes in, they're going to go down and cancel their health insurance and put more pressure on the system. You need to change this decision as well.”
“I've had a waterfall of emails, phone calls and visits at my mobile offices from these veterans who are terrified that they are not going to be able to access their allied health services, physiotherapy, physiology, psychology—one of the most important things you would think this government would recognise for our veterans. This is not the way we should be treating our veterans. I urge the minister and I urge the government to reverse the decision, to scrap it, to remove the cap on allied services. Speaking of people who have contributed to this country over the years, I note the government's decision to now reduce the private health rebate for people over 65. This is no way to thank our Australian citizens who have borne the burden and borne the costs of private health care for the entirety of their lives.”
“In my electorate of Cowper, we have the largest cohort of veterans in New South Wales. There are 9,000 veterans and their families in my electorate, and I talk to them regularly. We need to acknowledge the service that they have given to our country and the freedoms that we enjoy today. We acknowledge that by going to services for Anzac Day, Remembrance Day and Vietnam Veterans' Day. We say, 'Lest we forget,' and we say, 'Thank you for your service.' But now our veterans are being thanked for their service by this government capping allied health services at $5,000 a year. Not all veterans are broken when they come back from service, but many of them are, and many of them are ageing.”
“Judi's grandfather originally donated the land for the Talarm Community Hall back in 1914, with the intention that it serve as the town's meeting place, a safe place where the township could come together. I know that the family legacy of contributing to the community will continue through Judi, her children and her great-grandchildren, and it's great to see.”
“You deserve every bit of recognition for a life well spent. Speaking of strong histories, last week I had the pleasure of being invited to the Talarm Community Hall, in the beautiful Nambucca Valley, for a flag presentation with the volunteer committee members. These presentations are always a great excuse to share a bit of ceremony and tradition, and this visit was particularly special, with Judi Liddell there to receive the flag. Now, Judi wasn't born a Liddell; she was originally a Nash, and everybody who lives in Talarm and the wider Nambucca Valley knows of the Nash family and their contributions to the region and service to our country in times of conflict.”
“In fact, Ray was one of the first responders on the scene at the Clybucca bus crash on 22 December 1989, the worst single road fatality incident in Australian history and an event that has left a deep scar on the wider Macleay community and beyond. Ray was the Kempsey SES duty officer who received the call to attend the scene at 3.20 am and on arrival was faced with a level of devastation that would cause most to break. The crash left 35 people dead and 41 injured, and the mental toll that this single event inflicted on those involved in the recovery efforts can't be understated. It saw many leave the emergency services and some leave the area altogether, but not Ray. It only served to steel his resolve to assist his community in any way he could, and he's done that every day since. That's the man he is. Happy birthday, Chalkie.”
“Over the weekend, a legend of the Macleay celebrated a milestone birthday with family and friends. Mr Ray Harman Walkden turned 80, and, while I don't generally acknowledge birthdays in this place, Ray's 80 years on this earth have been pretty exceptional. Aside from his years as the local cop shop and local council brown bomber, earning him the name 'Chalkie', the name the community gave to parking officers—but nobody's perfect, Chalkie! Seriously though, Ray has given a lifetime of service to the Macleay Valley, and his standing in the Kempsey community is well earned. With more than 37 years of volunteer service through the Lions Club and the local SES crews, Ray has played a critical role in emergency response and disaster recovery in a region prone to flood, fire and road accidents.”
“A brief chat with any financial adviser would have revealed the average person who uses this strategy to build their own wealth isn't a fat cat or a multiproperty owner. They're a woman over 55 going through divorce or a retiree with a below-average balance. The Liberals and the Nationals will reverse these punitive taxes and take a plan for a fairer, freer and better tax system to an election so that Australians can see for themselves that we won't change our position after gaining power. Australians don't deserve to have the goalposts continually moved without consultation.”
