Senate debates
Wednesday, 26 March 2025
- Committees (0 speeches)
- Meeting (1 speech)
If there is no objection, the meetings are authorised.
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Business (0 speeches)
- Rearrangement (21 speeches)
I move: That on Wednesday, 26 March 2025: (a) the hours of meeting be 9 am till adjournment; (b) at 5 pm, the questions on all remaining stages of the following bills be put immediately: (i)...
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Statements by Senators (0 speeches)
- Budget (1 speech)
Last night the Treasurer's budget provided further cost-of-living support while building Australia's future. That means more tax relief, more energy bill relief, more investment in housing and...
- Valedictory (2 speeches)
I feel like this could be the claytons valedictory. Welcome to the just-in-case valedictory volume 2. Last night, I recognised some of the people who have played such a vital role over the past...
- Housing (1 speech)
Once upon a time in Australia, buying a house was not just something aspired to but something you could actually expect to achieve. Now the dream of homeownership is out of reach for many....
- KEYS: The Moving Solution, Western Australia: State Election (1 speech)
Last Saturday evening I had the pleasure of attending a very special celebration in Perth. It was the 30th anniversary of KEYS: The Moving Solution's operations in Western Australia—and may...
- Environment, Racism (1 speech)
Labor cannot be trusted on the environment. If that wasn't clear before, it is crystal clear now. Labor is rushing through a bill to trash environmental laws. They've already ditched their...
- Trade Unions (1 speech)
Right now, Australian Services Union members are leading the charge for fairer wages and better conditions by pursuing the largest worker initiated single-interest employer authorisation,...
- Footwear Industry (3 speeches)
I am loving my footwear today. Who doesn't love the Aussie ugg boots? They're as Australian as Vegemite, the Hill's hoist and, my favourite, the budgie smuggler—preferably not with Tony...
- Budget (4 speeches)
I rise to give my budget reply because the allocated time has been scrapped, as this Labor government is too busy trying to gag debate and ram eight bills through a guillotine motion this...
- Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games (3 speeches)
I'd like to make a few comments today to commend the LNP Queensland government on their excellent plan, for the 2032 Olympics, announced yesterday. It has been quite the rocky road to get to this...
- Labor Government: Australian Capital Territory (2 speeches)
I want to start by acknowledging that over the last three years Labor has made some major investments in areas that people in the ACT care deeply about: education, housing, the cost of living and...
- Budget (3 speeches)
Last night we saw the budget delivered by a Labor government that is out of ideas. It's a budget bereft of any fiscal credibility. It is a budget that delivers no solutions to the challenges...
- Live Animal Exports (1 speech)
We've got ourselves a convoy. I reckon those of you who are of my vintage—and I'm looking at you, Senator Cadell—probably remember the great movie Convoy from the US about the...
- Motor Neurone Disease (1 speech)
Last week I had the privilege of being part of the official launch of the new massive open online course, or MOOC, developed by the University of Tasmania's Wicking Dementia Research and...
- Economy (1 speech)
Australia is well and truly living beyond its means. In less than a generation, Labor and the coalition have effectively borrowed more than $1 trillion to fund their reckless spending. By 2006,...
- Queensland: Biosecurity (1 speech)
I'd like to raise the issue of the way fire ants are being managed in my home state of Queensland. There's been a lot of discontent in my local community outside of Brisbane about the...
- Whistleblower Protection (1 speech)
The issue of whistleblower protection has been plagued by political inertia in recent years. The previous coalition government let the Moss review collect dust while whistleblowers like Bernard...
- Territory Coordinator Act 2025 (1 speech)
As the Australian Greens' spokesperson for northern Australia, I know that Darwin is the cultural capital of Australia for good reason. It is a unique place and a budding tourism hub, home to...
- Federal Election (1 speech)
Last night's budget is a responsible budget that will help with the cost-of-living pressures on Australian families. It is about building Australia's future. Our budget builds on the progress...
- Men's Rights (1 speech)
Young men are entitled to feel let down by the manner in which they're treated in modern Australia—let down by the housing market, let down by the job market and let down by a society that...
- Palliative Care (1 speech)
I've met some fabulous people, and Veney Hiller, from Palliative Care Tasmania, is one of them. She is the sort of person with whom it's impossible to have an awkward conversation, yet that's...
