Andrew Willcox
Dawson · Liberal National Party · Australia
“I recently was honoured to visit the wonderful Domenica in the Burdekin, who celebrated her 100th birthday. To hear her deeply moving story of her arrival in Australia as a nine-year-old was amazing.”
“We all know Whitehaven, the best beach in the world, was completely robbed, but we'll let them off the hook this time with a cheeky warning. If you head further down south in Dawson to Yalboroo in the Mackay region, you can find Hold It Flats, which took out a well-deserved second place for the best camping and four-wheel-drive spot.”
“In our local businesses where you can get warmed up, Mal's Pies and Pastries in Oonoonba took out silver, fuelling an army of tradies for 30 years with beaut pies while also backing our community.”
“As a former tomato farmer, I know firsthand that the agricultural sector would be completely lost without the visas that allow international workers to fill critical gaps. Without them, crops would literally rot on the ground.”
“Giving a family a $5 weekly tax cut when their mortgage has skyrocketed by thousands of dollars is like tossing a glass of water onto a roaring bushfire. By continually fuelling government spending, the Albanese Labor government continues to stoke the inflation fire. Let's be real; $5 in this economy doesn't even cover a cup of coffee.”
“Under the Albanese Labor government, this delicate balance has collapsed into chaos. Labor's migration numbers have been far too high, and the entry standards have been far too low. The government allows unmanageable numbers to flood our capital cities, putting immense pressure on housing and infrastructure.”
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“Well done to the coalition. This is the power of strong opposition. I'm proud to be part of a coalition that is restoring our standard of living and protecting our way of life. The coalition has turned the tide, resulting in actual action at the bowser. We have secured a fair go for Australians. We've slashed the tax and we've given our families back their Easter holiday they so much deserve. Thanks for finally listening Labor, and thanks so much to the coalition for holding this Albanese Labor government to account.”
“Thud—well, that is the sound of my jaw hitting the floor of this chamber because, for the first time this year, the Labor government has actually listened. We went from an energy minister who claimed there was no crisis to a government that has finally listened to the coalition. Finally, sense has prevailed over madness, because when fuel prices soared, they told struggling families to buy a $60,000 electric car. When power bills increased by 40 per cent, they told families to spend a lazy 20 grand on a battery. But today the brutal reality of a family budget has finally smashed through the Canberra bubble. I'm proud to be part of a coalition that refused to back down. We stood firm. We held this government to account and we forced those opposite to do the right thing for the Australian people. The fuel excise is halved.”
“A partner that demands our names, limits our growth and controls our environment is not a partner; they are a predator. This government should have demanded a deal that respects the hard work of the Australian people. I will never accept a future where our producers are forced to beg for scraps at a table that they built.”
“They now have the power to suspend trade preferences based on their own arbitrary definitions of environmental standards. It is a sell-out of our national interest to allow foreign entities to police our land management and our resource use. The member's motion talks about strengthening partnerships in turbulent times, but a partnership built on capitulation is no partnership at all. We are told that no deal would have been a failure, but VFF president Brett Hosking said it best when he said 'no deal would have been better' than this embarrassment and that 'we've been hung out to dry' for the sake of a photo opportunity. This government has chosen ideology over image, over the prosperity of our people who actually feed and clothe this nation.”
“Labor has decided that a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels should have the power to dictate what we will call our food in our own country, so we will lose the rights to names like feta, gruyere and romano and to accept a measly 10-year reprieve for prosecco. It's a total betrayal of our culinary industry. It sets a dangerous precedent—that Australia is a nation that can be frankly bullied into anything. Perhaps the most sinister part of this motion is the hidden green tape. The Albanese Labor government has allowed this trade deal to be used as a back door for climate activism. By making binding commitments to the Paris Agreement within this free trade agreement, Labor has given the EU a lever to interfere in our sovereign affairs.”
“It is an insult to the hardworking cattle men and women of Dawson, who have been asked to compete with one hand tied behind their backs. It gets even more absurd when you look at the trade imbalance being forced upon our dairy industry. Australian Dairy Industry Council chair Ben Bennett has pointed to the stark reality: we are looking at nearly a billion dollars of subsidised EU imports flooding into our shelves while we struggle to scrape together $29 million in exports to them. How is that free and how is that fair? It is a one-way street that leads to the destruction of our local producers. We are giving up established commercial freedoms for the sake of a diplomatic trophy, and it is our farmers who are forced to pay the price. Then we come to the arrogance of geographical indicators.”
