Simon Kennedy
Cook · Liberal Party · Australia
“Can you guess how long it took Cory to have his injuries accepted? Eight years—eight years of forms, reports, appointments, assessments, delays and uncertainty. Cory, as I mentioned, is president of the Cronulla RSL Sub-Branch.”
“This Albanese government must accept its obligation in return, must explain why veterans are being pushed through repeated reassessments, must explain why veterans are paying out-of-pocket costs for 400 days while waiting for approval and must explain why doctors are being driven away from DVA work.”
“This has to change. I don't want to continue with political point scoring. I want this to flip. If the members across here today and the members watching in their offices right now can take this back to their party room: we want to stop. Let's make this right.”
“A veteran should not be forced through repeated assessments just to keep receiving care. A veteran should not be paying out of pocket while waiting for a government approval.”
“We've announced it and passed it in a budget, and now we're doing the consultation. How backwards is that? We're raising revenue and giving billions of dollars to hydrogen and billions of dollars to billionaires. We're giving $15 billion to the NRF.”
“Luckily, he had a home which he could borrow against, but for those 17 months he had to borrow against his home and he was under constant psychiatric treatment, with no promise that it would ever be reimbursed. This isn't how a grateful country should treat a veteran.”
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“I'm very pleased to speak on this motion, because cost of living is an issue dominating household budgets right across my electorate of Cook. Just recently I received an email from Carol, a volunteer with St Vincent de Paul, and I'd like to quote some of this email: 'In the ever-increasing cost-of-living times, it's become extremely obvious the number of people in your electorate around Caringbah who are in need of help has increased dramatically. We have noted that these people are much younger. We receive requests for food assistance, with one lady pleading she has nothing left for school lunches. We've also been asked to supply beds for people sleeping on the floor with only one blanket.”
“I'd also like to acknowledge the outstanding runners-up, whose work equally highlighted how special our local area is: Jon Vale, for his image of Gymea Bay; Jane Hull and Sandra Reily, capturing beautiful Cronulla: Made By TM, with a stunning perspective of Sans Souci; Lyn Stokes, with a beautiful scene from Oyster Bay, and Silver Back—our local skateboarding celebrity dog, Giotto, who's currently sick and unwell, with a GoFundMe page. Please donate generously to Help Giotto Keep Shredding. We want to see him back and well. Each of these entries reflects the pride people have in our gorgeous local community. They're the stories that make up our community and make it special. To all the winners and participants: thank you and congratulations.”
“I want to congratulate the winners of my 2025 Christmas card photography competition. They beautifully captured the stunning character and coastal aspect of lots of Cook. Jess and Jordan Wilken from Wilken Photography, thank you for your fantastic photo. Michael Sutton, the creator of Humans of Cronulla, does beautiful morning photographs every day at Cronulla Beach. Carolyn from I Love Kurnell showcased the extraordinary natural environment off beautiful Kurnell. Their photos made the front of our Cook Christmas card.”
“Even on social and affordable housing, this government's record is equally concerning. The Housing Australia Future Fund now holds around $11.4 billion, yet, after more than two years, it's delivered fewer than 900 homes. It's raised $11.4 billion in taxpayer revenue, delivering just 900 homes. This isn't a delivery problem at the margins; it's a fundamental failure of execution. Australians are being promised a step change in housing supply, but, instead, what they are seeing is extremely worrying. Money is sitting around in a fund while a shortage continues, and the government won't address the problem that's staring it in the face—that is, increased population growth and increased immigration levels. It should be reduced now to match housing supply.”
“Australia having the highest inflation of any advanced economy in the world made it extremely vulnerable to a fuel shock. Now we have that fuel shock, inflation is running even higher and even more rampant, and we are faced with even more interest rate rises. The average Australian family is now paying in excess of $25,000 a year more in interest alone on their mortgage. That's before you add in the cost of energy bills, inflation and increased taxation for bracket creep. What we now need to do is balance immigration with housing supply. We've never had more of a reason to do it than now. We need to focus on housing supply measures. Policies such as the first home owner guarantee are continuing to fuel demand at a time when demand should be taken off with the volumes of new immigrants entering this country.”
