At the last federal election, the Australian Greens lost three of their four federal seats in the lower house. They only hold one federal seat in Australia in the lower house, and that's in my home state of Queensland. It's the federal seat of Ryan, where I lived when I first joined the then Liberal Party of Australia. So I noted with interest the Greens' latest policy proposal, which is to establish a sort of Soviet collective-style supermarket chain. What the Greens are actually proposing is to forcibly acquire 200 existing supermarket stores and three distribution centres across Australia and then to build 424 new public stores, all at a cost of $25.1 billion. What could possibly go wrong? Well, what could possibly go right? It seems to me that the Australian Greens haven't learned much from the collapse of communism around the world, including the failure of the Soviet collective model.

So I say to the good people of Ryan, including those living in Kenmore who go to Kenmore Coles: watch out. Kenmore Coles could be on the Soviet-style nationalisation list of the Australian Greens. Those good people in Ashgrove who go to Woolworths Ashgrove, a great store, should watch out. The Greens are coming for Ashgrove Woolworths and every other supermarket which you frequent in Ryan if it is among those 200 stores which they're going to acquire. So I say to the good people of Ryan: reject the Greens' Soviet-style supermarket collective and support the wonderful LNP candidate for Ryan, Maggie Forrest, a terrific candidate, a terrific woman and just the local representation Ryan needs.

I was delighted to attend the Bethania Rams Football Club's presentation day and 40th birthday celebrations in Logan over the course of the last weekend—40 years of providing an opportunity for young people to engage in football, to be mentored, to be coached, to come together and to enjoy themselves; 40 years of bringing together people from different multicultural backgrounds and families who've originally come from all over the world, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Afghanistan, all coming together to play football, just as our Socceroos represented us in a true multicultural fashion at the World Cup; and 40 years of producing inspiring people such as their president, Kasey Statham, who joined the club as a player and is now the president of the club and doing a tremendous job of leading the club. In 2026, the Bethania Rams had 352 registered junior players. They already have an additional 100 expressions of interest for the 2027 season. So well done to the team at Bethania Rams. I look forward to the next 40 years.

As the only senator based in the Greater Ipswich region in the wonderful state of Queensland, can I say that Ipswich punches above its weight in terms of sport, and I was delighted to attend the Ipswich Little Athletics 50th anniversary and Twilight Carnival on Saturday 10 October 2026. I thank the centre manager, Joshua Roney, for his kind invitation to attend. It was wonderful to share the day with families engaging in athletics, coming together and just enjoying the very, very best of Ipswich sporting opportunities. I want to give a quick shout-out to one athlete who I met on the day, and that was a fellow by the name of Jett Schroeder. He is a para-athlete, 12 years old—he's categorised as F37 in terms of world para-athletics. He competed at the discus and shot-put national championship, and he wants to go to the Paralympics. It was a real joy to meet him and his mother, and I just wish him and his family all the best in the future.

I had a wonderful trip to Far North Queensland last week. I note that Senator Green is in the chamber; she told me I'd have a good time visiting some of the places I visited, and indeed I did. I first want to give a shout-out to the Gordonvale chamber of commerce. I visited Gordonvale—I want to thank the local state MP, Terry James, for hosting my visit—and I had a wonderful meeting with members of the Gordonvale chamber of commerce, including the president, Susan Byrne-Callaghan, and also the secretary, Erle Wickham. They told me about the vision, the concept, to establish a Gordonvale cultural precinct in this historically significant town. We should note that the Cairns southern growth corridor is increasing its population at a great rate of knots. The Gordonvale cultural precinct is a wonderful, visionary concept, which would leverage the great history of Gordonvale, including its architecture, including the Mulgrave Mill—all in a magnificent natural setting, including the wonderful Walshs Pyramid, which looms over Gordonvale and is such a geographical milestone in Far North Queensland. I want to thank the Gordonvale chamber of commerce for their vision. I want to thank them for sharing that vision with me. It's because of the efforts of people like Susan and Erle, with the support of Terry James, that they'll make that vision become a reality. I recommend to everyone that they go to Gordonvale and see what Gordonvale has to offer.

I had a wonderful trip to Weipa last week, and I want to congratulate, first, the Weipa Town Authority, including Jaime Gane, the Chairperson of the Weipa Town Authority. I must say, everyone I met with in Weipa is just so excited about Weipa. They love living there. People would leave Weipa, but then they would come back to Weipa, and I can see why. There's such a wonderful sense of community. There are so many opportunities in terms of everything the great Australian outback has to offer, including fishing, including camping—all the other activities—and there are such wonderful community events that occur in Weipa. I really did enjoy attending the Weipa pottery club shop, and I bought a little piece of Weipa pottery, which is actually in my window, in my parliamentary office, if anyone wants to see it. Of course, it has a bauxite theme; we know that Weipa contributes to Australia's economy so much through the mining of bauxite.

I did attend the mine site and I want to thank all of the representatives of Rio Tinto for hosting my visit. A number of senators in the chamber will know that I actually worked in the mining industry for 12 years prior to joining the Senate, so attending the mine site brought back a lot of memories. I was so impressed with everything at the mine site, including the housekeeping, including the camaraderie between workers at the Rio Tinto mine and including the prospect of Rio Tinto soon making a very considerable investment decision, which would constitute one of the largest private investments in Queensland—and, indeed, in Australia—with respect to future mining operations in that region. I dearly hope that that occurs.

My good friend Susan McDonald asked a question earlier today in relation to rising fuel costs, and she put it to the Leader of the Government in the Senate that the Labor government should consider the coalition's Fuel Price Shield policy. Under that policy, once the average Brent crude oil price rose above US$100 a barrel, the excise would immediately be halved upon that threshold being breached, and that would have the effect of cutting tax on fuel by around 27c a litre, saving around $15 for a typical tank. I think the fact that truckies would also receive additional relief, with the heavy-vehicle road user charge reduced from 32.4c a litre to zero in such a situation is something which should also be commended, and I note it's fully funded because it would be paid for by the additional revenue received following the introduction of the coalition's policy with respect to excise on tobacco, which, Acting Deputy President Colbeck, you were intimately involved with.