Tom Venning (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take you back 10 years. I was in the B-double, harvest time at Wallaroo silos. I'd emptied my A trailer, and the drive-over-hopper broke down. I could either break up my truck and waste hours in productivity or back the B-double down the length of a very long bunker—not such an easy task when you have 50 onlookers waiting for you to fail.

Well, I did it. And today, I'm here in this chamber rising to a new challenge—fighting for the people in my electorate of Grey. It is with humility and a deep sense of gratitude that I rise today as the elected representative of the enormous electorate of Grey. Covering more than 92 per cent of South Australia, equivalent to seven Englands, bigger than New South Wales, yet home to just 10 per cent of the state's population, Grey is stunningly beautiful and staggeringly diverse. It is an electorate of incredibly beautiful, enormous contribution and, sadly, ongoing decline. It is also the place I am proud to call home.

Let me paint you a picture of Grey: from the dramatic cliffs of the Great Australian Bight and the endless horizons of the Nullarbor to the APY Lands—home to the world's oldest continuing civilisation; from the jagged remarkable mountains and ancient craters of the Flinders Ranges to the world-leading riesling vineyards of the Clare Valley; from the golden wheat crops and white sandy beaches of the Yorke and Eyre peninsulas to the market gardens of the Adelaide Plains and the opal fields of Coober Pedy; and from Roxby Downs's vast copper and uranium reserves to Asia's seafood capital in Port Lincoln, which the largest commercial fishing fleet in the southern hemisphere calls home. This is Grey, a land that shares state borders with WA, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales, stretching from desert to ocean and from ancient lands to productive farms.

The electorate of Grey was established in 1903, named after Sir George Grey. He was the Governor of South Australia from 1841 to 1845, and then, later, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Grey was carved out to represent the productive of heart of South Australia. For over a century, it has contributed so much to feed, to power and to build modern Australia. But this extraordinary place has a story of transformation and not all of it is good.

Grey was not always this big. When I was young, I wasn't from Grey. The border was north of our farm, while Two Wells, now the southern part of the electorate, was a 45-minute drive from Adelaide and felt like a distant country town. Today, Two Wells is becoming a suburb, swallowed by Adelaide's growth corridor. When the electorate of Grey was established in 1903, representing regional, rural and remote South Australia, who would have thought that one day it would include suburbs of Adelaide? Well, that day has come and the only good news now is that Grey cannot get any bigger.

From the outside looking in, the fact that Grey has grown to cover 92.3 per cent of South Australia might seem positive. In reality, it tells a much more concerning story. Grey is the most diverse electorate in Australia in the sense that it is not the biggest, but it has the most towns and the most polling places. There are no cities or large towns in Grey. The fact that parts of Grey are becoming metropolitan is symptomatic of the shift towards a big metropolitan Australia, where regional, rural and remote communities are left to wither. It also highlights South Australia's status as the most centralised state in Australia and, potentially, the world.

With the exception of just one term, Grey has been held by the Labor Party from Federation until 1993, nearly a century, representing the industrial working class of regional South Australia—the steel city of Whyalla, the lead and previous zinc smelter of Port Pirie, and the previous railyards and power station in Port Augusta. In over 120 years, I am only the fourth Liberal member, following in the footsteps of Don Jessop, Barry Wakelin and my hard-working, respected predecessor, Rowan Ramsey. One could say that this political transformation represents the brilliance of Rowan Ramsey and Barry Wakelin, which, of course, is true. But, importantly, it represents a fundamental change in the make-up of Australia's priorities and values. It's a recognition that regional Australia demands a different approach—one that understands our unique challenges and celebrates our extraordinary contributions. The most heartbreaking symbol of this decline is the collapse of the roaring trade between the iron triangle of Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie. That trade is now gone, and it highlights the devastating decline of South Australia's manufacturing heart—a decline that represents lost jobs, lost skills and, therefore, population decline.

I grew up on a farm between Bute and Wokurna. Wokurna was once an active little town and home to its own football club, but in 1966 Wokurna was unable to field a team. They therefore merged with the nearby town of Mundoora. The mighty Mundoora-Wokurna Football Club won premierships in '69, '70, '71 and '78. In 1984, they, too, were unable to field a team, and Mundoora merged with the nearby big town of Port Broughton, dropping Wokurna altogether and becoming the Broughton-Mundoora Eagles. Now, in 2025, the mighty Eagles no longer play in Mundoora. The whole history is lost.

