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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“His love and his respect were also always on display for his mum, Catherine, and dad, Jim. James was also a giant in the business community. At the time of his passing, James was the managing director of Expressway Spares, which was started in 1964 by James's grandfather, and now employs several hundred people in regional Australia. As a reflection of the man he was, James knew the names of every single employee and treated them as family. To his mates, James was a character. He was always laughing, having a joke or wearing his notorious fluoro speedos on Lighthouse Beach on Christmas Day, and he was always there to lend a hand or lend an ear. Our thoughts go to James's family, friends and colleagues at Expressway Spares. James's funeral yesterday made me want to do better and be better like James. He will be missed. Vale James Dunn.”
“He finally found an available appointment with a doctor he'd never seen before, but to get that slot he needed to wait for two weeks, and he eventually gave up. This was in Port Macquarie, which is an attractive regional city, yet we can't attract enough GPs. We urgently need fairer distribution of skilled migrants, better incentives for our young people to become GPs and better motivators for GPs to train in regional areas. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to James Thomas Dunn, who tragically and suddenly passed away on 12 May at the age of 54. James was a husband to Pauline and a father to James Jr and Georgia, who he loved dearly. He was incredibly proud of their achievements and always spoke of their times together and their latest holidays. He left little doubt in anyone's mind that his family came above all.”
“Men's Health Week is later this month, with the same theme of 'see your GP', which is an important message to a group of Australians who statistically ignore their health concerns. On the whole, men don't book their regular check-ups; instead they opt for 'she'll be right mate'. This has got to change, but tragically in regional areas 'see your GP' is becoming impossible. This week a 45-year-old constituent who lives in Port Macquarie contacted me. He went to book a check-up with his regular GP and was told that the books were closed. When he said, 'I'm an existing patient,' he was told that because he hadn't been there for the past two years he'd been removed. It's a rule that has been brought in due to rampant demand. He tried another four centres only to get the same story.”
“This week, I asked a direct question from a constituent relating to the slashing of the private healthcare rebate for those over 65. This is a serious concern with serious consequences not only for older Australians struggling to pay their bills but for the public health system, more broadly. Instead of answering, the PM chose to play semantics and denied the issue. Many of those affected reached out to me yesterday, and I can tell you they did use the four-letter L-word. How can you trust a government if they refuse to answer basic questions?”
“There are a number of four-letter words that MPs are unable to use in this place, and rightly so. They're unparliamentary. They're not reflective of civil discourse in a polite Australian society. Of course, we, with the rest of Australia, may think them, but they don't leave our lips in this place. Recently, we've seen the enforcement of another four-letter word that is used in general discourse—a word that someone might be called for being dishonest, distrustful, evasive or false with their representations. The word, while unflattering, is valid when used in the correct situation. I won't use that word today, but I will call out a consistent approach to question time from those opposite that Australians are sick of seeing, and that is divert, deflect and deny.”
“While I wholeheartedly agree with the intentions held within this bill, I do not believe that the bill in its current form is the right way forward, and I hope that these concerns will be effectively addressed. As I said in my introduction, when the right support is delivered at the right time by the right provider, it does more than change lives; it sustains them. These recipients deserve a bill that protects that, and the Australian taxpayer deserves a bill that protects their investment.”
“They are: (1) do not proceed with the tightened permanence or 'all appropriate treatment' requirements unless bodily autonomy, informed consent and the right to refuse unsafe or inappropriate treatment are clearly protected in the legislation; (2) require assessments to consider evidence from treating professionals, providers, support coordinators, carers and people with direct knowledge of the participants' functioning; (3) do not remove participant choice over support coordination or plan management without strong safeguards for continuity, independence, regional access and conflict management; (4) do not include planned suspension, revocation, automated debt creation, expanded compliance burdens or reduced claim windows without strong review rights, disability adjusted communication requirements and human oversight; (5) publicly report on the outcomes and savings already created by the October 2024 support definition changes and later fraud reforms before introducing further participant level restrictions—this should also include clearer reporting on NDIA delay, complaints, internal review burden, ART legal costs, payment delays, overturned or conceded decisions and downstream administration harm; (6) assess workforce impact, provider viability, thin markets, allied health shortages and participant access barriers in regional communities before implementation; (7) independently assess downstream impacts on hospitals, housing, mental health systems, unpaid carers, workforce participation and regional economies; (8) do not remove children from the NDIS unless alternative systems are already funded, operational, and accessible in practice; (9) require evidence based justification and consultation for price changes and assistive technology or home modification restrictions; and (10) consult directly with disabled people, carers, providers, workers, regional communities and frontline disability services before implementing reform of this scale.”
