Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is an honour to once again be standing here and to be elected to the federal Parliament of Australia as the member for Flynn. I want to start by thanking the people who have entrusted me to represent them for another three years, the people of Flynn particularly. This is a diverse electorate of over 132,000 square kilometres, almost twice the size of Tasmania in area. It consists of eight local government council areas: the Banana Shire Council, the Central Highlands Regional Council, Gladstone Regional Council, North Burnett Regional Council, Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire Council, part of the Bundaberg Regional Council, part of the Rockhampton Regional Council and part of the South Burnett Regional Council. The electorate of Flynn was named in honour of Reverend John Flynn OBE, who lived from 1880 to 1951, founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and who harnessed both flying and radio to relieve suffering and to save lives in remote regions of Queensland and, ultimately, Australia.

Flynn extends from Gladstone in the east and encompasses many regional communities, including Wondai and Proston in the south, the Central Highlands district in the west, and Gracemere district in the north. The electorate is one of the largest economic generators for the Australian economy, comprising agriculture, mining resources, power generation, heavy industry and transport. The electorate is made up of many hardworking men and women, and I'm proud of my local workers who have helped me keep the lights on and who have built products or grown produce Australia and the world will need for many years to come.

As such, it's critical that these industries and these people are supported by our government and not hindered. Since being elected in 2022, I've vowed to fight to protect these jobs in Central Queensland which have been under attack for far too long. I'm pleased to report a 4.6 per cent swing in my favour and I've increased my margin to over 10 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, despite a negative swing against the coalition nationally.

Behind my successful re-election campaign were hundreds and hundreds of people who supported me, from volunteers who handed out how-to-vote cards, householders who had a sign in their yard, people who'd put up their hand and people who put their hand in their pocket to support the campaign financially. While I'm unable to individually thank everybody—it's difficult to single out everybody in this speech—I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of that support. To my wife, Terri, and my children Sarah, Tom and Scott, and their partners: thank you for your support and for keeping the family business going in my absence. To my Flynn FDC executive Tim Eversham and Rachael Cruwys and my campaign team: thank you so much.

I would like to thank everybody who's supported me along the way, especially my staff, who work tirelessly serving the thousands of constituents in the Flynn electorate. This includes my Gladstone team: my media advisor and campaign manager, Cody Vella; and electorate officers Melanie Kent-Ford, Kellie Wilkie, Natalie Ross, Leanne Ruge and April Vock; as well as support staff Liz Purnell-Webb, Julie Murphy and Rae Cowie. Thank you to Lane Buffington in my Emerald office and Margie McIntyre in my Gayndah office.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank my office manager, Nicole Lobegeier. Nicole is about to head off on maternity leave, and I would like to wish her, Aaron and Ollie all the best for their future and for the safe arrival of their new addition to their family. I also welcome Adele Austin to the team, who will be part of the Gladstone office team while Nicole is away on maternity leave. In the last term of parliament, my team and I were able to achieve some positive things, despite an incompetent Labor government.

I am most proud of protecting the Great Artesian Basin, something I have been fighting for for many years. In 2018 I expressed my strong opposition to anything that would compromise the Great Artesian Basin waters, and this was outlined in my maiden speech as the member for Callide in the Queensland state parliament. Back then, I had stopped the proposal to inject industrial waste into the Great Artesian Basin at Wandoan. A couple of years later, in 2023, I found out about a proposal to inject industrial waste into the Great Artesian Basin near Moonie in southern Queensland. Since then, I've written countless letters, made countless calls and had countless meetings to stop this madness from occurring.

In December last year, the Labor-Greens government quashed any attempt by the Nationals in parliament to ensure important safeguards were put in place to protect Australia's aquifers and, indeed, the largest underground potable water source in the world. The Nationals moved an amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act so that the Commonwealth, as well as Queensland government, undertakes the appropriate assessments of carbon sequestration projects. The Nationals fought for a commonsense solution to ensure our farmers' communities have confidence in the approval process of carbon sequestration projects by asking for all of these projects to be assessed under the federal act as well. The current EPBC Act does not go far enough in ensuring an appropriate approval process is in place, and it was a disgrace it was voted down by both the Labor government and the Greens.

I commend the work of the Queensland state government, which banned carbon capture and storage in the Great Artesian Basin in Queensland, and I note an enormous effort put in by AgForce Queensland to achieve this result. However, it's critical that New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory governments do the same thing, and I'll continue to call on the Labor government to protect Australia's aquifers and oppose these proposals to sequester carbon dioxide in the Great Artesian Basin in particular.

I've also achieved substantial wins for the electorate in health, aged care, infrastructure, energy, the environment, telecommunications, agriculture and other community initiatives. For health and aged care, my office and I have initiated and secured thousands of signatures for the reinstatement of the Gladstone Hospital maternity ward. We've called out cuts to mental health support, advocated for the fast-tracking of urgent care clinics in Rockhampton and Bundaberg, achieved positive changes to the 60-day dispensing rules, advocated for aged-care changes following the closure of the Mount Morgan aged-care facility and hosted regional health roundtables in Gladstone to address these regional health issues. We've renewed calls for an investigation into district workforce shortages of cardiologists in the Wide Bay-Burnett region and welcomed construction of the Emerald rural health training centre, funded by the previous coalition government.

