Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the Gunaikurnai people, the traditional owners of the land known as the electorate of Monash. I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

National Reconciliation Week gives us all an opportunity to play our part as we continue to try as a country to grapple with the mistakes of the past. Australia is shamed by the victimisation of our Indigenous peoples through the ongoing effects of colonisation. From the stolen generations to our system of democracy, numerous policies, interventions and commissions have failed to remedy entrenched disadvantage and social dislocation caused by the brutality of colonisation. We must face this squarely. We must acknowledge our past and ongoing role in the sufferings of First Nations peoples. Our communal responsibility is to build strong connections with our Indigenous communities, based on open communication and understanding. Imagine if the need for change were acknowledged and acted upon at a personal, community, state and national level. We could move mountains.

Our Indigenous peoples extended the hand of reconciliation when they gave us the generous Uluru Statement from the Heart. As a nation, we should show grace and embrace it. We need to humble ourselves and accept into our hearts and minds the wisdom of people who have lived on this land for more than 60,000 years. Reconciliation is defined as the restoration of friendly relations, and that is exactly what we as a nation and as individuals should be aiming for. As I have said before, including the voice of the First Nations people in national policy should be non-negotiable for the government. It is essential for national healing. What are we afraid of? Reconciliation is more than a word. It means nothing without action. This is just as I see it.

I suffer from Dupuytren's disease, a hereditary disease that curls up the hands. If you've attended a nursing home and gone from room to room, you'll probably find people in that nursing home with curled up fingers. If you haven't seen it, you will. Those of my age do. To address the issue of my fingers curling up like that, every now and again I go to my plastic surgeon, and he cleans out the inside of my hands around the tendons and straightens out the fingers—so I can do that, instead of that, which can be very difficult when you go to shake hands and your hands are all curled up. As you can imagine, as a politician that's fairly difficult.

It's miraculous the way this master of manipulation of the body is able to work. His name is Thiem Dhu. He's Vietnamese. I asked him one day, while they were putting me to sleep to do the next hand or the next finger or whatever: 'What's your background, Thiem? You were born here, I take it?' He said: 'Oh, no. I was with my family in Vietnam, and my parents said, "You are to go with your uncle on a boat to Australia. There's nothing for you here, and we're in danger."' He went with his uncle, hopped on a boat and made the perilous trip to Australia. He arrived here penniless, with his uncle. No family, no education, no nothing.

Now he's one of the most brilliant surgeons in Australia. He takes off all my cancer spots. A couple of you would be nearly old enough to know what we did to ourselves as children, got out in the sun and did all those things, so I have bits taken off me all the time. I asked him: 'How do you know which bits to take off? How much of it is instinct and how much of it is your skill?' He said: 'Russell, I take a bit off you before it becomes a health problem. At the moment it's only a skin problem. If I leave it, it will become a health problem, so I like to deal with that early. That's the way I work.' He's one of the most skilful, talented, gentle men I know. He'd be at the top of my tree. He was a boat person. He came by boat.

I'll tell you another story. I have a friend. She's been ill for a long time. I was talking to her about boat people, refugees and those sorts of things and these terrible, horrible people smugglers. And this woman, who's a lawyer, a hotelier, a builder, a creator, with talented kids, wealth, style and living the Australian dream, her parents came out here from Serbia. She said to me: 'Russell, if it weren't for people smugglers, I wouldn't be here. They smuggled us out of Serbia through the hills one night, got us out and that's how we got to Australia.' There are two sides to every story.

The contribution that refugees have made to this country should never be underestimated. How we treat them in this country, how we treat people in this country who have done nothing but seek a better life yet have been imprisoned for coming up to 11 years, is something that I as an Australian can't be proud of. We can't walk away. As a friend of mine once said, 'There comes a time when you can't walk past the pile of rubbish; you've got to clean it up.' It's time for this nation to look where the rubbish is, confront it and see how we're going to deal with the lives of individual people who may go on to make a marvellous contribution to this country and look at the opportunities we might give to people who are already here but not allowed to work when we are desperate for employees right across every sector of this nation because of the results of COVID. Why can't we be sensible and let them work? Let them work. It's not something that's so great to ask—that while someone on a bridging visa is here in this country they get an opportunity to work. The benefits for us are unending. We have nothing to fear from these people being employed while they are on a bridging visa. In fact, we need them right now. There's not a business that I know of that hasn't got staff shortages and opportunities for people right across the board. I'll leave those thoughts with you today. They may not go down well with the people who have the responsibilities, but that's just as I see it.

