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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“On Port Pirie, this budget contains no new funding package to ensure the long-term viability of the lead smelter. While an earlier transitional package of $57.5 million is included in the budget papers, that package expired on 1 May 2026, and negotiations for further support are still unresolved. This leaves the future of Port Pirie hanging in the balance, and that is not good enough. Everyone is feeling the pinch in this budget. Take the wine industry. With one hand, the government grabs money via higher taxes on trust. With the other hand, it takes away the Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant. It's a king hit. When it comes to agriculture, Labor's raid on family trusts will hinder the ability of farms to manage income and transition ownership.”
“By the end of their first two terms, they'll have brought in more than two million migrants, including overshooting their own targets by 90,000 people over the next two years. That puts even more pressure on infrastructure. But, instead of offering relief, Labor introduces new taxes. It is pure intergenerational fraud. Labor are pulling the ladder up on younger Australians, who are trying to get ahead. With its new housing taxes, Labor's own budget confirms that 35,000 fewer homes will be built over the next decade. You cannot make this up! But it's not just families who are being attacked in this budget. It's farmers, it's fishers, it's family owned businesses and it's critical industries that keep towns alive, like in Port Pirie.”
“His word is not a bond at all. His word is entirely worthless. This budget confirms that the Prime Minister now oversees the highest taxing government in our history. Labor cannot manage money. They also can't manage spending, racking up an astonishing debt of $1.25 trillion. The yearly interest alone on this debt will hit $42 billion, or $80,000 each and every minute. While this government burns money, everyday Australians and regional Australians cannot afford to live. This budget itself reveals the buying power of wages has declined by three per cent. Homegrown inflation is forecast to hit five per cent higher than in France, Japan, the US and the UK. We also see Labor completely blowing their immigration targets.”
“This budget fails to deliver on a list of key promises made to Australians, leaving them worse off through higher taxes, exorbitant costs and a string of broken commitments. Before the election, the Prime Minister looked the Australian people in the eye and proudly declared 'my word is my bond'. Well, we now see exactly what kind of bond he meant. We thought we were getting James Bond: courageous, reliable, admirable. Instead, his economic management looks more like Alan Bond, leaving a trail of catastrophic debt for the next coalition government to clean up. Perhaps the Prime Minister meant a pair of old Bonds underwear, because his promises are full of holes and leave Australians completely exposed. Or maybe his word is just like cheap bonding glue from the bargain bin, completely falling apart the second you apply pressure.”
“My electors in Grey will remember those broken promises. If you say you're going to help a neighbour, you help them. This is another broken promise from a government that said it wouldn't leave the country behind. Its word is worthless. Finally, we come to this very budget. Anthony Albanese promised no new taxes, no changes to super and no changes to CGT.”
“Labor also promised to deliver on regional health, but in Port Lincoln, amazingly, they are still waiting on an Medicare urgent care clinic. Whyalla received a clinic, which I welcome, but the data shows a greater need in Port Lincoln. This is an act that looks decidedly political. The government promised to fix child care. I have the lowest access to child care in the whole country. They announced the Building Early Education Fund grant program. We got excited, but look at the rules. In Crystal Brook, Andrew Sargent and the community group is ready to build, but the rules say that you must already own a centre to apply. It locks out the very people—the community volunteers—who need it the most. It is a plan for the city, made by people from the city. I'll say it again: in the country, if you make a promise, you keep it.”
“He told me about the Birdsville Track. This road carries over half a billion dollars worth of stock every year. It is a vital freight path. It needs to be sealed. It has been closed for 150 days, and station owners can't get their stock in and out and are instead still going through Queensland. The Albanese government is looking to slash local road funding, essential support, from $78 million to $60 million. Even with supplementary funding, South Australia remains the lowest funded state in the nation on a per capita basis. Since 2017, our supplementary funding has been frozen at $20 million, meaning that Labor's inflation has already silently cut this vital program by more than 20 per cent. This is a broken promise from a government that said it would leave no Australian behind.”
