Senate on 16/05/2024
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Budget
Senator RENNICK (Queensland) (16:05): I’m not sure what Senator Green is smoking, but whatever it is she needs to get off it.
Senator Green: Point of order. I think the senator should withdraw that and apologise.
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Polley ): It was a reflection on a colleague in the chamber. It would be helpful if you could withdraw, please.
Senator RENNICK: I withdraw. The speech that we just heard by Senator Green was riddled with a number of factual inaccuracies. The idea that Labor has kept assets in Queensland’s hands is complete and utter rubbish. We saw under the Bligh-Beattie government the reckless sale of Queensland’s infrastructure. The Port of Brisbane was sold for six times earnings and the forestry plantations were sold for five times earnings. The solar and wind farms back then were sold. We should never forget that it was the great Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen who built the coal-fired power stations that are the backbone of the eastern states’ energy grid. Today we have the southern interconnector that basically sends energy down to the southern states and keeps the lights on in this country. In 1989, at the end of the Nationals government, we had the cheapest energy in the world.
That is something that we need to reflect on this week, because this budget was a show about nothing. It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode ‘The Hamptons’ when George Costanza got out of the pool and all we saw was shrinkage. The best that this budget could come up with was a measly $300 to offset the thousands of dollars that energy prices have risen. It’s a measly $6 a week. That is the best that Albanese could come up with. What a joke.
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Rennick—
Senator RENNICK: Here we go.
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I would ask you to refer to those in the other place with their correct title.
Senator RENNICK: All Prime Minister Albanese could come up with was a measly $6 a week to deal with the cost of living that has risen by tens of thousands of dollars during his term of government. And here they are claiming credit for the tax cuts. These tax cuts were initially introduced in our first week in parliament back in July 2019, and over the long term they’re actually going to cost Australians more due to bracket creep. What the Labor government don’t like to talk about is the fact that they’re giving a little bit back now, but it’s going to cost you more later. Mark my words: this side of the chamber will be going to the next election with more income tax cuts. I’ve been openly critical of the fact that we didn’t cut income taxes enough in the nine years we were last in government. Something that I’ve advocated for in every backbench meeting that I go to is lower income taxes because it is the people in this country who get out of bed every day and put their noses to the grindstone who are going to drag us out of this inflation mess that we have got into.
Senator Green’s question about what we would like to cut is accusing the coalition of wanting to cut things. We do want to cut things. We want to cut immigration because that is completely unsustainable. The growth in immigration from 200,000 people to 500,000 people has been completely unmatched by the supply of new dwellings.
The other thing we’d like to cut and get rid of is the $23 billion subsidy to wealthy billionaires for green energy. The sad reality of it is that they’re going to give the hardworking Australian family $6 a week and yet they are going to turn around and give wealthy billionaires like Andrew Forrest, and his green hydrogen fantasy, billions of dollars. That is a complete and utter joke. If Labor really wanted to lower energy prices in this country, they would get on and continue to build base-load power stations—especially coal, because that’s readily accessible now—and they would also abolish the nuclear prohibition in this country. We need to be adopting nuclear power as soon as possible, because we have a vast abundance of resources in this country. Why on earth would you turn your back on homegrown resources, like uranium, coal and gas, only to turn around and subsidise billionaires to import foreign-made renewables?
It’s a bit rich for the Labor Party to claim that somehow the coalition doesn’t want to bring back manufacturing. It was the Button plan of 1985 that sent manufacturing offshore. How could we ever forget that? If you want to bring manufacturing back onshore in this country, back our base-load energy supplies of coal, gas and uranium. (Time expired)
