Senate debates
Tuesday, 7 February 2017
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Meeting (1 speech)
Does any senator wish to have the question put on any of those meetings? There being none, we will proceed.
- Statement by the President (0 speeches)
- Clerk of the Senate (1 speech)
Senators, welcome back to the commencement of 2017. As indicated on the last sitting day, the Clerk of the Senate, Dr Rosemary Laing, has commenced a period of leave pending her retirement on 8...
- Parliamentary Representation (0 speeches)
- Qualifications of Senators (1 speech)
I wish to inform you that on the 7 November 2016 the Senate referred to the Court of Disputed Returns questions about the eligibility of Rodney Norman Culleton to sit as a senator. The court...
- Party Office Holders (0 speeches)
- Australian Labor Party (1 speech)
by leave—I advise the Senate that, following the resignation of Senator Bilyk from the position, at the meeting of the federal parliamentary Labor Party yesterday, Senator Dastyari has been...
- Statements (0 speeches)
- Liberal Party (12 speeches)
by leave—Mr President, I rise to inform the Senate that this morning I resigned as a member of the Liberal Party. I consider it my duty to inform the Senate of this decision prior to making...
- Motions (0 speeches)
- United States Alliance (1 speech)
I seek leave to move a motion relating to the Australia-US alliance. Leave not granted.
- Suspension of Standing Orders (10 speeches)
Pursuant to contingent notice, I move: That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Senator Di Natale moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a...
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Employment (8 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Brandis. Last week the Prime Minister told the National Press Club: … that's what we're about, more jobs and more...
- Economy (8 speeches)
My question is for the Minister for Finance, Senator Cormann. Can the minister provide an update on the government's strategies to strengthen economic growth and create more jobs?
- Automotive Industry (7 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Senator Sinodinos. I refer to an article published in the Australian Financial Review on 24 January titled 'Accepting...
- United States (6 speeches)
My question is to Senator Brandis representing the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister believe that the recent actions of the Trump administration contribute to or undermine peace building,...
- Defence Properties (33 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Defence, Senator Payne. Can the minister update the Senate on plans to expand the Shoalwater Bay Training Area and the Townsville Field Training Area?
- Coal (12 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Senator Canavan. Can the minister advise the Senate what contribution clean coal can make to Australia's energy mix?
- Renewable Energy Target (12 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Energy. I refer the minister to a statement by the PM that said, 'Electricity prices will be lower and energy...
- Centrelink (12 speeches)
My question is to the minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Brandis. I refer to the Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge, who, in relation to the Centrelink debt recovery system,...
- Renewable Energy (6 speeches)
My question is for the Minister for Education and Training, representing the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Senator Birmingham. Could the minister please explain how the closure of the...
- Centrelink (8 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Human Services, Senator Ryan. Is the minister aware of the case of Anne Foley, a 67-year-old pensioner from the electorate of Blaxland...
- Internet Content (9 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Communications, Senator Fifield. Today being Safer Internet Day, can the minister outline what the government is doing to keep Australians safe online?
- Documents (0 speeches)
- Turnbull Ministry; Tabling (1 speech)
) ( ): Mr President, may I do what I neglected to do at the beginning of question time and table a revised ministry list? I seek leave to have the list incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted....
- Answers to Questions on Notice (0 speeches)
- Question No. 196 (15 speeches)
Pursuant to standing order 74(5) I ask the minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Senator Birmingham, for an explanation as to why answers have not yet been provided...
- Employment, Automotive Industry (7 speeches)
I move: That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Attorney General (Senator Brandis) and the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science (Senator Sinodinos) to questions without...
- Renewable Energy Target (1 speech)
I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Education and Training (Senator Birmingham) to a question without notice asked by Senator Lambie today relating to the...
- Condolences (0 speeches)
- Trood, Professor Russell Brunell (15 speeches)
It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death, on 9 January this year, of Emeritus Professor Russell Brunell Trood, a senator for the state of Queensland from 2005 to 2011. I call...
- Gorman, Mr Russell Neville Joseph (1 speech)
It is also my sad duty to inform senators of the death on 3 January 2017, of Russell Neville Joseph Gorman, a member of the House of Representatives for the division of Chifley, New South Wales,...
- Bradshaw, Mr Keith Oscar (1 speech)
It is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death earlier this month of Mr Keith Bradshaw, Clerk of the Senate from 1980 to 1982. After serving in the Royal Australian Air Force...
- Business (0 speeches)
- Rearrangement (1 speech)
by leave—I move: That general business notice of motion no. 168 standing in the name of Senator O’Neill for today, relating to the Prime Minister’s annual report on Closing the...
- Leave of Absence (3 speeches)
by leave—I move: That leaves of absence be granted to the following senators: Senator Abetz for today for personal reasons, and Senator Reynolds from 7 February to 9 February 2017 on...
- Motions (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 128, standing in my name proposing the introduction of a bill, before asking for it to be taken as a formal motion. Leave granted. I...
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Business (0 speeches)
- Consideration of Legislation (1 speech)
I move: That the following general business orders of the day be considered on Thursday, 9 February 2017 under consideration of private senators' bills: No. 31 National Integrity Commission Bill...
