ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – MOTIONS – Wages
I rise to speak on this motion put forward by the member for Lalor, and, in doing so, I note that from today, 1 July 2024, the national minimum wage will increase to $915.90 per week, or $24.10 per hour, and award minimum wages will increase by 3.75 per cent. Other award wages, including junior […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Queensland: Beef Industry
Beef roads are so very important. I can remember when I was the Deputy Prime Minister—in the golden age of Australian democracy!—going to a press conference with the erstwhile Minister Matthew Canavan and the then member for Flynn, Kenny O’Dowd. We were announcing significant funding for an upgrade—a $30 million project. We were contributing $20 […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Taxation
With all this pizzazz and excitement, you would think that people out in voter land would be dancing in the streets and rejoicing. I wonder, member for Wright, are they dancing in railway street in Beaudesert? They’re certainly not dancing in Baylis Street in Wagga. Labor talks about tax cuts and power price reductions. The […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS – Pacific Region
Tomorrow I will have the distinct pleasure of launching the Asia-Pacific Development Diplomacy and Defence Dialogue’s paper about the importance of youth, civil society and media in the Pacific. If there’s one thing I agree on with the Prime Minister it’s the fact that Australia is the Pacific nations’ partner of choice. Indeed, the opposition […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – BILLS – Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024 – Second Reading
I am just off the phone from the state member for Roe, Peter Rundle, who describes what the Labor federal government has done to his community as ‘quite traumatic’. ‘They have taken it to heart,’ he told me. He represents the people with the most sheep in the Western Australia parliament, just as the member […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024
I rise to speak on the Export Control Amendment (Ending Live Sheep Exports by Sea) Bill 2024. Our cattle producers would be very nervous if they were listening to that speech by the member for Warringah. They would be very, very nervous because, rest assured, once Labor, the teals and the Independents phase out the […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Health Care: Maternity Services
I thank the member for Lingiari for her insightful words. She, as much as anybody, would know how difficult it is for women, particularly for Aboriginal women, in her sprawling Northern Territory electorate to give birth. Having a baby can be very stressful for mothers, and I commend the member for Wide Bay for bringing […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Medicare
Surprise, surprise, I agree with the member for Newcastle when she says that health is the most pressing issue, because it is. Of course it ties in with the cost-of-living crisis too, but if Labor were so good with Medicare and health in general, why have bulk-billing rates slipped and fallen so markedly since they […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Road Safety
Road safety is so important in our society. Better roads means less deaths on those roads. The member for Hawke politicised his argument. He said those opposite always make a political play thing out of this—not true; not true. But, seeing as he wants to take this motion there, the 90-day review put in place […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Wages
The member for Spence comes in here and takes credit, on behalf of the Labor government, for the Australian Fair Work Commission’s recent wage rise of 3¾ per cent. It’s like coming in here and taking credit for the sun coming up. I’ll give the member for Spence a little heads up. The sun coming […]