Tom Venning
Grey · Liberal Party · Australia
“Residential burglaries, commercial property theft and daylight shoplifting have left citizens and business owners feeling completely helpless as crime targets every sector of this great regional community. Police statistics show the town is in the midst of a spate of burglaries, with 34 incidents recorded in the first half of June alone.”
“For the Port Augusta community, the most difficult part of this crime wave is what they view as a revolving door bail system for serious juvenile offenders and a lack of quality youth diversion programs in the region. Police can only do so much.”
“Mr Kean was personally chosen by the Prime Minister to lead the Climate Change Authority. It has now been revealed that he spent over $32,000 on one single trip to Brazil last year for an international climate conference.”
“Imagine sitting around the dining table with your family and telling them, 'We're going to spend more money than we receive every year for the next 10 years.' You wouldn't. In fact, you can't, yet that's exactly what this Labor government and this Treasurer are doing. To pay for this, they deploy toxic taxes, assaulting aspiration.”
“Labor cannot manage money, so they continue to come after yours. The average Australian's paying 39 per cent more tax under this government. Since Labor was elected, Australia suffered the biggest fall in living standards in the developed world.”
“It's lifting prices, inflating government charges and pushing hardworking Australians into paying more tax. While Labor profits from this inflation, their tax cuts do not keep up. At 70c a day, they won't even buy a cup of coffee a week.”
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“Not only have our power prices not reduced by $275 but, importantly, these policies have a major impact on communities which make things, like Whyalla and Port Pirie, and on our farmers and small businesses. The policies are threatening our sovereign capabilities, damaging prime agricultural land, dividing our communities and increasing energy costs. By constructing tens of thousands of kilometres of transmission lines, solar panels and wind turbines across rural and regional Australia, this government is industrialising fertile rural farming land and the natural environment on a massive scale. Failure No. 2: Labor's reckless and out-of-touch approach to fixing our regional roads. In the country, we want safer roads, not slower roads.”
“In response to the member for Lingiari, the government seem to be obsessed with size. If size matters, look in the mirror. Have a look at the size of your PM's electorate. It's smaller than a farm in my community of Bute, while my electorate is bigger than New South Wales. This month, thousands of young Australians will be sitting down for their end-of-year exams. As such, it is only fair that the government faces an examination of its own—an examination into the results for rural and regional Australians. The report card does not read well. There are fails in economics, science, agriculture, technology and health. If this government was getting an ATAR score next month, it would be a big, fat zero. Failure No. 1: the Albanese government's mismanagement of our energy markets and power prices.”
“We increased funding every year, from $18.6 billion under the former Labor government to more than $30 billion by FY 2022. We left office with bulk-billing at a record high at 88 per cent. In our last year, 167 million free GP visits were delivered, 61 million more than under the previous Labor government. Let's not forget about mental health. Labor has cut Medicare subsidised sessions in half, stripping vital support from 370,000 vulnerable Australians and ignoring the advice of experts and even their own review. I like to say that there's better access to mental health care in Mongolia than there is in regional South Australia. To use the PM's own language, it is all BS. Before you can see a GP for free, you need a GP. The truth is that we simply don't have that in our communities.”
“However, many simple consultations are being diverted. They are going to urgent Medicare clinics, where the government invests $246.50 per patient, or to nurse led clinics, which cost $200 per patient. The simplest cases are even ending up in the emergency department, which costs the taxpayer $692 per patient without an admission. This leaves GPs to deal with longer, more complex consultations. For these, the Medicare rebate is significantly lower per minute, with the government only investing about $40 per patient. This government proudly talks about its new bulk-billing incentives, but they are merely a small patch on a gaping hole. This government is approaching four years in office and it has delivered nothing but worse outcomes for my community. By contrast, the coalition had a strong record on Medicare.”
“While they keep some hospitals running, the widespread use of locums in my electorate only hurts our communities even more. Take Peterborough again. When the local clinic closed, it stopped supplying doctors to the local hospital. So the local health network, the LHN, stepped in and turned to the locum market at a cost of over $4,000 per day per doctor. This situation is costing my own LHN $18 million per year, meaning less money for infrastructure and leaving old, aging and, frankly, unfit hospitals in places like Wallaroo and Port Pirie without the upgrades they so desperately need. The core issue is that this government is fundamentally undermining the business model. As we have discussed, general practices used to make more money on brief consultations, which would then help subsidise the longer, more complex ones.”
