Anthony Byrne's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
Holt Electorate: Australia Day Awards | Constituency Statements | House debates
I want to talk about an exceptional group of people and organisations that I honoured on Australia Day as part of the 18th annual Holt Australia Day awards. Thirty-eight individuals and six local...
I want to talk about an exceptional group of people and organisations that I honoured on Australia Day as part of the 18th annual Holt Australia Day awards. Thirty-eight individuals and six local organisations were recognised for their contribution to the community at the Cranbourne Community Theatre on a rather sultry Australia Day. This wouldn't have been possible without the incredible Holt Australia Day Awards Committee, which comprises Leanne Petridis, Jodie Hollis, Chris Drysdale and Rohimi Barielli, who I want to thank for assisting us with picking these worthy award recipients. This year we recognised individuals like Suzanna Klaster, for her 31 years of service to Casey Radio, and Harley Meddings, for his tremendous volunteer work at the Cranbourne information support centre—or Community Information & Support Cranbourne, as it's known now. We recognised organisations like the Bakhtar Community Organisation, for supporting Afghan Australians in the city of Casey during the pandemic and assisting the settlement of newly arrived Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban. The exceptional people and organisations that were awarded the Holt Australia Day Award this year were: Mr Ali Rahimi, Amorelle Blom, Andrew Pinxt, Barry Freeman, Beven Elankumaran, Carolyn Carr, Charitha Dissanayake, Damien Ablett, Graeme Phipps, Harley Meddings, Jesse Anderson, Jim Wright, Jo Ann Fitzgerald, John Broughton, Dr Kim Son Vu, Kimbarlie O'Reilly, Kimben Lim, Les Rand, Lisa Tuthill, Lloma Shaw, Margaret Lenders, Maureen Fowler, Nia McMartin, Nicole Treffers, Niroshi Rodrigo, Paul Garrett, Peter Hanson, Polly Freeman, Rev. Ric Holland, Robert Adams, Robert Ward, Sara Jafari, Shinnee Kapea, Suzanna Klaster, Dr Tarekegn Chimdi, Tim Burgess, Wayne Smith and Yaneth Orellana. The organisations were Aged Care Reform Now, Bakhtar Community Organisation, Hampton Park Tennis Club, Multicultural Youth Support Service, Monash Health, for the COVID-19 pandemic response, and Sikh Sewaks Australia (SSA). I have read these names into the parliamentary record. They're the names of people and organisations that have done exceptional work in their time. In their own quiet Australian way—by their actions and their deeds, their sense of community, their sense of hope and the inspiration and direction they provide to others—they improve Australia, they improve their community and they improve the environment in which they live. And they do it in an Australian way. They do it not to seek the limelight, not wanting to go out there for the awards and honours, but because they want to make their community a better place. In my view, what better day to celebrate that than on Australia Day? I was honoured to award these people the Holt Australia Day awards.
Afghanistan | Adjournment | House debates
[by video link] I want to talk tonight about Afghanistan, in particular what has happened there more recently, particularly with the evacuation of some 4,000 citizens, visa holders, locally...
[by video link] I want to talk tonight about Afghanistan, in particular what has happened there more recently, particularly with the evacuation of some 4,000 citizens, visa holders, locally engaged employees and permanent residents from Kabul airport. As you may know, I've had a close relationship with the Afghan community here in Melbourne, in the south-east of Melbourne, for over 25 years. I've had and have many friends in this very remarkable community. I would like to say that my thoughts and prayers are with them as they've been watching those horrific scenes unfolding at Kabul airport, and they are also with those from the Afghan Australian community who are very concerned about their loved ones, family and relatives who weren't able to be evacuated from Kabul in the past two weeks. One of the grave concerns I have for Afghanistan, having worked in the security space now for some 20 years, is what the reinstatement of Taliban rule in Afghanistan will mean for the people of Afghanistan. I recall watching nearly 20 years ago the World Trade Center towers crash to the ground. I recall what happened in Afghanistan when the Taliban were last in power in the late nineties until 2001, until the international community took action against the Taliban because of its support for al-Qaeda. I remain concerned, as someone who is in the security space, about the Taliban's continuing connection with al-Qaeda. From reports that I'm receiving internationally and locally, that support has not diminished, and there is still a connection between al-Qaeda and the Taliban. I would like also to take this opportunity to thank the veterans community. They must be feeling what they've seen and heard at Kabul airport very, very deeply. To those veterans who may be listening to this: thank you for the work you did over those nearly 20 years in securing Afghanistan. I've got to say to you that your mission was a success. I do recall that we needed to take—the international community resolved that we needed to take—action to remove that regime from Afghanistan, given that they were state-sponsoring terrorist acts, terrorist acts that resulted not only in the attacks on United States soil but also, through offshoots and connections, the Bali bombings and other acts of terror around the world. Your mission was a success. You removed that threat from the community and protected Australia by your actions. I do recall that we lost 41 soldiers. We had 39,000 veterans who served. I'd like to thank also the 700 Australians from the Department of Foreign, Affairs and Trade, the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Border Force and the Australian Defence Force who helped evacuate those 4,000 individuals from Afghanistan. I know the conditions were very, very difficult. I thank my staff as well, whilst I have the opportunity. We had literally many, many hundreds of people contacting us, seeking support to get relatives out of Afghanistan, and we were relatively successful in doing that. What I also say is that our mission there is not complete. I believe that, having been there and uprooted a terrorist state, a state that supported terrorism, and having been responsible through our occupation there for gains for the community in Afghanistan, particularly women, we can't just walk away from Afghanistan. We have a moral responsibility to bring to our shores those we have connections with. I'm not putting a number on that. The Prime Minister has said that he has put in a floor of about 3,000. I would certainly encourage more support. We took 12,000 people from Syria when we had the conflict emerge there. To our Afghan Australian friends I say: I stand with you in this rather challenging period of time. We will work cooperatively. I don't think there's any point at this point in time in pointing fingers about what went wrong or what happened. What we need to do is work collectively to continue to exercise our moral responsibility and bring people from Afghanistan who have a legitimate connection to Australia—to our shores legally and legitimately. That's the least that we can do for our Afghan-Australian friends here in Australia.
Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Sunsetting Review and Other Measures) Bill 2021; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
[by video link] It goes without saying, with respect to the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Sunsetting Review and Other Measures) Bill 2021, that the Labor Party supports this bill. I...
[by video link] It goes without saying, with respect to the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Sunsetting Review and Other Measures) Bill 2021, that the Labor Party supports this bill. I also support the second reading amendment that was moved by my friend the member for Scullin with respect to the declared area provisions, but I will come back to that a bit later on in this discussion. As I said, we support the bill. The bill deals with a range of counterterrorism and other police powers in the Crimes Act 1914 and the Criminal Code Act 1995 which are due to expire on 7 September 2021. These four powers are the declared area provisions, the control order regime, the preventative detention regime, and a range of stop, search and seizure powers. This bill would extend the sunset date on each of these powers which was, as I've said, 7 September 2021. As well as extending a number of the sunset dates, the bill would also allow the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to conduct a review of the operation, the effectiveness and the proportionality of the declared areas provisions prior to the new sunset date. Finally, the bill would amend the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Act to give the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor more time to finalise his review of the continuing order regime. I note the contribution from the previous speaker, the member for Dawson. In terms of his broad support for the legislation that's been put before him and that he was debating and making a contribution on, he raised some issues about privacy concerns; I noted that. I've been someone who has had his parliamentary career defined by what happened on 11 September 2001. I think it was the defence minister who said everyone in Australia knew where they were at the time that those twin towers fell, at the time when those planes hit the twin towers. I can recall that moment nearly 20 years ago vividly, as vividly as though I'm watching it now. Having come into this chamber in 1999, my parliamentary career really has been dominated in many ways by our response to the terror attack by al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden on 11 September 2001. Of the nearly 22 years I have been in parliament, I would say about 19 of those years have been spent working in the counterterrorism space and the intelligence and security space, working with wonderful professionals who do their utmost day and night to keep Australia safe. The member for Dawson made some comments about what we are being protected from. I think one of the points to make to people listening who might not understand this legislation, the normal person out in the suburbs or someone who has just come in to try and understand this legislation, is: each of these bits of legislation—declared areas, control orders, the preventative detention regime and the stop, search and seizure powers—have been given to the government, to our security agencies and to the police to keep Australians safe, in response primarily to the threat of terrorism. It is a threat that we have experienced with the Bali bombings. But I also want to make this point with respect to these powers and many other powers that the agencies have been granted: in my experience—and there have been a lot of new powers that have been granted to the agencies, to the security services and to the police force, particularly the AFP—those powers have been used in a judicious and measured way. Keeping in mind the safeguards that have been invariably built into these legislative measures, some of these powers are extraordinary powers—the preventative detention regime and the stop, search and seizure powers. They are not powers that were created without thought for the consequences; they were powers generated out of the necessity of the time, the necessity to respond to the terrorist threat, the necessity to do what it took within the law to keep Australians safe. And these laws for the most part have in fact done that, as have other laws that have been granted to the intelligence agencies and the security services. I have a bit to do with the Joint Counter Terrorism Team here in Melbourne, and I have a lot to do with the AFP. What I've seen recently should give many people listening to this great heart about the great work that ASIO does, that the AFP does and that their local police do—in particular the Victorian police—to keep us safe. When you hear what the perpetrators of some of the attacks that you have read about in the broad are attempting to do, it chills the blood; it really does chill you to the marrow, what they are intending to do. I can only relate, and I very vividly relate to, a specific instance, and I will need to take this opportunity because I don't know if parliament will sit again following this week. But coming up in the next week or two, on 23 September, is the seventh anniversary of the Endeavour Hills terrorist attack by a young man who'd been radicalised by ISIL and then sought to kill two police officers, officer A and officer B, who, I am proud to say, have been my friends now for many years subsequent to that event. I came into contact with them shortly after that attack, where the perpetrator, the young terrorist, was killed. Both of these men wear the scars of that