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.”
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“1) 2025-2026 enables government spending, but why would we pass such a bill without commenting on, firstly, the Albanese government's woeful record on spending in the energy portfolio and, secondly, Labor's brazen spin that their energy achievements are positive when clearly they are negative? This is a government that, shortly, this month, in September 2025, wants to set an emissions reduction target for 2035. They might be preparing to admit that they cannot actually reach the 2030 target by setting a new 2035 target. Labor's current target is 82 per cent renewables in less than five years time. Current renewables billed are just at 43 per cent. To be clear, that is a gap of 39 per cent. Global energy consultancy Rystad estimates that Labor will only get, at best, to 60 per cent by 2030, not their commitment of 82 per cent.”
“Labor promised Australians permanent energy bill relief, but, instead, they have been hit with yet another spike in the cost of living. Inflation has risen at its fastest pace in a year, now sitting at 2.8 per cent, driven by a jump in electricity bills of 13 per cent just in this year to July. Inflation is up, power bills are soaring, and interest-rate relief is now further away because of Labor's failures. This is the direct opposite of Labor's election promise of a $275 cut to power bills. Instead, families are paying thousands more. The Appropriation Bill (No.”
“My question is to the minister for aged care, and I refer to his previous answer. The minister justified Labor's delay in delivering the 83,000 home care packages it promised by implying it was the sector as well as elderly Australians who, when consulted, were asking for this delay. Can the minister identify a single provider or elderly Australian desperately waiting for a package who personally asked him for this delay?”
“Victorian Labor are today trying to pass laws to impose fines of up to $12,000 on farmers who do not open their gates to TCB Solar in Victoria to build the VNI West. I will be standing shoulder to shoulder tomorrow morning with a protest in Ballarat at the Bush Summit, fighting for their property rights and sensible energy policy.”
“I know it will be a shock to you that energy prices have risen by 13.1 per cent this year, according to the latest inflation data from the ABS, exposing Labor's fabrications and tall stories about energy prices and the cost of renewables. Skyrocketing energy prices are the reason the cost of living has shot up to its highest rate in a year. The Treasurer has not worked out yet that the energy is the economy. The reality is that Labor is hell-bent on railroading the VNI West transmission line through farms in my electorate no matter what the cost. Official VNI West construction costs have blown out from $1.8 billion in 2023, just two years ago, to as much as $11.4 billion. Who knows how high it will go? Why does that matter? It is because every Victorian could pay 50 per cent more in their energy bills as a result.”
“The two biggest drains on Australian productivity are, firstly, energy prices in pursuit of a net zero delusion and, secondly, labour costs and red tape. Labor's solution will be more taxes while killing productivity and growing the size, scope and reach of government into every facet of not just business but our personal lives as well.”
“Regional populations decline as a result, and you all start to wonder if, to use a phrase the immigration minister is fond of, it's all by design. Regrettably, speaking of the immigration minister, who made some pointed comments about the Israeli government recently, it appears the Albanese Labor government are more focused on Palestine than productivity. Last week's roundtable was spruiked as a productivity roundtable, and then it became an economic roundtable—then it became a nothingburger for the economy because it was a stitch-up from the get-go for the union movement. There was never going to be any effort made to improve labour costs in Australia to lift productivity, and that's why Labor shifted the narrative.”
“The problem is the workers aren't here yet, and the best estimate now is that maybe some will arrive, if we're lucky, by autumn 2026. You can imagine Nathan's frustration when Orchard Tech were told their workers would be here by now. Now they have to find workers to cover them for the period until, theoretically, Vietnamese workers arrive. Both the interim and eventual Vietnamese workers will need to be trained, doubling the effort required of farmers. Yet again, we see the Labor government undermining regional Australia to appease their union masters. The unions don't believe in farm labour, and they are forcing farmers to mechanise or simply rip out labour intensive crops and grow something that can be machine harvested—or turn their farms into industrial energy sites.”
