Matt Smith
Leichhardt · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“But what did those opposite do during this time? They talked it down, called for rationing and scared people. There was a marked decrease in tourism leading into Easter because words matter. But so do actions, and, on this side of the House, we do actions. Today is a great day for actions. Paid parental leave—26 weeks.”
“The world changed. Things that we didn't think could happen happened. A war on the other side of the planet impacted supply lines. Facebook changed the way we gathered information, changed the way we got our fuel, changed the way we got our fertiliser.”
“The minimum wage is increasing by 4.75 per cent. That is a noticeable difference. People will feel that that in their hip pockets, and that money will flow on. People will have the confidence to go take the kids to a movie and make sure that the birthday party goes the way that it should. It is a fantastic thing.”
“It was, as Senator Bragg said, a vacated space for 20 years. If you go back three years before the space was vacated, you get $25 scripts, something that we have proudly bought back in so people once again are not making a decision between health and food.”
“That is a holiday in beautiful Far North Queensland with a trip to the reef and out to the Daintree and to the crocodile farm! That is what we're delivering: cost-of-living relief and great holidays in the Far North! I'm proud of what we've done here in our 12 months.”
“I rise to support the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2026. We'll do the legislative stuff first. This bill modernises the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Act 2014 to ensure it remains fit for purpose.”
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“So, clearly, the people in the regional areas are starting to understand who is standing up for them. The good news is, it's not only us in government who believe this; it's also coming from opposition. The member for Gippsland, who was taught with great care and passion by country teachers in country towns—and I know this because it was my parents who taught him—has said that it's great that we've got newcomers from the opposite side of politics and it's good to see people who understand regional communities in federal parliament. I will go so far as to say that many on this side are better representatives of the regions. We haven't had any representatives on this side yet say anything about the coffee, or how slow people might speak.”
“I rise today to talk about the importance, from the perspective of the Anthony Albanese Labor government, of our investment in rural and regional communities. I stand here today, a proud regional member of parliament—more than that, a proud regional member of government. To give you an indication of how regional my seat is, just last week I left Cairns to drive through the cane fields up to the banana farms of Lakeland, out to where the Brahman are in Coen, and then back through the mighty Daintree. I stopped at small businesses, grabbing coffee, chatting to farmers and chatting to locals. And it's not just me. Within this Labor government there are 24 MPs who represent rural and regional communities. We've more regional MPs than the opposition.”
“We work with the fishing industry for a sustainable and profitable seafood future, and we work with traditional owners to preserve the stories and the cultural value of the reef. Most importantly, we accept the science and are acting on climate change. The risk those opposite pose to hardworking Queenslanders and those small businesses who have built the Far North is unacceptable, and we will not have it. My region matters. The jobs matter. The people dependent on these industries matter. The energy transition matters. There has been much talk of T-shirts over the last few days, and I'm reminded of the old gen X staple, the No Fear shirt. It says simply: 'Lead, follow or get out of the way.' Having refused to do the first two, I suggest the opposition does the latter.”
“It supplies 77,000 jobs and contributes $100 billion annually to the economy. It creates over a billion dollars in the Far North alone in tax revenue, building hospitals, roads and critical infrastructure. More than that, it is a cultural and international touchpoint. It is one of the things people think about when they first think of Australia. It supplies food, comfort and recreation, creates memories and is a major economic driver for the regions of the Far North. It is the Great Barrier Reef—the world's largest living organism, a natural wonder of the world. On this side we support the reef. We work with the agricultural industry to improve their yield while limiting run-off. We work with the tourism industry to monitor the reef and remove crown-of-thorns starfish.”
“If the government truly wants to build a better tomorrow, it must start today-by funding free, local, culturally safe mental health services that are accessible in every community. No young Australian should be told to wait. No one should be left behind because of their postcode. We don't need promises. We need action. And we need it now. As someone who has a well-documented struggle with depression in my past, I want to say to Claudia: we hear you; we're listening. The tender for the Medicare mental health clinic in Cairns has been completed, and it will be opening soon. Headspace Plus will be adding another clinician to help with youth mental health. We know that young people in the Far North have undergone a lot of stress lately with Cyclone Jasper and COVID. We have listened and we have acted. Claudia, we are on your side.”
