House debates
Monday, 17 March 2008
- Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (8 speeches)
Debate resumed from 20 February, on motion by Ms Gillard: That this bill be now read a second time.
- Consideration in Detail (11 speeches)
Bill—by leave—taken as a whole.
- Third Reading (1 speech)
by leave—I move: That this bill be now read a third time. Question agreed to. Bill read a third time.
- Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Communications Fund) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (1 speech)
Debate resumed from 12 March, on motion by Mr Albanese: That this bill be now read a second time.
- Condolences (0 speeches)
- Hon. Clyde Robert Cameron AO (6 speeches)
I move: That the House record its deep regret at the death on 14 March 2008 of the Hon. Clyde Robert Cameron AO, former minister and member for Hindmarsh, and place on record its appreciation for...
- Main Committee (0 speeches)
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Beijing AustChina Technology (2 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that, as shadow foreign affairs minister, he accompanied a Chinese importer of Australian telecommunications products, Beijing...
- HMAS Sydney (3 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the discovery of HMAS Sydney?
- Beijing AustChina Technology (2 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to an earlier question concerning his visit to Sudan in 2006. Did the Prime Minister attend any business meetings in Sudan in June...
- Tibet (2 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister advise the House of the Australian government’s approach to developments in Tibet?
- Beijing AustChina Technology (2 speeches)
My question is again to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, in light of your response to the previous question about business meetings in Sudan, can you explain comments reported today by the...
- Economy (7 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the latest developments in global financial markets and the consequences for Australia?
- Beijing AustChina Technology (2 speeches)
My question is again to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, in relation to your trip to Sudan in 2006, did the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provide any assistance, and did you seek it?
- Economy (14 speeches)
My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on recent contributions to the debate about the magnitude and nature of the inflation challenge in the Australian economy?
- Workplace Relations (6 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. What is the current status of the assessment of AWAs by the...
- Pensions and Benefits (2 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to letters now being sent to pensioners about the increase in deeming rates for seniors and retirees, which, of course, has the...
- Workplace Relations (7 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Will the minister update the House on the government’s progress in implementing the fair, balanced and flexible...
- Transport Workers Union (8 speeches)
My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to comments he made on 2 October last year that he had asked Labor’s national secretary to conduct an internal investigation...
- Economy (19 speeches)
My question is to the Assistant Treasurer. What is the government doing to place downward pressure on the cost-of-living increases for working families? In particular, what is the government...
- HMAS Sydney (2 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel. Now that the wrecks of HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran have been found, will the minister update the House on further immediate...
- Health Services (12 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. In the light of comments made by the South Australian Minister for Health, John Hill, that GP superclinics ‘don’t necessarily...
- Climate Change (5 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. Will the minister outline how the Rudd government is delivering on its election commitment to take action on climate...
- Questions to the Speaker (0 speeches)
- Ministerial Arrangements (4 speeches)
Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. On the question just answered by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts I seek guidance as to ministerial arrangements with regard to...
- Questions without Notice: Additional Answers (0 speeches)
- Questions to the Speaker (0 speeches)
- Question Time (5 speeches)
Mr Speaker, I refer you to page 554 of House of Representatives Practice, dealing with length of answers. Given that, prior to the election, the Prime Minister said that he was going to have a...
- Personal Explanations (0 speeches)
- (5 speeches)
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.
- 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.
- Ministerial Statements (0 speeches)
- Best Practice Regulation Requirements (3 speeches)
by leave—Increasing Australia’s long-term productive capacity is the key to maintaining downward pressure on inflation and, therefore, downward pressure on interest rates. As Labor...
- Main Committee (0 speeches)
- Private Members’ Motions (1 speech)
In accordance with standing order 41(h) and the recommendations of the whips adopted by the House on 12 March 2008, I present copies of the terms of motions for which notice has been given by the...
- Petitions (0 speeches)
- (2 speeches)
I present petitions in accordance with standing order 207.
