Dai Le
Fowler · Independent · Australia
“Sometimes it is measured in language, in cultural unfamiliarity and in the absence of services that actually reflect the community they are supposed to serve. My second amendment embeds a requirement that appropriate treatment must be linguistically and culturally accessible at the person's geographical location.”
“The language a person speaks at home is one of the most important factors in how they express their needs, understand their rights and advocate for themselves or their loved ones. Language forms the bridge between all of us socially, culturally and emotionally.”
“by leave—I move amendments (1) to (3) circulated in my name together: (1) Schedule 1, item 4, page 4 (line 23), after "circumstances", insert "(other than the person's linguistic environment)".”
“Australians living with disability deserve a scheme that is trusted, well managed and sustainable. But sustainability and financial viability cannot come at the cost of fairness, and they certainly should not be achieved by pushing the most vulnerable participants into greater uncertainty or into a system of bureaucracy that is harder to…”
“The system must be able to respond to the lived experience of people on the ground, not just assumptions built into centrally designed guidelines. Taken together, these amendments rest on one principle: the NDIS must be as diverse as the people it serves.”
“They are an attempt to make it work for the people who will be hurt most if we get this wrong. I have moved these amendments not to stop reform but to make sure reform is fair, inclusive, practical and safe for people living with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people from low socioeconomic background…”
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“Like many in this House, I believe in the skills and the talent of our young generation and in their power to shape our communities and society, and I believe it is our role to give them the skills, the opportunities and the networks to cross that bridge into their future. That's why my team and I, working with Fairfield City Council and Mayor Frank Carbone, with Nicolas Chambour from the NSW Department of Education's Educational Pathways Program and with Susanna Tieu, a careers adviser at Bonnyrigg High School, designed and delivered the inaugural Fowler Future Fest, a careers expo held at Fairfield Showground in the heart of Fowler, bringing together more than 80 stallholders and nearly 1,500 year 12 students for a day that excited them, connected them and inspired them about their future. It was not a talk fest.”
“That is close to A$9 billion flowing offshore, with no guarantee of a single submarine in return. Meanwhile, our manufacturers here at home are buckling under rising energy, labour, freight and insurance costs. So what does sovereign capability mean if we send billions overseas to build up the industries of other nations while failing to back the industries we need right here? That is why scrutiny is essential. This government must explain whether AUKUS remains deliverable and how much of this money will actually build Australian capability and support Australian jobs. If AUKUS really serves our interests, it should withstand scrutiny. That is why I support the urgent need for this government to scrutinise Australia's ongoing AUKUS arrangements—to ensure they remain in Australia's best national and security interest.”
“In multicultural communities like mine, the impact will be even greater because participants already face language barriers, cultural barriers and the struggle to find culturally appropriate providers. I'm deeply concerned that the people pushed out first will be those who already find the system hardest to access. This is not about saying defence does not matter; it does. But national security must serve the national interest, and that is measured not only by what we promise overseas; it is measured by what we build and sustain here at home. By the government's own figures, Australia has committed around $4.6 billion to the United States submarine industrial base and around $4.6 billion more to the United Kingdom, with a further $310 million paid just this February.”
“So the people of Fowler are entitled to ask: how confident can we be that ours will arrive at all? I ask this government directly: Where is the sustainability test for AUKUS? Why does fiscal discipline fall so heavily on a person with disability in Cabramatta and not on a $368 billion commitment with no guarantee of delivery? If this government can scrutinise disability support down to the dollar, it can scrutinise a $368 billion submarine deal. In Fowler, families are frightened about these NDIS reforms. They include a 30 per cent cut to social and community participation supports—the funding that helps people with disability take part in daily life, stay connected and avoid isolation.”
“A student finishing year 12 this year will not see the first Australian built submarine until they're well into their 30s and will still be paying for it in their 40s—if the subs arrive. Consider what that money actually buys. Recent reports confirm that the first submarines Australia will receive under this $368 billion commitment will be second-hand: three used Virginia class boats, handed down from the United States Navy—not one of them new. The first is not expected until 2032 at the earliest, and, when they finally arrive in the 2030s, the capability can be questioned. Analysts warn that these older vessels are less capable than new ones, that the United States is keeping its best submarines for itself and that it is already struggling to build enough for its own fleet.”
