Cathy McGowan's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
Valedictory | Statements on Indulgence | House debates
Yes, the work is unfinished. On climate change, we haven't been able to do as much as we wanted in this space, but we did manage to save the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA, and we did...
Yes, the work is unfinished. On climate change, we haven't been able to do as much as we wanted in this space, but we did manage to save the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, ARENA, and we did manage to save the Clean Energy Finance Corporation—that infrastructure that was so important and was going to be done away with. But climate change and its mitigation remain serious issues in my electorate, and I know in Indi it's going to be a climate change election. So many bits of this work had been seconded by my colleagues on the crossbench, so a special call-out to the member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie; to the member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie; and to the member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt—and occasionally Bob Katter, the member for Kennedy, has also seconded my amendments. I'll come back to the opposition a little bit later because you haven't done so much seconding! An opposition member interjecting— Yes, there's a hierarchy! In my first speech, I committed to making a public statement in this place to recognise and acknowledge past mistreatment of our Indigenous community, and I'm proud to say that I did it in my first year, in my first term. I also committed to improving public transport infrastructure and access to telecommunications and health services and I worked to reduce the red tape that hinders the growth of business in our cross-border regions. There has been significant progress in all those areas. I committed to bringing the voices of the community of Indi to Canberra, and what greater example of success have we got than in the gallery today? I committed to a vision for a prosperous and caring community where businesses grow, agriculture flourishes and everyone can reach their potential. We have made great progress. Now I turn my words to comments of acknowledgement, honouring and thanks. Clearly, words are inadequate for some things that we know are so deep and lasting. You know who you are and you know what you've done. To my colleagues in this parliament, members and your staff: I do appreciate the warmth of the welcome that you extended to me when I first arrived. It was beyond all expectations. I have received your friendship and professional support and I want to say thank you very, very much. Everybody in this House has added value to the work that we have done. I want to make a special mention of the many ministers, some here today, who have visited Indi. We have noticed and we appreciate it. Thank you. To all the other wonderful people—the staff and the ones who make this place function, too many to name—I want to say thank you for making our jobs here so much easier. I can't name you all, but you're there. And now to my special friends on the crossbench: we have all worked together—long nights, big days—and together we've reflected the diversity of Australia. We've worked with great respect and generosity together. Talking to the crossbench and of the crossbench, I want to make a special call-out to the people of Australia to pay attention to these extraordinary people and the work done here. Thank you. Clearly, our work is not yet done. In giving you my blessing: may you grow and multiply; may you all win your seats with increased margins; and may you continue to be the voice of reason, the voice of the marginalised and the voice of the forgotten. To my staff past and present, many of whom are here today and, I have to say, looking resplendent: I acknowledge your dedication, your persistence, your tolerance, your loyalty, your tact, your diplomacy and your courage. You have been my and Indi's arms, legs, eyes, ears, heart and soul. We thank you very, very much. At this stage, can my family please raise their hands. To my family: it is a truism to say I need you and I'm better because of you. Thanks to each and every one of you for your personal support, the phone calls and the debriefs on the long drive home from Canberra after a huge week. Can the niblings raise their hands. I thank them for their special help and advice, particularly during the marriage equality debate. I really appreciated your wisdom. Thank you for turning up today, because I know you have travelled great distances. I turn to the communities of Indi, those here today and those listening to the broadcast. You heard the call and you rallied. We could do better. A huge thank you to you. Your belief, your trust and your courage has made this crazy, brave experiment possible. Thank you so much. Thank you to the media. In particular, I would like to do a callout to media of rural and regional Australia, particularly in my electorate of Indi. Without fail, you turned up. Those post-parliamentary Friday presses in Wodonga have become such an important part of our routine. We had regular catch-ups, and your desire for accuracy continues to make Indi a much, much better place. Now let me turn to the future. The community took a huge risk in voting for me not once but twice. However, today it feels less risky to vote for an Independent and more like a sane, sensible alternative for the one-third of the population that lives outside the metropolitan areas and for those who live in metropolitan areas. I say to the people of Indi: we have called the government to account and we, all of us, need to continue to hold the next government to account. It is important that parliament join the dots on regional and rural Australia. Regional communities are ready to work with government and the government needs to take the time to listen to us. That's why, through the Regions at the Ready report, I have been advocating for a new approach to regional policy, strategic planning and a strengthening regional Australia development