Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Hansard source

I am proud to stand here for a second term, and I believe I am still the same Andrew who walked through these doors three years ago. My values have not changed. While I learnt a lot in my first term, the training wheels are off and my focus hasn't shifted. My priority remains squarely on the needs of the people of Dawson and the betterment of this great country. I want to take a moment to congratulate all the members of this House, and the senators, who have been elected to represent their communities. There is no greater honour than to be trusted by your community to represent their views, and to fight for their needs in our nation's parliament.

While the election result did not go the way I had hoped, I am 100 per cent committed to working with whoever I need to in order to secure the support, resources, infrastructure, and investment the people of Dawson need and deserve. I am also humbled by my new appointment as a shadow assistant minister for manufacturing and sovereign capability. It's a role that couldn't be more fitting for the region I represent. Dawson is a vast and vibrant electorate and, in my opinion, the best part of this entire country. It stretches from Mackay in the south to the southern suburbs of Townsville in the north. It includes the stunning Whitsundays, the communities of the Burdekin, and my home town of Bowen. In Dawson we grow, we build; we are miners, manufacturers, farmers, fishermen, tourism operators and even space pioneers. We are people of vision who take an idea from concept to application. We are innovators and entrepreneurs. We are everyday Aussies who just want to have a fair crack and enjoy their life.

Behind wheat, sugar is Australia's second-most exported crop, generating around $2 billion annually. A significant chunk of that comes straight from Dawson, being the largest sugarcane-growing area in the country. How sweet it is. The sugar industry sustains thousands of jobs across Dawson, and the flow-on economic benefits to our communities are massive. Sugar isn't just about the sweet stuff in your morning cuppa. Mackay Sugar's Racecourse Mill runs a 38-megawatt cogeneration plant that turns sugarcane byproducts like bagasse into renewable electricity. This single facility supplies roughly 30 per cent of Mackay's electricity and slashes greenhouse gas emissions by around 200,000 tonnes a year.

Paget is an industrial estate in Mackay and the largest manufacturing hub in the southern hemisphere. It is also the service centre of the mining sector just over the hill. Despite what this government says, this industry is vital to our country, creating thousands of jobs directly and indirectly. It generates millions in royalties, which keeps our economy ticking. Without mining, our country stops. At the opposite end of Paget, in South Townsville, Dawson boasts the Wulguru Group, one of the largest steel fabrication and engineering companies in northern Australia—g'day Bob! Dawson is also home to a major coal export terminal and two metal refineries—for now, anyway. Let's see how Labor goes with these.

In our section of the Great Barrier Reef, we have 74 of the most gorgeous tropical islands in the world. Of course I'm talking about the Whitsunday Islands. In Bowen and the surrounding regions, we have the largest production of vegetable crops throughout the winter months, worth approximately $650 million, generating roughly 1,500 full-time jobs and increasing to 2,000 more during the season. Our growers feed the nation. We're also home to around 400 kilometres of the more notorious and deadly section of the Bruce Highway—by the way, that last one I'm not terribly proud of.

Time and time again, regional and rural Australia—regions like Dawson—get left behind under Labor. As I've just explained, we contribute so much, yet we receive so little. While North Queensland fuels the national economy and revenues flow to the cities, the returns we see in Dawson—well, to be frank, you'd be better off stuffing pineapples under your mattress. In Labor's last term, Dawson was all but ignored. Living standards went backwards. The cost of everything has spiralled. Farmers are being hit hard, and then they're being hit some more. Businesses have closed. People are having to choose between keeping heating and cooling or putting food in the fridge. The Bruce Highway is deteriorating further and faster. And essential services are less accessible and affordable. Dawson deserves better.

Over the past three years the people of Dawson have spoken to me and they've shared their stories. Some of our elderly are more concerned about their grandchildren's future than they are about their own current living conditions. Having been through tough times before, they know and understand what it means to tighten their belt. What if the damage has gone too far, irreversible for both the economy and the environment? That is why I will continue to fight for what I believe is just and fair, to get Dawson and rural and regional Australia its fair share.

I am extremely proud to have had the AEIOU centre in South Townsville come to fruition in my last term. This centre provides a vital service of education and care for children with autism. I'm also pleased to see the upgrade and expansion of VMR Whitsunday, a project I campaigned hard on, allowing this amazing team of volunteers to have a more creative and up-to-date operations centre so they can continue to keep our boaties safe on the water. For the 2025 election campaign I pushed for $5 million in funding to go towards a veterans wellness hub in Mackay. To have 4,000 veterans living in an area that has no safe place to go or receive support is simply not good enough. I've also campaigned on funding to go towards Orange Sky in Mackay, a service that operates washing machines and dryers for the homeless; Angel-Paws in Townsville, a refuge for abandoned animals; and many sporting clubs throughout the electorate, some of which are in dire need of the basics, like toilets, change rooms, and clubhouse builds and upgrades.

Now that the parliament has been sworn in, I've written to the Prime Minister and asked for these commitments to receive bipartisan support and be honoured so that our families in our region can drive. The government made a lot of big promises during the recent election campaign, and I intend to hold them to account. Labor told my constituents that things would improve, that help was coming. They promised no cut to health care, yet the very first thing they did was slash the number of mental health sessions in half, from 20 to 10. They promised no new taxes and only tax cuts. Well, we've all seen how that's been going. They promised that the Bruce Highway would be fixed, boasting that the Labor government is the only government that will fix our Bruce. Let's see how that goes. They promised more housing, and easing of cost of living, but we're living in a Labor-created cost-of-living crisis. They said green energy would mean cheaper electricity. Well, even the CSIRO said that's not right. And we've all heard the promise, over and over again, of a reduction of $275 in our power bills. We never heard of that again.