“We have low unemployment, so those who might otherwise do farm labour are able to find other work, if they want to work at all. Labor have pressed on with anti-migrant-farmworker ideology regardless of the employment market or outcomes of labour market testing. Labor puts up arguments that PALM sometimes operates against the workers' best interests, but the reality is Labor have inherited a scheme they don't believe in and are doing everything they can to undermine PALM so that it can be scrapped. The evidence is clear when it comes to the Vietnam Labour Mobility Arrangement, or VLMA. I met recently with Nathan Falvo of Orchard Tech from my electorate. Nathan's business, Orchard Tech, was selected and approved to take around 50 of the 1,000 Vietnamese workers that were expected in Australia by the middle of this year.”
“I rise tonight to speak on this motion and commend the member for La Trobe for bringing the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, or PALM scheme, into the spotlight. PALM has been an incredibly valuable scheme for horticulturalists in Mallee and, indeed, across regional Australia. I have to say two things from the start. Firstly, Labor has an historic bias against Pacific Islanders working in this country. Why do I say that? It goes right back to Federation and keeps manifesting in the undermining of farmers. Secondly, the Nationals remain committed to the agricultural visa. PALM is a step in that direction but not the fully fledged ag visa regional Australia is crying out for. On both points what those opposite are never able to comprehend is that fruit picking and other types of farm labour simply will not be done by Australians.”
“And why would an energy company, many of which are made up of cowboys, bother with social licence when the behaviour of the Victorian government, which theoretically should act as a model corporate citizen, is to threaten farmers with $12,000 fines for refusing access? Victorian Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie and I met with locals at Marnoo in my electorate last Monday, the day after the Allan government released their Victorian Transmission Plan on Sunday, under the cover of the penultimate round of the AFL. Marnoo and other Northern Grampians residents weren't fooled and quickly mobilised farmers and their tractors for a symbolic event, burning the Transmission Plan and saying VNI West will not be going ahead through their farms, whether there are $12,000 fines or not. The message is clear.”
“But I kept the evidence, and I remind regional Victorians every chance I get that up to 70 per cent of prime agricultural land is in the Allan Labor government's sights for energy projects. And what about the remaining 30 per cent? With multiple mineral sands proposals in my electorate, you have to wonder how many farmers will remain unaffected. Mallee is being turned into an industrial wasteland of transmission lines, turbines, panels and mines, and, most importantly, this is taking place without social licence. I've conducted a survey of Mallee voters, with more than 5,000 respondents so far, and the sentiment is very clear: energy projects do not have social licence. Mallee voters want farmers to be able to keep farming, oddly enough.”
“I hate to break it to the member for Chisholm, but it's not a dreamy energy utopia Labor are building. It is a net zero dystopia. Already the Allan government's transmission plans will take up at least eight per cent of Victoria's landmass, in part because they are having trouble building offshore wind. Who knows how much prime agricultural land that eight per cent of landmass actually represents? I continue to highlight that in 2022 the Victorian government proposed that up to 70 per cent of the state's prime agricultural land would be used for energy projects if offshore wind was not achieved—what a statement! They took that document down from their website and refuse to speak about it now, just like this motion is not speaking about renewables being the cheapest form of energy.”
“No, now it's the bubblegum phrase 'the better future Australians voted for'. I can tell the member for Chisholm and those opposite that, in Mallee and across regional Australia, farmers and their communities are wearing the pain of the radical and reckless rollout of renewables. The proportion of regional Victorians who support a renewable energy transition has plummeted from 66 per cent to just 44 per cent now. Regional Victorians are out of sight and out of mind, and the Labor government has zero care factor. Mallee residents are in the firing line for the Allan government's legislation which will fine farmers $12,000—or $48,000 if they're a corporation—for refusing Transmission Company Victoria access to build the new VNI West transmission line.”