attack. Both of these men will be wearing the scars of that attack for the rest of their lives—not just the physical scars, and they are very unpleasant to look at, but the psychological scars. The officers concerned, when they went and spoke to that young man, did not seek to harm him; they were seeking to keep him out of harm's way. Little did they know, on that very dark evening on 23 September, that that young man was beyond saving—beyond guiding out of harm's way. In effect, what had happened to that young man was that he had been so radicalised that he was there with one thing on his mind: that was to kill the police officers, and, if he were successful in killing those police officers, then to mount a further attack, I believe, on Endeavour Hills Police Station. But that attack was thwarted by the bravery of those two police officers. I made a promise to them: that every year, if I had the opportunity, I would mention these two and bring their bravery to the attention of this place. They responded to one of the first attacks put forward when ISIL issued its fatwa in about the middle part of 2014. They bore the brunt of what happened—of what actually can happen when you have a terrorist attack. So again, to those two, I want to specifically take this opportunity to say that there's not a day that I don't remember what you've done and the sacrifice you've made. Many members of the community can't know who you are and what you're experiencing and what you're suffering. But there are many of your friends who do know—friends from the police community, the AFP community and the intelligence community, and your many friends who again would offer you thanks for the great work that you have done in keeping Australians safe. We all want the best for both of you in continuing to heal from that very traumatic event. I just want to touch more on the particular powers that are contained within this piece of legislation, which Labor supports. One of the things that concerns me, though, is that the control orders, the preventative detention and the stop, search and seizure powers were all due to expire on 7 September 2021, and they're currently under review by our particular committee. Now, it's a significant concern to me and to other Labor members that the Morrison government have left it until the last minute to extend the sunset dates on these powers. What if it hadn't been possible, for whatever reason, for parliament to sit this week, before 7 September, due to the outbreak of COVID in Canberra or other parts of Australia? We know it was a narrowly run thing and this parliament may not have been able to sit. What would've happened is that all of these existing control orders would have lapsed, and that would have left us much less safe. With counterterrorism, with these sorts of regulations, you just can't do 'just in time'; it's just not satisfactory. We could have actually avoided this risk—and it was a safety risk—had the government been paying attention and addressed this sunset clause issue faster. But we are supportive, and this will allow the government to extend those sunset dates to 7 December 2022. This extension will ensure that the intelligence and security committee will have sufficient time to complete the review, prior to the powers sunsetting, and the government will have sufficient time to work through and respond to any recommendations made by the committee. There's another area, called the declared area provisions. The control order, preventative detention and stop and seizure powers, which were due to expire, as I've said, on 7 September 2021, are, as I said, under review. I want to describe the declared area provisions of the Criminal Code briefly. They allow the Minister for Foreign Affairs to declare an area in a foreign country, if he or she is satisfied that a listed terrorist organisation is engaging in a hostile activity in that area of a foreign country, and make it an offence for a person to enter or remain in a declared area. That is subject to a number of limited exceptions set out in section 119.2 of the Criminal Code, such as providing aid of a humanitarian nature, performing an official duty for the Commonwealth or visiting a family member. In February this year, the intelligence and security committee recommended that the sunset date for these powers be extended to 7 September 2024 and that the committee be empowered to conduct a review of these powers at any time prior to that date. This bill implements both of these recommendations. The intelligence and security committee, however, also recommended that the declared area provisions be amended to allow Australian citizens to request an exemption from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to travel to a declared area for a reason not listed in section 119.2 of the Criminal Code. The former national security legislation monitor Dr James Renwick made a similar recommendation in 2017. The government has rejected this recommendation on the bases that it could not be effectively implemented and monitored and that the time and resources required to obtain information to assess an application would be significant and would divert security and intelligence resources from other national security priorities. We are not persuaded by this argument, and we think that the government should implement the committee's bipartisan and unanimous recommendation. We recognise that the implementation of this recommendation is complex, but we are calling on the government to work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and our security agencies to implement the committee's bipartisan and unanimous recommendation. As I've said, with everything that we're seeing—the terrors unfolding in Afghanistan, the terrible scenes that we've seen at the airport and the terrible reports that I'm receiving from our wonderful Afghan community here in Melbourne—I'd like to take the opportunity to pay tribute to the men and women of the Afghan community that have made this country their home and who have had a pivotal role to play in the creation of Australia. Afghan cameleers were essential to the development of Australia when they came to this country in the 1800s. Without them, we may not have had the bush telegraph. There are many things that we wouldn't have had, had our Afghan friends not been here. I believe that we owe it to them, in discussing this particular matter in Afghanistan, to provide the support we can to get as many as possible of the people that assisted us in our efforts to keep Afghanistan safe out of harm's way and to bring those that are appropriate and are security cleared to our country. I take this opportunity to speak on behalf of my friends in the Afghan community who are working with the government to assist, in terms of identifying appropriate people that can come to the country, to allow that to happen. We need to be there for them just as they were for us. We can see what happens. I saw what happened when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan last. Women were sent back into the Stone Age. The great freedoms that have been enjoyed have created a different environment for women that, I believe, is going to be taken away, notwithstanding the rhetoric from the Taliban mark 2. The challenge that was made and particularly enunciated by our Leader of the Opposition is: we'll be watching you and making sure that you abide by the words that you've been saying to the international community.
Education | Private Members' Business | House debates
I rise also to support the member for Parramatta's motion that acknowledges the bicentenary of Catholic education in this country. Catholic schools have educated millions of Australians over the...
I rise also to support the member for Parramatta's motion that acknowledges the bicentenary of Catholic education in this country. Catholic schools have educated millions of Australians over the past 200 years, as said in the member's motion, and today Catholic schools are one of the largest providers of schooling, second only to government schools. I think Catholic schools educate about one in five Australian school-age children. I also want to note that the national mass was celebrated simultaneously across Australia on the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians on Monday 24 May to mark the bicentenary of Catholic education in Australia. National Catholic Education Commission Executive Director Jacinta Collins said that the national mass was 'a highlight of the bicentenary year' and went on to say: As a faith community, our National Mass to celebrate 200 years of Catholic education holds significant meaning … I think the member for Parramatta and the member for Berowra have touched on the scale of Catholic education in Australia. It's quite unique in the world in terms of the service it provides. I think that, at the present period of time, the Catholic education sector serves over 770,000 students and employs over 100,000 staff in roughly 1,800 schools. The chair of the Bishops Commission for Catholic Education, Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher, said: The bicentenary of Catholic education in Australia invites us to remember the past with gratitude, be inspired by that story in the present, and look forward with faith in the future. He also said: After two centuries of service, we in Catholic education are determined to make an even greater contribution to the lives of our young people, families, church and society. And he congratulated the Catholic education sector on its 200th birthday. Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli led a celebration of mass with more than 600 Catholic school students and teachers at St Patrick's Cathedral. One thing to note is something others have mentioned about the Catholic schools in their constituency. In my electorate of Holt we have seven wonderful Catholic schools that have delivered a profound contribution to our local community. These schools are St Agatha's Primary School in Cranbourne, St Francis de Sales Catholic primary school in Lynbrook, St Kevin's Primary School in Hampton Park, St Peter's College in Cranbourne and Cranbourne East, St Therese's Primary School in Cranbourne North, St Thomas the Apostle Catholic Primary School in Cranbourne East and Trinity Catholic Primary School in Narre Warren South. I think there was some comment that was made about not only the presence of the schools and the education that they provide students but also the community good that's done by having these schools in our region, which I would completely agree with as someone who went through the Catholic education system as a student at a Christian Brothers college both in Kalgoorlie, in the far-flung regions of Western Australia, and also in Adelaide. I was fairly uniquely placed. I think the brothers and the poor teachers who had to teach me were uniquely placed as well! I can only say, having been through that and having put our two children through the schooling system, that we're very pleased that it served the purpose for which we sent them and I think my parents would have sent me, which was a faith based, values based education system that offers a comprehensive environment to develop the total person, not just educate a person. I also wanted to say that, particularly when I went to the Christian Brothers College in Adelaide in the seventies, it was a tough period of time economically in Australia and in South Australia. One of the things I wanted to acknowledge before I move on to that particular story I wanted to tell was that, if you look at the diversity of people that actually attend Catholic schooling, you see something that's not fully appreciated by the community generally. When my children went to St Paul the Apostle South, there were children from 70 different nationalities that attended that school. In schools in my region it would be the same or more. People from every corner of the globe come and participate in the Catholic education system, and I think that's a wonderful thing, particularly with some of the churches—I note in particular St Thomas the Apostle in Cranbourne East, which is particularly that with the Sri Lankan community. The last point I wanted to make about the economically difficult circumstances in the seventies. My mother—we were a single family then—could not afford to pay the school fees, so I went as a 14-year-old and spoke to the principal of the Christian Brothers College. He was a very formidable brother called Brother McApion. I basically said we couldn't do it. As a consequence of that conversation, I was awarded a scholarship on the spot and I was able to attend school without paying fees. There's a lot of work that's done by them, but I certainly want to thank the Christian Brothers College for that. Remember the people who can't afford the fees; they get taken care of. (Time expired)
Intelligence and Security Joint Committee; Report | Committees | House debates
by leave—I've sat on this committee, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, now for some number of years. I recall and note that the Hezbollah's External Security...