One of the vulnerabilities that we have, as was borne out in the pandemic—and I'm going to pull a lot of my conversation out of Robert Gottliebsen's article this week that talked about coastal shipping and international processes—is the fact that we do not have a homogeneous fleet of our own Australian flagged ships in times of trouble. The article says:

Over the past 20 or 30 years Australia has based its industrial and retail systems on a global "just in time" supply chain network.

And for the most part it worked and led to a vast array goods at low prices arriving when required, so reducing the need for large stocks. This gave consumers greater choice, curbed our inflation and boosted corporate profits.

And it made us complacent.

But in the pandemic, the system broke down and became much less reliable and far more costly. Australian companies are only now starting to tell the market how they are being affected.

Suddenly, in large areas of Australian society we are realising that in recent decades we have forgotten the lessons of our history.

In World War II, Australia also realised just how isolated we had become, and partly driven by BHP chief executive Essington Lewis, we established large industrial complexes—

and our own shipping fleet.

But now the pandemic and the Chinese bans on our exports appear to be combining to change our attitudes.

Australians are increasing their purchases of Australian-made goods—

leading to promotion of goods made locally.

Few Australians realised that our shipping lifeline was based on a very complex ownership and operational system with the ships owned in one country and registered in another.

… … …
Integrated into that global system was our own coastal shipping.

Unlike Canada and the US, we use global ships to undertake almost all our local shipping. In theory, local regulations prevent global shipping on the coast, but all that is required to use global ships is to ask permission. It is almost always granted. We have only token numbers of local ships.

… … …
Then came two unexpected developments. The first was that whereas the Covid-19 restrictions substantially reduced the demand for services, the demand for goods surged. We saw that occur dramatically in Australia with spending on home renovation and building. But it was a global trend.

… … …
Sometimes it seems as though the Chinese control the distribution of our goods because they control so much of the trade.

Our first tangible response—

which I applaud the government on—

has been to prevent the closure of the Geelong and Brisbane oil refineries. We realised that, while oil is not part of the container trade, the sort of forces we have seen in containers could just as easily be applied to oil tankers—especially if there is military conflict.

But the Australian vulnerability goes much further than simply oil. Our total international and local shipping is in the hands of the global shipping cartel complex. We have no independence whatsoever.

… … …

Retailers are now assessing the long-term attraction of promoting Australian-made goods. Like shipping, modern machinery has lessened the labour cost component.

In practical terms one of the lasting legacies of the Covid-19 pandemic might be that Australia will go back to its history and devise better ways to lessen the dangers of isolation.

The fact is we need our own Australian-flagged merchant fleet. Probably 12 ships. Too much to ask? Let's try for six, just to cover our bases. This is affordable. It protects us against dependence on others. And it lets us not repeat the mistakes of the past. Our leaders knew what was needed a century ago. A century ago, they knew what we needed. Are we today sleepwalking to chaos and further vulnerability?

For those who are listening to this broadcast, this particular piece of legislation, the Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 3) Bill 2021, has a number of parts to it. One is the Family Home Guarantee—to amend the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation Act to implement the Family Home Guarantee, which should enable 10,000 guarantees over four years from July of this year to eligible single parents with dependents to build a new home or purchase an existing home with a deposit of as little as two per cent, regardless of whether the single parent is a first home buyer or previous home owner. Anything we can do for single-parent families should be supported, and we've got a lot to do and a lot to recognise with single-parent families. It's hard enough to raise children, as we found out, when there are two of you, let alone when you are on your own.

Schedule 3 is about the Australian government recognising the plight of victims of Thalidomide. We understand they have suffered from circumstances beyond their control, resulting in a lifetime of pain and hardship. This is another disability area which, of course, sparks my interest. This includes payments to Australia's Thalidomide survivors in recognition of their suffering and cost of living due to the disability. This bill exempts those payments from income tax from the social security and veterans entitlement income test.

The other part is, as the former member was speaking about, recovery grants for the floods and storms that had an enormous impact on many parts of the Australian community.

The last one is that new organisations will get deductible gift recipient status, and there's a list of all of those organisations—worthy organisations—that will receive tax deductibility. It also includes the Medicare levy and Medicare levy surcharge income thresholds. This ensures that low-income households that did not pay the Medicare levy in 2019-20 generally will not begin to pay it in 2021 if their income has increased in line with or by less than CPI.

