COMMITTEES: Regional Australia Committee

Mr McCormack (Riverina) (11:05): by leave—I thank the minister at the table for his indulgence. The minister at the table, the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, knows full well how important it is to ensure that we have productive irrigation in regional Australia. That is certainly so in the Riverina area, and I know he is particularly conscious of how many billions of dollars worth of exports come out of that region.

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Cristy Houghton
CONDOLENCES: Courtenay, Mr Bryce AM

Intelligence is a harder gift. For this you must work, you must practise it, challenge it, and maybe toward the end of your life you will master it.

Today, as we mourn his passing and celebrate his enormous contribution, we can reflect on how Courtenay mastered that intelligence and inspired all who read his books.

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Cristy Houghton
CONDOLENCES: Riordan, Hon. Joseph Martin (Joe)

Mr McCormack (Riverina) (18:41): We mourn the death, yet celebrate the life of Joseph Martin 'Joe' Riordan, AO. Sydney-born Riordan was educated at Patrician Brothers School and Marist Brothers College. He had a Labor pedigree. He was the nephew of Darby Riordan, the Labor member of the House of Representatives for Kennedy from 1929 to 1936. Joe married Patricia Watkins in 1955, and they had six children.

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Cristy Houghton
PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS: Juvenile Diabetes

Mr McCormack (Riverina) (11:53): Diabetes myelitis type 1, also known as juvenile diabetes, is a form of diabetes which results from the autoimmune destruction of insulin producing beta cells of the pancreas. This type of diabetes accounts for 10 to 15 per cent of cases of diabetes worldwide. That means there are about 20 million people living with type 1 diabetes in the world. In Australia, more than 123,000 people are affected by type 1 diabetes.

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Cristy Houghton
PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS: Migration Amendment (Reform of Employer Sanctions) Bill 2012

The Migration Amendment (Reform of Employer Sanctions) Bill 2012 seeks to impose an additional regulatory regime on employers employing foreign nationals who are illegal or who do not have work rights. The requirements this bill proposes are, I believe, onerous and unnecessary and are in direct opposition to the coalition's commitment to reduce the regulatory burden and compliance cost on business.

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Cristy Houghton
STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS: Wheat Exports

The proposed GrainCorp buyout would put 100 per cent of eastern Australia's grain exports in foreign hands. Is this in the national interest? Worried grain growers in the Riverina do not think so. For the eastern states' grain export facilities to be taken over by American company Archer Daniels Midland would be another nail in the coffin of our agricultural sector and another huge blow to future food security.

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Cristy Houghton
CONDOLENCES: Bilney, Mr Gordon Neil

Gordon Neil Bilney, who died on Sunday aged 73, was a straightshooter and someone with whom you knew where you stood. So said Noel Hicks from Griffith this morning when I telephoned him to talk about the Australian Labor Party's late member for Kingston, to whom we appropriately pay tribute again today.

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Cristy Houghton
DELEGATION REPORTS: Regional Australia Committee Delegation to Canada and Mongolia

Hurtling through the rough terrain of the Gobi Desert as a back seat passenger in a mining company's four-wheel drive vehicle, you do not get much opportunity to snap National Geographic style photographs. Such was the case early last month whilst in Mongolia as part of a five-person delegation from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia visiting that fascinating country.

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Cristy Houghton