Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on how the government is delivering certainty to small businesses and working families in Queensland? Is the Deputy Prime Minister aware of any different approaches with the potential to create uncertainty?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are a government that backs jobs: we back coal jobs and we back renewable jobs. We back jobs: jobs in agriculture and jobs in Central Queensland. I know the members for Flynn, Dawson and Capricornia and all of the LNP members and indeed all of the members on this side back jobs. We want vibrant country communities with good local, long-term jobs now and into the future. We want to help ensure that hardworking Australians get reward for their effort.

We want to make sure that power is reliable. The member for Flynn understands this and so does everyone on this side of the House. It starts with securing affordable, reliable power for all Australians. We understand that power prices put a strain on households and on business budgets. We're taking action to make the system more reliable and more secure and to put downward pressure on power prices. They will go down.

There is a business in the member's electorate, Zimmermann Farming at Jambin, and I need to talk about farming, because we believe in the future of Central Queensland. We believe in farmers, and when farmers are going well so too is our nation. Mick Zimmermann is a lucerne producer. He wants to take the opportunity to help our drought-stricken farmers. We're certainly getting on board, and I know all of the parliament wants us to help our drought-stricken farmers. That's why we've changed the farm household assistance measures, that's why we have put in mental health relief and that's why we've put in more rural financial counsellors—it is so they can sit around the kitchen table with farmers and their partners. We don't, as the member for Hunter suggested last week, want to tell farmers how they can farm and where they can farm. We want farmers to have their own destiny.

The member for Hunter should listen more to the member for Paterson, who last week spoke glowingly about coal, and he should listen less to the member for Shortland. They should pay more attention to the member for Paterson, who said there was a future for coal in this country. But there's also a future for jobs and for lower power prices, which comes with the National Energy Guarantee. Mick Zimmermann is a fantastic bloke. He wants to produce more lucerne, but he said he is scared to irrigate because of the cost of electricity. Two years ago his electricity bill was $3,500 per month. It's now $11,000 and he's doing half as much irrigating. Small businesses such as these cannot afford Labor's South Australian experiment. The member for Port Adelaide over there described it as a hiccup. It's not a hiccup; it is what we will have. The blackouts will continue if the member for Maribyrnong ever becomes Prime Minister.

We're getting on board with making sure there's downward pressure on power prices, more affordability and reliability in the system, and we're making sure we're providing jobs and creating hope for Australians. (Time expired)