Anne Webster
Mallee · National Party · Australia
“The government's first duty is to protect its citizens and, arguably, its most vulnerable citizens—in this case, children. Today that duty extends into a digital world, where the playground has actually moved online and where too often it is unpoliced and unsafe.”
“We know that, despite the ban, large numbers of children are still accessing these platforms because enforcement has been weak and the regulator has not been given the tools it needs.”
“They worry about exposure to violent content; harmful algorithms; cyberbullying; scams; predatory, paedophilic behaviour; and the relentless pressure that social media can place on young people's mental health. These concerns are real, and they deserve to be taken seriously.”
“For many young Australians, social media is where they access news, educational content and creative learning. It's where they stay connected with friends and family. It is where they participate in their communities and engage in public debate.”
“My constituent asks that there be some sort of agency or protocol where these accounts can be collated, investigated and closed where applicable.”
“Labor rejected it and then, in the 2024 budget, accepted it. We pledged in June 2024 that we would deliver the under-16s social media ban, which Labor, thankfully, copied.”
The complete record
Every one of 760 lines we hold for Anne Webster, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 11 of 16.
“The committee reports: In many regional centres, the existing infrastructure struggles to cope with demand, particularly during peak usage periods or times of crisis. RTIRC suggests that 'attention must turn to improving the quality of services in areas with existing terrestrial mobile coverage'. This is important in the context of technology that is changing at a considerable pace, where low-Earth-orbit, LEO, satellite technology presents new opportunities for access to voice-capable broadband connectivity within fixed premises in the bush. It also presents opportunities to expand basic mobile phone connectivity in areas where there is currently none and in places where expanding the terrestrial network is simply not feasible. We cannot put mobile towers every 14 kilometres. It's just not going to work. The expense is enormous.”
“I have to highlight that, during a cost-of-living crisis, regional Australians pay the same price on their mobile phone plans as people in the inner cities who get far higher download speeds and service reliability. Returning to Rhys's experience, which I mentioned earlier, the RTIRC report talks to his exact issue, stating: …existing mobile networks in many regional areas are under pressure and facing congestion and capacity issues that require urgent attention— Urgent attention, I say to the government— to ensure reliable service. RTIRC reports that many people living in regional, rural and remote Australia remain dissatisfied with their mobile experience, citing issues such as unreliability, frequent call dropouts and slow data speeds.”
“The TIO's report highlights that faults and service problems often take longer to resolve in the regions and that, often, mobile service coverage is poor or non-existent. For example, the ombudsman referred to cases where 'a regional customer may report faults over several years without any lasting improvements to their services'. I'd like to know how many people in metropolitan Melbourne or Sydney would tolerate that. Additionally, the TIO heard from consumers who signed up to a mobile service after being told that their mobile would work in their area, but, when returning home to a remote location, found they had no service. Regarding satellite services, the TIO's complaint data shows that regional consumers continue to experience unreliable connections and service quality problems.”
“Rhys's story illustrates the challenges country people face—Australians who technically do have coverage of some sort under our existing terrestrial mobile network. Regional Australians become digital lifehackers, experts in messing around to use the limited service that is available. But as soon as congestion builds up, service goes out the window. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, TIO, received 51,854 complaints from consumers living in regional, rural and remote Australia between 2021 and 2024. Regional Australians are indeed getting a raw deal. I don't need the TIO to tell me this. I know it to be true based on my own experience and the experience of constituents across Mallee. Constituent complaints range from system faults to poor service quality, poor mobile service coverage, outages and accessibility barriers.”
“Rhys went on to tell me that data and connectivity are a big part of his agricultural business and, when they fail, the impact on productivity is huge. He says: 'If we have a vehicle breakdown, I go to the web and pull up a parts manual after driving to the top of the hill. If I call the service guy and the guy says he will ring me back, do I wait on the top of the hill to take his call?' How can people like Rhys be expected to run a productive business, one that drives our economy, while sitting around on the top of a hill waiting for a phone call? He also says: 'I am sick of spending money for a service that isn't a proper service. I feel my argument is so basic. I had better reception on CDMA.' It is ridiculous that regional Australians put up with such poor connectivity.”