I'd like to return to the housing issue. When I grew up—which is a long time ago now in many people's eyes but only a few minutes ago in mine—between the years of 1950 and 1970, on average 16 per cent of housing across the nation was public housing. That meant that in every small community like the one I grew up in, Koo Wee Rup, there was a group of what were called commission homes. They were put there by very good Liberal governments who saw the need right across Victoria for public housing in every small community everywhere. That figure was 16 per cent. Since that time, by 1990 that had been reduced down to six per cent of all housing being public housing. Since 1990, that has dropped by a third again, from six per cent to four per cent of all housing being public housing.

It's not that successive governments don't pour a lot of money into housing. They do. There's a lot of support that goes into housing. As much as $100 billion goes into housing from government each year, in different forms of support. For instance, low-income earners receive social housing subsidies, homeless support and rent assistance. It comes to about $8 billion of government outlays. The rest goes into areas where there are generous tax concessions allowed to home owners, especially on capital gains tax.

I heard the member for Dunkley speak, and she was very passionate about the need for youth crisis housing in her electorate and the problems her electorate is having with rentals and people trying to find a rental property. But what she actually described to me, as I listened, was the disgraceful response from the Labor government in Victoria to the need for housing, even though they now have a proposition to build public housing. That's come out of COVID and the response to COVID. The problem is that where they've been building that public housing has been in cities and outer city areas, not in the regions and the small towns. So, if you happen to live out there and your family is there and all your support services are there, but you cannot get a property, the current Labor government has not been able to deliver into rural areas the sort of public housing that's needed. In fact, it's gone into places like Hawthorn where it suited them to put it. There has been political bias in where they have chosen to place the public housing, and that's hugely disappointing because it means people in country areas miss out, and I'll explain why.

In my electorate, there was one particular family—a mum and four boys, victims of domestic violence—in a rental property. All was going well. The property got sold. They have to go and find another place to live. Hunt as they may, they haven't been able to find a home. I thought it was a one-off. It turns out after inquiries that five families are in exactly the same boat at the moment. What's happening right across coastal and rural Victoria is that people have gone and purchased properties to live in, and the people at the lower end of the scale, renting, are being put out of their homes. Where do they go? Do they go to a caravan park? No, the caravan parks are full.

So if you happen to live in a small country town and you haven't got a home, or the home you're in has been sold or the rental price has increased—I'll give you another example. I rang the estate agent on behalf of these people. I said, 'Have you got any houses to rent?' 'One, one in the town, and I've got 15 applicants.' Do you think a mum on public benefit who's had issues, with four kids but the kids are well supported in the township, is going to be the winner in that 15-lot gallery, in the lottery to get that home, when there would be people on double incomes et cetera? The landlord would say, 'I'll take that person, thanks, because that'll be of best benefit to me.'

This is where government has to step in—and I'm not saying the federal government, because the federal government, Labor governments and Liberal-National governments, year after year after year have poured money into the states specifically for this housing. We don't run the housing schemes. We don't build the houses. We give the states the money to deliver. Also, we provide the money for Indigenous housing, but we don't manage the Indigenous housing. It's all done by the states now. I haven't got a problem with states' rights or states' delivery. But there hasn't been a focus on delivering housing for single-parent families, and COVID has caused a greater crisis than we expected in this regard. Nobody knew that people were going to burst out of the cities and start buying properties at low prices in the country to get away from the cities.

The community that I live in is a rural community, but it's changed. I'm not saying I'm in lockdown yet, but I am in the greater Melbourne district. Sadly, so are Garfield and Lang Lang and Koo Wee Rup. These are all country towns right out of Melbourne, but they are in the local government district named; therefore, you're in it. People have moved out of town and into these areas because, all of a sudden, 'I can work three days from home and I can travel into my job in the city one or two days a week if I have to, so I can live out here. I can have all of the fresh air that Gippsland provides and the lifestyle it provides and still do my work.' But then there's the pressure that that has put on all of the services, all of the housing and all of the opportunities, and the people who are at the lowest end of the scale are the ones that are missing out.