“Labor's disgraceful deal with the Greens hit the headlines spectacularly yesterday as the latest entry of an ever-increasing list of broken promises from this taxmaxxing treasurer and a prime minister who has a questionable relationship with the truth. 'My word is my bond,' the Prime Minister said—the same man who said 50 times there would be no changes to negative gearing and CGT and that he wouldn't do a deal with the Greens. Well, it seems that his bond is about as heavy duty as Scotch tape. Targeting self-managed super funds by removing limited recourse borrowing is as bizarre as it is ineffectual and will only serve to kill off the SMSFs in favour of the industry funds conveniently run by Labor's union overlords.”
“And, without adequate funding, councils will be forced to pass on the cost to residents already at their limits when it comes to rate payments. While we are rich in so many ways—like natural beauty, close community ties, education and employment opportunities—our average residents are far from wealthy. So I say to this government please listen. Please consider carefully what these local government representatives are telling you, and please allow our regions to reach their true potential.”
“We want to be attracting a working-age population to fill the gaps in our critical sectors, like health, aged care, child care, policing and manufacturing. We need them as much as they need us. But, at the moment, our collective infrastructure is at capacity and, in some cases, beyond capacity. Every one of my LGAs—every single one of them—is in desperate need of water and sewerage upgrades, and we cannot be unique in this need. Without adequate water and sewerage networks, we cannot build. We cannot introduce higher density housing in key areas—including social housing, which this government espouses that it focuses on. We cannot keep up with the demand while providing enough supply to keep house prices within reach for our current residents.”
“Regional councils are crying out for regional funding, and they've done the hard work when it comes to the costings and what is required to maintain their current standards and expand responsibly into the future. The beautiful Mid North Coast electorate that we represent has seen an influx of population like never before in the wake of COVID migration, and our demographics have evolved along with it as we've welcomed more and more young families looking to purchase their forever homes in a coastal region that offers a quality of life beyond that of the cities. The regions are ready to shoulder some of the burden when it comes to solving the country's housing crisis. We have the land and we have the demand.”
“This week we have the privilege of hosting local government leaders from around the country. While the Prime Minister might not appreciate our councils after his bizarre question time insinuation yesterday that council members are not serious people, I don't share that view. I'm very lucky to represent an electorate with five local government jurisdictions within it: Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey shire, Nambucca Valley shire and Port Macquarie-Hastings—each with a passionate mayor and councillors intent on delivering the services and infrastructure that their regional residents deserve, each needing the federal and state governments to step up and recognise the potential when it comes to solving broader national issues like housing and the cost of living.”
“I move: That this House: (1) notes the: (a) Government's decisions in the 2026-27 budget which fail to adequately support Australia's veterans and their families; and (b) introduction of a $5,000 cap on allied health services, which places significant limits on veterans' access to essential rehabilitation, mental health and ongoing care; (2) acknowledges that many veterans rely on ongoing and specialised allied health support, and that imposing a cap on these services will place many veterans at risk of delaying treatment and worsening health outcomes; (3) further notes with concern the lack of targeted funding and support for families of veterans, despite their critical role in caregiving, recovery and long-term wellbeing; (4) recognises that veteran families often experience emotional, financial and social pressures which are not adequately addressed in the budget; (5) condemns the defunding and discontinuation of veteran support and education programs, which have provided essential services including mental health support, transition programs, community connection and education programs; and (6) calls on the Government to immediately scrap these decisions and commit to properly funding services and programs to ensure veterans and their families receive the support, respect and care they deserve.”
“Take it as read that, if this bill passes with no changes, you will see no changes outside of this bubble in the real world.”
“Use the things that I and other members have said and make it a real combating illicit tobacco bill. Combat the bad guys. That's the idea about this bill. Don't let them operate the way they've been operating for the last four years. Don't let them get to 100 per cent of the illicit tobacco market. What will happen once they get to 100 per cent is they will increase the price again. They will make a peak price. They will work it out. They're smarter than government. They will work out what the pain price is that the average punter will pay, and that is what they'll charge them. That is what they'll continue to do until we break its back. This bill does not break an egg. It does not do anything to address those real issues.”
