Sam Birrell
Nicholls · National Party · Australia
“They will put it maybe in New South Wales, Western Australia or Queensland, but they won't even consider Victoria. The taxes, the government interference and now this proposed work-from-home legislation just mean that Victoria is not an option.”
“The Mitchell Shire Council has identified the Kilmore-Wallan Bypass as one of the highest advocacy priorities, but the project has been languishing for years. The bypass is essential to improve safety, reduce congestion and return the historic town centre to local residents and businesses.”
“As I've often said in this place, it's a great privilege to represent the electorate of Nicholls in northern Victoria, one of the great food-producing parts of Australia. Recently, I had the great honour to go to a place called Legacy Packing in Cobram for the official relaunch of their state-of-the-art packing facility.”
“As at the last election, the AEC boundary changes meant that the town of Kilmore came into the electorate that I represent, the electorate of Nicholls, and Kilmore is one of the oldest inland towns in Australia. It's a beautiful place. It has bluestone buildings, a historic jail and a monument to Hume and Hovell.”
“A major agribusiness operator in northern Victoria who operates very successfully has told me: 'We're doing no more investment in Australia. The government's making it too hard.”
“We've also got high-tech investment in the dairy industry and the apple and pear industry and we have some new investments in the processing facility SPC, which is an iconic brand in Australia that processes peaches, pears, apples and also tomatoes.”
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“I'll make a few comments on energy. It seems to be a big issue around the parliament at the moment. The debate about climate change can be frustrating; it's so binary in this place. There are a couple of principles. Firstly, we need affordable, reliable power. It is the economy, and it underpins the wealth and jobs we have here in Australia. If we do not manage the energy grid properly and prices continue to skyrocket, as I fear they will, then industries will not just close down altogether and the emissions are gone—and I know that there are some activists who think that would be a good thing. The industries will just move offshore. Yes, Australia loses the emissions, but we lose all the economic activity. So that's really critical.”
“I'd like to see the Albanese government focus a bit more on regional infrastructure. The roads are appalling in Victoria. I know that's mostly as a result of neglect by the state government, but we've all got to put pressure on state governments to make sure that we maintain our road network. It's not just annoying for passenger-car drivers; it's a critical problem for businesses, because they're telling me that the damage to their machinery on our roads when they hit potholes is significant. Part of the reason I wanted to come to parliament—apart from what I'd seen in my community—and run as a National Party candidate was the focus on infrastructure in regional areas that the Nationals had put forward, whether it be art museums, sporting facilities or really big game-changing pieces of infrastructure like the Echuca-Moama Bridge.”
“Of late it has been primarily a Western Australian issue. But, after visiting Western Australia as part of the backbench committee, I understood the importance of live exports to the ag industry over there. I then understood the potential impact of a ban on eastern state prices, and I think we're going to see that. What was also made very clear was the impracticality of the approach to just have more abattoirs in WA. Many people, including a vet who actually grew up in my region but lives in Fremantle now, called Holly Ludeman, explained to me the significant improvements in animal welfare standards—to the point that, when a ship that had spent some time out in the Indian Ocean was forced to come back due to security issues in Yemen, after they disembarked all the sheep, they were found to actually have gained weight.”
“1 concern is biosecurity or a political fix with the United States. I hope that gets resolved. But Australia's biosecurity cannot be compromised in any way, shape or form. The traceability of beef coming in from the US, particularly from its neighbouring countries—where some beef may come in from Mexico or Canada—is critical. Obviously, we've got to get the biosecurity right, but I hope Australians continue to opt for the great-value and great-tasting Australian beef, whether it be from the Angus cattle that my friend Ross Read breeds and feeds on pasture at his farm near Tatura, or the Scotch fillet my friend the member for Gippsland favours at this new haunt that he's found, called the Kingo. It's a lot better than the American stuff. Live exports was an issue I wasn't an expert in before coming into parliament.”