We in this House and other houses are responsible for those people. My analogy has always been the same: in a family where there are four children and one is disabled, 80 per cent of the focus on the children is on the disabled child, the one that needs the most help. It's exactly the same as we should be in the community. It's alright to have lifters and leaners and those sorts of things, but we don't know what problems people have faced in their lives that have brought them to the point that they have come to. We don't know why in individual cases. Women over 55 now have the greatest propensity for homelessness. The fastest-growing cohort of future homeless in our community is women over 55. Marriage break-ups, no superannuation, loss of opportunity, some illness, time to have children and all of those sorts of things can make a massive contribution. They can quickly fall through the cracks into homelessness. If you don't know somebody who's like that, you probably will. It takes us to a place of greater responsibility as representatives of the people to consider those who are on the edge.

I'm calling on the state governments and local governments and communities to join together and say, 'Righto, what can we do as a community when we are faced with this crisis that is real today?'

I only ask you to put yourself in the place of a single mum with four boys, four fine boys. At a certain point you're going to have nowhere to live. You might have to move to a place like the Latrobe Valley to get housing—not that I'm denigrating the Latrobe Valley—or back into the city. The four boys are going to be torn out of their community. All of their supports—their footy clubs, their cricket clubs, their schools, the sport in their schools—all the things that they do will be gone. Their life will be turned upside down. They'll be in a new place, which won't be as friendly as the small town that they were in.

I don't know what the answer is, but I'm going to keep looking for an answer. I'm going to keep talking about the people that are on the edge. I'm going to think about whether there is a new idea, a new way, a new opportunity, where the federal government can direct how the states spend their money and where they spend it. Because it's federal money that's going into that housing, right across this nation, and we need to direct that some of those funds go into communities where, like every other community, we have people who are doing it hard, not by their own choice or doing; it's just life and what happens. When we have a bushfire, when we a flood, when we have terrible storms, when we have a tornado, what do we do? We go in and help.

Because of COVID, this nation is facing a housing crisis, and we're going to have to come up with some very innovative ideas as to how we help these people, otherwise we are going to have a national crisis on our hands, right across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. And how are we going to deal with that bushfire? I've got to tell you something: I haven't got an answer. But I can see the fire coming—those people being on the streets—and it's unacceptable. What options do that family have at the moment? Two caravans in a caravan park, perhaps, with a hood over. Is that what I want for my children or grandchildren? I don't think so. I have lived a life privilege.

I want to speak truth to the richest nation in the world per head. Our older women have been recognised as the fastest growing group of homeless people in Australia. Recent research from the Housing for the Aged Action Group found 240,000 women aged 55 or older and another 155,000 women aged 45 to 54 are at risk of homelessness. Older people who live in private rental housing are at even higher risk of becoming homeless. The Australian Bureau of Statistics states that homelessness exists when a dwelling is inadequate, has insecure tenure and does not allow control of access to space for social relations.

Increasingly unaffordable housing has added to the concerns about the circumstances and living situations of older people who do not own homes; have limited wealth and savings and, especially for women, low levels of superannuation; and do not have the benefit of living in social housing. Further, we know we have mothers and their children living in cars. What does this say about our priorities? How is a nation as wealthy as Australia even having a discussion on this issue?

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, homelessness has the following effects on children:

Preschool and school-aged children experiencing homelessness are more likely to experience mental health problems than housed children, and some evidence suggests that homeless children are more likely to have physical disability, emotional or behavioural problems than housed children … Homelessness can be disruptive to children's education. It is associated with decreased engagement in the classroom and, when coupled with frequent school moves, is associated with poor academic achievement …

Teachers are reporting how, in the current situation we are facing with COVID, the classroom has become much more stressful for those without a roof over their heads.

How can a woman fleeing domestic violence protect her five-year-old son if she can't put a roof over their heads? How can a parent support their 12-year-old daughter with homework if they can't put a roof over their heads? How can a single mum of four kids stay connected to her much-loved and much-needed community support network if she can't put a roof over their heads? How can you care for a sick or disabled relative if you can't put a roof over their head? How can a middle-aged man with two young adult children engage in the workforce if he can't put a roof over their heads? The difficulty for me here is that I'm actually talking about examples in my electorate. How can you even sleep, shower, wash clothes, cook a meal and stay warm and safe if you don't have a roof over your head? Nations are judged on how they treat the most vulnerable in their societies. So how are we to be judged?

