House debates
Thursday, 8 February 2007
- Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2006-2007 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. It is with great pleasure that I introduce Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2006-2007. There are two additional estimates bills this year:...
- Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2006-2007 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. Appropriation Bill (No. 4) provides additional funding to agencies for:expenses in relation to grants to the states under section 96 of the...
- Aged Care Amendment (Security and Protection) Bill 2007 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. On 27 July 2006 the government announced a $90.2 million package of reforms aimed at further safeguarding older people in Australian government...
- Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia’s Skills Needs) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2006 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (4 speeches)
I rise in this House to support the Australian Technical Colleges (Flexibility in Achieving Australia’s Skills Needs) Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2006. But, like other members of the opposition,...
- Auscheck Bill 2006 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (21 speeches)
I rise to speak on the AusCheck Bill 2006. The bill seeks to establish a regulatory framework for the conduct of a centralised background-checking service to be conducted by the...
- Consideration in Detail (3 speeches)
I do not anticipate that we will be here long in the consideration in detail stage of the AusCheck Bill 2006. I appreciate the Attorney’s comments in relation to some of the matters that...
- Private Health Insurance Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Prostheses Application and Listing Fees) Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Collapsed Organization Levy) Amendment Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance Complaints Levy Amendment Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Council Administration Levy) Amendment Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Reinsurance Trust Fund Levy) Amendment Bill 2006 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (11 speeches)
The government is right in stating that this package of bills represents a significant change to the private health insurance policy and probably the most significant change since the...
- Ministerial Arrangements (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
I inform the House that the Minister for Foreign Affairs will be absent from question time today and Monday and Tuesday of next week. We will all miss him. He is travelling to the United Kingdom,...
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (7 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. What will the minister do to guarantee that no Australian parent has to go without needed medication for their sick children because of...
- Water (9 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware of an allegation that there is a $900 million hole in the provision of funds for the government’s national...
- Employment (2 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Treasurer, would you outline to the House the results of the January labour force survey?
- Water (15 speeches)
My question is also to the Treasurer. Treasurer, given that the Prime Minister has not made his officials available to brief us, how much of the $10 billion water plan is additional to what the...
- Economy (17 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer outline to the House how business expectations have improved, and are there alternatives that could damage business prospects?
- Water (2 speeches)
My question, which is not about chickens, is directed to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Does the minister support the fact that, under the new management arrangements for...
- South Australia (2 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware of potential threats to the future economic growth of South Australia and to jobs for the people in this important part...
- Climate Change (2 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister and is also on climate change. Given the Prime Minister’s reference to coalminers and their jobs as an excuse for his inaction on climate change, I ask...
- Workplace Relations (2 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister inform the House of full-time jobs growth since the introduction of Work Choices? What are the...
- Climate Change (2 speeches)
My question is again to the Prime Minister and, again, on climate change. Prime Minister, why, after three days in parliament, do you still refuse to repudiate the statement by the Minister for...
- Private Health Insurance (20 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister advise the House how the government’s support for private health insurance is taking the pressure off our...
- Water (2 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister. Deputy Prime Minister, given the government’s attempt to overcome state borders as impediments to water reform, and assuming the...
- Education: Schools (8 speeches)
My question is addressed to the excellent Minister for Education, Science and Training. Would the minister please advise the House if she has received reports on whether state governments are...
- Climate Change (16 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister and is again on climate change. Does the Prime Minister accept the connection between climate change and the severity and length of droughts into the future?
- Water (2 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister and relates to the statement he tabled earlier today from Wendy Craik of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission responding to this official report I am holding...
- Australian Technical Colleges (12 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Minister for Vocational and Further Education. Would the minister inform the House how new Australian technical colleges in cities like Gladstone and Townsville...
- Questions to the Speaker (0 speeches)
- Question Time (4 speeches)
I refer to page 527 of the House of Representatives Practice, which states that it is fundamental in the concept of responsible government that the executive government be accountable to the...
- Personal Explanations (0 speeches)
- (5 speeches)
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
- Committee Administrative Practice (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
A number of questions concerning committee practice were raised in the House and in correspondence to me in December. The questions were raised in the context of the operation of the Family and...
- Auditor-General’S Reports (0 speeches)
- Report No. 25 of 2006-07 (1 speech)
I present the Auditor-General’s Audit performance report No. 25 of 2006-07 entitled Management of airport leases—Follow-up audit: Department of Transport and Regional Services....
- Matters of Public Importance (0 speeches)
- Education (18 speeches)
I might be old-fashioned but it remains the case today that the single most important thing you can do for a young Australian is to give them a quality education. That maximises the potential in...
- Private Health Insurance Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Prostheses Application and Listing Fees) Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Collapsed Organization Levy) Amendment Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance Complaints Levy Amendment Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Council Administration Levy) Amendment Bill 2006; Private Health Insurance (Reinsurance Trust Fund Levy) Amendment Bill 2006 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I would, firstly, like to concentrate on a statement made by the member for Dobell, the previous speaker in the debate on the Private Health Insurance Bill 2006 and related bills. I believe the...
