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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“Cropping land makes up 43 per cent of that north-west Victorian region. Mallee is an essential part of Australia's food bowl and a key to the country's food security. Why do I say that? Because the public policies developed in this parliament—and, of course, in the Senate—are not just words on paper to be filed away; they have a huge impact on people's lives every day, and that impact can be positive or negative; hence, I would like to reflect, over the course of my speech, on the importance of good policy and the perils of poor policy as they relate to constituents in regional electorates across the country, especially Mallee.”
“I don't think we spend enough time thanking our wonderful partners. My husband of 48 years, this year, is my rock and remains my rock. I rise today, this afternoon, in the very privileged position as the sworn-in representative of Mallee. I'm humbled that they bring their stories to life and that I have the opportunity to bring their stories to life in this House. Mallee extends, for those who don't know, from Maryborough in the south to Cohuna in the east, Edenhope to the west and Mildura to the north of Victoria. The electorate covers 83½ thousand square kilometres, over a third of the state of Victoria—if you look at it, it is quite frightening—and it boasts prime agricultural and horticultural land that grows stone fruit, grapes, vegetables, wheat, legumes, olive, almonds, dairy, sheep and beef, just to name a few.”
“Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I join my colleagues in congratulating you on your well-deserved election to Deputy Speaker for this House. As we begin the 48th Parliament, I am deeply aware of the honour that every member who sits in this House on both sides has in representing the electorates that they come from. It's a very serious position to take to be able to represent, in my case, the 130,000 people living in the region of Mallee. I want to thank all of those who spent their time, their energy, their money backing me for this third time to take up this position to represent the people of Mallee. I want to thank my family, of course; my staff, many of whom have been here this week and those back home in my two offices—two, given the size of Mallee; and especially my husband.”
“The Grampians typically attract between 1.3 million and 1.7 million visitors annually; however cancellations are now extending through to May 2025, and the projections of loss in that region are between $34 million and $103 million over the year. The sustainability of small businesses in the Grampians is my focus, and I plan to keep fighting for it.”
“As in other areas of public policy, market failure activates potential government intervention. The Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation was expanded in 2022 by the former coalition government to provide insurance for insurers of cyclone risk in northern Australia without the profit margin of the private market and with a risk guarantee provided by the government. While it's early days, there are signs the pool is starting to address its aims. It is time to look at this model in other Australian contexts. Spending in Halls Gap has dropped by 63 per cent since fires began compared to the same period last year. At the one-month mark, $13 million in business earnings had been lost. Can you imagine the desperation of those businesses? As the fires have persisted, an estimated $8 million further has been lost.”
“I am working continuously with locals, the insurance industry and my coalition colleagues to look at solutions to this emerging wicked problem. Under the Albanese Labor government, insurance costs across the nation have risen by 35 per cent. These fires, combined with the impact on global reinsurance markets of recent wildfires in Los Angeles, may push up insurance premiums further and make policies even less accessible. Insurance pricing requires accurate data regarding risks and mitigation strategies undertaken at the local level, but in Victoria there is no transparency around the performance of Forest Fire Management Victoria and other responsible agencies against mitigation targets—no transparency. There is market failure in bushfire insurance for Halls Gap.”
“Either all disasters are equal, or some disasters are more equal than others, or all Australians are equal but some are more equal than others. How can you read it any other way? All I'm asking for today is a fair go for all Australians affected by natural disasters. I want to go back to insurance. Insurance costs for some Halls Gap businesses have almost quadrupled since the Pomonal fires in February 2024, with one business paying $55,000 for public liability insurance, which even then does not cover external fire and does not provide business interruption insurance. There are 120 businesses—or there were—that simply cannot get insurance in Halls Gap even though there is no instance in history where fire has struck the Halls Gap township itself.”
