An update on the state of Shortland

November 28, 2018

Before I draw the attention of the House to some of the highlights of 2018 in Shortland, I do want to reflect on events at a national level, particularly in recent months. It's beyond disappointing that we are now onto our third Liberal Prime Minister in five years. The Liberals and Nationals have clearly not learnt the lessons of the past—that is, when Australians elect a government, unless there are some extraordinary circumstances, they exp...

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National Apology – Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

October 24, 2018

The royal commission spent many weeks in Newcastle and heard from victims of abuse, particularly from the Anglican and Catholic dioceses. Many of my constituents attended St Pius X High School at Adamstown. The commission and the criminal trials over the past decade revealed that what should have been a sanctuary of security and stability for young adults was, for many, a cesspit of depravity and criminality. Former Archbishop Philip Wilson, w...

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CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS - Centrelink

October 23, 2018

A complaint that all 150 of us in the House of Representatives would be familiar with is their constituents' frustrations, particularly elderly and vulnerable Australians, regarding delays in accessing benefits through the Department of Human Services. I particularly want to raise the issue of one of my constituents, who waited over six months for her application for the aged pension to be processed. It was only approved after my office became...

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STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS - Minister for the Environment

October 18, 2018

The great tragedy is that the environment is what suffers. The environment is suffering because the member for Durack is incompetent and unfit to hold office.

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The Minister's embarrassing response to the IPCC report findings

October 15, 2018

Last week the UNIPCC released a groundbreaking report on the dangers of climate change and the urgent need for the entire world to act in coalition to reduce climate change to only rising by 1½ degrees. What we saw from the government in their response was, quite frankly, embarrassing. The Minister for the Environment—the so-called minister, who has been in witness protection—was let out once to do an ABC interview on AM, and she got demolishe...

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KILLING SEASON IN CANBERRA AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR CLEAN ENERGY

October 04, 2018

You only have to look at the results of recent renewable energy reverse auctions here and overseas to see that we are witnessing a tipping point. We are seeing nothing short of a revolution in the energy sector. A revolution that is slowly but surely overturning the traditional concept of building large thermal power plants close to their fuel resource and then running very large transmission lines to large demand centres such as cities and...

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