- Adjournment (0 speeches)
- Water (2 speeches)
This week the Prime Minister either forgot, misunderstood or did not hear correctly. But this is not a question of his memory, understanding or hearing. John Howard is a clever politician, but...
- Cerebral Palsy Tasmania (1 speech)
Today I want to raise the issue of Cerebral Palsy Tasmania and its contract to operate the tip shop at Margate. Of all the layers of administration which interact with constituents, local...
- La Trobe Electorate: Princes Freeway (1 speech)
I am moved to rise today on behalf of the residents who live around the Princes Freeway in Berwick, Beaconsfield and Narre Warren North in my electorate of La Trobe. The Princes Freeway is an...
- Welfare to Work (1 speech)
This year my office has been inundated by victims of the Howard government’s extreme changes to the Welfare to Work legislation. Changes by this government have been accompanied by a...
- Cook Electorate (2 speeches)
I would like to inform the House of some very positive developments in my electorate of Cook. I have previously spoken in this place about the On the Same Wave program, funded by the Australian...
- Statements by Members (0 speeches)
- Mr David Hicks (1 speech)
When I spoke to my wife on Tuesday evening she was quite emotional. She had just witnessed on television the lawyer for David Hicks accounting his most recent visit to Guantanamo Bay. As he...
- Monopoly Board Game (5 speeches)
There is an interesting campaign at the moment involving one of the world’s best known board games—Monopoly. Hasbro, the company that will make the Australian Monopoly, will launch an...
- Adelaide Airport (1 speech)
I recently received the latest Adelaide Airport curfew dispensation report from DOTARS covering the period 1 October to 31 December 2006. There have been a few teething problems with the...
- Queensland Police Service (1 speech)
I rise this morning to side very strongly with the ordinary men and women of the thin blue line of Queensland, who are represented by the Queensland Police Union in their efforts to get some...
- Port of Newcastle: Coal Exports (1 speech)
The Port of Newcastle sits at the end of the Hunter Valley coal chain. In the past two years over 84 million tonnes per annum of coal has been shipped out to our Asian buyers—Japan, Korea,...
- Ridgehaven Retirement Complex (1 speech)
Last month I was privileged to travel with the Deputy Prime Minister to visit the hinterland areas of my electorate to announce two strategic Roads to Recovery programs; they are very important...
- Qantas (1 speech)
I have been contacted by a number of constituents who are Qantas workers expressing deep concern about the future of our iconic national carrier. Qantas is a critical economic asset as well as a...
- Electorate of Herbert: Australian Technical College North Queensland (1 speech)
On Monday morning I was privileged to attend the opening of the new Australian Technical College North Queensland in Townsville. We have probably delivered in Townsville the best ATC in the...
- Anniversary of the HMAS Voyager Disaster (1 speech)
I rise today to speak about an anniversary that takes place this Saturday: the 43rd anniversary of Australia’s greatest peacetime military training accident. On 10 February, 1964, 82 naval...
- Gilmore Electorate: Road Funding; Nuclear Power (2 speeches)
One of the region’s most tragic road black spots in my electorate of Gilmore is to be eliminated thanks to the $457,000 black spot funding announced by the Australian government. These...
- Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment Bill 2006 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (15 speeches)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This bill amends the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act 1991 by making changes to the governance arrangements of EFIC. These changes...
- Maritime Legislation Amendment (Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships) Bill 2006 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (4 speeches)
I rise to support the Maritime Legislation Amendment (Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships) Bill 2006. In doing so, can I say that I thoroughly agree with the answer given by the Minister for...
- Adjournment (0 speeches)
- Lord Howe Island (1 speech)
Lord Howe Island is a unique community and part of the federal electorate of Sydney. Lord Howe Island is north-east of Sydney and is World Heritage listed for its unique flora, fauna and marine...
- Wakefield Electorate: GM Holden (1 speech)
I rise today to talk about families in the electorate of Wakefield and their future security. I am particularly glad today to be able to talk about an announcement that was made by General Motors...
- Indigenous Australians (1 speech)
As the South Australian Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation pointed out in the state parliament this week, this is a year of very significant anniversaries when it comes to...
- Casey Electorate: Australia Day (1 speech)
Today in this adjournment debate I would like to thank some community groups in my electorate of Casey and particularly make mention of some community leaders and some of the Australia Day...
- Chinese Satellite (1 speech)
Who rules in Beijing? It took China 12 days to admit that on 11 January it used a ballistic missile to destroy one of its own satellites. This is the first destruction of a satellite in space for...
- Hinkler Electorate: Roads Funding (1 speech)
We all appreciate the importance of good road networks in regional Australia and I commend the government for its fresh approach in the funding of key road projects under the AusLink Strategic...
- Ms Pauline Hanson; Electoral Rolls (1 speech)
Pauline Hanson’s contribution to Australian politics has caused much pain to many of her fellow Australians. I abhor her views. However, she is as entitled to make use of the electoral...
