address to parliament – MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE – Infrastructure: Regional Australia
I thank the member for Bendigo for her contribution and express gratitude to her for pointing out the regional members from the government who represent rural constituents. I say to those Labor regional members: fight for your electorates, fight for your rural communities. You have the member for Rankin as your Treasurer—a Brisbane city based […]
address to parliament – BILLS – Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023
Education is the great enabler, and, indeed, it is very much a component of society which enables people to be their best selves. Certainly, we want the very best outcomes for our regional students. At the outset, I want to pay tribute, as the member for Blair just did, to that new committee being set […]
address to parliament – STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS – Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme
Labor does not understand regional Australia, doesn’t want to and doesn’t seek to. Labor’s changes to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme are unworkable. The point about this is that it’s labour with a U in that particular wording. Labor, this government, this mob, dropped the U out of ‘Labour’ in 1912, and ever since […]
address to parliament – PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – National Student Wellbeing Program
This has been a good debate. I think all in this chamber would agree that schools and education have changed since we were there. The member for Ryan; the member for Moreton, who has just left the chamber and just spoke; and the member for Tangney would agree with that. The member for Jagajaga has […]
address to parliament – STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS – Mental Health
I want to thank a Labor minister and also to make a request. I do want to thank the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health, Emma McBride, for intervening when the mental health practitioner at Gundagai was going to be lost. I made an urgent […]
address to parliament – PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Housing
I say to the member for Gilmore: you still had 25 seconds; you could have bagged the Greens a little bit more. But I digress. The social and housing situation, in terms of affordability and availability, is a major issue, but the Greens are using what is essentially and primarily a state issue to garner […]
address to parliament – MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE – Inflation
I wouldn’t mind it so much that the member for Perth mentioned—424 days, was it?—costing policies. The Australian public would just love 424 days of not costly policies, because that’s what Labor has produced. Government members interjecting— Mr McCORMACK: That’s a good one, isn’t it! I thought of it just then as I looked at […]
address to parliament – BILLS – National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill 2023, National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2023 – Second Reading
I give this address on behalf of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. This package of legislation—the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill 2023 and the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2023—delivers on a recommendation of the National Dust Disease Taskforce, established by the former coalition government in 2019, to create a […]
address to parliament – CONDOLENCES – Crean, Hon. Simon Findlay
Simon Crean—a friend, never a foe. He was, as the minister, the member for Gorton, has just described, a role model. I want to put on record how he was a role model to me. I came to this place in 2010, a backbencher—not like Simon, who was a frontbencher from day 1. I was […]
address to parliament – CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS – Pharmacies
Today is exactly one month to D-Day for pharmacies, the day, 1 September, when 60-day dispensing comes into effect. This is going to sound the death knell, chemists claim, of many of our rural, regional and, perhaps most disappointingly, remote pharmacies. A constituent of mine is Luke van der Rijt. He is a good man. […]