E&OE.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
I caught up with Luke just very briefly earlier, and he said, ‘Do you have any writing instructions for the introduction?’. I said, ‘Just lower expectations if you can’, and he’s done anything but that. But thank you very much to you.
I was texting with David Tudehope this morning, who has been, for almost a quarter of a century – as you pointed out – a fantastic supporter of our cause.
He and Aidan have grown a phenomenal business, an Australian success story, internationally respected.
The story of Macquarie Telecom is the great Australian story of small business, entrepreneurship of and ability to sacrifice to support your family and the families of those that you employ along the journey.
I’m very pleased that they’re good friends of ours. So, please pass our thanks back to Macquarie Telecom, and again, would you please thank our sponsors today?
Can I start by saying thank you very much to the President of this great Party.
Lawrence, you have served our Party in the Parliament, in the organisation, with great distinction for most of your adult life. Many of us have watched you grow, contribute and make our Party the great organisation that it is today. So, to you and to the state executive, and to all of those office bearers here today in the branches right across the organisation, you put us in a very strong position, you make it possible for us to win in October and win we must and you make it possible for us to win at a federal level, because when the organisation is strong, the Queensland public and the Australian public see us as most credible in achieving government and success for our great state and for our great country. So, would you please thank our State President?
I’d also like to acknowledge David Crisafulli, the next Premier of Queensland – and I’m going to talk a little about David shortly.
But also to Adrian Schrinner, and to Mia and their beautiful family. We’ve watched them grow up as well, at many of these functions over a long period of time, embody the values of our Party, and it’s been great to see the success continuing at a local government level. So, Lord Mayor, to you and to the Councillors here today, thank you and congratulations on your most recent success.
Now, very importantly, to my federal colleagues, who are across the front row here – candidates and Members.
Part of the reason that we’re in a strong position at the moment, part of the reason that we are credible, that we have momentum, that we’re putting the pressure onto a bad Government is because we are a united team, and we are united because of these people that you see in front of you, that you preselect, and that you put into our Party Rooms in Canberra.
So, along with them, and the amazing David Littleproud – who I’m going to speak about also in a second – we are in a very strong position and we can win the next federal election. Would you please acknowledge all my colleagues here today.
Now, the most important recognition I could give today is to my delegates from the Dickson FDC, because without them, I won’t be up here on stage next year. So, I don’t see as much of them as I want to these days, but they are wonderful people, and they’ve been loyal to me for over two decades. So, to all those members from Dickson here today, and many members like them across the party units, across every FDC.
I’m a product of this Party, I’ve been a member since I was 18 years of age, which is a long, long, long time ago. But I’m so proud to be part of this great Party, and it’s wonderful to be here today.
So, thank you very much ladies and gentlemen, friends one and all.
The Queensland state election, as we know, is only 112 days away. But for most Queenslanders, it can’t come soon enough.
For nine years, this great state has not only been over governed by Labor, it’s been governed terribly by Labor.
Steven Miles, may be a new Premier installed by the union bosses, but a new Labor Premier changes nothing.
Steven Miles, as we know, has simply taken over the controls of the wrecking ball from Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Off the back of huge windfall revenue boosts from high commodity prices, Queensland’s economy should be strong.
But we know that the State Labor Government has squandered that good fortune yet again, with an unprecedented spending spree.
Premier Miles is hoping to buy Queenslanders votes with a one off $1,000 electricity rebate for households, and a going out of business sale with 50 cent public transport fares for six months.
It doesn’t get any more cynical than that.
And he thinks Queenslanders are stupid and they’re not.
This Premier’s shameless vote buying tactics can’t paper over Labor’s policy failures or conceal Queensland’s grim economic reality.
Friends, the deficit is set to become the largest of all states from 2025-26.
Their debt is forecast to balloon over the next four years, by the largest amount of any of the states, as a share of state output, and in dollar terms.
Queensland’s economy is deflated, Queensland is damaged and Queenslanders really are dismayed.
They’ve had enough, and if ever there was a time for change, it’s on October 26.