“While Australians wait for the government's late response to the Regional Telecommunications Review, they also want answers from Labor about when the UOMO legislation will be introduced. Let me take a moment to paint a brief picture of the experience of regional Australians when it comes to telecommunications. On that front, I can tell you that metropolitan Australians and regional Australians are not in the same boat. Just yesterday, I met with Rhys Turton, a proud farmer and Chair of GrainGrowers. He lives in York in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Rhys lives 17 kilometres from a Telstra tower and says that, while the mobile phone network is workable from Monday to Friday, come the weekend, he has to drive up the hill and stay in his ute. When 5,000 people drive out of Perth, he can't make a call or send a text, even with boosters.”
“The coalition's form in government on responding to RTIRC reports within the legislative timeframe was far stronger than Labor's, and I hope the government's response to the RTIRC report is not waiting until the universal outdoor mobile obligation, or UOMO, legislation passes the parliament. UOMO is by no means a comprehensive solution to shortcomings in regional telecommunications. I moved on Monday that the Albanese government be held to account for failing to meet a legislated deadline to table its response to a key regional telecommunications report. This is yet another example of Labor's lack of focus on regional Australia and another demonstration of their ongoing lack of transparency. Regional people deserve better.”
“The coalition supports this bill, which is a step in the right direction when it comes to enhancing consumer protections in telecommunications. However, this bill is not a comprehensive review of consumer protections in the telecommunications sector, something which the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee, RTIRC, called for in their December 2024 report, which the government has failed to respond to. There is a legislative requirement to respond to this report within six months. They are three months overdue so far. There are 14 recommendations, and we are yet to hear a peep from the minister.”
“I rise this morning as the shadow minister for regional communications to speak on this bill. The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 primarily seeks to amend the Telecommunications Act 1997 to establish a mandatory carriage service provider registration scheme, make industry codes directly enforceable, increase maximum civil penalties and allow the Minister for Communications to increase infringement notice penalties. The bill complements other telecommunications legislation by strengthening consumer protections, providing the Australian Communications and Media Authority, ACMA, with greater enforcement powers and aligning with the broader goal of a consumer-centric telecommunications sector.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister told the bush summit, 'I won't BS people'. The Prime Minister promised Australians a $275 reduction in their energy bills prior to the 2022 election. Hasn't that now proven to be 'BS'? Is this broken promise the reason why the Prime Minister was chased out of town by a convoy of tractors?”
“Matt's views are similar to those of many in regional Australia and similar to the views of those who turned out in force with Matt, whom I was proud to stand with in protesting at the Bush Summit in Ballarat on Friday.”
“With reports of debris and toxins becoming major issues to neighbours from the turbine infrastructure this is also very worrying to think we have to have exclusion zones from our own boundary fences—this limits food production again. I can't understand how they think it's 'green' when today in the Weekly Times the headline— is— 127 ha— hectares— of native vegetation— is— to be scrubbed for 102 wind turbines from the area—remembering that this is removing breakdown of CO2. It's very hypocritical and they seem to be adding to net zero not reducing it. Matt provided other thoughts I don't have time to share here today, but he calls out the logical inconsistencies of Labor's position on energy.”
“Those farmers weren't taken seriously. They weren't listened to. They have been told, with the strong arm of the law, that they are being ignored and that the government is coming through. Going back to the energy project opponents who Minister Bowen claims are some distance from energy projects, I thought I'd share the perspective of one of my constituents, young Rupanyup farmer Matthew Weidemann. Matt writes: We personally are very close to the turbines in Wimmera Victoria, with them being built around us as neighbours will have infrastructure. As well as powerlines, this increases the dangers for my kids learning to farm it also is very unclear about how changes in the weather and the ability for autonomous machinery to operate.”
“I read with some surprise the latest spin from the minister for energy on Labor's reckless energy rollout. From the government that brought the notion of green hydrogen and green steel, now we have 'green noise' thanks to the minister for energy—no, not the noise from wind turbines but 'green noise' from opponents of energy projects. The minister claims opponents of wind and solar projects live 'hundreds of kilometres from developments' and are 'driven by climate denial', and the minister claims to take community consultation very seriously. Well, it is serious, because police have been out in my electorate today as the government owned Transmission Company Victoria uses the powers the Victorian parliament gave them on Thursday to impose $8,000 fines if farmers don't open their gates willingly for VNI West to be built.”
