STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS - Income Tax

June 21, 2018

The tax changes that passed through the Senate today represent that class war, a class war where a lawyer on $200,000 will get a seven-grand tax cut whereas a typical worker in my electorate will get $9.80 a week. To justify this class war, they've made all sorts of ridiculous claims that forklift drivers earn 160 grand a year. Give us one example of a forklift driver who earns 160 grand a year. Principals are described as the typical educatio...

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BILLS - Aged Care (Single Quality Framework) Reform Bill 2018 - Second Reading

June 20, 2018

Demand for aged-care services is accelerating across the country, with an ageing population, longer life expectancies and the increasing prevalence of conditions such as dementia. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Shortland, with more than 20 per cent of my electorate being over the age of 65—more than 30,000 constituents. My office deals with complaints about the My Aged Care system, with concerns about the transition from the NDIS and wi...

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Federation Chamber - CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS - National Disability Insurance Scheme

June 19, 2018

Since the beginning of this year my office in Shortland has received over 100 calls about NDIS failures under this government. The people in my electorate are fed up with being constantly denied information and waiting in endless queues for care they are entitled to receive. This government has turned the philosophy of the NDIS from 'choice and control' to 'reasonable and necessary'. The NDIS was meant to give agency back to Australians with d...

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Federation Chamber - PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS - Energy

June 18, 2018

The fact is, every independent expert and every independent commentator in this field agrees that the cheapest and most reliable form of new generation in this country is a combination of renewable energy, solar and wind, backed up by peaking gas and pumped hydro storage. Every single independent commentator has agreed on that. It is only the fact-free zone in the coalition party room that doesn't agree that that is the cheapest and most relia...

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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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