“To understand the country, you actually have to visit it. But, more than that, you have to listen. Only yesterday I was in Coober Pedy—just one of the many communities forgotten by Labor. I've been travelling and listening every day, recently in the far west coast, the far north and the far north-east. There I heard from residents, station owners and industry leaders. Whilst these communities are remote, they are vital to South Australia. Out in the bush, your word is all you have. If you make a promise, you keep it. If you say you're going to help a neighbour, you help them. If you say you're going to do something, you do it. Unlike Labor, this is the code we live by in the country. To them a promise is just a script for a TV ad. Their word is absolutely useless. Let's look at the facts. I spoke with David Bell from Dulkaninna Station.”
“Our farmers, our miners and our regional small businesses deserve better than a 'sorry; no service' message from the Albanese government. Regional SA is calling out for help. The question is: will the government answer?”
“This bill provides the tools to punish bad providers, and that is a good thing. But there is much more that needs to be done in this area, especially in regional and rural South Australia. We need to stop the scams that target our isolated and elderly residents—scams that cost Australians over $100 million last year. We need the emergency call database to be accurate so ambulances show up to the right house or the right farm at the right time. But a fine of $10 million doesn't help a farmer who can't call an ambulance. A registration process doesn't help an elderly woman whose fall-detector battery is dying because it is constantly searching for a signal that no longer exists. The coalition supports the bill, but we condemn the neglect. We need a government that understands that regional Australia is the engine room of our nation.”
“What would happen if those opposite couldn't make a call to triple zero if their house was on fire? There would be an outrage. It would be front-page news. But, because it is out of sight in the bush, for this Labor government it is therefore out of mind. We have the Better Connectivity Plan and we have the funding. What we lack is the urgency to get transmitters on towers and signals into these areas. I call on the minister and Telstra to stop hiding behind terrain maps and technical excuses and finally switch on phone connection in the bush. I am committed to the people of Grey. My job is to ensure that, whether you are in Wallaroo, Port Pirie or Ceduna, you are not treated like a second-class citizen by a government that only cares about the inner-city suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne.”
“In summing up—when the signal drops, productivity stops. Farmers are being forced to fund expensive workarounds like Starlink because the service they are paying for is failing them. This is unacceptable in this day and age. Places like Tarcowie, Balaklava, Cummins, Wudinna and Weetulta cannot wait any longer. Since I last spoke on this bill, the latest round of the Mobile Black Spot Program was released. The electorate of Grey, covering 92.3 per cent of South Australia, an area bigger than New South Wales, has been allocated one new tower. Under the previous coalition government, 56 towers were installed. Fifty-six versus one is unacceptable. Imagine if these kinds of mobile black spots were in Canberra. There would be a royal commission, not silence and inaction.”
“We are watching closely, the regions are watching, Port Lincoln is watching, and we will not let this industry be quietly regulated out of existence.”
“I'm demanding that not a single additional hectare of Australian fishing ground be closed without a comprehensive, independent food security assessment. I'm demanding that no ground is closed without genuine consultation and I demand that no ground is closed without proper compensation for the operators whose businesses are destroyed by the stroke of a pen. Let's protect our oceans but also let's back Port Lincoln. Let's passionately back Australian seafood. Let's support the families navigating tight margins and crippling fuel costs. And let's make absolutely sure that, in trying to lead the world with marine biodiversity, we do not accidentally or intentionally undermine the most sustainable, economically vital and proudly regional industries we already possess.”
“My message to the government is incredibly simple: if this bill is to succeed, which it will—if it is to genuinely protect biodiversity while strengthening Australia's position globally—then the commercial fishing industry must be at the table from the very start, not as a token afterthought, not as a box-ticking consultation exercise, but as a respected, genuine partner, because, when you actually work with the industry, you get better policy, you get vastly better environmental outcomes and you get a much stronger, more resilient Australia. I will hold this government to the absolute letter of this bill. This legislation is about the high seas. It is about areas beyond national jurisdiction. It must not be weaponised to lock up our local waters.”
