Senate debates
Tuesday, 28 March 2017
- Statement by the President (0 speeches)
- Deputy Clerk of the Senate (1 speech)
Senators, before we get underway, it is my pleasure to announce that, following a merit selection process, Maureen Weeks has been appointed as Deputy Clerk of the Senate. Maureen is currently...
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Business (0 speeches)
- Rearrangement (7 speeches)
I seek leave to move a motion to vary the conduct of business, namely a motion to defer consideration of the Human Rights Legislation Amendment Bill 2017 until Thursday 30 March 2017. Leave not...
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Workplace Relations (34 speeches)
My question is to the minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Brandis. Yesterday, in response to a question I asked the minister in relation to Prime Minister Turnbull's support for a...
- Distinguished Visitors (0 speeches)
- (1 speech)
Senators, I draw to your attention the presence in the chamber of a parliamentary delegation from the Republic of Singapore led by Madam Halimah Yacob, Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore. On...
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Cyclone Debbie, Australian Defence Force (10 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Defence, Senator Payne.
- Disability Services (10 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Social Services, Senator Ryan. Australians were horrified by the evidence of appalling violence and abuse towards people with...
- Great Barrier Reef (23 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Senator Birmingham. The world is horrified at recent press reports of the totally unexpected and...
- Northern Territory: Indigenous Land Reform (8 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Indigenous affairs, Senator Scullion. Can the minister advise the Senate on the government's Indigenous land reform agenda, including progress on negotiating...
- Workplace Relations (11 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Brandis. Yesterday, the minister failed to tell the Senate what work the government has undertaken on the overall economic...
- Welfare Reform (14 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Employment, Senator Cash. Can the minister update the Senate on what the Turnbull government is doing to support young Australians into the workplace?
- Child Sexual Abuse (8 speeches)
My question is to the Attorney-General. What is the Attorney-General doing to address the overwhelming evidence that abused children are being returned to their abusers while protective parents...
- Defence Procurement (8 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Defence, Senator Payne. In April last year the Prime Minister held a doorstop and said 'the submarine project alone will see Australian workers building...
- Vocational Education and Training (8 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham. Will the minister inform the Senate how the government's changes to VET student loans are helping new and continuing...
- Attorney-General (17 speeches)
Mr President, my question this afternoon is to the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis. In evidence to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, the Attorney-General has...
- Kokoda Track (9 speeches)
My question is to the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Senator Fierravanti-Wells. Can the minister inform the Senate how the coalition government is using its overseas...
- Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers (0 speeches)
- Workplace Relations (11 speeches)
I move: That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Attorney-General (Senator Brandis) to questions without notice asked by Senators Urquhart and Gallacher today relating to penalty...
- Great Barrier Reef (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 Whish-Wilson today relating to...
- Notices (0 speeches)
- Presentation (1 speech)
I give notice that, on the next day of sitting, I shall move: That the provisions of paragraphs (5) to (8) of standing order 111 not apply to the following bills, allowing them to be considered...
- Business (0 speeches)
- Leave of Absence (2 speeches)
by leave—I move: That leave of absence be granted to Senator Macdonald for today for personal reasons. Question agreed to.
- Motions (0 speeches)
- Local Government (4 speeches)
I move: That the Senate— (a) acknowledges the vertical fiscal imbalance in the Australian federal system and the impact this has on local government's ability to meet its expenditure...
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Renew Australia Bill 2017; First Reading (1 speech)
At the request of Senator Di Natale, I move: That the following bill be introduced: A Bill for an Act to establish Renew Australia, and for related purposes. Renew Australia Bill 2017. Question...
- Renew Australia Bill 2017; Second Reading (1 speech)
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill and to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard. Leave...
- Motions (0 speeches)
- Homelessness (1 speech)
I move: That the Senate— (a) congratulates organisations and groups across Australia providing essential services to people who are homeless, including the Larrakia Nation, Darwin; 24/7...
- Documents (0 speeches)
- Motions (0 speeches)
- Australian Football League Women's Competition (1 speech)
I, and also on behalf of Senators Farrell and Rice, move: That the Senate— (a) notes: (i) the success of the inaugural Australian Football League Women's (AFLW) competition held...
- Energy (4 speeches)
I move: That the Senate— (a) acknowledges the recent electricity supply shortages in South Australia that resulted in rolling blackouts, even though generation capacity existed in gas power...
- Documents (0 speeches)
- Motions (0 speeches)
- Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee: Questions on Notice (5 speeches)
At the request of Senator Pratt, I move: That— (1) The Senate notes: (a) the failure of the Attorney-General and officers of the Attorney-General's Department to provide any responses to...
- Youth Employment (17 speeches)
I move: That the Senate— (a) notes that: (i) the first Minister for Employment and Youth Affairs was appointed by the Fraser Government in 1978, (ii) subsequent...
- Iraq: Mosul (5 speeches)
I move: That the Senate— (a) expresses its deep concern that the Government is unable to rule out Australia's involvement in the recent air strikes in Mosul which caused the deaths of more...
