Garth Hamilton
Groom · Liberal National Party · Australia
“Every parent wants better for their kids. That's why we turn up to work. That's why we save. That's why we drive them to piano lessons, take them to sports and put effort into their lives—because we want better for them.”
“I think these are terribly challenging things when we consider that. But part of the solution to dealing with these issues about making the future brighter is positioning our policy around our kids' future and reminding ourselves of the hard work that not only parents must do but governments must do to prepare that better future.”
“I don't blame that, because the thrust of the conversation was good jobs and good pay and finding the balance between those who wanted to invest and those who wanted to invest their labour, and then, between that, finding that balance to say, 'I want you to have your job; I want to protect your job, but I want to make sure that business i…”
“I talk to young kids about the impact of social media and what they see on a regular basis, what my kids see on a regular basis, and how that impacts them. We hear the challenges of social cohesion right here in Australia, let alone what's happening around the world.”
“on indulgence—With reference to the incident in the chamber yesterday, I would like to withdraw my statement. I would like to apologise to the House and to you personally, Mr Speaker. I would like to thank the member for Hunter and others opposite for their kind friendship during this period.”
“1 message I got back from them was that they were concerned about what was laid out in their future; they could not see the pathway to prosperity that had been laid out for previous generations—the way that they could have the same things that previous generations had. They didn't want to take it away from those who'd got there.”
The complete record
Every one of 208 lines we hold for Garth Hamilton, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 5.
“You were told that you were scaremongering, that you were trying to cut funds from disabled kids and that you were all about cutting services. That's what those opposite said. They said exactly that. I'm going to give two cases of this. There were certainly times when I was on the backbench that I enjoyed a frolic and I said what was on my mind, and I thought very strongly that I had to make a contribution to the national conversation about the NDIS because I was seeing it week in, week out. This program was blowing out, money was being wasted around Australia and, sadly, I saw evidence of it in my local community. Those who needed the support were not getting it, yet the money was still flowing. In 2024 I pointed out that the growth of the NDIS was unsustainable.”
“I am going to, however, change my tone a little bit. I'm going to ignore the advice of both Gallagher brothers and look back in anger because we have in front of us a program that has massive design issues. Its budget has spiralled out of control, and I think it has lost the confidence of many people across Australia. If this were a rail project, like Inland Rail, the government would cut it and run. I actually commend them for taking on the hard work of this project of trying to address reform. I wish they had the same vigour on Inland Rail. A lot of hard work has to be done. There was a time when you couldn't talk about the problems with the NDIS. You could not mention that this was a program that had massive funding issues and that was blowing out month on month. You couldn't talk about this. If you did, you were shouted down.”
“I'm going to start my contribution on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 by quickly thanking a wonderful person called Ruth Doyle, who works in my office and handles most of our NDIS issues. I'm sure that every person in this place has someone in their office who knows exactly who to call when we get those inquiries in from constituents who are having trouble getting onto the NDIS or working with a provider or finding the support that they need or just asking the first questions that one starts to ask when they realise there are issues that they need to face. Ruth has done a great job for my community over a long period of time, and I want to thank her for that. I hope she hears it. We often don't thank the ones at the front line in our offices.”
“My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Since 2022, have any Australian government agencies provided operational support to repatriate any of the ISIS sympathisers?”
“Every step of the way, up until a couple of weeks ago, this government promised, like the member for Blair said earlier, that they would fix this project, and we made those investments. Mr Albanese lied to us. He lied to our community, and he's taken a huge chunk of our future away from us.”
“'Is this going to be delivered?' 'Yes.' Those letters gave confidence to my community, and that $50 million was invested. That's just one company I'm talking about who made these investments on the back of promises from this government that have turned out to be absolutely worthless. I am furious. I've been here five years. I have sat at the door and on the kitchen table of everyone who's raised concerns about this project, right along the line. I have spoken to them. I've made sure that they've been dealt with properly by ARTC in some cases where they weren't. I have raised every issue that I could with the government of the day and with ARTC to make sure that we got everything lined up as best we could.”