“I won't stand for that, Mallee farmers won't stand for that, and, as they showed in Ballarat on Friday at the Bush Summit, the Nationals won't stand for that. I will continue to fight hard in this place for the needs of my Mallee constituents.”
“My concern is not just that this decision is about prioritising larger, centralised organisations over smaller, local ones, but also that Labor fails to see the needs of people in the regions—and, in my case, the north-west of Victoria. This is a pattern of behaviour that continues to play out under the Albanese government—the neglect of rural, regional and remote populations, the failure to look outside of big cities and regional centres to see what is actually happening, and to act and respond accordingly. Essentially, it is a dismissal of regional people. As I repeatedly say, Labor are raiding regions to buy votes in capital cities. Nowhere is this playing out more clearly than in the race to net zero and the federal and state Labor governments' reckless renewable rollout.”
“Has Labor stripped emergency food relief funding entirely from the north-west region of Victoria, or has it somehow been shifted to a larger organisation based in a regional city, a major city, or a combination of the two? The lack of transparency is hard to accept. The Nationals have a strong belief in prioritising local organisations to deliver government funded programs. Local organisations have local relationships and history. They utilise and build local capacity. They provide local jobs and local opportunities for volunteering, all of which build local social capital. We want to foster local enterprise, innovation and community service. Government funding should always be offered to local organisations first, especially when they are already doing the work and have been for decades.”
“We shouldn't be surprised by that. The CEFC has met record demand in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years. This is how the Albanese Labor government's cost-of-living crisis plays out in reality on the ground in the regions—with record numbers of people seeking emergency relief to feed their families and a government that callously pulls funding from local organisations scrambling to meet this need, despite having spruiked a doubling of funding at a national level. People in the Wimmera Mallee struggling to make ends meet are now at even greater risk of not being able to put food on the table because funding has been mercilessly stripped from the Horsham Christian Emergency Food Centre and the Stawell Interchurch Council. The questions remain.”
“Of these, 209 were living with a disability, 147 were 17 years old or younger, and 132 were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Their total spend on groceries and food vouchers was $63,834—considerably larger than their government funding. Once again, far from being rewarded for their charitable work, the Stawell Interchurch Council has been informed by Uniting Vic Tas that their sole source of funding will cease as of September—this month—due to Uniting's own funding constraints. In her media release, Minister Plibersek said: No one should be faced with a choice between putting food on the table or paying their bills. It reminds me of the Prime Minister's mantra, 'Nobody held back, nobody left behind.' Yet both of these local Mallee organisations report an increasing need for emergency food services over the last few years.”
“I note that the Interchurch Council are the only providers of non-perishable food in the local area. The SIC has received DSS funding grants since 2001—indirectly via the Uniting Vic.Tas organisation since 2015. But Uniting Vic Tas has told them that their funds have been cut, as I said, by 80 per cent. Mary Rita, the secretary and public officer of the Stawell Interchurch Council, wrote to me. She says: We are the sole providers of funded emergency food relief in Stawell and region and I find it inconceivable that DSS means—for those in need in our area—to be unable to access that help. In the 2024-25 financial year, the SIC received a total of $48,500 indirectly from DSS, assisting 292 households and 661 individuals.”
“What the CEFC does know is that the Albanese government has funded five organisations in Victoria's north-west. And I must remind you that that is 87½ thousand square kilometres. It is a vast electorate. One Aboriginal organisation has been newly funded, and this will meet pressing need in the local Indigenous community in Horsham. None of the other organisations currently provide emergency food relief in Horsham directly. The reduction in funds provided to Uniting Vic Tas is also significant because of the broader flow-on effects. The Albanese government's food charity cuts have resulted in the Stawell Interchurch Council, or SIC, being defunded altogether—a charity that has provided emergency food relief in Stawell and the surrounding region since 1970. Get your head around that: 55 years of service to their community.”
“Despite their laudable record, the Albanese government has ripped away $82,000 in emergency relief grant funding that this Christian food charity has relied on for many years. As if that wasn't enough for a small charity to navigate, funding to their partner organisation, Uniting Vic.Tas, has also been dramatically reduced by 80 per cent, which means reimbursement provided by them is likely to be cut, leaving the CEFC with a huge hole in its budget. The Horsham Christian Emergency Food Centre has been kept in the dark about the Albanese government's decision-making process. Worse still, this volunteer-run charity has been left to chase up other organisations to try to find out where the money is flowing, if at all, and why they have been left out.”
