Mary Aldred
Monash · Liberal Party · Australia
“It's a privilege to rise for my 100th contribution to this place. In doing so, I want to address a barbeque-stopper of a conversation topic in my electorate of Monash, and that is homeownership. I'm deeply concerned. Building approvals dropped in May for the third consecutive month. This is an impact of the budget's housing tax changes.”
“You can measure the budget deficit of this government in numbers, but nothing compares to the deficit of trust it has created in Australia. We need to unlock supply and enable local infrastructure like Weebar Road in Drouin, in my electorate of Monash, which I've been fighting very hard for.”
“This Friday is 3 July, and it is the 12-month anniversary of the swearing-in of the class of 2025. It is a momentous occasion for that class among us.”
“I've got a constituent right now who's living with her abuser in fear because leaving means she will be separated from her special needs son and pets, and she cannot afford to move out. There are a couple living in a tent in a stranger's driveway in my electorate, and they cannot afford anywhere to rent on their $450-per-week budget.”
“Our wonderful CFA volunteers in Victoria answer the call in the middle of the night and step away from their work in the middle of the day to protect our community year round. As the daughter of someone who was a CFA volunteer, I know this very well.”
“For all the smirking and the back-patting and the preening that this prime minister carries on with, Australians right now deserve so much better from their government. Look at health.”
The complete record
Every one of 624 lines we hold for Mary Aldred, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 3 of 13.
“As a result, some employers suddenly found themselves exposed to large retrospective debt liabilities that in some cases stretched back many years and carried potentially devastating financial consequences. Without reform, some businesses faced the prospect of immediate insolvency. Jobs were at risk. Workers entitlements were at risk. Communities that rely on the coal industry were placed under a cloud of uncertainty. I share the great responsibility for representing the Latrobe Valley in the federal parliament with my friend and colleague the member for Gippsland. I know very well that with that large quantum of heavy industry, so too goes an ecosystem of small-to-medium businesses that interact with those larger employers, and their future and their sustainability is just as much at stake with these decisions and these risks.”
“At its core, this legislation establishes a voluntary pathway for employers to repay historical debts relating to unpaid portable long service leave levies in the black coalmining industry. I come from a state that proudly has the largest single deposit of brown coal in the Southern Hemisphere—500 years worth, on current usage rates—but this bill is dealing specifically with the resources in New South Wales, Queensland and other states. Importantly, these liabilities did not arise because businesses deliberately sought to avoid their obligations. Rather, they arose because of historical uncertainty around scheme coverage and interpretation—uncertainty that was brought sharply into focus through recent Federal Court decisions.”
“I'm proud to come from a region that grows, makes and manufactures things, and that keeps the lights on. Those answers are above and below the ground. In addressing my remarks on this bill, I acknowledge the work over a long period of time by workers in the Latrobe Valley, since the establishment of the real State Electricity Commission that the inaugural chair, Sir John Monash, led—not the new SEC set up by the Victorian Labor government, for which most employees, I think bar one, are based in Melbourne. The coalition supports this bill because its practical, balanced and noncontroversial reforms provide certainty for workers, certainty for employers and stability for an industry that has helped build modern Australia.”
“Yallourn provides about 22 per cent of Victoria's base-load electricity, and I have grave fears that that 22 per cent base-load electricity is going to be switched off overnight, in two years time, and we do not have adequate base-load capacity to replace it, thanks to the Victorian state Labor government and the Victorian energy minister, Lily D'Ambrosio—who doesn't like any form of 24-hour dispatchable power; she's driven a number of businesses in my electorate out of town. I have grave concerns for energy affordability and reliability after 2028, and that's why I'd like to see a gas-fired peaking plant in the Latrobe Valley that would be able to provide that continuity. AEMO forecast that the NEM is going to need 15 gigawatts of gas power over the next 20 years to hold up intermittent power.”
“I'm pleased to rise to speak on the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2026. It's a great privilege to represent part of the Latrobe Valley in this federal parliament. In addressing my remarks today, I want to pay my respects to the workers in the Latrobe Valley that keep our lights on and that keep our businesses running. Of those once four now three coal-fired power stations—we had Hazelwood, Loy Yang A, Loy Yang B and Yallourn—Hazelwood closed a couple of years ago. It was run out of town by the Victorian state government, which tripled coal royalties overnight. We now have three power stations in Loy Yang A, Loy Yang B and Yallourn. Yallourn, of course, is scheduled to close in 2028, and that's only two years away.”
