Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—There's never been a more important time than right now to talk about small businesses because small businesses are facing the brunt of not just domestic shocks but, indeed, the reverberation of what is happening around the world. I spoke a little earlier about the Iranian situation, which will cause a spike in the price of energy, as in fuel—and fuel, like electricity, is the economy. Certainly, we know this in regional Australia.

It might be all well and good for the energy minister to spruik about the 34 days of available diesel and fuel in Australia. We need to, in fact, increase that—we do—and we could well do it. I certainly know that, when we were in government, there were bids to have a fuel supply in Toowoomba, a fuel supply in Parkes—on the intersection of the east-west and north-south rail lines—and a fuel supply in Western Australia, to help not only the mining industry, which I know is so prevalent in Flynn and elsewhere in Queensland, but, indeed, agriculture. Agriculture provides food and fibre not just for our domestic use but also internationally. We grow far more food than we could ever hope to feed to our own nation; that's why it's such a huge export. More than that: when we talk about small business in this place, it often gets forgotten that farmers are small-business owners and operators. At the moment they are very much being cruelled by bad water policy.

I know there will be a by-election in the electorate of Farrer, and I note the Prime Minister was in Albury a week or so ago. Interestingly, Albury was the birthplace of the modern Liberal Party in 1944, when Menzies talked about the forgotten people—and, indeed, they were being forgotten. The Liberal Party will contest that by-election, as will the National Party. It will be a contest for the ages. But I'll tell you who may well not be there—the Labor Party. Labor has already signalled it may not run a candidate. I think when you're the government of the day it's beholden upon you to run a candidate in a by-election, particularly a by-election in a seat such as Farrer, where the Labor Party—and I will say the true believers, because that particular seat, which was founded in 1949, has always been held by either the Liberals or the Nationals.

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