Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. I'll take your guidance. I appreciate your guidance.

We're going to see fourth, fifth and sixth generations of farmers have to walk off their land. They're going out of business. But this whole decision hasn't been made on science; it has been made on political science. It has been made by those opposite to make sure that they keep their Greens coalition safe and make sure that they can look after their inner-city voters. But the neglect continues. Look at the fishing industry and the ban of gillnets. That was by those opposite and was supposed to save the Great Barrier Reef—a gillnet doesn't go within 50 miles of the Great Barrier Reef—but it's totally killing our fishing industry. And it's not only our fishing industry, but all the chandleries, the ice-makers, the net builders, the people who do the floats and the anchors, and the boatbuilders. The flow-on effects through rural and regional Australia are absolutely enormous.

The latest brainwave—the family car and ute tax—where they guillotined the debate. You didn't even want to hear from us and you didn't even want to hear from our people. Most people in my area drive a four-wheel drive—they have a Land Cruiser, a ute, a Ford Ranger or something like that. It's what we actually need. But, no, those opposite want to steer everyone into electric vehicles. Listen to this: electric vehicles can't carry the weight, they can't tow the loads and they can't cover the distance. They're just not practical for rural and regional Australia. Again, this is just another attack on the people out in rural and regional Australia. You're taxing them out of existence.

What about the utes for our tradies? Tradies are flat out affording a ute now, so when they have to pay this extra money for a ute they're going to have to put that on the bill. Once again, those opposite are driving up our cost of living.

Then there's the Bruce Highway. Have a look at the Bruce Highway in my electorate. It's how farmers get their product to market and their supplies up from the city. There's no money for the Bruce Highway. There was half a billion dollars from the coalition, but nothing there.

This reckless race to renewables that Labor seems to be prosecuting at every opportunity is really hurting rural and regional Australia. You're taking out all the good quality agricultural land and putting solar panels on it, wiping out tops of hills, native vegetation and koala habitats so you can put swindle factories in—the big fans that only work about 20 per cent of the time anyway. They don't work when the wind is too short and they can't work when there's too much. This is really bad. It's about time Labor stepped up and started to look after rural and regional Australia.

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