“Everyone I speak with, from councils to community members, recognises that there is a massive issue with access to GPs in rural and remote communities, yet, despite this widespread recognition, no-one is doing anything meaningful to make a difference, especially not this Labor government. Only last month another medical clinic in my electorate closed its doors for good. That closure means the residents of Peterborough now must drive over an hour to see a GP and wait over six weeks to get an appointment. This is unacceptable. Even communities that have traditionally been strong for championing rural practice, like Tumby Bay, Clare and Port Lincoln, are struggling badly. The wait time to see a GP in Tumby Bay right now is a shocking nine weeks. Then there are locums, the temporary doctors filling in the gaps.”
“Policymakers need to stop playing politics with health care. They know exactly how medical clinics operate and they know the real-world consequences of their policies. For those unaware, GP clinics make money on brief consultations and subsidise the longer, more complex consultations, which often the clinics service at a loss. Labor's new policy is simply putting pressure on the clinics to find ways to fund these essential longer appointments. This was confirmed by the health department in Senate estimates, who also confirmed that it will cost more to see a GP this year and next year.”
“There is a crisis unfolding in regional Australia: the collapsing access to general practice services. It is not easy to see a GP in the country, and I think we can all agree that your postcode should not determine whether you get health care. Labor is busy spruiking its urgent Medicare clinics, presenting them as a solution to health care, but I have news for this parliament: most people in my electorate will never get access to one. In fact, on health outcomes, people in my electorate of Grey already have some of the worst outcomes in the country. We have the highest rates of diabetes in the country, more than double the national average, we have some of the worst access to health care and we have some of the lowest life expectancy rates, while access to seeing a doctor in my community is getting worse, not better.”
“These are the people who have made our towns what they are today. They deserve better than confusion about new legislation. They deserve better than broken promises. They deserve better than a government that treats regional Australia as an afterthought. These changes have added another hurdle to an already difficult system for regional Australians to navigate—without proper education, without price protections for eight months, without adequate support. This government has let our elderly down. It can be the difference between living with dignity in the community you love or losing everything you've built over a lifetime. Our elderly built regional Australia. Now, it's our responsibility to ensure they can age in it with the support and dignity they deserve.”
“This government's failure to deliver adequate aged care in regional Australia is a betrayal of trust and shows a lack of foresight. Real people with real needs have been left behind by a system that does not properly work for regional Australia. Spouses caring for partners while their own health deteriorates, adult children forced to leave their careers to become full-time carers, families stretched to the breaking point—these changes only add to the burden they are already carrying. When we talk about aged care in the electorate of Grey, we're not talking about statistics on a spreadsheet in Canberra. We're talking about the women who volunteered at the local CWA for 40 years, the farmer who built this community with his bare hands, the teacher who educated generations of our children.”
“The stories I have heard from residents across Grey, both raw and devastating, prove beyond any doubt that we are in the midst of an aged-care crisis. This is the price of Labor's centralisation and their one-size-fits-all policy approach. What works for cities does not work in small regional towns. Where is the compassion for the spouse who can no longer visit their partner because daily trips are around 400 kilometres return? Where is the plan to ensure that a retired farmer in the far north or a beloved community volunteer on the west coast can age with dignity in the town they love? This is what people in Grey are experiencing every single day—the shortage of essential services from aged care to dental care and child care. It's a failure of responsibility by all involved.”
“Older Australians are being forced to pick up essential services, like help with housework, personal care and everyday living support. This is yet another broken election promise, one that comes with catastrophic consequences. This doesn't include the thousands of older Australians who are still waiting for the care they deserve. In total, more than 230,000 older Australians have been stuck, left in limbo, waiting for access to home-care support under Labor. The National Ageing Research Institute has shown that older Australians forced to wait longer than six months for a home-care package face an 18 per cent higher risk of death compared to those who receive support within 30 days. Across the electorate of Grey, families are facing impossible choices and heartbreaking situations due to this government's failure to deliver promised care.”