“These subsidies would be far better directed at Australian mums and dads, aspiring young Australians who want to get into the housing market. These are the people we should be subsidising and backing to make Australia more affordable. These are the people who are also punished by unsustainably high immigration levels. These are the ones whose local areas are getting crowded as they fight for sporting fields, for car parks and for places in local public schools and see housing become increasingly unaffordable. And, yes, this government's reckless spending is adding even more difficulty to that. Because government spending is at a 40-year high—outside of the pandemic—we are seeing inflation run rampant through people's pay cheques and interest rates climb higher and higher.”
“You have to go through planning, financing and construction—lengthy delays. So any mismatch between population growth and housing supply sees substantial price increases. The same is likely true if we can have housing supply outstrip population growth. That needs to be the aim. We need to increase housing supply and reduce population growth so these two metrics are in equilibrium, and this is something this government has failed at incredibly dismally. That is why we see such a stark increase in house prices. Similarly, some of the metrics on the supply side are not increasing homeownership. We're seeing subsidies for super funds and institutional investors to build to rent. We have given multibillion-dollar subsidies, in some cases, to bring on new housing.”
“Housing affordability has never been tougher. Housing has never been more out of reach than it is for this current generation, and it's hard to tell what it will do to the social fabric of this country if it's allowed to continue this way. We talk a lot about housing supply. Yes, we build 170,000 dwellings a year, but there's a simple truth: if housing supply does not match population growth, you'll see prices go up and housing become less affordable, be it buying a house or renting a house. Unfortunately, immigration settings have been far too strong and allowed to run far ahead of housing completions. At a time when we've brought over 1.2 million new Australians into the country, we've added fewer than 500,000 homes. That simply does not work. Unfortunately, housing is inelastic. You cannot just create a few houses overnight.”
“We know this Labor government is often big on targets but let's hope they can follow through on the delivery. When it comes to many other targets, they're falling short, but we hope to work with them to ensure that our seas are protected, that it's in the national interest and that it's bipartisan with both. The coalition looks forward to the government's plans in this area, working with them to make it bipartisan. We understand some of the plans to help achieve the target are being reviewed. We look forward to that more detail, and we look forward to working with this government to protect our national oceans, to protect these treasures and to protect the local environment.”
“Our understanding is Labor are now only getting to this as there are international meetings later this year. We're getting there late, but it's better late than never—almost the 85th country. It is especially disappointing when the coalition had offered bipartisan support for this legislation throughout the entire process. This bill seeks to create a new regulatory regime and rules to implement obligations under the treaty, including on marine genetic resources and digital sequence information, area based management tools and environmental impact assessments. This should be done in a way that complements and does not duplicate existing global and regional rules and settings. In addition, the government has adopted the global target of protecting 30 per cent of the world's marine areas by 2030. This is a noble idea.”
“So the coalition have a proud history of supporting our seas and the environment, and we're keen to continue that by supporting this bill. Under the leadership of the coalition, Australia was engaged in the UN negotiations on these issues, ensuring that Australia's exclusive economic zone, which is the third-largest in the world, was legally recognised. As a nation, we've benefited enormously as a result of this in terms of protecting our environment and managing our abundant national resources and beautiful oceans. The negotiations for the high seas treaty happened under the coalition government until 2022. The Albanese government became a signatory to the treaty in 2024, and it's taken Labor around two years to get to this point of ratification. Already more than 80 other countries, almost 85, have ratified this treaty.”
“The coalition proudly supports the High Seas Biodiversity Bill 2026. This legislation is necessary to finally put in place the UN high seas treaty after years of delay under Labor. The people of Cook are huge supporters of the ocean—as am I. Proudly announced as Australia's best beach in 2026, Bate Bay is the pride of the Sutherland Shire, much of Sydney and much of Australia. The coalition has a proud history on seas and marine parks. It was the coalition who created the first marine park, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It was the coalition that created our first national oceans policy. It was the coalition who made the Great Australian Bight Marine Park, in the member for Grey's electorate. It created the framework that allowed the south-east marine parks to be created, and it did the first large expansion of marine parks.”
