House debates
Thursday, 14 February 2008
- Treasurer (0 speeches)
- Suspension of Standing and Sessional Orders (12 speeches)
I move: That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Treasurer being censured for misleading this House by stating in Question Time yesterday that he...
- Speaker’S Panel (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
Pursuant to standing order 17, I lay on the table my warrant nominating the honourable members for Lyons, Pearce, Barker and Braddon to be members of the Speaker’s panel to assist the chair...
- Social Security and Veterans’ Affairs Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Allowances) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- First Reading (0 speeches)
Bill and explanatory memorandum presented by Ms Macklin. Bill read a first time.
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This bill delivers on the government’s $4 billion election commitment to help older Australians, carers and people with disability make...
- Higher Education Support Amendment (Vet Fee-Help Assistance) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- First Reading (0 speeches)
Bill and explanatory memorandum presented by Ms Gillard. Bill read a first time.
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The Higher Education Support Amendment (VET FEE-HELP Assistance) Bill 2008 is to implement the original policy intent of the VET FEE-HELP...
- Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment (2008 Measures No. 1) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- First Reading (0 speeches)
Bill and explanatory memorandum presented by Ms Gillard. Bill read a first time.
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. Yesterday marked a significant moment in Australia’s history, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offering an apology to the stolen generations...
- Tax Laws Amendment (Personal Income Tax Reduction) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- First Reading (0 speeches)
Bill and explanatory memorandum presented by Mr Swan. Bill read a first time.
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The amendments contained in this bill will cut personal income tax for all Australian taxpayers from 1 July 2008, and implement important...
- Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Poisons Standard) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- First Reading (0 speeches)
Bill and explanatory memorandum presented by Ms Roxon. Bill read a first time.
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I must say it is nice to be presenting my first bill as a minister and to have so many familiar faces up in the gallery today. I suspect they...
- Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Assessments and Advertising) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- First Reading (0 speeches)
Bill and explanatory memorandum presented by Mr Debus. Bill read a first time.
- Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The National Classification Scheme operates to classify the content of a range of entertainment media and provide important information to...
- Governor-General’S Speech (0 speeches)
- Address-in-Reply (30 speeches)
Debate resumed from 13 February, on motion by Mr Hale: That the address be agreed to.
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Economy (15 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. Given his pre-election commitments, can the Prime Minister now give Australian families a guarantee his shopping trolley full of inquiries will give...
- Workplace Relations (6 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister explain to the House the importance of today’s release of an exposure draft of the National Employment Standards? Will the...
- Economy (2 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. Given it is a fact that the last three budgets have delivered surpluses of 1.5 per cent or more of gross domestic product, how will the surplus of 1.5 per...
- Workplace Relations (17 speeches)
Thank you, Mr Speaker, and let me congratulate you on your election to that role. I have enormous faith in you.
- Distinguished Visitors (0 speeches)
- (2 speeches)
I inform the House that we have present in the gallery this afternoon the Hon. Dr Stephen Martin, a former Speaker. On behalf of the House I extend to him a very warm welcome. Alongside of him,...
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Workplace Relations (7 speeches)
My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. What information is available about the impact of Australian workplace agreements on working families?
- Days and Hours of Meeting (6 speeches)
Mr Speaker, may I add my congratulations on your election to high office. My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister give me and my constituents a commitment that he...
- Economy (22 speeches)
My question is directed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer please update the House on the implications of today’s employment figures for the inflation challenge?
- Days and Hours of Meeting (9 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. In light of the Prime Minister’s proposal to freeze MP salaries for next year, will he, consistent with productivity principles, now commit to being a...
- Climate Change (2 speeches)
My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the House on the work Treasury is undertaking on the economics of climate change?
- Automotive Industry (2 speeches)
My question is to the Treasurer. Was the Treasurer aware prior to giving his answer yesterday that the government had made a decision to appoint Mr Steve Bracks to head a major review of the car...
- Economy (2 speeches)
Mr Speaker, the red roses have not been sent, but congratulations on your election as Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. Can the minister tell the House what...
- Automotive Industry (2 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Isn’t it the fact that the decision to appoint Mr Bracks was discussed and agreed by the cabinet strategic budget committee on 30 January, a...
- East Timor (4 speeches)
Mr Speaker, I offer you my congratulations on your election as Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Can the foreign minister update the House on his meeting with the East...
- Automotive Industry (2 speeches)
My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Given the Treasurer’s statement that the decision to appoint Mr Bracks to head the review of the car industry was only made last night, can he...
- Afghanistan (6 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Defence. Can the minister please outline what steps the government has taken to ensure that NATO has a coherent military plan and overall strategy in place for...
- Automotive Industry (2 speeches)
My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer confirm that the Treasury advised the government that the Productivity Commission should conduct the review of the motor vehicle industry, as...
- Infrastructure (11 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. How will the government’s plans for Infrastructure Australia improve productivity in...
- Automotive Industry (2 speeches)
My question is to the Treasurer. I refer to his previous answer. When was the Treasury advised of the government’s decision to appoint Mr Bracks to head the panel and when did the Treasury...
- Health (9 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Since 3 December last year, what has the government done to help build a better health system for a modern Australia?
- Agriculture (18 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Can the minister inform the House—
- Questions to the Speaker (0 speeches)
- Question Time (2 speeches)
Mr Speaker, in accordance with the practices of previous Speakers, I ask that you balance the equation in relation to questions at the next question time of this place. Otherwise, the closure of...
- Days and Hours of Meeting (16 speeches)
Mr Speaker, would you be prepared to provide the House, through your office, with a list of the various sitting week arrangements of the House of Representatives that have applied over the...