“On Leon's 100th birthday, in 2023, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Matt Keogh, paid tribute. He said: Leon was proud to be of service to his country and said his time in the RAAF was life changing. He reached the rank of corporal and discharged from RAAF in February 1946. Last year, on Anzac Day, there were four known surviving Australian Jewish servicemen who had fought in World War II. Although almost 4,000 Jewish Anzacs who served in World War II are no longer with us, they leave behind a legacy of courage, sacrifice and mateship. May Leon Bloom's memory forever be a blessing.”
“I rise to pay tribute to Leon Bloom, believed to be the last surviving Jewish Australian veteran of World War II. Born in Footscray, Victoria in 1923, Leon Bloom passed away, symbolically, just a day after Anzac Day this year. On that day, I had the honour of attending a post-Anzac Day service for the Victorian Association of Jewish Ex & Servicemen & Women in Melbourne. Leon Bloom was to have been there as well. Janice Furstenberg, the President of VAJEX, paid her final respects to Leon at his funeral by reciting the ode next to his five war-service medals. Leon Bloom served in the Royal Australian Air Force during the war and continued to serve the community after. Leon later worked in civil engineering before going into an electrical-motors business. His passion in life was photography, and his work was selected for the National Trust.”
“The coalition will stand up and fight for our veterans. They fought for Australia, and they deserve all of us in this place standing up and fighting for them. They deserve nothing less, and that is why it is so disappointing to hear government members supporting the cap on allied health services for veterans.”
“Australia asks extraordinary things of the men and women who wear our uniform, and all they ask for when they return home is that we take care of them and we treat them with respect. That is not what has happened in this federal budget with the Albanese government's decision to impose a $5,000 cap on allied health services for veterans. I've spoken to many veterans in my electorate, many ex-service organisations, many RSLs. They are hurt. They are angry. They feel there is a lack of respect and understanding. Veterans often have complex and chronic health needs. They're not simple; they're not short term. Veterans deserve adequate support, respect and care from this federal government. They deserve nothing less. That is why I oppose this cap; it is why the Liberal and National parties oppose this cap.”
“That infrastructure has not kept pace with the population growth of my West Gippsland community, and that is why I'm fighting for a new West Gippsland hospital. That's why it's important. It's important to local families; it's important to people with a disability. We cannot put additional unnecessary burden on local health services. In the Bass Coast community in my electorate, they're continuing to wait for stages 2 and 3 of the Wonthaggi Hospital redevelopment, because the population there has grown as well. Australians deserve better. Regional Australians deserve better. People in my electorate of Monash deserve better. That is why I will always stand up for local families. I will speak up for people with a disability who need strong representation in this place, and they deserve nothing less.”
“There is also understandable concern regarding the proposed reassessment of existing participants. With more than 760,000 participants potentially being reassessed over the coming years, this represents an enormous undertaking for a government department. Communities are quite rightly asking a very reasonable question: if they lose access to supports under the NDIS, where do they go next? There is no answer for them. There is no adequate response, because our broader healthcare systems are already under significant pressure. In my electorate, in West Gippsland, we've got the West Gippsland Hospital, which predates World War I. Yet Warragul and Drouin are among the fastest growing towns in regional Australia—in fact, in any part of Australia.”
“But for families in my electorate of Monash, this debate is not just about balance sheets; it's about whether the supports they rely on today will still be there tomorrow. One of the most significant elements of this bill is the proposed change to eligibility and access arrangements. Historically, eligibility has centred largely around diagnosis and established assessment criteria. The government now proposes moving towards a model based around reduced functional capacity. This represents a significant shift and understandably has generated concern because many details on how these assessments will operate still remain unclear. Families are seeking reassurance. Participants are seeking certainty. Communities are seeking confidence that Australians with genuine need will continue receiving the support they require.”
