Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We had a rather remarkable issue this morning with the Repeal Net Zero Bill 2025 in the main chamber. The member for Indi, Dr Helen Haines, came in—I just want to congratulate her for actually turning up to the bill—and had some remarkable statements which I want to take her to task on. She said that, if we repeal the net zero bill, it will threaten thousands of jobs. Where are these thousands of jobs? Where about? What town? If you can just nominate where these jobs are, I'd like to hear it. She said there's an opportunity to make Australia's path to net zero deliver substantial, tangible, lasting benefits to regional and rural communities—while dividing them down the middle by putting in transmission lines, swindle factories, solar panels, wind towers. And I thought about it. I thought: 'Isn't VNI West in Victoria? Does Dr Helen Haines, the member for Indi, support VNI West? I wonder if Andrew Wiedemann and all these people know this.' They've got such a great supporter, and it's up to the people of Victoria to understand they actually have a champion for VNI West, a champion for the swindle factories, a champion for the Chinese state-owned enterprises that are involved in the capacity investment scheme, the domestic billionaires, the foreign multinationals, the division of the communities. Their champion, ladies and gentlemen, is the member for Indi, Dr Helen Haines. So go out, give her a bell and say: 'Thank you, Doctor. Thank you very much.'