Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

I want to place on the record the extraordinary courage and achievements of a Forrest resident and, indeed, the captain of the Australian Paralympic Team for the 2026 Winter Olympics, Sean Pollard. In 2014, he was surfing on the south-west coast of WA and was attacked by a 3½ metre great white shark. The attack cost him his left arm and his right hand, creating circumstances of unimaginable difficulty for a young man.

Yet, in the face of this life-altering adversity, Sean demonstrated remarkable resilience. Most of us take for granted our ability to complete the simplest of daily tasks, but Sean had to relearn the basics of life, no doubt gaining a powerful sense of perspective along the way. Through what was, no doubt, a long and arduous rehabilitation, Sean turned to snowboarding, which is perhaps an unlikely pursuit for someone living in Bunbury, but it was one that he took to with astonishing speed and talent. Within a year of the attack, he began competing at the elite level, and just a year after that he made his Australian debut in parasnowboarding.

In a social media piece with Qantas, Sean expressed a massive thank you to the community and the people of Bunbury who have rallied behind Sean. Having represented Australia at the Paralympics in Milano Cortina, we're looking forward to welcoming Sean back as a true hero of Bunbury. You've already made us immensely proud.

Australians are feeling the full force of inflation running rampant in this country under the Albanese government. When they spend more, you pay more, and the best barometer of this is the humble Bunnings snag. Let's break it down. The gas bottle costs more because production and transport energy prices are up some 38 per cent in four years. The barbecue itself costs more as steel manufacturing and freight are absorbing higher power bills as well. The sausage meat costs more as farmers are having to pay extra for diesel, fertiliser, refrigeration and many other costs, whilst the same goes for the onions. The sauce is costing more because every ingredient must be grown, processed and bottled using energy that is unaffordable under Labor's net zero ideology. Even the price of bread—with its milling, baking and distribution costs—is rising through the roof, forcing Australians to pay more. So every single part of the humble Aussie snag has been squeezed by rising costs fuelled by this government's spending habits and its net zero approach at any cost to energy.

We hear plenty of smug commentary dressed up as economic analysis from the Treasurer, but Australians shouldn't judge the Australian economy by political spin; they should judge it by the humble Bunnings snag. The verdict is clear: we are cooked.

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