With regard to infrastructure, my staff and I have opened a school of manufacturing in Gladstone, funded by the previous coalition government. We've secured reinstatement of funding for the Rockhampton ring road along with the Central Queensland LNP team. We've continued to fight to fund the North Burnett evacuation route and deliver the John Peterson Bridge, near Mundubbera, which was also funded by the previous coalition government. We've secured funding for the Palm Drive culvert upgrade in West Gladstone; secured funding for Agnes Water Skate Park via the Growing Regions Program; called for an extension for the Remote Roads Upgrade Pilot Program; called for the reinstatement of the Beef Corridors funding; delivered the Drynan Drive upgrade in Calliope, funded by the previous coalition government; delivered the Rookwood Weir project along with the Central Queensland LNP team, which was partly funded by the previous coalition government; and opposed Labor's decision to cut funding to Paradise Dam. We've called on the Labor government to make changes to the Roads to Recovery program, which disadvantages all regional councils, and we've called on the federal and Queensland governments to prioritise and bring forward funding for upgrades for the Gin Gin-Rockhampton section of the Bruce Highway.

In respect of telecommunications, we've called for further investment into regional telecommunications and have initiated and collated information from telecommunication blackspots in the Flynn electorate with federal funding. We've called for the reinstatement of funding for mobile black spot programs and achieved a Senate inquiry into regional telecommunications.

In respect of community initiatives, we've announced funding for various community organisations and local athletes, ensured Flynn has received its fair share of funding by ensuring that the Labor government honours its election commitments, actively opposed the Labor government's funding cuts to ag shows, successfully advocated for funding through the Strengthening Rural Communities grants, announced funding for community initiatives through the Saluting Their Service Commemorative Grants Program, opened a new office in Gayndah to better serve constituents in the southern part of the Flynn electorate, conducted and released results of Flynn's biggest survey and hosted hundreds of community mobile offices at various locations across the Flynn electorate, including at regional shows. We've helped thousands of constituents with federal government inquiries and successfully lobbied for the building of a high school in Gracemere.

On the energy and environment issue, we've criticised Labor's reckless renewable energy rollout, and we will continue to do that. We've hosted energy forums in Gladstone, Biloela and Gracemere. We've hosted nuclear forums in Gladstone to discuss the energy form. We've opposed Labor's car tax and ute tax. We spoke at the Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Bill inquiry. We've called for and achieved changes to renewable energy legislation. We've advocated grant funding for Heritage Minerals at Mount Morgan to rehabilitate that mine project, and we've provided submissions to various state and federal inquiries.

With agriculture, we've successfully advocated for increased measures to protect Australia against foot-and-mouth disease, successfully lobbied for improvements to the PALM scheme, opposed Labor's live sheep export ban and lobbied to protect live cattle exports. We successfully lobbied against Labor's fresh food tax.

Other initiatives that we've introduced include a motion in the federal parliament addressing cost-of-living concerns. We've criticised the banks for closing regional branches and supported a Senate inquiry into banking closures. We've prevented franking credit changes detrimental to our constituents, opposed Labor's truckie tax, opposed Labor's divisive Voice to Parliament proposal, successfully lobbied for changes to the HECS system and criticised delays and called for improvements regarding Centrelink wait times. We spoke against Labor's misinformation laws, opposed the cancellation of heavy-vehicle safety and productivity programs, advocated that Australia Day remain 26 January, opposed the digital ID bill and spoke on behalf of constituents of Flynn in the federal parliament approximately 110 times.

Going to this term of parliament, it's about holding the Labor government to account and protecting the future of Central Queensland and the Wide Bay area. I have grave concerns for our regions and their future and for our traditional industries.

The simple fact is that rural and regional Australia is being bulldozed by Labor's reckless renewables rush, and what the government does not understand is that you cannot rely on renewable energy alone. If Australia continues to go down the road of 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050, I fear a repeat of the mass power outages that we've seen in Spain and Portugal, which are countries that are both heavily reliant on renewable energy. To kick the idea of nuclear power into the long grass for the future is an absolute tragedy. Nuclear power, just like coal, is among the safest and most reliable energy sources in the world. Nuclear energy is something Australia needs to consider for the future of business and industry in this country. There are many countries around the world increasing their nuclear capacity, and they understand that renewable energy is not reliable.

Furthermore, the Labor government's unrealistic capital gains tax is not only economically reckless but also fundamentally unfair, and it sets a dangerous precedent in the Australian tax system. This proposal should be abandoned. It is fiscally flawed, ethically questionable and an administrative disaster. Australians deserve a tax system that is fair and transparent and that rewards, not punishes, prudent financial planning.

I have concerns about the sustainability of local government. This concern has been amplified by the North Burnett Regional Council's decision to increase its rates across the area by 25 per cent. While there are many factors that have led to this decision, including the effects of the flawed Local Government Act in Queensland, the current funding model from the federal government is outdated and inadequate. Today, I call on the federal government to increase the untied funding to all councils to at least one per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue indexed annually with payment timing and certainty. These are some of the policies that I will continue to call out as the federal member for Flynn.

Whether you're a blue-collar worker in Gladstone, a grazier in the Burnett, a truck driver in the mines in the Central Highlands, a support worker in Gracemere, a veggie grower in Bundaberg, a boilermaker at a small business in Biloela, a nurse in Woorabinda or someone who's just trying to have a go, I will continue to represent you and all your people. I will continue to work hard for our region and ensure we are strongly represented in federal parliament by putting the people of Flynn first. In closing, once again, I thank you and the people of Flynn for putting your trust in me.

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