by leave—I've sat on this committee, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, now for some number of years. I recall and note that the Hezbollah's External Security Organisation wing was originally prescribed in 2003. There have since been six relistings which have required, under the statue, our committee to examine the listing and to make recommendations. I've sat as a member of the committee on five of the considerations of those relistings—for some period of time. I recall when we first looked at this in 2005, and subsequently that this distinction between the external security organisation and Hezbollah more generally seemed to be very artificial. My concern certainly wasn't ameliorated over the considerations of each relisting. I think it's very important, particularly in the Five Eyes, to note that we were the only Five Eyes partner that didn't list the military wing or Hezbollah in its entirety in terms of a terrorist organisation, and I don't think that occurring benefited Australia or Australia's national interest. I also wanted to raise a concern about the fact that in 2018 when the bipartisan committee came to a conclusion and recommended to the government that in the prescription process that it would contemplate listing the military wing we didn't get a response to that—the 2018 report—and that's concerning. The government relies on this committee a very great deal. When I speak to interlocutors on sister committees in the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere they talk about the great work that this committee has done. For example, when we passed the foreign interference laws, those laws were passed only due to the very diligent work of the committee. The other organisations in jurisdictions like the United Kingdom looked at what we've done, our work, very closely. So my point to the government is, particularly when we are recommending something of this substance and this weight, that the government gives appropriate consideration to this recommendation and reports back to the committee. I think that's very important. The other thing to stipulate here is that for those who might feel that they've been singled out, particularly in the Lebanese Shia population, that is not the case. For the committee itself—and I speak for the committee—there were many, many, many hours of deliberation. We stand here and we present the report. As the member for Isaacs and the shadow Attorney-General who is sitting here listening to my contribution would acknowledge, many hours of consideration are given to listings of this nature. Consideration is absolutely given to those who might be impacted by these recommendations. These recommendations made by the committee are never made lightly and they take every factor into concern, every factor into consideration, as we've done when we've listed the PKK. I wanted to give that reassurance, that this is something that the committee has given great consideration to, has not done lightly, but inevitably have come to a conclusion that that fig leaf of an external security organisation not being inextricably linked to Hezbollah is just a fiction. It can't be maintained. I also say, particularly, that Sajid Javid—as the member for Berowra pointed out—mentioned in a tweet today: This report is right—the 'political wing' of Hizballah is a false distinction, as is recognised by UK, US, Canada, Germany and others— including the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council. I think Javid also has an important point here: Australia are great allies on counterterrorism so I'm sure the Morrison government will consider this carefully. In closing, I would urge the government to consider this recommendation carefully. Our fight against those who would cause us harm is enduring, but we fight collectively along with our Five Eyes partners. I think, in terms of this recommendation, that it syncs us in with the rest of the Five Eyes community. And, in our struggle as countries and democracies that have shared values and principles, this is another tool which, as I said, syncs us in with that global fight against terrorism and the damage that those who propagate terrorism seek to do to democracies. This recommendation is in the national interest. I commend the members of our committee. It is not an easy thing to come to a conclusion, in a lot of circumstances, on a unanimous, bipartisan report, and the recommendation that has been made in this case is not an easy recommendation. I pay tribute to the chair, Senator James Paterson, and also to my friend and colleague the member for Isaacs and shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. His tireless work for us on this committee adds to our committee; it makes the committee a better committee. I certainly thank him for his excellent work on this particular recommendation. I commend this report to the House.
Quarantine Facility in Victoria; Approval of Work | Motions | House debates
First off, I would commend the Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories for bringing these works to the table. Obviously, they are going to be bypassing the Public Works...
First off, I would commend the Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories for bringing these works to the table. Obviously, they are going to be bypassing the Public Works Committee, and I make no criticism there. What I am deeply concerned about and somewhat incredulous about, as a Victorian who has watched the people he represents being locked down on four occasions, and given, as the Acting Premier of Victoria says, the wicked nature of this virus, is the fact that we are doing this now, when it has been such a long period since this plague hit our shores. If you were in the outer suburbs, you had been locked down on four occasions, you had made the sacrifices that governments had asked you to make to keep the community safe, you had seen that over the forward estimates we will have a trillion dollars in debt and you had seen the economy rebounding after the work that you in those outer suburban areas and each of the states had done to keep everyone safe, you would expect a government and its Prime Minister to lead. You would think we would not be welcoming the first mention of this public works co-facility in Victoria but speaking about the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth or tenth. Fundamentally, it is stunning to me that we have a Prime Minister who basically won't lead. Perhaps we should ask a tradie from the outer suburbs to come in here, because he or she would know what to do. Everyone knows what the difficulty is. It is that we have a hotel quarantine system that's designed to fail. Everyone knows it. We see the evidence of this in the commonsense test. Australians have great common sense, and everyone I speak to knows that hotel quarantine doesn't work. The government will say to you, 'Well, 97 per cent of people have come through.' Have a look what happens when three per cent or even one per cent gets out into the community. You cannot have a system that is city based. I have watched the buses come to the hotels in Adelaide and Melbourne, where people have decamped from the flight to the buses to the hotel. It is such a fragile system. People I've spoken to in South Australia, even though they haven't had a lot of outbreaks, know it's a fragile system. Every state premier and chief minister, if they were honest, would state that it doesn't work, that we need consolidated facilities. Think about the money. We are over a trillion dollars in debt, and this government has been implementing short-term measures to deal with the impact of this virus hitting our shores and the disruption that it causes to our way of life. What is the long-term benefit of that trillion dollars being expended? Virtually nothing. There is no guarantee. The state premiers have fought tooth and nail to bring the Prime Minister, the leader of our country, to the table. Did the Prime Minister generate this? No, he didn't; it was the state premiers. As my colleagues from Victoria, the member for Ballarat and the member for Isaacs, have said, he had to be dragged to the table by the state premiers. I've been here when prime ministers have led. Paul Keating was a leader, Bob Hawke was a leader and John Howard was a leader. Does Mr Morrison seriously think that if John Howard were Prime Minister he would have outsourced national security, quarantine and border protection to the states? How long would that have lasted? People say this Prime Minister is the heir apparent, but there is absolutely no way that John Howard would have allowed those things to occur. Those on the other side need to reflect on that. Leaders lead; they don't get told what to do by a focus group. This is a guy who won't get out of bed without checking the focus group to see which side of the bed he wants to get out of. That's effectively what we're facing here. This is a guy that just won't lead. This country has confronted a life-changing event, which is a plague, a virus, that is completely changing our way of life. I keep on saying that, when leaders lead, what leaders need to do is tell people how we get out of this. One of the things that I reflect on when we're looking at this measure, which has been brought to the table by the efforts of the state premiers, is: where is the leadership? We've just spent hundreds of billions of dollars, and the public still don't know where we're going. This guy's hopped in the car and is driving like Mr Magoo, all over the shop, making sure that we avoid the potholes, falling in occasionally and coming back out again. The problem is there is no leadership. If you're in the outer suburbs, if you're that tradie that should be Prime Minister because at least you would know what to do, when you go for a job, you say: 'This is what we need to do. This is the amount of money we're spending. This is the direction.' For parents out there who are planning their kids' futures, there is no direction. The direction seems to be provided by the states. In Victoria, particularly with the second lockdown, because of the highly infectious nature of this disease, because of the fact that you have a hotel system that was designed for the short term, as the member for Ballarat said, you can understand that when we had a crisis we had to respond to a short-term measure was necessary. We will acknowledge that. But then to keep that short-term measure that was agreed upon by the national cabinet and basically go: 'We'll just keep on going. We'll just keep it there, keep it there, keep it there,' and then get dragged to the table by others, again, what I say is when you're a leader, when you sit in the highest office in the land in that chair, you lead. The Australian people give you the licence to lead them; they want to be led. They are being led by the state premiers, I might add. The irony is that when the Prime Minister travels overseas to the United Kingdom, as he did, and they go, 'Job well done,' he should bring the state premiers and the chief ministers with him, because, in effect, the very hard measures that were needed to be taken by the community were taken by our premiers, the premiers in each of those affected states. They're still being affected, and yet the Prime Minister is still trying to avoid responsibility. At some stage, 'The buck stops with me.' The buck stops with the Prime Minister. When do you keep on handballing, Polly Farmer-like, through every window possible? At some stage you've got to say: 'I am the Prime Minister. We've asked you to do this. We're building a quarantine facility, and here's what we're going to do in the future,' because of all of those Australians who are still stranded and want to come back over; businesses basically saying they need certainty, they need a direction; and international students, which I think we need to bring back into our country, because they add to the lifeblood of tertiary institutions. To basically say to them, 'We're going to wait, and we're going to vaccinate people,'—well, we are not vaccinating people. The point that has been made by the member for Ballarat and the member for Isaacs is this: the government had two jobs and it's done none of them. That is astonishing. In my time in this place, and it's nearly 22 years, I have never seen a government abrogate responsibility for its key mandate. If you see Maslow's hierarchy of needs and if the public votes on this in an election, they vote for a federal government to keep them safe—that's quarantine and national security—and if they're rolling out something like a national rollout, to basically do it, to implement it, to take responsibility for it and to oversee it. I've not seen a government on those two absolutely essential planks of what makes a government not do it—and then to blame them! As long as I'm in this place I will never forget that when we were enduring the second lockdown and the aftermath after Victorians made incredible sacrifices and in a world-leading way—I think it is one of the three capital cities in the world of that size that saw off a second wave; Victorians should be incredibly proud of what they did, I was there, and the sacrifices they were making—you had two ministers from Victoria on the government side who didn't say, 'Well done, Victorians.' They basically said, 'It's the Premier's fault.' I also remember watching the health minister, particularly when we started getting on top of the second wave lockdown, basically undermining public confidence in the measures being undertaken, the necessary measures based on the best possible health advice, by attacking Premier Andrews. If we're in this as a national fight against this virus, we're all in it. You can't hop in it. What I'm watching is them hopping in, hopping out, hopping in, hopping out. You don't try to claim victory after the victory has been earned by other people. That's not the way; it's not an Australian way. It's un-Australian. What I have seen in this period of time—and I notice that my time is running out here—is a Prime Minister who is the least likely to lead. I've never seen a Prime Minister not lead. Well, Prime Minister, it's time for you to lead; do your job. You were elected to protect our country and to make sure that the vaccine rollout was done appropriately. You have done neither; start doing both.
Barton, Ms Elizabeth | Statements by Members | House debates
I wish to acknowledge the achievements of aged-care reform advocate Elizabeth Barton, who I was honoured to award a 2021 Holt Australia Day Award to this year. Liz retired from nursing on 6...