“It has offered a business bushfire recovery grant of—wait for it—$5,000. That's it. There is also a business recovery advisory service that they're apparently spending somewhere in the vicinity of $20 million on. Who knows how that will operate? There are no $250,000 low-interest disaster assistance loans or $100,000 essential capital working loans. Why not? Under the former coalition government in 2020 we provided Victorian bushfire concessional loans of up to $500,000 to those who had, among other things, a significant loss of income due to bushfires that started on the 21 November 2019. Did Premier Allen in this instance simply not ask for that kind of support from the Prime Minister? We will never know. Plainly, the support is not the same for Victorians faced by bushfire as opposed to Queenslanders faced with flood and cyclone.”
“I don't know how much of that is a state government initiative and how much is DRFA, but it is the outcome that matters—and the inconsistencies. I'll come to what the Albanese government has offered Grampians businesses in a moment, but remember those figures of $250,000 in concessional loans for Townsville flood affected businesses and $100,000 in working capital loans. For those affected by Cyclone Alfred, the same disaster assistance loans of $250,000 and essential working capital loans of up to $100,000 are available. So in Queensland, under the LNP, there is the same outcome for flood affected businesses that lost income or are in hardship due to natural disaster. What has the Albanese government offered Halls Gap, Grampians and western Victoria fire affected businesses?”
“I was disappointed that ABC Central Victoria threw the question at me, 'Shouldn't those businesses just pay for it themselves rather than insurance for lost income?' It illustrates how disconnected the ABC has become from regional Australia. Fire insurance is not that easy to come by. Insurance companies run a mile from risk even though that is their job. Flood-affected Townsville businesses are eligible for concessional loans of up to $250,000 and concessional loans to support recovery and rebuilding to cover, among other things, loss of income and continuity of operations. Essential working capital loans are also available up to $100,000 to help businesses cover costs like salaries, wages, creditors, rents and rates.”
“Despite my repeated public calls and letters to the premier and Prime Minister about the Grampians fires, it took three months for equivalent DRFA funding to come their way—and I say 'equivalent' loosely. For Grampians communities, particularly Halls Gap, who lost their peak tourism season and in some cases one-third of their annual income, the critical question has been about financial support for lost income. If time permits, I will return to the topic of insurance, but businesses have been unable to afford or secure business interruption insurance in the event of fire. Hence, they have turned to the DRFA.”
“Before I go into detail, let me put on record my appreciation to the Minister for Emergency Management, who made herself available during the Grampians and Little Desert bushfires and worked constructively with me on many of the matters I am raising today. The Allan Victorian Labor government has been utterly incompetent in its handling of communities affected by bushfires like Halls Gap in my electorate. Disaster recovery funding arrangements—or DRFA for short—require a premier or chief minister to write to the prime minister seeking DRFA support. When flooding hit Townsville earlier this year, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli was very quick in seeking DRFA support and got it within weeks.”
“That is why, as the member for Mallee in north-west Victoria, ravaged by bushfires over the Christmas New Year's period in the Grampians and across the Little Desert region, I can say my constituents are also raising their eyebrows or even expressing their unhappiness—and I think that's putting it mildly—that they are not getting the same treatment as those in Queensland. Bushfires in the Grampians region began in December 2024, resulting in a period of evacuation and closure of towns to tourists. But category D funding, under the combined federal-state disaster recovery funding arrangements, was not announced until 11 March—almost three months later.”
“What my constituents in Mallee have also found remarkable is that what was meant to be called Cyclone Anthony—for reasons that may be uncontroversial, or maybe they are—to avoid embarrassment to the Prime Minister, was renamed Cyclone Alfred. That change has raised the eyebrows of quite a few of my constituents. Had it been Cyclone Peter, would the name have changed? We will never know. My concern today is about the federal emergency management arrangements for regional Australians. Despite a royal commission on these matters, we seem to still have inconsistencies in how regional Australians are treated depending on the type of disaster and the state they live in.”