“What bliss it is to be lectured by those opposite and the mover from metropolitan Melbourne about the Albanese government's energy utopia! In the glow of the Allan Labor government's shining achievements, like the multibillion-dollar cost blowouts on the Suburban Rail Loop and eye-watering amounts of debt, regional Victorians are living in darkness and oppression. They are invisible to the member for Chisholm and her Labor colleagues. Worse still, regional Victorians are the targets of a radical ideology and energy experiment untried and unproven on the scale the Albanese Labor government are driving. Every Australian is paying for it on their power bills. I notice the motion doesn't quote the line parroted by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy that renewables are the cheapest form of energy.”
“So when this motion speaks about the Albanese Labor government 'investing in women's health', I ask: What about Wendy? What about everyone like her? What about the women in Donald? What about the women in Buloke Shire? What about all the women in Mallee, and all the women in regional Australia? Mallee women certainly feel invisible to the Albanese Labor government. I am giving people like Wendy a voice today because all Australian women deserve better.”
“Remembering the Prime Minister's slogan, let's call that part of her story the 'nobody held back part'. It gets worse. Wendy has also been left behind. Again in Wendy's own words: Recently I suffered a heart condition which meant being taken by ambulance to Bendigo hospital. It took 45 minutes' wait time for the ambulance to arrive and a 2 hour bumpy journey to Bendigo hospital and a further wait to see a doctor—such are the issues with living remotely, suffering from a potential life-threatening condition. There was no GP doctor working that evening. This is a story I have heard all too often as the member for Mallee and in my previous shadow ministry role in regional health. I remain passionate about giving a voice to the people of Mallee and ensuring that they receive better health care.”
“Wendy believes that a person who has caught this bug has a 54 per cent chance of survival, diminishing with age and other comorbidities. She goes on: My condition has been managed by an Infectious Disease consultant from Switzerland as well as the orthopaedic team, but this causes some grief as there is little opportunity to use public transport in Donald— Now, if anyone doesn't know where Donald is, I invite you to look it up on a map— no taxi and a better resourced ambulance is at least 45 minutes away. Wendy goes on to explain that her medical consultant has encouraged her to move closer to Royal Melbourne Hospital in case the bug causes a life-threatening infection. So, with regret, she told me last week in a mobile office in Donald that she has sold her home and is moving to Melbourne.”
“In Wendy's own words: After attending rehab, where my surgery site split open, I was rushed back to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and subsequently had 3 washouts and drains inserted by the plastic surgery team. A number of other patients in my ward also suffered a similar fate although the spine is unique in that the metalware cannot be removed until fusion occurs. This bug attaches to and hides on metal and other surgical items. She goes on to say that it: … is aerobic and anaerobic forming a covering and when opportunity arises, it may jump out, attach to the atrium valve of the heart and eat it until it turns to mush or may move to other organs causing death. There is only ONE antibiotic medication that can suppress it, namely Bactrim/Resprim Forte.”
“This Labor motion is about a better future for Australian women, but let me tell you about one woman, Wendy, from Donald in my electorate of Mallee. Her future is not looking better under this government. For more than three years now the Prime Minister has repeated the mantra 'nobody held back, nobody left behind'. But Wendy has been utterly left behind by the combination of state and federal Labor governments in regional Victoria. Wendy is a 75-year-old pensioner who lives in Donald, 277 kilometres from Melbourne. Wendy contracted the superbug Stenotrophomonas maltophilia during spinal surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital in March 2024.”
“I am so proud that Mallee is speaking out against Labor's divisive Rewiring the Nation reckless energy rollout. I also commend the Institute of Public Affairs for their documentary The Faces of Net Zero , featuring many I have named. I thank Peta Credlin, Chris Kenny, Peter Hunt and others in the media who are giving Mallee farmers a voice. Thank you, each one.”
“Right now, brave and passionate Mallee residents are protesting in Spring Street, on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne, about the Allan Labor government's draconian new powers to force through the VNI West transmission line. Farmers face fines of up to $12,000 if they refuse access to Transmission Company Victoria, an arm of the Victorian government, to build the VNI West transmission line. To be clear: TCV have the right to use boltcutters to cut chains and locks at the farmer's farm gate. I commend Mallee constituents who are speaking out, including Andrew Weidemann, Jason Barratt, Ben Duxson, Marcia McIntyre, Barry Batters, James and Emma Burke, Gerald Feeny, Glenden Watts, Tess Healy, Billy Baldwin, Cindy O'Sullivan, Will and Rachel McIntyre and so many more.”