COVID related effects and consequences have caused a combination of Airbnb use domestically; rental property sales because of increased value of the property; relocation to the regions to get out of our capital cities; as we heard from the previous speaker, reduced public housing as compared to 10 years ago; and rental increases. All this combines against those who need a roof over their head.

We know that this government doesn't hold the hammer. Federal governments don't hold the hammer—not even in Indigenous affairs anymore. It's all done by the states. I know the federal government and the previous Labor governments that I've seen have put money into the states for exactly these reasons. Then we have to ask the question: how is it that in this nation today, in 2021, I've got a woman in a small town in my electorate with four boys, closely connected to and supported and cherished by their community, who cannot find a house? Perhaps that's my job.

I have made some points throughout the whole debate on arguments that have been presented on the aged-care issue, but there is one point I want to press upon everybody tonight. The motion before us proposes that a committee, to be known as the Joint Select Committee on Oversight of the Implementation of Recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, be established.

I want to say, firstly, that we shouldn't have to establish such a committee. It's the government's responsibility to oversight the issues that come out of a Royal Commission. Out of that Royal Commission we learned a lot of things, one of which is that there wasn't enough money going into aged care. So the government have rightly put in another $10 a day for every resident. They have come up with 80,000 new places. But, to service those new places, you might need 180,000 new workers. In regional communities, which I and others in the room represent, they're more difficult to find than in urban areas. So we have a double dose of aged-care life.

I want to make this point at the outset of my remarks: going from your home or from a package into residential aged care should be another step in life, not the beginning of passing away. It should be another step in life. We should be looking at the way we care for our older Australians as a step in living and improving their place. So what did we do? I had a lady on the phone a few minutes ago who's reasonably worried. She said, 'Russell, I'm on a package, but sometimes the people that should be visiting me'—I won't name the group—'are short of staff in Gippsland, so sometimes I don't get the fullness of my package delivered to me. You've now given out 80,000 new packages. Am I going to miss out because you've given out 80,000 new packages?' I said, 'No, you're not.' But I can't really trust in that when I say, 'No, you're not,' because that means I'm believing that we will find the workforce and we will be able to deliver on behalf of the lady who's concerned today and on behalf of everybody else that takes a package.

I said at the outset that there shouldn't be a need for a joint select committee. But, if there is, I'd love to be a part of it.

I'd like to be a part of monitoring what we're doing. With an $18 billion package that the government has put forward in response to this, how can we improve the way that's spent? Where's our oversight over Defence and their spending? Where's our oversight over all the areas of government outlays where I would suggest, because it's not a whole-of-government focus, there may be wastage? We can spend billions on one thing, but we have our other priorities in other areas that do not allow the focus to be on what Australia really needs to be focusing on.

Through the Aged-Care Royal Commission and the Australian people's desire for the wellbeing of older Australians, that's how we end up here, because the Australian people say: 'These are the sorts of representatives we want. Go and tell our story, and our story is on aged care.' Our broader community and our nation of small communities said, 'We don't believe that our older people are getting the care that they need, and the government needs to address it'—therefore the Royal Commission, and therefore your desire, Member for Mayo, to have an oversight body, virtually to continue what the Royal Commission's done. That's how I see it. It would be a continuing reviewing activity on how the money's being spent.

To me, the best thing that happened in this budget in regard to aged care was the regional sites that the government's going to put out, because one of my biggest complaints was that we don't have enough staff on the ground, as we used to have, so that the knowledge that they would find in the regional areas is then transferred back to government for better decisions to be made at that level. It seems common sense, but we don't have those people in the states at that level anymore. That's one positive out of this proposal.

Today, during National Families Week, I want to acknowledge the unseen and undervalued role of parenting and caring for young children. In so many ways, this crazy and chaotic corona crisis has turned life as we know it upside down. But it’s not all bad news. The lockdown period forced many parents to reflect on their busy and stressful lives and reassess their priorities. It provided breathing space to think about what really was important to them and their children. And it wasn’t more time at the office.

It turns out it was a slower pace of living …. more time for recreation and exercise created by less time commuting …. and sharing a home-cooked meal together at night, not to mention a resurgence in bread-making! Unsurprisingly, I’m hearing that parents want to retain some of this gentler, kinder, calmer existence …. but are fearful that the lessons of lockdown are quickly being forgotten. I recall that nearly 30 years ago, acclaimed author and child psychologist Steve Biddulph said (and I quote) ‘We cannot succeed as parents unless the structures we live in support our goal. Our society has unintentionally, but undeniably become toxic to families – so we have to change it.’