“It was a bit of a regrettable on-again, off-again distraction for the parliament when somebody in the government decided it would be a good idea for them to impose a levy—so a cost to businesses—to pay for the biosecurity arrangements of the overseas producers who import food into the country and who then compete with them. There was nothing level about that playing field. It was about as level as the pitch at Lord's. After significant lobbying and opposition from the Nationals, though, someone saw sense and withdrew the bill. But it indicates, I think, an attitude that business is a mechanism to tax rather than a creator of wealth, employment and opportunity, and I hope that changes. We've still got some concerns about biosecurity in relation to US beef imports. There seems to be some confusion in the government about whether the No.”
“The agreement that I previously mentioned between the now Leader of the Nationals, who was the then water minister, and the Labor water ministers around the country was, 'We will put some definitions around the socioeconomic impact test, so we will say, "That water can't be taken away if it has a negative socioeconomic impact."' The minister for water's first act was to come in here and tear that socioeconomic impact test up. That means the society and the economy in my area will get damaged, and I think that's really disappointing. Another disappointing thing about the first term of Labor—and we fought against this—was a thing called a biosecurity tax.”
“So I was incredibly disappointed with the way that the minister for water in the last term approached this and wanted to rip up a lot of the hard-fought-for negotiations that had been done and produce what I've found to be some irrational actions around removing even more water in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Over 2,000 gigalitres of water that was used to produce agricultural produce in my electorate had already been taken away, so it wasn't like there wasn't already water for the environment, but there was a dispute over a further 450 gigalitres.”
“There were people who thought that huge amounts of irrigation water should be taken away from irrigators across the Murray-Darling Basin and there were people who thought that virtually zero water should be taken. We had to find a compromise somewhere. I thought before I came to this place that we had found a compromise. The collaboration between the member for Watson, who was the water minister at the time, and his successor, the now Leader of the Nationals and member for Maranoa, and many of the state Labor premiers and water ministers meant that I thought we had what could be executed as a policy and still keep the viability of the Murray-Darling Basin going as a food-producing region as well as providing some environmental water that was required.”
“Rochester is now part of the electorate of Bendigo. I congratulate the member for Bendigo for retaining her seat, but I might make the point that there was a 10 per cent swing towards the Nationals and we nearly got it. Maybe next time. The policy area I've been talking about the most—and it's critical to the economy of my region and I implore people to try and understand this—is the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. This has been going on for a long time. I know that it was started by the Howard government, and I know that during the Rudd and Gillard governments there was some further development of it. I think that's actually when it was signed into law. I think that, in relation to this piece of legislation, no-one really got exactly what they wanted when this was first being negotiated.”
“I do want to mention some positive actions of the Albanese government which we supported because we thought they were positive. I think the establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Commission and some reform around aged care and the way it's funded has been positive. But I think there still needs to be worked on aged-care regulation and how that affects regional aged-care facilities. I welcome also the finalisation—it has been going on for several governments but finalised with the Albanese government—of export protocols for Australian agricultural products to China and the lifting of some tariffs. I also want to put on record my thanks to the then minister for emergency services, Murray Watt, for his office's assistance to me during the 2022 floods, which caused much damage in my electorate, particularly in Rochester.”
“I think parties of government are critical to the way our democracy works. I value the relationships I have made in this place, including with those opposite. It gives you a better understanding of the diversity of Australia. I encourage all the new members to do that—reach out and find out from people who are representing other parts of Australia what matters to them—because you can come into this place with blinkers. As far as the Albanese government is concerned—and I spent a lot of the last term criticising the Albanese government—I think it is a government that's excellent at campaigning, but, as some of us have said, we would like to see them be a bit better at governing. There are some examples of that, but I don't want to be churlish.”
“Also, the opening up of new markets has been very important to the people of Nicholls because it means more of our produce can be sent overseas—exported—earning tax dollars for Australia and keeping industries viable. The free trade agreements that were put together, by and large, by the previous coalition governments have assisted this. I just want to make a couple of observations about my first term in parliament. I think this place works pretty well and I have found it to be a respectful place to work. There's necessary disagreement and there's a contest of ideas, and that contest should be robust. But I don't think it's a disrespectful environment. Sometimes I think the crossbench has a narrative that the parties-of-government system is broken and therefore they've got to come in and solve it—I haven't found that at all.”