“I have a few things to say about natural disasters today, and I begin by acknowledging the devastation to Queensland and— A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 11 : 28 to 11 : 44 I have a few things to say about natural disasters today, and I begin by acknowledging the devastation to Queensland and New South Wales by what was severe Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which claimed at least one life and caused serious injuries, including a road collision involving Australian Defence Force personnel during the height of the storm. The storm was remarkable because it hit the heavily populated South-East Queensland area, which is not unprecedented but has not happened for a very long time.”
“They want you to forget that, and here they are again with the parlour tricks, extending energy bill relief of $75 for two more quarters. Wow!”
“Those opposite have locked up aspirational Australians, taken away their housing affordability and locked up their food affordability as well. Australians' wages no longer buy what they once did at the supermarket. Leaving aside for one moment this government's inaction on the major supermarkets and price gouging, let's look at the food price hikes under Labor. Bread is up over 20 per cent, cheese is up 18 per cent, milk is up 17 per cent and breakfast cereal is up 15 per cent. Add to that cost-of-living pressures like mortgage repayments, which are up 41 per cent; gas prices, which are up 32 per cent; and rents, which are up 17 per cent. Electricity bills are up by $1,300, not down by $275 like Labor promised 97 times before the last election.”
“Well, what does this tricky Labor government have to say to struggling Australians who are $50,000 worse off under their leadership? What cost-of-living relief do they have for them? Well, hang in there. In 462 days, Labor will give you 70 cents a day. That's the generosity—the cruel hoax—of Labor's so-called cost-of-living relief for those struggling today under Labor's homegrown inflation crisis. If Labor were a prison warden, that would be a crumb flicked to the inmates for their daily meal. It gets worse. Labor rattle the bars as they strut to the election thinking they are so generous—so brilliant. But the Australian people, particularly regional Australians, are the inmates trapped after three years of 'hard Labor' in the Prime Minister's homegrown cost-of-living crisis and unable to escape.”
“But Mallee constituents have been held back, with no mobile towers and crumbling, dangerous roads, railroaded by the Albanese government's Rewiring the Nation agenda to cover Mallee in a spider's web of transmission lines, a pincushion of wind turbines and a series of mineral sands mining proposals, all emboldened by an Albanese government that is leaving farming communities behind or, worse, walking all over them. It is holding farming communities back, and, I've got to say, they are distressed. Labor are trying to convert Mallee into an industrial wasteland, taking away its primary industry: a sustainable, productive, agricultural industry. All they think is 'out of sight of the inner cities, out of mind'.”
“We aim to be on the other side of the House, and we will get a good look at how bubbly this thought bubble actually was. But, when you consider that Labor couldn't even deliver on their own selective black-spot fund for Labor electorates, committed to before the last election, how will they be able to deliver for the rest of regional Australia? Labor couldn't even deliver under the selective improving-mobile-coverage round in several parts of Eden-Monaro or in parts of Robertstown, Braddon or Macquarie. Mr Albanese's slogan before the election was 'No-one left behind, no-one held back'.”
“That doesn't sound like inside your house, unless you put in a skylight, take the roof off or cough up more money for another device so you can get the same signal people enjoy at no additional cost in, say, Blacktown. Some would argue that the right to communicate, including telecommunications, is a basic human right. Somehow, I feel this UOMO business isn't an attempt to tip the hat to FOMO or UFOs but to another acronym: USO, the universal service obligation. We have it with public utilities, where people pay the same price and get effectively the same service, wherever they live in Australia. We will have to wait and see if yet another enhancing consumer safeguards bill emerges to hold telcos to the UOMO as well. Nonetheless, I sincerely hope that this work is the work of the future coalition government in May.”
“And they say UOMO will be implemented by late 2027, a bit like Labor's electric car and greenhouse gas emission projections. But I digress. UOMO apparently depends on identified flying objects, the low-Earth-orbit satellites, and direct-to-device technology allowing phones to be satellite phones. It sounds pretty straightforward. But, given the experience my constituents had with the bungled and stumbling 3G shutdown, how much more are regional Australians going to be asked to fork out to upgrade their handsets to UOMO? Will government and/or their telco give them a new handset? The minister spruiked UOMO, saying you will have a signal almost anywhere that Australians can see the sky.”
