Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

The Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2024-2025 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2024-2025 are necessary appropriations to ensure the continued delivery of essential government service funding decisions made since the 2024-25 budget, which was announced in May last year. Now, that said, there is a lot to unpack when it comes to appropriations and this government. I'm always amazed about how many truck drivers listen to the federal parliament whilst they're traversing this wide, brown land. I'm always impressed by the number of truckies who contact my office when I speak in parliament about certain things. Sometimes they agree; sometimes they do not.

What this government did in its early phases and stages of running the nation's finances was to propose a 10 per cent annual increase to the heavy vehicle road user charge, which would see the tax truckies pay on fuel rise from 27.2 cents per litre at the time, up to 36.2 cents per litre by 1 July next year. They were figures produced by the National Transport Commission, and we should be doing everything we can as a parliament to ensure the smooth running of our trucks because they largely, and literally, carry the nation. All the goods that are ferried around our nation are done by a truck, and certainly during COVID, the worth of truckies was writ large because they were getting all those rolls of toilet paper to people. Every time someone went to the toilet, it seemed as though they needed 10 rolls. All of a sudden, we had a lack of toilet paper. Yet, it was so much more. It was groceries. In some instances, it was the vaccines. Our truckies helped to run and manage this country.

At the time, I can remember the then prime minister, the member for Cook, tasked me, as the transport minister, with the role and responsibility of getting our state transport and roads ministers around the table to agree on a national logistics code. I am still thankful to those transport ministers, most of whom were Labor ministers, as they did the right thing in the national interest. I'm afraid to say that the same cannot be said for this federal Labor government because they do not do things in the national interest. They want to whack taxes on our truckies. They want to make our farmers pay for the biosecurity measures of foreign goods coming in to compete with our own products on the supermarket shelves. Could you imagine any other country in the world doing that? Charging our own people, our own farmers—the best farmers in the world, the ones who grow the food and fibre—and making them pay for foreign competitors biosecurity measures so that they can compete on the same shelves in the same supermarkets for the same customers—that is, the Australian people.

When it comes to Australian people paying through the nose at supermarkets, and they are doing that, the Nationals and the Liberals have a better plan. We want to put in a supermarket commissioner as part of a suite of measures to ease cost of living. Cost of living is hurting household budgets. Cost of living is an impost and having such an impact on ordinary everyday Australians, many of whom cannot take any more. They are making decisions based on the disposable income that they have. They are making decisions as to whether they, depending on the season, cool or heat their house as opposed to putting food on the table so that their families can sustain themselves. This should not be Australia in 2025. This should not be happening in a country as wealthy as Australia.

I was amazed some time ago when a volunteer-run van arrived at the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga, down near the beach—the visit was well advertised—to provide free food hampers for people. Wagga Wagga is a good sized city, 70,000-plus people, and the number of people who came out to avail themselves of that generosity was quite remarkable. I regularly talk to my volunteer organisations, namely the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, which has a care van, and they report to me that the number of clients is increasing. They have not seen this volume, this number of people needing the generosity of the rest of the community, needing the spirit of giving that they are being called upon to provide. It's because people just can't make ends meet. It's because people are finding the cost of living too difficult. This should not be Australia in 2025.

People are getting their power bills—they were promised on 97 occasions by the then opposition leader, the member for Grayndler, the now Prime Minister, that they would receive a $275 saving to their power bill. And do you know what? A lot of people were duped by that. A lot of people fell for that. There's an interesting thing about the tile put out by the Labor dirt unit at the time to say, 'Well, this is what's going to happen if you vote for a Labor government.' It wasn't that many months after the election the tile was slightly changed; an asterisk was placed beside the $275 and a disclaimer added. The disclaimer put the $275 saving off into the never-never. And you know what? That's the Labor way. That's what they do. They say something before an election and then they do the complete opposite after it. It's sad to say, but you can't take the Labor Party at its word. You cannot. You don't judge the Labor Party by its words; you judge the Labor Party by its actions.