“We need to avoid policy settings that create uncertainty, otherwise investment will not accelerate. If we continue to prioritise risk without appropriately enabling growth, the economy will continue to underperform—banks included—making Australians poorer. The central issue identified through this inquiry is now where we are looking for banks and regulators to address their focus. Again, I would like to thank the chair and the secretariat for a great bipartisan approach to this important issue.”
“Taken together, the evidence points to a broader conclusion: the banking system is operating within economic conditions that are placing increased strain on the economy, households and businesses. High demand without sufficient supply is driving up household pressures and business pressures. Inflation and interest rates are reducing household capacity and business capacity, and policy uncertainty has the effect of affecting investment decisions. Banks can respond to these economic conditions better. We must ensure they are acting in customers' and the national interests but we recognise that policy settings influence this as well. This responsibility sits with government. If demand continues to outpace supply, affordability will not improve and neither will interest rates nor inflation.”
“However, the regulatory framework is struggling to keep pace. Costs remain a concern, competition is uneven and there are questions about whether innovation is being fully supported. I'd like to congratulate the chair on bringing on a payments inquiry that we look forward to reporting on soon. In addition, issues such as debanking have emerged as a persistent barrier to competition and growth in the economy. Businesses and individuals are being excluded from financial services due to risk settings and compliance pressures. This has real economic consequences and it affects Australia's competitiveness. It limits participation, restricts growth and reduces confidence in the financial system at a time when access to finance is essential to economic activity.”
“Mr Comyn referenced the figure of 180,000 and the need to align population growth with housing supply, infrastructure and services. When that alignment is not achieved, the pressure shows up in higher housing costs, congestion and broader impacts on the cost of living. We also heard clearly from the banking sector about the importance of policy certainty, particularly in relation to energy and investment. We all want Australia to be a country of low energy prices and a strong economy. We heard from the CEO of ANZ, Nuno Matos, who warned that we can't let the medicine kill the patient in our approach to energy. The inquiry also examined the payment system and broader financial infrastructure. Australia is undergoing rapid change in how payments are made and processed. There's clear innovation underway.”
“It drives prices higher, increases the size of mortgages, and the size of mortgages is correlated to the size of banking profits. The long-term cost to the economy is significant. Analysis from Cotality shows that, for a median dwelling of $850,000, a buyer entering with a five per cent deposit would pay approximately $850,000 in interest over a 30 year loan. By comparison, a buyer with a 20 per cent deposit would pay $130,000 less in interest alone. These policies don't just affect access; they are locking Australia into higher debt burdens and they are fuelling banks' profits. Migration was also a key factor raised throughout the inquiry, and there's broad recognition, including voiced by bank CEO Matt Comyn, that a more sustainable migration intake would help balance housing.”
“Australia is also facing a structural imbalance between demand and supply, not only in the overall aggregate demand of the economy but also in housing. Demand continues to be driven by strong population growth and policy settings while supply has not kept pace. This gap is placing sustained upward pressure not only on inflation and on interest rates but also on rents and house prices, making it harder for Australians, particularly first homebuyers, to enter the market. Policies such as low deposit schemes, including the five per cent deposit pathway, were raised as part of this discussion. While intended to support access, in supply constrained environments, they risk increasing purchasing power without increasing the number of homes available. That dynamic does not improve affordability.”
“The regulators in the UK are now explicitly stating the need to move from managing risk towards balancing risk and growth. Australia as a country has not yet made that regulatory shift. This matters because access to finance is central to economic expansion. When settings are overly cautious, lending becomes constrained, investment slows and productivity suffers. We are seeing this play out in real time. Small business lending is subdued and has largely been flat for much of the last decade. There's a growing sense the system is calibrated towards avoiding risk and supporting expansion. This creates a drag on both growth and productivity at a time when the economy needs it the most. We need to get banks growing their small business books and growing them aggressively.”
“Yes, we heard from the chair on the governance strains—that I fully endorse. We heard about the cultural strains. But a consistent theme also emerged across the inquiry: that regulatory settings are very focused on managing risk and not sufficiently focused on enabling growth. Now, we heard clearly that this is not accidental. Following the global financial crisis, financial systems, appropriately, around the world, shifted towards regulatory regimes primarily focused on managing risk. Australia did the same. This contributed a lot to stability and is a big reason for how resilient and stable our banking system remains. However, globally, this shift is now moving back towards an approach which balances growth against this risk. The United States has already moved in this direction.”