- Matters of Public Importance (0 speeches)
- Centrelink (13 speeches)
I inform the Senate that at 8.30 am today Senators Gallagher, Hinch and Siewert each submitted a letter in accordance with standing order 75, proposing a matter of public importance. The question...
- Documents (0 speeches)
- Indigenous Advancement Strategy; Consideration (3 speeches)
I move: That the Senate take note of the document. I must say that the Auditor-General's quite scathing and damning report on the Indigenous Advancement Strategy does not come as a surprise given...
- Forestry; Consideration (5 speeches, 1 comment)
by leave—I move: That the Senate take note of the document. This document is the regional forest agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and the state of Victoria. I will only take...
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Committee, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee; Report (1 speech)
Pursuant to order and at the request of the chairs of the respective committees, I present reports on legislation as listed at item 21 on today's order of business, together with the Hansard...
- Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee; Government Response to Report (2 speeches)
I present four government responses to committee reports as listed at item 17 on today's order of business. In accordance with the usual practice, I seek leave to have the documents incorporated...
- Treaties Committee; Report (1 speech)
On behalf of the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties I present 167th report—Nuclear Cooperation-Ukraine; Extradition-China, dated December 2016. I move: That the Senate take...
- Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee; Report (4 speeches)
I present the report of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement together with documents presented to the committee. Ordered that the...
- Membership (2 speeches)
Order! The President has received letters requesting changes in the membership of committees.
- Adjournment (0 speeches)
- Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II — Sapphire Jubilee (1 speech)
I rise this evening to briefly note a historic milestone which was reached yesterday, 6 February 2017, and which has been noted around the world over the last 24 hours. Yesterday marked 65 years...
- Child Care (1 speech)
A couple of weeks ago, Senator Leyonhjelm insulted early childhood educators across this country when he blamed the increase in childcare fees on quality standards and the requirement for...
- Forestry (1 speech)
There is a long-held saying that the world's forests are its lungs. That being the case, the coalition federal government and the Victorian Labor government just snuck into the tobacconist to buy...
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1 speech)
I rise to speak tonight about the failure, once again, of the ABC to service rural and regional Australians, an issue I have canvassed many times in this place. Over many years we have witnessed...
- Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (1 speech)
Yesterday's evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was indeed shocking, and Australians have been deeply angered and upset by those revelations. It is...
- Defence Facilities (1 speech)
I rise tonight to speak on yet another massive stuff-up from the Turnbull government, concerning the debacle that has become known as the Shoalwater Bay Defence land expansion. Shoalwater Bay is...
- Bernardi, Senator Cory (5 speeches)
Tonight, Senator Bernardi is preparing to take his seat alongside the great political visionaries of history. Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela—sure, they were...
- Transvaginal Mesh (1 speech)
I stand here tonight to follow up on a shocking medical scandal in this country. In an adjournment speech last November I brought up the issue of a health problem that had crippled hundreds of...
- Asylum Seekers (1 speech)
I rise to speak today about the issue of racism and bigotry, which have real world consequences for people. The world has been shocked—indeed, it has been appalled—by the division,...
- Renewable Energy Target (1 speech)
I have long been a lone voice in this place highlighting the unjustifiable and unsustainable failings of the large-scale Renewable Energy Target. Well, the chickens have come home to roost....
- Aquaculture Industry (1 speech)
I rise in support of the aquaculture industry, and in particular the salmon industry in my home state of Tasmania. I stand side by side with the many Tasmanians and their families who work in...
- Health Care (1 speech)
I rise today to read parts of a letter I recently received from a mother who lost her son to suicide following his struggle with depression. The mother wrote to me hoping to draw attention to the...
- South-West Queensland (1 speech)
As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I would like to convey my feelings of pride and the way I have been inspired and excited and raised with hope from visiting with people...
- Vanuatu (1 speech)
Tonight I rise to share a story about the generosity of Australians and the warmth of our Pacific neighbours. The story starts when I was a delegate at the Pacific Women's Parliamentary...
- Indigenous Advancement (1 speech)
I wish to speak on the Australian National Audit Office report on the Indigenous Advancement Strategy. We have now received the report from the ANAO on the government's administration of the...
- Ourimbah Hospital Auxiliary, Education (3 speeches)
As young people return to school, I want to make some remarks about the nature of schooling, but before I turn to the major focus of my comments this evening I would also like to initially...
- Israel (1 speech)
Last year in this place, over 50 parliamentarians from both the House of Representatives and the Senate signed a petition calling for fair treatment of Palestinian children in Israel. This was...
- Middle East, Environmental Conservation (1 speech)
The treatment of Palestinian children by the Israeli military, particularly the use of solitary confinement, is an issue of growing global concern. Senator Claire Moore tonight has made a most...
- United Nations (1 speech)
I rise to make my contribution to the Senate about my time as a parliamentary adviser to the 71st General Assembly of the United Nations in New York from September to December last year. At the...
- Australia-United States Relationship (1 speech)
Since the fateful months of the Second World War, when Prime Minister Curtin stood up to Churchill and withdrew Australian forces from Europe so that they could fight in the Pacific theatre, the...
