Speeches

Mr PITT: I really have to answer a couple of those points very briefly. The Nationals held all 15 of their seats and gained a senator, and in Queensland the Labor Party did nothing but lose seats and go backwards. So for those opposite to pretend that this is some great mandate is absolutely false. The people who drive our economy in the regions, in Queensland in particular, did not agree with the proposition.

Mr PITT: Twenty-five years—what an anniversary. It’s not so great if you’re a horse. And, for others, it’s a long time if you’re married. Twenty-five years for LifeFlight Bundaberg is an incredible milestone.

Mr PITT: I rise to speak on what has now become the debacle of this nation: the cashless debit card. What we have seen since Labor has come to power has had an impact in the four trial sites, and it’s not a positive impact; it is a detrimental impact to the people that live there, to those poor kids who are being directly affected and to all of those individuals who struggle with alcohol abuse.

Mr PITT: What an absolute stitch-up. This proposal is the sporting equivalent of two teams lining up, one running out in brand-new uniforms with all the gear, a top-line coach, a change room, a bus and crowd that’s been booked, and the other side is tied up on the sidelines, gagged, with no gear, and they had to walk in because no-one would pick them up. We are talking here about the Constitution.

Mr PITT: I rise to speak on the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Bill 2022. If you’re feeling kind, you could potentially call this a smokescreen. If you’re feeling less kind, you’d call it a political stunt.

Mr PITT: We humbly accept the apology from the member for Moreton. I think it was the acronym he was intending to use: GOAT, greatest of all time. So we forgive him.

Mr PITT: Ethan Parry is one of our Local Sporting Champion grant recipients, and he’ll be representing Australia later this year at the 2023 Virtus Global Games in France.

Mr PITT: The cost of living is the issue for the people that I represent. It is issue No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and all the way to 100. I want to bring to the attention of the House the School Savvy program, run by CatholicCare CQ. Nothing demonstrates more how difficult, how tough, it is for people out there right now than, firstly, the need for this program and, secondly, the overwhelming demand for it.

Mr PITT: It’s been a minute since the last election, but I do want to take this opportunity to pass out a few thankyous while I can. As everyone in this place knows, elections are not won by individuals alone; they are won by teams, by volunteers, by supporters and by individuals out there doing hard work for what they believe in, regardless of which side of the parliament you are on.

Mr PITT: The blackout specialists are at it again over there. The problem with their proposal is it doesn’t work. That is clear to anyone that was in Queensland and saw the loss of power to entire suburbs with blackouts over the weekend. We have seen load shedding across industry because what they are proposing doesn’t work.

Mr PITT: I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Energy Price Relief Plan) Bill 2022. My first message is to my constituents. We will see in coming weeks that whoever the delegated Labor senator is will claim that I voted against support for those people who can’t pay their bills. But the reality is I am voting against the Australian taxpayer subsidising the biggest gouger and the biggest profiteer in the electricity network in this country—that is, the Queensland Labor government under Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Mr PITT: Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, was sworn in as a police officer just in March 2020; Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, sworn in just last year, in June 2021.

Mr PITT: Thanks very much for the opportunity to make a brief contribution, Madam Deputy Speaker. We’ve heard from speakers tonight who have personal interactions. They have friends that they know were injured or killed, and after 20 years there are scars that will never heal. And we all remember the images and the footage of those injured and the things that we can recall from that time.

Mr PITT: I rise to associate myself with the remarks of the member for Moreton and others. I wasn’t scheduled to speak.

Mr PITT: There’s a very famous quote that goes like this:

Back then, government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Mr PITT: In Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, it’s business awards season, and there are some cracking businesses that have been recognised in both Bundaberg and the bay. I can’t name them all in three minutes, but I have to point a couple of them out.

Mr PITT: I am pleased we have the two ministers from the portfolios here. Perhaps they could exchange numbers and not have to have that discussion on the front page of ‘The Oz’ about how they’ll manage gas and the resources sector.

Mr PITT: There were those who said it wouldn’t happen, there were those who said it was a pipedream and there were those who actively stood in the way, but I can tell you it is happening.