“For Youth Voice In Parliament Week I took part in the Raise Our campaign. This speech was written by a future FNQ leader: My name is Claudia and I am 16 years old from Cairns. Right now, young people in regional Queensland are living through a youth mental health crisis. In my community, the nearest psychologist can be a four-hour drive away-200 kilometres that a struggling teenager simply cannot travel. Even when you get there, waitlists can stretch for six months. For a young person in crisis, six months isn't just too long. It's deadly. One in four young Australians experience mental ill-health, but in regional areas, support is almost impossible to reach. We are told to "speak up" and "be resilient," yet when we do, there is no one there to answer.”
“I know that, as long as I'm in this place, I will fight for my region and for its roads, because you can for drive three days across my electorate on all sorts of roads to get to all sorts of places, and I thoroughly recommend you do it because Far North Queensland is the best place in Australia.”
“For Leichhardt, my community, I'm happy to tell you—brace yourself because there is a lot of numbers here—we are delivering $245 million towards replacing the Barron River bridge on Kennedy Highway; $24 million for the Cairns Western Arterial Road; $210 million for the Kuranda Range Road upgrades; $38 million for Cape York community access roads; $180 million for the Bruce Highway Cairns southern access stage 5; $5.8 million for the Bruce Highway Babinda intersection upgrade; $850,000 for the major events precinct master plan in Cairns; $101,000 in Black Spot funding for the Kenny Road and Dutton Street intersections of Fort Smith; $150,000 for Black Spot funding treatments in the Barrier Street and Reef Street intersections in Port Douglas; an additional $24.6 million over five years under the Roads to Recovery Program.”
“We have allocated at least $200 million per unit for improved safety and productivity of our local roads under the Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure Program, an increase of over $50 million over our previous programs, and we have increased financial assistance grants to local governments each year. This is $3.4 billion tied to the funding of grants.”
“The Albanese Labor government is doubling the funding going to our local roads through the Roads to Recovery Program, something that's very important in my area. Over the period 2024-25 to 2028-29 the Albanese Labor government will invest $4.4 billion through the program. In Queensland, this will mean $895 million over five years for Queensland councils, an increase of $353 million. The government has increased annual funding for the Black Spot Program from $110 million to $150 million supporting more life-saving road improvements across the country.”
“Our investment means improved safety on our roads; across the country, more efficient freight rates, stronger local economies under funding programs that are open, fair and properly costed. The Albanese Labor government is committed to a 10-year infrastructure investment pipeline exceeding $120 billion that will support a sustainable program of nationally significant transport infrastructure projects across Australia including the Bruce Highway, the artery of the great state of Queensland. This the largest and most sustainable infrastructure investment in our nation's history and it builds on the foundations laid by the Albanese Labor government in its first term, and it builds on the work done by our Prime Minister when he was infrastructure minister—the man loves roads!”
“It's why things have been damaged more often. The substrate is going. The Port Douglas Road and the Kuranda Range road are still being repaired. The slips, the washaways, will not be finished for another year. We've invested extra money into this to build back better, to improve the drainage so the next time that we are faced with a climate change-induced disaster, our roads stay safe. Our roads, our councils deserve better. Those of us in the Albanese Labor government are committed to investing in our regional areas. So after a decade of neglect from the former coalition government, denial on climate action which has been hurting our road infrastructure, the Albanese Labor government is delivering record investment into regional infrastructure and our regional roads.”
“As I rise to speak on this motion from the member for Mallee, I'm really excited that we get to speak about the regions, because it is one of my favourite things. Don't let how quickly I speak fool you. I am a country boy. I drive country roads. Often they take me home, to a place—I'm going to stop there. In the far north, I have roads like you would not believe. I have the PDR, the Bloomfield Track, the Daintree River ferry, the Jardine River ferry: places that people want to spend their entire lives thinking about driving. They come to the far north to do that. I know that a lot of our local councils have been hurting from the natural disasters, particularly Cyclone Jasper, hurting our road infrastructure, making things harder. I say to those opposite, climate change is real. Climate change is impacting our road infrastructure.”