- Parliamentary Seating Plan (2 speeches)
Mr Speaker, I have a question to you on the seating plan that we have in front of us. We have actually got two members for Batman including you, Mr Speaker. I am wondering if action has been...
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Allocation of Annual Reports (1 speech)
I present a schedule showing the allocation to committees of annual reports of government departments and agencies. A copy of the schedule will be incorporated in Hansard. The schedule read as...
- Auditor-General’S Reports (0 speeches)
- Report No. 22 of 2007-08 (1 speech)
I present the Auditor-General’s Audit report No. 22 of 2007-08 entitled: Performance audit: Administration of grants to the Australian Rail Track Corporation: Department of Infrastructure,...
- Documents (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
Documents are presented as listed in the schedule circulated to honourable members. Details of the documents will be recorded in the Votes and Proceedings. I move: That the House take note of the...
- Matters of Public Importance (0 speeches)
- Economy (67 speeches)
I have received a letter from the honourable member for Wentworth proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely: The Government’s...
- Adjournment (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
Order! It being 4.30 pm, I propose the question: That the House do now adjourn.
- Mr Paddy McGuinness (1 speech)
This week the parliament has eulogised Bernie Banton, Matt Price, Sir Charles Court and Sir Edmund Hillary, and I rise this afternoon to praise a man equally worthy of parliamentary tribute,...
- Threatened and Extinct Species (1 speech)
Mr Speaker, I congratulate you on your election to high office. It is very well deserved indeed. I consider it a grotesque piece of arrogance on our part as a human race that we think we have the...
- Banka Island Massacre (1 speech)
I rise to ask that we remember the 21 Australian service nurses who were killed 66 years ago in an event that would become known as the Banka Island massacre. This Saturday, 16 February, will...
- Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples (1 speech)
Yesterday was a great day to be a member of parliament, a day that will be remembered by many and talked about for years to come. It was, of course, the day that the Prime Minister of the country...
- 2020 Summit (1 speech)
I wish to raise a matter of serious concern to many of my constituents and to many other Australians. On 3 February the Prime Minister announced that he would hold a summit of 1,000 of what he...
- Australian Police medal (1 speech)
I rise to congratulate Superintendent Stuart Wilkins, who was awarded the Australian Police Medal in the Australia Day honours this year. Superintendent Wilkins is a proud member of the New South...
- Statements by Members (0 speeches)
- Flinders Electorate: Railway Crossings (1 speech)
Earlier this week I had the sad task of speaking with Gwen Bates. Gwen Bates is the mother of Kay Stanley, who was 32 when she met a tragic accident recently. That accident was on the railway...
- Education Funding (1 speech)
Madam Deputy Speaker, congratulations on your election to your position. In my electorate of Braddon, on the beautiful north-west coast of Tasmania, schools just gone back, and that causes me to...
- Equine Influenza (1 speech)
Madam Deputy Speaker, I congratulate you on your appointment. It has been six months since the equine influenza epidemic broke out in Australia and crippled the equine industry and associated...
- Visas (2 speeches)
I welcome back the member for Hasluck.
- Hon. Ian Raymond Causley (1 speech)
Madam Deputy Speaker, I too congratulate you on your election to your very important role. I would like to record my appreciation to the former member for Page and former Deputy Speaker, the Hon....
- Parramatta Electorate: Chinese New Year (1 speech)
I rise today to wish all Australians who are celebrating the lunar new year at this time of year all the best for the coming Year of the Rat. This year, when we can expect new beginnings and...
- Mallee Electorate: Schools (1 speech)
I rise to my feet because I do not share the enthusiasm that the member for Braddon has with respect to the so-called education revolution proposed by the new government. I am particularly...
- Endangered Species (1 speech)
I congratulate you, Madam Deputy Speaker, on your election to that high and important office. Australia is very fortunate to be blessed with a wonderful array and diversity of different bird...
- Fadden Electorate: Regional Partnerships Program (1 speech)
Madam Deputy Speaker, let me join the chorus of congratulations on your elevation to the position of Deputy Speaker. I rise to register my concern as to the uncertainty regarding the ongoing...
- Shortland Electorate: Grocery Prices (2 speeches)
Madam Deputy Speaker, along with everyone else, I would like to add my words of congratulation upon your election as the Deputy Speaker. I feel absolutely certain that you will add something...
- Apology to Australia’S Indigenous Peoples (0 speeches)
- (17 speeches)
Debate resumed from 13 February, on motion by Mr Rudd: That—Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.We reflect on their past...
- Adjournment (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
I move: That the Main Committee do now adjourn.
- Port Phillip Bay (1 speech)
I rise in relation to the effects of the now-begun channel-deepening process upon dive operators within the electorate of Flinders, on the Mornington Peninsula and within Port Phillip Bay. There...
- Fowler Electorate: Federal Election (1 speech)
Madam Deputy Speaker, I congratulate you on your return to the parliament and on your election as Deputy Speaker. I am sure that we can rely on your fairness and management skills to bring out...
- Solomon Electorate: Australian Rules Football (1 speech)
May I join the long list of people who have congratulated you, Madam Deputy Speaker Burke. I was not going to, because I have seen you shrug every time you hear it, but I will take the...
- Mr Trevor Sprigg (1 speech)
On 17 January 2008 the Western Australian parliament lost a popular member and colleague, and Western Australia lost one of its sporting heroes: Trevor Sprigg MLA died suddenly at the age of 61....
- Education (1 speech)
As I look around the parliament, one thing that tends to unite a lot of parliamentarians is—oddly enough—that we are parents. In my case I am a very, very proud grandparent. Leading...
- Asia Society (1 speech)
In December 2007 I received a letter from the global organisation Asia Society, and I want to acknowledge that letter. I want to put on the record of the parliament that the Asia Society very...