I wish to acknowledge the achievements of aged-care reform advocate Elizabeth Barton, who I was honoured to award a 2021 Holt Australia Day Award to this year. Liz retired from nursing on 6 November 2020 after an incredible 54 years of service. She is now dedicated to improving aged-care services in Australia as an aged-care reform advocate. Liz believes—and she is very qualified to be talking about this—that, after 20 inquiries and a royal commission, we need a new aged care act, along the lines of the Victorian safe patient care act, with proper staffing ratios and a focus on the human rights of older people. Liz states that we must end the neglect in our aged-care system and ensure mandatory reporting of elder abuses. Liz is a dedicated, hardworking member of our community, who is also on the Cranbourne Community Hospital consultative committee. She is working to ensure that we deliver an amazing new hospital for local residents in Cranbourne. Liz has also previously made important contributions to the arguments for the important nurse-to-patient ratio legislation. Liz concentrated her submission on palliative care, the area in which she worked tirelessly for 18 years. Her experience and knowledge of the discipline only strengthened the profession's submission and made compelling arguments for the importance of qualified clinicians in end-of-life care. Our community needs more like Liz Barton, a hardworking community advocate that doesn't mind standing up for what she believes in in the aged-care sector. Thank you, Liz, for many dedicated years of quality clinical care for patients and families at their most vulnerable time.
This is Holt: Our Community - Our Stories | Constituency Statements | House debates
Today I wanted to talk specifically about people and organisations that make a massive difference to my community, my constituency and my region by their good efforts and good deeds. Being a...
Today I wanted to talk specifically about people and organisations that make a massive difference to my community, my constituency and my region by their good efforts and good deeds. Being a Victorian—and a number of other Victorians are here with me at the moment—it's been a tough year and a bit for us all, particularly for those that are in Victoria at the moment. From small and large businesses to sole traders, everybody in every constituency that we represent has done it tough and has done an amazing job in seeing off the worst of the COVID pandemic. Obviously, with the state government announcing the relaxation of the recent lockdown restrictions, some hope has been provided, but what I want to talk about separate to that—and we do it on an ongoing basis—is the people that continue to provide hope on an ongoing basis to our community. In a way I would characterise what we're doing at the moment in my project that I'm about to talk about as a light at the end of the tunnel. I want to talk about a project that was started before the lockdown. It's a project which showcases positive stories of amazing people and organisations that make a real difference in my constituency and electorate of Holt. Each week over the coming months I'll be releasing videos celebrating and highlighting the unsung heroes and organisations in Holt. The initiative under which I'll be doing this is entitled 'This is Holt: Our Community - Our Stories'. We've posted three or four short videos that encapsulate what individuals and organisations do. The initial filming started before the second lockdown. So, if you're watching the videos and seeing people without masks, they were done before the second lockdown. I think what they do—and we hope that you enjoy these stories—is again amplify that, in a world that is seized with anxieties and fears about COVID and about what might be happening internationally, we need to remember what makes Australia great, which is each of these constituent units, these people going about their tasks, working for the good of others, not seeking a claim, not seeking any fame and not seeking support or thanks but just going about their work. There are a lot of organisations and people that feature. I'm very proud of these people. I see them in my privileged position as a member of parliament. I want you all to see them and appreciate them for the great work they do in keeping our community working and thriving.
Sikh Volunteers Australia | Adjournment | House debates
I rise tonight to speak about an amazing community organisation, which I proudly acknowledge as based in my electorate. It's an organisation that has become a beacon of hope for many people in my...
I rise tonight to speak about an amazing community organisation, which I proudly acknowledge as based in my electorate. It's an organisation that has become a beacon of hope for many people in my area and in Victoria—a Victoria which has been ravaged by bushfires, the COVID-19 pandemic and now flooding. This organisation has become synonymous with the essential Australian spirit of mateship and helping out those in need. I speak of course of Sikh Volunteers Australia. On Australia Day this year, Sikh Volunteers Australia was one of four local organisations to be awarded a 2021 Holt Australia Day Award, for their response in supporting families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given their ongoing efforts, which continue even as I speak here, I think it's appropriate to continue to acknowledge them. I want to talk just a little about their extraordinary work and the inspiration that they provide to us all. During those awful bushfires in late 2019 and early 2020, amidst the trauma, the grief and the fear, Sikh Volunteers provided hope. Let me cite the words of a Victorian police officer whose job it was to evacuate those in the bushfire ravaged areas. He said: 'The community of East Gippsland were significantly displaced during the fires, with emergency relief centres set up to provide assistance to displaced people. In my role as a police officer, knowing the devastation that the areas from Mallacoota to Bairnsdale had endured, to see the Sikh Volunteers on the ground providing hot meals to the community was a relief, knowing that the public and the emergency workers were being cared for in support of the emergency response.' He said, 'This makes me so proud, and demonstrates that each of us, no matter how small or insignificant we may feel, can do things to change people's lives through care and compassion.' Another example of the great works and feats of this group was experienced in the second lockdown in Melbourne last year, when 3,000 residents living in public housing estates in suburbs adjacent to the city were placed in hard lockdown. Sikh Volunteers again sprung into action. A team of 12 volunteers went with their vans to the towers situated in Kensington and Flemington to deliver over 1,000 much-needed meals a day. They serve vegetarian meals—for many, it was the first time in days they had been served a hot meal—and they continued to do so during the period of the lockdown. Sikh Volunteers believe that it is their duty to serve people when they need it the most. They understand that these people in the towers were very vulnerable, and that's why they went. They drove every day from Devon Meadows, which is about 70 to 80 kilometres away, to provide their, help, support, food and hope. They did that also for the frontline staff who were supporting the residents. Imagine being a resident of those towers, under siege, and seeing these great community activists and people with delicious nutritious food—hot food—who were there to provide support for you. As I said, Sikh Volunteers drove over 70km to the towers. I looked at some of the stats on their website tonight, before I spoke. I was stunned to see that Sikh Volunteers Australia had delivered, in the period of time between 18 March and 31 December 2020, 142,600 free meals for the needy during the COVID-19 crisis support period. It's just unbelievable, and they're doing this out of a large kitchen at the Sikh Community Gurmat Centre in Devon Meadows. It's just absolutely amazing. Again, in the recent two-week lockdown from 28 May to 10 June, Sikh Volunteers have been providing countless free vegetarian home delivered meals for the elderly, for single mothers, for the self-isolated, for the unemployed, for international students, for the homeless and for those in need. And they were doing that on top of a service they've been running from 21 February, which services seven council areas, including: Casey, Frankston, Mornington Peninsula, Dandenong, Cardinia, Kingston and Monash. This is an ongoing service each week to help those in need in those seven council areas. I will close by quoting that police officer I quoted before. He eloquently summarises what our community feels about these fine Australians. He said: 'The Sikh Volunteers Australia have personified the Aussie spirit, helping out our communities near and far during fire, floods, storms and COVID. When times get tough, this fine organisation stood up and still continuously stands up to this very day, and demonstrates the best of humanity in trying conditions. They provided meals to all, ensuring no-one goes without, providing for some a glimpse that in some uncertain times the spirit of kindness and compassion is very much alive. Disaster always brings out the very best in people. This organisation has earned itself a place in the heart and soul of this nation.' They certainly have, and I'm proud to speak about them in this House.
Mental Health | Private Members' Business | House debates
I rise to support the member for Macquarie's private members' motion on mental health, which notes that suicide is the leading cause of death amongst Australians aged 15 to 24. If you read the...
I rise to support the member for Macquarie's private members' motion on mental health, which notes that suicide is the leading cause of death amongst Australians aged 15 to 24. If you read the statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 384 young people took their own lives in 2019. Then, if you talk about suicide, 96 of those were by suicide. Deaths by suicide represented 40 per cent of all deaths in young people aged 15 to 17 and 36 per cent of all deaths in those aged between 18 to 24, which is up from approximately 25 per cent of all deaths in these age groups in 2010. You read that data and you're horrified. I had the lived experience of this when we had a suicide cluster in the south-eastern region in 2011 and 2012. During that time, you would see on occasion, as you drove to work, the name of a young person on a bridge, or you'd see on Facebook the loss of a young person, and then another young person, and then another young person. There was a sense of community helplessness as to what to do. I think the member for Indi was talking about Albury and the work that Professor Pat McGorry had done there. He also did incredible work down in the south-eastern region of Melbourne during that time, which I think has literally saved lives. Because of what had actually happened prior to that and prior to Professor McGorry coming in, we actually called Pat in. He had been dealing with the issue of appropriate mental health facilities in Albury to deal with this suicide cluster, and we asked him to do the same thing, which he did. He came down and, in 2012, we conducted a forum that was covered by Four Corners. They produced a program on it called 'There is No 3G in Heaven'. It featured some of the people we'd actually lost. We conducted that forum, with Pat McGorry facilitating it. It's impossible to describe to this chamber, or to anybody, being there and watching the parents of young people get up and describe the impact of the loss of their child. We had eight or nine parents get up and describe it, and describe how—one of the things we don't discuss is method; we don't want to discuss method. But there was a particularly brutal method being used by very desperate young people in 2011. It traumatised an entire community. We lobbied for Professor McGorry to come down to the area. There is No 3G in Heaven is a very confronting program. As a result of that—and I pay great tribute to then mental health minister Mark Butler—two headspace centres were funded by the Gillard government and an early youth psychosis centre was overlayed with that. I think headspace Dandenong is in the electorate of the member for Bruce and I think headspace Narre Warren is now in the electorate of La Trobe, but it could also be in Bruce—who knows, with the redistribution. He might have two in his electorate, and that's a good thing. My electorate extends out to Cranbourne. It would be great to have a headspace in Cranbourne. I welcome the investment from the federal government and also the state government. The Victorian state government has invested over $3 billion in mental health. I worked in the mental health space between 1994 and 1996 as chief executive officer of a mental health organisation. I remember participating in what was called the first national mental health strategy. The discussion was about young people and others not accessing mental health services because of the stigma. I would say that we still confront that as a barrier to people, particularly from non-English speaking backgrounds, accessing services. There are so many young people that I speak to who are struggling with issues but who still will not go to a health service provider, a doctor, or even a clinic or a headspace because of the perceived stigma of mental health issues in their community. So, whilst I welcome this investment, it is quite worrisome when you talk to a young woman who's got a tertiary degree but who wouldn't for the life of her go and access a service because of the stigma. Whilst I certainly welcome the member for Macquarie's motion, there is much, much more that needs to be done to confront the stigma so that we can encourage people to access these services. (Time expired)
Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2021-2022, Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I rise today to speak on Appropriation Bill (No.1) 2021-2022, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2021-2022 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022, which provide...