“Is it like FOMO, even though regional Australians cannot avoid missing out? Or is UOMO a man, which is apparently what 'uomo' means in Italian? Is it a bird, a plane or a bar of signal? No; a UOMO is the Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation. I think, given my constituents' experience with Optus at Buehler, the 'outdoor' word must be important. You need to be on the verandah, not inside the house. I know this government has been eager to claim that the Leader of the Opposition is having thought bubbles, but you really have to ask how bubbly this thought is from Minister Rowland. I hope she can fill us in. The government announcement is that legislation will be introduced this year. Well, with the election imminent, we're already effectively halfway through the year.”
“When we talk about safeguards for consumers, let's talk about all consumers, including regional Australians. I do go back to the Prime Minister's statement when he was elected that not one Australian would be left behind. Well, I'd say—woohoo!—the Mallee are included. On black spots for regional Australians, I note that West Wimmera Shire put a number of submissions to the Round 8 Project Noticeboard, and Pyrenees Shire put in one for the CFA tower at Moonambel. I'm asking the minister to bring us a guarantee that a funding round will proceed and that this successful program will keep going as the Mobile Black Spot Program into the future. Regional Australians have no such confidence in this Labor government. This brings me to the fanfare of the Albanese government pointing up in the sky and saying, 'Look up there—a UOMO!' What is a UOMO?”
“I implore the telcos to keep working on solutions that ensure equal access to reliable and phone and internet service for all people in Australia. So my constituents, with my electorate covering one third of regional Victoria, were those lacking safeguards from this government when it came to the 3G shutdown. This bill is, after all, about consumer safeguards, and as I've said, what greater safeguard can you have than reliable mobile service in locations where you could encounter an emergency, like home? Indeed, as we recently experienced in devastating bushfires in Little Desert and the Grampians, let's remember, too, that Labor have not financed a single mobile tower in Mallee in this term of office—not one. I've lost count of how many we financed when in government.”
“I do ask the minister, while we are here, to bring to the House a government position on the 3G signal shutdown, because the anecdotal view from my constituents is that the mishandled 3G shutdown has now seen regional mobile telecommunications signals worsen, not get better. I dare the Albanese government to call regional Australians stupid, because there was a surge in complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman between October and December. That's 13 per cent more than in the previous quarter, including 190 complaints about the 3G shutdown in October, which rose to 566 in November. To quote the ombudsman, Cynthia Gebert: It is encouraging to see the drop-off in 3G shutdown complaints in December, yet we are continuing to hear from people in rural and regional Victoria who are facing ongoing challenges.”
“I got onto Telstra about that, and I am liaising with them to get some bars of signal back to Buehler. Incidentally, one lovely lady at the Buehler mobile office said, when asked about her Telstra signal, that hers is fine because she's with Optus! But then she mentioned, 'It's only okay on the verandah, not inside the house.' Were she, say, to have a fall and her mobile phone be the only communication device handy, how would she get out onto the verandah? This is the lived experience in regional Australia, particularly in rural and remote towns. Their signal is patchy at best.”
“I remember all too well in 2019, the year I was elected member for Mallee, listening to distraught community members after the Beulah supermarket burnt down. I sincerely hope that we can get into government and get that supermarket built. Shortly after announcing the Coalition's funding commitment to Buehler supermarket, I went to the Buehler convenience store, the business centre which was once a hospital, to see the great job of repurposing that into a temporary supermarket. I note that money raised from the film The Dry has helped chip in financially to help keep Buehler's temporary store going. I sat down in the business centre for a mobile office, and the first comments from everyone who came to speak with me were the same: 'Can you fix my phone signal?' Even my team and I onsite had trouble holding a mobile signal in the town.”