“When we left office in May 2022, we had a contract signed to begin works from the border to Gowrie, which was up to that little point at that node. We had that contract signed. Work was ready to go. On the basis of that, InterLinkSQ have invested $50 million of their own money, private money, developing that land. You can go there today and you can see it's been levelled out. They've moved massive drainage pipes that were through there. They've established road networks into it. It is perfectly laid out to be the intermodal hub that would have really driven a large part of Toowoomba's future economy. In that time, I have written to the minister 31 times, asking, 'Is this going to be delivered, and when?' And, every time, the answer was, 'Yes, it will be delivered.' I wrote six separate letters to the Prime Minister and to the minister.”
“In, I think, about 2017—the member for Riverina may remember this better than me—we started looking at exactly how we'd bring this into Toowoomba, how we'd get the most benefit for Toowoomba and for the entire Darling Downs and for Queensland to be able to have that southern link feeding down into the Port of Melbourne. There was so much work that went into that. We can talk about the Wagners out at Wellcamp and the preparations they took there, but I'm going to focus on the people at InterLinkSQ. This is a business who established a block of land for an intermodal hub, and it's right on the western line, where the Queensland rail line runs east to west, from Brisbane all the way to the far border. There's a little nook in there where Inland Rail was going to come in, and they got that piece of land.”
“It started with a promise of something that we've been looking forward to in Toowoomba for over 100 years. I've got a book on Littleton Groom's speeches in this place. In the 1930s—1932—he started talking about inland rail. Of course, the Second World War took it off the infrastructure priority list at the time, and it fell away. But we saw the opportunity to connect the Darling Downs up with the southern states. That was the driving force. The first idea behind it was from men like Littleton Groom, who saw that opportunity and pursued it. So we've been talking about this for a long time.”
“If you want to see a project that had trouble, google Edinburgh light rail. It shut down Edinburgh for 18 months. No-one liked it. It was a dog's breakfast. It was a horrible thing. It blew out; the time blew out. It is now the most used light rail in Europe and beloved by the city. It does a great job. They pushed through. They had incredible challenges, but they pushed through. I want to thank the member for Riverina for his work stewarding the project. It's a difficult thing to do. Instead of running away, instead of giving up and instead of lying to the Australian people and saying they were going to deliver it and then walking out, he did the hard work of trying to get this thing to work, and I thank him for that. This project started with a promise.”
“It's always a pleasure to follow my friend, the member for Spence. I'm going to speak on this issue, firstly, as the member for Groom. Probably the city that is most impacted by this decision of this Labor government is Toowoomba. The benefit that we could have reaped from this project was huge. I'm also going to make a few comments, as someone who's had the pleasure of delivering three major rail projects around the world and has seen the challenges involved in delivering those, and make some reflections on this. One of the reasons I want to do that is to acknowledge the work of the member for Riverina. Do you know what? It's really easy to walk away from a challenge. It's really easy to give up on a project. I have seen rail projects delivered around the world. I think about the Edinburgh light rail.”
“So it's no surprise that already what we've seen in the Courier Mail 's lead-up and the press around the announcements that will be coming out tonight in our reply to this budget have been met with excitement across all Australians, particularly those two demographics. The idea that we will tie migration numbers to housing supply is sensible. It's a sensible response that says to Australians: 'We understand the pressures you're having trying to get into the housing market and what rent prices are doing to your standard of living. We want a fair go for Australians.' That's a very sensible, credible position. I'm looking forward to the rest of it in Angus Taylor's response tonight.”
“That's what I hear. I'm sure that every member of this House, when they go out and talk to those demographics in the community, hears the same thing. They want to see change on this. Unfortunately, in the budget last night, one of the things that I think particularly hurt both those demographics was that line on page 158 of Budget Paper No. 1 that said that the tax changes that were being brought about in that budget paper would result in 35,000 fewer houses being built by the private sector. That is not a fair go; that is making things worse for those groups. A conversation on tax changes is fine, but, if it results in a downward pressure on supply, that is a terrible outcome. It's an outcome that's going to hurt Australians.”
