Federal Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt said the Albanese Labor Government’s two-pronged attack on backpackers would be devastating for local growers and the local economy.

A document quietly tabled in the Parliament last week has verified the serious challenges the Cashless Debit Card was starting to address in Hinkler before the Albanese Government dumped the card.

Mr PITT (Hinkler) (19:50): Is there any other greater indicator of the hopelessness of this Labor government, of how its ideology overrules common sense, and of how it is directed by the socialist alliance, the left, than the cancellation of the cashless debit card in the mandatory trial sites around this country?

Mr PITT: There’s a big game on this week. It’s Queensland versus New South Wales on Wednesday night. But it’s not the biggest game in town. The big game is at 6.50 pm tonight at the Brothers Social Touch Football Club, where we’ll see the McHugh Steel team—my team—take on Livingstone Low Electrical in the over-35s grand final.

Mr PITT: This bill is about paying landholders and farmers to produce koalas and not cattle, to produce possums and not protein, and I think these are some of the fundamental challenges about this proposal that every Australian should be concerned about.

Mr PITT: We heard it here, we heard it there, we heard it everywhere in the election campaign. I’m talking about the commitment from the now Prime Minister Albanese for a reduction in power prices of $275. What do we hear now? Nothing, not a whisper, not a whimper, not a peep, not a peekaboo.

The Albanese and Palaszczuk Government’s will divide Bundaberg into a city of have and have nots, with funding for the East Bundaberg Flood Levee announced today.

Mr PITT: As they say: ‘Grievances? Well, I’ve got a few!’ It’s good to have this opportunity. My first grievance is this: the Albanese government has stopped funding the Stronger Communities Program.

Mr PITT: I rise to give the House an update on a couple of athletes from my patch, and they are both absolute crackers. They’re from different fields.

Mr PITT: In the 2019 election, the Australian people heard all about the bill that Australia couldn’t afford. And they knew it was the wrong bill. They knew they didn’t want that bill. They didn’t want to see that bill. They couldn’t afford that bill.