“Instead, we've watched as the Labor government walked into a room with professionals and behaved like amateurs. CANEGROWERS CEO Dan Galligan said that to only secure an additional 35,000 tonnes of sugar quota, which is less than two per cent of Europe's import requirement, is 'laughable'. He was right to call this 'a horrendous outcome'. When Brazil and its partners walked away with a deal four times larger, it was clear that this Labor government has locked our growers into a subpar deal for the next generation. The National Farmers' Federation has been crystal clear, saying, 'Our producers will be paying the price for this capitulation for decades.' Look at the red meat sector. Cattle Australia chair Gary Edwards described this EU trade deal as an 'appalling result'.”
“The member for Hunter stood before this House and painted a picture of promised lands and open doors, but, for the farmers of North Queensland, the reality is that they've been left shivering on the welcome mat. We're told that this agreement opens a $30 trillion economy. Yet, when you look at the fine print, the only thing that's been opened is our own flank, to heavily subsidised foreign competition. This is not a free trade agreement; it is a national surrender. And to call it success is to deliberately ignore the pain that it will inflict on regional Australia. In my electorate of Dawson, sugar is the lifeblood of our towns. We are the largest cane-growing region in the country and we expected that our government would fight for the people who feed this nation.”
“The Australian people deserve a parliament that acts with transparency instead. We're being blindsided by a government that refuses to allow time for consultation. How are we meant to speak with the independent fuel providers when the government rushes legislation through in the dark of night? It is a fundamental truth that we cannot have a functioning democracy without scrutiny, but this government seems to believe they have the numbers and can just shake us down. Doubling the penalties for the ACCC is not going to be a success. Let's make sure the government enforces what's there— (Time expired)”
“It's so important that the fuel flows to the regions because that's where the royalties come from, that's where the food comes from and that is the heart of Australia. What we're witnessing here is a fundamental failure of logic and leadership from this government. They've dumped an amendment to the legislation on the desk and demanded that we blindly support two bills. This is a government that expects this House to rubberstamp their agenda without even a single second of proper scrutiny. It is an insult to the Australian people. We're facing a national emergency, yet we're being forced to debate these bills together—a double-or-nothing legislative gamble. These are mafia tactics from a government who are clearly taking their tips from the CFMEU—speed over substance, power of people.”
“They're struggling under the Albanese Labor created cost-of-living crisis, and, now, the extra price gouging that is happening from fuel is just adding insult to injury. We're seeing price increases of up to 40 cents in a day, and it keeps going. We're seeing fuel on the outskirts of Mackay now at $3.25 per litre, and that is simply not sustainable. You hear talk from those opposite that there might be some rationing. Rationing in rural and regional Australia simply will not work. If you put $40 in the tank, then that's not going to get you very far. In my electorate, that's over 400 kilometres long, they'll be chasing fuel station to fuel station. People will be driving around, burning diesel or burning petrol, just looking for where they can buy their next bit of petrol. It just simply does not work.”
“I just don't think it's happening. Then, all of a sudden, we're going to double the penalties for something that's not even happening. That's why the coalition put in place and launched yesterday No Fuel Here. You can go to www.nofuelhere.com.au. That is a live reporting tool that everybody can jump on and say what service stations are out of fuel. We were told by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy yesterday that there were over 500 service stations that didn't have fuel. Again, I definitely think there's a distribution problem if we don't have a supply problem, but I believe it's both. By launching www.nofuelhere.com.au, this will put power into the hands of constituents, who can then report, and it will be a live tool. The residents in Dawson are struggling.”
“I rise to speak to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill 2026 and the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill 2026. But I am a little bit confused about this. My question is: where did this come from? This just shows how this government is struggling. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy stood up here and said there are no fuel supply issues. As a matter of fact, he even got up and said that Australia has more fuel supply in the country now than before the Iran incident. That is absolutely amazing. So we don't have a supply issue; we must have a distribution issue. On doubling the penalties for ACCC enforcement, my question would be: how much enforcement has been had by the ACCC so far? Can anybody point to me how many people have been prosecuted? Anybody? Crickets!”