“I've had constituents in Venus Bay tell me that they just cannot get providers to their community—full stop. I also hear from carers on Phillip Island attempting to co-ordinate support workers, appointments and transport while balancing work and family responsibilities. I've heard from families in Wonthaggi overwhelmed by paperwork, red-tape requirements and the uncertainty of future arrangements. This is not fair and it's not right. Increasingly, parents tell me they feel less like parents and more like coordinators, advocates and administrators. These are regular conversations occurring right across regional Australia. Too often discussions in Canberra become focused on fiscal projections and growth trajectories.”
“That is really wearing on the emotional and mental reserves of many people in my electorate right now who genuinely, absolutely need to rely on a strong and secure and available NDIS. Before these reforms commence, many families are already navigating systems that feel overwhelming and difficult to understand. For many families, managing support has become almost a full-time responsibility in itself. These are the stories that I hear and my office hears. They may be powerful, but they're not unique. I've heard recently from parents in towns like Warragul and Drouin trying to secure early intervention supports while waiting months for specialist appointments. I hear from families in South Gippsland travelling long distances just to access therapies because local options either don't exist or waiting lists stretch for months.”
“I've now been in my role for 12 months and have helped over a thousand constituents, and the NDIS makes up a really significant proportion of that. Nearly one in every three people contacting my office is doing so because they are trying to navigate assessments, funding arrangements and increasingly complex support systems. I've spoken to too many people with a disability and too many parents of someone with a disability in my electorate who are in tears, who are distraught, who are in a very emotionally fragile state because they're worried about losing their plan, or being assessed at a lower, different rate that is not sufficient to meet their needs or their disability.”
“I've spoken to the parents of another young person for whom speech therapy every week makes the difference between being able to communicate how he's feeling—Does he feels safe? Is he in pain?—and whether he's not able to do those things. These things matter. They matter in regional communities, and regional communities matter. One thing that's become abundantly clear through the work I've done across my community is just how many families in the Monash electorate are seeking help to navigate disability supports and the NDIS. It is not an easy system; it is a complex, cumbersome system for too many people, and unnecessarily so. Almost 30 per cent of constituents who contact my office seeking assistance raise issues connected to the NDIS, disability support or a related service.”
“Participants deserve protection, taxpayers deserve accountability and the scheme itself deserves integrity—and that will ensure its long-term sustainability. I can say with confidence that people across my electorate of Monash are paying very close attention to these proposed reforms. Monash is a large and diverse regional community, and regional communities often experience disability support systems differently. Distance matters, access matters, availability matters and workforce shortages have an impact. When local specialists are unavailable, families need to travel. When therapy providers reach capacity, families wait. When support workers cannot be found, parents and carers fill the gap. I've spoken to the parents of a teenager in Moe, in the Latrobe Valley, who having trouble accessing physical therapy.”
“When reports are made to the NDIS and evidence provided, far too often there appears to be no response, no follow up and no visible action. In one case, a detailed report regarding a fraudulent operator was submitted with supporting evidence. It took two years for a response. That is simply not good enough. Australians with disability deserve better, and providers acting in good faith deserve better as well. Systems designed to protect vulnerable Australians must be capable of responding swiftly and decisively. Families also regularly raise concerns about dramatically different pricing for identical services once providers become aware funding is being accessed through the NDIS—the same service, the same work but a dramatically different price. That is unacceptable.”
“I've had some things to say previously on the revised travel allowance component of the NDIS to ensure that your postcode doesn't determine your potential in respect of the NDIS and that if you live in a small remote community and you need the NDIS and you need to access an allied health professional, you can continue to do so. One of the stronger actions required is around fraud and integrity within the scheme. Australians rightly expect taxpayer dollars intended for participants to support participants—not criminal networks, dishonest providers or individuals exploiting weaknesses in the scheme. Every dollar lost through fraud is a dollar unavailable to Australians with disability who genuinely rely on support.”
“They are about whether support will continue, whether therapies remain available, whether routines can be maintained and whether families can continue managing the extraordinary responsibilities they already carry. In a region like mine, the great Gippsland region—we're not a CBD region like Ballarat, Bendigo or Geelong, where you've got one central area of population; we have many smaller towns and many smaller communities. Forty per cent of our region is towns with under a couple of thousand people. That lack of market density sometimes makes accessing allied health professionals and therapists in very small or more remote communities quite difficult.”