“Only recently we have seen these exact issues play out in the aged-care sector, after the disastrous implementation of untested and ill communicated changes last November. My office has been flooded with urgent requests for help due to these system failures. There are waitlists of over a year for assessments, algorithms that are inflexible and without recourse for amendment and clients in need literally dying before being able to access the necessary levels of care that they are entitled to. In reading portions of the bill, I could predict its future, based on these exact events playing out in real time across our current home-care packages. In looking for solutions, I found Riley's submission contained many of them for communities like mine in the electorate of Cowper, and I hope that the government will listen to them.”
“Riley Schafer-Wilson, a director and co-founder of a regional NDIS provider, eloquently put it this way in his submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee: 'This bill attempts to improve sustainability primarily through participant-level restriction while leaving major internal NDIA dysfunction insufficiently resolved. Working across provider operations, regional delivery, carer systems, psychosocial complexity, workforce realities and review pathways, I'm concerned the downstream implementation impacts of this bill are being underestimated. The current system already creates significant administrative burden, workforce strain, review escalation, participation confusion and provider instability.' His concerns are extremely valid.”
“Then there are the reports of carers taking clients on extended cruise holidays. If I ever hear one more of those stories, it will be too soon. In regional areas, there's another side of the story, the side that employers looking for staff are telling me every week—that the NDIS is currently the largest snatcher of care industry employees that the regions have ever seen. Nursing, childcare and aged-care employers are all scrambling to find staff as previously loyal employees leave the industry in droves. And why wouldn't they? They can earn twice as much while working half as much, and that's not right. It needs to be addressed immediately with fee caps on individual services. But this bill bizarrely avoids touching this at all.”
“It is concerning that both the government and the National Disability Insurance Agency have been unable to quantify the scale of fraud currently suspected in the system or, at least, unwilling to publicly disclose this information—though it's interesting that the NDIA Fraud Fusion Taskforce estimates that up to 10 per cent of all NDIS claims are inappropriate, mischievous or outright criminal. When you look at 10 per cent of $70 billion, that's a $7 billion hole of taxpayer money. It's a depressing fact that, for every positive success story my office receives, we get two that are negative. These range from evidence of rampant overcharging for disability aid installations to stories of unregistered carers charging extraordinary fees to the system for social services—when they are, in fact, not providing any services at all.”
“We agree that records must be kept by both the provider and the participant for the services that are being claimed. This change is vital to assist in fraud identification. The 90-day claim period will also assist with this. And we agree that imposing mandatory registration requirements for providers delivering supports to participants who are most at risk of abuse or exploitation is a critical step in stamping out bad actors within the system and protecting vulnerable recipients and their families. But we do hold concerns with many elements of this bill. Firstly, and most predominantly, we don't believe that this bill goes far enough to acknowledge and stamp out fraud and remove bad actors.”
“With that in mind, I'll run through the areas of this bill that we agree with. We agree that the NDIS must be made sustainable immediately to safeguard it for generations to come. We agree that the system is currently rife with fraudulent claims and bad actors. We agree that a new eligibility framework is required to ensure that the right level of funding is provided to those who need it. We agree that the current process for unscheduled assessments needs to be refined to avoid rampant misuse by bad actors posing as providers. We agree that funding should be provided only for the impairment for which an individual is accessing the NDIS. We agree that a tighter plan renewal process will assist with the redistribution of unspent funds to those in need.”