“I have spoken to the industry. I have read the drafts and the concerns of the people on the ground. Having consulted with experts like Daniel Casement, John Isle and Claire Webber, who understand the intricate realities of this industry better than anyone sitting in a department here in Canberra, I know that the industry is seeking certainty, consistency and basic recognition, not the continual layering of new rules over already well-managed world-class systems. Protecting the high seas and feeding Australia are not competing objectives. We need this government, in the exact same breath as it passes this bill, to firmly commit to a domestic ocean governance framework that finally gives food production the exact same standing it currently gives conservation.”
“Reducing access to well-managed Australian fisheries without addressing this massive reliance on imports simply risks outsourcing our environmental footprint to nations that do not care about sustainability. It does not improve the global environment; it merely shifts the guilt offshore. If we are to implement the obligations under the BBNJ agreement concerning marine genetic resources, area-based management tools and environmental impact assessments, we must ensure that our domestic fisheries management is recognised and accredited within these broader environmental frameworks rather than duplicated. This was a clear recommendation from the Samuel review, and it must be heeded. We do not need cumulative regulatory burdens unintentionally constraining a sector that is essential to Australia's food security and regional resilience.”
“We already import a staggering 64 per cent of seafood that Australians eat. Let that sink in. It is upsetting to think that nearly two-thirds of our seafood comes from overseas. We do not import this because we lack the ocean. We have the third-largest exclusive economic zone in the world. We do not import it because we lack the scientific capability. We import it because a decade of poor decisions has treated Australian fishers as a problem to be managed rather than a vital sovereign food capability to be supported. This relentless, creeping regulation has systematically hollowed out the productive capacity of a sector worth billions to our GDP.”
“What we must avoid at all costs is giving away our adjacent waters to the world to create massive, unprecedented marine protected areas between Australia and New Zealand, ultimately closing off our future food bowl to satisfy international optics. We must ask ourselves what is truly happening in this chamber today. The minister has confirmed that his government is currently reviewing 44 Australian marine parks. We have seen the Greens use this bill as a convenient platform to call for a complete end to salmon fishing in Tasmania, the end of krill fishing and the aggressive expansion of no-take zones right across our domestic waters. This is no longer just a bill about high seas. It is the opening act of a radical domestic ocean closure agenda carefully dressed in the polite language of international obligation.”
“Their entire futures depend on it. This brings me to the specific mechanisms being championed in the wake of this bill. We hear a lot about marine parks, but let's be honest with the Australian public. Marine parks have a fun name, a very friendly name. It sounds like a place you can take your kids on a Sunday afternoon, but we need to remember, and we need to call them exactly what they are. They are exclusion zones. They are lock-ups. Ironically, so many of these spatial closures have been transferred out to regional zones, conveniently placed far away from our metropolitan communities. Go figure! The city voters get the warm, fuzzy feeling of saving the ocean while the regional workers lose their livelihoods. It is a disgrace. My deep concern is that this treaty could very easily become a trojan horse for further domestic closures.”
“A Doppler radar would provide critical real-time weather data to keep our fishers, farmers and community safe. This is the kind of practical investment the government should be focused on. Instead, we are here debating international treaties that threaten to tie our most productive industries in further knots. Seafood Industry Australia has been exceptionally clear on this matter. They fully support strong, decisive action against illegal and unregulated fishing. They support long-term sustainability, but they also desperately call for practical, workable frameworks developed in genuine partnership with the industry itself. That is the key word—'partnership'—because the people of Port Lincoln are not environmental vandals; they are the true stewards of the oceans. Their livelihoods depend on it. Their families depend on it.”
“And, right now, because of the harmful algal bloom in the coastal waters along South Australia, boats are needing to travel twice as far to catch their quotas—twice as far when the fuel is twice as expensive. It is a double whammy. Margins are incredibly tight. Business confidence is fragile. The absolute last thing this industry needs in this precise moment is additional regulatory uncertainty imposed from above without genuine, respectful engagement. What the region needs is practical and tangible support not more red tape. They need infrastructure that keeps them safe and helps them operate efficiently. That is exactly why I'm pushing for Doppler radar on the lower Eyre peninsula, supported by a massive petition from the local community.”