“They receive DSS funding to deliver essential services to people in dire need in the Wimmera, as they have done for many years. The Horsham CEFC have a fabulous record for their charitable service delivery. During the 2024-25 financial year, with the assistance of DSS funding, CEFC provided 3,078 client contacts and a total of $527,912 in client support. They are staffed almost entirely by 70 volunteers who work on a roster contributing almost 300 volunteer hours a week. This long-serving, locally embedded community organisation has been providing essential emergency assistance to people in need for the past 27 years. They are a major provider of food relief and other support in the Wimmera region. I have been delighted to visit them on site many times in my terms of parliament. They are an incredible credit to their community.”
“In July this year, the Minister for Social Services published a media release stating: The Albanese Labor Government is boosting food relief and financial wellbeing support funding by 25 per cent to help ease cost-of-living pressures for half a million Australians. The minister reported that funding specifically for food relief had been doubled. Two charities in my electorate of Mallee, the Horsham Christian Emergency Food Centre, or CEFC, and the Stawell Interchurch Council, have been providing emergency food relief for many, many years, supported by Department of Social Services funding. They have been in contact with me because they were shocked to discover that funding that sustains their essential charitable work will cease as of September. The Horsham CEFC received $82,011, a DSS grant, in the 2024-25 financial year.”
“We have seen the same from the Albanese Labor government: using selective consultation on key policy debates; keeping people in the dark, not taking the Australian community with them; and obfuscation and spin over energy prices, pretending power bills are going down, while they're actually going up. The lived experience of all Australians is power prices going up and energy reliability going down while emissions are flatlining. This Labor government is a government that is loose with the truth, using eye-watering amounts of taxpayer money to cover for their policy failures on energy, and pretending it is good for Australians. It is anything but, and the government's culture of secrecy is dragging Australians into the Dark Ages.”
“Indeed, the Leader of the Nationals shared today an ageing farmer's one dying hope that his farming sons will speak with one another again. Why have they stopped talking to one another? They stopped talking over positions on the Albanese government's reckless railroading of regional communities with energy projects. These energy industry cowboys, the majority of them foreign owned, have been trashing social licence, which is a fact I think all serious observers of the energy debate acknowledge, including former and current Australian energy infrastructure commissioners. Social licence is being trashed because these energy industry cowboys are signing farmers and landowners up to non-disclosure agreements using divide-and-conquer tactics.”
“Yet, we have seen cover-up claims unravelling in court in relation to the payout to Brittany Higgins concerning former senator Linda Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown, just this week. At the Bush Summit in Ballarat on Friday, the Prime Minister told a sceptical farmer audience, many of whom were from my electorate of Mallee, 'I won't BS you'—I'm paraphrasing. If the Prime Minister is not misleading farmers in regional Australia, why is the government moving in an increasingly secretive fashion? The Australian government should operate as good corporate citizens. It is required to model good behaviour for other businesses to follow, yet what do we see in my electorate of Mallee and across regional Australia? Non-disclosure agreements—one after the other—secrecy, division and families that no longer talk to each other.”
“This is an arrogant and out-of-touch Albanese Labor government that think they can get away with anything. Yet, the Prime Minister said last month: My government is unashamedly an open government. In April, Mr Albanese said: I'm not frightened of scrutiny and transparency. If the Prime Minister isn't frightened, why all the non-disclosure agreements? Why launch the biggest attack on freedom of information in 15 years? Why slash the number of staff allocated to the opposition? The Prime Minister said, on 25 November 2022: We're shining sunlight on a shadow government that preferred to operate in darkness, a government that operated in a cult of secrecy and a culture of cover-up, which arrogantly dismissed scrutiny from the parliament and the public as a mere inconvenience.”
“Here we are on sitting day 13 of the new parliament, and the Albanese government is already acting like a third- or fourth-term government, lacking in transparency and accountability—and very smug at it. The coalition opposition has been listening to Australians, and, as shadow minister for regional development, local government and territories and shadow minister for regional communications—and, formerly, as shadow assistant minister for regional health—I have consistently heard story after story from stakeholders that they cannot get in to see a Labor government minister. It's okay to see the minister's staff, but not the minister. I get replies to my letters to ministers from their chiefs of staff and other staff, not the elected minister.”