“"The market access Australia has achieved is extremely small—less than 2% of Europe's import requirement and well below what Brazil and its Mercosur partners secured last year, which was around four times larger than Australia's outcome." "Compounding this, the deal delivers no growth, no pathway to expand access and effectively locks growers into a bad deal for the next generation. I also speak to all the other collectives, CANEGROWERS, QCAR, Kalamia and AgForce. I have not found one cane farmer happy with the EU deal. (Time expired)”
“Dawson is the biggest cane-growing area in the country, and I'd like to highlight some things from the freshly inked EU deal. There's a press release from CANEGROWERS titled: Raw Deal—Sugar Shortchanged in EU Deal It's as follows: CANEGROWERS has slammed the outcome for sugar in the long-awaited Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement as a complete failure, saying it fails cane farming families and Australian sugar manufacturers and falls well short of what producers had been seeking. "This is a horrendous outcome for Australia's cane growers," CANEGROWERS CEO Dan Galligan said. "For the past decade we have made our needs abundantly clear to the Australian Government … There is no meaningful commercial access for sugar in this deal.”
“As I've said before, it takes nearly two weeks for global wholesale prices to change at our local bowsers, yet we've seen prices jump 40 cents in an afternoon. These aren't market forces. This is war profiteering, and the ACCC needs to be instructed by the Treasurer to show some teeth and prosecute those who are doing the wrong thing. Australians are already experiencing a Labor created cost-of-living crisis. Adding fuel crisis to the already difficult decisions they have to make each and every day is something that the people of Dawson and the people of Australia should not have to do. So why should the residents of Dawson, who've had nothing to do with the tensions in the Middle East, have to pay extortionate prices for fuel? We're calling on this government to make the ACCC do their job and stop fuel price gouging.”
“We needed a way to bypass the bureaucracy and get the truth directly from people at the pump. This platform turns local frustration into hard evidence. We need to demand action from this Albanese Labor government. It will ensure the voices of regional Australians are not drowned out by city-centric statistics. Regional Australia depends on fuel like nowhere else, and, when the pump runs dry, our communities stop moving. This tool gives every Australian the power to report a shortage and put pressure on this government to act. We've been assured by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy that there is no supply crisis. Take his word for that; let's see what happens. But there is definitely a distribution crisis. There is definitely a distribution issue. If the supply is right, it's simply not getting where fuel is needed the most.”
“Well, Australia is in the grips of a fuel crisis and, for regional Australians, fuel is not a luxury; it is an absolute necessity. Unlike those that live in the city, regional Australians do not have the luxury of just being able to jump on a train or on a bus to get to work. Fuel is how we have the means to make a living. It's how we get our kids to school; it's how our businesses and farms keep running. But, when the pumps are empty, our regional communities simply grind to a halt. That's why the coalition yesterday launched a real-time reporting tool, 'No Fuel Here'. If you open www.nofuelhere.com.au, we need to give our community a direct way to report shortages as they happen in real time. This website was created because the official reports from Canberra simply do not match the reality of what is happening on the ground.”
“I'm very pleased to speak on the member for Gippsland's motion about 'in the middle of a national fuel crisis, the Prime Minister's broken promise to govern for all Australians'. At the outset, let's look at the Prime Minister's form. He's got a lot of form for breaking promises. Does everyone remember the $275, where the Prime Minister got up and said, 'If you vote for us, we will take $275 off your power bill'? How many times did he say that? Does anyone know that? Anyone? How many times?”
“The best thing a government can do is give the freedoms back to the farmers. Let them do what they do best—grow food and fibre for this country—and get out of the road.”
“Our farmers can't get supply, and they're paying exorbitant prices for those who can. These pure input costs are exploding. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively blocked, the global supply chain for urea and fertiliser has snapped, leaving our growers vulnerable while the Middle East conflict swells. Every hectare that is now planted is a financial gamble because this government refuses to guarantee the delivery of essential chemicals. This motion is a slap in the face to every person who toils in the sun to feed this country, because this government is failing agriculture at every level. Our farmers don't want belated praise. They want their freedom to farm back. Farmers need to spend their time growing food and fibre, not doing endless compliance, ridiculous paperwork and never-ending bookwork—and dealing with red and green tape.”