“We're a good country because we're good to each other. But in recent times things have changed. In part, I want to speak to one particular issue, which is the issue of immigration and its impact upon housing in Australia. I say that Australians don't ask for much. We just want a fair go. When it comes to access to housing, when it comes to affordability of rent in Australia, that fair go has been slipping away, particularly from the young generation, who just want to get on the property ladder, and from renting pensioners, who are in the golden age of their life and are watching those years get squeezed out as the cost of everything goes up and rents push up whilst they're on a fixed income. I think of those two groups in particular; I don't think they're getting a fair go. I don't think they're getting a fair go in Australia.”
“I want to start by thanking the previous speaker for the clarity and decency in which she has addressed that issue and called for unity. I thank her for her leadership on it. Australia has always been the place of the fair go. We don't ask for much in Australia; we're willing to put up with all sorts of hardships that are just part of our way of life. Whether you're like my side of the family that came in the Second Fleet or my wife's side who came after Second World War, everyone who's come here has looked to contribute to and be part of that process of giving a fair go to each other. When people need a hand up, we're there. We want to demonstrate that compassion for each other. I think it's such an important part of the Australian story. It's why people want to come here. It's why people want to migrate here.”
“It is the highest taxing budget. What has it done? It's done what all taxes do: it's taken away hope and ambition. I'll give you just one example. Page 158 of Budget Paper No. 1 reveals that 35,000 fewer homes will be built in Australia over the next 10 years because of these tax measures. That is a direct quote from their own budget papers. If you tax high, you kill off investment, and that is what is happening. For young people who are hoping that opportunities will grow for them on the housing ladder, no. Labor have just taken them away.”
“Madam Speaker, I don't need to tell you or any other member of this place just how tough things are out there in the economy at the moment, whether you're talking to businesses watching their cash dry up or charities finding it harder to raise the money they need to do the good things in our community. But two areas of the community that are really struggling are young people struggling to get on the property ladder and renting pensioners. Costs are going up everywhere for pensioners on fixed incomes, and they are hurting. In this context, Australia turned its eyes to the government, hoping they would deliver a budget that would provide some relief, some hope, a light at the end of the tunnel that would help them out. Instead we got the highest taxing budget ever delivered by a government since records have begun.”
“At no stage in their response did they suggest that this project was going to get cancelled. After all of that, here we are. This is a project that Toowoomba has been waiting for, has invested in and has built its future around. It was promised that it would come to us. The Prime Minister has just canned it and walked away. He didn't consult with us. He didn't talk to anyone who'd invested money in the project. He didn't talk to anyone locally. There was no consultation. He just canned it and walked away. We've heard some wonderful speeches here, all talking about the wonderful things Labor does. No-one on the Labor side has acknowledged that Toowoomba has invested significantly in this project based on the promises made by this Prime Minister that he has now broken.”
“When questions were raised about the cost of the project, I pointed out multiple times that the opportunity was there to pause the project at Toowoomba, where you would get 90 per cent of the benefits of the project, that most of the cost is between Toowoomba and Brisbane and that that's where most of the challenges, as raised by the member for Blair, come through. I made that suggestion, and I put it through many, many times. It was an important piece of discussion. I sent 31 questions in writing to the minister during the last four years, asking when this project is going to be delivered, when we will start seeing works and what things are holding it back. At no stage, in any of the 31 answers I got, was there ever a suggestion that this project would get cancelled. I wrote six letters to the Prime Minister.”
“We made that investment. I think of places like InterLinkSQ. This is an investment that's been made right on the connection between the east-west rail line that Queensland Rail own, and Inland Rail was going to intersect with it. They've invested more than $50 million of private money into preparing that site for Inland Rail. In the same area, there were grants given by local, state and federal governments of both sides over the past 10 years. The Labor government in Queensland contributed to that as well. And we got ready for it. We saw, at the 2022 election, a change of government, and the Prime Minister promised my electorate that this project would be delivered, that Inland Rail would be delivered. They said they needed to fix it, but they would deliver it, and at a no stage was there any suggestion this project would be cut short.”
“Of course, the war got in the way, but subsequent members have talked about it, and, under Ian MacFarlane, we started to get this thing going in consultation and working with the Labor government of the day. John McVeigh played a huge role in getting the project through, and I think about the work that was done in getting the project aligned with the Wellcamp airport. We have three major highways running through Toowoomba—the Warrego, the Gore and the New England—and, at each of those intersections, we started planning for Inland Rail. We had the Second Range Crossing come through—a $1.2 billion injection of infrastructure into our region that was lined up so that, when the Inland Rail came through, we'd have a great trucking route that would access the highways, to enable us to move freight from rail to road easily.”