“We have to give them the funding, we have to give them the resources and we have to change the status quo. This bill does none of that. It tinkers around the edge of enforcement, prosecution and penalties. There's no purpose or reason to increase the penalties when nobody's being prosecuted. I'm not against increasing the penalties, mind you, but it's not addressing the real issues. It's not addressing the business model or how to smash that business model. It's not addressing the lack of enforcement. When you have the New South Wales Labor premier and health minister criticising this government on their policies on tobacco and vaping, you know there is something seriously wrong with the system. So instead of tinkering around the edges with penalties and enforcement, do something real. Take this back to the drawing board.”
“We have to break it and smash it because it's the same business model that they use to put the vapes through, and it's now the same business model that they use to put the illicit alcohol through. I warned of this years ago. I warned alcohol was coming because I know how they operate. Anybody could have seen it. This government should have seen it. So we change the excise and then we give law enforcement resources and power. I've been calling on a standalone agency, similar to the one in the United States, to deal with this. The Federal Police cost about $1.5 billion a year to operate. We're losing $7 billion to $9 billion. A standalone agency would make us money. It would bring back the excise and it would break the cartels that are operating here.”
“I have to look after my kids. I have no other choice than to sell it.' So how do we change it? We start by changing the excise. I'll be shouted down by those saying I'm doing the devil's work for the British alcohol and tobacco and the vaping groups. I don't like them. I don't like cigarettes. I don't like vaping. But the fact is that we have pushed the purchase price so high that the average punter has to buy the cheaper one. We need to review that whole system, whether it's 80 per cent, whether it's 50 per cent or whether we go back to 2019, but we have to make it a viable alternative. We have to take and break the business model of the organised crime groups.”
“You might be a legitimate owner of a commercial premises that you bought for your superannuation down the road, and, because of this illicit activity and the permission of this government for it to occur, you're not being insured anymore. So, if that place gets firebombed, there goes your superannuation, there goes your property and there goes the people who may want to rent your commercial property, because you can't get insurance. So there's more than one flow-on effect here. Then you have the legitimate business owners who are being forced by the cartels to sell their product. These are nasty people. I've dealt with them. I've operated with them. The things that you see on TV, the lengths that they will go to, are true. And these poor business owners are out there saying: 'I have to put food on the table. I have to make a living.”
“I've spoken about the corner pop-up shops and the number of mums and dads who have stopped me and said, 'Pat, how do we stop this?' And I'll get to how we stop it before the end of the speech. 'How do we stop this? How do we stop these people preying on our children and turning our main streets into something that would resemble a bazaar market in India?' But there are also the social implications. We have had over 300 firebombings between Victoria and Sydney. In my 30 years of law and law enforcement, I have never heard of anything like that—shootings, innocent people killed, families terrified and business owners terrified. If there's a property leased to one of these pop-up vape or illicit cigarette retailers, you can't get insurance on either side or above.”
“They've got graffiti on them. It is pushed towards our young people deliberately. And we've seen now popcorn lung over a couple of years of use of it. Instead of regulating this industry and taking it out of the cartel's hands, we've handed the whole industry to them along with another $7 billion in excise if we comparatively did it with tobacco. But, no, this government says, 'Oh, this will work.' They're really living in la-la land. So we have had in four years a drop of $7 billion to $9 billion in excise and a whole industry of vaping, which is controlled 100 per cent by cartels within and around Australia. And not only is that doing damage to our economy; it's doing damage to the fabric of our society.”