“While they're being demonised by this Labor government, they're being squeezed at the other end by the big supermarkets. It's been around a year since the ACCC price inquiry. Where is the action? Forty per cent of vegetable farmers are considering leaving the industry because there are no margins and their lifestyles are crushed. We need big stick legislation. We need divestiture powers. We need to protect our producers from retribution from retail giants. The hypocrisy continues in the international trade. This motion brags about diversification while the beef industry is facing a $1 billion reduction due to China's new 55 per cent tariff. Where is the Prime Minister in this? Where is the trade minister while our premium beef is being priced out of the market? Finally, let's talk about the fuel crisis.”
“It tells the farmer that the department has found no breach in practice but that the farmer should cease any land clearing activity. What does that imply for the person on the land? Guilty until proven innocent? It means that even though they have category X listed land, and even though they should have the right to clear the land and develop that land for cane, they can't. Instead, they're being forced into a state of paralysis. They've been told to stop work and, while their equipment sits idle, their legal bills mount up and their income evaporates. The EPBC Act reforms were rushed through in this parliament in a shady deal with the Greens—a deal designed to win inner-city votes at the expense of regional survival. Our farmers are being treated like criminals. For what crime? For wanting to grow the food that keeps this nation fed?”
“I want to bring your attention to the final point of this motion, because I can't believe this government has the gall to brag about climate resilience while they're strangling our farmers with environmental green tape. I have seen correspondence from the department of the environment and water sent to farmers in my electorate, farmers who have used their land for primary production for decades. These people are being penalised. Their businesses are in limbo, and they are being targeted by a government obsessed with locking up productive agricultural land just to bank carbon credits. One of my constituents received a letter from an environmental investigator from Mr Watt's department—a bureaucratic gag order that has put their livelihood on ice.”
“I rise today to speak on the importance of agriculture to our nation, and not as a man who spent his life in Canberra behind a desk but as someone who's actually got dirt under his fingernails, of a generation experienced in understanding what it takes to work this land. Labor want a pat on the back for a $100 billion production forecast, but that success doesn't belong to the government. It belongs to the hardworking families of our primary producers. It belongs to the men and women who battle the elements, not the bureaucrats who battle these producers—and trust me when I say that; these producers certainly have a battle against the bureaucrats.”
“The Albanese government and Minister Bowen boast about cheaper renewables, but these hollow slogans are making electricity prices even more expensive. Every single person knows that electricity prices have gone through the roof. While this government protects its image, the Neighbourhood Hub protects lives. When the average Aussie is forced into a charity queue, the promise of a great life in this lucky country is evaporating due to this inept government. Those struggling to make ends meet aren't asking for a miracle; they are asking for the basic dignity of a roof, a meal and a future they can afford. We need to push this Labor government to protect Australia's way of life and to restore the standard of living that Australians deserve.”
“Today, that has escalated to 44—all happening on this government's watch. Shame, Labor. Shame. The most haunting proof that we are in a national catastrophe is that the human face of the disaster has shifted. It is no longer just those in chronic hardship seeking help. The general manager reports that they are now seeing nurses, tradies and working parents standing in the charity line for the first time in their lives. For the average working family, the savings are exhausted because the cost of everything is going up. The conversation at the hub is singular and brutal: do I fill the tank, or do I feed my kids? When fuel prices climb, grocery prices follow, and our families are caught in the deadly crossfire. Then there is energy, and we know that energy is the economy.”
“If you want to understand the human cost of Labor's policy failure, stand on the steps of the Neighbourhood Hub. This isn't just a community centre; it's a triage unit for a society in crisis. This amazing service provides emergency relief when the cupboard is bare, financial coaching when the debt becomes too much and a food program that puts good-quality, nutritious food into a hungry child's hand. Sadly, the harsh reality confronting the staff at the hub is that the number of people in need has doubled, and there is no end in sight. In 2022, total enquiries at the hub sat at 8,000. Last year, this surged to over 16,000. Already, in the opening weeks of 2026, more than 3,000 families have come through the door seeking help. The emergency relief statistics are equally confronting. In 2022, the hub averaged 21 requests a week.”
“The problem is that, instead of building, the government is busy fiddling with the capital gains tax and negative gearing. Labor dresses it up as an equity measure, but let's call it for what it is: it's a tax grab. It is a cynical distraction from the fact that Labor is failing on supply, failing on construction and failing on common sense. We see the human cost in Dawson every day. We see young people outbidding each other for rentals because they have no other choice. We see families who do everything right yet cannot get a foothold. Most heartbreakingly, we see women who have fled domestic violence left stranded, couch-surfing or car-sleeping because there's nowhere to go. Housing is a life-defining challenge. This government puts the ideological before people, and the result is higher taxes.”