- Matters of Urgency (0 speeches)
- Workplace Relations (34 speeches)
I inform the Senate that at 8.30 today 16 proposals were received in accordance with standing order 75. The question of which proposal would be submitted to the Senate was determined by lot. As a...
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Privileges Committee; Report (1 speech)
I present the 164th report of the Committee of Privileges, titled Search warrants and the Senate. Ordered that the report be printed. I move: That the Senate adopt the recommendations at...
- Budget (0 speeches)
- Consideration by Estimates Committees (1 speech)
Pursuant to order and at the request of the chairs of the respective committees, I present three reports from legislation committees as listed at item 13 on today's Order of Business, with...
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Adjournment (0 speeches)
- Therapeutic Goods Administration (1 speech)
Last Thursday, 23 March, the Therapeutic Goods Administration's joint advisory committee on chemicals and medicines scheduling rejected an application made by the New Nicotine Alliance to permit...
- Cyclone Debbie (1 speech)
I rise tonight to speak on something which I think most Queenslanders, certainly, and most Australians have been monitoring closely over the last few days, the impact of Tropical Cyclone Debbie,...
- Mental Health, Carers (1 speech)
I rise tonight to speak about a recently released report, The economic value of informal mental health caring in Australia. The report was published last Thursday—it was launched here in...
- Steel and Aluminium Imports (1 speech)
I rise to speak on an issue that is incredibly important to Australia, the future of the metals-manufacturing industry in this country. In the metals-manufacturing sector, steel and aluminium...
- Project365byCampbell (1 speech)
It is a pleasure to rise tonight to continue my contributions to this place on the positive and good things coming out of Tasmania. Tonight it is a real pleasure to speak about a remarkable young...
- Workplace Relations (1 speech)
On this night when Cyclone Debbie is wreaking havoc on our fellow Australians in Queensland, I would also like to acknowledge that I understand you will always be Queenslanders first but as a...
- Great Barrier Reef (1 speech)
I rise tonight to put on record my alarm, anger, frustration and sadness at what is happening in the Great Barrier Reef at the moment. The whole world is hearing about a second back-to-back mass...
- Burry, Mr Andrew (1 speech)
It is with sadness that I rise this evening to acknowledge the passing of Andrew Burry. His passing, this week, has come as a great shock to a great many people. Now is not the time for long...
- 1800respect (1 speech)
I rise to speak about the 1800RESPECT service because over the past few months there has been a real concern about this service. This is what happens when something is not quite right, because we...
- Western Australia: Goods and Services Tax (1 speech)
I rise tonight to talk about Western Australia and the GST. It is obvious to people in this chamber that the McGowan Labor government was swept into power a couple of weeks ago in Western...
- Resources Industry (1 speech)
Last month I had the great privilege of attending Investing in African Mining Indaba 2017, or Indaba 2017, representing the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Senator Canavan and also...
- Aged Care (1 speech)
On many occasions I have spoken in this chamber about the importance and the priority that this government has failed to give to the ageing population of this country. We know that there have...
- Climate Change (1 speech)
I want to talk tonight about the impacts of global warming. I watched in horror recently as senior government ministers handed around a lump coal in the House of Representatives and laughed,...
- Free-to-Air Television (1 speech)
It gives me great pleasure to rise tonight to participate in the adjournment debate. Last Monday evening I attended the first function held by the Parliamentary Friends of Free TV, here in...
- Nuclear Weapons (1 speech)
I rise to highlight that this week, at the United Nations in New York, over 120 countries are taking part in negotiations for a new global nuclear weapons treaty. For more than two decades,...
- Immigration (1 speech)
I rise to speak about the problems of immigration from Islamic countries. Australia is one of four settler countries. The others are New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Immigrants to...
- Cheverton, Mr Jeff (2 speeches)
My friend Jeff Cheverton died on 2 March this year. When the news was shared around the many networks who had had the privilege of knowing this remarkable and wonderful man there was a sense of...
- Turnbull Government (1 speech)
I acknowledge Australia's historic nation forged by Christian explorers and pioneers from Britain and other European lands, which created the federal Commonwealth under the Crown, and I...
- Illicit Drugs, Kolomeitz, Mr Glenn, Higher Education: Australian Maritime Colleges (1 speech)
A Senate inquiry into crystal methamphetamine heard last week from Holyoake that children in Tasmania as young 10 years of age are smoking ice. Regional areas in Tasmania have the highest rates...
- Human Rights (1 speech)
A couple of years ago I had the privilege of being an election observer in Myanmar. One memory stands out in particular: standing in a school quadrangle on a bright afternoon in the regional city...
- Middle East: Human Rights, Housing Affordability (1 speech)
Between November 2016 and February 2017, Australian Aletia Dundas was based in the southern Hebron Hills of Palestine, serving as part of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and...
- South-West Queensland: Economy (1 speech)
This evening, I would like to bring some highlights of a recent listening tour throughout South-West Queensland. I want to highlight the initiative that people show in Queensland and also...
- International Transgender Day of Visibility, AFL Women's League, Senate (1 speech)
Each year on 31 March, the International Transgender Day of Visibility brings the trans and gender-diverse community and their friends, advocates and families together and offers them an...