“And yet in the very same budget this government locked us into one of the largest, most open-ended defence commitments in our history. Consider the figures: $512.5 million for the Australian Submarine Agency this year, between $71 billion and $96 billion over the next decade, and up to $368 billion by the mid-2050s—$368 billion. And Australia does not have a single nuclear powered submarine to show for it. None. Not one. Let me put $368 billion into perspective. Spread across every person in this country, that is more than $13,000 each. For a four-person household in Fowler, that is over $50,000, close to three-quarters of what a typical household in my electorate earns in a whole year.”
“I also thank the member for Wentworth for bringing this MPI on AUKUS. This is not a new concern for me. I have been calling for an urgent review of AUKUS and its benefits to our national interests since my first term. Hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars have been and will be sent offshore with no clear guarantee of delivery while raising taxes at home, letting domestic manufacturing collapse and cutting essential services like the NDIS in the name of financial sustainability. When the Treasurer handed down this budget, Australians were told to tighten their belts. We were told the NDIS needed to be reined in and that supports for people with disability needed to be cut back to keep the system sustainable.”
“I urge the government to go on the ground, sit in the same room that I sat in, listen to the same voices and then design reform that those voices can actually trust.”
“For a community like Fowler, where the majority of people do not speak English at home, that is not a small oversight. It is a structural risk built into the design. During the budget handed down just weeks ago, most of the rhetoric around the NDIS centred on savings—this measure, that cut. But behind every number is a family trying to work out whether their child will still have support next year. So when I hear that this reform is about securing the NDIS for future generations, I want to be persuaded. I want to support changes that protect the scheme, stamp out exploitation and ensure every dollar reaches people who genuinely need it. But I will not support changes that risk pushing my community back into the shadows, especially when they have already taken time to come to see me, to email me and to tell me they are afraid.”
“The providers shared that parents were concerned about their children's future—whether they would still have the support to go to school, to make friends, to learn and grow and to one day stand on their own two feet and contribute to this country we all call home. The NDIS at its best is a bridge that gives children with disability the chance to be fully part of our community. When families cannot see what is on the other side of that bridge, that is when fear takes hold. The providers at my forum told me that they have no clear explanation of how the new functional capacity framework will work, how it will account for language and cultural barriers or how it will treat people who cannot articulate their needs in polished, clinical English.”
“I understand why that conversation needs to happen. A scheme of this scale must be sustainable and must reach those it was designed for—people living with permanent and significant disabilities. I support crackdowns on fraud. I support stronger protection for participants. Expanding mandatory registration for providers and establishing a robust payment integrity system are important and overdue steps. But sustainable reform and compassionate design are not mutually exclusive, and right now the community is not seeing both. When I asked people at the forum what worried them most, it was not the payments or paperwork.”
“One community advocate shared a story that stays with me. She described physically driving a mother to multiple childcare centres across our community. At each centre the answer was the same: 'We don't have the resources. We can't support a child with additional needs.' That mother did everything right. She turned up, she asked for help and she was turned away with no place for her child, no support and no clear pathway forward. This is just one of the many examples that tell the story of what happens when systems are under strain and children with disability become someone else's problem. Now, I want to be fair about what the government is trying to do. The NDIS has grown significantly, with around 750,000 participants today, which is projected to fall to around 600,000 by 2030 under the new functional capacity framework.”
“In recent months, my office has had an influx of emails, phone calls and visits from constituents who are deeply worried about the future of the NDIS—parents asking if their children will lose therapy, carers asking if supports they rely on will disappear, providers asking how they can keep delivering services when the rules keep changing and the details remain unclear. That is why I held an urgent NDIS forum in Fowler with registered providers first so they—not the government, not the bureaucracy—could tell me what these proposed changes really mean on the ground. What I heard was not comfort; it was concern and, in many cases, fear. Providers and workers told me they worry the reforms will make the system more distant, more automated and harder for culturally and linguistically diverse communities to navigate.”