“The Albanese Labor government has locked away $11.4 billion in a bureaucratic nightmare. After 2½ years, how many houses has the Labor government built? A grand total of 895. At this rate, children in primary school today will be retirees before Labor finishes their first suburb. They are labouring under the delusion that a spreadsheet can provide shelter. The maths is as hollow as their promises. Labor is overseeing a historic collapse of construction. Under the previous coalition government, we completed 200,000 dwellings a year. Under Labor that has slumped to 170,000. All the while, the population has surged by more than 1.6 million people. How do you think those numbers can work? This government is already running more than 80,000 dwellings short of its National Housing Accord target.”
“Last week's interest rate rise—the second hike this year—has sent a shockwave through every family home. At Senate estimates, the Reserve Bank governor was clear, stating that these highly leveraged borrowers face higher risk and higher repayment costs. These families are at risk because they are geared more highly on overpriced homes, starting their journey on a financial razor's edge. Every rate rise cuts deeper into the family budget, and there is nothing left to give until the only choice remaining is to give the house back to the bank. By replacing private insurance with a government guarantee, Labor is using tax dollars to fuel the very price hikes that make houses unaffordable. It is a circular firing squad of economic policy. Then we have the crowning jewel of failure: the Housing Australia Future Fund.”
“By removing sensible income caps and targeted place limits they have supercharged house prices by 3.6 per cent in just one quarter. This five per cent deposit lure is being used to tempt young Australians into a market that is already boiling over. We've seen this movie before, and it ended in a global disaster. In 2008, housing collapse in America was an architecture of catastrophe built on the shaky ground of subprime lending and an erosion of deposit standards. By encouraging young families into a volatile market with minimal equity—and they have been geared to the absolute hilt—these young borrowers face extreme risks and are being forced into bloated mortgages for inflated homes. If this continues, this government will have paved the way for a generation of first home bankrupts.”
“(): There is a false promise being peddled to the young people of this country—a cruel illusion that says a five per cent deposit is a doorway to a more secure future, whereas it's actually a trapdoor. This Labor government doesn't just miss the mark on housing; they've engineered a mirage and then have had the audacity to call it a blueprint. A blueprint is supposed to be a promise for what can be built, but under this Labor government the only thing being constructed is a catastrophe by design. The great Australian dream hasn't just been priced out; it has been evicted and replaced by a great Labor nightmare. This Albanese Labor government has made the housing crisis in this country worse. They've taken the First Home Guarantee and turned it into a reckless non-means-tested free-for-all.”
“Instead of providing baseload security, this government is forcing them to pause operation or beg for subsidies just to survive. We see it in the copper industry, the zinc industry and the steelworks. All of them are saying they need government assistance to keep going. Why? It's because of the government's obsession with emissions reduction at any cost. It's just a blank cheque. We are leading the world in the race to the bottom while China, India and the United States watch from the sidelines. China's emissions go up every single year. We make just over one per cent of global emissions. Nothing we do will change the temperature of the globe. We should all do our fair share, but we shouldn't commit economic suicide to satisfy an inner-city ideology. Energy policy we see in this place hits the kitchen table every single day.”
“The minister for energy stands up in this place and says, 'Renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy.' Well, my question to the minister is, 'Why are electricity prices going through the roof?' That to me does not make sense. As I said before, he's ignoring the 28,000 kilometres of new transmission lines that are required because of this government's obsession with building generation where there are no poles or wires. The delivery costs, like I said before, make up 50 per cent of the bill. And what about manufacturing? These are our heavy industries—the smelters, the refineries, the lifeblood of our industrial base. They're crying out for help. They are energy intensive. They need consistent power to keep the furnaces burning.”
“It takes tax dollars from the battlers who are struggling to pay their quarterly power bill—which has already gone up by close to 40 per cent—and then hands them to higher income earners who cannot afford the upfront costs. It's a shocking way to run an energy policy. If you can't afford the 15 grand, you're left paying higher prices for a grid that is becoming increasingly more unstable. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy has an ideological obsession. He wants to reach net zero by 2050 at an estimated cost of $9 trillion. But he won't actually tell the people of regional Australia what that looks like on the ground. Well, I'll tell you what it looks like. It looks like 60 million solar panels and 20,000 wind turbines.”