“In April 2026, the health minister announced yet another new annual target growth rate for the NDIS of two per cent over the next four years, despite the government's ongoing inability to meet any of their previously announced target growth rates. Originally estimated to cost $13.6 billion, the cost of this year's is closer to $50 billion, and it's projected to blow out to $70 billion by the end of the decade if we continue along the same track. Everyone in this place acknowledges that we cannot let this occur. We cannot stand by and see this vital initiative hurtle even closer to the budgetary cliff. We, as government representatives, must redirect the train back onto the tracks to arrive at the destination it was originally intended to reach, with as few unintended casualties as physically possible—and with no unwelcome passengers.”
“I'm here to tell you today that is a lie. The scheme is only threatened in its survival by the incompetent management of the current government. The money is there. The problem is it's not being spent on the right priorities.' It's interesting to see that those pigeons have now come home to roost as we see the worst budget blowouts in the scheme in its history under Labor. In 2023, the government announced a target growth rate for the NDIS of eight per cent and was unable to achieve it. In January 2026, the Prime Minister announced a new target growth rate for the NDIS of five to six per cent, which the government again failed to meet.”
“He is now also the chairman of the Coffs Harbour city council Disability Inclusion and Access Advisory Committee, where he has made a huge impact for the disabled community. Connor, good work, mate, and thank you. The potential for this scheme to do good cannot be overstated. But, unfortunately, in its current condition, the potential for the scheme to be overrun by negative forces is equally as great. It's no secret that the NDIS, as it stands, is not sustainable, a fact that this government finally has openly admitted, despite their, at times, bizarre protestations of the facts before taking the reins. One former Labor minister for the NDIS is famously quoted as saying: 'You can't move around the corridors of parliament in Canberra without tripping over a coalition minister whispering the scheme is unsustainable.”
“I first met Connor five or six years ago, when he came to one of my mobile offices in Sawtell. Connor is a participant in the NDIS and, at the time, he was experiencing difficulties with funding and access to the scheme. We worked together over a period of time to resolve those issues that were preventing Connor from having access to quality of life. To Connor's credit, he didn't just leave it at that. He didn't want others on the scheme to flounder and not have the care or services that they needed. So, since that time, Connor has been a strong advocate for participants on the Mid North Coast. He meets regularly with support coordinators and support workers to identify and advocate on the individual and unique challenges they face daily.”
“I'd like to start my response to the debate on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 by stating my support for the intention of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Like most people in this place, I speak to constituents every day in my electorate whose lives have been immeasurably and positively impacted by the support they receive as a result of the NDIS. I often say that, when the right support is delivered at the right time by the right provider, it does more than change lives; it sustains them. That impact extends not only to the person receiving the support but also to their families. To that extent, I'd like to acknowledge a good mate of mine, Connor Bryant from Toormina.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. Labor's budget of broken promises and higher taxes will cost my constituents Ross and Cynthia hundreds of dollars per year because of changes to private health insurance. Cynthia is recovering from breast cancer. Yesterday the Prime Minister said it was time to be honest. Will the Prime Minister answer Cynthia and Ross's question: why does the Prime Minister want to continue to push us by removing the rebate we desperately need?”
“What we need and what we should be working to is, firstly, increasing funding dollar for dollar for the delivery of prevention and intervention services versus response and recovery funding. We need to develop a nationally accredited men's behaviour change program. We know that men are the problem, but men are also the answer. Healthy men are good men and become active men in society, and women want men to be healthy both mentally and physically. We need to develop a national accreditation pathway for people facilitating men's behavioural change. It needs to be a profession. We need to establish a national workforce strategy to address family and domestic violence. Most importantly, we need to incorporate accredited respectful relationships education into the national curriculum from kindergarten to year 12.”