“The Productivity Commission is conducting that inquiry right now. The government has no excuse for delay. We already accept this logic in other industries. The government subsidised our two remaining domestic oil refineries because it understands their importance to our national economic security. Why would we not apply the same logic to domestic steel manufacturing? Businesses like Mario & Sons are not asking for special treatment; they're asking for a fair chance to compete, to keep their workers in jobs, to keep making things here in Australia. I'm calling on the government to act, to give businesses like Mario & Sons the support they need to survive and to fix the system that is currently working against those very people. (Time expired)”
“Imported steel from China, South Korea and Japan has improved significantly. When overseas product is now comparable in quality and substantially cheaper, Australian steel is being bypassed at a tendering stage. The consequences are catastrophic. Mario & Sons has been forced to halve its production workforce in just three years. Longstanding clients have walked away. Their forward pipeline is emptying out, and they're watching other local businesses in the industry close their doors entirely. In Wetherill Park alone, more suppliers, like the InfraBuild Steel Centre, have already shut down. That is a flashing red light for the entire manufacturing ecosystem in Western Sydney. The Australian Steel Institute has formally applied for safeguard measures, including a tariff rate quota, to give local industry breathing room to adjust.”
“But, when I sat down with Livio Palozzo, his brothers and the next generation of their family who have now joined the business, I heard a very different story, a deeply concerning story. This is not a business that has failed to work hard enough. It is not a business that has cut corners on quality. Livio and his family told me plainly that Australian steel fabricators can no longer compete on price. They face enormous domestic pressures, higher labour costs, payroll tax, rising electricity bills, heavy freight costs, fuel costs and the constant weight of compliance. When you add all of that together, local manufacturers are being priced out of the very markets they helped build. For a long time, quality was their protection. Builders trusted Australian steel. But Mario & Sons told me that it's no longer enough.”
“We hear a lot from this government about a future made in Australia. It's a great headline and a great pitch, but I want to ask today: how real is it? Recently I visited a business in Wetherill Park, right in the heart of my electorate—Mario & Sons Steel Fabrication, a proud family owned business that has been part of our community since 1966, nearly 60 years. They fabricate and install structural steel for major distribution hubs, data centres and large warehouse facilities. They supply the steel that helps build infrastructure for some of the most recognisable brands in this country. This is exactly the kind of business we say we want to support when we talk about Australian made—local jobs and sovereign capability.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, will the ISIS affiliated women who landed in Sydney yesterday be living in Fairfield, Liverpool or Bankstown, and has the government or any representative of the government been in contact with local community leaders regarding this issue?”
“With those requests in mind and without declining to give this bill a second reading, I commend this bill to the House, and I move: That all words after "House" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "(1) notes that: (a) culturally and linguistically diverse communities experience additional barriers in accessing and engaging with the NDIS; and (b) a lack of consultation with culturally and linguistically diverse participants and service providers may result in further barriers and inequity; and (2) calls on the Government to ensure the implementation of the reforms does not inadvertently impose additional burdens on, or further disadvantage culturally and linguistically diverse NDIS participants".”
“The government must prove it can replace what it removes. It must fund the alternative pathways. It must provide clear, accessible, in-language information before changes take place. It must legislate genuine safeguards, including a mandate for consultation with culturally and linguistically diverse communities in the design of assessment tools.”
“I had a parent who messaged me, saying: 'My youngest son is non-verbal and has no way of communicating. So how will he exist in society without support?' I support reining in the rorting. I support a sustainable NDIS, and I understand the intent behind redirecting some responsibilities to the broader care system. But good intentions are not enough when the execution risks leaving the most vulnerable behind. We are a multicultural Australia. That is not a complication. It is who we are, and we have an obligation to make our public systems work for all of us—for families who have been here for generations and for families still finding their footing, for those whose first language is English and for those for whom it is not, and for everyone who needs support and does not have the private resources to go without.”