“Annual expenditure has grown from original projections of approximately $13.6 billion to around $50 billion, and that is projected to continue increasing significantly in the years ahead. That growth presents real challenges. However, while the need for reform may be broadly accepted, the question before us now is not whether reform is necessary in itself. The question before us is whether reform is being undertaken in a way that gives all Australians confidence. For Australians living with a disability and for the families and carers who support them, these discussions should not be viewed through the lens of legislation or budget papers alone. They need to be viewed through the lens of everyday life.”
“For parents, it's offered reassurance that their children can access support and opportunities. For participants, it's meant greater choice and greater independence over how they choose to live their lives. Because of that, all of us in this place should approach discussions about changes to the NDIS with deep care. Supporting the NDIS does not mean simply defending the scheme as it exists today; it means ensuring that it stays strong and sustainable for generations yet to come. If we want the scheme to be able to continue supporting Australians well into the future, we also have a responsibility to ensure it remains fit for purpose. The reality is that the scheme has grown substantially since its establishment. Originally, the NDIS was expected to support around 410,000 participants. Today, it supports more than 760,000 Australians.”
“I think it's a fundamental principle that Australians living with a significant and permanent disability, wherever they are and whatever their postcode, should have access to the support that they need to live with dignity, with independence and with opportunity. The NDIS is one of the most significant social reforms this nation has ever undertaken. For many Australians, including many Australians in my electorate of Monash, it has transformed their life. It has provided support where, previously, there was uncertainty, crisis and barriers. It has offered many families hope and confidence about their future. It has offered independence for many who, previously, could not see a path through. For carers, it's often provided relief from an overwhelming burden.”
“They include grandparents in their 80s, caring for grandchildren with a disability, and parents in their 80s, caring for adult children with significant disabilities. They put all of themselves into that role. They do it because they love their family, and they deserve more thanks, more recognition and more support than I think society and our broader community give them. So I want to place on record my sincere acknowledgement of what they do, day in and day out. The coalition remains steadfast in our support for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and for Australians who rely on it every day.”
“It's always a pleasure to follow my colleague the member for Dunkley. In approaching my broader remarks on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, I want to say some things upfront about carers and, particularly, unpaid carers. I've had a number of conversations recently with unpaid carers, who are, in my view, the unsung heroes of our community. I think it's worth reflecting on the fact that one in nine Australians is an unpaid carer. They're often sons, daughters, parents, grandparents or siblings. There are 400,000 children and young people in Australia who are unpaid carers, often caring for a parent or a grandparent. I also want to recognise the around 21,000 carers in my electorate of Monash, many of whom I speak to regularly.”
“I've had too many conversations over the last few months with farmers at financial and emotional breaking points because these issues have not been dealt with satisfactorily. That is why I will stand up on behalf of local farming families. That is why I will stand up on behalf of manufacturing businesses in my electorate. And that is why I will stand up and pay my respect to the power station workers in the Latrobe Valley who have kept our lights on and kept our businesses running and far too often fail to get the respect, recognition and regard that their efforts deserve.”
“Not all of that will continue to generate electricity—there are some terrific prospects for coal to fertiliser and coal to diesel—but the reckless disregard of the Victorian state government, when it comes to jobs and economic security presented by some of those projects, has been reprehensible. There was a project a few years ago now where the proponent spent six years and millions of dollars and got nowhere, thanks to Lily D'Ambrosio, the Victorian energy minister. The proponent took that project across to New Zealand and got done in six months what they couldn't get done in Victoria in six years. When you're talking about sovereign capability, fertiliser is essential for farmers. Fuel is essential for farmers.”
“They've been operating in West Gippsland, in Warragul, for 80 years. Robbie Radford's the managing director. The family-run business was started by his father. They need gas for their refrigerators. They need gas for their boilers. If I go across to South Gippsland, where we have a number of dairy processors, they need gas as an essential part of what they do. Energy is a very big part of what we're talking about when we address sovereign capability, but it also flows through to essential products like fertiliser. The Latrobe Valley has the largest single deposit of brown coal in the Southern Hemisphere.”
