Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (16:27): Today I announced to my party room that I would not be contesting the next election. I have been in this place since 2007. I was elected in the Rudd slide of 2007, and by the time the next election comes around, I will have served for 17 years.…
Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (13:44): At the moment, the people in my electorate are under attack. They’re not under attack from flood or drought or pestilence. They’re under attack from the elected government of this country. At the moment, they are dealing with issues like losing 450 gigalitres of productive water—the very lifeblood that…
Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (17:04): I rise today to speak on the Agriculture (Biosecurity Protection) Levies Bill 2024. Let me start by saying that biosecurity for this country and the agricultural sector is paramount. We’re an island; that gives us enormous advantages over our competitors, and our clean, green image is second to none…
Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (16:46): My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Toyota’s vice-president of sales, Sean Hanley, claims that Labor’s proposed new family car and ute tax is too aggressive, stating: I can tell you, from Toyota’s perspective, we’re not buying credits. We’ll pay a fine and pass it…
Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (15:28): I must say how disappointed I am that the Minister for Climate Change and Energy is not in here. I back up the member for Fairfax. All I can assume is that he saw the speaking list of the MPI today. I think he’s still in trauma from when…
Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (13:18): I rise today to speak on the Help to Buy Bill 2023. When I was looking at the bill here in front of me, I thought we might have had a typo. It’s actually 2024, last time I looked. We’re actually nearly into the third month of 2024. Upon…
27 February 2024 Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (16:17): A lot of people in this place and elsewhere know that I have been a long-time supporter of the Palestinian people. Some years ago, I spent eight days on the West Bank. One of my former mayors, Al Karanouh from Coonamble, his family left their homes…
Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (13:48): Last week I spent in my electorate, wandering through the north and western part, visiting communities in Dubbo, Narromine, Bourke, Brewarrina and Walgett. I did a bit of a poll in the main streets of those towns as to the vehicles that were parked there. There were a large…
Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (18:27): I rise tonight to speak on this Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2023-2024 and express my concern about how the Albanese Labor government seems to have abandoned regional Australia and particularly my electorate in a whole range of ways. In some ways, I can’t believe it’s on purpose. I think…
Thursday, 8 February 2024 Mr COULTON (Parkes—Chief Nationals Whip) (16:39): I’d like to bring to the attention of the House an issue that’s very concerning in my electorate, and that is the design, and the change of the design, to the weir at Wilcannia. Now this project has been in the pipeline for a long…