“I think we also need to ensure there's appropriate competition in the sector, whether that's through new entrants in the payment space or through stable coins and other financial products. We need to ensure Australia stays at the forefront of innovation in the banking sector. This inquiry examined the performance of the banking sector and the pressures Australia faces across housing, the cost of living, business conditions and financial access. It's important to acknowledge at the outset that Australia's banking system remains resilient. The major banks are stable; they continue to lend and are supporting households and businesses through a somewhat challenging economic period—even during this fuel crisis. But the evidence also made clear that the system is operating under strain.”
“by leave—I fully endorse the committee chair's comments. The governance and culture of the major banks need to be continually put under the microscope to ensure they're fulfilling their standards to customers and to suppliers and their social licence to the community abroad. I'd really like to thank the chair, for the bipartisan way in which he ran the committee, and the full secretariat. I think it was a very good report of a very good inquiry, and, hopefully, is the first of many to come. I think ensuring competition is at the heart of our banking sector. It needs to be part of the relentless focus of this committee's work. The banks hold a privileged position in Australia's economy, and we need to ensure they discharge that privileged permission, putting Australians—and, particularly, Australian businesses and customers—first.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that 10 per cent of service stations in New South Wales currently have no diesel? How many service stations in Australia are currently without fuel?”
“There's one last person I'd like to thank: Brian Havilah, the 91-year-old who completed that one-kilometre swim. Brian, you're a legend.”
“This legendary open-water swim has been a fixture of Sydney's summer for more than 30 years, bringing together swimmers of all ages and all abilities to test themselves against the ocean and the spectacular backdrop that is Shark Island. I'd like to congratulate Harry Came, who won both the one-kilometre race and the 2.3-kilometre race; Thomas Valassis and Steve Boxall, who came second and third in the one-kilometre race; and Beau Griggs and Charlotte Bowmer, who came second and third in the 2.3-kilometre race. I'd like to thank Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club and indeed all the members of the Bate Bay clubs who helped put on the event and helped organise it on the day. I'd also like to thank Scott Charlton and Sydney Airport, who sponsored that event and sponsor so many great events in southern Sydney and Cronulla.”
“One of those volunteers is Jenson Wade, and Jenson proves that you're never too young to make a difference. Jenson organised the Jenson Hates Waste beach clean-up in Cronulla Beach, and the results were extraordinary. With the help of the local community, Jenson collected more than 12,000 pieces of rubbish from Cronulla Beach and the sand and surrounding hills. Those 12,000 pieces of plastic debris and litter are no longer polluting our beautiful beach and are no longer threatening marine life. Cronulla is one of the jewels of the Sutherland Shire and one of the jewels of Australia. Thanks to young people like Jenson—and your mates who were there to help you that day—it's being looked after by the next generation. I wish to celebrate a truly iconic event in the local Sutherland Shire calendar: the Shark Island Swim.”
“Today I wish to acknowledge three achievements unique to the stunning electorate of Cook. Firstly, Bate Bay's beaches were aptly named the Best Beach of the Year in Australia for 2026. This national recognition isn't just about the stunning scenery—and it is very stunning; anyone who's walked along Cronulla, Elouera, Wanda or Greenhills knows how beautiful those beaches are—but it's also about pride in the local community, environmental stewardship and keeping those beaches safe. We are lucky to have hundreds if not thousands of volunteers who walk along those beaches and collect rubbish. To those across our four surf clubs—Cronulla, North Cronulla, Elouera and Wanda—who give up hundreds of thousands of hours over the years to keep those beaches safe: we thank you. We thank you for your part in making this the best beach in Australia.”