It’s time for someone who understands the hardships Queenslanders are enduring.
It’s time for a leader who will bring about change for the better.
And we know that David Crisafulli will make an outstanding Premier of this great state.
He describes Queenslanders as thoughtful and practical people. He is a thoughtful and practical man himself.
Come 26th October, my hope is that thoughtful and practical Queenslanders will give a thoughtful and practical man the chance to clean up Labor’s mess and restore the greatness of Queensland.
Make no mistake, David and his united team have one hell of a mess to clean up.
David hit the nail on the head in his recent budget in reply speech, when he said that Queensland is gripped by four major crises:
A cost of living crisis, a youth crime crisis, a health crisis and, of course, a housing crisis.
When David and his LNP team put the spotlight on these four crises, the Palaszczuk and Miles Governments simply mocked them and called them doomsayers.
But Queenslanders’ eyes don’t deceive them. They’re living those four Labor crises every day.
They’ve seen price rise after price rise, and as David notes, Queensland household electricity bills have increased by almost 20 per cent.
Crime, as we know, and as we live every day, it is through the roof.
As David has said, there’s been a 54 per cent increase in unlawful entry, a 220 per cent increase in assault and a 213 per cent increase in victims.
Moreover, as David points out, four years ago, the term ‘ambulance ramping’ didn’t really register with the Queensland public, and yet today, ambulance ramping is a record 45 per cent and the waitlist to see a specialist in this state is almost at 300,000.
Shockingly, our Sunshine State has the lowest rate of home ownership of any state in the country.
As David points out, Queenslanders want solutions that last longer than the election period.
And I’m optimistic, like you, that Queenslanders will deliver the LNP victory in October, but we can take nothing for granted.
I think we can achieve government because they respect a leader who has not only demonstrated a plan to end their despair, but a leader who has a vision to revitalise Queensland.
I want to commend David and the LNP team for their wide ranging and people focused policy platform.
An LNP Government will hit the ground running.
Providing cost of living relief.
Restoring budget discipline.
Investing in more law enforcement resources.
Making Queensland safer by removing detention as a last resort for youth offenders.
Putting the rights of victims ahead of the rights of offenders in sentencing provisions.
Bringing transparency to the health system and making hospital data go live within 100 days of a Crisafulli LNP Government.
Raising the stamp duty threshold for existing homes from $500,000 to $700,000, and eventually, as you know, to $800,000.
Working with local councils to streamline planning and building approvals and to establish clear time frames.
Implementing proper plans to develop regional Queensland.
And so much more besides.
Friends, every effort matters now as we approach 26 October.
The LNP’s policies are not only practical, they offer hope for Queenslanders that better times are ahead.
David, you have my full confidence.
You’re a great and dear friend.
We have your colleagues confidence.
You have our members confidence.
And in 112 days time, I’m sure that Queenslanders will put their confidence in you.
Now, while we know the date of the Queensland state election, we can only speculate about the date of the federal election.
Whether it comes sooner or later, it doesn’t matter.
But we do know that an election need needs to be held so that Australians can pass their judgement on the Albanese Government.
The Prime Minister’s in the paper today saying that better times are ahead.
After two years in Government, he has no positive message to convey to the Australian public.
It has a ring of the Voice about it as well.
Before the last election, the Prime Minister promised a Voice not providing any detail to the Australian public.
He promised to the Australian people that he would deliver a $275 reduction in electricity prices, in fact, he posted it on 97 occasions.
He said that he would reduce the cost of people’s home mortgages – to quote him directly. That hasn’t happened.
None of it’s happened, in fact, 12 core promises have been broken in a two year period.
And the Prime Minister now is telling us that there are better times ahead.
Even though every credible economic analyst in the country is saying that interest rates are likely to go up again for the 13th and 14th time under this Prime Minister.
He can’t give you the detail about how he would make things improve, and it’s exactly the same course that he took the country on over the Voice debate.
I want to start by saying thank you to all of you, across our Party to indeed across the country, for having the will and the determination to stand up for what you believed was right.