“On 1 November, this government's new Aged Care Act came into effect, and what did older Australians get? Confusion, chaos and higher costs. There was no proper education campaign and no clear communication about what these changes meant, just bewildered elderly Australians wondering why they were suddenly paying more than before for the same support they were already receiving. These changes have older Australians concerned that they will have to cut back on essential services because providers can now increase their costs. That's right. For eight months, providers can charge what they like for at-home services as the government will not cap these prices until 1 July next year. What happened to the 'no worse off' guarantee that these changes came with?”
“The town's agricultural heritage remains a prominent part of its identity, and it's still an important service centre for world-leading agriculture industry. Orroroo also celebrated their 150th in October. This proud town has been a cornerstone of our region's pastoral story, serving as a vital hub for surrounding communities. And Blyth celebrated 150 years only yesterday, hosting a successful community event. For a century and a half, Blyth has supported generations of farming families. These milestones remind us that our towns aren't just dots on a map. They're communities with stories worth celebrating.”
“Stephanie's son has a rare chronic disease, requiring constant travel to the city for care, putting a constant strain on their entire family on the Yorke Peninsula. Alex faced an impossible choice when her late father fell through the cracks in regional health care: either switch off his dialysis or move to the city. That's a choice no daughter should face. These aren't just statistics; these are the daily realities our regional, rural and remote communities face. Steph and Alex are doing their part to stand up for people in regional SA, and it's time our government does the same. Grey is an electorate full of rich history. I witness this every time I visit one of our hundreds of towns, but recently a few have hit significant milestones I would like to acknowledge. The Booleroo Centre marked its 150th birthday milestone in early October.”
“Finally, I want to thank Trevor Smith, Ryan Viney, Ken Webber and Sam Telfer MP for their continued advocacy. The time for radar is now. Last month, on Rural Women's Day, we celebrated the backbone of our regional communities—the rural women who hold our towns together. It was a privilege to attend Rural Women's Day celebrations at Orroroo, celebrating the contributions of our local women. Last week, I met with locals Stephanie March from MERCI CO, Alex Thomas from Plant a Seed for Safety and Nikki Atkinson from Liv Sienne Fashion here in Parliament House. It was amazing to have women like this stand up and fight for regional and rural health care. We don't need the world's best access; we just want equity. The stories of these incredible women hit hard.”
“The lower Eyre Peninsula is the only place in Australia with comparable population or economic output that doesn't have doppler radar coverage. The importance of radar and accurate near-real-time and real-time forecasting cannot be overstated. Sure, it's important for individuals but also for: agriculture, where we have some of the most productive land in the country; fishing, where Port Lincoln is called home by the Southern Hemisphere's largest fishing fleet; tourism, like international yacht races in Boston Bay; rocket launching, a growing industry at Whalers Way; and, importantly, emergency services, helping us mitigate what we saw in 2005 when nine people were killed. While I thank Minister Watt's office for their constructive engagement on this issue, we must not delay this any further.”
“Let it help our small businesses recover. Let it support jobs and growth in regional Australia. Let's do it in a way that does not leave our children paying the interest, because, simply, this big-spending, tax happy government seems incapable of making the hard decisions needed.”
“The government's spending spree is being paid for by everyday Australians in their tax returns, their electricity bills, in their mortgage repayments and in their struggle for jobs. Let me be clear: it is not the government who pays off the debt, it is not the bureaucrats who pay off the debt; it is the farmer, the teacher, the tradie, the small business operator, the regional family. That is who is carrying this government's burden. I call on this government to stop the reckless spending, stop the endless tax fest and hollow promises. Give Australians the respect of knowing you will live within your means like everyone else has to. If government spending is a tool, spend it on value-adding initiatives, like hospitals, roads, schools and energy resilience in towns like Port Lincoln and Port Parham.”
“And we see workers with only $30 left each week. It is not just a policy failure; it is a broken promise for families in the regions saving for a home, paying off a mortgage or running a small business. The message they get is the government can't manage its own money, so it comes after yours. We must return to a government that believes in lower, simpler taxes; that lives within its means; that does not mortgage the future of regional Australians so that inner-city votes can be changed. We need fiscal discipline, not fiscal drag. We need spending that genuinely invests in a productive economy, in regions, in small business, in primary industries—not wasteful spending that piles up debt. I return to the shadow government's matter of public importance.”