“You would much rather be in any other advanced country in the world because they had lower inflation to begin with and lower interest rates, and, because they were not caught as flat footed as Australia was, petrol prices have gone up less in those countries than in Australia. So, yes, the trigger for this event may not have been foreseeable, but how you react, how you prepare and how you get across your brief is. Unfortunately, disappointingly, Australians working across the suburbs of Gymea, Cronulla and Caringbah are paying the price for this. You're paying it at the bowser. You may soon be paying it at the supermarket. We will do what we can to work with this government to give you relief.”
“When you start having road transport break down, you get shortages on supermarket shelves, you get unemployment spiking and you get inflation going through the roof. The truth is that Australia was already experiencing the highest inflation of any advanced economy in the world. What should the federal government be doing? They should be protecting everyday Australians from international shocks. Instead, this government and Treasurer Chalmers had Australians flailing in the wind, with the highest inflation in the advanced world. So, when this international shock came through, it hit us like a freight train. Yes, you'd much rather be in the US. You'd much rather be in the UK or Japan.”
“Yes, we support doubling these penalties, but the ACCC takes time. They have to investigate cases. They have to create litigation. Australians need relief now. They need relief urgently. They are doing the maths right now on how they will get through Easter. I personally spoke to two trucking companies this week who are worried about going insolvent, and, when they go insolvent—they have customers who they deliver to. They go to Bunnings. They go to Woolies. They go to Coles. It's not just a bush issue. Right now, it may be. People in the cities might say, 'The worst thing that's happening to me is paying 200 bucks for a tank,' and that's pretty bad. But it could soon get much worse.”
“Earlier we heard from Scotty Buchholz in here—a man who has dedicated a huge proportion of his life to trucking, who owned 14 depots right across this country, who understands this industry. For him, this isn't policy. It's not a piece of legislation. It's not words on paper. He knows the people in this industry who are going to go bankrupt without adequate help. And, when they go bankrupt and stop delivering food to supermarket shelves and when crops stop getting sowed, it's everyday Australians that'll pay, and we risk stagflation. What he raised was: should we be looking at adjusting the fuel excise? Why is the government not having discussions on these topics—on road-user charging, on fuel excise—which would provide relief overnight to truck drivers right across the country?”
“Can we afford next month's school fees?' That's the reality everyday families are living right across Australia. Yes, the war on Iran may not have been foreseeable, but what is foreseeable is how quickly you react and how you get across your brief. And, unfortunately, all everyday Australians are having to adjust their way of life faster than this government has been able to adjust to a fuel crisis. You can't tell everyone that everything is fine on a Monday and then on Friday call it a national crisis. As soon as this started, what would happen was absolutely foreseeable. This government was caught flat footed, and they still are. While we welcome the doubling of ACCC penalties, there's more the government should have been looking at.”
“Just last weekend I'd run the tank dry. I went to my local servo in Gymea Bay and I filled up. I watched it go higher and higher and higher and, before I knew it, I was over 200 bucks. I made a video about it straight after that, just because I could not believe that, when filling up only a couple of weeks earlier, it was basically half the price. Now, this isn't a luxury. This wasn't for a road trip. This wasn't for a getaway. This was to get the family around the town. This isn't a future problem; it's happening right now. And when fuel prices hit this level, everything changes. Families start doing maths about everyday life. They say: 'Do we drive to sport this weekend? Can we go away this Easter? Can we afford a holiday? Do we go away at all? Do we stay at home? Do we start cutting back on groceries?”
“Australians rightly expect a national government should be sheltering them, protecting them from external shocks. Instead, Treasurer Chalmers has left the Australian people, the Australian business owners, flailing in the wind with the highest inflation in the advanced world, more than the US, more than the UK, more than the EU, more than Japan, more than Canada, more than any other advanced nation. We're out there flailing in the wind for this fuel shock to come along and hit us, and it's going to hit us harder than any of those countries because of where this Treasurer has left us. And what has he done in his time? He's increased government spending to a 40-year high, the highest that it has ever been since 1986 outside the pandemic. The Reserve Bank Governor herself admitted that this is adding pressure to inflation and interest rates.”