“I pushed the minister of the time hard and I said some things that I probably should have considered a bit more deeply, but at no stage was there ever any doubt that it was our intention to deliver Inland Rail, to overcome the challenges, to work through them with our local communities and to spend the time that it took to get that job done. That was important to me because Inland Rail has been a dream for Toowoomba for some time. It was back in the 1930s that Littleton Groom, one of my predecessors in the role, after whom the seat is now named, first started talking about an inland rail coming up through to Toowoomba and connecting us with Melbourne.”
“I'm going to start with an apology to the member for Riverina. When I came into this place in 2020, he was the infrastructure minister at the time, and I was very hard on him. I was very hard, as a local member looking after my community that had Inland Rail running through it. We all saw the benefits, but it's difficult to deliver big infrastructure. I see the member for Blair, and he has equally raised the concerns of his community in the Lockyer Valley, and that's been important because local communities need to be represented when we deliver these big projects. They impact us. The impact is not just local; it benefits the whole nation. That's what nation-building infrastructure is about.”
“We've given him the answers. We've shown him the pathway, but he refuses to listen, and he's putting energy security last.”
“Here's a quote from that article: Energy Minister Chris Bowen has been the subject of deep internal criticism for what one senior Labor figure told me was his condescending style and failing to "meet the moment" with his language. That's accurate. That is pinpoint accurate. It goes on further: Albanese has now stepped in, standing next to him to deliver what have been daily updates about the government's handling of the fuel crisis. Not only does this minister get someone to come in and do his job for him—the fuel crisis coordinator; he also gets the Prime Minister to hold his hand in press conferences because he is out of touch. He is completely out of control on this issue. If there's one little adage that we can see from this, it's quite simply that you can lead Chris Bowen to water, but you can't make him think.”
“What Japan is doing in this fuel supply crisis is ramping up their coal-fired power stations because they want that cheap power. They know they need it. They know that's the way to get it. They're not afraid of saying the thing that is obvious. They're not afraid to say, 'The emperor has no clothes.' They are not afraid to say that coal is cheap and reliable and is an important part of the economy. But don't just trust me on this. I may have my criticisms of the minister's work, but nothing tops what we hear today in the ABC, in an article from PK, Patricia Karvelas. This is the ABC, the far-right-wing fearmongering media piece that it is!”
“It goes beyond wanting to see more investment in farming or mining. It talks to our national strength. There is no military industrial complex without an industrial complex. If we can't make things then we have no ability to supply a front line. The greatest deterrent that we can have against foreign aggression is our ability to supply a front line, and we have left that aside. We have decided that it's more important to follow the 'climate change' part of the minister's remit than it is to focus on energy. We are a little bit alone on this. The world's devotion to net zero and to focusing on climate change is shifting. We've seen that in the US, the UK and Canada and around the world. What are Japan doing right now?”
“We were sending our liquid fuel away. Of course, through this whole period, what we've seen from this minister is an attempt, always, to blame everybody else for what's been happening. At the start of this crisis, he said it was right-wing scaremongering that was causing the crisis. Then it was panic-buying. Minister, you cannot panic-buy from an empty servo. We have empty servos throughout my region and just to the west. That's what we're dealing with. That's what we're experiencing. This is an important conversation, because energy is the economy. Cheap energy is what drives national prosperity. We see that around the world. Other countries that are getting ahead of us and that are moving faster than us have cheap energy, and we've walked away from that. It goes beyond just wanting to bring back manufacturing.”
“We got a minister telling our farmers to work from home and buy an EV. That message went down very well in my community! They really appreciated that! They thought that was excellent! But why did we get this pretence from this minister? It's because, quite frankly, Chris Bowen is the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and he's big on the 'climate change' part. He wants to be president of COP31. He has put all of his attention into that. That's his focus. That's the international stage he gets to stride on. That's where he gets all the big pats on the back. But, when it comes to dealing with energy security and energy affordability, he has done very little to help this country. I point out that this is a minister who directed refineries in Australia to send liquid fuel that they were making here overseas.”