I rise today to speak on Appropriation Bill (No.1) 2021-2022, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2021-2022 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022, which provide appropriation from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the annual services of government for 2021-22. I do so as Victorians are again in a lockdown, the fourth lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The incredible efforts of the Australian people can't be left unremarked, in particular the people of Victoria for their heroic and Herculean efforts in seeing off this pandemic. Ever since this modern plague hit our shores in early 2020, the Australian people have met this scourge head-on. They have made enormous sacrifices, barely imaginable by the public in a democracy and forecasters alike some time ago. It has been quite a remarkable transformation in the way in which people are dealing with the public health menace that we are confronting. It says a lot about the Australian people that, unlike in some other countries, they have adhered to the very onerous restrictions that they have been required to undertake to protect their fellow community members. Again, on behalf of all of those in this chamber, I thank the people of Australia and Victoria for the sacrifices they have made to keep each other safe, because we know what the consequences are. People can see it by flicking on their television screens at night when a country is not taking appropriate measures to protect its population. Some of the images that you see on television are very, very confronting. So Australians know that they need to take these actions to keep our community safe. I also think, though, that what our community wants when we've been asked to make these sacrifices—we have asked the Australian people to make sacrifices—is a government that gives them clarity. Where are we going to collectively? We ask collectively as a government through the national cabinet and through each state government for people to stay at home, not to send their children to school, not to attend work. What concerns me very greatly in watching the fourth iteration of this lockdown in Victoria and the apportioning of blame or people seeking to apportion blame—if I were a person in the outer suburbs in Cranbourne, Clyde, Narre Warren South or Hampton Park, I would be watching this and thinking, 'Can someone please tell me what's going on?' Where is the direction? This person is saying this has been done. This person is saying something else should be done. I am concerned from a federal perspective that the people in Holt, the south-eastern region of Victoria, Victoria generally and Australia don't have a clear sense of direction out of this challenge that we are confronting. We don't know when all of Australia is going to be vaccinated. We know that that is a key to protecting as much of our population as possible, but we don't have established timelines. Unfortunately, I saw something extraordinary today, with an aged-care minister not being able to identify how much of the workforce that he has some measure of responsibility for has been vaccinated. How many of the workers have been vaccinated? They were all supposed to be vaccinated by now. So I come back to the point. We ask, and the Australian people have delivered to us as policymakers and legislators who have put some of the most onerous restrictions on movement of the public, including a curfew. The very least that our people could have back is a clear sense of direction and responsibility taken for actions. There's nothing more demoralising for a democracy—and you see people losing faith in parliament and in governments—than when a government says it will do something but, when it doesn't hit a target, starts pointing the fingers. Responsibility has to be taken. Particularly given that I had been speaking to some government members post the challenges of the bushfire, I thought that, through the auspices of a national cabinet, there would be responsibility taken. The Prime Minister would speak to the premiers and the relevant health ministers, and there would be a national effort on the scale that we have seen in the United States, for example, where 50 per cent of the population has been vaccinated, and other countries like the United Kingdom and Israel, where there has been that focused, concentrated effort. America is a very porous, disparate and discombobulated political system. Even in that system they have got a 50 per cent vaccination rate, and yet we are still in the single digits. It may be a matter of conjecture whether it is somewhere between two and four per cent. Perhaps it is more than that now; say, five per cent. But it shouldn't be this way. Because of the sacrifices that the Australian people made, we had a great a window of opportunity to vaccinate a lot of people. But what really concerned me—what do the people say who are living around Cranbourne and who last year couldn't leave their houses after 8.00 pm in the evening, had to wear masks, couldn't see loved ones, couldn't attend the funerals of loved ones that had passed away and couldn't attend weddings? I think of the number of occasions where I had friends and people that I knew who were having virtual online ceremonies or had to postpone their weddings or who couldn't attend funerals. The incongruity and the thing that concerns me the most about this is what this government has asked of the Australian people versus what it has given to the Australian people. Have they provided JobSeeker and JobKeeper? Yes. The Labor opposition provided that as a pathway forward. It was taken up by the government. There are flaws. I'm not going to get into microdetail of criticising the government. They did that. But again, particularly with public health experts, we said to the Australian community, 'If you take these measures then the economy opens up.' So the public then say, 'Okay, government, then what do we need to ensure that we will have a standard of living and a certainty in this COVID normal?' That's another thing that I want to take issue with this government about. I can recall the Prime Minister saying effectively, particularly when he was at odds with the Victorian state government when they were easing out of the first lockdown, 'Get out from underneath the doona—business as usual.' How could it be business as usual? Do you think it's business as usual in the Northern Hemisphere, including in India, as we speak? Do you think that people within India believe that? We have a very large and wonderful diaspora of people from India in Australia. Do they think it's business as usual in India? Do they think it's business as usual here? We're going through the rigours, the torment and the struggle of another lockdown in Victoria. Do you think they got out from underneath the doona, went out and went their own way, with business as usual? It can't be business as usual, and a government that says that it's business as usual and pretends that it can be is not speaking honestly with the Australian people. It can't be. In every discussion that I have—and, I would suggest, in every discussion that other people, including this government, have—it is a COVID-normal. It's not business as usual. It can't be. Every time the government try to intimate that or criticise states that impose measures, they are damaging the national effort to defeat the scourge of this plague, this COVID pandemic, in the first place. It cannot be business as usual. It's the COVID normal. COVID normal doesn't mean that life goes back to what it was. It can't, until we have vaccinations that prove to be effective. We have a portion of the population, but we also don't know, with the different iterations and mutations of this COVID-19 virus, what might happen. So I think the government has to be straight with the Australian people. It's COVID normal. States have a right to take protective measures to protect their populations when there is an outbreak. It's quite remarkable, I think, that the Prime Minister is quite aware now. In the second lockdown, I'll never forget the Minister for Health and the Treasurer in this place savaging politicians like me, who were representing their constituencies in Victoria, and the Premier for taking measures to protect Australian lives. I will never forget that as long as I stay in this place. I was very heartened, in listening to the health minister speaking yesterday, that he may have learnt a lesson: that it's perhaps not a good idea for the federal government to be attacking the state government when it's taking appropriate public health measures to protect its population. What that did during that time, I think, is create confusion. When you don't speak with one voice as a government, what happens is that you allow confusion. You allow conspiracy theories. You energise conspiracy theories. We see some of the worst elements of when we look at the growth of right-wing extremism in this country and its connection in some ways with COVID conspiracy theories. When you have a government that's not firm, that passes blame to other levels of government, that doesn't take responsibility and that doesn't give direction, what do you have? You have confusion, fear and a lack of direction, and you create a vacuum, and vacuums will be filled, often by voices of hate, not by voices of reason or voices that want to bring the community together. That is what has been happening. It should be our daily mission to challenge that. The growth and proliferation of right-wing extremism in this country is a cancer. We have dealt with Islamic extremism. We've seen the horrifying consequences of that being unchecked, and we have devoted enormous resources to protecting the Australian community. I have been part of that through my role on the PJCIS. Equally, we must do the same with right-wing extremism. The danger with that, though, and the reason I raise this in the context of the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, is that some of the things that people say in this government and elsewhere energise some of those right-wing extremist movements, particularly when they dispute the science—the science of the COVID-19 pandemic and the science of climate change. The governments need to speak with one voice when we're asking the community to make a sacrifice to deal with a once-in-a-century pandemic. The government needs to remember this, particularly if they try to take cheap shots at state governments for taking measures to keep their borders safe and then retrofit their explanations after those measures have been successful to say, 'We always supported them.' No, they didn't. They didn't support the Premier of Western Australia, and they certainly didn't support the Premier of Victoria when he took the necessary actions to protect the Victorian population from the scourge and the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like I said—I could speak all day, Deputy Speaker Freelander, and I'm sure you're glad that I won't—the issue is that what Australian people deserve is much more clarity from this government about where they're going. I remember watching as Ford, Toyota and Holden left this country and thinking: 'You know what? Australians make things. They make great things. They make great cars. We used to make great washing machines. We used to make a lot more in this country.' I meet a lot of people. You speak about what used to be made in this country and the fact that, for example, there's still a design element of Ford's high-end vehicles in Australia. So, if the government is talking about this once-in-a-generation pandemic, why doesn't it do something like bring motor manufacturing back into this country? We live in a very uncertain region, but here's one thing that they could do to provide certainty. Whilst this government almost campaigned against electric vehicles at the last election, I would invite the government to have a look at President Biden hopping into an electric Ford 150 pick-up truck, which they said would never happen, and shooting down the runway in the US, which occurred about a week and a half ago. The future of motor vehicle transportation will certainly be in terms of electric vehicles and perhaps hydrogen. They should look at that. If they really want to do something, they should bring them back here. They should get Tesla to actually make cars here. GMH and Ford have said that they will move into the production of electric vehicles. Do it here; come and do it. I invite the Prime Minister: we have plenty of space in Cranbourne West. If they want to build something for the south-eastern region around the Dandenong region, bring car manufacturing back with electric vehicles. I'm quite sure there would be a number of very receptive voices. I know that some of the people that I've spoken to have an appetite for this. Australia is a stable beacon of opportunity for other countries looking to invest into south-eastern Asia on a stable platform. There's much more I could say. Let me say this to the government: be clear. Give Australian people a pathway out and not just an injection of money that doesn't last the distance and that will fade away. Provide direction, provide certainty, provide accountability, and provide hope. Continue to do that, and we will have a better Australia coming out of this COVID-19 pandemic.
Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2020-2021, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2020-2021; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No.3) 2020-2021 and Appropriation Bill (No.4) 2020-2021, which provide appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the annual services of...
