Federal Liberal Member for Monash. Passionate about our region. Focused on delivering. Here to help. Go Hawks. Authorised by Mary Aldred MP, Warragul.
Warragul, Victoria
Joined May 2011
- Tweets3.5K
- Following2.3K
- Followers1.5K
- Likes3.9K
For nearly two decades I've been proud to stand up for our local apple growers and the biosecurity that protects them.
Back in 2008 as an agribusiness student I wrote this opinion piece warning that Australia must be protected against fire blight. Eighteen years on, that fight matters as much as ever. This is about biosecurity, not trade.
The United States is edging closer to sending its apples to Australian shelves, and I share the deep concerns of our growers.
🍎 Fire blight is a destructive bacterial disease that the US has and Australia does not. Once it gets in, there is no getting it out.
🍎 The varroa mite incursion showed that even the world's best biosecurity system can be breached, and our bee colonies are still paying the price.
🍎 Around 99 per cent of the apples Australians eat are grown right here. This goes to the heart of our food security.
🍎 Up to 46 per cent of Australia's apples are grown in Victoria, and West Gippsland orchards produce a big bite of that. An incursion here wouldn't just hurt an industry, it would hit local families, jobs and towns right across our region.
🍎 The US has a large apple surplus looking for a new market. Our $650 million apple industry shouldn't become the overflow.
🍎 Under our import rules, the economic impact on Australian growers can't even be considered. Only biosecurity counts, so the biosecurity bar must be set as high as it can possibly go.
🍎 The Department of Agriculture still hasn't finalised the procedures the US would have to follow. Now is the time to get them right.
Australia has the best biosecurity in the world and a hard-won reputation for clean, green horticultural produce. It took generations to build and could be lost with a single incursion.
That’s why I’ll be advocating to the Federal Government not to take a step back on biosecurity.
🤖 Made with AI
Mary Aldred retweeted
Their tireless work through @DanielMorcombe has helped educate young Australians about personal safety and a lasting legacy in Daniel’s memory. @maryaldred @SophieScamps @AlisonByrnesMP
My oped in today’s AFR on the lack of cyber and consumer protections in EVs sold in Australia: afr.com/technology/labor-is-…
Helen Haines MP, Federal Member for Indi
My love and thoughts are with Helen Haines, her family and staff tonight. This is a shocking incident, with more details to unfold.
Helen is a profoundly decent person and it’s a privilege to work with her as a fellow regional Victorian MP. My support and prayers are with her tonight.
There’s been a bit said on the Australia European Union Free Trade Agreement, so here’s my perspective as a local member.
I’ve worked with agribusinesses and primary producers for years across the Gippsland region.
I’m a strong supporter of free trade. Our farmers export around 70 per cent of what they grow, so they need access to world markets. But a trade deal has to work both ways, and on dairy this one doesn’t. This isn’t free trade for dairy, it's a free kick against the home team.
The Gippsland region produces about 23 per cent of the nation’s milk output. When a trade deal gets dairy wrong, our region pays double the price. I’ve been phoning dairy farmers and processors across my electorate, and their view to me has been clear. This deal leaves them worse off.
We’ve done better before. The China agreement removed dairy tariffs of up to 20 per cent. The UK agreement removes every dairy tariff by 2028. This deal does the opposite. European cheese comes in tariff free, while our butter, milk powder and whey still queue up for quotas to get into Europe. Their cheese effectively gets a green light. Our dairy gets to wait in line.
Our dairy farmers compete on world prices with almost no government support. They’re not asking for a handout, just a fair go. Australian dairy farmers deserve better than to be the bargaining chip.
There is still time for the Federal Government to work with the Coalition to get this deal right. That would be the best outcome.
So my view is that the Government should work harder fix this deal for dairy before asking Parliament to back it.
Welcome to 🇦🇺 @NZBreakers! Great to share the Canberra to Melbourne flight home with them. As a former chair of @GippslandUnited I can say we love our 🏀 here too!
Only the Albanese Government could create a problem for small business, then expect thanks for delaying it. This week the Treasurer confirmed the ATO's credit card ban will be pushed back to June 2027.
Jim Chalmers says the decision "is about putting small businesses first". Australian small business owners know better.
The Albanese Government banned them from passing on card surcharges. It said this would ease the cost of living. Then the ATO refused to absorb the same fees by banning credit card payments altogether. Businesses got a few hours' notice. There was no right of appeal.
ACCI CEO Andrew McKellar was spot on. "This credit card ban is hurting small businesses. If the Australian Taxation Office can't find its way out of the maze it has created, then it's time for political leadership to step in and fix this." A delay is not a fix.
I spoke with small business owners this week across the Gippsland region. They all said the same thing. Freight costs are up. Electricity is up. Insurance is up.
One small business owner told me she had already raised prices on all stock in her shop in anticipation. She’s not alone. And the across the board increases will be more than the surcharge. So a policy sold as cost-of-living relief is pushing prices higher.
A point to highlight is that this is exactly the kind of inflationary pressure the Reserve Bank of Australia warns of in the context of 16 interest rate rises under the Albanese Government.