“We already import 64 per cent of the seafood that we eat—64 per cent!—yet we have the best seafood in the entire world. Ultimately, we risk hollowing out proud regional communities, like Port Lincoln, that completely depend on this industry to survive and thrive. Let us be honest about the severe pressures facing this sector right now. I have to strongly question the timing of this bill and the broader regulatory push in the face of the current fuel crisis crippling our operators. Right now, skyrocketing input costs—particularly diesel fuel—are forcing some operators to make the heartbreaking decision to cut their trips simply to stay financially viable.”
“In parts of the tuna industry, it feels as though there are now as many or even perhaps more people regulating the industry from Canberra than there are boats working out on the water. The situation is utterly ridiculous. The feeling within the industry is crystal clear. They are being overregulated, completely overburdened and woefully under consulted, and it needs to change. This matters deeply because there are severe real-world consequences when ideological policy gets too far ahead of practical reality. If we overreach with regulation, we risk pushing hardworking Australian operators—the ones who actually follow the rules—straight out of global markets. We risk replacing Australian seafood with dubious imports from countries with far fewer environmental and labour standards.”
“Australia's seafood industry is already one of the most strictly regulated and undeniably sustainable seafood industries in the entire world. As Seafood Industry Australia consistently and accurately highlights, our commercial fisheries operate under robust, science based quotas. They operate under strict monitoring regimes and binding international agreements. This is not a rogue sector that needs to be forcefully brought into line by bureaucrats from this place who have never caught a bream, let alone a bluefin. This is a sector that is already leading the world in stewardship, and yet, despite this world-class performance, we continue to see layer upon layer of new regulation arbitrarily added. I hear it directly from the operators on the ground and on the water.”
“I'm talking about boatbuilders, transport operators, maintenance crews and processing workers. The list goes on. The southern-bluefin-tuna industry alone is worth around $120 million annually to the region. It forms a critical pillar of the broader regional economy. This is not just a seasonal hobby or a fading legacy industry; it is a modern, highly sophisticated and globally competitive export sector. It supplies a premium product to demanding international markets, particularly Japan and increasingly across the broader Asia region. This is an industry that has survived by evolving, innovating and adapting to every challenge thrown its way, and so many challenges have been faced by the seafood industry. Here is the critical point that this government is fundamentally failing to grasp.”
“We celebrate them. Yet, when our fishers head into the oceans and harvest the sea, providing that exact same service of feeding our nation, they are treated with suspicion. They are treated not as stewards but as environmental risks and poachers to be mitigated and managed. It is a double standard that is deeply offensive to the thousands of Australians in this industry. Port Lincoln, Ceduna, Streaky Bay, Whyalla, Wallaroo and Edithburgh—they are not just picturesque coastal towns; they are also huge economic powerhouses for my community. Port Lincoln is Australia's undisputed seafood capital. It is home to the largest commercial fishing fleet in the entire Southern Hemisphere. We are talking about a town of about 14,000 people, and its seafood sector supports thousands of direct jobs and exponentially more in flow-on industries.”
“The high seas belong to no single nation, and governing them demands exactly the kind of international cooperation that this treaty represents. But let me be equally clear, true sustainability is never achieved by sidelining the very people who have been carefully managing these marine resources for generations. There is a growing concern radiating from Port Lincoln, and it stems from the fact that, increasingly, decisions are being made about the industry rather than with the industry. I want to make a point here, one that highlights a strange and persistent hypocrisy in our national policy. It is the simple fact that everyone in this place treats the oceans profoundly differently to the land. When a farmer harvests the land, works the soil and produces food for this nation, they are rightfully championed as heroes of food security.”