When we took our position in relation to the Voice, it wasn’t at 50 or 60 or 70 per cent support it, it was at 30 or 35 per cent.
We listened to our members, we listened to the values and the views that you expressed here in this room and in rooms like it across the country.
We took a principled decision which reflected our values, and that we believed was in our country’s short, medium and long term best interests.
We stood up, and in the end, we helped deliver a 60 per cent outcome for the Australian public, to make sure that our country took the right course, not the wrong one. I want to thank you very much.
The next election will be an election which defines Australia’s future and the type of country that Australians want their nation to be.
To use that famous Reaganism, it will be ‘a time for choosing’.
And I believe the choices are clear for Australians.
I outlined some of those choices recently at the Federal Council meeting, and I want to repeat them today.
The next election will be a choice between an enduring cost of living crisis of the Albanese Government’s making, or the cost of living relief under the Coalition Government that we lead.
A choice between Labor’s reckless renewables only policy that will see the energy bills of Australian’s soar even more than what people have already experienced, or the Coalition’s plan for cheaper, cleaner and consistent energy, which includes Australia becoming a nuclear powered nation.
A visionary policy unlike any put forward by a political Party this century.
A choice between the hollowing out of manufacturing in this country under Labor, or making our country a manufacturing powerhouse once again under a Coalition Government.
A choice between an existing Labor Government which has turned its back on small businesses and bloated the federal bureaucracy, or a new Coalition Government which cuts red and green tape so that businesses can open, grow and thrive once again.
A choice between an ongoing housing crisis that Labor’s created by bringing in over 900,000 people over a two year period, when only 265,000 homes have been built, and bringing in over a five year period, 1.67 million people – a population the size of Adelaide – at a time when they’ve reduced the spending in necessary infrastructure to accommodate an increase in population.
The Coalition will deliver a housing market where we can restore the great Australian dream of homeownership.
I won’t stand for a situation in our country, particularly for the great Liberal Party or the great National Party, where young people don’t believe that they can own a home in their lifetime.
That’s not happened under the Coalition Government before, it’s happening now under a Labor Government.
We will make sure that we provide that support to young people and to people across the country, because home ownership underpins economic security during the course of life and into retirement.
It provides the stability for family and in many cases, it provides the underpinning of small businesses as they start up and as they grow, as they employ Australians and as they become a wonderful part of the Australian economy.
It will be a choice between a Labor Government whose weakness and incompetence has compounded crime, disorder and disunity on our streets.
As a Minister, I deported more criminals than any Minister since federation.
People who had committed sexual offences against women and children in our country, people who as non-citizens had no regard for Australian citizens and their ability and desire to live peacefully in this great country.
This Government has taken the decision to release over 150 criminals who have gone on to repeat their offending.
More Australians have fallen victim to these people and more will follow them out of immigration detention and not to the airport, but to the scenes of further crimes.
A Coalition Government will provide the moral and political leadership which restores law, order and unity.
My friends, they are stark choices.
But Australians are intelligent, grounded and common sense people.
They’re not mugs who are easily deceived by childish means.
And they know weasel words when they hear them.
The Prime Minister and ‘Dr’ – in inverted commas – Chalmers, may trumpet their economic management.
They may claim that they’re taking pressure off Australians and that Australians are better off under Labor.
They may speak about how they’re ‘building an economy that works for people’.
But the story Labor is trying to sell is not the reality that Australians are living every day.
For Australians, the grim reality is visible in every power and insurance bill, in every rent or mortgage repayment, in every visit to the supermarket or petrol station.
While Australians are doing it tough and are demoralised, Labor is in denial.
This much is clear that after three budgets, the Albanese Government doesn’t know which way to turn.
In this year’s budget, Labor increased spending by $4 for every $1 it raised.
In two years, they’ve lifted spending by $315 million, including employing 36,000 public servants in Canberra at a cost of $24 billion over a four year period.
That’s what’s driving inflation.
When inflation goes up, interest rates go up, and that’s why Australian families are struggling but Labor doesn’t understand basic economics.