“Families in my electorate are being told that Thriving Kids will be the alternative for children who no longer qualify for the NDIS. But what does that really look like in practice for a parent in Cabramatta, Liverpool or Fairfield? Will information be available in their language? Will services be culturally appropriate and locally delivered? The program is expected to roll out from October 2026, but the service model is still evolving. Parents are being asked to trust a system that has been announced but not yet built. If children are moved from NDIS before these services are visible and accessible, families will not receive alternative support. They will receive less support, and, in communities like mine where trust in government systems is hard won, a failed roll out could mean families disengage entirely.”
“Based on the government's own impact analysis, participants not in supported living arrangements currently receive an average of nearly $33,000 a year for social, civic and community participation supports. Under these reforms, that would reset to approximately $26,000, an average reduction of around $7,000 per plan, with some families facing cuts up to about $15,000. The government says $200 million is being redirected to a new Inclusive Communities Fund, but guaranteed individual funding is being replaced with a general pool. We have no information on how much of that will reach communities like mine, whether it will go to the small, trusted local providers my constituents rely on or be absorbed by large national organisations without the cultural connection to serve them.”
“Before this bill passes, the government must demonstrate that the alternative pathways in health, in schools, in community care are funded, staffed and genuinely ready. I'm also deeply concerned about the new powers given to the minister to reduce funding across entire categories of supports—reductions of 25 per cent or more are applied across the board and not subject to Administrative Review Tribunal oversight. In a high-wealth postcode, a percentage based cut may be a budget inconvenience; in Fowler, it is a service cliff. My constituents do not have the private capital to top up their supports when the government resets the bottom line.”
“The idea that these hospitals can absorb additional complex, ongoing care for people with significant disabilities without new funding, new infrastructure and new workforce is not a plan; it is a hope, and vulnerable Australians cannot be asked to wait to on hope. Our GP workforce is in crisis. Western Sydney has a well-documented shortage of general practitioners. The doctors who remain are managing unsustainable patient loads. They are doing extraordinary work under extraordinary pressure. Asking them to co-ordinate complex disability care on top of that is not a solution. I agree with the principle that the NDIS should not be the first and only resort, but you cannot redirect people to systems that are already at breaking point and call it reform.”
“We risk locking people out not because their disability has changed but because the measuring tool was never calibrated to see them clearly. The minister has indicated that hospitals, schools, GPs and the broader health system could bear greater responsibility for those with permanent or significant disabilities before they are referred to the NDIS. I understand the intention. In principle, a properly funded and coordinated care system should be the first point of response. But the reality on the ground looks very different. Our hospital system is under enormous pressure. Emergency departments across Western Sydney are already stretched beyond capacity dealing with everyday presentations.”
“The bill requires the agency to focus on a person's intrinsic capacity while disregarding environmental and personal circumstances. I understand the policy intent, but in practice this creates a rigid, standardised measure that will misrepresent the lived reality of a significant number of Australians, not just those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds but anyone whose circumstances, geography or life experience means they cannot demonstrate their needs within a narrow framework. In Fowler, a language barrier is not just a personal circumstance; it is a systematic wall. By legislating for the agency to disregard these factors, we risk assessing participants as having a higher functional capacity than they actually have.”
“Many are navigating not only the complexities of disability but language barriers, cultural differences and the deep challenges that come with building a life in a new country. I believe these communities are already underrepresented in the NDIS, not because disability does not exist in Fowler—it absolutely does—but because the system as it stands was not built with them in mind. Families have fallen through the cracks not because they lacked need but because the system lacked the cultural responsiveness to meet them where they are. This bill, in its current form, asks us to make that system harder to access. That is not reform, that is retreat. One of the most concerning changes is the shift in how a person's functional capacity will be assessed.”