“These are criminals. For teachers and principals around Australia, it is the bane of their existence with teenagers in toilet blocks. I actually heard of a teacher who would take the kids out to vape at morning tea so they wouldn't have the problem. Now, that's unique. I don't know what the parents thought of it. But that was a practice that they had. The government outlawed it, so, in conjunction with illicit tobacco, where we're now losing around $7 billion a year in excise, instead of legalising vaping—again, I can't stand it. But what we're getting at the moment is Chinese crap. I use that term specifically because we don't know what's in it. It's not quality controlled. It's not regulated. It is poison. It is poison going into a 12-year-old's lungs. And it's pushed towards children. They're fluorescent. They've got characters.”
“But I can't blame the average punter who wants to spend $20 on a packet of cigarettes instead of up to $80. What we've actually seen since we've hit the 80 per cent mark—and this is the business model of the cartels, mind you—is those $20 packets double because the cartels know that they've got the market. The average punter will say, 'Well, you know, it's just double.' It's still half the price. It's still half the price of the legal tobacco. So they'll go ahead and purchase that. And then we see what's happened to vaping. The government, when they first came in, outlawed vaping. It's illegal. Nobody's going to use it. Nobody's going to go down to the corner shop anymore and buy a vape. Well, we all know the proliferation of those pop-up shops selling illegal vapes to kids. Every speaker said it. They don't care who they sell it to.”
“It will continue to allow us to live like kings around the world, and it will continue to contribute to the demise of legitimate businesses in Australia.' Now, for those of you who may be listening, I'll give you a little bit of an education in history over the past four or five years. Back in 2022, the illicit tobacco market sat at around 20 per cent. That would fluctuate somewhere between 13 and 20 per cent in the preceding years. It is now, after four years, at 80 per cent. Eighty per cent of the tobacco market is illicit. I can't blame the punters out there—and I should put on the record that I don't like smoking and I don't like vaping, but they are legal products. Well, tobacco is legal; vaping is not. But, hey, you see everybody standing on every single corner looking like they're on fire every time they breathe out.”
“They would be thinking, 'We love the Labor government, which has sat there and done nothing for the past four years and let us earn billions of dollars through the illicit tobacco and vaping trade,' and they would say, 'Thank you, Labor government for the factories of cash, the cars, the lifestyle in Dubai, in Thailand and in Australia, and all that money that we've reinvested into our business model for more serious illicit drugs, for human trafficking and all the other horrible things that organised crime do.' They would be saying, 'Thank you Labor because you've let us make this money.' They would now say: 'Thank you for this weak, limp Combating Illicit Tobacco Bill, because it will do nothing to our business model. It will continue to allow us to make money.”
“I'm pleased to rise to speak on the Combating Illicit Tobacco Bill 2026. Sometimes we stand in this place and make speeches on topics that we have little understanding of because it's out of our remit. I'm confident in speaking on this particular bill. I speak quite often about my time as a detective in the NSW Police, in particular my time as an undercover operative in the drug enforcement agency for 2½ years. During those days, we'd infiltrate organised crime. I'm confident in saying I know exactly what organised crime gangs and groups are thinking about this bill right now.”
“I can say this from personal experience, having run a business for 18 years before coming to this place—unlike those opposite, who roll out of university into union jobs or political office and have never once shouldered the burden of managing the bottom line, keeping their staff safe and paid, or dealing with cash-flow issues or midnight BAS submissions. Very few have also ever tended to crops or livestock while battling the weather and global factors and everything in between.”
“All those unflattering memes of the PM and his Treasurer alongside small-business owners have flooded our social media pages, and they paint a very clear picture: they've done none of the work and taken none of the risk, but they'll take half of what you earn in the end. And, like pirates, they're taking something that they haven't earned because they saw the opportunity to do so and just because the lower house has the numbers on their ship to do so with disturbing ease. It's no wonder that Australia is now in the unenviable position of having more than 50 per cent of voters reliant on government as their main income, because why would you take a punt? Why would you get out there and risk everything? Creating, managing and growing a small business or farming enterprise is hard.”
