Alison Penfold
Lyne · National Party · Australia
“I rise to speak on the Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026. I acknowledge the member for Moore and his time he spent in the wonderful community of Dungog. It is a terrific place and I know that the teachers and educators in that town do a wonderful job. Well done.”
“They can often live with their families while they study. For a young person growing up in Dungog, Taree, Wingham, Gloucester, Harrington, Tea Gardens, Bulahdelah, Forster, Tuncurry or the Manning Valley or the many other small towns and hamlets in my electorate—”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. Isn't it true that the Albanese Labor government's 70c-a-day tax cut has already been eaten up by inflation, unlike the coalition's tax-back guarantee, which is protected from inflation and would provide a typical Australian worker a far bigger, $400 tax cut this year?”
“My question is to the Treasurer. Yesterday the Treasurer was asked about his plan to force thousands of widows and divorcees to pay more tax by removing their access to grandfathering for capital gains tax and negative gearing.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. A new report shows the Prime Minister saved around $200,000 on the sale of three investment properties under existing capital gains tax rules. In last month's budget, the Prime Minister broke his promise and changed those rules.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. A new report shows the Prime Minister saved around $200,000 on the sale of three investment properties under existing capital gains tax rules. In last month's budget, the Prime Minister broke his promise and changed those rules.”
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“I wish to dedicate this speech to all those impacted by the floods and to all the amazing volunteers who, after the waters receded, went from stranger to family in an instant by just turning up and saying, 'Mate, how can I help?' These were not just our well-trained legends in familiar uniforms—the SES, Fire and Rescue, police, Rural Fire Service or the many familiar local organisations, like church groups, service and community organisations Rotary and Lions or sporting clubs, like the Forster Tuncurry Hawks junior rugby league team, who I worked with to help clean out the mud logged Sailo's, or members of the Wingham Tigers footy team, who I met cleaning out a shed in Primrose Street in Wingham—but also the incredibly generous, spontaneous and selfless locals and people from afar.”
“We're still waiting and we're still hoping, but we're still fighting. We needed media at its best, too. I thank our local journalists and the many others from around the country, who respected us, helped the nation see the destruction and called it to action with donations. Please don't forget about us. We have a long, long way to go.”
“It is unsurprising that so many local people feel it is easier to get government assistance if you're a foreigner than if you're an Australian. On the weekend, I spoke with a small-business operator from Taree. Her premises in Pulteney Street were completely inundated. She is now in a battle with her insurer, months later and still waiting. She can't apply for any of the government assistance until she gets a decision from the insurer, and the government's application timeframe is coming to an end soon. This is a strong woman who has been almost broken by a process that is meant to support her. The waiting, the silence and the bureaucracy have only compounded the mental toll, the feeling of being forgotten, the anger and frustration in government, and the fear about the future. We needed governments and bureaucracies at their best.”
“It's come from the weeks of not having somewhere to live, for themselves or their farm workers. And it's come because of the bureaucracy. Too many people and businesses have been denied support. They've not had enough paperwork, they've not been enough of a primary producer, or they're living in an area bureaucrats say isn't affected enough, places like Barrington. Some have not been the right type of not-for-profit, like Taree Universities Campus and the Taree Aquatic Club. Both are unable to receive any support yet they were smashed by the floodwaters. Then there are the farmers desperate to stabilise river and creek banks but wading through multiple state government agencies for approval with no start or end point.”
“I was deliberate in this ask, knowing that the mental toll could be moderated if people knew that support was coming, if they knew that governments were working to provide them with the assistance that was needed without red tape attached and if they knew that governments cared. My greatest frustration is that this call has largely gone unheeded. The anger that has been felt amongst the community has come from the silence, the slowness and the mountain of bureaucracy. It's come from the weeks of silence waiting for cat. D funding for primary producers and now the additional weeks waiting on additional funding for small business, funding for the rebuilding and funding for the betterment of community infrastructure like the Bight and Tiri bridges.”
“When the Prime Minister, the Premier and other ministers came to Taree in the aftermath of the floods, I said to them that our area needed two things from government: information and presence. It needed presence in the form of boots, not suits. It needed a long-term presence in the form of generous and easy-to-access support and it needed the presence of mind to break the cycle of red tape that haunts the traumatised seeking help after disaster. Our area needed information from government about the process for making decisions about assistance. It needed information about when and how funding amounts and eligibility would be determined. And it needed government to listen to what the community needed, to hear our information so that government could make good decisions.”
“Less visible are the mental scars. Most people have tried to pick up the pieces of their lives. They've got on with the clean-up, got on with the rebuild, got on with filling out the vast reams of paperwork for a few quid, got on with finding somewhere to live, got on with going back to work and got on with life. But underneath is the loss, the shock, the grief, the uncertainty, the despair, the fear, the emotional triggers of hearing cows bellowing in the night, the mere threat of rain and the question, 'Can I ever go home?' These emotional scars are the scars that scare me the most. I'm scared of how people are coping and for the many that are not—if and when they'll ever seek support from a professional, a mate, a family member or from me.”