“Australia's fuel security remains dangerously exposed and, in moving this motion, I'm reminded of how long it took this government to accept the fact that we are in a fuel supply crisis. For weeks we were told there was no supply issue. We had that denial going on in this place in question time over and over again. What did we on this side of the House do? We laid out the blueprint for the response. We said, 'Simply look back to 2021 when we had the AdBlue crisis, when the coalition government forced the hand of the ACCC and forced the hand of the distributors to make sure that what was needed went to the people who needed it most.' We made sure that our trucks kept moving, our farmers kept farming and our miners kept mining. We did that, and we offered that blueprint. We said, 'Here's what to do.' Instead, what did we get?”
“I move: That this House: (1) notes that: (a) Australia's fuel security remains dangerously exposed, with the nation holding among the lowest levels of sovereign fuel reserves in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; (b) Australia imports over 90 per cent of its refined fuel, leaving critical supply chains vulnerable to geopolitical shocks, regional instability, and global market disruptions; (c) regional, rural and transport-dependent communities are disproportionately exposed to fuel supply disruptions, particularly in the heavy vehicle and agricultural sectors; (d) recent volatility in global fuel markets and the Government's failure to respond has massively increased costs for households and businesses, exacerbating cost of living pressures; and (e) the Minister for Climate Change and Energy has: (i) failed to deliver a comprehensive, whole-of-government fuel security strategy; (ii) prioritised the net-zero energy transition without adequately safeguarding short-term liquid fuel resilience; (iii) provided no clear contingency plan for maintaining diesel supply in the event of major import disruption; and (iv) failed to provide certainty or support to transport operators exposed to volatile spot market fuel pricing; (2) acknowledges that: (a) fuel security is a matter of national security, economic stability, and community resilience; and (b) reliable access to diesel is essential for freight, agriculture, mining, emergency services, and regional supply chains; (3) calls on the Government to: (a) urgently develop and implement a national fuel security plan, including increased onshore storage and refining capability; (b) provide targeted support to transport operators, particularly small and owner-driver businesses, impacted by fuel price volatility; (c) establish clear minimum stockholding obligations to meet or exceed international benchmarks; and (d) deliver transparent reporting to Parliament on Australia's fuel security position and preparedness; and (4) condemns the Minister for Climate Change and Energy for: (a) failing to ensure Australia's fuel security at a time of increasing global uncertainty; (b) neglecting the needs of regional Australia and the transport sector; (c) placing ideological energy priorities ahead of practical national resilience; and (d) being absent in a time of crisis, choosing to attend Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings instead of managing the crisis facing Australia.”
“We're trying to look after our communities and we have a government who won't do anything. I'm going to finish on one last point. The fair work amendment that they've brought forward may the best thing they've ever done. Who knows? They could have been struck by a fit of composure and put something that's actually worthwhile on the table. We've heard all about how they care about truckies; the only truckie in this place is over there. I care about that bloke. I care about his democratic rights to be able to scrutinise and debate a bill that's been put before the parliament. This has been an absolute disgrace from this government.”
“It was the only talking point that they could give when they were put under pressure and asked what they were going to do about the fuel supply crisis—'We're going to crack down.' So we said, 'Bring it on.' And the response, from a government whose integrity has been called into question time and time again and who refuse to stand and be held to account to the normal practices of parliament, has been absolutely disgusting. We've watched it here today. I go back to this point: the reason we called for the ACCC enforcement bill to be brought forward was that we come from communities where we're seeing these problems. We're talking to these people. We're hearing from business owners who simply cannot afford the additional cashflow that an extra dollar per litre is putting on them. That's why we called to bring this forward.”
“But we would like the opportunity to debate that bill—for it to go through the proper process. That's what we're calling for. That's what we're brought to this place to do—to debate bills and hopefully create a better set of rules for Australia to work within. Instead of that opportunity being given to representatives of communities like mine, this government decided to ram that bill through underneath the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill, which we support. We came here and moved a suspension of standing orders to bring forward this legislation that they had been sitting on and boasting about.”