“That's what the neglect of regional Australia looks like—a dangerous deterioration of roads; the neglect of aged-care, home-care and childcare services; and an Albanese Labor government that not only raids our regions for taxes and railroads farmers for energy projects but has the hide to laugh about it in this place.”
“Childcare deserts persist in Mallee, despite what the government say they are doing to address it. Unsurprisingly, 73 per cent of Mallee constituents also rate our roads as being in poor condition—not medium condition but poor condition. That speaks to the rate increases and struggles that councils have maintaining roads, but also to Labor's neglect of the regions. The Albanese Labor government has neglected Mallee, giving us zero regional Housing Support Program funding, and, of my 12 councils in Mallee, giving only one funding through the Growing Regions or the partnerships and precincts program. Minister King did not once set foot in my electorate during the 47th Parliament.”
“Regional councils are picking up essential services as victims of cost shifting from state and federal governments, because they passionately believe that their local residents deserve services and they don't want to see them miss out. Councils have stepped in to provide services to vulnerable seniors, or they are even abandoning them because they cannot afford to deliver those services any longer. Of the Mallee survey respondents who rely on home-care services, 43 per cent said those services are hard to access in regional Australia. A further 24 per cent added that they cannot afford those needed services. Forty-six per cent of those needing residential aged care have concerns about the cost. In Mallee, almost 50 per cent—49 per cent to be exact—cannot access childcare services.”
“They were household power bills. Regional Australian voters have the lived and documented experience that energy prices are going up. Worse still, they are being railroaded and threatened with now $12,000 fines if they refuse to allow Transmission Company Victoria onto their private property—their farms. Third highest in living-cost pressures is council rates. My constituents' views come from Victoria, where the Victorian Labor government imposes rate capping. I moved a motion on Monday on the financial sustainability of councils, particularly in regional areas. The Albanese government must restart the local government inquiry in this House, with a committee which must deliver recommendations that the Albanese government acts on to improve the sustainability of our councils.”
“For over 88 per cent of respondents, it has got worse. What's contributing to these living-cost pressures? They say no. 1 is groceries. The Nationals have continued to take a strong stance on the major supermarkets and fought hard for a coalition position that the divestiture powers are a big stick which remains on the table if supermarkets abuse their market power. The Albanese government continues to sit on its hands about grocery prices. The no. 2 on the Mallee survey for cost-of-living pressures is residents' energy bills. Who would have thought? Thousands of my voters say energy prices are putting immense pressure on their budgets. Yet, Minister Bowen parrots that renewables are the cheapest form of energy. The latest CSIRO GenCost report has been manipulated—and now found out. But do you know which figures were also manipulated?”
“I want to note in Hansard my great disappointment in the behaviour of the government benches the last time I spoke, the other night—I know you were in the chair, Deputy Speaker Claydon—when I was talking about the suffering in regional Australia. Those in the House laughed. They laughed at the suffering of those in regional Australia. I want to note that was incredibly disappointing. I have been surveying Mallee voters and have well over 5,000 responses so far. I note, for any cynics listening, that the people answering this survey identify as voters from all political persuasions. I remind those opposite that these are the voices of thousands of Mallee voters, not echo chambers, not small focus groups. Mallee voters are saying, in their thousands, that they are under pressure with the higher cost of living.”
“Inquiry submitters called for a review of various components of the program. Local governments are in dire straits, especially in regional Australia. I call on Minister Catherine King to refer the matter to the committee afresh, to continue the unfinished inquiry, and let it deliver a final report for the sake of the 537 councils and shires around the country.”
