ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT – MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE – DEFENCE
At the outset, Madam Deputy Speaker, I’ll say that I heard the member for Wills—and I might have misheard him—call out to the shadow minister for defence, ‘Walk the walk.’ If anybody has walked the walk in this place, it’s this bloke behind me. He was a member of the SAS regiment, and there’s no […]
Address to Parliament- PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Northern Territory Safe Measures Bill 2023
‘Suffer the little children,’ somebody far wiser and greater than me said. Certainly in the Northern Territory at the moment we have a crisis. Some of the most vulnerable members of that community are suffering: children. I know that a cashless debit card wasn’t the panacea or the cure-all for all the ills in the […]
Address to Parliament- PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Albanese Government
The member for Boothby is new here. I give her credit for the fact that before coming to this place she was the chief executive officer of Saint Vincent de Paul South Australia and she won the seat as the first ALP member for 73 years. Well done on that. I listened very carefully and […]
Address to Parliament- STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS – Veterans
Veterans have an advocate and ally in Julie-Ann Finney. Last week was the fourth anniversary of the loss of her son Petty Officer David Stafford Finney, a proud member of the Royal Australian Navy, 38 years young—gone too soon. Julie-Ann has attended each and every one of the hearing days of the Royal Commission into […]
Address to Parliament- STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS – Veterans
I have given more than 1,000 speeches in this place, both in the House of Representatives and in the Federation Chamber, which was previously under a different title: the Main Committee. One of the most difficult speeches I’ve given in Parliament House was in March 2021 when, as Deputy Prime Minister, I addressed coalition staff […]
ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT- ADJOURNMENT – Banking and Financial Services
I’ve been communicating today with the Mayor of Junee Shire Council, Neil Smith, and the general manager, James Davis, about their ongoing concerns about the closure of that wonderful railway and now jail town’s only bank. The Commonwealth Bank is set to close its doors. This is reprehensible, when you think that a town like […]
Address to Parliament- MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE – Cost Of Living
The member for Fenner is not a bad chap, but I do not like being lectured to by somebody who only has a capital city intent and who comes to this place just wanting to push his capital city barrow, and country people do not like that either. When he talks about the issues that […]
Address to Parliament- PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Manufacturing
Thank you, Deputy Speaker Chesters. You are from Bendigo, one of the homes of the Chiko roll—a great manufacturing and processing area. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The home. Mr McCORMACK: The home. Gee, I’m being verballed by the Deputy Speaker! But it is also the home of the Bushmaster, and what a great Australian manufacturing success […]
Address to Parliament-PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS – Medicare
I take on board the member for Moreton’s comments in relation to Medicare. Once again, he’s fallen into the trap of blaming the coalition for all the ills of the nation whilst praising the Labor government. I stand at the dispatch box and say that Medicare is a good system. I stand at the dispatch […]
Address to Parliament-MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE – Cost of Living
I’ll take the member for Perth up on a couple of points. Cuts to JobKeeper? We were the ones who instigated JobKeeper, which saved 700,000 jobs during a global pandemic. The member for Perth asked what we got for, to use his term, a trillion dollars worth of debt, and he said that is placing […]