“Let me walk you through the arithmetic of work debt servicing means in everyday terms, because regional Australians understand numbers. We are paying $50,000 every minute in interest on the debt. That's roughly $72 million per day—money that could have been spent on upgrades to regional hospitals, fixing the roads we rely on, supporting community housing in towns like Port Pirie and helping businesses hit by the algal bloom, drought and unaffordable housing prices. So what do we see for regional South Australia? We see a government that is focused on inner-city spending and confusing tax grabs, while regions again miss out. We see schools that still need upgrades. We see roads that still need repairs. We see the government promising regional investment, but then redirecting the money to bailouts, handouts and vanity projects.”
“You cannot separate the borrowing and the spending from the environment in which jobs become harder to find, wage growth stagnates and regional families feel left behind. In regional South Australia, farmers reel under generational drought—fishers destroyed by the algal bloom, and manufacturing on life support. Yet we see a city focused government pouring money down the drain for inner-city handouts and vanity projects. So when you look at your tax bill, your power bill, your mortgage statement or the difficulty you're having to find a secure job, it's not just the market, it's not just inflation, it's not just the cost of living; it's also a government that chooses to borrow and spend big rather than live within its means.”
“Today I rise to speak on the grave matter of fairness and fiscal responsibility. The reality is that everyday, ordinary Australians pay the price for a government that has decided to spend money as if it grows on trees. It doesn't take an economics degree to see that this government is addicted to spending taxpayers' money. That addiction has a price, and you—the police officer, the schoolteacher, the farmer, the retailer—are picking up the tab. Let me say it plainly. We are borrowing from our children's future, paying the interest today so that the debt will fall on our children tomorrow. The cost of living is soaring. Rent is up by 21 per cent, food costs are up by 16 per cent, mortgages are up by $1,800 a month on average, and power prices are up by 46 per cent and increasing.”
“With groups like this in Kadina, Clare, Crystal Brook, Whyalla, Port Lincoln and Breastfeeding Everywhere venues in Port Augusta and as far north as Roxby Downs, this group is doing amazing work to support mothers. But this organisation needs assistance, because funding for ABA's national Breastfeeding Helpline and live chat services expires in 2026. Today I'd like to show my support for the ABA and the proposal it has submitted to the Australian government for a four-year, $14.8 million investment. I call on Mark Butler, the Minister for Health and Ageing, to grant full funding to ABA's proposal.”
“This week, the Senate voted in favour of an inquiry into regional airport security fees. The cost of screening has made regional air travel prohibitively expensive. While travellers from capital cities pay no more than a dollar, regional passengers bear a cost of more than $50 in my electorate. Rex no longer services Whyalla for this very reason. It is simply not viable. It was disappointing that Labor, including Labor's duty senator for Grey, Senator Grogan, voted against the inquiry. Regional Australians deserve equal access to air travel, and I encourage the government to bring in a national screening levy. I've been contacted by the Australian Breastfeeding Association councillor and Yorke Peninsula farmer Sarah Clifford, who has brought to my attention the wonderful work her ABA group in Kadina is doing.”
“It tells a tale of state and federal governments out of touch with the country and out of touch with real hardworking Australians.”
“If we fail to solve this, $65 billion worth of identified regional investment in mining, industry and agriculture will stagnate. We must address the key drivers of population attraction, housing affordability and access to essential services including health and education. I urge this government to look after all Australians, not just those in our cities. We need a targeted honest commitment to building infrastructure and housing, to unlock skills pathways and to deliver place based solutions that transform our regional and rural and remote towns like Coober Pedy from remote outposts into vibrant competitive centres of opportunity. South Australia's prosperity depends on it. Looking at these issues—regional inequality and the plight of Coober Pedy—back to back tells a tale.”