“A massive chunk of that is earmarked for the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, and we've certainly heard a lot about that. $2.9 billion is a staggering amount of money to throw at a net zero fantasy while ignoring the fundamental bread and butter of affordable, reliable baseload power. This government's answer to the energy crisis is to subsidise a luxury battery that only the wealthy can afford in the first place. In my electorate of Dawson, to buy one of these batteries, a family is looking at out-of-pocket expenses of around $15,000. I have to tell the minister, in the suburbs of Mackay, in the streets of Bowen or out in Townsville, there aren't many families with a lazy 15 grand just sitting around. This policy is reverse Robin Hood.”
“They're like a household that gets a massive pay increase but still manage to max out the credit card. Every dollar they print and every dollar they borrow is a bucket of debt petrol poured onto the inflation fire. While the rest of the world is seeing inflation fall, Australia is seeing inflation take off. Our inflation is higher than the UK, higher than the US, higher than Canada and nearly double that of Japan. This isn't a global phenomenon. It is an Australian, Albanese Labor government failure. It is a failure made right here in Canberra by this government, which has let the fiscal guardrails fall off. Let's look at where the actual money is going. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is set to receive over $2.9 billion in this round of appropriations.”
“We're talking about these appropriation bills today, a request for another $12.7 billion in taxpayer funds, because this government has a serious spending problem. It would actually make a five-year-old in a lolly shop look disciplined. They are spending money they don't have to fund programs we don't need and to satisfy inner-city ideology that the average Australian just can't afford. The Treasurer likes to stand up and talk about restraint. What restraint? This is the highest-spending government outside of a pandemic in 40 years. They are outstripping record levels of revenue with record levels of waste. In 2025, this Commonwealth raised $717 billion in receipts, the highest in 25 years. They are swimming in taxpayer cash like Scrooge McDuck. Yet those opposites are still running deficits.”
“So then, every time they go there, fruit and veggies and all the agricultural commodities are going to get more expensive. The Australian dream is rapidly becoming an Australian nightmare, and the fingerprints of this Labor government are all over the crime scene. Every morning, families in my electorate of Dawson wake up and have a kitchen table conversation that no-one should have in a country as rich as ours. They're sitting there with their bank apps open, looking at mortgages that have just been hiked up 13 times, looking at grocery bills that have jumped up 16 per cent and looking at insurance premiums that have skyrocketed 39 per cent. And they're looking for someone to blame, and they don't have to look much further than the Treasury benches in this place.”
“All the weeds stay in that ground that's been locked up because farmers aren't coming in, killing the weeds and looking after it. All the pigs, all the feral animals, are all in that locked-up area, and they don't get the memo. They don't stay on their side of the fence. So what they do is then come in to the farmer's paddock, wreck all their fruit and veggies and destroy everything. And the pests and the weeds? The weeds seed and then blow all the seeds into the farmer's paddock. They actually have to then eradicate those weeds, because as we know—I'm a farmer myself—one year's weeds ends up seven years seeds. So then you have to go and actually kill all those weeds. It's an absolute nightmare. What will this mean for the average Australian? It will increase their prices at the check-out.”
“That's why the people on this side of the House have got a cheaper, better, fairer plan for energy use. So we will do that, but it'll be cheaper because we'll use the existing assets we've got. We won't have to use all this new capex that we spoke about—multiple capexes to try to get reliable power. And it'll be fairer because we all will share the burden. We'll share the same amount of burden as all the other OECD countries. Currently, we're going way above those. Currently, for the emissions, how those opposite have created 90 per cent of their emissions is by locking up farming land, land that should be used for growing the food and fibre of this country. But, no, it's being locked up. What do you think happens when it gets locked up? When it gets locked up, it breeds pests and diseases.”
“While all that is going on, once you've got the solar arrays and the wind turbines you actually need to connect those to the grid somehow so that people can use the power. What are we doing there? The proposal of those opposite is to have 28,000 kilometres of poles and wires. It's absolutely crazy. So let's have a look at this. Everyone gets their power bill. When you have a look at your power bill—let's talk about generation and network charges. Let's talk about generation. That's one component. It's about fifty-fifty. So what do you think is going to happen with the bill when you add 28,000 kilometres of poles and wires that then have to be maintained forever? It's just crazy, and it can't work. And for what—to lower emissions? We're supportive of lowering emissions.”