- First Nations Australians: Justice System (1 speech)
Across the country, governments are tightening bail laws. In Victoria, shameful new laws have reversed improvements made after Veronica Nelson, an Aboriginal woman, was killed in custody through...
- Tangney Electorate: Infrastructure (1 speech)
First off, I'm going to give a huge shout-out to Howard Ong, our Liberal candidate for Tangney, for leading the charge for better infrastructure in his community. Sadly, though, when the...
- Budget (1 speech)
The Albanese Labor government's budget is about helping Australians with the cost of living and building Australia's future. It delivers more tax cuts, more energy bill relief, cuts to student...
- Member for Hume (1 speech)
Nothing, in my experience, stops leaking against a shadow Treasurer like going to a caucus meeting and begging your colleagues to stop leaking and then leaking about it. It's deadly effective!...
- Gilmore Electorate: Australian Rules Football (2 speeches)
On Monday, I had the great pleasure of combining two of my great loves: firstly, Andrew Constance, the Liberal candidate for Gilmore, who is going to make a magnificent contribution if he is duly...
- Questions without Notice (0 speeches)
- Budget (27 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. After three years of Labor, Australians are poorer. Because of Labor's failed policies, Australians have experienced...
- Environment (32 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. It's been reported by multiple media outlets this week that the government's quick-fix legislation, introduced...
- Budget (9 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. Last night, the Albanese Labor government delivered a responsible budget that further helps with the cost of living...
- Queensland: Floods (16 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. I note the government's prompt attention and response to deal with the impacts of Cyclone Alfred in Queensland and...
- Cost of Living (11 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. Prior to the election Prime Minister Albanese said, 'I'll say this very clearly: families will be better off under a...
- Victoria: Juvenile Detention (8 speeches)
My question is for the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Minister McCarthy. Yesterday Prime Minister Albanese publicly backed Victoria's harsher bail laws, saying he strongly supports them. Do...
- Budget: Health Care (12 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Senator McCarthy. The Albanese Labor government's budget handed down last night includes the largest ever...
- Taxation (11 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. Australia has a serious tax leakage problem regarding profits and labour sent offshore that are taxed at a much lower...
- Energy (8 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Senator McAllister. The Albanese Labor government inherited a mess in the energy market, with rising...
- Housing (21 speeches)
My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Housing, Minister Gallagher. The government has delivered four budgets where it has announced the same housing policies which have...
- Budget (10 speeches)
(): My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Senator Watt. Cost-of-living pressures are a top concern of Australian workers and households. How are the...
- Business (0 speeches)
- Rearrangement (3 speeches)
I seek leave to move a motion relating to the consideration of a bill, as circulated. Leave granted. That doesn't happen often. I move: That: (a) the Senate notes that: (i) the 2025-26 Budget...
- Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers (0 speeches)
- Answers to Questions (9 speeches)
I move: That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today. Twelve months ago, Jim Chalmers, we thought, started work on...
- Environment (1 speech)
I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water (Senator McAllister) to a question without notice asked by Senator...
- Petitions (0 speeches)
- Environmental Conservation (1 speech)
by leave—I table a nonconforming petition with the prior agreement of the whips, which is signed by 16½ thousand people to save the koalas of Woogaroo Forest in my home state of Queensland.
- Honey Imports (1 speech)
by leave—I table a nonconforming petition relating to the banning of imported honey. That's been signed by 307,098 people.
- Business (0 speeches)
- Leave of Absence (3 speeches)
by leave—I move: That leave of absence be granted to Senator Gallagher for yesterday, 25 March 2025, on account of ministerial business. Question agreed to.
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Matters of Public Importance (0 speeches)
- Budget (18 speeches)
A letter has been received from Senator Dean Smith: Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion: Labor's...
- Matters of Urgency (0 speeches)
- Middle East (19 speeches)
I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter from Senator McKim: Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move "That, in the opinion of the...
- Bills (0 speeches)
- Parliamentary Representation (0 speeches)
- Valedictory (33 speeches)
As I stand before you today, I want to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples. While I live on Wajuk Noongar country, the privilege of...
- Bills (0 speeches)