This is a story which has played out a thousand times across rural Australia. If we don't act, we keep losing these communities not to natural decline but to policy neglect. The personal cost of this runs deep. I had to leave home to go to school, to get a tertiary education and to see out my potential. Take my sisters, for example—a specialist doctor, a diplomat and an engineer. No, this is not the start of a joke! With my brother, James, included, we have somehow become a family of overachievers. So well done and thank you to mum and dad for raising us the way that you did. My three sisters all left home for their schooling and never had the opportunity to return. While I have been fortunate enough to come back—and I thank my brother, James, for the opportunity to have a career off the farm—it is not acceptable that motivated and talented people in towns like Wokurna, Wasleys, Warooka or Whyalla can't achieve their full potential unless they move away. What about the community? It is said that it takes a village to raise a child, and we are raising the best children—community minded economic contributors. But, too often, we go off and we contribute to metropolitan communities. Agglomeration and the rural metropolitan brain drain is as strong today as ever. These are the communities that raise us and, too often, lose us.

To build a house, or to build a home, you need solid foundations. I think this is analogous to society. It is well and good to exploit opportunities in artificial intelligence and in the space industry, but if you don't have access to quality education, child care or health care, it all starts to crumble. If you're a small-business owner and you're trying to employ people, but your local community does not have child care, it is very difficult to recruit. If your child has a disability or if you yourself have specialty healthcare needs, you will move. Everyone in this chamber is familiar with the Indigenous health gap, something which is very important to all of us.

I want to highlight another gap that is widening—the metropolitan-rural health gap. Let me give you a heartbreaking example of what this means in human terms in Grey. Birthing facilities are no longer available in most of the hospitals in my electorate, so you're often shipped away at 36 weeks, at your own expense, to stay in a hotel or B & B, often in Adelaide. How does one look after their business or support their family in this situation? In this day and age, this is unacceptable. No wonder people leave the regions.

But those statistics about decline don't show what we actually contribute to this nation. With such a small population, the beautiful Eyre peninsula alone generates $4 billion of gross regional product through ag, seafood, mining and minerals. It is set to be the epicentre of the state's industrial renaissance, through not just a continuation of ag and seafood but also the expansion of mining and critical mineral industries such as copper, graphite and rare earth resources that the world so desperately needs.

Port Linc remains Asia's seafood capital, exporting premium seafood to the world. Olympic Dam produces enough copper to wire a city the size of Sydney every year. In my neck of the woods, the Yorke Peninsula in the mid-north—now the most populous part of the electorate—we feed the world, exporting the lion's share of our grain, legumes, hay, beef, lamb, pork and, of course, wine. They're all thriving despite these challenges. On a per-capita basis, we in regional South Australia provide so much to our wealthy society—more than 25 per cent of the state's GDP—but we don't get our fair share back.

We provide this nation and the world with food, energy, minerals and so much more. Yet many of us have to drive two hours to see a doctor, four hours to see a specialist or eight hours to get a tertiary education. Here's the mathematics of inequality: Grey generates enormous export revenue per person compared to what we receive in federal and state spending. We are the backbone holding up the prosperity that funds hospitals, schools and infrastructure, predominantly in our major cities. But, despite that, the policies that are made in this building often work against the very regions that power this country.

Nowhere is that clearer than our current approach to energy. In Grey, bad energy policy isn't just an inconvenience; it's a threat to livelihoods. We need to talk about energy versus emissions in the same way we talk about inflation versus unemployment—with a dual mandate. The Reserve Bank of Australia balances both when they set the price of money. Yet, when it comes to energy, all we talk about is emissions. In my electorate, we are suffering more than anywhere else because of this lopsided approach. If you live in the suburbs, all you feel is an increase in energy bills and the cost of goods. But if you work in an energy-intensive industry, the industries that create value and generate tax revenue, your jobs are now at risk.