“Worse still, state governments like the Allan Victorian Labor government have cut funding programs, like the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund, that supported regional shires with co-contributions. The financial assistance grants scheme is a critical funding source for local government. These grants, which councils and shires can use to address local priorities, are paid and distributed via state and the Northern Territory governments. General purpose funding is supposed to be distributed according to horizontal equalisation so that similar services can be provided in councils around the country for similar investment or effort. But the federal FA grant distribution principles are not enforced or enforceable; states and territories have unfettered power to distribute according to their own priorities.”
“Fellow minister Kristy McBain said the inquiry built upon feedback received in the preceding 18 months, yet the Labor dominated inquiry only delivered an interim report 11 months after it started and was then prorogued for the election. The inquiry's interim report made no recommendations. Not only did the interim report identify as an emerging theme that councils had limited means to generate revenue yet had an expanded role due to cost-shifting from other levels of government; a significant number of submitters called for a review of the financial assistance grants program. Submitters also called out the reliance on competitive grants processes that require significant co-contributions, which are very difficult for small rural councils to comply with.”
“Yarriambiack Shire Council also provides early learning services, and Northern Grampians delivers aged-care services, just to name a few. In other parts of the country, rural councils run primary healthcare services, demonstrating the cost-shifting from other levels of government putting strain on council finances. Fourteen months ago, Catherine King, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government referred the question of local government sustainability as an inquiry to the Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport because local government faced pressing issues, and the inquiry was long overdue.”
“Rural and regional councils with small populations dispersed over vast distances, such as the West Wimmera and Yarriambiack shires in my electorate, have limited income but many hundreds of kilometres of roads to maintain. Victorian councils' sustainability challenges are exacerbated by the Victorian government's rate capping, which, for the 2025-26 financial year, limits increases in total rate revenue to three per cent per annum in Victoria. Many councils, especially those in the regions, often pick up the bill when failed markets and centralisation mean essential services like aged care, child care and health care are failing. West Wimmera Shire Council in the south-west of Mallee includes Kaniva, Goroke and Edenhope and has been providing local people with childcare and aged-care services over many years.”
“In my first contribution in this place as the shadow minister for local government, I was already well familiar, as were my colleagues in the Nationals, with the challenges that shires and councils face, because, unlike those opposite, we have multiple councils—if not a dozen or more in cases like Mallee—in our electorates. Ours are small, rural councils with large geographical areas and small rate bases. Financial sustainability is not a whisper in regional Australia; it is the ongoing No. 1 agenda item for every council meeting. The President of the Australian Local Government Association, Matt Burnett, agrees, saying that this is the biggest challenge facing the sector with many councils 'at breaking point'. Their viability is at stake.”
“I move: That this House: (1) notes that: (a) fourteen months ago, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government referred the local government sustainability inquiry to the Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport because local government faced 'pressing issues' and that the inquiry was 'long overdue'; (b) local councils are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their financial sustainability, especially in the regions; (c) the President of the Australian Local Government Association, Matt Burnett, asserts that 'financial sustainability is the biggest challenge facing our sector' with many councils 'at breaking point after years of delivering more local services and infrastructure with less funding'; (d) the Government-dominated inquiry only delivered an interim report 11 months after it started, and the inquiry lapsed at the dissolution of the House of Representatives; (e) the inquiry's interim report made no recommendations; and (f) the interim report identified emerging themes including: (i) the significant expansion in the role of local government over time, much of which is due to cost shifting from other levels of government; (ii) calls for a review of the Financial Assistance Grants program, and in particular the distribution formula, quantum of the funding pool, indexation methodology, and the national principles; (iii) concerns by councils about the reliance on competitive grant programs requiring co-contributions; (iv) limits to revenue generation in some areas due to rate capping in Victoria and rate pegging in New South Wales; and (v) considerable skills shortages experienced by councils which are exacerbated in the regions; and (2) calls upon the Minister, as a first order of business, to refer the matter to the committee afresh to continue the unfinished inquiry and let it deliver a final report, for the sake of the 537 local councils and shires around the country.”
“I've been talking about it here, in the media, wherever I can, because these are the human stories, the Australian stories, the real people whose lives are being turned upside down by Labor rewiring the nation and bleeding the country dry for tax revenue. I will continue to stand and I will continue to fight through this parliament, the 48th Parliament, for the people who live in regional Australia so that they get a much better deal than they're getting right now.”