The government’s new commitment to ensuring greater respect, justice and safety for women and ensuring more equitable and respectful workplaces is an opportune time to ensure better outcomes for parents and their children. Bearing in mind the wisdom to never let a crisis go to waste, there has never been a better time for parents to demand a more family-friendly deal.

Let’s ensure our society is one where our children, and those that care for them, are truly valued and respected.

That’s just as I see it.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S 2021 budget has wrapped the Gippsland region in enough winter warmth to accelerate our region’s revival and sustain us through coming seasons, Federal MP for Monash, Russell Broadbent, said today.

‘After a long, hard year of lockdowns and hardship due to the effects of the pandemic, the federal government has recognised the sacrifices made by regional and rural Australians,’ Mr Broadbent said.

‘Gippsland will benefit from much-needed funding boosts to be pumped into roads, rail, agriculture, business, tourism and aged care.

‘In particular, I warmly welcome the commitment of $630.2 million to enable better access to quality aged care services in regional, rural and remote areas, and a focus on improved access for people with special needs and those of indigenous backgrounds.’

Mr Broadbent said he had long championed the need for governments to address deficits in the aged care sector. The $17.7 billion committed over five years to create new home care spots and meet skills shortages, amongst other initiatives, is a good start to address challenges in the sector as an ageing population escalates pressure for services, he said.

The government’s ongoing efforts to improve roads and regional connectivity will greatly assist commuters and businesses and boost employment and business opportunities, he said.

‘An extra $203.4 million for the Monash Roads Upgrade Project and additional $307 million for the Pakenham Roads Upgrade project will significantly ease congestion and create much-needed regional jobs,’ he said.

‘The government estimates the injection of funds into regional and rural Victoria will create up to 3,000 jobs over the forward estimates. As we work our way out of the pandemic-induced recession, every job and every dollar spent in our region supports our community.

‘I’ll do everything I can as the local federal representative to ensure the money is spent as promised.’

 

I’ve been speaking with our farmers recently, to understand how they are responding to changes in the environment – most recently Jo Wainer, Rob Liley and Gill and Graeme Nicoll.

Farmers are adapting their methods in response to the changing climate. For some it means calving in Autumn instead of Spring or putting rams in with ewes a month earlier because of changed feed growth patterns. They are monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

These farmers are stewards of the land and all the creatures which live there. They care about the environment. They fence off bushland, creeks and dams and plant thousands of trees to increase the productivity of the land and provide habitat for wildlife. This keeps the waterways clean and supports diversity in the soil microbes.

Some of this is just good farming, and some is a response to the warming climate. These farmers see a time when Australian agricultural exports will be rejected by other countries because of our low ambition on climate. Key agricultural organisations such as the National Farmers’ Federation, Meat and Livestock Australia, Dairy Australia, and Australian Pork Ltd are driving research to reduce the impact of the climate on Australian agriculture. Our food exports bring in billions a year and a carbon tax at the borders of Europe and other countries will devastate this market.

As Australia heats up, we must protect the agricultural land of Gippsland. It will become the food bowl for Australia. Australian agriculture is ready to transition to a net zero carbon emissions environment. We may well lose our markets if we don’t act.

I wonder what else we should be doing.

That’s just as I see it.

The disappointment that vaccine supplies have been held up by source countries highlights that we as a nation are vulnerable on the health front.

This is not an attack on other countries that prioritise their own citizens before others. Self-interest is a powerful driver.

We need to acknowledge that Australia has vulnerabilities – be it with vaccines, generic medications, or even parts for caravans. We need to return the nation to self-sufficiency.

I urge the Government to forensically investigate and inquire to identify how we as a country and people can take responsibility for our own wellbeing.

We have seen with our neighbours, like Papua New Guinea, that we not only need to be self-sufficient, but also the backstop for crucial supplies for our region.

I appreciate manufacturing goods here in Australia can be more expensive. But I know that most Australians place great value on the nation’s health, wellbeing, and security.

Many times, Australians have proven strength in adversity.

Everyone from the farm owner to the small business person, to members of the family unit could see this time as a golden opportunity to seize business and personal responsibility to make Australia self-sufficient once again.

Our destiny is in our hands.

That’s just as I see it.

Russell Broadbent MP
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