“The Victorian Labor government don't have a clear, coherent plan for where that electricity—that cheap, abundant electricity that's set Victoria up as a manufacturing state—is going to be replaced. There are hundreds of jobs and a broader ecosystem of small and family businesses that rely on that quantum of heavy industry, as they do in many regions. And with all due respect to everybody who comes to this place with, I think, good intentions, I wish that a number of the teal representatives in this place would apply the same vigour and zeal they show standing up on behalf of technology billionaires to standing up for regional communities and regional jobs, as I do for my area. As well as electricity, gas is an essential part of feedstock in regions like mine, and I'll give a shout out to Radfords Meats.”
“In my region, I don't have the power stations—my colleague the member for Gippsland, by a few kilometres, has the power stations and the infrastructure—but I'm very proud to represent the people that work in those power stations: the once four and now three Latrobe Valley power stations. When we're addressing the issue of sovereign capability and when we're addressing the associated issues of being able to keep our lights on and our businesses running, those power stations have an important role to play. In just the next two years, by 2028, the Yallourn Power Station is scheduled for closure. That power station represents about 22 per cent of Victoria's baseload electricity, and I don't know where that replacement capacity is going to come from.”
“I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to address this motion. I'm proud to represent a region that grows, makes and manufactures things the rest of Victoria and, indeed, Australia look to. Energy is an essential component of everything that we produce in the Monash electorate and the broader Gippsland region. Twenty-three per cent of our national milk output comes from the Gippsland region, as does 26 per cent of Victoria's beef production. The clean, green horticultural produce and the manufactured goods—the meats, the proteins—that come from our region all rely on sustainable, secure energy supply. Those answers lie above and below the ground in many regions across Australia.”
“Robyn, an age pensioner, has held private health insurance for more than 50 years. She is worried that, as she gets older, there will be an increasing burden on the health system for people like her, who try and do the right thing and pay their own cover. I've had many other emails as well, particularly on the Victorian Labor government's broken promise about the West Gippsland Hospital. Wayne Farnham and I will continue to stand up for West Gippsland, as it's been terribly let down by this broken promise.”
“I'm speaking to hundreds of people right across my electorate who feel let down, hurt and betrayed by broken promises and new taxes. I've been inundated with hundreds of emails in the space of just a few days since I asked for feedback on the federal government's broken promise on the private healthcare rebate for Australians aged 65 and older. There are 1.4 million Australians in this bracket, and it's going to cost them up to $640 more every year. Australians right across this nation are sick and tired of broken promises. Rosemary from Inverloch, in my electorate, emailed me about a number of inconsistencies this government has presented on HECS and higher education. I've heard from Chris, who has had to cancel his private healthcare insurance already. He said: I have always had private health insurance until Labor took away the rebate.”
“My question is to the Minister for Communications. In which room at the live music venue The Jade did the minister hold her 'sideline meeting' while at the 40th birthday party of her close personal friend—the bar, the garden kiosk or the room with the pinball machine?”
“To the government: get on with your job and show some real leadership. The coalition will support this bill, but it is too little too late and does not deal with the real issues at hand.”
“We should be helping them through harm reduction, like education and—dare I say—a regulated framework for legal vapes. The overtaxing of poor working people in this country through an exorbitantly high tobacco excise is a great moral injustice set upon them by a party that is supposed to exist in this place to stand with them. There's a moral piety from the government on this issue. It should be confident enough to argue the merits of this case alone. My motivation is to stand up for the retail staff and small-business owners in my electorate, who have been physically attacked or ramraided, or live in fear. And it goes back further than that as well. All of us have known someone or loved someone who has died through cancer. I've lost someone through smoking induced lung cancer, and I'd want to spare anyone from that.”
“So, too, says Dr Colin Mendelsohn, a general practitioner who has worked for 40 years helping smokers quit. Another GP, Dr Joe Kosterich, says the higher excise is counterproductive to reducing smoking rates and is simply fuelling the black market. I have spoken to many GPs over the last six months. Their interest in the issue of illegal tobacco has been motivated by their patients—patients who want to quit smoking, patients who are wearing the consequences, through asthma, emphysema and cancers. They believe harm reduction is a far better option than, effectively, prohibition—taxing people who, often, are in a low socioeconomic category and who are already staring at an electricity bill stuck to their fridge, wondering how they're going to pay it at the same time as buying groceries. Why are we punishing them and their children?”