“I rise in this chamber to speak in strong, unwavering support of the fishing communities of Port Lincoln and the broader regional fishing communities of Australia and to address the High Seas Biodiversity Bill 2026. Unlike everyone from the government on the other side of this chamber, I will not just boringly read out the sanitised talking points you are endlessly repeating. The people who elected me, the people whose livelihoods are directly impacted by the legislation we debate in this room, deserve far better than bureaucratic echoes. They deserve honest representation and they deserve a measured, realistic critique of what this legislation actually means for their futures. Let me say clearly at the very outset that this parliament should absolutely support sustainable oceans and biodiversity.”
“Fuel issues are hurting everyone, and the algal bloom in the Spencer Gulf is causing real devastation for our coastal towns. It's a tough time for us all, but groups like the Bute Lions and the hard working Minlaton 150th committee prove that our regional spirit is strong and resilient. With that resilience in mind, I want to encourage everyone to enjoy their Easter. I know that costs have risen and budgets are very tight. However, I ask those who can to please still travel and visit the coastal communities. Visit the regions. Do your part, hit the road, make some memories, support our beautiful regions and the small businesses who make Easter in the country a magical, magical time.”
“We remember and give thanks for the service of all of those who have fought for our freedoms throughout history, and those who serve our country today. Australia is prosperous today because those men and women were prepared to fight when the call came in, we. We will remember them; lest we forget. Recently we celebrated two fantastic events on the Yorke Peninsula. Minlaton marked its incredible 150th anniversary, a huge milestone for an absolutely vital farming town. In my home town of Bute, our local Lions Club celebrated 50 golden years of community service. For me, these two events perfectly illustrate the true spirit of the country. Our local communities just keep delivering for our region, no matter what gets in the way. And make no mistake, we are facing some very real challenges.”
“This Anzac Day we will come together to pause and reflect on the service and sacrifice of those who chose to stand and fight for this country. The day itself marks the moment when 16,000 Australian and New Zealand troops landed under fire on the shores of Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, a day and a battle that now underpins much of what we consider to be the core of the Australian spirit. Events unfolding around the world remind us how precious our peace and freedoms truly are. They underscore why the values our Australian troops fought to protect remain as vital today as they were on the shores of Gallipoli. This Anzac Day, we honour the memories of more than 103,000 veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice.”
“If our farmers cannot get fertiliser, city prices will skyrocket and regional producers will go bankrupt. The message from the country is clear. We are tired of being ignored. This threatens the livelihood of a truckie moving goods across the Nullarbor or a farmer about to start seeding. Outsourcing this crisis to a taskforce coordinator only reinforces the chilling sense that no-one is firmly in charge. That is not leadership; it is cold hearted deflection. Under Labor, inflation is higher, interest rates are tighter and fuel is running out. I remind the House again that mining trucks cannot run on batteries, fishing boats cannot run on batteries and prime movers in the agricultural sector cannot run on batteries. We need to keep diesel moving in this economy.”
“We need the Prime Minister to do two things: release an immediate plan to distribute fuel to dry servos and build a long-term strategy for fuel security. His belated decision to underwrite imports does nothing to get petrol and diesel to stations today. While we will not block the fair work fairer fuel bill in the House, we note it lacks an end date or review period. We will scrutinise this closely to ensure appropriate checks and balances. This neglect stretches beyond fuel; our food security faces a silent threat. We rely on the Middle East for 60 per cent of our imports of urea, which is the lifeblood of our crops. Shipments are delayed and experts warn the window to protect the 2026 season is closing fast. The coalition saw this coming and backed domestic urea production. This government simply has no plan.”
“The reality is Australians can't even afford to buy their groceries, pay their rent or pay their power bills, let alone buy a new electric car. Today in Parliament House we had an electric prime mover on show. Well, I've done some research. The biggest electric prime movers made today have a big battery of 700 kilowatt hours. That is a big, heavy battery. On our farm, our prime movers tow about 114 tonnes of, typically, wheat or lentils. If you put that on this electric truck, guess what the range is? It's between 150 and 300 kilometres. Our farm has a five kilowatt SWER line. If our line on the farm was plugged into that truck to charge it up, running flat out, it would take 130 hours or 5.5 days to charge. Battery technology is great, but it is miles and miles away from being a legitimate replacement to industry.”