“Our roads are increasingly more dangerous, and we have had some bushfires this summer, so good mobile coverage for emergency situations is critical. I went for a chat with Telstra with constituents at the Wimmera Machinery Field Days, and to their credit Telstra representatives were only too happy to help. The following Thursday, 13 March, I was in the district again holding mobile offices, and it was my absolute pleasure to be at Beulah in Yarriambiack shire, standing alongside Mayor Kylie Zanker and community members Shaun Thompson and Graeme and Jenny Turnbull from the Beulah supermarket action group, with many others, to announce that a coalition in government will provide $1.392 million to complement the $130,000 Shaun and the community have raised themselves to rebuild their supermarket.”
“When it comes to safeguards for consumers, I want to talk about the frequent contact my office has with Telstra, including at the recent Wimmera Machinery Field Days at Dooen, just north of Horsham, where I had the opportunity to meet with many, many locals with just as many issues and concerns. I took constituents who came to talk with me about their Telstra issues down to the Telstra stand and raised one or two of my own. After all, I drive the length and breadth of the 83½ thousand square kilometres of my electorate and encounter many mobile black spots. Sometimes you even hit one at the same place as a bitumen black spot—that is, a pothole—which are opening up on our neglected Mallee roads. That is a case in point, actually.”
“The Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025 has some worthy aims. It seeks to ensure telecommunications businesses do not treat consumer protection provisions and specifically their penalties as a cost of doing business. Consumers ought to be treated with respect, and from the perspective of the Nationals, especially in regional Australia, this bill would allow ACMA to directly enforce industry codes and increase the penalty amounts for infringement notices and civil penalties. By the by, this parliament passed legislation by the same name last May for consumers affected by the statutory infrastructure provider, SIP, scheme.”
“There are also some very happy farmers who have been public in their support for what is happening and appear, at face value, to genuinely believe renewable energy infrastructure has placed them, their families, and their farms and businesses in a better position. But how many people, like me, have cried alone feeling like they were cut off from their support people by a rollout binding them to dealing with life-changing decisions in lonely and isolating circumstances? … Thank you …”
“But I have also been present in a roomful of angry people and wondered if some of those bearing the brunt of this public vitriol felt as sick as they looked, only to eventually realise I was the one feeling sick. I have hated seeing and hearing people turning on one another in desperation and divisional defence of their own positions. We all need each other right now. We need one another's kindness more than ever. We need one another's respect. We need to value ourselves and our communities, no matter what is happening around us. I have needed to hear myself acknowledge that no matter how much understanding I have shown for the process of what is happening, there have been times when I was very far from okay. I think the collective voice that many farmers are not happy has been heard.”
“Suppression of truth always has a cost somewhere. The suicide statistics of farmers suggest this is one population that has nothing left to cover that cost. She says: I have witnessed good people on both sides of the debate forget their most basic human kindnesses in the midst of all of this. Is this really who we are? This behaviour is not a reflection of what has bonded rural communities together over a long time. We have become what we are by supporting one another through hardships, and banding together in the toughest of times. I continue to see the most incredible advocacy and a beauty in unity that perhaps some of rural Australia has never before known.”
“She goes on: The government spends millions of dollars on mental health campaigns encouraging people to ask one another "are you okay?", and yet when the farming community is crying out—in the best voice they know how—that they are very much not okay, the response has been to treat them like dangerous extremists. This hurtful hypocrisy, and the emotions that flare as a consequence, are polarizing and dividing our communities. Kate says: I have sat in community groups where people are too afraid to even consider applying for windfarm grants because of the potential for angry divide amongst the people they are trying to represent. Some groups would simply rather have no money. I want to be able to exist in my local area where people are free to speak openly and honestly about the things affecting them and their families.”