“I'm not suggesting in any way that we defund response and recovery. That needs to be paramount as well. But during the last term the total of the funding for prevention and intervention amounted to 17 per cent. If we know what the root cause is, then we need to fund that. We develop policy that concentrated predominantly on prevention and intervention, because you see statistics like: as of December 2025, 3,565 people in New South Wales prisons had domestic and family violence offences recorded against them. That increased 39 per cent over five years. Despite 34,000 men receiving an apprehended domestic violence order each year, there are only 900 men's behavioural change program places funded each year across the state. That is a broken system.”
“It has to be bipartisan, and I commend the government in its budget for continuing the good work that the coalition did over its last three terms, acknowledging that we have so much more to do—so much more. I was privileged in the last term to be the shadow assistant minister for the prevention of family violence. I took that role extremely seriously, and I travelled the breadth of Australia. I went to every single state and territory on a number of occasions. I met with advocates, with survivors, with men's groups—across the board—and the message was the same: unless the funding model changed and unless certain things took place, they would always be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. What they meant by that was that we need to concentrate more on prevention and intervention, as opposed to response and recovery.”
“I commend the member for Bonner for raising this motion, and I agree wholeheartedly with all of her comments. I would firstly like to acknowledge the strength and courage of all the victims-survivors: no-one can understand what you've been through. It doesn't matter whether they're a police officer, a counsellor, an adviser—they haven't been through what you've been through. I'd also like to acknowledge and remember all those victims who did not survive. As a former police officer, detective, prosecutor and then lawyer for 18 years, and having done a lot of pro bono work for women's refuges, I understand. I can never completely understand what victims-survivors have been through, but is so important and so incumbent upon government on both sides. We do work together on this because this is above politics.”
“Australians deserve a government that acknowledges the pressures of today whilst building and safeguarding for the future; a government that rewards ingenuity and aspiration while remaining grounded in reality; a government that understands that Aussies need a hand up, not a hand out; and a government that recognises and taps into the wealth that we hold in our own resources here in Australia and that puts the real needs of Australians above all else.”
“Now to the latest broken promise—one on which our Prime Minister glibly retorted to a journalist 'for the 50th time' that he would not be making changes either to the negative gearing or capital gains tax. And now we see sweeping changes to both of them. This prime minister has no credibility. I don't know how he stands at the dispatch box and talks to the Australian people about what is in the budget, because I believe that all Australians out there are thinking, and are saying to me: 'We don't know whether he's telling the truth or whether he will change his position.' A broken promise is a broken promise. He needs to stand up and apologise for being untruthful to the Australian people.”
“We've seen, over the last 12 months, that inflation in Australia now is higher than any other advanced economy around the world. This is another promise broken spectacularly by the Prime Minister, leaving households forced between choosing heating and eating. Labor also promised to build 1.2 million new homes by mid-2029, and, as of this month, projections suggest a shortfall of 350, 000 homes. Interestingly, the only promise where Labor has exceeded expectation is in the record projections of two million immigrants to come into this country by the end of their second term. This high-spending, high-taxing government is hoping that bringing in more bums on seats will fatten up their coffers, but the influx has only put more pressure on infrastructure, health care, aged care and housing and has continued to reduce our standard of living.”
“Let's be real here, when prices go up, everything goes up, because, the higher the input to businesses and producers—something that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have never done; they've never been in business and never produced anything—the higher the cost at the checkout for every Australian. Because of this government's ridiculous net-zero-only fantasy and rejection of our own natural resources, every family is paying more for basic needs. Labor tried to hide these energy price increases for a while and artificially curb inflation by offering a $75-a-quarter rebate on your bill. We know what happens then. We know that you, as the taxpayer, are paying for your own rebate. While some say it was achieved in the short term, in reality the underlying inflation was still too high, and the artificial curbing couldn't last.”