- Defence Legislation Amendment Bill 2008; Higher Education Support Amendment (Vet Fee-Help Assistance) Bill 2008; Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Poisons Standard) Bill 2008; Trade Practices Amendment (Access Declarations) Bill 2008; Screen Australia Bill 2008; National Film and Sound Archive Bill 2008; Screen Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- Returned from the Senate (0 speeches)
Message received from the Senate returning the bills without amendment or request.
- Register of Members’ Interests (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
As required by resolutions of the House, I present a copy of the Register of Members’ Interests for the 42nd Parliament. I ask leave of the House to present copies of notifications of...
- Governor-General’S Speech (0 speeches)
- Address-in-Reply (12 speeches)
Debate resumed from 12 March, on motion by Mr Hale: That the Address be agreed to.
- Infrastructure Australia Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- Report from Main Committee (0 speeches)
Bill returned from Main Committee for further consideration; certified copy of the bill presented. Ordered that this bill be considered immediately.
- Second Reading (2 speeches)
Debate resumed.
- Consideration in Detail (6 speeches)
Bill—by leave—taken as a whole.
- Third Reading (1 speech)
by leave—I move: That this bill be now read a third time. Question agreed to. Bill read a third time.
- Governor-General’S Speech (0 speeches)
- Main Committee (0 speeches)
- Governor-General’s Speech; Reference (1 speech)
by leave—I move: That the following order of the day be referred to the Main Committee for debate: Address in Reply to the Governor-General’s speech—Resumption of debate....
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- First Reading (0 speeches)
Bill received from the Senate, and read a first time. Ordered that the second reading be made an order of the day for the next sitting.
- Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Communications Fund) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- Business (0 speeches)
- Rearrangement (1 speech)
by leave—I move: That, unless otherwise ordered, at the commencement of the Main Committee meeting tomorrow, the first item of business shall be Members’ statements, each for no...
- Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Communications Fund) Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- (30 speeches)
Debate resumed.
- Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Laws Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- Private Members’ Business (0 speeches)
- Housing Affordability (9 speeches)
I move: That the House:(1)notes:(a)the pain being felt by Australian families struggling to pay off mortgages due to rising interest rates;(b)the failure of the previous government to heed the...
- Indigenous Communities (9 speeches)
I move: That the House:(1)calls on the Government to end the permit system preventing access to remote Northern Territory townships;(2)calls on the Government to restore the pornography bans put...
- Adjournment (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
Order! It being 9.30 pm, I propose the question: That the House do now adjourn.
- Health Services (1 speech)
According to the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, at least 1,000 doctors are needed immediately to provide even just basic medical care in rural Australia. Yet over the past 15 years less...
- Middle East (1 speech)
Few conflicts today inspire the level of mistrust and misunderstanding that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict does, and few have the capacity to divide public opinion so sharply. These divisions...
- Kangaroo Culling (1 speech)
We are told that very soon there will be a cull of some 400 kangaroos on a former naval site at Belconnen here in Canberra. In 2002 a kangaroo cull on a larger scale took place at Puckapunyal in...
- Terrorism (1 speech)
Today I had the honour of announcing the Research Support for Counter-Terrorism program grants of the federal government. This program is under the auspices of the National Security Science and...
- Camp Kookaburra (1 speech)
Last Saturday week, I visited Camp Kookaburra at the Anglican youth department camp in the national park in my electorate of Cook to congratulate Camp Kookaburra founder and Sutherland shire...
- Isaacs Electorate: Surf-Lifesaving (1 speech)
I rise to speak about some of the unsung heroes in my electorate of Isaacs. These are the fantastic men and women who volunteer as lifesavers on the magnificent beaches in my electorate from...
- Infrastructure Australia Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (23 speeches)
Debate resumed from 13 March, on motion by Mr Albanese: That this bill be now read a second time.
- Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Amendment Bill 2008 (0 speeches)
- Second Reading (10 speeches)
Debate resumed from 13 February, on motion by Mr Tanner: That this bill be now read a second time.