network. We need a white paper on regional Australia, one that is developed with communities and with regional Australia. I make a special callout now to the young people of regional Australia. It was the young people of my electorate who got me here. They nagged, they plodded and they harassed me. But they also saw the potential. They dragged me into the digital age of social media and they provided me with the constant inspiration to be my best self. I say to the young people of regional Australia, to the young people of Australia, on behalf of this parliament: we love you. We want you to be part of our democracy. We want you to be part of what we do here. And, sadly, you're not here in any way, shape or form in the numbers we need you. We know you've got wonderful lives. We know you do creative, innovative and amazing things. But we want to see you in government. My call to the young people of rural and regional Australia, of all Australia, is: don't get mad; get elected. For every organisation in Indi, I say: look at your leadership. Where are the young people? Are you passing on the baton? Talking of getting elected, I extend an invitation post this speech to all of us to attend the launch of my sister Ruth's book. It's called Get Elected and it is a step-by-step campaign guide to winning public office. It is at one o'clock at Queen's Terrace. It's a great gift to extended family and friends who complain. You can just say, 'Don't get mad; get elected—here's the book!' There is a special discount for Indi people, I think—Ruth, is that right? For me, it is time for the succession plan to be implemented. I am really looking forward to Sunday when Helen Haines launches her campaign in Wodonga to be the new Independent candidate for Indi. I wish her well. Helen is a nurse. We love nurses. Helen is a midwife, and we know they deliver! Helen has a PhD in public health, and we know how much we need good input into public health. She is an exemplary candidate and I ask my colleagues here to extend to her the same warmth and collegiality you have given to me, assuming she wins. Helen is the change we want to see. Respectful, engaged and clear in her motivation, she is a community grassroots candidate—we say we are different horses but from the same stable. And now to the end. The single and most important lesson for me is that political and community engagement is to be part of a team—it is to turn up, to sign up for a job and to speak up, to put your hand out to others and give them a leg up. In closing, I have run one leg of this relay, and the independent banner carries a precious legacy for our future. And I'm not going away; I'm merely taking a step back as I pass the baton on and allowing others to step forward. I leave you with this quote from the back of the toilet door at Mittagundi. 'The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found but made, and the making of these pathways changes both the maker and the destination.' Thank you.
on indulgence: hello, everybody, and thank you for coming. Six years ago, when I rose to make my first speech, the gallery was full. My community was engaged, supportive and present. Today, as I...
on indulgence: hello, everybody, and thank you for coming. Six years ago, when I rose to make my first speech, the gallery was full. My community was engaged, supportive and present. Today, as I rise to make my last speech, it's much the same. Back then, I quoted Margaret Mead: 'Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.' And how true that is. To the people of Indi in this parliament, thank you for enabling us to be the change we want to see. There is so much more to do. Beginning with the end in mind, my call to action is: our work is not yet done—don't get mad, get elected! Just a short summary: since that first speech, what have I done? I've delivered 525 speeches and 15 private member's bills, asked 74 questions without notice, moved 35 motions and made 18 amendments to legislation. Over 4,600 schoolchildren from my electorate have come to this place, 225 volunteers and four ANIP interns have worked in my office and, on average, 15,000 constituents a year have sought help, support and advice from the Indi office. Community members, more than I possibly could count, have offered support and advice and have shared their wisdom, and I have grown in confidence and courage. At the beginning, after agreeing to stand as a candidate, I was so nervous, worried and anxious. Then we won by a magic 439 votes, and I was really nervous, worried and very anxious! But I was determined to deliver. I really did want to prove that my community had done a good thing and the right thing in backing me. It was deeply personal. There had been a fierce competition for me to get here and to stay here. It required enormous emotional courage, strategy, skill, and a huge community effort. The expectations were enormous and heavy, and I took the responsibility of truly representing my community very seriously. So I am so proud to stand here today and say we have survived the ordeal and have hopefully set a benchmark in the process. My community has grown in confidence and courage, and we have delivered. I use that pronoun 'we' very deliberately. We have delivered confidence in democracy. We have delivered engagement in democracy. We've delivered better governance. We've delivered pride in community. And our voice has been heard. To the major parties, to my colleagues here, I have a short message: Independents do get things done. And every time any one of you says the opposite, the people of rural and regional Australia will remember these words: 'Tony, Independents deliver. Marginal seats matter. Just look at what happened in Indi. We have one-third of the vote. Let's use it.' Today our community's more confident, and this is important for investment, for jobs and for regional growth. Confidence is important for our young people and our families who, in ever-increasing numbers, are making the decision to return home to north-east Victoria. Engagement across all levels of the community has grown, with