Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the few seconds available to me, I feel the obligation firstly to apologise, really, to the people who had to listen to the conspiracy theory, creeping extremism dangerous stuff that was brought into the Senate by Senator Babet.

But I want to take this opportunity on International Women's Day to acknowledge the presence in the gallery of Marie Coleman AO, PSM. She is a person who has contributed much more than many other Australians. She has made a remarkable contribution as the first woman in Australia's history to head a statutory authority. As a long-term campaigner for equal pay and for equity for Australian women, she is very welcome in this place, and I'm absolutely delighted to see her. I should say, as a Twitter follower of Marie's, that she has been an activist for 60 years but is very active on Twitter as well. You don't often learn things on Twitter, but I learned something from Marie Coleman's social media stream. So welcome.