Yet, despite all these challenges, I am optimistic, and the spirit of Grey will endure. Towns like Bute, my own incredible small community, still punch well above their weight. With a population of just 200 people, Bute boasts a Lions Club of 30 active members. That's more than one in seven volunteering to serve their community, not to mention the CFS, the footy club, the netball club, the basketball club, the Progress Association and the Men's Shed. In many city suburbs, you can't find one in 70. When emergencies strike—bushfires, road accidents—it's volunteers from our communities who respond and risk their lives. In Bute, we don't wait for the health department or council to step in; we roll up our sleeves and we get it done.

That's the kind of spirit we need more of in this country, not less. Remember JFK:

Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

This is why I couldn't stay away and why regional Australia and common sense deserves better representation in this place. I did not come here to play politics. I came to help restore a sense of fairness, of balance and of practical thinking to how this country is governed. I came to represent not just the people who voted for me but everyone in Grey and every regional Australian who feels they've been left behind in the rush towards a big metropolitan Australia.

On the election, there are over a thousand people I need to thank, especially those who helped me man the 144 polling places—yes, 144! A special thanks to my committee, including Richard Daley, Rowan Ramsay and my beautiful fiancee, Bonnie. Bonnie and I represent both tradition and innovation. Bonnie, raised in Crystal Brook and Port Pirie, runs a thriving digital marketing agency employing seven people. I am the youngest of five to Therese, a physiotherapist, and Max, a farmer, who serve their communities locally and more broadly—in dad's case, chairing grain industry boards. Raised on a farm near Bute, we produce thousands of tonnes of grain to feed people across the world. Now, that kind of work teaches you how things really work. If you ignore the root problem, you don't just lose a crop; you lose income for 24 months. You risk losing the whole business. That's a lesson we need to remember here in this House. Stop treating symptoms, and start solving problems.

I'm not only a farmer; I've worked in engineering, economics and strategy across big business and government. I've balanced budgets, managed teams of 20 people, helped close $700 million deals and created jobs, not just talked about them. I've advised government departments and ASX50 companies, their executives and their board members whilst never missing a harvest at home, because that's where my heart and my values remain.

For democracy to truly work, we need a diverse representation in this place. We cannot only have lawyers, unionists and political staffers making decisions for all Australians. Whilst I respect those professions, diverse experience is what ensures fair representation. We need people who understand how a balance sheet works, how a small business operates, how a farm functions and how regional communities survive and thrive. Together, Bonnie and I represent the next generation of regional leadership—people who choose to stay, who choose to build, and who choose to fight for the future of regional, rural and remote Australia.

I want to be very clear about why I'm here. I believe in practical policy, not political theatre. I believe government should fix problems, not just manage headlines. I believe in economic responsibility, because without a strong economy everything else falls over. I believe in opportunity for all Australians, independent of their race, religion or postcode. I believe that a smart country doesn't just export commodities; it adds value, supports families, invests in education and leads in innovation. I believe we must govern with Australians, not just for them—and especially not to them. Too often, governments do what they think is right for people, without ever considering whether it will actually work. That's how we end up with good intentions and bad results. That's how we end up with programs that spend billions but achieve nothing. This is especially true when it comes to Indigenous affairs. In a country as wealthy and developed as ours, the continuing struggle of many First Nations should shame us all. But shame alone changes nothing. We need practical action that tackles root causes, not just symbolic gestures that treat symptoms.

I know that being in this place is a huge privilege, and I don't take that lightly. The people of Grey sent me here to get results—not to grandstand, not to score points and not to waste time. We must build the infrastructure that connects, not isolates, our regions. Roads, rail, power and water are the arteries of economic life. We must support industries that add value not just extract it. We must ensure our kids in the country can get the same quality of education and health care as kids in the city. We must recognise that regional Australia is not just the nation's quarry and farm. We are communities with the same aspirations, the same rights and the same potential as any suburb in Sydney or Melbourne. We must stop pretending that a one-size-fits-all approach to policy will work in a country as vast and diverse as ours.

Australia is the lucky country, but luck runs out. I don't want us to just be lucky. I want us to be smart. We have the institutions. We have the resources. We have the people. What we need now is the courage—the courage to act, to lead and to build the kind of country our grandchildren will be proud of. We in this chamber need to lead with conviction, the grit and the determination to rise to every challenge that comes our way. Just like I backed the B-double down the bunker all those years ago, I'm backing the people of Grey, and I won't let them down.

Thank you.

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