“To that end, I want to commend the Daily Telegraph and other media outlets like Sky News and organisations like the Institute of Public Affairs for joining me and my Nationals colleagues in giving a voice and a face to these farmers, the collateral damage—or, as Premier Chris Minns implied in that story, the sacrifice for Labor's agenda. For two days running this week, the Daily Telegraph has profiled farmers in the firing line of a wind project in Binalong and Bowning, and I can tell you that Emma Webb and her father Angus Oberg's stories from that farming community are all too familiar to me as the member for Mallee.”
“Councils are struggling to maintain their local roads, getting no funding from federal or state governments. The Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program the coalition established in government has ceased, and councils loved that program. It gave them money every year to spend on their priorities. Regional councils got more out of this program than city councils, so, yet again, we see Labor raiding regions to buy votes in the city by scrapping the program. Labor is bleeding regional Australia dry, pretending they don't exist so they can railroad their transmission lines and their turbines and raid farmers for money so they can celebrate more electoral triumphs in the inner city.”
“Labor seem to have forgotten the food supply shocks we experienced during the pandemic and as a result of natural disasters. The common theme here, whether it's railroading regional communities with utterly unachievable energy rollout targets or buying back water from farmers to please radical environmentalists, is that Labor puts our food security at risk. And the risks don't end there. We have had some level of bipartisanship with the government in acknowledging that local government is not sustainable. I have called and called again, as shadow minister for local government, for this government to resume the parliamentary inquiry into local government sustainability. My own councils in Mallee have dire sustainability issues, and this comes back to risk and, of course, local roads.”
“And let's not forget the Henry VIII clause, the power the Treasurer wants to give himself to tweak the dials harder to bring in even more revenue for Labor's reckless spending priorities without any checks or balances in this House. Make no mistake: this radical Labor government is determined to bleed Australia dry and then some more. Small businesses and farmers are the engine of our economy, but Labor only want their chosen winners—their union affiliates—to succeed and to increase in productivity in this country. Another example of horrible policy from this government is water buybacks in the Murray-Darling Basin. Our food security is in deep trouble. I was speaking with AUSVEG about this yesterday here in Canberra. We cannot assume traditional supply chains from overseas will continue to hold strong, as they once did.”
“Nowhere in the world has a government been as brazen as the Albanese Labor government in raiding money from people who are in drought—in drought! As farmers are telling me, they will have no option but to sell land to pay the new taxes every year with the new super tax. It is outrageous. Farmers are asset rich but cash poor. Wimmera farmer Ross Johns has asked: why is the government destroying the farming future of his 30-year-old son? And let's remember that Labor's raid on self-managed super funds won't end there. In question time yesterday, they would not rule out taxing the family home or family trusts. In their hubris and their triumph at outgreening the Greens, they've turned the politics of envy up to maximum and are raiding small-business owners and farmers for money that simply is not there.”
“Victoria's so-called emergency services and volunteers fund levy is a tax on land values, and it took the protests of farmers like those I've mentioned in Spring Street to get Labor to realise that there's a drought on in western Victoria. So, in their benevolence, they've given farmers just one year of reprieve. On top of that, the Albanese Labor government, with the Treasurer's customary smirk and shrug of the shoulders, say, 'Too bad, mate; we need your money.' They're now coming for farmers' unrealised capital gains. It's a simple and offensive proposition. Your farm value or your small-business value goes up, but that's only on paper. You haven't realised that gain. You haven't sold the business or the farm to earn that money, but Labor want to tax farmers and small-business owners for those gains every year.”
“If 68 per cent of my electorate is representative of the rest of regional Australia, that is millions of people who are not willing to put one dollar towards this energy transition, yet we know that Australians are already paying for net zero. Not only have Australians not seen the $275 reduction in energy bills repeatedly promised by the Prime Minister in the last term of government but electricity bills have increased by 32 per cent and gas bills by 34 per cent, driving the persistent cost-of-living crisis that is crushing household budgets. Labor are not content just to railroad regional communities to tick the boxes on their unachievable political targets for city votes; Labor—both the Albanese and the Allan governments—are raiding farmers for money too.”