“If you're from a multicultural background, if English is not your first language, if you're still finding your footing in this country, if cultural norms around disability mean your family has been reluctant to even seek a diagnosis, those barriers do not disappear. They compound. They stack. The result is that some of the most disadvantaged Australians are the least likely to be receiving the support they're actually entitled to. We are a multicultural nation. Australia's diversity is not an edge case to be managed; it is the reality of who we are, and any policy that fails to account for that reality will fail a significant proportion of the people it is meant to serve. Over 63 per cent of constituents in Fowler speak a language other than English at home.”
“They describe application forms that read like legal documents, assessment processes that feel adversarial, appeals they cannot afford to pursue and bureaucratic language so dense that even the most educated families struggle to understand what their loved one is entitled to. This is not a migrant problem; this is a system design problem. The NDIS was built around an assumption that participants and their families have the time, the resources, the confidence and the literacy—in every sense of that word—to advocate effectively for themselves within a complex administrative framework. For too many Australians, that assumption has always been wrong.”
“My concern with this bill, the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, is simple: will the most vulnerable be worse off? I want to address something directly because I know it will be said. Some will argue that the answer is simple: people should just speak English and navigating a government system should not be that hard. Let me be clear. The accessibility features of the NDIS are not confined to people from non-English-speaking backgrounds. Everyday Australian families who were born here, were raised here and have English as their first and only language tell me they're overwhelmed by this system.”
“It's been unfair to the taxpayers who fund it and deeply unfair to those with genuine permanent disabilities who depend on it. For years, bad actors have exploited this scheme by inflating invoices, delivering little to no service and draining resources that should have gone to the people who needed them the most. The government is right to rein it in. I support that. I welcome the fraud and integrity measures in schedule 2. Strengthening the agency's powers to investigate and act is necessary and overdue, but those measures cannot come at the cost of fairness for the communities I represent, and I would go further: they cannot come at the cost of fairness for any Australian family navigating this system.”
“A local NDIS provider shared: I got spat on by a dad the other day. You can imagine that took me by surprise. The provider then shared that the distressed father yelled: If my child is pushed onto Thriving Kids, is the government saying that my child no longer has autism? … it doesn't magically go away … What does this even mean for us? That is the level of fear and confusion we are dealing with. Parents are terrified of losing support, and they're begging professionals to explain whether a change in program means their child's autism simply stops counting in the eyes of the system. We all know that the NDIS reform is long overdue. The rorting of the NDIS has been real, it has been documented, and it has been deeply unfair.”
“I also had the honour to celebrate Vesak Day at the Minh Quang Buddhist Temple with the Buddhist community. We had a huge celebration there, and it was beautiful to be part of the meditation in the hall, paying respect to the birth of Buddha in the month of May. Last, but not least, I joined my community in Cabramatta to celebrate Australia's Biggest Morning Tea with Sinilia. Sinilia is a great volunteer in our community who always holds Biggest Morning Tea events to raise funds, raising over $41,000 for the New South Wales Cancer Council.”
“There were lots of activities in the electorate of Fowler this weekend. I was really honoured to be invited by the Melkite Catholic community of Liverpool and the beautiful celebration of the feast of St Rita. I was deeply honoured to be welcomed by His Grace the Most Reverend Bishop Robert Rabbat and Father Antonios Ibrahim to join the wider Melkite Catholic community in Ashcroft and Liverpool. St Rita is known as the saint of the impossible, the patron of those who carry burdens that feel too heavy, and I see that spirit reflected in so many families across Liverpool and Fowler. People have carried so much resilience, built from little and held onto faith when the road was very hard. To the Melkite community: thank you so much for being part of the community and enriching our community.”
“My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Minister, up to 160,000 Australians with disability will be worse off under your government's NDIS cuts. You plan to slash $7,000 per participant from social and community supports, the very thing that connects people in multicultural communities like Fowler to culturally and linguistically appropriate care. With your $200 million Inclusive Communities Fund, how much of that money is actually quarantined for the CALD community?”
