Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I understand, Deputy Speaker. The member for Hasluck was offering some free advice for our farming people, and I just took up the opportunity to point out that every peak body that has written to us has raised their concerns about the EU free trade agreement.

Now, the Australian dairy industry council chair Ben Bennett said that it's unfair on many fronts and that they're being asked to give up established commercial freedoms without securing meaningful market access. Sheep Producers Australia CEO Bonnie Skinner said:

Australia's sheep producers have been sold out.

CANEGROWERS's CEO Dan Galligan said:

This is a horrendous outcome for Australia's cane growers …

It's a capitulation to protectionist European sugar interests, plain and simple.

These aren't our words. These are the peak bodies'. We've been 'sold out'. It's a 'horrendous outcome'. It's 'unfair on many fronts'. It's 'bewildering'. They're not happy.

And there's more. Australian Meat Industry Council CEO Tim Ryan said that the outcome was a kick in the guts to the Australian red meat industry. AgForce's general president, Shane McCarthy, said:

This is shaping up as a perfect storm for producers.

Australian Lot Feeders' Association president Grant Garey said:

By any measure, the Government's report card on this deal is a failing grade, delivering one of the weakest free trade agreement outcomes for our sector to date …

Dairy Farmers Victoria board member Ben Vagg said:

It's not free trade, it's just more market access for the EU …

They dump their produce into Australia, at a cost, because of the protectionism of their domestic market.

Why on Earth would the minister or the Prime Minister pretend it's a good deal when all of the major agricultural organisations in our country have come out and slammed this arrangement? Why do these members of parliament, from their city based seats, think they can tell our farmers how to run their businesses? Why do they think that? It's because they simply don't understand and don't respect the regional people in this nation.

This dates right back to this Prime Minister's promise to govern for all Australians. It's 30 years this month since the Prime Minister was first elected. He is the most institutionalised member of parliament in this place. He is the ultimate Canberra insider bubble boy because he's defined himself with one quote in 2012—his most famous quote. It says:

I like fighting Tories. That's what I do.

This guy likes fighting Tories. He's never been interested in building a consensus in this country. He is the great divider of Australian politics. After the last election, what was the first thing he did—this prime minister, who says he believes in the parliament, believes in democratic processes? The first thing he did was cut the staff of the coalition—because you wouldn't want to have any transparency. You wouldn't have any accountability! That was his first decision. He divides Australians at every opportunity into two camps—Labor voters and non-Labor voters—because he's made a career out of it for 30 years. The Prime Minister is the great divider of Australian politics. He has no interest in a consensus. That's why he divided Australians with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. That's why he divided Australians with his decision to recognise Palestine. He is dividing Australians with his 100 per cent renewables plan. It is tearing apart families in regional areas, and the regional communities are paying the price of this prime minister's approach to energy.

Everything this prime minister has done since he came into office has widened the divide between city and country people. We've seen it most obviously with grant programs that used to provide opportunities for regional communities to do the hard work, develop projects and then seek funding from state and federal governments to improve their own communities. Regional Australians have been punished every day since this Prime Minister came to office in 2022. Is it any wonder that last year he was chased out of Ballarat by farmers on tractors?

Let's not forget that he has cut the Building Better Regions Fund. He has cut the Roads of Strategic Importance program. Who would cut a program that's designed to improve productivity and save lives? He has cut the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. He has cut the Stronger Communities Program. The program that was going to replace them all was the Growing Regions Program. They cut that as well! They cut their own program! Once they finished cutting our programs, they cut their own program. The only regional grant program available right now on the department's website is closed to anyone who isn't invited to apply, and you're invited to apply if you got a grant during the last federal election campaign. It's a fund to pay for election promises.

Dividing Australians into those who voted for Labor and those who support the coalition is just the way this Prime Minister does business, because he is the bubble boy. He is so institutionalised after 30 years in this place. It's all he knows to do when it comes to Australian politics. It is shameless. It's disgraceful for our regional communities, and it explains why Labor is absolutely loathed in our regional communities. It also explains why he hasn't got the guts to run a candidate in the seat of Farrer. If he were going so well as a prime minister, maybe he'd turn up and test his vote. But, no. After four years of the Albanese government, Australians are worse off and the nation is heading in the wrong direction. Only the coalition is working to protect our way of life and to restore the standard of living for all Australians.

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