Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

I thank the member for Riverina for providing a bit of guidance, after he's spent so long in this place, that when you're talking about legislation you don't necessarily need to talk about the specifics of the legislation—just where it fits within the wider picture. The other thing I appreciate from the member for Riverina is a chance to talk about my farming experience again because, any chance I get, I love to talk about that.

While I run my own little contract mustering business—when I say that, I mean my bike, a ute and a pack of dogs—I also spent six or seven months driving tractors in Mildura, so I saw literally the greening of the desert. Mildura is only 300 kays from Broken Hill; it's really smack bang in the middle of the desert. It is amazing what water can do. What we have in our country is an enormous amount of land, and I think that land gives us both our productive capacity and our national spirit and that spirit of having a go. You don't want government getting in the way, and government absolutely can get in the way and hold you back, and it drives people crazy, not just on the land. We see a world these days where we fill out other people's web forms and we're doing all of their paperwork for them online.

In many ways, I think there are two types of people in the world: entrepreneurs and bureaucrats. You need both, but it is definitely the job of the government to create the conditions for those bureaucrats to thrive—and here it is. This is why I rise in support of the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2026. I commend Minister Gallagher for the work that she has done with this bill and recognise that this work does indeed sit within the wider strategy of the Albanese government. It's a strategy that I think is summed up very much by what the Prime Minister says drives him—it's something that drives all of us in this place but that's exemplified by this government—which is 'nobody held back and nobody left behind'.

This work, even though it may not be getting the media attention that other pieces of legislation do, sits at the very heart of the government's strategy to lift living standards and, in that sense, lower the cost of living. If you can create an environment where businesses are able to provide goods or services more cheaply, you're actually helping the consumer at the same time. I think that this bill is to be commended in the sense that it fits within that wider strategy.

One thing I've come to realise after being in this place for 12 months is that it may sometimes feel like you're speaking to an empty room—even though I know the opposition are always listening very carefully just in case one of us slip up and they can use a line to bash us over the head with! Apart from that, sometimes it feels like we're speaking to an empty room. But I've figured out that configurations change. Deputy Speaker Sharkie, you're often here to listen to our speeches, and somehow the member for Dawson has been here a fair bit lately to listen to some of my orations; I'm not sure about the member for Corangamite—this could be a first!

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