“In 2015, he came to Australia to lead the Chaldean Diocese of St Thomas the Apostle for a decade of quiet and faithful service—from Mosul to Sydney, from Sydney to leading one of the oldest Christian churches on Earth. To His Beatitude Mar Paul III, congratulations. And to every Chaldean Australian, especially in Fowler, this moment belongs to you. I also want to thank Laith Alchino, Samir Yousif, Marlin Toma and all the religious leaders of the Chaldean Catholic Church in my electorate, as well as the volunteers from the Chaldean League of NSW and Australia for their ongoing engagement and for including me in all of their significant celebrations and milestones that we celebrate in Fowler regularly. It was an honour to be invited and a privilege to witness your community come together with such pride and love.”
“I want to warmly congratulate Archbishop Amel Nona on his election as patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, now known as His Beatitude Mar Paul III, elected by the Synod of Bishops in Rome on 12 April. This is a deeply significant moment for Chaldean Catholics around the world, and especially for the many Chaldean Australian families who call Fairfield, Liverpool in south-west Sydney their home. Over the years, I've had the honour of engaging with His Beatitude at many community events. Every time I've been struck by his warmth, his humility and his genuine welcome. Born in Alqosh in northern Iraq and ordained a priest in 1991, he served his people through some of the darkest years for Christians in Iraq.”
“Leadership is putting solar on the roof of every public housing block and apartment building in the most disadvantaged postcodes in this country. The people of Fowler are watching and so is the nation.”
“Give a renter in Cabramatta, a pensioner in Fairfield or Liverpool, and a single mother out in south-west Sydney a genuine and lasting reduction in their energy bill, not a theoretical saving between 11 am and 2 pm on a weekday. Some days it rains and it's cloudy. Phone bills are going up, contractors are costing more, supply chains are costing more and groceries are costing more. And the government's answer is three free hours that most of my community cannot access. Three free hours is not a cost-of-living strategy. Ninety days of excise relief is not a fuel security plan. Telling Australians not to panic, while releasing emergency reserves, is not leadership. Leadership is building the storage. It's reserving our own gas for our own people.”
“Our people should benefit first, and we need to tax this resource fairly. Third, replace the solar sharer with a genuine solar equity program. The government's own community solar banks program and the solar for apartments scheme have proven that the model works. These programs are for shared rooftop solar for public housing and apartment buildings in low-income postcodes, but they are funded at a token scale. The community solar banks program covers just 25,000 households nationally. That is not a program; that is a pilot. Scale it up. Fully subsidise solar panels for low-income and multicultural communities locked out of the current scheme.”
“Navigating retailer websites and restructuring routines around a midday window will always leave the most disadvantaged behind. At its centre the solar sharer is deeply flawed because what about the rainy days when there is little solar? Will power still be free, and will all this demand break the grid? I'm calling on the government to do three things. First, commit to a binding, publicly reported road map toward the IEA 90-day fuel reserve obligation. The PM has cited infrastructure constraints, and I understand them, but we are the only IEA member not even trying. Set the milestones, fund the storage and be accountable to a plan. Second, bring forward the domestic gas reservation policy now, not in 2027. Ninety-three per cent of our LNG is exported while Australian families cannot afford to heat their homes. We are a gas-rich nation.”
“My community is made up of labourers, tradies, nurses and small-business owners. They are not at home at midday. Their energy use peaks between 5 pm and 9 pm—exactly when this policy provides no benefit. And, when retailers provide three free hours, those costs do not disappear. They are recovered through higher prices outside of that window during the very hours my community is cooking dinner and keeping the lights on for their families, and often they are large families. Independent economists warn that low-income renters risk cross-subsidising wealthier households to charge electric vehicles for free. That is not energy equity. The scheme also requires a smart meter and active opt in. Around 42 per cent of Fowler residents are renters, many from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.”