“Labor promised to be the party that left no-one behind, and they promised to be the party that governed for all Australians and the party of homeownership, and they even went so far as to say they would build a stronger, fairer and more resilient Australia. But, over the last four years, Labor have only proven that they are party of broken promises and broken dreams when it comes to the lives and livelihoods of Australian people. You'll recall, in 2022, the Prime Minister said, on no less than 97 occasions, that your power bills would go down by $275 by 2025. Well, we're past that. Here we are with the average household bill increase of 35 per cent since the last time the Prime Minister made that extraordinary promise in front of the cameras.”
“While that sounds positive, I have to ask: How will that process work? What is the definition of 'valid clinical need'? How can veterans apply for their claims to be reconsidered once they've hit their ration? How will DVA assess their claims? How long will the process take? While veterans are waiting for a determination, will they be unable to access care if they cannot afford the out-of-pocket costs? Every Australian knows that taxpayer dollars should be allocated to the area and projects that best enhance our nation's chance at a prosperous future. Our veteran community have personally fought on our behalf, and we need to return that favour.”
“He has 14 titanium plates holding his face together after being involved in a near fatal incident while training at Shoalwater Bay in 2011. Nick also has identified back, leg and shoulder problems as a result of the accident. Despite this, he went on the serve his country in both Afghanistan and Iraq after his initial 7-month physical recovery. The Albanese government needs to be made aware of the risk to the long-term health of veterans like my sons. Did we not learn anything from the Royal Commission into Veteran Suicide that recommended we look after our veteran community so much better than we have in the past. I appreciate that the Minister for Veterans' Affairs stated in recent days that DVA will fund allied health services above the $5,000 cap where there is a 'valid clinical need'.”
“It is a ration that will apply to physiotherapy, psychology, exercise physiology and occupational therapy—the most basic levels of care for our veteran community to manage pain, recover from injury, deal with trauma and be able to function day to day while rebuilding their lives. This single flick of a pen has left thousands of my constituents in limbo, wondering if they or their loved ones will be able to continue to access and afford the care they desperately need. They include veterans like Dick Braithwaite and his son Nick. Dick wrote this to me in the aftermath of the ration announcement: My concern is for our twin sons who have recently been medically retired from their Special Forces roles in the Army. Our son Nick is a particular concern to us in terms of his long term physical health.”
“I don't discriminate between parties; we have failed for many, many years. But I've heard time and time again that, to give our veteran community the best chance of recovery and health rehabilitation into civilian life, we need to remove as many barriers as we possibly can. Sadly and unsurprisingly, my inbox is filling up with pleas for help to stop this government from imposing yet another barrier on a community that deserves more from its government. Labor has proposed a $5,000 cap—I'm going to use the word 'ration'—on veterans' allied health services from 1 July 2027.”
“I have the privilege to represent a region that is home to over 9,000 veterans and their families. That is the largest cohort in New South Wales. These are selfless men and women who have served our country, and these are the families and friends who support them upon their return to home life. I've had countless conversations with the advocates and representatives of the wider veteran community as part of my role and heard firsthand of the challenges that returning service men and women face every single day. These are the lack of access to appropriate care, the need for centralised services in locations closer to home, the physical and psychological barriers that deter those in need from asking for help and the eventual toll that the lack of appropriate government services can have, not just on the veterans but on their loved ones too.”
“The council needs to develop it. They have the plan to develop it, but it will cost a regional council $300 million, and they're asking for a measly $80 million from the federal government, which has been ignored, and I expect will continue to be ignored. We need to invest in our regions and invest now.”
“In coastal electorates right across the country, we're already beginning to shoulder the burden of rampant immigration and runaway housing prices, and we're seeing an influx of metro movers at levels we've never seen before—young families who want to escape the city, which is understandable, and older people who are selling up in Sydney or Brisbane to have a better life in areas like Port Macquarie, Raleigh, Repton and Coffs Harbour. We've got impressive schools and good hospitals, so it's understandable. But, without infrastructure investment, of which there is none for the regions and has been none for the regions over the past four years, we cannot grow. I'll give you one example, and that is in Port Macquarie, where the basic services of sewerage and water are now at capacity, which means we cannot grow any further.”
