Speeches

Mr PITT: I want to put out an open invitation to Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles: come up to the electorate of Hinkler. Jump in the Uber Air Force One. Bring the Pings, the Titleists and the Callaways.

Mr PITT: I rise to speak on the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023, a bill for which the coalition has been allowed just over a week to prepare to speak on what are significant changes to fair work legislation. There are hundreds of pages, in fact, adding to the already hundreds of pages which employers in this country have to wade through to try and ensure that they are not making any mistakes, any breaches or any errors when it comes to employment in this country. This bill makes things even more complicated. In fact, 15 minutes is nowhere near enough time to cover all of the elements, so I’ll stick to only a few in the time that’s allotted to me.

Mr PITT: Right across the weekend in Hinkler we saw finals everywhere, in particular at the netball. As a former netball dad I know just how many parents are out with their kids. Those kids were out having a great time playing sport, and they had some wonderful results. It’s also an opportunity for clubs to recognise those individuals who have spent decades assisting, volunteering their time and doing what’s necessary to make sure their club functions and runs well and all the things parents and others do to help out their local community.

Mr PITT: In September I will have been in this place for a decade. In that time I’ve seen a lot of things, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a worse or poorer decision than the one taken by the Labor Party this morning to abandon the low-level radioactive waste facility in Kimba, South Australia. It is an absolute disgrace.

Mr PITT: The big survey numbers are coming in, and my staff are working hard to do that data entry. There have been 2½ thousand responses so far. What is the true voice of the people saying?

Mr PITT: I have here correspondence from one my constituents, Dr Adrian Frick, a dentist in my electorate, the son of a cane farmer, to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. It’s with regard to Mr Frick’s survival of a massive heart attack on 8 March 2022. I seek leave to table this correspondence.

Mr PITT: Last week I attended the opening and the dedication of a new college chapel at Xavier Catholic College at Hervey Bay. This was an incredible story, to be frank, and congratulations to the principal, Simon Dash, and all of the people who worked on this project.

Mr PITT: Yesterday was pollie Sunday, as it’s known colloquially amongst those of us who travel a lot. Arrive at Canberra Airport—check. Down the escalator—check. Temperature falling—check. Press gallery on the floor—check. I wandered past that erstwhile reporter Nicole Hegarty, formerly from ABC Wide Bay.

Mr PITT: The first point I’d make is this: the biggest cashless debit card trial site in this country was my electorate. One of the reason we put that trial in place was that we have multigenerational welfare-dependant people in their thousands.

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
So said Nelson Mandela. His message is one of perseverance. If you’re a conservative, someone who fights the socialist agenda, an individual who truly believes in our democracy, who thinks you advance through the sweat of your own brow, not through a reliance on handouts from the state, then it’s a message you should hold dear to your hearts.

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.

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.

Mr PITT (Hinkler) (18:21): We’ve seen the third instalment of ‘Jimbo-nomics’ in the most recent budget. We saw the first instalment last October. The second instalment of ‘Jimbo-nomics’, of course, was the treatise that we all saw—some 6,000 words, from memory—that said that the Labor Treasurer is going to change the way that economies works and the way economics works and the way business works.

Mr PITT: I’m very pleased to rise to speak on the Defence Legislation Amendment (Naval Nuclear Propulsion) Bill 2023. Of course the coalition will be supporting this bill; after all, the AUKUS arrangement is a coalition arrangement. It’s an agreement that we struck when in government.

Mr PITT: We are one people, we are one country and we are all equal, for we are one and free. I will be voting no to this legislation, the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023; I will be voting no to the proposed changes to the Constitution; and I will be campaigning for the ‘no’ side of the case.

Mr PITT: Last week—would you believe?—was National Volunteer Week, and where would we be without volunteers in this country?

Mr PITT: It’s always great to follow the member for Moreton. He’s gives me so much material. For the member for Moreton’s benefit, does he really think people would put money into superannuation if it weren’t for tax incentives? Without tax incentives, no-one would do it.

Mr PITT: I’m about to give you a hot tip, Madam Deputy Speaker Chesters. No matter who is in government, whether it’s Labor or whether it’s the coalition, and no matter what the situation is—whether it’s a hung parliament or whether there are difficulties in the Senate—the fundamentals of business simply do not change. They don’t change.

Mr PITT: We’ve heard it all before: no changes to superannuation, no changes to franking credits, no changes to unrealised gains, no changes to capital gains, no changes to negative gearing—no changes to tax.

Mr PITT: I rise to make a few brief comments about Australia’s resources sector. You should never forget—and I don’t just mean you, Madam Deputy Speaker Ananda-Rajah; I mean all those listening—just what happened during COVID, as the previous speaker, the member for Riverina, pointed out.

Mr PITT: It’s another Green-Labor stitch up. We’ve seen it again this week. Someone is misleading. Someone is providing misinformation.

Mr PITT: To those who might be listening to this debate at home or elsewhere: you might think that the cashless debit card trials were only in Aboriginal communities, but they were not. In fact, the biggest trial site in the country was in my electorate of Hinkler.

Mr PITT: I am, indeed. I have with me the inaugural NRL Pacific Showcase trophy, from the touch football game on Tuesday! It was played in very good spirits. It will go on to be an annual event. I want to give a shout-out to Jess Goddard from the NRL.

Mr PITT: For the information of the member who just spoke, it is the Labor Party in opposition that holds the record for the most number of times they have called divisions, quorums and made the bells ring and misplace since Federation, so I think it is a bit precious to make those types of comments. I was on the road last week doing what’s collectively known as ‘Pitt stops’ all over the Hinkler electorate—in Urangan, Pialba and Burrum, Buxton, Woodgate, Childers, lots of places in Bundaberg and all over the show.

Mr PITT: What a fantastic opportunity it is to attack those opposite for not delivering $275 reductions in electricity prices.