“My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to support regional communities and make sure they are better connected to the rest of Australia? Has there been any opposition to the government's approach?”
“We will continue to back our farmers and producers, with trade being the most valuable and diversified it has ever been thanks to our government. Since the 2022 election, the Albanese government has committed over $2 billion in additional resourcing for biosecurity. I know that the industry is concerned. I drove up to Lakeland just last week and spoke to some banana farmers up there, and I'll be meeting with the banana growers association later this week. But my message is clear: we support the industry and we support trade. If you want to support Australian bananas, go out and buy a banana, and make some banana bread, put banana on your breakfast cereal or have some banana after a workout.”
“Australian banana growers will also take DAFF to banana farms in Australia so that they understand the expertise and the work done on the ground here. The development of an issues paper, for release in the first half of 2026, will then begin. It will provide background information on the Philippines' request, what will be considered during the assessment and how the department will engage with stakeholders. That's it. Those are the facts. There is no wave of foreign bananas coming to this country. It is merely department officials considering the requests and suggestions of a valued trading partner. There's no need for a scare campaign. To be clear, the Albanese Labor government will never, ever compromise our biosecurity. It is the envy of the world—ably assisted by the fact we are an island—and it is not up for negotiation.”
“That is a massive, massive number, and it is only achievable because of our position on international trade and our reliance on the trade rules, the standards that support our position as a major global exporter of agricultural goods. Operating within the WTO framework reinforces our position as a trading partner that other countries can trust. If you're wondering about the next steps, I'm happy to dispel some of the rumours. Visits will be undertaken by the Australian government, and DAFF experts and technical officials will travel to the Philippines to see their banana-growing practices firsthand to better understand the risks and the controls and alternative measures proposed by the Philippines.”
“It is not up for compromise and neither is our agricultural industry. But, as a member of the World Trade Organization, we're obliged to consider formal requests for imports from our trading partners, just as other countries are obliged to listen to ours. We cannot expect others to follow the rules if we ourselves do not. Australia is a proud two-way trading nation, and this is especially so of the Australian agriculture sector. As I've said, our food produce and our meat are the envy of the world. They have ads about Australian beef in America—McDonald's Australian beef. They love our food. In fact, we export around 80 per cent of our agricultural produce each year. In 2024, our exports in forestry, fishery and agricultural products were valued at $73.5 billion.”
“Despite that, there seem to be some who, for political reasons, want to run a bit of a scare campaign about the future of the banana industry in this country, so perhaps it's time for a few facts, to make sure that we understand where we are. On 16 September, the department advised that it is undertaking a rigorous science and evidence based assessment as a result of a request from our trading partners the Philippines to consider alternative measures to those in the 2008 import risk assessment. There is no predetermined outcome. It is important to note that this does not mean that trade will commence, that it is imminent, that a flood of bananas will come. It is a request we have to take seriously. But, as the Prime Minister, Minister Collins and other senior members of this government have said, our biosecurity is not up for negotiation.”
“I thank the member for Calare for his generous invitation, which I shall respectfully decline. I rise to speak on the motion made by the member for Kennedy. I want to put on record that Australian bananas are great. Far North Queensland bananas are the best in the world. Banana farming makes up an integral part of our culture and identity in the Far North. It also plays an integral part in my breakfast, and I'm grateful for it every day. Bananas have good potassium and 24 per cent of your vitamin B. But I'm not saying anything new. There's not a person in this place who doesn't support Australian produce. It's almost embarrassing how good we are at producing food.”
“Whether it's vaccines, masks or any kind of pandemic response, we should listen to those who know what they're talking about. By having a strong and independent CDC, we can make sure that our professionals and experts fighting these pandemics on the front line have the authority, the data and the information to keep us safe. This is another example of Labor building a strong health system and ensuring a bright future for my electorate. I commend the bill to the House.”