“Yesterday the New South Wales Premier, Chris Minns, again called on his national counterpart to cut the tobacco excise tax. I want to mention some medical professionals as well. Dr Nick Coatsworth, the former Commonwealth deputy chief medical officer, has said: Australian smokers are being forced by tax policy into funding organised crime. And all the while cheap cigarettes are available to a now growing group of smokers. Coatsworth calls this 'disastrous public health policy'. I should also note that Dr Coatsworth is a respiratory specialist. Dr Ed Jegasothy, who is a senior researcher in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, says: The Commonwealth can maintain its position only by denying basic market economics. Tax reduction might not work perfectly. But neither will the status quo.”
“No-one believes the revenue has disappeared because people have stopped smoking. It's because consumers have opted out of paying tax on the government's sky-high tobacco excise, switching to cheap smokes supplied by organised crime. It's a decision they've made not because they want to but because they are compelled to in an extreme cost-of-living environment. The revenue forecasts over the forward estimates also show that Treasury itself does not believe the government's enforcement-only approach will be successful in regaining control over the tobacco market, with continued downgrades as far as the eye can see. That is the reality confronting this parliament today. I want to commend the intervention by people who are prepared to show leadership on this.”
“This government—this health minister, this home affairs minister, this Treasurer and this Prime Minister—cannot keep pretending; this is not working. The consequences are real. The consequences are unsafe communities, unsafe workplaces and an unsafe Australia. This is the real legacy of the government's failed tobacco tax experiment. Unless Australia fundamentally changes course, we risk entrenching a permanent criminal economy that undermines public safety, prioritises the coffers of organised crime and leaves everyone across our community—everyday Australians—paying the price. The government's failure is revealed by this budget's figures as well. The extraordinary revenue downgrades have laid bare how Tuesday's budget is exposed and the government's failed approach to tobacco control policy is not working.”
“While Chris Minns has spoken unequivocally, the federal government has been all over the shop. One senior federal minister told a Senate estimates hearing late last year that there was no link between the high excise tax and the illicit tobacco market. Another minister in this place said you'd have to be 'deluded or lying' not to acknowledge it. I agree with him. Now do something about it. Every time this government refuses to rethink its failed excise strategy, organised crime gets richer. They were the biggest winners on budget night. The $14 million in state and territory funding announced on budget night is a drop in the ocean compared with the $6.9 billion in profits the illicit market is making. Every time they ignore the explosion of the illicit trade, another suburban community is placed at risk.”
“The submission notes: The ABF assesses that the most effective responses to illicit tobacco are those that integrate criminal, regulatory and administrative levers across jurisdictions. The ABF submission continues, quite remarkably: While enforcement action remains essential, the scale, resilience and adaptability of the market demonstrate that enforcement alone will not deliver sustained reductions in illicit tobacco activity. Even the New South Wales Labor health minister, Ryan Park, warned over the last couple of days that enforcement alone is futile, arguing that states are stuck playing a game of whack-a-mole as long as the federal government's high tobacco excise continues to fuel the illicit market. The New South Wales Labor premier, Chris Minns, has shown moral and economic leadership that his federal counterpart lacks.”
“It is a crisis affecting children who now see boarded up shops, burnt out buildings and police tape near their homes—and they're being sold illegal products too. Australia is becoming less safe because this government has refused to confront the consequences of its own failed policy settings. What is the government's response? More of the same—more denial, more spin. The Australian Border Force has said we can't seize this problem away, because enforcement is chasing a black market that government policy keeps recreating. I draw attention to the ABF's submission to the current Senate inquiry. It's quite illuminating. It quietly notes that the tobacco excise is responsible for the explosion in black market warfare.”