“As the shadow minister for regional communications, I call on the government to table a response to this report with haste and to work in good faith with key stakeholders to address the recommendations of this report.”
“An upgraded USO may mean using low-Earth-orbit—LEO—satellite technology for home and commercial broadband and voice connectivity in the bush. It might also mean that LEO satellites provide basic mobile phone connectivity in areas where there is currently none and in places where expanding the terrestrial network is not feasible. We also need to be realistic about what these technological advances look like and the timeframes involved; be aware of what industry is doing or likely to continue to do off its own back because it continues to make commercial sense; and listen to the experience and needs of consumers in the regions, who are often most cognisant of what really will make a difference on the ground.”
“It is unacceptable that farmers who work out in the paddocks alone all day have no way of letting a loved one know if they've had an accident or a medical event, because they don't have mobile phone coverage, let alone continuous internet access for modern farm technology. It is unacceptable that regional consumers face lengthy delays without an internet connection when a mobile phone tower is being upgraded, where their only form of broadband is via the mobile phone system, with no alternative form of reliable redundancy. Regional people deserve better. Technology is changing at pace, and we must keep abreast of it, harnessing its power to provide meaningful gains for regional Australians, who need it most.”
“The RTIRC report calls upon the government to expedite universal service modernisation, which includes providing voice-capable broadband services with minimum speeds and standards for all premises; phasing out the copper continuity obligation where and when there is a proven and effective alternative technology; and having a USO that is technology neutral and flexible enough to readily adapt and be relevant to changing needs. The report also calls for system redundancy—namely, that premises without terrestrial mobile coverage can access an affordable secondary broadband service.”
“As the shadow minister for regional communications, I want to point to the Nationals, who champion regional connectivity and are committed to working with consumers and the telecommunications sector to design an updated universal service obligation that ensures regional Australians have the connectivity required to enable economic participation and maximise productivity gains, to access high-quality education content and virtual health care and for meaningful social connection.”
“RTIRC is not tasked with investigating how Australia can best plan for a transition to 6G or ensure sufficient broadband bandwidth to use multiple streaming devices and web based gaming. RTIRC looks at how to make sure regional Australians have a basic level of connectivity to participate in the essentials of life in the 21st century. While connectivity is essential to modern life for safety, business, work, farm productivity, education, health care and social connection, many regions across this vast nation face continuing impediments to their broadband internet and voice service access, quality and reliability, in addition to poor mobile phone coverage.”
“I rise this afternoon to call out the Albanese Labor government's failure to prioritise action on regional telecommunications. The Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee, RTIRC, report was released in December 2024, and, while there is a legislative requirement for the government to respond to recommendations, of which there are many, within six months, we are yet to hear a peep nine months on. The coalition's form in government in responding to RTIRC reports within the legislative timeframe was far stronger than Labor's, and I hope the government's response to the RTIRC report is not waiting until the universal outdoor mobile obligation, or UOMO legislation, passes parliament. UOMO is by no means a comprehensive solution to shortcomings in regional telecommunications.”
“I move: That this House: (1) notes that: (a) regional Australians are subject to ongoing and significant challenges with access to reliable telecommunications coverage, despite many years of government investment and the fast pace of technological advance; (b) regional connectivity is essential to modern life, for business and work, farm productivity, education, healthcare and social connection; (c) many areas of poor mobile phone coverage remain across our regions, and regional Australians face ongoing impediments to their internet and landline voice service access, quality and reliability; (d) the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee (RTIRC) provides three-yearly investigations into the state and needs of telecommunications in regional, rural and remote Australia, as mandated by Part 9B of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 ; (e) the first legislated review with a focus on the regions was in 2000; (f) section 158Q(6) of the Act states that: 'if a report sets out one or more recommendations to the Commonwealth Government: (a) as soon as practicable after receiving the report, the Minister must cause to be prepared a statement setting out the Commonwealth Government's response to the recommendations; and (b) within 6 months after receiving the report, the Minister must cause copies of the statement to be tabled in each House of the Parliament'; and (g) the Government is yet to meet the legislated requirements of the Act in respect of the 2024 RTIRC report which was tabled in December 2024; and (2) calls upon the Minister to respond to and table said response to the recommendations of the 2024 RTIRC report forthwith, in accordance with the requirements of the Act.”