“Whilst that processed fruit product was ubiquitous in the 1930s through to the 1960s—it was what everyone had for desert—and it's still there, it's evolving now because the logistics, the ability to get fresh fruit to the market, has improved so much that a lot of the production which used to be for processing is now for fresh fruit products. I've also seen the dairy industry make great strides forward in terms of irrigation efficiency, traceability and increased production per cow. There have been technical advances in broadacre cropping using satellite GPS, global satellite positioning, and other technologies which have really improved our productivity.”
“They've tended, I think, to vote more for people on our side because of that sense of entrepreneurship—allowing the free market to work. There's reward for opportunity and, of course, the National Party's commitment to regional Australia. Some examples of this are the wonderful food manufacturing we have and the way that that's innovated and advanced. I've seen the fruit industry innovate and change over the time that I've been involved in agriculture. Of course, many people will know that because they might have done the 'peach challenge', and, if they haven't, they're always welcome to come and do it.”
“Why did I get given their trust to represent them again in this place?' My assessment would be that I've tried to be a very engaged local member. I have said in this place before that I am on a mission to do football and netball training with every club in my electorate. Of course it may be a bit of a stunt, but, in all seriousness, it does give you the opportunity to not just sit in your office and wait for people to come to you but go where people are congregating, find out what matters to them and make yourself available to them to speak to a member of parliament. If it's at the end of netball training, so be it. I've had many of those wonderful discussions with people at football and netball clubs. I also think the people of Nicholls, given the history of the place, value the principles of hard work and seizing opportunity.”
“In my first speech to this place, I spoke about the themes of opportunity for regional people, particularly through education and through a growing and evolving regional economy. The electorate that I represent, Nicholls, is a wonderful part of northern Victoria. It's bordered to the north by the Murray River—I think the member for Aston might have grown up in Echuca. It goes through the Goulburn and Murray valleys, which are, of course, that wonderful area of agricultural production, and it heads down south towards Seymour and, newly, in this election, to Kilmore, which, as a result of a redistribution, came into the electorate. The people have placed their trust in me again, for a second term. I suppose every member of this parliament is thinking to themselves: 'Why did I get re-elected?”
“I think everyone would agree that we need a strong, prosperous country. We on this side would say that the ideas need to be based on the principles of reward for hard work and innovation, and equality of opportunity. I see policy areas where we seem to be in managed decline. It is imperative that we have a strong opposition and create that alternative vision for the nation because I believe history has shown that, if a country veers towards what I would call left-wing populism and is not facing reality, then everyone gets dragged down in the end. I was first elected to this place in 2022. It was a great honour to be elected to represent the people of Nicholls as a member of the National Party.”
“It's an honour to give this speech, a reply to the Governor-General's speech. I'd just like to thank Her Excellency for not only her service to our nation but the way she very graciously hosted many of the family members of parliamentarians, last week at Government House, including my children. They were thrilled to have Her Excellency sign their copies of the Constitution. Of course, it's the Constitution that guides us in our governance and lawmaking in this place. The Governor-General's speech was prepared by the government of the day and read by the Governor-General. Of course, there are different narratives of policy and ideology that come to this place through the different parties and the different people who our constituents sent here to represent them. Those ideas are about the best way to move our country forward.”
“Now, we're going to have this incredible scarring of the landscape by 650 hectares, in one area, of solar projects. I think people don't understand the scale of what some of these solar projects are. Six hundred and fifty hectares is huge. And I don't object to using all sorts of technologies to try and reduce our emissions. I think it's really important. But when you start to take over prime agricultural land with all of these solar projects and then wind turbines, people don't understand just how much concrete has to be poured to house a wind turbine. When that wind turbine's life cycle ends, that concrete can't be used to install another turbine. Let's have a proper debate about the environment and the environmental degradation caused by the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and the reckless rollout of renewables.”
“They were softening the bank, then letting it dry out a little bit, and then letting the river rise.' This is what happens when you make policy and don't understand the implication of it. It's not only that. I think that climate change is a significant challenge for the globe to face, and I am supportive of renewable energy in the right place, but what's happening in my electorate is that prime agricultural land is being taken over by wind turbines and solar panels. The trouble with that is that the communities are very against this. They think it's a terrible policy, because they've been stewards of that land. They've been building up the soil carbon levels for years; they've been growing wheat, canola and all sorts of different production.”