“From the bottom of Port Macquarie up to Coffs Harbour, then out the back to beautiful Dorrigo, down to Kempsey, Willawarrin, Bellbrook, Rollands Plains and Telegraph Point and back down to Port Macquarie—two million people is 12 times the population of Cowper. Where are those people going to go when you're building 35,000 fewer houses? But there could be a silver lining of sorts to this homemade problem. That silver lining lies in the regions, particularly on the Mid North Coast, in Cowper.”
“In a rare showing of apparent honesty—or maybe they just couldn't bury it deep enough in the budget papers—they've admitted that they will be building 35,000 fewer homes. Let's put that in perspective. In my electorate, I have Coffs Harbour—the city of Coffs Harbour. If you wipe out 35,000 homes in Coffs Harbour, you wipe out Coffs Harbour. That's how many fewer they are building. It's the same with Port Macquarie. Thirty-five thousand is a significant number. At the same time, they are pouring record numbers of immigrants into the country. Over the past four years, it has been to the tune of two million people. I want to put that in perspective.”
“It wouldn't be the first time that we've heard, 'Priorities have changed,' or, 'We've changed our position.' In reality, what it means is that this government has committed just $262 million over the next financial year. That effectively makes them accountable for just 13 per cent of the promise before the next election. And, after saying for the 50th time, Prime Minister, that there would be no negative-gearing changes or capital-gains taxes—we all know how good your word is, Prime Minister, and we all know how good the word of this government is. Speaking of broken promises, this government knows that removing negative gearing and changing capital gains will reduce the number of houses actually being built in this country.”
“This government made a lot of promises during the budget announcement in relation to housing and, specifically, in relation to housing infrastructure. As usual, there was a lot of spin and a lot of one-liners designed to create media headlines. But, when you actually drill down into the details, once again you just see the smoke and mirrors at play. Firstly, the seemingly impressive $2 billion figure is, in fact, spread over four years, which means that these numbers can be easily reduced with each forthcoming budget as they realise their targets aren't being met as per the modelling and as they attempt to divert our collective attention elsewhere.”
“But, according to Dr Jim Chalmers and the Prime Minister, there is nothing to see here and you've never had it so good. Well, I ask you, Prime Minister and Treasurer, to come to my electorate. Come to my electorate, speak to my mayors and speak to my people, and they'll tell you how bad it is.”
“They know that the best they're going to get out of this budget is a million dollars per electorate. One million dollars does not cover the construction of one kilometre of roadway. We have tens of thousands of kilometres of roadway throughout my electorate, and those mayors now have to go back with their directors and with their staff and say, 'What are we going to do to make sure that we provide those services for our residents and ratepayers?' They can't keep going back to the ratepayer and saying, 'We're putting your rates up,' because the ratepayer can't afford it. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, with interest rates going up, food going up—you name it; it's going up. And it is a direct result of the incompetence of this government.”
“Five of those were deemed not appropriate, so it just went back into the bucket. These aren't big-ticket items that we're asking for. We're not asking for football stadiums. We're not asking for the top running tracks. We are asking for the basic services—water, sewerage and telecommunications—that you have in the city and that you have in periurban areas. Why can't we have that? Why can't our people have that? Port Macquarie is facing a situation where their water and sewerage is now at capacity. The mayor said to me: 'If it gets any worse or if we do any more development, you will not be able to flush your toilet.' This is not the Philippines. This is not Indonesia. This is regional Australia. Every single mayor in my electorate I spoke to the day after the budget are gutted. They're also very, very angry.”
“Again, they were on bended knee begging for funding that has been ignored. In fact, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government went up to Coffs Harbour, which is only 30 minutes up the road, to claim credit for the bypass, which is ongoing, and which, in fact, was promised under the coalition state and federal governments in 2022. She wouldn't go and visit Bellingen and have a look at Waterfall Way. It was 30 minutes away. These poor people in Bellingen and Dorrigo have to put up with this day after day. We need the funding for our regional towns. We also need investment in telecommunications. We can't reach our economic potential without it. I lament the last disaster round of 28 towers. They went to 28 Labor seats. I've made the point time and time again.”