“It is a time to use the tools at our disposal, like the monitoring powers established by the former government, to identify and protect the industries most at risk. From our farmers and fishers to our manufacturers and truckies, Australia deserves a guarantee that our livelihoods won't be left stranded by a lack of leadership. The Prime Minister has shown no urgency. One in eight servos in New South Wales have run dry. Closer to home, as part of the No Fuel Here campaign, Grey is the second highest on the list with 55 outages across the electorate. And what is the Prime Minister's advice? He says we should buy an electric vehicle. While the sentiment of this statement by the Prime Minister may hold some water in the lake of make belief, we need to be living in the land of reality.”
“I've moved this motion today because Australia is in the midst of a crisis. Wholesalers are rationing fuel across the country, yet the government has failed to provide a clear plan to protect our fuel security. Fifty-two per cent of the energy consumed in this economy is liquid fuels. As a diesel reliant economy, we cannot afford to wait. Fuel is the lifeblood that moves our food, our medicine and our essential goods. Without it, our supply chain grinds to a halt. Today, before this motion was submitted, I was pleased to see the government listen to the coalition and halve the fuel excise for three months. I'm calling on the government to outline its real and actionable strategy.”
“I move: That this House: (1) notes reports of fuel wholesalers rationing petrol and diesel across Australia, raising serious concerns about fuel supply; (2) condemns the Government's failure to reassure Australians that a plan is in place to protect the nation's fuel security; (3) recognises Australia is a diesel-reliant economy, with fuel critical to transporting food, pharmaceuticals and essential goods; (4) further notes the former Government introduced the Petroleum and Other Fuels Reporting Act to strengthen monitoring of Australia's fuel supplies; and (5) calls on the Government to urgently outline its fuel security strategy and use its powers to identify and protect industries at risk of fuel shortages, including farmers, fishers, manufacturers and transport operators.”
“We need a government that understands that 'tyranny of distance' isn't just a phrase; it's a line item in a family budget that is currently in the red. The coalition is focused on the basics: cutting red tape, beating inflation and getting energy prices down. We need support for our regional schools and students. ( Time expired )”
“This causes parents to leave the workforce and make our local staff shortages even worse. Today, you need two incomes to raise a family, and, if there's no child care in your local community, it puts pressure on your local businesses. Recent data shows that in September 2025 over 3,600 childcare services were charging above the fee cap, which is almost double what we saw in 2022. This is not the fault of our local providers. It is the result of Labor's economic mismanagement. After four years, this government owns the economy, but we have the highest inflation in the developed world. It's being driven by decisions made here in Canberra. Government spending is at a 40-year high. This keeps inflation high, which keeps interest rates high. Regional families cannot afford another four years of Labor.”
“Even a 'free' government school in regional SA now costs parents over $95,000 across the child's schooling life when you add up uniforms, camps, transport and associated costs. These numbers, of course, consider 13 years of education, but, even divided per year, it is significant, especially when you consider these are not elite schools. These are not boarding schools. When energy prices skyrocket—when electricity is up 40 per cent and gas is up 42 per cent—these school have no choice but to ask families to pay more. They are paying for Labor's inflation. It's not just schools. Child care is struggling. In the electorate of Grey, again, we have the worst access to child care in Australia. There are 23 council areas in my electorate with almost no services.”
“If we continue down this path, where success is measured in how much is spent rather than what is achieved, we will not only fail these communities but entrench their disadvantage even further. And, in doing so, we will make our economy less productive and place even more pressure on Australians already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. Labor talks a big game on education, but the reality on the ground is different. Regions are being left behind. Have any of those opposite been to these remote or regional communities—Bute, Kadina, Port Augusta, Koonibba, Coober Pedy? Costs are rising fast. In regional South Australia, the cost of an independent education has hit an average of $242,000.”