“It treats them like a waterpipe and sends it all down to South Australia, which not only damages the economy in my area but also damages the environment, because when the water keeps going up and down in summer, the vegetation that the catchment management authority has been trying to protect gets damaged. The banks are eroded; the rivers are silted up. I grew up on the Goulburn River, and I've seen it my whole life. It's all very well for city members to interject that this is fantasy, but people in my community have lived it. In fact, Congupna farmer David Miles, who's a great steward of the environment, said: 'We've had some massive high summer flows, and they ruined the banks. There were massive erosion problems and trees falling in.”
“But what happens when excessive amounts of water are pushed down the Goulburn and Murray rivers to meet targets in the artificially fresh lower lakes of South Australia? Those rivers have unsustainably high flows in summer, and that damages the vegetation on the banks of the river. In the words of a peak fishing body in Victoria, 'It's a river, not a waterpipe.' If you think it's bad now, it's going to get a lot worse, because, under the previous environment and water minister, the buyback of more irrigation water to push more water down our precious rivers was authorised.”
“The people who are employed in agriculture and the people who are employed in all those great food-producing industries, like in my electorate, could continue to be employed and we could continue to export clean, green food to many places, including South-East Asia and China. But the bad implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and the pursuit of ripping more water away from irrigation, which is basically a political objective, not an environmental objective, has led to some really perverse outcomes. I want to explain one of those perverse outcomes to the House, because I think we could all bring examples that we understand, because we live it. That's what this place should be about.”
“It is a great pleasure to speak on the economy and the environment. Bad policy and bad implementation lead to really bad outcomes, and this is very clear in my electorate of Nicholls. It's not only the people of South Australia who are very disappointed with the Labor government; it's the people who live in the Goulburn and Murray valleys. The Murray-Darling Basin Plan was supposed to deliver a triple bottom-line outcome: social, environmental and economic. It was supposed to support those principles. We would have an improved environment and we would have an improved economy, because we could still produce food and we could therefore have better social outcomes.”
“Mim Drinnan was awarded the AgriFutures Les Young Scholarship. Mim hails from Nagambie, which is the home of Black Caviar and is a major centre for the thoroughbred industry, where she works with Lindsay Park Racing. Mim is going to use this scholarship to travel to the UK and attend the National Stud bloodstock management course. I commend Jack and Mim on their achievements, as well as all of the other recipients—people who are working in the agricultural and rural industries, making sure food and fibre production is in good hands for the future of Australia. Thank you to AgriFutures for fostering the future leaders in the agricultural industry.”
“It's a great thing for Australia's future when young people are interested in involving themselves in agriculture and rural industries, and AgriFutures Australia is supporting the next generation of rural and regional leaders across our nation. In this very building today, they're coming together. I particularly want to congratulate two outstanding young people from my electorate of Nicholls who have been recognised through AgriFutures' scholarship programs. Jack McKay was awarded an AgriFutures Horizon Scholarship, which is a bursary to broaden his study. Jack grew up on a sheep farm in Broadford and attended Assumption College in Kilmore. He's now studying a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Charles Sturt University in Wagga, and he hopes to become an agronomist—a former profession of mine.”
“It should never have been made, because the Prime Minister didn't understand that the model was so threadbare that their policies weren't going to deliver it. But, clinging on to something to try and win the next election, he ran around saying, 'If you vote for the Labor Party, you will get $275 off your power prices.' How many times did he say it? How many?”
“We had a lot of good infrastructure programs, and one of the most important ones was the Building Better Regions Fund. It was a great bucket, and it funded a lot of important things in my region and other regions. It funded regional seats across the aisle, not just National Party or Liberal Party seats. It's been taken away and replaced with their own programs. I acknowledge there was some money in those programs but not enough to satisfy demand. When we got to the cruel hoax of a budget the other night, we found there's no more funding for the regional grant programs—no more funding! If anyone didn't get a look-in the last time, they're not going to get a look-in again—cuts and delays! Now, broken promises—well, the whopper of the promises is $275 off your power prices.”