ACCI's research shows one in three small businesses considered closing in the past year. Rate rises. Higher energy bills. Payday Super. Wage increases. New taxes on trusts and capital gains. It all adds up.
Small businesses in Monash don't want sympathy. They want a Government that stops adding to their costs. And stops asking to be thanked for it.
All week the Albanese Government has run victory laps on illegal tobacco, as violent crime and firebombings rage.
“But a current federal police source told the ABC illicit tobacco still remained "low-risk and high-gain" for criminal networks, particularly those directed from overseas.
They said the government's changes would capture "soldiers" but not "generals" like Hamad, who relied on contract criminals, often children, to do his bidding from afar.”
A must read: abc.net.au/news/2026-10-09/h…
Mary Aldred retweeted
Three years ago today, Hamas terrorists invaded and attacked Israel. The terrorists from Gaza came not only equipped with guns and grenades, they also wore body cams and carried mobile phones to film their barbarous acts. They felt no guilt. They acted with glee. They weaponised rape. They tortured and mutilated children, women and men. They took some 250 people hostage. They brutally murdered some 1,200 innocent people.
October 7 was the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust. And it should not be forgotten that Hamas vowed to repeat their savagery many times over until Israel is annihilated.
On the third anniversary of Israel’s “9/11”, we remember those who were murdered, those who survived and are still living with the horrors of that day, those who endured the most unimaginable captivity, and those families who are still grieving the loss of loved ones.
In October 2025, soon after the final hostages were released, I visited Israel. I went to the site of the Nova music festival where young people were massacred. I visited kibbutzim where families and communities were butchered. I watched the shocking footage of Hamas’ sadistic crimes. And I spoke with survivors and heroes.
That profound experience reinforced to me another thing we must do on every anniversary of October 7. We must remember the facts and fight for the truth. Because even today, there are those who downplay, deny and even defend Hamas’ atrocities. There are those who seek to portray the victim, Israel, as the villain, and portray the villain, Hamas, as the victim. There are those who deceitfully accuse Israel of genocide, yet turn a blind eye to groups and regimes with real genocidal intent.
Such perversions of the truth and lack of moral clarity help to fuel antisemitism and make it permissible. The fight against antisemitism is therefore a fight for the truth – a fight that continues on our soil too. And that fight for the truth is also about acknowledging and combatting all sources of antisemitism, especially Islamist extremism.
On behalf of the Coalition, my prayers and abiding friendship are with the brave people of Israel, and with our Jewish community who are dear and valued Australians. Whether it’s in Israel, in Australia, or most recently, thousands of feet up in the air in a passenger jet, the Jewish people continue to be characterised by strength, stoicism and valour. We know you will prevail because you love life more than your enemies love death.
And we are with you, always.
Our region makes and manufactures world leading timber products, but right now they’re up against it from state and federal Labor and the Greens trying to close the industry down.
If that succeeds, we’ll have lower quality imported products made to substandard environmental conditions and thousands of downstream manufacturing jobs lost too.
I’m proud to represent timber workers and businesses. It was a privilege to speak to some of them today. The craftsmanship, environmental stewardship and dedication to their local community is peerless.
That’s why I’ll always stand up for timber workers, timber towns and a future timber industry made here in Australia.
My opinion piece in the Herald Sun: Anthony Albanese urged to slash tobacco tax amid $42bn black market crisis
Anthony Albanese has introduced yet another bill to fight illegal tobacco, the second in months. Like the first, it will fail, because it tinkers with enforcement while leaving the one thing driving this crisis, the excise rate, untouched.
At the start of last month the Ben Carroll announced that “the doors are closing on Victoria’s illicit tobacco trade with Labor’s tough new closure powers now law”.
It was victory by press release. Because so far, none have been closed in regional Victoria.
It’s Labor’s own version of ‘wharfie time’.
The Herald Sun has revealed the illegal tobacco market is drilling a $42 billion black hole in the federal budget. In a cost of living crisis, decent Australians who smoke are being driven straight into the arms of organised crime, simply because this government insists on keeping excise on legal cigarettes sky high.
Small retailers are undercut by 70 to 80 per cent by illegal sellers, while their communities absorb firebombings and extortion. The illicit market now accounts for more than half of all tobacco consumed nationally. Smoking rates, the justification for high excise, are rising again. WA recorded its first increase in three decades, with NSW Health and Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing the same trend across Australia.
Criminologist James Martin, an expert in black markets at Deakin University, puts it plainly. Once a black market reaches this scale, you simply “can’t police your way out” of it without addressing the driver.
The Coalition is the only party with a comprehensive plan to fix this. An 80 per cent excise cut, backed by tougher enforcement and genuine anti-smoking measures, closing the price gap that created this black market.
That plan means honesty about vaping too. Legal vapes are a proven bridge to quitting, yet 97 per cent of vapes used in Australia are illegal, unregulated and funding organised crime. Health lobbyists keep conflating the two, as if a manufacturing-standard legal vape were the same as one smuggled in with no safety controls. Confusing them pushes more people into the unregulated market this government has let flourish.
This is no longer a partisan push, and federal Labor is now isolated. NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns wants an aggressive cut. Labor senators broke ranks in their own government’s Senate inquiry. Even a Teal MP now backs one.