“It was introduced with seven minutes of speech describing it—seven minutes of the government describing that bill. That's all we got. We had no opportunity to debate it. This hasn't been through any level of scrutiny whatsoever. That's the usual process, by the way: you introduce a bill, and then we go through debate later on. But what did Labor try to do when we asked them to bring forward this bill that they've been boasting about—beating their chests about how strong they were going to be—to crack down on these people who are taking advantage of Australians? What did they do? They used the most disgusting, cunning political techniques to try and ram through a bill that has nothing to do with this. It might be a good bill. There might be things in it that we like. We might agree to it.”
“It was only late on Thursday of the last sitting week that Minister Bowen admitted that Australia had a crisis. That word slipped out of his mouth, I think accidentally. That wasn't the plan; he was forced into admitting that after the pressure we applied to him. Since then, he's been talking very tough about what he's going to do to those who are price gouging, who are using this opportunity to hurt others. He's been boasting for two weeks about the ACCC enforcement bill that he was going to bring and that he was going to crack down on these people. But he sat on it for two weeks. So, this morning, we called on the government to bring that legislation forward. But just before that, at 9.15 this morning—less than two hours ago—another bill was introduced to this place: the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill.”
“I come from Australia's largest inland city, a beautiful part of the world—a place that you know well, Deputy Speaker Boyce. For weeks now, this fuel supply crisis has been hurting our community. On the border, out at Dalby, we saw petrol stations run dry. I heard from farmers in that area who had to stop their harvests midway through because they did not have fuel available to them. At Wyreema, we saw the pumps run dry. I heard from families who could not afford the extra fuel costs in driving out to see elderly parents; those trips were cancelled for the weekend. In Toowoomba, two petrol stations on Taylor Street were closed down; they ran out of gas. This has impacted our community terribly. At the start of this, Labor pretended there was no supply issue. They pretended there was no problem.”
“The path forward is simple, but it requires courage. We must rebuild our energy system around the core principles of affordability and security. That means using the resources we have: coal, gas and, where it stacks up, new technologies to deliver the lowest possible cost to households and businesses. The best cost-of-living policy you will ever see is cheap energy. Until we get that right, everything else will keep getting harder.”
“This is the weekly shop. And that's why, back in 2021, when Australia signed up to net zero, I took a different path—not because I don't care about the environment but because the engineer in me could see that this was heading towards a system built on higher costs, a system that weakens our industrial base and a system that makes Australia more dependent, not less. There is no strong country without a strong economy. There's no strong economy without low-cost, reliable energy. From steel to fertiliser and transport to manufacturing, energy sits underneath it all. If we want to ease the cost of living, rebuild our economy and be a country that makes things again, then we have to be honest about what's gone wrong. We cannot keep pretending that higher-cost energy will somehow magically deliver a lower cost of living. It will not.”
“We've built an energy system that's dependent on the weather, which means we now need to duplicate the entire grid with back-up generation, transmission lines and storage. That's not cheap. It's one system becoming two, and we're paying for them both. We've seen billions of dollars in subsidies flow into projects that cannot stand on their own, and those costs don't disappear. They're paid for, one way or another, by Australian households. We've created a system where industries—the businesses that make things, employ people and anchor our communities—are now paying some of the highest energy prices in the developed world. And that flows straight through to household budgets—higher fertiliser costs, higher freight costs, higher grocery prices and higher rents as a result of construction costs rising. This is not abstract.”
“Australians are right to be angry about the cost of living. They feel it every single day at the checkout and through their power bills, their rent and the cost of getting to work. When you strip it back, one truth sits underneath it all: energy is the economy. When energy gets more expensive, everything gets more expensive. Over the past few years, we've made a political decision to rebuild our entire energy system around emissions targets—not around cost, not around reliability and not around what works for Australian families. And that decision has consequences. We're forcing early coal-fired power plant closures before firming replacement is ready. That reduces supply. And when supply goes down, price goes up.”
“It's one of the best things on the show circuit because you get to watch the next generation of regional leaders come through. The showgirl circuit's been doing a wonderful thing in my region for a long time. It's an important part of our local communities, and it's a great way for young people to get the opportunity to speak out and to learn. The Toowoomba heritage show has been going for 165 years. It's the oldest event of its type. This is a great event. I want to thank everyone who's involved in it. I want to thank the community who gets behind it. Every year, we get people from right across the region turning up and supporting this great community event. It's one of the best things in Toowoomba.”