“Retailers warned violence was escalating. But the government doubled down anyway, because they prefer to put policy pride ahead of the safety of ordinary Australians and the people who elected them to lead. When legal cigarettes cost more than $40 a packet and illegal products are available for a fraction of the price, criminal networks have moved and will move in. This is not ideology; this is economic reality. It is a crisis affecting migrant families who work 16-hour days to build a small business, only to watch organised crime take over their stores and bully them into selling illicit products. It is a crisis affecting young women and young people working in retail, at petrol stations or in convenience stores.”
“This is not good for better health outcomes. Between 2022 and 2025, the proportion of tobacco sold outside of Australia's legal system has increased by 285 per cent, and that's money not going to schools, not going to hospitals and not going into communities like mine. More importantly, it's not going to the increased insurance bill that so many shop owners and, in some cases, residential owners have faced as a result of being deemed a risk due to fire bombings and ram raids that are associated with local illicit tobacconists. It is flowing directly into the hands of organised crime. For the past few years this government has ignored repeated warnings. Treasury warned that excessive increases in tobacco excise would strengthen incentives for the illicit trade. Law enforcement warned organised crime was moving aggressively into the market.”
“The reality is this: when you create a market worth billions of dollars, criminals will fight for control of it. Under this government, illicit tobacco has exploded from an already serious issue into a full-scale criminal economy. The government's own figures show that the illicit tobacco market has surged to 55 per cent of total consumption, worth $6.9 billion. The only thing that is worse is the approximately 97 per cent illicit vape market in this country in terms of the black market economy. Smoking rates are not going down. For the first time in around 30 years, there's been an uptick in smoking rates in Western Australia. The recent criminal intelligence wastewater report shows an annual uptick of four per cent in nicotine in wastewater nationally. That's an increase in metro areas. It's an increase across regional Australia.”
“That's 285 fire bombings in Australian suburbs and in local shopping strips, near homes, schools, cafes and small businesses. And every single one of those attacks has victims. The proceeds of these crimes are funding bikie gangs, criminals and terrorists. They've never had it better under this illicit tobacco crisis and this high excise regime. My own interest in this issue began around six months ago after the ramraiding of a small family owned grocery store in Longwarry, a great little town in my electorate of Monash. The owners had done nothing wrong. They refused to be threatened by a criminal gang. They paid a price for that. This is wrong. The Albanese government continues to speak about public health while communities are being terrorised by the criminal empire their policy settings have helped create.”
“Australians expect their kids to go to work and return home safely. They don't expect their life to be threatened over a pack of 20s. In Altona, residents living just doors away from a targeted tobacco store had to flee for safety as fire tore through the building. Neighbouring businesses lost power, which meant the adjoining small-business owners lost income and were not able to recoup that back. These are not isolated incidents anymore. This is violence becoming normalised. That's what I find so horrifying about the illicit tobacco crisis. Our communities deserve better. They deserve to feel safe. They deserve to feel proud of their neighbourhoods. Two hundred and eighty-five fire bombings linked to the illicit tobacco trade have now occurred across Australia. Let that sink in.”
“Today, the victims are mums; young workers; small-business owners; immigrants, who moved here for a better and safer life; and children and ordinary families, who had absolutely nothing to do with organised crime. A 27-year-old woman, Katie Tangey, lost her life after a house linked to the tobacco wars exploded into flames. Think about that for one moment. A young woman is dead. Her family is shattered. Their lives have been destroyed. All because the offenders targeted the wrong house. Yet this government is still pretending this is just a regulatory issue. In Bega, a 19-year-old girl working a night shift at a rural service station allegedly had a handgun pointed at her while cigarettes and cash were stolen. A teenager just doing her job. Somebody's daughter, who was trying to earn a living, is now impacted for the rest of her life.”
“We are debating the Combatting Illicit Tobacco Bill today because Australia is no longer dealing with a simple tobacco policy. We are dealing with a national crime crisis—a crisis that is making Australians feel unsafe in their own homes, unsafe in their communities and unsafe in their workplaces. The tragedy is this: these are not the consequences of some unforeseeable external shocks. This crisis has grown rapidly under the Albanese government because of a tobacco control policy that has created one of the most lucrative black markets in this country, a black market controlled by organised crime, a black market that is no longer hidden in the shadows. It is exploding in suburban shopping strips; it is spilling into family neighbourhoods, and innocent Australians are paying the price.”