James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I spend my life travelling around Queensland as a proud LNP senator. Across these travels I speak to and listen to thousands of Queenslanders on the many issues that impact how they live their lives. Whether it be crime, the cost of living, housing, health, escalating insurance premiums or poor transport, Queenslanders are struggling under state Labor and federal Labor governments.

But one experience I had in Brisbane last week actually left me speechless. Peter Dutton and I were speaking to Dan Pappas, who is the owner of a well-known business called Fonzie Abbott, which sells coffee—an important service. In the last two years alone, Dan has faced a raft of challenges. He had to deal with the COVID-19 lockdowns and the fact that they shut down his business. He had to deal with the floods, when his building was waist deep in water. In both events, he pushed on. He kept his business running, he kept his staff employed and he kept up the supply of coffee to people in the Albion area of Brisbane—very, very important. But then Dan was hit with the current cost-of-living crisis, and Dan told Peter and me that, despite the government shutdowns and the floodwaters sweeping through his business, right now is, in fact, the hardest time his business has faced. Just imagine that: you're a small business owner and you were underwater 18 months ago. You've just emerged from COVID, but now is a harder time to run your business because you're dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. It's just insane!

But do Labor care? They don't. Dan explained that at the end of the day, after paying the rising prices for his produce, the higher wages for his staff to make sure they can live their lives—because he's a good boss—the higher insurance premiums and the higher rent, there really wasn't much left over. But Dan's struggle isn't unique. Sadly, across Australia families and small businesses are truly hurting. But the government, this Labor government, has no plan to deal with the cost-of-living crisis—no plan at all. This Labor government has been in power for 16 months and they've actually done absolutely nothing to reduce the cost-of-living pressures. And prices are only going up. But they strut around, saying that net inflation is going down. If you speak to anyone, whether in Fonzie Abbott or at the Sandy Creek pub down the road from me, they'll tell you that everything is going up and that there's a cost-of-living crisis.

If this Labor government spoke to my fellow Queenslanders, they would know that they're doing it really tough right now because they're paying higher rents, they have higher mortgage repayments, higher electricity bills, higher insurance premiums and higher grocery bills. We speak to people across Queensland, and I can promise this: life isn't getting easier, it's only getting harder. Queenslanders think that Queensland and Australia are heading in the wrong direction and that life will continue to get harder and harder while this Labor government harps on about the Voice and does not talk about or deal with the issues that actually impact Australian lives.

Our Deputy Prime Minister really enjoys his travel, doesn't he?

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He loves his golf!

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He loves his golf—thank you, Senator Scarr. I think that in a previous life he might have been a travel agent, or he could have been a pilot. Or he could have been a hostie, because he loves flying! It's Richard Marles, the Minister for Defence, the minister for frequent-flier points, the minister for golf clubs and the minister for lowering his handicap. Since coming to government, the Deputy Prime Minister has spent $3.6 million on flights on the government jet.

There surely is a place for ministers to use the government jet, and no-one on this side denies that. But for one minister to spend $3.6 million on flights in 16 months is a Lotto win! You could retire on $3.6 million—you could buy a little beach house somewhere, a bit of a shack, and you wouldn't have to worry about life. He has spent that much money on flights in 16 months. That's $225,000 a month on flights. It's $56,000 a week on flights. It's $8,000 a day on flights!

The issue here, for those who are listening at home, is that when the Labor government took office they promised to be the most transparent government ever, but they certainly are not. In fact, they are the least transparent government ever. Every government since the 1960s has released details of government flights. For 50 or 60 years governments of all persuasions have released details of government flights, but not this government and not this defence minister. That's because he has something to hide, doesn't he? Spending $3.6 million on flights is a lot of money, but he was also asked yesterday about how many times he had taken his golf clubs with him. You'd think it was a pretty simple question, 'How many times have you taken your golf clubs with you?' He didn't answer the question. That leads me to think that he has taken the golf clubs with him. He has taken his golf clubs with him on international flights, courtesy of the taxpayer, and he has taken his golf clubs domestically, courtesy of the taxpayer. What we have here is someone who is becoming the Donald Trump of Australian politics. Donald Trump loves his golf; he actually owns golf courses. The Deputy Prime Minister is so focused on golf. Just imagine this. This is the Minister for Defence, and he is so focused on golf and taking his golf clubs with him when he flies internationally and around Australia. If he wants to do that, the people at Fonzie Abbott and the people at the Sandy Creek Pub can judge him on that.

But the issue here is that this Labor government will not tell us basic information about these flights. Who was on them? Where did they go? This is pretty basic stuff. Remember: this isn't the Labor Party's money. This isn't the Deputy Prime Minister's money—the Deputy Prime Minister who is treating Royal Australian Air Force planes as his own private Uber. We've got Air Force Marles here at the moment. We've got VIP flights, which are the Uber flights that the Deputy Prime Minister is using, but he doesn't pay for them. He hasn't paid for the 700 hours of flights. You can fly around the word 20 or 30 times with the number of hours that the Deputy Prime Minister, in only 16 months, has spent in the air. This is taxpayers' money. The position of the Liberal National Party is very clear: we want to know how the taxpayers' money is being spent. We now have a prime minister who has gone overseas—Anthony Albanese is overseas, good on him—and Richard Marles is Acting Prime Minister. We've got an Acting Prime Minister who won't tell the Australian people the truth about how he has spent $3.6 million of taxpayer money. So I say to the Deputy Prime Minister: start telling the truth, get off the golf course and get back to work.

Talking about getting back to work, I think it would be nice if the Labor Premier of Queensland got back to work. We have a Labor premier in Queensland who has spent more time on holidays than she has sat in the Queensland parliament this year. I want those at home to work this out. The Premier of Queensland has spent more time on holidays than she has in parliament. We have a crime crisis. We have a health crisis. We have a cost-of-living crisis. Our infrastructure is falling apart. But we have a part-time premier who is a full-time attendee at opening nights, on the red carpet and at going overseas. I say to Premier Palaszczuk and state Labor: get on with the job of looking after Queenslanders and stop playing games.