“Mallee farmers, who are a down-to-earth bunch, know better than anyone that this drive towards net zero is an impossible task that will destroy not only pristine landscapes and prime agricultural land but the nation's economy and our livelihoods more broadly as well. The constituents survey I mentioned earlier highlighted that almost 60 per cent of respondents in Mallee oppose both the 2030 renewable targets and net zero by 2050. They prioritise affordability and reliability in our energy system and are not willing to pay a dollar—68 per cent of them, at that—to fund the energy transition. Think about that.”
“There is a relative scarcity in this country of prime agricultural land and a blatant disregard for agricultural value from both the state and federal Labor governments in their drive towards net zero. It is no coincidence that the Victorian state energy minister, Lily D'Ambrosio, visited Kerang and Wycheproof recently and that VicGrid's chief executive, Alistair Parker, was also in the region—both, at times, receiving justifiably prickly receptions. Farmers who object to the Victorian government representatives entering their properties without the farmer's consent risk a $12,000 fine for refusing access. This is a dystopian nightmare coming to life on Victorian farms. The newly legislated government controls over private property are unprecedented.”
“While I have long advocated that renewable energy and mining projects in the regions must have social licence and tangible community benefits, the emerging themes of a recent electorate-wide survey undertaken across Mallee suggest that the majority of respondents expect much more than just token community consultation as a mechanism for gaining social licence. They object to the imposition of energy or mining projects on farming land altogether and, indeed, would like a right of veto to these projects, as exists in Western Australia. I again reiterate the important role this part of Mallee plays in food production and therefore food security.”
“I also want to mention Ben Duxson, who generously hosted my event at his farm, also in Kanya, late last year, where I took the shadow treasurer, Ted O'Brien, then the shadow minister for energy, and the Victorian opposition shadow energy minister, David Davis, to hear from Wimmera locals about their opposition to renewable projects and especially the imposition of the VNI West transmission line. These people represent the many in Mallee and beyond who feel as though they have no voice. Communities in the Wimmera are facing the imposition of large-scale projects with a total lack of information transparency, token consultation and, therefore, a complete lack of social licence.”
“I encourage you to take a look at the wonderful way the Institute of Public Affairs has captured some of the stories of the people in communities across Mallee who are affected by this reckless renewable rollout in their video titled The Faces of Net Zero , released today. I commend those courageous people who were part of that project, and other leaders, for their tireless work and ongoing fight in their communities to protect their way of life. I would like to mention Marcia McIntyre, who features in the IPA video and whose farm in Kanya is in the line of the proposed VNI West transmission line. Marcia is a tireless advocate for her community.”
“These communities, my communities, many of them made up of multigenerational farming families, are sick and tired of their private-property rights being eroded, their land values and income-generating capacity being put at enormous risk, their children's future being played like pieces on a chess board and their communities being torn apart as neighbours are pitted against neighbours. As Andrew Weidemann of the Dunmunkle Land Protection Group, a farmer in Rupanyup in my electorate of Mallee, said at an event in Horsham last night, 'Net zero was meant to be about making the world a better place.' That is true. But I tell you what: in practice, on the ground, this policy is not making life better for people in Mallee or indeed improving the budgets of every Australian household. Check your latest energy bill.”
“While I applaud good policy and bipartisan commitments to defence, such as AUKUS, and to ensuring that our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is not used as a bargaining tool to fight US tariffs, there are too many examples of bad policy from the last three years under the Albanese Labor government that I must call out. This is my job. In my home state of Victoria, we have state and federal Labor governments who are zeroing in on my electorate of Mallee as a dumping ground for bad policy—namely, railroading and dividing small regional communities and farmers with unwanted wind turbines, solar panels and transmission line projects. This is all in the name of a 43 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050.”