“She goes on: How on earth did I allow myself to be controlled to the point where I cried alone for weeks because I felt I couldn't speak to my own parents about the sale of a neighbouring farm that belonged to my own family? I had a basic human need to talk to the people I love and a piece of paper prevented me from feeling worthy enough to do so. She goes on: The microtrauma of the constant presence of ever-encroaching infrastructure involving regular and unpaid interactions with paid liaison personnel is draining and costly. We know that trauma has lasting effects. What is happening below the surface that we are yet to see in a measurable health sense in rural areas?”
“I have experienced within myself, and witnessed in my family, my friends, and my community the mental anguish that is becoming synonymous with renewable energy. The political paraphernalia sold to those in the city is peppered with catch-cries of saving the planet, but at present, this seems to be at any expense to the wellbeing of the people. Are the people not the planet too? The structure of the current system allows private companies to approach landholders, encourage them to make life-changing decisions, and then have them sign confidentiality agreements preventing them from discussing these decisions with close family, friends, or neighbours. This is not nurturing the mental health of rural people.”
“In my limited time I want to tell you what Labor is doing to regional Australia through the words of a constituent of mine, Kate Vance of Landsborough West. Kate came up to me at the Wimmera field days recently. By her own admission, she isn't political. It was only when she opened her mouth to speak to me that she broke down in tears with her children at her side. It was when Kate, a deep thinker, actually verbalised the impact of Labor's railroading of regional communities for its dystopian vision of the nation that the tears started flowing. This is what she had to say: I do not wish to take sides in the renewable debate. I believe most people, rightly or wrongly, make the best decisions they can. I can speak only for what my own lived experience has been, viewed through the eyes of my passion which is health.”
“Mallee residents have had to pay for alternatives or have lost productivity due to poor mobile coverage. Productivity is also evaporating in Mallee farms in the north as Labor wastes taxpayer money buying more water from our food-producing irrigators just to send it down the river, driving up the cost of water and ultimately the cost of food at the supermarket. Fruit prices have already risen 12 per cent under Labor. Where will they go with less water to grow it with in another three years of an Albanese government? Spending in my electorate after three years of hard Labor has fallen by 95 per cent, one-twentieth of what I secured in my first term in office. Everywhere you look, Labor is robbing regions to buy votes in the inner cities, pretending Australians will fall for their tricky budgeting to get over the line this election.”
“Of course, we in the Nationals are committed to divestiture powers as a last resort to put an end to price gouging. That's what real action on the cost of living looks like. The Albanese Labor government pretends it never said 97 times before the last election that power prices would permanently come down by $275. They've put forward in tonight's budget two $75 relief payments for two quarters, a bandaid for a gaping wound. But voters are smarter than that. They know their power prices have actually gone up $1,300. The list of pain for Australians, particularly regional Australians, after three long years of Labor goes on. In the coalition's time in office we secured 43 mobile black spot investments in Mallee, in places like Kalkee, Laharum, Minyip and Toolondo. But Labor has not funded one mobile tower in its three years.”
“The Nationals have been urging for action at the supermarket check-out to assist struggling Australian shoppers and farmers, but this government has yet again been slow to act. Grocery prices have gone up 24 per cent, compared to all other goods and services at 22 per cent. Critically, by early 2023, grocery prices were increasing at twice the rate of wage growth. The coalition has been proposing tough action on supermarkets that abuse their market power, including tough new penalties, such as a $2 million on-the-spot fine, 10 times more than Labor have pledged, and increased powers for the ACCC to conduct random audits of major supermarkets. We will create a supermarket commissioner as a confidential link between farmers and suppliers so there can be no fear of retribution, which they currently face, for speaking out about unfair prices.”
“My constituents in Mallee are hopping mad about it, and they are very happy that the Leader of the Opposition has put insurers on notice to ensure insurance is affordable and accessible for Australian families and small businesses. I will be bringing Andrew Hall from the Insurance Council to Halls Gap next week to meet with constituents—business owners who've been unable to access or afford fire insurance, even though Halls Gap itself has never been burnt in a bushfire in all its history. The Leader of the Opposition, at my invitation, came to Halls Gap to talk about insurance, in contrast with the Prime Minister and Premier, who flew over the town in its time of need. Australia's cost-of-living crisis has been running for three years.”
