Sam Birrell MP

FIX THE ECONOMY. PROTECT OUR WAY OF LIFE.

The Coalition's plan to cut the cost of living, lower taxes, and back regional communities like Nicholls.

See The Plan
https://nationalsplan.org.au/our-plan

REGIONAL NEWS, NATIONAL FIGHT

The journalism has not stopped. The advertising revenue that paid for it has moved to the digital platforms.

I spoke in Parliament this week on the News Journalism Payments Bills, which build on a system the coalition put in place. It has already delivered more than 30 commercial agreements and around $250 million a year into Australian newsrooms.

Regional Australians deserve a local source.

98 DAYS AND COUNTING TO FIX AN UNFAIR TAX

One has to wonder what those opposite were thinking when they drafted this budget.

The government has had 98 days to fix this. The Coalition has a bill ready to repeal it right now.

Labor's widow tax must go.

Ministerial discretion needs scrutiny

The Albanese Labor Government says its new university bill delivers $3.6 billion over the decade. Its own budget papers say $2.5 billion over 11 years. That is a $1.1 billion gap with no explanation given.

The Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026 hands the minister sweeping new powers:
• Deciding how many Commonwealth supported university places exist
• Controlling international student numbers
• Setting needs based funding rules through guidelines, not legislation
• Allocating places directly and issuing binding directions to the new Tertiary Education Commission

Regional students and universities deserve certainty, not shifting numbers and ministerial discretion.

I have called for this bill to go to a Senate committee so it gets the scrutiny it deserves before any final decision is made.

Nicholls families and students need answers, not assumptions.

BACKING THE PEOPLE WHO BUILD OUR REGION

Regional economies depend on people prepared to invest, take risks and build productive businesses. Our dairy industry is built on that entrepreneurship, and governments need to create the conditions for continued investment and growth.

The baby boomer generation built this country. Now Labor is cutting their private health insurance rebate.

National Seniors says it will hit millions of older Australians who paid their taxes and did their bit.

In our electorate office we hear it constantly. People about my age coming in and saying they cannot get an aged care package for mum and dad. It has been ages, and nobody can tell them what can be done.

Older Australians deserve better than this.

Our community has finally got it done, and it's about to happen.

From later this month, Shepparton will have nine passenger rail return services to Melbourne each day, up from five. For a growing regional city with some of the best food processing, manufacturing and farming industry in the country, that is a big step forward.

This came down to years of work. Stage 3 of the project cost $400 million in total, with $320 million of that funded federally. That investment set the line up to take the extra trains, with passing loops and signalling upgrades across the Goulburn Valley.

Better rail means better access to jobs, education and health care right across our region.

Shepparton, this one has been a long time coming.