“And yet, despite all this so-called record funding, the data is going backwards. The evidence is going backwards. I have schools where attendance rates are sitting at 66 per cent. That is not just a statistic; that is a warning sign. That is thousands of children missing out on the most basic foundations for a meaningful life—education. Education is not optional. It is a precursor to opportunity, to employment, to dignity and to breaking cycles of disadvantage. If attendance is failing and outcomes are declining, then no amount of press releases about funding can mask the truth that the system is not working for regional Australians. What I want to see from this government is not more announcements but accountability. Show us the outcomes. Show us the improvement. Show us the data that proves lives are actually getting better.”
“Let's get real. What I'm increasingly becoming frustrated with in relation to this government is the obsession with announcements—record funding this, record funding that—without any focus on outcomes. We as legislators in this place should be focused on outcomes, not announcements. That is certainly why I came to public life. Ultimately, Australians don't live on announcements. They live on outcomes. They live on results. In my electorate, I represent one of the most diverse communities in the country. That diversity is something that I'm proud of, but it also comes with real challenges. I have communities facing entrenched disadvantage, generational welfare dependence and some of the lowest education outcomes in Australia. In fact, Grey is ranked 146 out of 150 in Australia, and that is simply not good enough.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. Farmer Josh from Elliston, in my electorate, has texted me in desperation. He told me, 'I'm still currently waiting on fuel, and if I don't get some in the next 10 days, with the growing season approaching and rain forecast, it will cost our business in the long run.' Will the Prime Minister be upfront with the Australian people and inform them on how many service stations are out of fuel?”
“We had a real chance to make trade fair, and we totally blew it. We need to start putting Australians' interests first. Our farmers deserve a government that fights for them, not a government that signs every piece of paper that is put in front of it.”
“Who put the poor bloke up to this? Because I can tell you that it certainly wasn't farmers. If the member for Hunter, who I have a great deal of respect for, thinks the industry likes this deal, he's been spending too much time in the cafes and not the paddocks. Every major red meat group in this country is devastated. Asking the member for Hunter to defend this deal is like asking a vegan to promote a steakhouse; it's awkward for everyone involved. The truth is that the government signed off on this deal far too easily because they desperately wanted a distraction. They wanted a shiny headline to hide the fact that the economy is weak and that fuel supplies are under threat. They wanted to pretend everything is fine when we all know that it is not. But their plan has backfired.”
“This agreement allows just over 30,000 tonnes of access over the next decade. Our industry experts were crystal clear that 50,000 tonnes was the absolute minimum required to stay competitive. This is stark reading. On sheepmeat the result is just as insulting. We got 25,000 tonnes, while New Zealand sits on over 160,000 tonnes. How does the government explain that? Did our negotiators forget how to use a calculator or did they just stop caring? Our sheep farmers continue to take blow after blow—first the killing of the live meat trade and now this. It's just like how this Labor government is putting further restrictions on our law-abiding gun owners. The member for Hunter has again drawn the short straw, having to bring up this deal in parliament on behalf of his constituents as a regional MP. Who gave him his script?”
“The Australian Meat Industry Council said: The meat industry has worked tirelessly and been very clear with the Australian Government about the importance of a meaningful outcome in an agreement with the European Union. This outcome is worse than those achieved by Australia's competitors, and it caps and restricts Australia's trade. The NFF said: … farmers will rightly be concerned that after years of negotiations this deal hasn't delivered commercially meaningful access for Australian agricultural exports. They will now pay the price for this subpar EU deal for decades to come. Australian wine grape growers said that, after years of negotiation, they 'expected better'. Let's look at the numbers, because the maths simply does not add up for our regions. Let's consider the beef sector.”
“The EU continues to protect its own interests while Australia's left picking up the tab once again. Our trade minister gave up too easily. He stayed at the table when he should have walked away. No deal would have been better than this bad deal. Instead, we have a lopsided arrangement that treats world-class producers as second-class citizens. It's not just me and the coalition howling at the moon; this is coming from industry, the very people we should be listening to. Meat and Livestock Australia said: Australia's red meat sector has been profoundly let down by this outcome. … … … To land a deal so far below what other suppliers have secured is genuinely bewildering.”