Interest rates have risen on 12 occasions and the markets, as I say, are predicting further increases this calendar year and perhaps into next.
The Government’s reckless renewables only energy policy is at the very centre of the cost of living crisis.
It’s not just your household power bill that’s increasing, it’s not just the small business power bills increasing, it’s across the board.
Those costs can be absorbed by some of the businesses, but not all of that cost.
That cost is being felt by people who store food in cold storage, and by truck drivers who operate yards where they have to store produce before it goes to market.
All of that cost is being passed on, and that’s why consumers, when they go to the supermarket, are paying more and more for every grocery item.
That is the direct policy outcome of Labor’s renewables only policy.
There is a better way.
There is a better way to make sure that our economy can be prosperous and that we can have cheap, clean and consistent energy.
But only a Coalition Government can be relied upon to achieve these three energy goals.
We will ramp up domestic gas production in the more immediate term to make sure that we can reduce prices and to make sure, importantly, that we have stability in our grid.
Manufacturing firms in our country have closed their doors threefold over the course of just the last two years.
When the Prime Minister talks about Australian Made, nothing can be made in this country without reliable, secure and cheaper electricity.
We will join the other top 19 economies of the world, which use zero emission nuclear technology, to make sure that we can have that in the mix to underpin future economic success.
This week the Coalition announced another policy to address the cost of living crisis.
For too long there’s been a lack of competitive pressure on the big supermarkets.
Over many decades, the big chains have exploited their growing market power.
They’ve forced many of the independent and small supermarkets out of the market or bought them up.
Today, Woolworths, Coles and Aldi control 74 per cent of the market.
In contrast, the three big supermarket chains in the US and the UK control about 30 to 40 per cent of the market in those countries.
With market dominance, Australia’s big supermarkets have mistreated farmers and suppliers.
With insufficient competition, there’s been little incentive for Australia’s big supermarkets to lower prices for consumers, even during Labor’s cost of living crisis, which has seen food prices go up by over 11 per cent.
We support profitable business, of course we do, and we support very strongly a free market.
But right now we have an unfair market and that must change – and it will change under a Coalition Government elected at the next election.
As with many big corporations today, the big supermarkets appear more focussed on woke agendas than doing the right thing by everyday Australians.
That, too, will change under a Government that I lead.
Big supermarkets weren’t impartial during the vote.
They were happy to speak with their dollars – with taxpayers’ money that had been paid over the check out and with shareholders’ money that had been paid to these companies – they were happy to spend that money to tell Australians what they should think and how they should do it.
We know that over the New Year period, Woolworths was prepared not to celebrate, in fact, to instruct Australians that they shouldn’t be celebrating Australia Day.
Something we stood up against.
Something which the Prime Minister said would result in the loss of every job at Woolworths supermarkets across the country.
In the end, only one job was lost and that was the job of the CEO.
Let it be a clear message to big business right across the country, that we want them to be profitable because profitable businesses pay taxes and contribute to the economy, they employ Australians, they export and we want to grow our export markets.
But we’re not going to tolerate a situation where Australian consumers, Australian taxpayers, people who work hard for every dollar, are treated with contempt.
That’s not the way the free market operates.
I want to congratulate the work undertaken by David Littleproud and Angus Taylor.
We’ve worked on this policy for a long period of time so that there wouldn’t be unintended consequences.
So that we could account for the nuances as we move across markets in regional areas and in capital cities, across state boundaries.
But the policy that we’ve announced provides an improvement to competition, and it will see a change in the behaviour of big supermarkets.
We support a mandatory Food and Grocery Code of Conduct.
We will increase the maximum infringement fines, which can be imposed to $2 million for supermarkets who contravene that code.
We will establish a Supermarket Commissioner who can receive confidential complaints from farmers and suppliers, and refer matters to the federal competition regulator for investigation.
We will support the courts – not government – imposing tougher civil penalties for egregious violations of the mandatory code.
And we’ll introduce powers where no other option is available, for the courts to decide – not government – to force supermarkets who breach the law to sell certain assets.