“In September this year, I had the pleasure of listening to Hari Hara Priya Kannan, a data scientist for The Demographics Group, which presented to Regional Development South Australia on the some issues facing people in my electorate of Grey. As I expected, it was bleak. Regional SA plays an enormous role in the nation's economy, but the data presented confirm that regional growth is deeply unequal. We cannot tolerate a future where metropolitan SA thrives while the regions continue to struggle. We cannot tolerate a future where the areas that generate a quarter of the state's GRP are starved of the essential resources they need to prosper. Our most critical challenge is a workforce crisis. We have an ageing population, and we face a threat in replacing the 173,000 workers expected to exit the regional labour market over the next decade.”
“Remote communities deserve educational facilities, places where young people learn to thrive, not just survive. Remote communities deserve real solutions—and not lip service and stop-throughs by pollies on their way to photo ops. The time for words is over. Someone needs to step in and deliver a clear pathway out of this situation. We need to show some empathy towards this community and get this problem solved quickly by our dual parties to support demands for action and recognise that investing in Coober Pedy is an investment in the unique spirit of our entire nation. The history of Coober Pedy should not end now. Regional and remote neglect in South Australia is unfortunately nothing new.”
“Coober Pedy shows us that when governments treat remote communities as after-thoughts, the social, economic and human consequences mount. This is a great town with a warm resilient soul, and I would hate for a series of bad decisions by a government to result in that great soul being stripped away. Regional Australia should not be the backyard for neglect. Coober Pedy deserves better. Remote communities deserve to know that they will not follow the same path as the town of Bindabee, which was closed by the state government in 2019. Regional communities and remote communities deserve to know that their contribution to this nation isn't just remembered, it is valued. Remote communities deserve to be able to continue their mining roots and share their skills with the world.”
“We need clear recruitment pathways, incentives and dedicated funding to retain the central personnel for police, ambulance and MFS The shortage or blatant lack of essential services from aged care to dental care and child care is a failure of responsibility by all involved. Fifth, we need a clear plan to hold the state government to account for the delays, particularly the financial plan to exit council administration and the water infrastructure strategy. The community must know the timelines and details. This has gone on for too long. Sixth is fairer costs for residents. Remote living should not equate to paying three times more for water or being subjected to utility practises deemed unjust by the ombudsman.”
“I will bet my last dollar that the pencil pushers in Adelaide that make that decision haven't even seen an opal mine in action. The very skills that define Coober Pedy are at risk of being lost. We need a review of this TAFE decision and proper pathways into trades, opal cutting, tourism operations and other local industry opportunities. We need to heed the miners who say they cannot afford the lose those skill sets. Third, we must address isolation. We need to secure air services and upgrade the airport to maintain connectivity. We need targeted support for outback roads to keep station access viable and local pastoralists and businesses open. Fourth, we must strengthen volunteer and emergency services.”
“Attached to this must be transparency on costs and timelines, and the immediate, yet feasible, restoration of the elected local government in Coober Pedy. The council has been in administration since 2019. This community must have its voice back. There is no publicised plan for the financial exit from administration, and this uncertainty is splitting the community. Second, we must provide funding tied to training and employment programs. The local industry is rich with knowledge. The best opal cutters in the world are right there ready to teach local youth about presentation and grading yet we are told that the government has refused to use the local TAFE. They are refusing to use the TAFE due to the outdated machinery.”
“It makes me sick to think of what a fraction of that cost could do in Coober Pedy for essential services, particularly power and water. A mere 10 per cent of that could have changed the lives of the entire community. Instead, it went to the Premier's pet project in Whyalla that has not even commenced. This is a disgrace. Leon Stephens and I are demanding a fair go for this hardworking town. So where to from here? Well, we need plans, not promises. First, we are demanding a generally funded state and federal taskforce for Coober Pedy. This task force must deliver critically upgraded water and electricity infrastructure. The residents face constant failures, undrinkable water, ageing pipelines and crippling costs—three times more than what you'd pay in Adelaide.”
“This is why I stand here demanding answers. Last week in Coober Pedy, I took the pleasure to take this fight to Canberra, and I'm proud to be joined in this urgent call for action by a man who knows this region well, who understands the frustrations and who is absolutely committed to delivering a fair deal for the outback, the Liberal candidate for Stuart, Leon Stephens. Leon is not a man for a photo opp. He's committed to taking up Coober Pedy's fight and forcing a real plan for change—not another raft of reviews. Leon is right when he says that people here are dealing with something they do not deserve. Earlier this month, the true cost of a state Labor government's unimaginable financial waste, namely the $498 million loss on hydrogen in Whyalla, was laid bare by the Auditor-General.”