“It's show season on the Darling Downs. Last weekend, I went to the Oakey Show. I want to thank Judy Byers and all her team for the great show they put on. There is nothing bigger at the Oakey Show than the supreme grand champion bull. This year, Mr Jasper took it out. He's taken out titles in Pittsworth, Cooyar and Allora—a massive, massive beast. I haven't seen that much bull since the last election! He is a huge, big thing. But my favourite event of the show season, of course, is the emerging leaders breakfast at the Toowoomba show. This is a breakfast the subchamber put on with President Lyndall Neal, Secretary Lorraine Crothers and Treasurer Adele Saville. They put it on so that the showgirls and rural ambassadors get some great experience in leadership by standing up and talking to people leading their communities.”
“We are not building the structural advantages into our system of government as to why we would build an AI data centre in Australia. We do not provide cheap energy. The number one thing that will be needed, we don't provide. Until we do and until we make the firm decision that that's important to us and that we don't want to miss out on the next great leap forward that is happening around the world, we will fall behind; we will not win this race.”
“To which I would answer: South Australia's battery is charged by coal and gas from New South Wales and Victoria. We see those numbers from AEMO every single day. The cheap energy that Australia needs now and will need to get in front of the race for the development of AI data centres will come from things like coal and gas—and, goodness me, who knows, if we can get over ourselves and look around the rest of the world, maybe even nuclear. This is how the race is being won by other countries right now. We have a very short window to decide whether we actually want to be in that race or if we want to sit back and be bystanders and watch others take advantage. The only thing that we can offer at the moment is the stability of government. That's a good thing; of course, it's Australia's great advantage.”
“Regardless of the moral views that come out in the energy conversation, if we want AI data centres to be built in Australia then we're going to need to provide them with cheap energy, or they're going to have to provide it for themselves. That's the reality that is faced all over the world, and everyone we speak to who is interested in investing in data centres has a No. 1 concern: what is the cost of energy? This is not a technology that can rely on intermittent power. This is not a technology that can just run when the sun is shining or when the wind is blowing; this is technology that needs to run 24/7. If we don't do that, we will not have the advantage of it. Of course, there is the question that's obviously put forward: what about batteries?”
“They've gone from a time when they would actively ban the use of AI in any assessments to considering how to include the use of AI in the assessment of kids—knowing full well that the jobs of the future will be for people who can use AI, who can use it well and who can understand it in the same way those of my generation learnt how to use the internet and those of previous generations learnt how to use AutoCAD or whatever was the driving technological advantage of the day. AI is going to be a tool that we have to use, and we have to get into that race. It's as simple as that. I want to talk to what I think is the most important part of that conversation, which is cheap energy.”
“The countries that are able to best support the investment in data centres are going to have the most benefit. It's a very simple equation. And, given that drop in productivity, it's absolutely vital that Australia jumps into that race and leads it. I was recently speaking to the headmaster of Toowoomba Grammar School about the role AI plays in the education system there.”
“The Labor government will point to events that have happened outside this nation, we will speak to policy decisions that the government has made, and we can have that debate about the causes of that. The important point, though, is: what are we going to do about it? What is the government of the day going to do to address that incredible drop in productivity—over five per cent? We're blessed, in some ways, that at this time in Australia's history the opportunity AI presents has made itself available. We have to acknowledge that this is a race across the world. The people who want to build data centres that would support localised AI within each nation have constraints on their capital and are having to make decisions based upon where they can invest and who's going to support that the most.”
“It's a very important topic that we're speaking on—artificial intelligence—and I'd take a moment to acknowledge the member for Chifley, sitting opposite, and the contributions he's made to this and to my local manufacturing industry, which relies heavily upon AI and will continue to do so. So when I speak to this topic I'm speaking about local jobs. I think there are many people across the chamber who still focus on good jobs and good pay, and that's what should be driving this current debate. We have seen the largest drop ever in productivity in Australia since Labor came to government—over a five per cent drop. We could have an argument as to the causes of that.”