Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've only been here a short time, and something I've learned quickly is that governing is hard. Most of the people here come with great intentions; they're good people and they're here to make a better Australia. It's impossible to get everything right, but when the game's on the line champions want the ball.

This government has been in office for nine months. That's enough for people who overly celebrated Labor's win or for coalition supporters who sought solace in the arms of others, to be decorating nurseries or planning deliveries of something else. But we still get, 'Everything bad is by the previous government,' and that everything good is by them. You can't take credit for things if you don't take responsibility for things. We've heard that 60 bills have passed, but they haven't addressed the problems that face us now. It's a very narcissistic trait, to project faults upon others. It's a very narcissistic trait not to take ownership of your own situations.

We can stand here and say that wages are up, and they are. I'm not going to sit here and play points that they aren't. But real wages are not. That was a question we had today: 'How are people going, out there in the world?' As a group of people, I know we all have Australians' interests at heart and it's time for honesty on these things. What can we do about them? So we look here and watch where the actions aren't matching the intentions; they're not matching the words.

Our first question today was talking about data and security of the nation. We were talking about cameras. We were talking about these things. I woke up and saw this news article about Hikvision and Dahua devices out there. This is an interesting story. I then had a very personal self-reflection. About three weeks ago I had a number of Hikvision security cameras installed on my house, and I realise that Senator Paterson's story will cost me about $5,000 to rectify.

We heard how these cameras were installed under our watch and it's our problem. But that ignores the fact that in November last year the United Kingdom and the United States identified that this was a problem. They announced that this was a problem. They announced that these were being withdrawn from use within their government buildings. Surely, the government of the time should have seen that and said, 'Let's have a look at it in Australia.' 'Let's see what is going on here with that problem.' But we didn't. Governing is hard. There are millions of moving pieces. I've never seen a more complex thing in my life. That is the ownership champions take: 'I have seen this. This has happened. I will do something.'

Australians have been through too much. Since 2020 we have been locked down, we've been told what to put in our bodies, where to go, where not to go, everything like that. It is time for these people to have a life, to do things they enjoy, and for us to take the responsibility of having the ball, driving the game and winning the game for them. We shouldn't make them fear every little thing—everything about their wages, every bill, every mortgage payment, everything about climate change, the world's going to end, the Chinese are spying, my car's going to kill me. All of this as a parliament we are putting on them to scare them, to put fear in them, to manipulate them, and that is a thing that we should be taking on.

We talk about ownership. We had the question about the diesel fuel rebate today. I, for one, would like to thank the government for clearing that up and giving clarity that that will not be changed. There is no hatred or anger on these things. When good decisions are made they should be celebrated as much as pointing out the bad ones, because there are farmers out near Moree, up near Tamworth, who are planning on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each—millions of dollars, in some cases—to plant crops. They will sit there and look at the cost of diesel, the cost of seed, the cost of fertiliser, the massive amount of money families will put out on a hope that it doesn't flood, that it doesn't drought, that it doesn't pesticide, that it doesn't mice plague. That is some certainty that you have given today, so thank you for that.

I also ask, on all these other points, on real wages, on security, if we are to be a government and a parliament that cares about our people, let us take that on, let us act with maturity and let us give the people a break they deserve.