“In 20 years we went from being near self-sufficient to critically vulnerable, and no government sounded the alarm until the Strait of Hormuz closed. This is not about fuel at the bowser. Diesel moves our food. It runs the trucks carrying produce to the supermarkets, the fruit shops, the halal butchers and the small groceries in Fowler. Analysts warn that a prolonged diesel shortage could spike food prices up by 50 per cent. When that happens, it will not be the wealthy suburbs that feel it first. Communities like mine in Fowler will feel it. Fuel security is food security, and this government has treated both as an afterthought. Let me turn to the solar sharer. The scheme promises three hours of free electricity during peak solar generation. The minister says it is for everyone, but the design tells a different story.”
“As we know, Australia earns about $385 billion a year exporting our energy resources to the world. LNG alone earns around $65 billion. Yet, we import 90 per cent of our refined fuel at the cost of nearly $60 billion, making refined petroleum our single largest import by value—not iron ore, not machinery but petrol. We export our gas and crude oil offshore to be refined and buy it back at a world price. I refer to the member for Kennedy who constantly makes the point that we sell our oil for $8 billion and buy it back for $62 billion. In 2022, Australia—remember, we are the largest island continent—held 310 days of strategic fuel reserve. Today, we hold barely 30 days of diesel. We are the only IEA member that has failed to meet the mandatory 90-day reserve requirements since 2012.”
“The wholesale coffee price has gone up, and goods delivery now carries a fuel surcharge. These are increases that the majority of people in Fowler cannot absorb. These are not isolated incidents. They are the ripple effects of a fuel crisis flowing directly into the homes and small businesses of Western Sydney. I ask the government: do you genuinely believe that the three free hours of solar energy between 11 am and 2 pm will cover the higher phone bill, the dearer contractor, the more expensive shopping basket and all of the other increases that ordinary working Australians are having to deal with right now? My community does not believe that, and neither should this House. This crisis has exposed something far deeper than a temporary price spike.”
“Many households are multigenerational, caring for elderly relatives and raising children while running small businesses. More than one car is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Yet, it has taken a national crisis, with petrol now above $2.50 a litre and diesel above $3.20, for this government to act. I welcome the fuel excise cut, as I mentioned, but it shouldn't have taken an international crisis. What my community has often received instead are announcements that benefit those already ahead, while those barely surviving are left behind with false hope. Constituents have contacted my office frightened and concerned—and rightly so. Their telephone and data plans have gone up. Labour and travel rates for contractors and for small businesses have also increased overnight.”
“Never before has the conversation around energy affordability, security and the cost of living received more attention from this government than it has now. It is disappointing that it has taken a national fuel crisis, driven by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, to bring that urgency. Families and small businesses in my communities have been living with this reality for years without meaningful action that helps those struggling the most. It was in November 2023—that's over 30 months ago—that I first questioned the Prime Minister and the government about cutting the fuel excise. I have raised this issue again and again in this House. Public transport in Fowler is limited. Buses and trains do not run regularly enough or late enough to get shift workers home.”
“I thank Hermiz Shahen of the Assyrian National Council and Dennis Suro, President of the Young Assyrians, for including me in their celebration. Even in difficult times, it is remarkable to honour the Australian heritage of one of the world's oldest communities, a community at the very heart of Fowler. Families gathered to celebrate not just culture but identity and belonging—a reminder that, through collective commitment, we build a brighter future for all. To all the Chaldean and Assyrian Australians, happy new year! May this year bring health, joy and continuous growth. In the Assyrian Aramaic language: reesh shato brikhto to everybody who celebrates the new year.”
“For those who missed their new year's resolution on 1 January, well, come to Fowler. Like the member for Werriwa, we too have new year celebrations for months on end. March is a very special month for our community. For Catholics, we have Lent and Palm Sunday just past, and, for our Assyrian and Chaldean Australian communities, it is their new year celebrations. I want to thank Sam Yousif, president of the Chaldean League Australia; his secretary, Laith Alchino; and His Grace Bishop Mar Amel Nona for always welcoming me to their cultural activities. This year marks the 7,326th Akitu festival. I also recently joined the Assyrian Australian community to celebrate the 6776th new year, which falls on 1 April—which is my birthday, by the way.”