“You need water to be able to grow this food. I did agricultural science at university, but even those who didn't should be able to understand that you need water to be able to grow food. So much good food is grown in the Goulburn Valley: apples, pears, peaches and dairy. It's processed and then exported. I've got some fantastic people doing things in my electorate, earning money and, as the member for Page said, earning export dollars for Australia, and the Labor Party is taking away the tools that they need to do it; that's all they're getting from the Labor Party. Cutting water for food is not the only thing they're cutting. They're also cutting the important grant programs that provide infrastructure that we need in the regions.”
“I'll try to make an intelligent contribution to this debate about cuts, delays and broken promises. The first cut, the most important and deepest cut affecting farmers in my electorate, is the cut to the amount of water that farmers can use to grow food for Australia and for food exports. That's the biggest cut. It's a cut that's been delivered by the Minister for the Environment and Water, trying to rework the Murray-Darling Basin Plan into something that is going to satisfy the Greens breathing down the neck of her electorate and the other electorates of Labor Party people who are worried about losing their seats in inner cities. That's all very well from a political perspective, but that agriculture is so important to our nation for our sovereign food manufacturing capability and for our exports.”
“Commonwealth Games money was flushed down the toilet because of bad decisions and infrastructure projects have blown out because of incompetence and a lack of business nous. There is also a lack of respect for taxpayers' money. My electorate is an entrepreneurial area, and business owners and employees know how hard it is to earn a dollar. It involves hard work, risking your capital, milking cows, picking fruit and driving a truck. To see a government be so irresponsible with many of these dollars frustrates these hardworking people more than you can imagine. If it wasn't enough to cop this at a state level for over 10 years, now we are getting similar bad government at a federal level with the promise of more pain unless they are voted out.”
“A glimpse into the future can be inspiring, it can be exciting or it can be frightening. The view of the future is often informed by the deeds of the past, or, as the philosopher George Santayana said, 'Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.' We are one term into the recklessly spending Albanese government, but, if you want to fast-forward the movie about what Australia will look like if this incompetent government is re-elected, then look at my home state of Victoria after more than a decade of Labor. The public finances in Victoria are in a dire state. Total Victorian government debt is forecast to hit $187 billion by June 2028—equal to a quarter of the state economy. In too many cases, there's very little to show for this unrestrained expenditure.”
“But, when you're governing, you've got to make difficult decisions to try and prioritise resources where you get the most bang for buck. In this case, from my perspective, it's a productivity bang for buck. Do we get more productivity out of prioritising working families for child care or the three-day guarantee? I certainly think it's the former. Again, I just want to emphasise that I don't make any judgement. I think it's fantastic if people want to stay home and look after their children. If they make the decision that the finances don't work for them to get back into work and do that, I understand that. This is about respecting everyone and their choice. But the most important thing is Australia has never needed its productivity to be increased further than now.”
“People who had run those businesses are no longer doing it. They say that the current government regulation just makes it impossible to do that. That makes it harder. I also think that there's a lot of opportunity around large employers in regional areas being able to set up their own childcare facilities. But, again, I'm told that that's very difficult. This place, this building, has a childcare facility, and that's fantastic. We want more parents to be able to work in this place, and I think the fact that they can drop the kids off at the creche here is great. Wouldn't it be great to have that in more locations in regional Australia? The principle of this is that the activity test was good. People want to give everything to everyone, and I do understand that.”
“I think it's been referred to a Senate inquiry and I'll be interested to see what that comes up with. I note that previous Labor governments have promised to build a lot of new facilities but have fallen short in those areas. I'll say this to the government: I would have been much more likely to support this sort of legislation had you sorted out the supply side first. If the supply side gets sorted out, and if you can guarantee that this three-day guarantee is not going to keep any working family from being able to access child care and enable them to get back into the workforce—and I saw it on the ground. There are a range of different options, and sometimes those options require flexibility. Family day care seems to be getting harder to do. A lot of families in my electorate have been so successful with that family day care.”