“Unfortunately, right now, right across Australia, inflation is running riot, and Australian consumers and Australian businesses are paying the price. Today I heard a story of a business owner worried about self-harm because he risks losing his business because of the increase in fuel costs. I met a woman in Sans Souci in my electorate in tears, losing her house because she can't make the interest repayments. These are the many stories, the many faces, of this cost-of-living crisis right across Australia—people who don't have a voice, who don't have a voice in this parliament, who can't stand up and change these circumstances. But us in this building, we do. We do have a voice. We can do something about it. Prior to this fuel crisis, Australia was not well-positioned. We had the highest inflation of any advanced economy in the world.”
“If they come to the table and show how we will catalyse lower-cost energy, cheaper chips, secure energy supply and fast-tracked permitting, we are willing to work with them. But right now we are not seeing that commitment from the Labor government, and, sadly, Australia's economic growth, Australia's next generation and the wealth of the Australian households will all be poorer for this.”
“We are competing against the US, China and the whole developed world for hundreds of billions of dollars of capital and for jobs, and they won't naturally choose Australia. We are a smaller middle power. If we do nothing, this investment will go to the US, to China and to Russia—to these large superpowers. This government needs to lead. They need to lead with energy policy. They need to lead with securing chips. They need to lead with fast-tracking permitting for data centres. They need to lead with catalysing private capital to invest in Australia. They need to work out copyright solutions so we can not just rely on inference modelling but build frontier modelling right here in Australia, right now. The coalition is willing to partner with the government on this.”
“In AI, data centres and big tech, we are facing the same energy crunch. We have global companies looking for where they are going to invest tens of billions of dollars. What do they want to see? They want to see the Australian government help secure chips, provide security of energy supply, provide low-cost energy and fast-track permitting for data centres and the infrastructure that will build the knowledge revolution of this country. But instead we have crickets. Yes, we have an AI institute, and I commend the government on that. That is smart and clever policy. But this isn't just about putting up an AI safety institute; this is about winning the race. This is akin to COVID.”
“What could the government be better focused on? Reliable, cheap energy that will power this nation and power an AI world. The truth is, Minister Bowen drew up our energy grid plan before the AI world and before blockchain was using an enormous amount of power. How do we know this? The energy market simply does not function any more. Energy prices are up 40 per cent in a retail sense. Many commercial areas in my area—manufacturers in Cook, Caringbah and Taren Point—have energy prices that are up almost 100 per cent. And what are they having to do to accommodate these energy prices? They're firing workers. FJP Manufacturing in Caringbah used to have seven apprentices. It's down to one. Energy costs are spiking, revenues are declining and there is no way to claw back these increased costs.”
“We have chronically low productivity, high inflation and low economic growth. Yet we have a solution staring us straight in the face: artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is perhaps the biggest lever in the world right now for productivity, yet Australia is not doing enough. Artificial intelligence is a race, and, sadly, it's a race Australia is losing. Right now, the US, China and many other middle powers are powering ahead. They're actually securing chips, securing energy and securing data supplies for their countries while Australia idly does next to nothing. We've empowered unions to promote AI. If you look around the world at any of these leading countries—be it Korea, the US or China—they do not have industrial unions driving their AI policy. That's what we have here at home.”
“The AI Safety Institute is a good idea. Do you know how we know it's a good idea? It was first announced on 18 June in 2021. The member of the government said that the coalition did not have an AI plan. That's actually incorrect. On 18 June 2021, the Australian government, then led by Prime Minister Morrison, published Australia's AI a ction plan . That was one of the first action plans anywhere in the world. We had to wait years for the Albanese government to come out with something, and, when it came out with its plan, it was pretty much a carbon copy of what we had published only three years earlier. Yes, we suggested establishing a national AI institute. Yes, we looked at strategies for digital skills. Yes, we looked at AI ethics. Australia has three massive problems.”
“My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. I refer to a report in the Daily Telegraph titled 'NSW fuel crisis sparks Minns Government to wargame emergency powers to ration and divert petrol and diesel'. Has the minister been briefed by the New South Wales government or any other state governments or territory governments on fuel rationing?”
“In surf lifesaving, we honoured Kasey Diver-Tuck, and, for community leadership and fundraising, we recognised Timothy and Kathryn Murdoch and Thana Akkari.”