“In the pages of this budget, we see a desperate Treasurer at the helm of a sinking ship that's sailing on a sea of broken promises—and I should say 'a pirate ship', because Labor is pillaging the pockets of millions of hardworking Australians because it cannot mention the nation's finances. And the hardest hit by this pirate Treasurer parading as an intergenerational Robin Hood are our small-business owners and our generational farmers—the backbone of our economy and the largest employers in regional Australia. They're the ones that take the risks, and train and employ our young people, and, more importantly, produce things—produce things for their communities and this nation. But the government is reaching into their tills and taking a 47 per cent stake claim.”
“We, on this side of the floor, know that, if you tax something more heavily, you get less of it. This Labor government has decided to take aim at aspiration, ambition and Australian values. Are those the things that we really want less of in our nation? We need our nation to prosper. They also appear arrogant enough to believe that the promises made prior to an election can be arbitrarily broken with the flick of a pen and that Aussies should thank them for it, because let's be clear: no-one voted for these taxes. Before the election, the Prime Minister stated, more than 50 times, he would not introduce them. So much for 'my word is my bond'!”
“My question is to the Treasurer. Experts are warning that the government's broken promises will give the Treasurer sweeping, extraordinary powers, including the power to scrap the tax offset. After repeatedly assuring Australians these tax changes were not on the table, why would small businesses and farming families trust the Treasurer with sweeping, extraordinary powers?”
“Why was the temporary exclusion order not imposed on the entire group of ISIS brides and children seeking to travel to Australia during 2025-26 as we saw in the example of Hodan Abby? Were passport arrivals, identity checks, consular engagement or liaison with foreign authorities provided in relation to the returns of ISIS brides in 2022, 2025 and 2026? Every Australian knows that taxpayer dollars should be allocated to the areas and projects that best enhance our nation's future and safety.”
“Without every single one of these measures, the illicit tobacco and vape trade will continue to thrive and in fact expand into our markets. This year, we're seeing reports of firebombings that have engulfed Melbourne's hospitality industry being linked to organised crime and the sale of black market liquor. It was not a stretch of the imagination to see that liquor was the next thing to come into this business model. Then there are the ISIS brides and the litany of unanswered questions that the Australian people deserve real answers to from the minister. The first one is: why were they allowed to slip through the back door when there was a Hollywood-esque production of the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith? We need answers on that.”
“On behalf of them, I ask the minister: when will you admit that a blanket ban of vapes was never going to work without adequate AFP and Border Force resourcing and was nothing more than headline-grabbing tokenism? When will you admit that the current excise levels on regulated tobacco have actively created the illicit tobacco trade boom and take action? Why haven't you created a permanent, standalone federal vaping, alcohol and tobacco agency similar to the US model, an agency that is funded properly and set up to work with state and territory law enforcement agencies and assist them rather than expecting them to do the heavy lifting? Why haven't you taken action to empower our courts to crack down and crack down hard on illegal operators and agents?”
“Parents are worried about their teenagers getting addicted to unregulated and unsafe products that they can access very easily by walking in. There are no checks. There are no licences. They can pick up a vape. They can pick up illegal tobacco—chop chop—without even being questioned. You're seeing these pop up every single day on the corners of regional and rural Australia. And then you have the owners of the legitimate shops who literally are closing. People who are trying to do the right thing, using legal products, are now closing their shops. Quite often, they're the ones who sell the milk and the bread in those tiny towns—like Dorrigo, which is in my electorate. We notice there's a very real lack of action and bizarre inaction by this government.”
“Every Australian knows that taxpayer dollars should be allocated to the areas and the projects that best enhance our nation's chance at a safe and prosperous future, that align with our values and that protect our sovereignty. These are tenants that should be overlaid in every portfolio, and Home Affairs is no exception. Today, I'd like to focus on two areas within the portfolio that I've received the most commentary on from my constituents. They are namely illegal tobacco and, more recently, the ISIS brides. I've been banging on about illegal tobacco for seven years. Illicit tobacco and vapes are just flooding our local high streets with illegal products, and it's directly affecting significant members of my constituency.”