“Yet—and I don't say this lightly—if governments don't start taking the plight of this regional centre seriously, Coober Pedy could well just be history. Today Coober Pedy stands not as a beacon of outback triumph but as a stark, unforgiving symbol of what happens when remote communities fall between the cracks. It is a portrait of high costs, declining services, community fatigue and bureaucratic abandonment. The people of Coober Pedy are some of the most resilient Australians I have ever met. They are a community that simply wants to get on with it—get on with rebuilding their local government systems and get on with teaching the next generation the invaluable skills of opal cutting, grading and mining. That is the soul of the town. But they're being tied up, not by their work ethic or passion but by government red tape and neglect.”
“I rise today to discuss a matter of national importance concerning an iconic Australian town and the opal capital of the world, Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy has a population of approximately 2,000 people. It is located in the far north of South Australia, 850 kilometres north of Adelaide and 680 kilometres south of Alice Springs. Opal was first discovered in February 1915, and, in 1920, the official name of the town was chosen. The name Coober Pedy is an anglicisation of the Aboriginal term 'kupa piti', often translated as 'white man in a hole'. It's a name that speaks to the history of grit, complex issues, innovation, and the unique spirit required to work in the harsh South Australian outback. And what a history it has!”
“My commonsense approach would be simple: take the quality of the road network, the data they are hiding, and combine it with the grading of that road—how busy it is. Put those two together and now you have the funding for our road network. But don't talk common sense to our socialist Labor government. They cringe at the thought of it—and don't get me started on the teals. We need a government that is serious about regional safety, serious about smart investment and serious about building roads that last. The people of regional South Australia deserve better than a government whose priority is the next tram stop in metropolitan Adelaide.”
“How does Labor propose to fix this critically failing road network? How do you think they address the safety issues at hand? Well, the solution is an absolute cracker, even by Labor's standards. They suggest we reduce the speed limit on regional roads to 80 kilometres an hour. Well, I'll one-up them. Let's reduce the speed of all roads to just five kilometres an hour, then our road toll would go to zero. Rather than investing to make roads safer, they say 'stuff you' and reduce the speed limit to 80—unbelievable, unrealistic, out of touch. The state government has the empirical evidence of our roads' poor quality. They have this information, but they are not willing to share it. Why? Because that would be inconvenient for their constant pork-barrelling purposes.”
“That is a damning indictment. The answer to this failure is clear. We need to introduce performance based contracts. Let me explain. For argument's sake, if we spend $1 million per kilometre to build a road and that road fails in two years, that is not an investment. It is a waste of taxpayer money. In the case of Augusta Highway, it failed after two weeks. A performance based contract would require the builder to guarantee the road's quality for a set period. If it fails, they would fix it at their own cost, or, indeed, if it maintains standards, they would get a performance pay-out. This puts the onus on the contractor to build it right the first time. It's not rocket science, but it seems governments are currently obsessed with mega projects in the cities rather than basic road safety projects that could easily be delivered.”
“You even have to drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid the dozens of deep potholes.' From Robin, a fellow truckie from Booleroo Centre, talking about the recently upgraded Augusta Highway, 'As a road train operator that uses this road multiple times a week, I am disgusted that this section of road has only been open for six months and it is already falling apart.' There are safety concerns around Snowtown, Two Wells intersections and complaints about the condition of the Strzelecki Track, a vital road for our resources sector—it's been four years. I could go on and on and on. These are not just potholes. These are examples of fundamental failures in planning and construction. Many that I speak to feel like the roads we built in the 1980s and 1990s under the old highways department were better quality than the roads we build today.”
“Here are a few stories from my electorate that serve to highlight how dangerous and poorly maintained the South Australian regional road network really is. Tony, a prominent and well-respected pastoralist in northern South Australia, said, 'Ten years ago five gangs of two graders were operating on the outback road network and now there is only one grade crew consisting of two graders to service 10,000 kilometres of outback roads.' This is ludicrous. From a constituent in Clare: 'We came over from Clare today to do some shopping in Port Pirie, and to say the cattle track to Crystal Brook needs major repairs is beyond a joke.”