I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No.3) 2020-2021 and Appropriation Bill (No.4) 2020-2021, which provide appropriations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the annual services of government for the remainder of 2021. I do so within the context of how our nation should proceed with the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. I was reflecting on this. I remember having a discussion with a member of the government at the first iteration of the coronavirus—when it first showed itself here in this country and first manifested itself in a way that brought itself to the public attention. We spoke about the government response and what might happen to this country after that. We knew that our country, as a consequence of this pandemic, had changed, and will change, irrevocably, in ways I don't think we could possibly imagine. I think we're still trying to see and determine what has happened to our country. It's like a gigantic rock has been thrown into a pond and we're trying to gauge the reverberations of the pandemic on our society and our community, and the actions of our government. In that discussion I had with the member of the government, I said that, given the sacrifices that we were about to ask the Australian community to make, we had an opportunity to reimagine Australia, to reboot Australia, to put a vision forward of Australia—an Australia that could be, not just the Australia that was. And what we did and watched, post March 2020, was Australians making the sacrifice that governments called upon them to make to keep each other and our country safe in peaceful ways, in ways of common sacrifice and communal sacrifice that we perhaps haven't seen in other countries in the world. We asked people to do things in this country that they haven't done before; and they did so, primarily peacefully, for the common good. In that contract, given what we had asked them to do, given the sacrifices that we had asked them to make, we would have imagined and created a better future for this country. Politics wouldn't have been the normal form of politics. We would see a newer country, a reimagined country. We would have, as the previous speaker said, a debate about the big issues, the big picture, the way forward—Australia's national identity, its place in the world, the future, what we might imagine ourselves to be. After what we have seen in the past four weeks can anyone say we have reimagined Australia? Really? Have we? Do you think that what we have seen under this gigantic flag and flag pole does justice to the millions of Australians who made a sacrifice during the COVID pandemic? Do you think that they think our parliament's become more accountable as a consequence of the COVID pandemic? Do you think that they think we've become more transparent? Do you think that they think we've become less arrogant? Do you think that they think we have a future, that we've sat and dictated a future, that we've created a better future for those people who locked themselves away in homes for months on end, who didn't see their families for months on end, who couldn't attend the funerals of loved ones, who couldn't attend weddings? We asked them to stop doing the things that made them human. Does the community think that we have honoured the sacrifices that have been made by the Australian people? No, we have not—not at all. We've done a disservice to our country and to the Australian people, and we have to do better. We've asked the Australian community to make the sacrifices. They've fulfilled their part of the bargain; they've made their sacrifice. We, as leaders of the community and as people that represent the community, have to reflect their will and imagine a better future for them. We have to point a way towards a better future for them, create that better future for them, give the incentives to them and give a clear direction to them. We don't and we haven't; particularly this government hasn't. I'm not going to make this a party political speech. I remember being attracted to politics because of the vision of Australia that was put forward in particular by Paul Keating when he was Treasurer of this nation and by Bob Hawke when he was Prime Minister of this country. I remember being inspired as a young man by the changes that were wrought by Gough Whitlam—universal education, a universal health system and a whole swathe of social changes that made it easier for Australians to succeed, to prosper and to be more equal. We created an equality of opportunity for all. We liberated the economy in the eighties. We created a new class—the entrepreneurial class, if you like. I remember being very proud of that. I really did think, in watching what we had asked again and what this government had done, that we would see similar great reforms of this country being put forward—new manufacturing, new resilience. I've heard the terms; I've had the discussions. We need new resilient supply chains. I've heard it. Do you think many Australians in the outer suburbs would know what really is being done in terms of the new form of employment and the new economy? What are we doing? I tell you what Australians are confronting at the present time. We have many businesses—and I see this in the outer suburbs—which are on survival mode and which may well close after Easter, and many more Australians may become unemployed. I know in the coming weeks and months ahead that many sectors of the economy, especially small business, will be struggling to ensure that jobs are maintained and that businesses can remain viable once JobKeeper is withdrawn—and it will be withdrawn quickly—from the economy. We know that international borders are not going to be opening any time soon, so we're going to need to provide much more support to Australians in that section of the economy. The COVID-19 recovery will last at least a decade, and it should provide us with an opportunity to invest in the future of Australia. The question we've got to continue to ask ourselves is: do we want to be simply a mining and energy-producing nation that has a vibrant service sector or could we expand the Australian economy to be dynamic and diverse and be a world leader in sectors like the global technological revolution and the arts? As former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said recently at the National Press Club: With technology re-writing the rules of economic competition around the world, why aren't we inventing, innovating and commercializing our own breakthroughs at scale – in IT, bio-technology and artificial intelligence, using our deep capital markets established by three decades of compulsory superannuation. Why have our rates of R&D investment and research commercialisation plummeted when the rest of the OECD is headed north? Our failure to make Australia an essential part of the global technology revolution will turn us into a second-tier economy faster than we think. We have an opportunity with this great global economic transformation and upheaval that is being undertaken and that has happened as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic to fully participate in new disruptive technologies, particularly when Asia continues to play a central role. We can't allow that to just pass us by. I want to give an example of this, and it does tie into Australia and how we see ourselves. It relates to Screen Producers Australia who recently came to parliament to lobby for more support for the Australian film and television industry. The film and television industry was obviously lobbying the Morrison government to impose a 20 per cent local content quota on Netflix and other streaming giants, saying that the measure could sustain as many as 10,000 jobs once the recent flurry of Hollywood interest dissipates. I had the privilege of meeting a delegation of local actors and producers—Simon Baker, Marta Dusseldorp, Bryan Brown and Justine Clark—who were basically talking about this temporary boom that we have with foreign companies coming in as a passing sugar hit. That is what Simon Baker said. What we need in fact, what Simon said, is to help develop a richer, stronger, more potent Australian voice. This ties into my perspective about reimagining Australia. I fully support the plan to impose a 20 per cent local content quota on Netflix and other streaming giants. We do need to hold the power of tech giants like Netflix to account to ensure that Australians and the world can continue to enjoy Australian film and content. That was driven home to me specifically when I saw a movie recently that was filmed in the Victorian Wimmera called The Dry. It has certainly become one of my favourite Australian movies. Talking to some of the actors and talking to the Australian people who have gone to see it, particularly in the outer suburbs, a number of people said it reminds us of who we are. You might think why am I talking about arts? Why am I talking about actors? Why am I talking about the film industry, the acting industry and the theatre industry? Because arts define who we are as a country. Arts define who we are as a people. They are a mirror to the national soul of a people. The fact that this government allowed that, that expression of the Australian soul and its spirit, to wither at the vine during this crisis says a lot about the priorities of this government. When I asked members of the actors guild about how many actors were employed during the coronavirus pandemic—and we understand that there were restrictions—they said three per cent. Three per cent of Australian actors were employed during the coronavirus pandemic. That is a disgrace. We saw governments move at light speed with respect to certain things and certain industries. The sporting industry is classic case in point. I am sorry, but I actually think the arts industry is as important as the sports industry. Does it generate as much revenue as a local AFL game?—I am a great AFL supporter—no, it doesn't. But do we need the arts industry to survive because it is an essential conduit, it is an essential window, it is an essential part of defining who we are as an Australian people? Of course we do. The fact that I was just gobsmacked by was the fact that I watched it basically being allowed to wither at the vine. It's really important that we continue to discuss who we are because what things like the arts, the film industry and the TV industry do is they help sustain us. People were talking about how they were binge watching Netflix, Amazon Prime—a whole range of things—and a lot of people were saying they were going back to old Australian TV series. Why do you think that might have been? Because it shows you a window into a time, into a society that defines itself. As we continue to transition out we need to talk again about who we are. We need to provide a national direction. As a country we need to talk about the industries of the future and invest in them in tangible ways, ways that people can hold onto, because there isn't a lot that they can hold onto at the present period of time in this sea of uncertainty that has been created. We need to provide them and this government needs to provide them with a direction, with an idea, with an Australia that could become. I believe—and I am in furious agreement with former Prime Minister Tony Abbott—that Australia's best days are yet to come. Let's use this opportunity of COVID-19 to imagine and create that future, not throw Australia up against a wall.
Foreign Interference in Universities | Motions | House debates
I also support this motion. As someone who has a strong interest in this particular sector and also the issue of foreign interference, I always think that, as John Garnaut would say, the more...
I also support this motion. As someone who has a strong interest in this particular sector and also the issue of foreign interference, I always think that, as John Garnaut would say, the more sunlight we can shine on this issue, in terms of what is happening to our universities, our society and our communities, the better off we're going to be. We need to be educating not just the education institutions but the Australian public about the threat of foreign interference in a lot of sectors of our economy and our society. Therefore, I support this and have been supporting the people who have worked so hard behind the scenes within the national intelligence community to bring us up to speed to protect our universities and research sector, which is the particular motion that we are talking about today. It's also important at the start of my contribution to point out that a lot of this has been driven by the actions and words of the Director-General of Security, Mike Burgess. He detailed this in his first annual threat assessment, when he said: The level of threat we face from foreign espionage and interference activities is currently unprecedented. It is higher now than it was at the height of the Cold War. I remember talking to the previous Director-General of Security, Duncan Lewis, with respect to that. It was something we actively discussed. Some in the public say, 'They're just words,' but for the men and women of our intelligence and security agencies and our police forces they're not just words; they're actions. They need to take action. They're threats. They need to deal with the threats. This threat, this specific manifestation of this ongoing and enduring threat that we will face as a country for 25 to 50 years plus of our lifetimes—for the foreseeable future of our country—is immense. So I support that particular statement made by the Director-General of Security. With respect to the higher education and research sector, they are one of the threat vectors. They are one of the areas of strategic importance to us as a functioning democracy and as an economy. They are a threat vector point for those that seek to do us harm, those that seek to exploit us economically or steal research information from us. Our higher education and research sector generates about $32.4 billion—that's the figure I've seen—as part of the export sector of the economy. I was looking at this in relation to the research that we do and how we punch above our weight in the products we deliver to market, that can be commercialised—that is, the collaboration of our university sector and the commercialisation that comes from that. The bionic ear, Gardasil, the medical application of penicillin, the Google Maps platform, the black box flight recorder, wi-fi, solutions for sleep apnoea, polymer bank notes, the ultrasound scanner—I could go on and on and on about the value of research in our tertiary sector. That research is absolutely critical. But, because of our success and our openness as a democracy, those that seek to do us harm, that seek to exploit that, are unyielding in their efforts. In terms of describing the threats specifically to the sector, I couldn't actually say it better than the testimony of Chris Teal, His current position is Deputy Secretary, Social Cohesion and Citizenship in the Department of Home Affairs, but he's also, very importantly, chair of the University Foreign Interference Taskforce. He is someone who has been intimately involved in this sector. Let me use the words of Mr Teal to describe the threat to the sector. For the committee's benefit, Mr Teal talked about the method and aims of foreign actors who seek to engage in foreign interference in this sector. He said: … foreign actors who seek to engage in foreign interference in the Australian higher education and research sector, through the following means … He then said the aims of foreign actors and those who undertake the activity are important to understand. They include: I have to commend the work of the University Foreign Interference Taskforce, and I also commend those who came before us on Friday on behalf of the universities. There has been a marked cultural shift that stands us in good stead to deal with the enduring threat. In the meantime, I support this motion. We've come from behind. We've got a lot of work to do. There is a lot of work ahead. (Time expired)
Neighbour Day | Statements by Members | House debates
Neighbour Day is Australia's annual celebration of community, encouraging people to connect with their neighbours. Neighbours matter, never more so than we've demonstrated in dealing with COVID...