“While the Minister for Climate Change and Energy tries to cover his failures with clown-like antics and smirks and waves his hands about arguing, 'There is nothing to see here,' the facts are plain. The renewable energy and emissions targets he has set are not going to be met. Meanwhile, he continues to hide the enormous costs to taxpayers from the public under a shroud of rhetoric and obfuscation. It's little wonder public sentiment is shifting. A survey from the Bush Summit indicated that, a year ago, support for renewables was at 66 per cent. Now it is at 44 per cent, and, I assure you, support is plummeting fast. Momentum is turning. It is turning because Australians can see that their power bill prices are going up, not down.”
“When the Prime Minister told the Ballarat audience renewables are the cheapest form of energy, he made himself a laughing stock. The lived reality for Australians is that power prices are up 30 per cent, or $1,300 more than Labor promised for 2025 to 2026. Even on the metric of greenhouse gas emissions, Labor are failing. Emissions have gone up, not down, under this government and are now only back at 28 per cent on 2005 levels, which, by the way, is the same as when we left office. Fascinatingly, when Australian emissions increased by 0.05 per cent last year over the same period, steel production fell by 12 per cent. Labor are shipping jobs offshore in the reckless and destructive pursuit of political targets that are not being attempted on this geographical scale anywhere else in the world.”
“Soon after Labor's election in 2022, five "urgently needed" transmission projects were identified: HumeLink, VNI West, Sydney Ring, New England REZ and Marinus Link. Ms George goes on: Three years on, not one of the projects is at construction stage. All are years late and billions over budget, and most won't be in operation by 2030. It's Snowy 2.0 on a grand scale. Be warned: a tsunami of transmission costs is still to hit our power bills. So much for the claim that renewables are the cheapest form of energy. The newly minted Labor MPs might want to listen to the Labor elder's truth bombs. I repeat that a 'tsunami of transmission costs is still to hit'. Those opposite can continue to parrot Minister Bowen and the Prime Minister, but understand this: it is at your peril.”
“We go back to Ms George, who summarised this perfectly by saying—and I paraphrase—'Labor's spin is like a burning wind turbine.' She also said: The Clean Energy Council reported only 1.17GW of renewable energy generation reached financial close in the first six months of 2025. This is just a third of the 6-7GW required annually to meet the 82 per cent target. Already, Wood Mackenzie forecasts reaching only 58 per cent renewable energy generation by the end of the decade, and Rystad Energy estimates a substantial shortfall of about 18 per cent by 2030. The minister often reminds us "there's no transition without transmission". In his own words— and I'm still quoting Ms George— he concedes the impossibility of reaching the targets.”
“The audience jeered the Prime Minister on that blatant spin, and rightly so. Somehow, the speechwriters thought he'd be safe talking BS—yes, he did actually use that word—to regional Australians. Victorian farmers called him out. It is little wonder the farmers are protesting, when the bulldozers will be moving across their farms with the accelerator pedal down to reach Labor's political targets. We, on this side of the House, know that energy is the economy, and we take a technology-agnostic view on our energy mix. By contrast, Labor is taking away our key competitive advantage and jobs by taking a renewables-only zealotry approach.”
“It makes no sense to provide taxpayer-funded bailout packages, while hitting them with a de facto carbon tax. What wise words. On this note, I note the Prime Minister, in a far-from-dazzling performance at the Bush Summit in Ballarat on Friday, in response to a one-word-answer challenge regarding a question on coal, responded, 'Jobs.' Really? This is the man who told ABC radio in February 2020: I don't think there's a place for coal-fired power plants in Australia, full stop. But he had the hide to tell the Ballarat audience, regarding coal-fired power stations—and I quote from Friday: … there hasn't been any regulations stopping that. After the audience scoffed at that suggestion, the Prime Minister went on to say that the 'market determined it doesn't stack up'.”
“The reason for this might lie in the eye-watering costs revealed in independent research. Ms George goes on: Take the Net Zero Australia report, a joint effort by three universities, chaired by Professor Robin Batterham. It found: "The modelled capital requirement $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion of commitments by 2030, and $7 trillion to $9 trillion by 2060 will not be met at the current rate; the gap is enormous." Ms George proceeds to discuss the plight of another group of forgotten Australians—the workers; remember them? My mind goes back to the Australian Workers' Union's support of nuclear energy, but I digress. Ms George says: Our metals smelters and Tomago aluminium smelter in NSW are now at risk; thousands of workers face an uncertain future.”