“We have to invest in our roads—both in paving the roads and maintaining them in areas in Port Macquarie like the Oxley Highway and Wrights Road. If you live in Port Macquarie or travel to Port Macquarie, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I have lobbied long and hard, firstly for the return of the $5 million that was taken from us for the feasibility study and secondly for the minister to come up and have a look. But those requests have been denied. To add insult to injury, the state Labor government has contributed funding to the doughnut, which is completely the wrong area. It should be focused on Wrights Road. Then you have a look at Waterfall Way. Again, it was closed recently. The shop owners and retailers in Bellingen saw a 60 per cent decline in turnover—in fact, some of them have been forced to close.”
“Port Macquarie-West has grown by 17.5 per cent since 2021, and Coffs Harbour is now ranked third on the New South Wales top 10 list of unaffordable areas, outranking the affluent North Sydney, as a result of the population boom putting an extreme squeeze on the housing market. We are desperately in need of infrastructure to keep pace with this boom. From a national perspective, we need to be recognising the potential that we have in the regions—in Cowper—to solve the housing crisis. People want to move to the Mid North Coast. People want to move to the regions, out of the cities, to have a better life, and they should be able to have that choice. We just need the funding, and we just need the focus to achieve it.”
“The three priority areas and the key objectives—this is on page 19 of the budget report—for regional areas are 'meeting the needs of, and providing opportunities for, First Nations people', 'supporting the transformation to a net zero economy' and, finally, 'achieving gender equality'. These are the three focus areas that the government believed were 'unique' and 'specific'—their words—to the needs of regional communities. Now, I'm not going to say what came out of my mouth when I read that, because it would be unparliamentary—and I'm in enough trouble as it is, at the moment. But the fact is my community's population is growing rapidly. I'll give you an example.”
“Then I saw that Labor's broken promise on negative gearing wouldn't apply to new home loans, and I thought, 'Okay, silver lining to a very dark cloud—at least it's aimed at electorates like mine so we can get the benefits of investor builds.' But then I read the Regional Ministerial Budget Statement and I looked at the Regional Investment Framework, and it was this government telling regional people what they wanted—not asking what they wanted or what they needed. Effectively, they were sanctimoniously treating regional people in ideological terms, not tangible ones—'in every corner of the country' actually meant 'outer suburbs'.”
“I was genuinely hopeful when I received the budget papers. I was hopeful that our regional communities would finally receive some recognition of the potential that we have when it comes to solving the issues facing our country at the moment. When I heard, prior to budget night, statements like, 'We will be providing a framework for more houses to be built in every corner of the country,' I thought, 'Brilliant,' because my electorate—that's us. We've got the room. It's certainly a beautiful place to live. We've got the demand, particularly in coastal areas, and we could see some really decent infrastructure built there to provide those houses that we are desperately in need of.”
“Labor promised Australians at the 2022 election that no-one would be left behind in Labor's blueprint for a better future. It was a tagline that was used repeatedly—much like 'saving $275 on your electricity bill'—yet since that time we have seen a continued erosion of supports for older Australians. And it's time to admit the efficiencies introduced last year were only for those in the Canberra bubble and have left vulnerable older Australians, who deserve our care and respect, out in the cold.”
“We are being told clients are ineligible for the care they need, or they have to wait 6-9 months for an assessment, and then 9-12 months for the package to be assigned: a total of 21 months from care need to funding becoming available. Or there's Nola Turnbull from Frederickton, who is a fiercely community minded advocate and who herself is in her 80s but is currently assisting over 200 locals in navigating the system. She said to me: Pat, I've never seen it this bad. People are desperate. They are being told they need to continue to wait for help even though they cannot cope with the most basic day to day tasks. And for those lucky ones who do have care, the charges to their packages have gone through the roof, with things like cleaning and domestic care doubling … in just six months.”