I rise to take note of the government’s woefully inadequate response to the deep concerns raised by Senator McKenzie about Labor’s reckless renewables rollout across western Victoria. Along with Senator McKenzie, the member for Mallee and the Victorian opposition leader, Brad Battin, I was honoured to stand shoulder to shoulder with our farmers at a protest against state and federal Labor at the Bush Summit in Ballarat last Friday.
What a disgrace: overnight, this treacherous Victorian state government had passed laws that allow authorised officers of the minister to forcibly enter farmers’ land for the purpose of facilitating the construction of high-voltage transmission towers. The Albanese government, combined with the Allen government, are delivering reckless renewables policies which are driving our country off a cliff. Labor could not care less about the impact that the Western Renewables Link, or VNI West, is having on the viability of hundreds of farms, compromising food security and destroying the fabric of regional communities. The Prime Minister said at the Bush Summit, ‘I’ll continue to engage but I won’t BS people.’ Well, I say to the Prime Minister, what complete BS.
Labor has treated regional communities with contempt while driving up power and gas bills, turning Victoria from a powerhouse of cheaper electricity into an economic basket case. Do you know why farmers got on their tractors and literally ran the Prime Minister out of town? It was because they say ‘BS’. They are angry, and they have every right to be angry. This government does not care about them, does not care about their farms, does not care about their future. For the Prime Minister to say, at the Bush Summit, ‘Oh, we’re listening,’ and for the Premier of Victoria to say, ‘We’ve done such a great job’—what a joke. Last week in the parliament, the member for Ballarat, who’s done literally nothing for the people of Ballarat since the Albanese government was elected—and I say that because when we were in government we drove massive infrastructure investment into the Ballarat electorate and into regional Victoria. The former coalition government spent in excess of $500 million on upgrading the Ballarat-Melbourne rail line, including building a number of new railway stations, with the state government playing a relatively minor funding role. But, since Labor has been elected, there have been so few infrastructure projects across regional Victoria.
As I say, I’m very proud that a Battin Liberal-National Victorian government will scrap the emergency services levy. Of course, apart from farmers, CFA volunteers came out in force last Friday demanding the scrapping of these laws which are driving up the price of holding farming land in our state in a way that we have never seen before. The Victorian government’s draconian changes to land tax that have now been implemented mean that, if you earn more than $30,000 running a small business, you can be liable for huge increases in land tax for running a small business in your own home. It’s no wonder Victorians are worried about this government coming after their home.
We on this side of the chamber will not allow any government to ride roughshod over the property rights of Victorians, including Victorian farmers. As a regional Liberal senator, I am so proud to fight for our farmers, day in, day out. I condemn the actions of the Albanese government. I condemn the actions of the Allan Labor government, who have told regional communities, including those in the Ballarat electorate, ‘We do not care.’ There will be 190 kilometres of high-voltage transmission towers from Melbourne all the way through to north of Ararat, and this government does not care. I say shame on the Albanese government.