“There was the look of despair, of fragility and of losing everything in people's eyes. There was the anger and the fear when the government support did not come. The fight goes on for fairness, recognition and hope. Like many others, I tried to help, with my hands and my heart the only tools to turn back the tide of destruction in those early days. But my resolve was strengthened. I was where I was needed and needed to be. The physical scars are there for all to see: river banks changed forever, Wingham Brush gone, roads and bridges destroyed, towns and communities divided, acres of paddocks washed away, paddocks with a mirage of green, winter feed flattened, paddocks emptied of cattle or turf, empty shops that will likely never be home to a small business again and homes now emptied of the lives they once loved.”
“My car engine was smoking through the floodwaters, but I was desperate to bring milk, bread and other staples to the local hall, where 60-plus people were bunkered down, isolated, many evacuated from their nearby farms. It was there that I heard of the first death in the floodwaters, only the morning after. The loss of a loved local was felt painfully but quietly through the town. As the first roads opened after the waters receded, what presented was metres of mud through everything and the house-high piles of timber, round bales and other debris that littered and still linger on the landscape. There were the stories of survival, of having to leave people, pets and possessions behind. There was the bravery of modest souls who went into the floodwaters to save others.”
“They have brought fertile soils, trade, settlement, families and livelihoods. We know the power of them, and this has helped forge the courage and tenacity to make homes and build businesses that could withstand flood and also fire. But no-one could have anticipated the flood of this May, a one-in-500-year catastrophic event. Off the back of months of rain, the ground was saturated. It was just four years from our last major flood. I cannot do justice to it or its full impact. To be honest, I find what occurred very difficult to talk about, to relive the days during the flood and after the waters receded—stuck at home in safety but unable to physically reach people desperate for help. There were the images on our screens and the screams for aid by phone, email and private message. The first chance to provide help was in Coopernook.”
“We now share in the stewardship of a land long lived. It's an electorate stretching from the Hastings to the Hunter, covering coast and country. The electorate covers some of the earliest areas of regional settlement, places like Paterson, where my own Penfold ancestors migrated to as farm labourers in the 1830s. That settlement continues today as tree changers and sea changers exit the big smoke to find their dreams of a beach oasis or farm life. Farming, dairy, beef, oyster and timber industries remain valued economic drivers with the many family run small businesses. This is a place that has hosted heavy industry and manufacturing businesses migrating from the cities. It's a region that still has much physical and human capital to offer. Rivers have long been the lifeblood of this area.”
“Dr David Gillespie was a minister, delivering over $1 billion in regional health initiatives, and the father and chairman of our future civil nuclear program and the father of the Taree Universities Campus, amongst many electorate achievements. I hope to serve as they did, with great honour, distinction and grace. I thank them for their friendship, guidance and trust over the many years I have known each of them. It's wonderful to have David and Charlotte here today. They, too, have seen the devastation on our communities that nature can bring. They know that Lyne is very much an electorate cemented in the courage and tenacity of Australians and of regional people. It's an area on the Mid North Coast and Hunter regions of New South Wales and the ancestral home to the Biripi, Worimi and Wonnarua peoples.”
“It's why, in part, I'm here—to honour and protect them and ensure that the only decisions government takes are to ensure small business thrives. Mr Speaker, I stand before you and this parliament as just an ordinary woman trying to do an extraordinary job with an extraordinary privilege for my community and for our nation. It's a job that stands on the shoulders of those members of parliament who too have served as members for Lyne—Gillespie, Oakeshott, Vaile, Cowan, Lucock and Eggins. Each of them made significant contributions to this place and to the electorate of Lyne. I am fortunate to have known four of the previous members and to have worked for two of them. Mark Vaile was a deputy prime minister, delivering our free trade agreement with the United States—one that must endure—and the Pacific Highway duplication for the electorate.”
“It's the legacy of a working-class family, the legacy of my upbringing: grandparents who were in domestic service and parents whose retail small business—Ron's Market Truck—served people at markets across Western Sydney, in Fairfield, Mount Druitt, Penrith, Menangle, and then Taree for many years. They were spruiking off the back of a truck everything from the latest toys to towels, figurines, fireworks and items that most people could not afford to buy elsewhere. 'Knock a bit off, Ronnie,' the crowd would call—and he did. This is where I spent my weekends as a child, and where I saw the raw, hard work of a seven-days-a-week small business operator. This raw, hard work, risk-taking and sacrifice for family must never be forgotten in this place.”
“'She was there for me, there for us. She always had our back; she was never backward in fighting for us. She made a difference much larger than one single voice, one single person, could hope to achieve. She put service before self.' I know that standing here today, you may find it odd that I speak of myself in the past tense, to speak of legacy as the member for Lyne and as a parliamentarian. But I wish to start my first speech as I wish to end my time in this place. To do so represents my mission and my compact with the people of the Lyne electorate: to work hard, listen, care and deliver for my constituents and the people of Australia. It's a simple motivator, but it's deeply rooted.”
“My question is to the Minister for Emergency Management. Category D funding was made available to primary producers on 4 July for the New South Wales Mid North Coast and Hunter regions devastated by the May floods. Minister, why is category D funding still unavailable for the many flood impacted small businesses trying to recover, rebuild and restart, a funding recommendation made to governments at the same time as that for primary producers?”