“So, whether it's the health centres in Aurukun, Kowanyama or Lockhart River, whether it's our remote hospitals on Thursday Island, Weipa or Cooktown, or whether it's our health centres in the Torres Strait, which deal with the treaty villagers in PNG as they come across the strait to get help at Saibai or Boigu, they all deserve us putting our best foot forward in fighting these infectious diseases and us giving our health professionals more tools. This will be a policy guided by experts—always. There is no place for any politician with no background in health to have a say and try to tell doctors and nurses what to do in this situation. They spend years studying this. They're experts; they're good at it. They swear an oath to protect us, and they will do so with these new abilities.”
“Papua New Guinea is our northernmost neighbour, which, as the Prime Minister said the other day, you could swim across to from Saibai. You wouldn't, because there are things in there that will eat you, but you could! Tuberculosis runs rampant through PNG. Our nearest neighbour is suffering under the burden of a disease that was eradicated in the Western world in the 1940s. We have an obligation to protect our nearest neighbours, with whom we have an alliance, and to ensure that tuberculosis does not get a foothold in the most vulnerable parts of my electorate and our community. A better coordinated approach will ensure that the people on the ground have what they need to protect our nation. The CDC is a national security issue.”
“I can guarantee that workers on the front line will take any kind of extra help and data they can get, because they are working themselves to the bone. From a quick Google search, the infectious diseases currently running around Cape York include melioidosis, dengue, Ross River fever, tuberculosis, non-tuberculous microbacterial infection and other diseases such as whooping cough, meningococcal and bloodborne viruses such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV and, recently, malaria, which was found in Lakeland. These are things which create an existential threat to the people of my electorate, and a centre for disease control can only help them. Some of these diseases will only become more common with the impacts of climate change, and Australia isn't alone in dealing with the potential of pandemic.”
“Our planet has a history of pandemics—Black Death, Spanish flu, Ebola, AIDS—all of which have devastating effects on communities. It is only a matter of time until we see another pandemic reach that kind of status. Be it avian flu or another coronavirus, it's going to happen, so the sooner we start preparing and the sooner we start training, the better off we will be. But, beyond the global scale, the CDC will have real benefits for the people that I represent. In recent weeks there have been a number of measles outbreaks in Cairns. The contact tracing was second to none. They went through 2½ thousand people, they were able to isolate potential carriers, and they kept my community safe. The Cape has a range of diseases and STIs, some of them eradicated in what you consider mainstream Australia.”
“A single source of truth will be able to produce real data that can be trusted. Knowledge, as I said before, is power. And I think it's important to remind people that, while this bill and the creation of the CDC may seem like a reaction to COVID-19, it's not about COVID-19. We met that head-on and came out okay—not great, but okay. This is about what comes next, because a part of the scout is looking back at what you've done, figuring out what went wrong and making sure that the plans are in place to not make those mistakes again—understanding the weaknesses, understanding the holes in your game and putting in the safeguards—otherwise you're destined and doomed to create the same problems. This isn't about if; this is about when.”
“It is anticipated that this will be the authoritative source for public health advice. This will be where you go; this will be the source of truth for all public health officials and those working in the public health space. Independence and integrity are essential to making sure that this works, which is why the CDC, through this bill, will ensure it remains completely independent and cannot be subject to any kind of direction from ministers or government departments. Science will run this—not feelings, not thoughts and not ideologies; science. When COVID-19 hit us and the world got together and made a decision, a vaccine was created in under six months. That is a testament to the power of science and human ingenuity, and it shows us what we can do on a global scale when we put our minds to it. Science saves lives.”
“Knowledge is power. Understanding the spread of like viruses, knowing how they're going to react and understanding how to put stops in place to ensure that they don't get to our most vulnerable communities—I represent some of the most vulnerable communities in Australia. When COVID hit, the cape looked down. You couldn't go north of Mossman; Yarrabah shut the road. So fearful were those communities of COVID-19 getting in there and wiping out the elders, they cut themselves off completely from the outside world. We need to give our people assurances that that is not necessary. They need to know that we can protect them, and the CDC is a massive part of that. It'll provide evidence-based public health advice to governments, state and territory health organisations, international agencies, specialists and non-government health organisations.”