“We've got all sorts of jobs that are not being filled in our burgeoning economy—in places like Greater Shepparton, Seymour, along the Murray in Echuca, Cobram and Yarrawonga—and, because we've got these limited childcare places, parents are not able to go and participate in the workforce in the way they want to. I just worry this is going to make it worse. I worry this is going to make it worse, and then we're going to get a productivity hit. We can't afford another productivity hit. People from regional Australia often talk about childcare deserts, and we don't seem to get much buy-in. Although I do acknowledge that there does appear to be some funding for new childcare facilities, I'll be interested to see how that works and whether that is focused on regional areas.”
“We've got to make difficult decisions about priorities. This piece of legislation skews the priorities in a way that, I think, will mean that people who would like to get back into the workforce, particularly in rural and regional areas, will find it more difficult because the already limited childcare industry—when I say limited, I mean limited in terms of places—will become even more difficult to access because of the three-day guarantee. I worry about the unintended consequences for regional economies like mine, where we are begging for workers. We're begging for workers to come and live in the regions. We've got professional jobs. We've got trade jobs.”
“So we put our daughter into child care, very successfully, and then we did the same with our son. My wife and I were in the workforce, doing jobs that were incredibly important to the agricultural industries of the Goulburn Valley. Agriculture is, of course, what makes the Goulburn Valley tick. One of the first principles is that child care is finite. I would love for everyone to have access to child care. I'd love for everyone to be given a million bucks. I'd love for this parliament to be able to give everyone in Australia everything they want. The idealists and the activists who come to this place, some of whom will never govern, often say those things. They want to give everything to everyone because it feels great. But the trouble is that we have finite resources in this country. We have finite workers. We have finite tax dollars.”
“I was working in agricultural science; she was working in animal nutrition. We wanted to spend as much time as we could with our daughter, when she was a baby, and there was some good maternity leave, as it was called then; we hadn't quite moved on to paternity leave, but we were able to have some good time. But she wanted to go back to work, I wanted to be at work and we faced the struggles that young families face—mortgage repayments, wanting to get ahead in the world, wanting to pay our house down and also wanting to keep moving in career progression, and wanting to balance that out with the joy and the benefit to Australia of having children, like so many families want to do. We want to make sure that choice and that balance is there for them.”
“What we're worried about in relation to the three-day guarantee is that, because everyone's guaranteed a place in child care, whether you're working or studying or you're not working—again, I want to emphasise that we on this side and, I think, everyone place no judgement on that. Everyone's free to live their life as they want, and we want them to have the choice to do that. But if those finite places are taken up by people who are putting their children into child care and not working, then, logically, there are going to be fewer places in child care for people who do want to work. Those people are doing jobs that need to be done. In my own experience—we had our daughter just over 16 years ago, and then we had a son over 14 years ago—my wife and I each had careers in our own professions.”
“I sat in a park in a place called Seymour, in my electorate, having advertised, 'Anyone who wants to discuss this childcare issue and the lack of childcare places, come and see me in the park,' and I had a number of parents come and see me in that park, and we sat down and talked about things. I remember one mother speaking to me about just not being able to get the hospital shifts she wanted—she was a nurse in an already worker depleted health system in regional Victoria—and not being able to get a childcare place. She couldn't go back and do the work that she wanted to do and we needed her to do. She spoke to me about her frustration at that, and the frustration with the hospital that she worked at because they're short of workers. That's the problem that we encounter with the lack of investment in new childcare places.”
“But, if you did want to get back into the workforce, for the variety of reasons that people have—for the extra income, or because you liked being in the workplace, as some people do more than others—then, again, there was no judgement as to that. Some people don't want to continue on with their career development as well as having children. Basically, this respected the choice of all Australians. So the childcare arrangements that existed tried to prioritise the people who wanted to get back into the workforce—we wanted them to be in the workforce, and I'll give you some examples of that—by making sure that they were able to get their children into the finite childcare places that existed, and it has had a positive effect. When you see the childcare desert situation get worse, you can see the negative effect that has.”