- Statements by Members (0 speeches)
- East Timor: Cuban Assistance (1 speech)
Today I wish to express my congratulations and thanks to a country and a number of its citizens. The country is Cuba, and the citizens are the 177 members of a Cuban medical team which returned...
- Citizenship Test (1 speech)
I rise tonight to bring to the attention of the chamber the problem being faced by permanent residents of my electorate of Forrest when they attempt to become Australian citizens and are required...
- Mary Mildred ‘Molly’ Heffernan (1 speech)
I would like to acknowledge the passing of one of Labor’s true believers and stalwarts, Mary Mildred Heffernan, otherwise known to most people as Molly. Molly was a stalwart of the labour...
- Mitchell Electorate: Annual Heritage Park Fair (1 speech)
On Sunday I attended the Annual Heritage Park Fair, in Castle Hill, which this year commemorated the 204th anniversary of the Castle Hill convict rebellion. This was the first ever convict...
- Wakefield Electorate: McLeod’s Daughters (1 speech)
I would like to thank the Gawler Health Foundation for their role in arranging a McLeod’s Daughters farewell. It was a farewell for a great series, which has been going since 2001. I have a...
- Flinders Electorate: Law Enforcement (1 speech)
I wish to speak about the policing crisis on the Mornington Peninsula and to speak in support of District Inspector Gordon Charteris. Very recently, there was an important meeting on the...
- Isaacs Electorate: Friends of Braeside Park (1 speech)
I want to pay tribute to the work done in my electorate by the Friends of Braeside Park. Braeside Park is a large area of restored native vegetation which forms part of the Kingston green wedge....
- Fadden Electorate: Gold Coast Council Election (1 speech)
I rise to praise the efforts of the Liberal team at the recent Gold Coast election. Whilst the result was clearly not what we had hoped for, the effort, the support and the team work that went...
- Tibet (2 speeches)
In the time available to me I want to express my very great concern over events in Tibet and the actions of the communist Chinese authorities in suppressing what I believe ought to be the...
- Private Members’ Business (0 speeches)
- Epilepsy (8 speeches)
Debate resumed, on motion by Ms Hall: That the House:(1)recognises that epilepsy is the most common serious brain disorder and is the most universal of all medical disorders;(2)acknowledges that...
- Darfur (10 speeches)
Debate resumed, on motion by Mr Broadbent: That the House consider what action should be taken by the Australian Government in response to the humanitarian tragedy that is Darfur.
- Disability Support and Care (9 speeches)
Debate resumed, on motion by Mrs Gash: That the House:(1)calls on the Australian Parliament to adopt a bipartisan approach to improving the provision and delivery of disability support and care...
- Grievance Debate (0 speeches)
- (0 speeches)
Question proposed: That grievances be noted.
- Trade Practices: Franchises (1 speech)
Last year I brought to the attention of this parliament a situation regarding my constituents who had purchased Lenard’s chicken franchises—Rochelle Bailey, a former franchisee of...
- Government Policies (1 speech)
The state of the economy has been the subject of much discussion of late, and we know that we are facing serious inflationary pressures which will definitely be putting and have put pressure on...
- Liberal Party of Australia (3 speeches)
Of course the Australian Labor Party have a great reform program, member for Canberra! They want to drive up unemployment, interest rates, petrol prices and grocery prices—and that is...
- Workplace Relations (6 speeches)
It is quite obvious that the previous speaker still cannot get over the fact that those opposite lost the election. In the 107-year history of the parliament of Australia, on only two occasions...
- Greenway Electorate: Education Funding (1 speech)
I wish to raise my concerns over the lack of commitment by the Rudd Labor government to ensure that local schools in the electorate of Greenway have access to funding assistance for basic school...
- Australian Defence Force: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (2 speeches)
Today I wish to grieve for the men and women who have served in defence of this country and are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health conditions. In particular, I...