“This is about strengthening our biosecurity, making sure that we've got measures against things like avian flu, which has decimated chicken populations in the Northern Hemisphere and is actually killing seals in San Francisco, proving that it will mutate and move from species to species. Under this bill the CDC will strengthen our public health capacity to improve our preparedness for future pandemics and safeguard health and wellbeing for all Australians and our wildlife. The CDC will have a broad range of functions on a range of public health matters, including preventing communicable diseases, providing independent advice on public health risks, strengthening data and analytics capabilities and building its role as a trusted adviser to governments on public health and safety risks. The analytics and the data are important.”
“The COVID-19 inquiry called for an Australian CDC, and that is what the Anthony Albanese Labor government is delivering. You'll be very glad to know that this will deliver on our commitment to deliver a transparent, trusted and independent centre for disease control. Science will drive the CDC. The bill will establish this as a non-corporate Commonwealth entity, and, better yet, it starts very soon—1 January 2026. The body takes over from the interim CDC, which was established in 2023, to immediately improve the way we respond to health and emergencies. The Albanese Labor government has already run pandemic drills this term through Exercise Volare.”
“Our dedicated health workers drove themselves into the ground, the psychological scars of which are still current for them. They worked day and night to keep us all safe, and they did a fantastic job. But, I think, in hindsight we can all agree that we probably could have done a bit better in that response. One of the glaring holes was, of course, that we hadn't trained. In the previous 12 years, we had not had one pandemic drill for what might happen to Australia, and this lack of planning meant that our response was slow and confused. In fact, when the Albanese Labor government was first elected, Australia was the only OECD country without a CDC or its equivalent. You've got to be prepared. The scouts are prepared; we weren't prepared.”
“I remember sitting at home and getting ready to watch the Wildcats versus Sydney in the grand final—and Sydney forfeited. I couldn't believe it. In 20 years, I never got close to a grand final, but these guys, unsure of what the future was going to look like, made the decision to pull the plug. It was then I understood that it was serious—but always reactive. In Australia we were spared the worst of it, a happy circumstance of the tyranny of distance and weather. We weren't inside, like some of my friends in New York, with ducted heating and ducted air conditioning, which spread the virus quickly. Friends of mine from the city would tell me that ice trucks were being used as makeshift morgues because everything was full. We were spared that, and we're lucky.”
“When the borders shut, the migrant workers stopped coming and tourism dried up almost immediately. The Cairns economy tanked. We had become so reliant on overseas work, a service based economy and a tourism based economy. We were not prepared. We didn't understand the scout. We didn't know what we were up against. Chief health officers become recognised figures—probably something chief health officers don't want to do. They want to inform policy, help people stay safe and make sure the health system is working. They don't want to be on TV, generally speaking. Federal, state and territory leaders had to get up every day and inform us on disease numbers and deaths. We had regular meetings right across the country, but everything was reactive. We had no preparation. We had no understanding of what this would look like.”
“We were not prepared. I was a sport and rec officer—deemed frontline. I had to try to navigate my way through chief health operation officers, deemings, the requirements. What does that look like for a sport? What sport can we still play? How do I contact trace? How do we sign people in? How do we sign people out? If tennis is okay, is squash okay? Is golf okay? Rugby League was probably out, but I didn't know. I wasn't prepared. When the lockdowns happened and my children suddenly became homeschooled, I thought that I could just hand over the work sheet that I'd printed out for them from the school. It doesn't work that way with a grade 3 kid and a grade 5 kid. I couldn't do my work and teach them at the same time. It turns out I'm not a teacher either. I was not prepared. We were not prepared.”