“I rise to address a crisis that is putting the lives of regional South Australians at risk—the terrible state of our country roads. I begin by acknowledging the important work of my colleague Dr Anne Webster and her motion regarding the dire state of roads in regional Victoria. It's a sad reality that, like Victoria, South Australia is a city centric state, where the government's focus is almost entirely confined to Adelaide and surrounds. In fact, the government's priorities are so skewed I have often thought we should save ourselves the hassle and change our state's name to simply 'the state of Adelaide'. Statistically, South Australia receives the lowest amount of federal road funding of any state, both on a per capita basis and a per kilometre of road basis, and it shows. But this isn't just about statistics; it is about lives.”
“It's powerful and it's exciting, but, under this Labor government, it's also unmanaged, unsecured and fundamentally at risk.”
“Organisations looking to operate at scale are going to be looking at a competitive advantage, not emissions targets or where the power comes from. Australia risks missing out on this next big boom, and I would argue we're missing out on it already. A cybersecurity failure has made Australians soft targets for AI powered crime. An education failure is leaving our children unprepared for the job of tomorrow and an energy infrastructure failure risks turning the AI boom into a renewables crisis. Opportunity knocks, but will this government answer? Australia needs a serious and strategic plan for artificial intelligence—specifically generative artificial intelligence—that is built on foundations of cybersecurity and educational excellence. If not, we leave Australians dangerously exposed and ill equipped for the future. The AI future is here.”
“Finally, let's turn to the growing challenge that threatens to undermine Labor's own climate agenda: the levels of energy required to power AI. The very engines of the AI revolution will put pressure on Labor's reckless renewables rollout and stifle its already impossible emissions targets. The government's response is an unfunded hope that our 'advantage in renewable energy' will solve the problem. Hope is not a strategy. There also exists a significant opportunity with respect to data centres as a growth industry. Industry leaders won't just give us contracts because we want them. We will get data centres if, as a nation, we deliver energy that's cheaper than other places. It's as simple as that.”
“This government has left the door open. The technologies that I saw drive productivity at NAB that can free up humans for complex tasks requires a workforce ready to harness them, which is why the coalition is right to call for a stronger focus on back to basics and foundational knowledge in our schools. NAPLAN results have shown roughly one-third of students are not meeting expectations in literacy and numeracy. We are setting them up to fail in an AI economy. You can't be a prompt engineer if you don't have the skills of logic, critical thinking and communication. The $47 million for the Next Generation Graduates Program and the TAFE NSW 'Introduction to AI' scholarships are a fine starting point, but they are token gestures compared to the challenges ahead for the next generation.”
“AI is a double-edged sword and a sword that can easily cut into cybersecurity. The Annual cyber threat report 2024-2025 from the Australian Signals Directorate should be a wake-up call for this government. In FY24-25, under Labor, the Australian Cyber Security Hotline received over 42,500 calls, a 16 per cent increase from the previous year. The Australian Cyber Security Centre also responded to over 1,200 cybersecurity incidents, an 11 per cent increase. During FY24-25, ASD notified entities more than 1,700 times about malicious cyber activity, an 83 per cent increase from last year. Australians are being relentlessly targeted by sophisticated internet scams, and AI is now the weapon of choice for online criminals. Less than two weeks ago, we saw the Prime Minister's phone number amongst many others skimmed by AI.”
“Artificial intelligence—specifically, generative artificial intelligence—presents an enormous challenge for businesses, students, families, governments and departments. We welcome the notion that AI should contribute to the future of Australia's economy and that it should be deployed safely and for the benefit of all, but small funding announcements are not enough. Labor is failing to manage the transition to AI effectively. They are behind the curve. Their complacency is putting our security, our economy and our children at risk. Before entering public life, I wore two hats. I was a farmer, but I was also a strategy consultant. Working at NAB, I helped roll out their generative AI programs. I saw its power firsthand, and I learned how efficient it can be, but this experience also taught me something else.”
“We need a government that delivers fiscal discipline and prepares for the future, not one that mortgages away, desperately trying to win inner-city votes. Simply, Labor must stop its reckless spending.”