The Prime Minister has dodged this question no less than five times in Question Time. Treasury and Home Affairs are quietly reviewing the tobacco excise, yet the Albanese government won’t be upfront about it.
That isn’t good enough while retail workers, often young and on minimum wage, face violence behind the counter. Who in this government is standing up for them?
Mr Albanese cannot keep legislating against a black market his own tax settings created. It’s time he answered for the excise himself.
Mary Aldred is the Liberal MP for Monash and Co-Chair of the Coalition's Illegal Tobacco Taskforce.
Herald Sun article via: heraldsun.com.au/news/opinio…
"You'll pay less for your coffee," Anthony Albanese told us overnight.
Strange, considering even the RBA Governor doesn't believe that. Michele Bullock said it herself this week: "just like electricity and wages, the cost of taking cards and cash will be built into the price" of goods and services.
As Wes Lambert of the Australian Restaurant & Cafe Association put it: "We don't have 8¢ coins, so the $5.08 coffee might become $5.10, or $5.20, or $5.50. By this weekend, Australians will be paying more."
And how’s this for a double standard. On the same day the surcharge ban started, the ATO quietly announced it will stop accepting credit card payments altogether from 30 November, rather than absorb the cost itself.
Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson summed it up: small business is being "double tapped" by the Albanese Government, hit by the surcharge ban and left to absorb the cost, while the government's own tax office won't do the same. "There's one rule for Canberra and another rule for the corner store."
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has warned this risks shifting the cost of payment systems straight onto small businesses, at precisely the moment many are already struggling with rising costs.
As ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar put it: "Small businesses don't surcharge because they want to, they surcharge because the payment system charges them money every time they receive payment from customers. If you remove the ability to recover those costs at the checkout, you are effectively dumping those costs onto small businesses."
Australian small businesses are already under huge stress. According to the ABS, 375,331 businesses closed their doors in the 2025-26 financial year alone. Now there’s another pressure point.
Here in Monash, we have thousands of small businesses that provide essential products and services for our local community, and are critical to our visitor economy. They can't just absorb another cost increase.
Small businesses are being told to just wear it. Many can’t. That’s why the Coalition is standing up for you.
Across our community people are doing it incredibly tough, and community run food banks are facing unprecedented demand.
This morning Angus Taylor MP and I visited the volunteers at Baw Baw Food Relief to see firsthand the work they are doing to support locals in need.
Recently I’ve heard a number of stories about how hard it is for people right now. A young man sleeping rough, families working multiple jobs and still falling behind their mortgage repayments, and older women as the fastest growing cohort of homeless people.
That’s why we have to turn the economy around. Only the Coalition has a strong plan to fix this cost of living crisis.
At the start of this month the Victorian State Government announced that “the doors are closing on Victoria’s illicit tobacco trade with Labor’s tough new closure powers now law”. It was victory by press release.
Because so far, none have been closed in our region, or it appears, any region.
It’s Ben Carroll’s own version of ‘wharfie time’.
Let’s be clear about who is profiting. Bikie gangs and criminal cartels are selling vapes to children, while illegal cigarettes have striped $42 billion from excise that could be funding roads and hospitals.
Australia’s black market for tobacco is now among the largest anywhere in the world.
How did we get here? The excise tax now accounts for 71.5 per cent of a legal pack.
Labor has effectively handed criminals a $30-a-pack margin to undercut every law-abiding shopkeeper in Australia, and they have seized it with both hands.
That’s why the Coalition will cut the tobacco excise by 80% to claw back the illegal market and back it in with properly resourced enforcement.
More via the Sentinel Times: sgst.com.au/no-sign-of-an-il…
One of the issues I've been raising in Federal Parliament in response to local feedback is the need for stronger national security and consumer privacy protections as connected vehicle sales take off in Australia.
Consumer choice is important, including knowing how your data is collected and used:
The issues I’ve raised include:
- Farmers and tradies who need diesel and petrol vehicles to get to work are subsidising EV cars, as the Government is putting more pressure on increasing EV sales to catch up on its own lagging emissions targets.
- There are genuine national security concerns about the communications systems used in some EV brands, and how information is stored and used.
- Consumers are not being adequately informed about how their personal information is captured - like how geolocation tracking and voice recognition data is stored, used and in several cases sold to third parties without consent.
- There are an increasing number of domestic violence victims who have been stalked and harassed through the tracking and inadequate privacy settings on these cars, which I’ve been raising in Parliament. There is a lack of ‘privacy by design’ built in which needs to change.
The US, the UK, New Zealand, Canada and other countries have all updated their security and consumer privacy regulations to address these issues. Australia is lagging literally years behind.
That’s why I’m calling for Australia to catch up: theaustralian.com.au/nation/…
There were a few hopeful Hawks at the Drouin RSL Trivia night this evening. When I left home we were up by a few points but alas it wasn’t to be.
Great to see so much support for the Drouin RSL including from my friend and colleague the Member for Narracan Wayne Farnham MP and Baw Baw Shire Councillor Jess Hamilton. Well done everyone.