People are hurting. They're hurting because they're paying too much for groceries. The Nationals in government would have a better way. We want to make sure, in conjunction with the Liberals, that we do put that supermarket commissioner in. We will ensure that farmers are paid a fair price at the farm gate for the toils of their labour, as they should be. Whether they are providing those supermarkets with vegetables or meat or whatever the case might be, they should be paid a fair price. All too often we know our farmers, the best in the world, are price takers, not price makers. We should also ensure, through this food commissioner, that people are getting value for money when they take their trolley to the cash register and pay for their goods.

Then you have the high power prices, as I mentioned previously, but more than that we've got people in regional Australia hurting because the price at the petrol bowser is going up and up and up. People in country areas use their vehicles much more than those in the city. You have families in country areas who are choosing to not take their children to sport, dancing lessons, dancing competitions, events and the like. Sport plays a huge part in regional Australia. Last Friday, the Southern NSW Women's Australian Football League began its eighth season. It involves 15 teams, from Wagga Wagga through to Griffith, in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Women's Australian football is the fastest growing sport in the nation. I admire what AFL Riverina has done in trying to consolidate the draw so that there's a series of double-headers. The tyranny of distance is such that they're trying to reduce the amount of away games that teams are playing, but, still, quite often teams will have to travel. When you have to travel in the Riverina, you have to journey long distances to play your games. It's costly. There are women who play in that competition and families who are, unfortunately, having to make that tough decision for their kids—that they just cannot afford to fill the car up and journey to the away games or the away events, or cannot afford to take their kids to the annual agricultural show in a neighbouring town. All too often the neighbouring town is 100 kilometres away.

In the Parkes electorate, which is now more than 50 per cent of the land mass of New South Wales, the candidate for the Nationals, Jamie Chaffey, talks to me all the time about the huge distances that people have to travel for health appointments and business commitments. Mark Coulton has represented that electorate superbly for 17 years. With Mark you got a two-for-one deal, because you get his wife, Robyn, as well. I pay special tribute to them for the way that they have represented that electorate. I say 'they' because it has been a duo, been a team performance, a team effort. I know Jamie Chaffey will continue. He's got the commitment and the dedication to travel the length and breadth of that outstanding electorate. Whether the people are in Parkes, Riverina or in my great friend the member for Cowper's electorate, people have to travel long distances to make those commitments.

When it comes to medical appointments, it should not be so that, when in pain, you have to catch a plane. You should have those doctors, general practitioners and specialists in your home town. It's sad to say that one of the first orders of business that this Labor government introduced was to change the rules around the distribution priority areas. What you saw was doctors in rural, regional and, particularly, remote areas take their shingle off their GP surgery and move to the suburbs. They moved to the peri-urban areas of our capital cities. They moved to the coast. They moved to Newcastle, Wollongong or the Gold Coast, because, according to Labor, those were areas of distribution priority need. I don't deny that people on the Gold Coast or Wollongong or Newcastle need to see doctors too, but what we've been left with is areas of Australia where people can't get in to see a doctor for weeks and weeks. These are people who are in pain. These are people who are ill.

Labor tells a big story about its urgent care clinics. Good luck to those areas that have an urgent care clinic. I appreciate the fact that the member for Cowper received one in his electorate because of his advocacy, I have to say—and also the need. The people of Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and that region of the Mid North Coast of New South Wales deserve as good a health service as anywhere in a capital city. Every part of Australia needs and deserves and wants and expects the same, but urgent care clinics have been given to too many, I have to say, Labor electorates and to not enough of those electorates that are probably in the most dire need.

I know the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network will ease some of the problems of the doctor shortage in times to come, and I'm pleased to say that we're getting upwards of 30 young people—often, locals—going through the UNSW facility in Wagga Wagga. I'm very pleased to say that that is going to be an outstanding success in the future, but the results will take time to take effect.

A lot has been said in this place about child care. I have to say, it's interesting that some rural organisations, grain producers and farmers et cetera placed child care as their No. 1 item, above all other considerations, in their pre-budget submissions. The minister might be interested to know that that is so.

And I appreciate the efforts that she's going to, but it is not just about affordability; it's about accessibility and availability. When we talk about the childcare desert we are being genuine and meaningful, because we are desperately worried there are not enough childcare places in regional Australia.

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