Neighbour Day is Australia's annual celebration of community, encouraging people to connect with their neighbours. Neighbours matter, never more so than we've demonstrated in dealing with COVID as we did last year, particularly in sticking together. Knowing your neighbours and the broader community is clearly important, and that is why we're encouraging everyone, if they can, to celebrate in a COVID-safe way Neighbour Day 2021, which is generally held on the last Sunday of each March, which will be 28 March this year. The theme of this Neighbour Day this year is 'Every day is neighbour day'. As I was alluding to, particularly given how collectively we saw off the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic by sticking together as a community, I think it's a good reminder about that sense of community that helped us get through and why we should stay connected to our neighbours. One of the things that I discussed when I caught up with Ruth Murray and Jenny Colvin—they are two amazing and remarkable women who used to live in Doveton and have now shifted to Cranbourne and currently live at Lifestyle Casey Fields. They are people who embody what the sense of community is. During COVID they were posting a song on Facebook that Jenny would sing each day. It's a sense of who we are as people. We are humans and we need to interact with each other and protect each other. We need to matter and care. Neighbourhood Day is a good way of celebrating that.
2020 Holt Community Spirit and Leadership Awards | Constituency Statements | House debates
On Monday 14 December I conducted the 2020 Holt Community Spirit Leadership Awards in what was a virtual presentation ceremony via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Last year marked...
On Monday 14 December I conducted the 2020 Holt Community Spirit Leadership Awards in what was a virtual presentation ceremony via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Last year marked the 19th Holt Community Spirit and Leadership Awards. Thirty-four students from 33 local schools were recognised at this fairly unique awards ceremony. The students that received the award included Caplen Dexter from Barton Primary School, Eliz Szasz from Botanic Ridge Primary School, Lilly Hopp from Casey Grammar School, Scarlett Mills from Casey Fields Primary School, Desi Kohobange from Clyde Primary School, Cailin Farrington from Coral Park Primary School, Nastaran Mirzaie from Courtney Gardens Primary School, Shujaat Haidri from Cranbourne Carlisle Primary School, Frederick Kiellerup from Cranbourne East Primary School, Fatemeh Habibi from Cranbourne Park Primary College, Josh Bradford from Cranbourne Secondary College, Jamie Bryant from Cranbourne South Primary School, Brianna Boehl from Cranbourne West Primary School, Ineya Sudhakar from Hampton Park Primary School, Eddie Vusic from Hampton Park Secondary College, Harrison De Koning from Hillsmeade Primary School, Katiana Michael from Kilberry Valley Primary School, Lily Hughes from Lynbrook Primary School, Harrison Hand from Lyndhurst Primary School, Zoe Baltruschaitis from Lyndhurst Secondary College, Charlotte Pataki from Marnebek School Cranbourne, Charlotte Nicholls from Narre Warren South P-12 College, Alyssa Hansen from Pearcedale Primary School, Tearo Johassen from Rangebank Primary School, Jerry Cheap from River Gum Primary School, Daelan De Zilwa from St Francis de Sales Primary School, Tapuitea Li-Rina Passi from St Kevin's Primary School, Corey Coupar from St Peter's College Clyde North Campus, Emily Andrew from St Peter's College Cranbourne Campus, Siobhan O'Connor from Strathaird Primary School, Hershey Montemayor from Tulliallan Primary School, Blake Hewegama from Waverley Christian College, Bryn Howell from Waverley Christian College and Anishka Nanayakkara from Wilandra Rise Primary School. Those are a lot of names I read into the Hansard, but they're important because they are the names of young people who significantly contributed to improve community life in one of the most difficult years they will experience in their lives. I had great pride in presenting these awards to these outstanding young people, and I know their parents and community are proud of every name that I read into the parliamentary Hansard today.
Holt Electorate: Oromo Ethiopian Community | Constituency Statements | House debates
Members of Melbourne's Oromo Ethiopian community continue to be concerned by ongoing political tensions in Ethiopia. According to Human Rights Watch, in 2020 the security and human rights...
Members of Melbourne's Oromo Ethiopian community continue to be concerned by ongoing political tensions in Ethiopia. According to Human Rights Watch, in 2020 the security and human rights situation in Ethiopia deteriorated as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed struggled to retain order amidst growing unrest and political tensions. The government postponed scheduled national elections in March 2020, citing COVID related health risks. National elections are now due to be held on 5 June 2021. However, the local Oromo community does not believe that these elections will be free and fair and, as a result, two of the most popular political parties, OLF and OFC, have pulled out of the election. Since the terrible assassination of popular Oromo singer Hachalu Hundessa, which triggered protests on 29 June 2020, heavy-handed security response and large-scale property destruction has taken place in Oromia. The Oromo community around the world remains deeply sceptical, distrustful and frustrated about what is happening. There are two people who have been imprisoned, in particular, Bekele Gerba and Jawar Mohammed, for some period of time. The Oromo community also wants release of those two individuals, who are suffering and have been on hunger strikes, and others who have been held by the Ethiopian regime.
Fuel: Security | Adjournment | House debates
I rise tonight to talk about the dire situation of Australia's fuel security. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about our fuel security had been steadily growing. I had raised it, as had...
I rise tonight to talk about the dire situation of Australia's fuel security. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about our fuel security had been steadily growing. I had raised it, as had the member for Canning, the member for Solomon and Senator Jim Molan. Our concerns were about a lack of liquid fuel reserves, insufficient fuel storage capacity and our diminishing fuel refining capabilities. What we've seen during this pandemic has brought these concerns to a crisis point. COVID-19 has exposed the weaknesses in Australian supply chains. Our reliance on these supply chains has been severely disrupted by the closing down of economies and borders, which has left us exposed and vulnerable. Shortages in critical medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and testing kits, as well as personal protective equipment and clothing for health professionals and frontline workers, impacted our initial pandemic response. At the same time, heightened international tensions, particularly around major trade routes, are forcing us to realise that we run the risk of further supply chain disruption. Current measures to address this issue are falling a long way short of what is needed. The federal government's $211 million fuel security package announced in September was meant to address the enormous shortfalls in Australia's fuel security. So far, it has failed. Since the announcement, Australia has lost two of its four remaining oil refineries. Kwinana in Western Australia has closed, and it has just been announced that the ExxonMobil oil refinery in Altona will close. That leaves us with an energy refinery in Geelong and a refinery in Lytton in Queensland. Twenty years ago we had eight refineries, which virtually took care of all of our domestic fuel requirements. At present, Indonesia has eight refineries. The UK has six major refineries and one smaller one. Japan has 23 oil refineries. The United States has 137 refineries. We have two. What does that mean? It means that we will have continually reduced refinery capacity, with enormous implications for our liquid fuel security. These two existing refineries are relatively small and old. They have been competing against larger and more efficient refineries in the Asian region, according to a parliamentary research paper. We're aware of the mega-refineries in Asia. They do provide large economies of scale. But you've got to have sovereign fuel security capabilities in Australia. The government's statistics show, in terms of existing reserves, that we've been non-compliant with the International Energy Agency's 90-day fuel stock holding obligation since March 2012. I've seen several reports which indicate how far we have fallen as to that obligation. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, the PJCIS, of which I am deputy chair, has also noted that. The other issue, though, is that even getting fuel supplies to our country through tankers is compromised because, according to the Maritime Union of Australia, there are no Australian-crewed tankers supplying fuel to our nation. In 2000, we had 12 tankers that were Australian-crewed. What that means is a substantial loss of maritime job and training opportunities. But it undermines our petroleum supply chain—it really does. It means that we're going to have to rely on foreign fuel coming on foreign ships to our shores in the case of an emergency, which is obviously of great concern. Given our loss of refining capability and the fact that we don't have strategic fuel supplies to the levels we need, what does that mean? How does the government keep our country going in the case of heightened international tensions? If someone says that's not going to happen, who predicted that we would have a global pandemic that would paralyse the world for the period of time in which it has? What happens to our Australian Defence Force, who will be required to defend us, if they don't have the fuel that is required to put jets in the air, to put tanks on the ground and to put ships at sea? This is a major strategic problem. We are starting to address COVID. We have to do it with fuel security. Our country, our nation's security, can't afford for this problem to continue.
Telecommunications | Constituency Statements | House debates
I rise this morning to raise one of the most important issues facing my constituents in the electorate of Holt and that is after years and years and years of lobbying, many residents in my...