“The first principles are that child care for a certain age enables working families to get back into the workforce sooner than they otherwise would, and that gives us a productivity boost in Australia. We certainly need productivity increases at the moment—perhaps now more than ever, while we've got a productivity crisis that is a causal factor of our inflation situation, which then impacts the cost-of-living crisis. Productivity is so important to us addressing that. The childcare focus was about improving productivity—and not making a judgement as to what people want to do, but making sure that choice was respected. So if you chose that you didn't want to go back to work and you had the resources or that that was what you wanted to do, then you could do that.”
“There were mutual obligations if you were receiving one of these payments, whether it be JobSeeker, parenting payment or special benefit, or if you had a child who attended preschool. They were designed to assuage some of the things that I think the member for Fenner was talking about and to try to get child care to the people who needed it. To go back to first principles: why do we have child care/early childhood education? It is certainly a finite resource. In fact, the demand significantly outstrips the supply—particularly in regional and rural electorates, like the one I represent, Nicholls, where we have what are referred to as childcare deserts, and I'll talk a bit about that later.”
“It meant that parents and carers needed to be working or looking for work, studying or volunteering to be eligible for the finite—and I use that word 'finite'—subsidised care places. I note that volunteering and looking for work only counted towards the first 16 hours of your activity level. There was a whole formula: less than eight hours, zero hours; if you earn above $83,280, 24 hours; and the more hours you worked, the more hours of subsidised care you got each fortnight. There were exemptions to that. They were carefully thought out and put into place by the previous coalition government. They were that parents and carers would be eligible for 36 hours a fortnight if they identified as Indigenous, were Parent Pathways participants and received an eligible income support payment.”
“I, too, rise to speak on the Early Childhood Education and Care (Three Day Guarantee) Bill 2025. I'll set out the legislation and what it is replacing, and then I'll talk a bit about our view of this and what the consequences would be on the ground. This is another piece of flawed legislation by this government that will have consequences. They may be intended or unintended, but they'll be detrimental for our country as a whole. That's the way we view this. Firstly, the bill amends the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999, removing reference to the childcare subsidy activity test and replacing it with the new three-day guarantee. It gives effect to the announcement made by the Prime Minister. What was the activity test and why was it there? Firstly, what did the activity test do?”
“If there is less food then the laws of supply and demand say the prices are going to be higher. So families are feeling the pain of Labor's attack on agriculture at the supermarket check-out, and that is one of the key examples of this government's failure to manage the cost-of-living crisis.”
“We have also traditionally given farmers the tools they need to grow food. It has traditionally been a country that is small business friendly, and a lot of farms are small businesses. We have given farmers the tools they need, such as irrigation water, to grow produce such as fruit, dairy, vegetables. This government is taking those tools away. That has not only led to a crisis in confidence in investment but it is also going to get worse and is going to lead to families having to pay more at the check-out, because if you make it harder to run a farming business, prices of produce go up. What happens is people have to put their prices up or they say, 'This is too hard and I'm not farming any more.' Therefore, there are fewer people producing and there is less food.”
“Why has inflation stayed so high for so long, and a lot higher in Australia than comparable economies? It is because of excessive government spending. If you are going to spend, it has to be productive spending. For this government, a lot of the spending is not productive, and the state governments, particularly the one in the state where I live in Victoria, have to own a bit of that, too. It is not only spending but also the complete lack of focus on productivity. Now, when you have people who are in government who don't really understand private enterprise because of very few of them have worked in it, they probably don't understand productivity, and we've seen that play out. The third thing I want to talk about his food. Traditionally, food has been pretty cheap in Australia. Why is that? Well, we have a great climate for growing food.”
“So that makes me worry that the energy crisis is going to get worse if this is what we are relying on, and there are certainly a lot of problems with the integrated system plan. The Prime Minister has to go out during this election campaign and explain why the $275 hasn't happened and what the new promise is. I would be interested to see what that is. On mortgages and rents, the government's failure to manage inflation has meant that interest rates have stayed too high for too long. That has affected people with mortgages and it has affected people who rent properties. Core inflation is still outside the target band—still. The Treasurer gets up during question time and says it is falling. It stayed so high for so long. Just calculate what that has meant for those extra mortgage repayments over that period of time.”