“But then, as we know, when clouds come over or it's night time, solar panels don't work. In order to firm the solar panels, those opposite say, 'Okay, we'll get some wind turbines.' Righto; say we get the wind turbines. You have to pay for them as well, so that's more capital expenditure. And then, when the wind doesn't blow, they think: 'The sun's not shining; the wind isn't blowing; we've still got no power. What do we do? I know. We'll add some hydro to it.' Again, that's more capital expenditure on the hydro. But, as we know, sometimes that can be weather dependent as well, if the dam's not full and you can't release water. So what's the next thing? Gas—and gas has only been mentioned lately, I might add, as a way of firming the power. But, again, that's more capital expenditure.”
“But that money could have been used towards overtaking lanes or some separation within the middle section; it could have been used to fix the many potholes that we seem to have and that are getting worse, as, in the wet season we're currently experiencing, the pavement is starting to fail. The member for Forde is not here, but I listened to his speech in the Federation Chamber the other day where he said, 'Energy is the economy,' and I couldn't agree more. Well done for that. Energy is certainly the economy. However, the $9 trillion failed energy plan of those opposite is nothing more than a pipedream. I need to explain exactly why that is. It's all to do with capex—capital expenditure. When you've got the premises and you've got your solar panels, you've spent your capital on the solar panels.”
“Prime Minister Albanese stood up before the election and committed $7.2 billion to go towards the Bruce Highway, and I thanked him for that. That was really good. Unfortunately, Minister Gallagher jumped up and said, 'The money's not there.' That was a bit of a problem. We looked a bit further into this, and Senate estimates then revealed that there was only $432 million available over the next three years—only. That's far different. When you're talking about $7.2 billion—and a billion is 1,000 million—$432 million is less than 10 per cent, so let's not get too carried away. What's happening with the Bruce Highway in my neck of the woods? The Bruce Highway is starting to crumble, because it just hasn't had the maintenance and the infrastructure.”
“It was also matched by private equity money. But, no, that money was then withdrawn by the government. Urannah Dam was obviously going to be a dam for water. Newsflash: we have a dry continent, so building dams should be very high on the list of priorities. Urannah Dam would have provided water for mining; it would have provided water for urban use; it would have provided water for tourism. There was a way to have a pipeline that would've gone from Urannah Dam into Peter Faust Dam, near Proserpine, to make sure that that dam never ran dry. There was also going to be capability for putting a hydro component on the dam. But, no, that was scrapped. And, while we're talking about infrastructure, let's talk about the Bruce Highway debacle. That has been mentioned many times in this place.”
“An appropriations bill is about where government spends the money, and let me tell you from the outset that they're not spending it very wisely. This government's priorities are all wrong. The No. 1 priority for any government should be to keep the people safe and their border secure. Well, clearly the Albanese Labor government is failing on that. But let's move on to the No. 2 priority, nation building: building dams, building roads—building infrastructure that everybody can use to then make a quid out of. What are the government doing? They're not nation building; they are bureaucracy building. One of the very first things that the Albanese Labor government did on coming to office was to slash all the funding for the dams. There was a project just near me called the Urannah Dam. The money was in the budget.”
“We've heard in this chamber many times that the Albanese Labor government has been pouring fuel on the inflation fire. Now that the fuel is running low and the Australian dream is being reduced to ash, this government must end the economic arson, prevent the profiteering at the pump and stop torching the nation's economic future.”
“The bowser is the new barometer of Labor's failure, and right now the needle is screaming the red, with fuel hitting $3 a litre. The lucky country is staring down the inflation inferno that experts warn will soon exceed five per cent. Instead of real action, this government has issued an impotent instruction to the ACCC that hasn't saved one single cent at the pump. But the carnage doesn't stop there. The government says there isn't a supply chain issue. I want to know who this government has been talking to. In Dawson the tanks are already running dry. Businesses like anything environmental normally receive 20,000 litres overnight. Now, owner Jason told me he has been waiting nine days. He's also been told he can only get half of his usual delivery, and it still hasn't arrived. When the diesel stops, the regions stop.”