“For almost 70 years, Warren has served surf lifesaving as a lifesaver, as a coach, as a referee, as an educator and as an administrator. He's been inducted into the Surf Life Saving Australia Hall of Fame, appointed a Member of the Order of Australia and awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. Internationally, Warren has been recognised as a Grand Knight in the Order of Lifesaving, the highest honour in the global lifesaving movement. Warren, you are a legend. Thank you for what you do for our community. In sport, we honoured Alex Johnston, Dave Richards, Jodie Green, Katrina Sant, Maureen Crowther and Helen Hamilton-Foster. We also recognised Luke Khoury and Jarryd Biviano for community sporting development, Tracie Sammut as a sporting trailblazer and Sandra Moss as a sports mentor.”
“Your community celebrates you, and I celebrate you. From all the mums and dads right across the Sutherland Shire, thank you. Our 2026 Cook Young Volunteer of the Year is Angus Cunningham. After facing cancer twice before the age of 12, Angus chose leadership over retreat. Through his book Twice Before Twelve , his advocacy, talking and mental-health coaching, he's offered hope and reassurance to young families navigating serious illness. Angus speaks on mental health, showing courage, vulnerability and love for his family and friends—the very role model of a modern man. He now fundraises for charity and is an avid runner. Angus, the whole community of Cook is very proud of you. This year, we also presented the inaugural Legacy of Lifetime Excellence in Surf Lifesaving Award to Warren Rennie AM.”
“I wish to acknowledge 39 amazing Australians who reside in Cook. Our 2026 Cook Volunteer of the Year is Lisa Brown. For many years, Lisa served as registrar for the Gymea United Football Club, a very demanding and largely unseen role ensuring hundreds of local families participate and have fun each season. Lisa has also supported the all-abilities Sutherland Titans FC and the St Pat's Baseball Club. She gives back well beyond her family's involvement and continued the role decades after her children went through. Her dedication strengthened grassroots sports across the Sutherland Shire and reinforced a sense of belonging. There are now three people doing the job Lisa used to do at Gymea United. She is humble, serves without fuss and accepted the award without a speech. Well, Lisa, I will speak for you.”
“For older Australians on fixed incomes, this isn't an inconvenience; it's system failure. It punishes loyalties and confuses customers. Steve and other people in my electorate are seeing their living standards erode, are seeing their money go less far and are struggling to get by week to week. Well, I'm here to fight for Steve. We're here to fight to keep this Labor government accountable.”
“Nowhere more than in our energy markets is the decline in living standards and the cost-of-living crisis demonstrated. This recently was driven home for me by Steve, from Caringbah South. After 30 years—three decades—with the same provider, suddenly Steve found his electricity bill doubling. Without consultation, his network, Ausgrid, moved him from a flat rate to a time-of-use plan. Energy Australia blamed Ausgrid. Ausgrid blamed Energy Australia. But Steve, like so many others, was left trapped in a plan he never chose, paying double. He's tried to change retailers. He can't. His meter is too old to be new, too new to be old and too old to be smart—a so-called dummy meter. Even after installing one of Mr Bowen's famed home batteries, he is still locked out of cheaper energy and still paying double.”
“The coalition believes in a superannuation system that's stable, predictable and principled so that Australians can make long-term investment decisions and that international investors can make those long-term investment decisions. We believe in a stronger Australia for each of those people, not a weaker Australia that's marred by increased spending, a higher cost of living and opportunistic tax grabs. I would ask this government to rein in government spending and address the problem at its source rather than steal from hardworking Australians and their retirement incomes.”
“For families and many families in my electorate, it's become so much harder—harder to service a mortgage, harder to pay your energy bills, harder to buy a house, harder to find a rental, harder to pay your school fees and harder to get ahead. In that environment, confidence in the retirement system matters more than ever. Superannuation is built on long-term trust—trust the rules won't shift unpredictably, trust that thresholds will not be quietly eroded with inflation and trust that core principles of our taxation system will be adhered to. Undermining that trust carries long-term costs. You lose the trust of the Australian people. You lose the trust of outside investors who want to invest in Australia, invest in our energy grid, invest in our manufacturing companies, invest in our cities and our data centres, and invest in AI.”