Mr PITT: We’ve heard a lot about mandates and we’ve heard a lot about the impact of this proposed bill, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill, even from the Independents who recognise the risk to the Australian economy, the risk to small business and the risk to our country.

Mr PITT: The member for Macnamara has spent 10 minutes mocking those Australians who are struggling to pay their bills. They are literally losing their homes, going to live in their cars and losing their jobs.

It was the coalition government that had the foresight to establish Australia’s first critical minerals strategy in 2019. That was a strategy that has been updated and which has been incredibly important to the development of critical minerals industry in Australia. As I know you know, Madam Deputy Speaker Sharkie, nothing is more important than local politics.

Mr PITT: What the Australian people know after last night is that under a federal Labor government the only way is up in Australia. That is for interest rates, because they are going up. The cost of living is going up. Mortgage repayments are going up. Electricity costs are going up by up to 56 per cent in the Labor budget. Gas prices are going up. Everything is going up.

Mr PITT: I rise to talk on the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Legislation Amendment Bill, and of course support the opposition’s amendments. As a former resources minister, I’ve had some exposure to offshore structures. We continue to see from those opposite—I will give Minister Bowen, the member for McMahon, his due: he is 100 per cent committed to his ideals. He is an idealist, but he is absolutely not a realist and a realist is what we need in this space.

Mr PITT: When you think about the English language, admittedly with an Australian bent, and you think about a single word that can evoke so many others—words like patriotism, loyalty, courage, honour, valour, sacrifice, mateship—that word, and I’m sure everyone in the chamber knows it, is Anzac. Every day should be Anzac Day.

Mr PITT: It’s always a pleasure to follow the member for Paterson—one of the few on that side who is relatively sensible, I’ve got to say. I rise to support the motion. There are some fundamentals around gas in Australia, there are facts around gas in Australia, there are deliverables around gas in Australia and then there are the premiers and their decisions around gas in Australia. We have only to look at Victoria to know why there is such a challenge in Victoria and such a shortfall in gas; it’s because they’ve had a moratorium on exploration. If you do not explore for more gas, you will eventually run out. These are the fundamental propositions of how it works. You have a resource which has a finite life which will eventually run out.

Mr PITT: What we have seen today is, once again, the Labor Party being all about feelings. That’s fine. You can be about feelings. It’ll feel good for people to vote this way because they think that is a good outcome for them, but on this side we are more concerned about facts and the impacts that this will have, particularly in regional Australia. We’ve even seen the Treasurer say that the budget is about feelings. What’s next? The number nine will be upset with the number six because it is not closer to zero? If there was a snake oil salesman around—those opposite would be able to sell that too!

Mr PITT (Hinkler) (13:30): I rise to advise the House that, on 27 July 2022, local legend John Kennedy, better known as JK, retired from the LifeFlight aircrew as an officer. John has been a pretty handy lifesaver and a great ski paddler. He is the husband of Kerry and the father of Kate, and for more than 20 years he has voluntarily jumped out of perfectly good helicopters to rescue people across our local region.

Mr PITT: You might not know this, Mr Deputy Speaker, but Matty Hauser from Hervey Bay, the first Australian medal winner at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, got the bronze medal in the triathlon. It was a fantastic result. He’s a local kid. He went to Kawungan State School and Xavier Catholic College in Hervey Bay, and he was originally coached by Brian Harrington in the bay. He’s been working under Dan Atkins on the Gold Coast since 2015.

What an appalling attack on democracy—an appalling attack on democracy—an automatic gag at 10 o’clock. There are 151 members in this House who have just been gagged by the Labor government. This is outrageous. This is Australia’s democratic right. We are elected to come here to speak. I will go on to speak about the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Repeal of Cashless Debit Card and Other Measures) Bill, but this is an outrage, an absolute outrage.

Mr PITT: Labor’s proposition on the cashless debit card is pretty straightforward. They intend to remove it, and they will replace it—and I’m sure you’ll be surprised at this, Mr Deputy Speaker—with nothing, with absolutely nothing! In fact, we had some $30 million in additional support services committed to those trial sites, and yet the minister will not commit to continuing that funding—$30 million worth of services. I will give those opposite an opportunity here, because I think they’ve just been significantly misinformed. I am sure it’s just straight off the talking points.