“What they were getting at is that, in sport, you see two hours on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon at the pub, at a mate's place or with the family, but you don't see the hours and hours of preparation—the 15 to 30 hours that the players have spent on the training track or the hundreds of hours that have been done in the film room by scouts, coaches and videographers to make sure that the players are prepared. You want to have the scout; the scout needs to be in. You want to know what you're doing. You want to know what they want to do. You don't want to be surprised—if I do this, they will do that; if I'm over here, they will go over there. And, most importantly, you need to know how to stop them. This lesson translates as well in life, and, unfortunately, COVID-19 was a perfect example of this. It hit Australia and the world hard.”
“I rise to speak in support of the Australian Centre for Disease Control Bill 2025. This could start a little bit from left field because I am not a doctor. Sporting coaches are strange. They say stuff like, 'Preparing to fail is failing to prepare,' and reverse it. I had one coach who really liked General Patton, so all around our locker room was his favourite quote, which was: 'I would rather sweat than bleed. You are better off sweating in peacetime so that you don't bleed in war.' It seemed a bit dramatic for under-19s basketball, but here we are. But they were right.”
“The other is Labor's work to help support the sector to manage the challenges of climate change that farmers are forced to face. The minister herself said: Our farmers and producers are among the best in the world. They're smart, tough, innovative, and deeply resilient. The Albanese Labor government will continue to listen, continue to work with, and continue to back them.”
“As the only electorate in the country that borders another country—as Albo said, 'You could swim across to it'; I wouldn't, but you could—it would be important for me to raise a key part of our agricultural sector and that is our strong biosecurity protections, protections that Labor strongly supports and will continue to support. Any failure in our biosecurity could punch a $92 billion hole in our economy, putting at risk all of the hard work of the agricultural sector, not to mention threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Australians. Our biosecurity rules keep our food supply safe, our farmers' livelihoods secure and support so many regional communities. That's why we've committed over $2 billion in additional funding to strengthen our biosecurity walls since coming into office.”
“We're working with our farmers to deliver solutions that allow for improvement in yield and embracing technology for the identification and eradication of pests, meaning that we empower the industry to find new ways to improve their bottom line while improving climate resilience and protecting the environment, because no-one loves the land like a farmer. But that's not all. We're opening up and diversifying trade opportunities. We're boosting the agriculture workforce, providing skilled and dedicated staff for farms, processing plants and forestry operation, and we're supporting the research and development needed to drive Australian agriculture, fisheries and forestry into the future. There is no future without agriculture.”
“It's for this reason that I'm proud that the Albanese Labor government has been working to back their hard work on the land with government action. Our government works hand in hand with state governments to ensure farmers get the support they need. We are listening to those on the ground to ensure that help gets to where it is needed most. We know that the climate is changing. We are producing packages of assistance that are responsive to the new challenges brought on by extreme weather events.”
“I was happy to hear the minister say in a speech that, thanks to the Albanese Labor government, 'New data released today by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences forecasts that the value of agricultural production will rise to $95 billion this financial year.' When you include our fisheries and forestry sectors, that figure rises to over $100 billion, forecast for the first time ever. Like the minister said in her speech, and I do as well, I want to pay particular credit to the blood, the sweat—there's a lot of sweat in Far North Queensland—and the tears that our farmers, fishers and foresters put into their work. Their dedication embodies the Australian spirit—hardworking and delivering for the community.”
“And, of course, as Goanna said, 'We watch the lightning crash over cane fields.' Agriculture is a critical and indelible part of the Far North Queensland identity. As the local member for much of Far North Queensland, it's my job to keep our regions strong. We do this through a strong agricultural sector. It's something that we all want. The National Farmers' Federation has set a goal for Australia's agricultural sector to reach $100 billion from its farm-gate output by 2030.”
“Much of the economy of the islands of the Torres Strait relies on the fisheries in the waters above the Australian mainland. It is an integral part of their connection to culture and a way of interacting economically with the outside world. The gulf produces amazing prawns. Some of those gulf tigers are as big as my hand, and I'm proud to say we've got the best bananas in the world. We've got a massive and world-class produce sector in the Atherton Tablelands just up on the coast and, of course, we have our sugar industry. As in all things, the Far North punches above its weight. If you think about the Far North, part of the imagery that you get is of the cane paddocks rolling into the vistas of the hills and of the banana farms along the highway. People write songs about working the prawns in the gulf.”