“Labor luminary Jennie George said: Labor's 2030 targets won't be met. It's an all too familiar story. Labor has set its modelling was "the most comprehensive ever done, for any policy, by any opposition in Australia's history since Federation". When reality struck, it was quietly abandoned just before the election. This is still Ms George: The promise of $275 by 2025, the $378 cut and 604,000 green jobs by 2030 disappeared, never to be aired again. Ms George goes on to explain the broader cost of Labor's reckless race to net zero: Labor refuses to disclose its whole-of-system costs for a transition held together by billions in taxpayer subsidies and relief packages. The secrecy is indefensible. The public's right to know should be defended by a Labor government promising transparency and accountability.”
“Anyone who believes that renewables are the cheapest form of electricity and that they will bring down your power bills are off with Minister Bowen and the fairies. Every Australian taxpayer will absolutely feel these multibillion-dollar cost blowouts on their power bills. Make no mistake: they already are. And guess what? Everyday Aussies don't want to pay for net zero. In fact, when I recently surveyed my electorate of Mallee, collecting over 5,000 responses, almost 70 per cent said that they do not want to pay a single cent towards attaining net zero—not one cent. But they already are. This brings me to the wonderful, lucid comments of former Labor MP and Australian Council of Trade Unions leader, Jennie George. Her truth bombs are so critical and so damaging that I have to read some of them into Hansard.”
“Just one year on, it's been estimated to cost between $7 billion and $11.4 billion. Professor Mountain estimates that around 50 per cent of those cost blowouts will show up on our power bills. Looking further afield, the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone in regional New South Wales was initially estimated to cost $650 million in 2020 but is now projected to cost $5.5 billion—a slight rise! A 2020 estimate of the CopperString project from Townsville to Mount Isa put the price tag at $1.8 billion, but it's now estimated to come in at $13.9 billion. A Queensland Labor project, the Pioneer-Burdekin Pumped Hydro project near Mackay, was initially estimated, in September 2022, to cost $12 billion. When the new LNP government cancelled it, in October 2024, the cost estimate was $36.8 billion.”
“These farmers are being told, not asked, to bear the burden of the rollout of panels, turbines and transmission lines over their prime agricultural land. I say 'told, not asked' because the Victorian government, last Thursday, passed a bill imposing $8,000 fines for refusing to open the farm gate to allow Transmission Company Victoria, or TCV, to build hundreds of kilometres of the VNI West transmission line exclusively through my electorate of Mallee and $6,000 fines for farmers taking TCV signs off their own fences. On the cost blowouts, let me take you through a few project examples. This is the federal government's Rewiring the Nation funding and other federal funding sources enabling this waste of precious taxpayer funds. VNI West itself was projected to have a $1.6 billion price tag in 2018, rising to $3.6 billion in 2024.”
“While Victorian Labor claim their renewables rollout is on track, Victoria Energy Policy Centre's Professor Bruce Mountain says achieving it will cost more than the Victorian government's $7.9 billion estimate—possibly as much as $28 billion. I also highlight, as I will every time I speak on these matters, that the Victorian government said it will need up to 70 per cent of prime agricultural land if it cannot build offshore wind energy, and that objective is looking increasingly doubtful. Here's the rub: these targets, in the bullish race to net zero, are already resulting in mammoth cost blowouts, and these are being felt by (1) all energy bill customers and (2) farmers in my electorate of Mallee and across the nation.”
“In fact, Rystad said 80 per cent will only be reached by 2037. So how on earth can Labor set a higher target for 2035 than the 82 per cent they have set for 2030 when 82 per cent renewables won't be reached until two years later, in 2037, at best? Before I go on, I have to mention that, in my home state of Victoria, the Allan Labor government has an even more aggressive renewable energy target of 95 per cent by 2035 and has a 2045 net zero target, five years earlier than federal Labor's 2050 target for net zero. I must highlight that Spain had a 100 per cent renewable energy generation on 16 April this year. Twelve days later, its entire electricity grid collapsed in a 12-hour blackout.”