I rise this morning to raise one of the most important issues facing my constituents in the electorate of Holt and that is after years and years and years of lobbying, many residents in my electorate, too many residents in my electorate, don't have access to reliable mobile phone reception, particularly in suburbs like Cranbourne East, Clyde, Clyde North and surrounding areas. These are some of the fastest growing areas in Australia. These are suburbs that have lots of young families that come and live and expect, in the 21st century, that when you shift in to an area—and one of the fastest growing areas in Australia—that you would actually have mobile reception. It is story after story after story of people not being able to use their mobile phones. This is the 21st century in a major capital city in one of the fastest growing areas in Australia and you can't use your mobile phone. The consequences of that can be quite terrifying and I'll get into that in a second. Deputy Speaker, as you know, when these matters are raised there is a lot of, in a sense, passing the buck—a bit of handballing like Polly Farmer. I'm putting you are all on notice: the federal government, the City of Casey, telecommunication providers. Stop making excuses and give people the facilities that they deserve, need and warrant. Just because they live in the outer suburbs does not mean that they should be discriminated against. Because you live in Cranbourne East or Clyde or Clyde North does not mean that you should be excluded from getting an essential service like a mobile phone service. Here is one example of not being able to use a mobile phone. Zoe Harriet from Clyde North basically had incredibly difficulty ringing an ambulance for her six-month-old son during an emergency. Her son, thankfully, is okay, but she's unable to contact an ambulance to get access to her son in Cranbourne East. It is unacceptable that that would actually happen. It actually defies description that that would happen. My office has also been contacted by Darrin Bayliss-White, the Community Manager of a Aveo Botanic Gardens retirement village in Junction Village. They have 157 independent living residential units with 190 residents. The retirement village has been unable to enjoy reliable mobile phone reception from Telstra, Optus or Vodafone, which, understandably, creates safety concerns which impact the village. Not only do we have young people and emergency situations; there is also another situation around Cranbourne East where a woman told me she was watching someone trying to break into her home. She did haven't the NBN and went to use her mobile phone. She could not ring. She had no reception. Imagine you not being able to do anything to ring an emergency number. She was quite traumatised. I've had enough. We deserve to be able to have a mobile phone in the outer south-eastern suburbs, and I'll campaign until we do. (Time expired)
I rise in this place to talk about a group of 30 outstanding individuals and four local organisations we honoured on Australia Day at the Tooradin and District Sports Club as part of the 17th...
I rise in this place to talk about a group of 30 outstanding individuals and four local organisations we honoured on Australia Day at the Tooradin and District Sports Club as part of the 17th annual Holt Australia Day Awards. I want to thank the Holt Australia Day Awards committee, who helped select these outstanding individuals and organisations—Vanessa Gerdes, Jodie Hollis, Chris Drysdale and Rahimi Baryalai. Australia Day is a day where we can come together and recognise those that make a significant difference to our community, that make Australia a better place to be—what I call the 'social glue' that keeps our community together. I would like to, if I can, read a large number of people's names and organisations into the record to again acknowledge them here in terms of their outstanding achievements and efforts to make our community a better place. They are Alexander Stroud, Barbara Pain, Dr Bol Juol-Thor, Brian Lasky OAM, David Forscutt, David Gomm, Debra Keogh OAM, Elizabeth Barton, Erin Wallace, Gam Tran, Glenn Weir, Hemanth Kumar, Ian Ronald Symons, Judy Clarkson AM, Karen Janssen, Lauren La'Brooy, Machid Ali, Marie Garcia, Dr Mary Cole, Mathew Keene OAM, Neil Haesler, Nigel Bertram, Robert John Best, Rosemary Mynard, Ross Wilkie, Senthil Senthilnathan, Steve Miller, Swaran Singh, Xiu Mei Li, Zarghuna Aatifi, Cannons Creek Foreshore Committee of Management, Monash Health COVID-19 Pandemic Response, and South East Climate Action Network. They are names and organisations, but they are people. They are people that through their efforts have made Australia a better place. I think Australians do this in terms of their community contribution in a very Australian way. They don't seek recognition. They don't seek the awards, the honour, the fame. They just get out there and do it. We saw that time and time again through the COVID response. I mentioned the Monash Health COVID pandemic response team; but also the community organisations that worked in the most challenging set of circumstances as we overcame lockdown 1 and 2 in Melbourne in particular. It says a lot also about the Australian spirit. There is a great resilience in the Australian spirit, a great character, a great spirit of self-sacrifice. We see that time and time again. We don't just see it on the international sports field and with our men and women who serve in the armed forces. We see it day in and day out from these people who serve our community and who do it in a quiet, unassuming Australian way. It was an honour to honour them for their Australian contributions on Australia Day.
Australia-China Relationship | Grievance Debate | House debates
That's an interesting act to follow! Tonight I want to make some remarks regarding Australia's relationship with the government of the People's Republic of China. I would start my address by...
That's an interesting act to follow! Tonight I want to make some remarks regarding Australia's relationship with the government of the People's Republic of China. I would start my address by noting the words of President Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, when he addressed our nation's parliament on 17 November 2014. He said: Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, while China and Australia are oceans apart, friendly contacts between our two countries have a long history. Starting from the early 19th century, many Chinese began to arrive in Australia by ship. They gradually integrated themselves into the local community and they made an important contribution to Australia's development— which they did. In the first half of the 20th century, Chinese and Australians fought together in two world wars and jointly upheld world peace and human justice. In 1972, China and Australia entered into diplomatic ties, which opened a new chapter of friendship and cooperation in the relations between our two countries. This was in November 2014. I was actually there, and I'm sure you were too, Deputy Speaker. He went on further to say: Our national legislatures maintain regular exchanges, which serve as an important platform for exchanging views and experiences of governance. President Xi also stated: As an old Chinese saying goes, the ocean is vast because it admits numerous rivers. It is the steady streams of mutual understanding and friendship between our two peoples that have created the vast ocean of goodwill between China and Australia. I am greatly heartened by the immense support for China-Australia relations in both countries. Those encouraging words were made six years ago. They spoke of a relationship that was deep and growing, a relationship built on trust and mutual benefit, a relationship that would have been—could have been—enduring and strong. Let's talk briefly about Australia. Australia is one of the most multicultural countries in the world. We have a rich history of Chinese migration to Australia, of which you would know, Deputy Speaker, from the time when you were immigration minister. According to the Chinese Museum in Melbourne, the first Chinese person to migrate to Australia did so in 1818. Many more Chinese began coming to the Australian colonies in large numbers during the 1850s Victorian gold rushes. Chinese Australians serves as Anzacs during World War I. Chinese and Australian soldiers served side by side during World War II. And, as has been widely noted, Australia, in 1972, was one of the first nations to establish diplomatic relations with China. As an example of our trade relations, Australia has a growing diplomatic network in China that includes the embassy in Beijing and consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenyang and Hong Kong. There are also 11 Austrade offices across greater China assisting Australia businesses to enter markets and to promote Australia as an investment, tourism and education destination. Most Australian state governments are represented in China's leading commercial centres. Australia and China share about 100 sister city, state and province relationships. Moreover, according to DFAT, in 2018-19—obviously, pre-COVID—there were over 1.4 million visits to Australia by Chinese nationals, which contributed not only to the Australian economy but also to increased understanding about Australia in China. Australians, I would say, have admired the fact that nearly 800 million Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty to join what is called the global middle class, because it provides enormous opportunities for both nations. We have noted the establishment of the Zhongguancun centre in Beijing, which is home to 10 science parks from which have sprung a lot of innovation companies like Lenovo, Baidu and a hundred other high-tech giants. This is an intellectual hub, home to three university campuses: Tsinghua, Peking and the people's university, Renmin. However, as two mature countries, one a great power and one a middle power, which we are, together we must acknowledge the challenges in our relationship. How do we discuss the list of what is interestingly called the 14 grievances, which was given to our free press? How can we possibly accept an outrageous tweet by a diplomat of the Chinese Communist Party that disparages our service men and women? How do we ignore disruptions to the supply of an ever-growing list of goods that we export to China: wine, barley, beef, lobsters et cetera. I note that it is said by those who seek to find division in this relationship that we imposed our foreign interference laws to arbitrarily punish China. That falsehood cannot stand. From a Labor perspective, I would say that I, as deputy chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security in 2018, played a fairly significant role in the passage of this legislation. These laws were prepared to offer us protection from threats by any nation or party that threatened our national security and our national sovereignty. Those in the Chinese Communist Party would know that we are a sovereign nation like China and that we have a right to protect our interests. A national act of self-protection is not an attack on any particular country; it is us taking what actions are necessary to defend our democracy. There are a number of other what one would call interesting discussion points that are made in these 14 grievances, relating to banning Huawei technology, ZTE from the 5G network, and what are called unfounded national security concerns. But the key issue is this: we have been an important, reliable, dependable and trustworthy trading partner with China—and we continue to be so. It is not we, as in Australia, that have sought to create division in this relationship. I think what I would say to those that are listening to this is, as I said: Australia has a right to defend its national sovereignty. It has a right to embark upon, as the Chinese government does, legislation and measures that protect its nation from foreign interference, foreign espionage, cyber intrusions and anything like that—an attack on our national integrity and our structures, if you want to use that term. Making that an excuse to damage the relationship between our two countries is a falsehood. But the key point to make to those that are listening is that this parliament, this united parliament, will continue to pass laws that protect Australia's national sovereignty. Those that might be on the outside commentating about what we will do and what we must do to protect our national sovereignty are false prophets. They should not be listened to. If people are watching and trying to predict what Australia will do in terms of its national posture on foreign relations, on national security, they should pay attention to what happens here in this place. The bipartisanship that continues to exist on national security, on foreign relations, on our place in the world, and our future together. So I say to those that might be listening from that great neighbour up north: we will continue to protect our national sovereignty. That is an unambiguous point. That's not for debate. But we do offer, obviously, a continuing effort to offer our trades, goods and services. To conflate one issue of protecting our nation with trade is false. What I see is China damaging itself. I think that nation 10 years ago had great goodwill amongst the world's people, amongst the G20. Its treatment of Australia is being watched very carefully. Its mistreatment of Australia is building and contributing to alliances against China in the world. I would urge those within the government to cease this. There is an opportunity here for people of goodwill to pull back and to think about what they want to do next. You know where we stand. The ball is in your court.