“I wish to speak on the appropriations for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. I grew up in the regions with the sons and daughters of dairy farmers in East Gippsland and with the sons and daughters of forestry workers further in East Gippsland. Now, as a regional MP, I know how important agriculture, fisheries and forestry are not just to our national identity but to our economies. Far North Queensland has a proud history and a large history, and a big part of that history is our agricultural and fishing destinations. Farming, fishing and grazing works throughout Leichhardt. It is a way of life for many of the people in my electorate. They grow up wanting to be farmers or fishers like their parents or their parents' parents, or possibly even further back than that.”
“We have a real opportunity to lead not just in our region in Australia and the South Pacific but in the world as a renewable superpower, arresting climate change and putting ourselves at the front of the pack. My children speak to me most about the environment when they speak to me about the work I do in this place. I think many children are like that. They want a future that mirrors what we have had, and what my parents had. Delivering on climate change and with the delivery of net zero, the Anthony Albanese Labor government does just that.”
“It's something that I'm very proud to be part of, and it's something that I know Australians are taking seriously. The other side, of course, is denying climate change and the rejection of net zero. The Great Barrier Reef provides 64,000 jobs. It creates opportunities for the regions, with space, wind, sun and water. We have all of these things in abundance. It turns out that sheep are like solar panels. The grass grows better under them as the water condensation runs off, creating better feed and creating shade for them. It does not have to be an us and them proposition. Agriculture and renewables can go hand in hand to create a really bright future for the regions as well as protecting our planet.”
“This is great not only for the world, as we do have custody of the world's largest living ecosystem; it's also important for our children. It shows science. We build resilience because we know that climate change is happening now. We've already provided enough renewable energy to power more than 10 million homes. We've got massive investment in emissions reduction projects. Renewables are springing up all over the place. We know that coal-fired power stations are reaching the end of their lives. We have a plan to replace them, and the Australian people have got behind it. Over 76,000 homes now have batteries. That's more homes than there are in Cairns completely. You've taken Cairns off the grid. Australians have done that together. They've identified the threat, and they're acting on it.”
“People travel from all over the world to dive on the Great Barrier Reef and to see our beautiful turtles up close. We need to take action to ensure the survival of these species. That's why I'm proud to be a part of a government that is acting on climate change and pushing towards net zero. Australians voted for climate change. They voted for action, and 62 to 70 per cent is an achievable but ambitious goal to arrest what is already happening. We know that there's work to be done, both in the renewables sector and in changing our systems, but it's something that we're all going to tackle together, as a country and as a nation. We're building resilience into the Great Barrier Reef with coral IVF and with the replanting of coral. We can now bring those reefs back faster after mass bleaching events.”
“If they get as far south as beyond Seventeen Seventy, where you hit the surf beaches, that's going to be a very real problem. You can't net surf beaches. You won't be able to protect people from the irukandji or the boxies, and you will have to close those beaches for six months of the year. You can now catch coral trout in Sydney Harbour. This is not a good thing. Coral trout belong where there is coral. As they drift further south, so too will other things. The more intense heat for crocodiles creates too many dudes. Not enough female crocodiles will place pressure on the apex predator. Remove an apex predator and your ecosystem collapses. It is the opposite problem for turtles; with the heat, there are too many females, which will destroy a critically endangered species.”
“You can put it in numbers. More than $229 million has already been spent on recovery measures, $130 million on betterment packages to rebuild infrastructure. There's $61.2 million for water and sewerage infrastructure and $13.9 million specifically for Wujal Wujal. Our roads to Kuranda are still cut off. Our road to Port Douglas is still a single lane. But not everyone lives in Leichhardt. So how would this affect you on a day-to-day basis? It's going to be the little things that change. It's going to be the little things that make a difference. The stinger seasons in the far north are getting longer. That means there's more and more time with stinger nets in the water. But they're also travelling south to communities that are unprepared for box jellyfish and irukandji.”