Federation Chamber - BILLS - Attorney-General's Portfolio - Consideration in Detail

May 30, 2018

I'm going to begin where the minister began, which is talking about Australia's carbon pollution levels, because the minister wasn't telling the full story. If he were interested in being accurate and fair, he would have noted that, last year, pollution levels in this country rose by 1½ per cent. Australia's carbon pollution went up by 1½ per cent according to the government's own figures. As worryingly, in the last quarter alone carbon pollut...

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BILLS - National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Bill 2018, National Redress...

May 29, 2018

Over the last five years we have heard about the most heartbreaking of stories, from the bravest of people, at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. I, like my colleagues in parliament, want to make it clear that we believe them. We know they were victims of horrible crimes, we know they were let down by people in institutions that were meant to keep them safe and we know that they deserve adequate redress fo...

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STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS - Budget

May 24, 2018

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BILLS - Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2018-2019, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2018-2019, Appropriation...

May 23, 2018

The first five years of a child's development are the most crucial, so if we want to invest in our children's future, we need to invest more in child care, not less. Part of that investment is also boosting pay for early childhood educators. Early childhood educators do a phenomenal job under very difficult circumstances. With two kids in early childhood education, I'm in awe of their educators. They have to have a minimum of a cert III qualif...

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Matters of Public Importance: Budget

May 22, 2018

I'm proud to rise on this matter of public importance to discuss the government's failure to invest in infrastructure. It's a privilege to follow the member for Bradfield, a warm-up act to four successive National Party ministers. It must be very galling to be taking orders from the likes of the member for New England. The truth is that this is a smoke-and-mirrors budget. This government, as the member for Grayndler has ably outlined, uses...

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Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018;Second Reading

May 22, 2018

I rise to talk about the Treasury Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Plan) Bill 2018. I do so with eagerness because this bill allows us to talk about the centrepiece of the government's hopeless and already discredited budget and the philosophical underpinnings of that budget. The philosophical underpinnings of this budget are twofold. First, it's a reaffirmation of the discredited 1980s economic theory of trickle-down economics. Secondly, i...

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