Labor has cut the guts out of the NDIS, with zero consultation and zero notice. These cuts are a huge impact on people living with mobility impairments in Dawson. Next they want to slug Australians with a super tax on unrealised gains, which will hurt our farmers the most. Let me spell it out. How does this government expect a farmer to pay tax on income that they haven't even received—money that's not in the bank and never was? What if there's a drought? What if prices fall or machines break down? Farmers are already doing it tough. They don't need to be hit again. And where's the aspiration for our next generation just starting out?

The rest of Labor's so-called promises are also on shaky ground. Back in January, Labor announced $7.2 billion for the Bruce Highway. It's now past midyear. The wet season is fast approaching, and very little has been done. Meanwhile, the roads keep deteriorating—more potholes, more fatalities and more chaos. At the beginning of this year, Whitsunday Coast Airport was cut off four times—four separate times, and for days at a time! The Bruce was also cut at Plantation Creek between Home Hill and Ayr for over a week, and this is the only connection from north to south. A flooded Bruce disrupts the movement of goods and essential supplies, as well as the safe movement of our people. Every time the Bruce gets cut, our shelves run bare. The people of Dawson shouldn't have to live like that. This is a critical national highway, not some hardly used backstreet. Labor's inaction impacting everyday living and costing lives is not good enough. I have campaigned to fix the Bruce, and I won't stop until we see some real investment, not just patch-up jobs and empty announcements.

On housing, Labor promised 1.2 million new homes in five years. This target is slipping further and further away. Treasury's own predictions now show that the government targets are not achievable. Treasury documents leaked to the media also show that the government faces a choice: raise taxes or rein in their wasteful spending.

On the cost of living, prices are still going up on all of life's essential items. Australia is in a per capita recession. The only reason we haven't ticked the technical recession box is uncontrolled immigration. Let me be clear. Immigration is vital to our story as a nation. But, without proper planning and without controlled immigration, the result is a skyrocketing demand for housing, services and infrastructure, which are pushing prices up for Australians even further.

And, while other development countries are shoring up their energy security, Labor is pursuing a renewables-only fantasy. It's ideological and simply not practical. We are one of the most resource-rich countries on Earth. There is no reason or excuse for our power bills to be among the highest in the world, and yet they are. Labor insists that wind and solar will solve everything and drive costs down. That's simply not happening. To cover some of the pain from previous unrealised promises that power prices would be $275 cheaper, Labor rolled out a $75 per quarter subsidy. These subsidies will come off at the end of this year. With prices still rising, this means that next year households will have to find at least another $300 on top of what they're already paying, and that's just to keep the lights on.

I support a balanced energy mix. I support what's practical, affordable and reliable. Let's be clear. Solar and wind is not a 24/7 solution. Wind and solar requires massive land use and infrastructure, and, once again, our farmers are shouldering the burden of Labor's green obsession. In this term, I have been appointed to the coalition's energy policy working group. I look forward to reviewing our national energy mix based on economic merit and reliability, not ideology.

As the new shadow assistant minister for manufacturing and sovereign capability, I'll be fiercely promoting Australian made manufacturing backed by Aussie talent and resources. If COVID has taught us anything, it's that we need to be able to stand on our own two feet as a nation. We need to manufacture, build, grow and develop in our own right.

Speaking of sovereign capabilities, how about our very first Australian made rocket, Eris, which recently launched just north of Bowen. When I gave my maiden speech three years ago, I informed the House of two brothers, Adam and James Gilmour, who were on a mission to launch rockets with payloads of satellites into low Earth orbit. Although the first test flight did not make low Earth orbit, it did get off the ground—for 14 seconds, I might add—and allow the Gilmour team to gather valuable data which will help lead to further launches in the future. Congratulations to Adam and James and the entire Gilmour space team. To the stars!

Before I finish, I would like to make mention of a few people who, without, I wouldn't have the opportunity of this second term. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge and thank my campaign team: Ian Shield, Ian Dean, Pauline Townsend, Mardi Mathieson, Jean McCubbin, Merewyn Wright, Amanda Hall, Mick Adam and Rosemary Menkens. I give a shout-out to a couple of young fellas, Rory and Nate, who did a great job handing out, setting up, doing data collection, staying up all hours of the night, setting up booths in the early hours of the morning and working like Trojans. Well done, young fellas. We're looking forward to seeing where your careers are going to go in years to come.

I must also mention David Cooper, Laurie Neilson, Sophie and Lawson Camm, Peter Byers, Chrissy Lando, Peter Hall, Trevor Townsend, John and Donna Carroll and my countless volunteers who gave up their valuable time in one way or another. Whether it was setting up, packing down, letterbox dropping, making phone calls, standing out in the weather or even just turning up with a cold drink for other volunteers, I say thank you, thank you, thank you. Of course, I'd like to thank my campaign manager and wife, Raylene, and our children and their partners for their love and support and all their hard work through my campaign.

Last, but certainly not least, I thank the people of Dawson for once again putting their faith in me, their trust in me, to be their voice in this place and to fight for their needs. The honour of being a federal member is one that I do not take for granted, and I will continue to work hard for them and to work collaboratively with any member of the House to advance the interests and the better living standards of the communities of Dawson. I extend an open invitation to all members of this place to come and visit my region and see firsthand what my people provide for our nation, what is needed for them to continue to deliver and what they deserve. I promise you: come to Dawson and you will not be disappointed.

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