Now, the Prime Minister’s lame response to this was that the policy was aimed at nationalising supermarkets.
It was as juvenile and infantile as his argument against nuclear power.
Australian’s see through it instantly.
We are prepared to stand up with consumers, with Australians, on these issues and many others.
We will do it because it’s in our national interest.
I believe very strongly in the fact that we have the greatest country on earth.
I believe very strongly that there are good and bad people on both sides of politics.
I think the Prime Minister is a good man.
I think he’s a hopeless Prime Minister, utterly and totally out of his depth.
I don’t say that lightly because I’ve watched Prime Ministers over the course of my two decades in Parliament, and I’ve seen good and bad Prime Ministers operate.
This Prime Minister should know better and his instincts should be more effective.
But as we’ve seen in the recent debate on university campuses, on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, at the Parliament House in Canberra only this last week, this Prime Minister has taken a decision to walk both sides of the street on an issue that is of national significance to the safety here in our own country.
The Jewish population in our country is living in fear at the moment.
The great multicultural story, the great migrant story of our country, is that all Australians are treated equally and fairly.
And at the moment that is not the case.
When those horrible attacks took place on the 7th of October, the Prime Minister failed instinctively to respond with condemnation.
Penny Wong was out there with words attempting to appease the Green element that supports the Labor Party.
But what it did was that it gave rise to a level of anti-Semitism that we saw play out on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, and that we’ve seen on university campuses and on our streets every day since.
The raising of those flags and those banners at Parliament House this week was a shocking, shocking indictment on the weakness of this Prime Minister.
Those symbols were broadcast around the world.
It’s inconceivable the Prime Minister couldn’t have foreseen the circumstance where protesters would make an attempt to do so on Australia’s Parliament.
But, it’s not the first, and it won’t be the last act of weakness from this Prime Minister.
There are tough days ahead for our country, for our region, for the world.
We know that in the Middle East there is conflict likely to spread more broadly.
We know that in Europe, Russia has intentions well beyond Ukraine, and we know that NATO has a more important role to play than ever.
The Prime Minister’s taken a decision – out of all the overseas trips that he’s taken over the course of the last two years – not to attend NATO.
At a time when we should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded countries around the world. We should be standing there telling people like Vladimir Putin, dictators in Iran and in North Korea and elsewhere, that our values are not for sale, they will not be sacrificed.
The Prime Minister’s decided to stay here for domestic political purposes.
In part, you can now understand why, because we know this week that Senator Fatima Payman has decided to abandon the Labor Party. When Senator Payman tells you that the Labor Party is really bad, you know that it’s really bad.
I want to make sure that we have a Government that the Australian people can be proud of again.
I want to make sure that we can be a Government for all Australians.
I want to demonstrate to Australians that tough decisions have to be made, but when they’re made, they’re made in our country’s best interest, either to make sure that we’re safe as a people or safe in our region and a worthy ally with our partners, or to make decisions to keep women and children safe in our community.
We need to make sure that we can make the tough economic decisions, because Australian families deserve an opportunity to get our country back on track.
With your support and with the support of millions of Australians across the country, we can continue this momentum because better days are ahead.
We can make sure that we support those who are in need.
We can make sure that we provide choice to families, to small business owners across the country so that they can continue to build this country into what it needs to be.
The economic powerhouse.
An economy that supports families.
An economy that supports choice.
Not where people are working for the economy, but where the economy is working for Australians.
And that is what we will deliver for Australians – whenever the election might be.
The Prime Minister’s scared at the moment, I suspect, of going full term because he knows there are tough times economically ahead with likely interest rate increases and likely an increase in inflation, which is going to have a detrimental impact on many Australians.
So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you all very much for being here.
Many of you have been loyal servants to our Party, to our cause for decades.
Over elections at three levels of government, you’ve sacrificed your own time, your own finances, because you believe in our Party and because you believe in this great country.
Thank you so much for your loyalty.
Thank you for being great Australians.
And together we are going to get our country back on track.
Thank you very much.
[ends]