“After three long, hard years for Australians, relief is soon at hand with the federal election in the wind. Regardless of what you'll hear tonight, the facts don't lie about the very real struggle Australians have under the Albanese government. We warned at the last election, 'It won't be easy under Albanese,' and it has proved to be far worse. In fact, Australians simply cannot escape. The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that gas prices are up 32 per cent; rents are up 17 per cent; bread is up over 20 per cent; cheese is up 18 per cent; milk is up 17 per cent; and breakfast cereal is up 15 per cent—it's enough to make you choke on your Weet-Bix. It's no joking matter, however, with insurance also up 32 per cent.”
“As a result of this activist driven political agenda, masked with two-faced lies, Victorian farmers feel they are being shut down like their colleagues in Western Australia. Green activists—who will be holding Labor to ransom if they hold the balance of power in a minority government post the election—promote cruelty to farmers and sheep. But the Nationals will not stand for it.”
“I rise this afternoon to call out inner-city green activists who are seeking to destroy farming in this country. Western Victorian farmers have worked the land for generations but are being put out of business by the ideological protection of dingoes and wild dogs, which cruelly attack, gut and leave sheep to die a slow death—until farmers find them and give them the bullet the dingoes should have had. Farmers are powerless to protect their livestock from this shocking fate. This hypocritical position—where wild dogs are seen as endangered, with no scientific evidence, and sheep are left to die in pain—beggars belief. Astoundingly, animal activists are dead silent on the mutilation and torture of livestock.”
“Yet, this government not only wants to spend taxpayer money to enable additional families to access child care whether or not they are working or have other reasons for benefiting from the care but is not addressing the core issues at hand in rural and regional Australia, of improving access to care in communities where it is just not available.”
“The last time Labor was in government, the cost of child care skyrocketed by 53 per cent in six years. Almost one in three services are charging above the fee cap as providers struggle to keep up with the rising regulation and operational costs. Australia's budget is under immense pressure. The activity test plays an important role in encouraging workforce participation and creates a stronger culture of self-sufficiency among those who can and should support themselves. The activity test is not unfair. Rather, it ensures that the taxpayer funded childcare subsidy is targeted, that government funds are applied in a targeted manner.”
“Labor's three-day guarantee does nothing for families who chose to remain at home and raise their children until primary school, or families that use flexible arrangements such as grandparents or nannies by choice, all because centre based care arrangements or family day care don't meet their needs adequately. The bill also does nothing for parents who need flexibility, such as families who do shift work or who work non-standard hours—healthcare workers. Again, these hardworking families will not benefit from this change. The families who aren't working, studying or training will. Now, to affordability. Some sections of the community have labelled the three-day guarantee a cost-of-living measure, but in reality it is nothing of the sort. Since Labor came to office the cost of child care has increased by 22.3 per cent.”
“This government has a track record of deprioritising the needs of rural and regional Australians by making schemes that were previously targeted at rural and regional issues less targeted, diluting the needs of rural and regional people against all groups with unique or increased need, as if to deny the challenges experienced—or, as I have put multiple times in this place, robbing regions to buy votes in the inner cities. Labor does not have rural and regional Australia's backs when it comes to so many public policy issues, including equitable access to child care. Let me now discuss flexibility. Families have a right to chose what their work and family life looks like, and the coalition respects this choice.”
“It does nothing to increase access or flexibility for families and does not address current cost-of-living pressures. Of particular note is the fact it does nothing to help solve the unique problems faced by rural and regional families like those in my electorate of Mallee. Over the last three years Labor has failed to meaningfully address supply-side constraints. They argue their $1 billion Building Early Education Fund policy will boost supply, but history tells us they will not be able to deliver, especially outside major cities.”