more and more people stepping up to leadership positions. I'm delighted that the community, and especially our young people, are now more engaged. They are signing up, turning up, and speaking up in far greater numbers. This active participation in democracy is paying dividends in our community. Right across the electorate, things are also getting done and we have significant investment: over $235 million for the North East Rail Line; 52 mobile phone towers; numerous regional infrastructure projects; the regional deal for Albury-Wodonga; Wodonga Junction Plan; Tallangatta redevelopment; Wangaratta Aquatic Centre; Alpine landscapes; the controversial Wangaratta Hospital, $20 million—and a special thank you goes to Dan Andrews and the Victorian government for coming to the party on that one; infrastructure jobs in Benalla; Mansfield Stadium; the heavy truck bypass; Kinglake Streetscape; Corryong Memorial Hall and Pool, and many, many more other things. But to my work in this place: the commitment I gave was to strive for good governance, and I think it is evidenced in the parliamentary work we have been involved in and which I mentioned briefly at the start of my speech. I'm particularly proud of the efforts in changing the rules for vulnerable witnesses and the rules governing gender dysphoria. Other highlights include the private member's legislation for the National Integrity Commission, and a code of conduct for all members of the parliament, recognising that our community expects more of us, its elected representatives. I was so proud to work with Griffith University, Transparency International Australia and the Accountability Round Table to introduce that legislation. A Senate committee is due to report on those bills tomorrow, and today in Melbourne, Transparency International released an assessment of Australia's national integrity systems. I call on all sides, everybody, to give the required resources to do this well. It's unfinished business. A private member's bill for an office for regional Australia made sense. Working with the member for Mayo for a minister for young people made sense. Representing my communities on refugees made sense. Giving my support for the refugee medivac bill was the right thing to do—but it's unfinished business. I'm proud of the inquiry into regional development and decentralisation, and I note Senator McKenzie is in the House. I'm looking forward to that report, Senator. I am also proud of the inquiry into regional higher education, and I note that the minister for higher education is in the House. I'm looking forward to that report, Minister.
National Disability Insurance Scheme | Questions without Notice | House debates
My question is to the Prime Minister. My community, at recent NDIS forums in Wangaratta, Wodonga and Benalla, raised concerns of ongoing delays in access to services and equipment and about the...
My question is to the Prime Minister. My community, at recent NDIS forums in Wangaratta, Wodonga and Benalla, raised concerns of ongoing delays in access to services and equipment and about the process for signing off on draft plans. Last night's budget revealed a significant underspend in NDIS funding. This is disappointing when there is such need, particularly in rural and regional Australia. Prime Minister, can you please take immediate action to fast-track assessments and address delays in receiving equipment and services, and provide NDIS clients with the opportunity to sign off on a draft plan and avoid a lengthy review process?
Telecommunications | Statements by Members | House debates
There is a never-ending battle for more mobile phone service in the country. There are many remaining blackspots in Indi, and today I table a component of a petition by the Violet Town community,...
There is a never-ending battle for more mobile phone service in the country. There are many remaining blackspots in Indi, and today I table a component of a petition by the Violet Town community, found compliant by the Petitions Committee. The petition was tabled in the Senate on Tuesday by Senator Jane Hume. It asks the House to facilitate a process ensuring Violet Town and district is provided with a mobile phone service fit for purpose, providing residents with the service that they pay for. I also table a letter undersigned by 121 residents of the Oxley community which requests immediate action to rectify the mobile blackspot that makes communication via mobile phone impossible in their township and surrounding areas. Colleagues, while I know we're going somewhere with mobile phones—and I noticed in the budget last night there is round 5 and round 6, and four more new mobile phone towers for Indi at Midland Highway in Lima South in Benalla Shire, Berringama and Mt Alfred in Towong Shire, and Smoko and Freeburgh in Alpine Shire—the battle's not over. Wherever you are in rural and regional Australia you should be able to use your mobile phone. The idea of a competitive tendering process is just not working. So I call on the government and the opposition to make the delivery of mobile phone services in regional areas an election issue so that wherever you are you can use your mobile phone.
Future Drought Fund Bill 2018, Future Drought Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2018; Consideration in Detail | Bills | House debates
by leave—I move amendments (1) to (10) as circulated in my name together: (1) Clause 2, page 2 (table), omit the table, substitute: (2) Page 24 (after line 8), at the end of Division 2,...
by leave—I move amendments (1) to (10) as circulated in my name together: (1) Clause 2, page 2 (table), omit the table, substitute: (2) Page 24 (after line 8), at the end of Division 2, add: 27A Publication of information relating to arrangements and grants (1) The Agriculture Minister must cause the following information to be published on the Agriculture Department's website: (a) each amount paid by the Commonwealth under a section 21 arrangement or as a section 21 grant; (b) the total of the amounts referred to in paragraph (a); (c) the total of the amounts payable, but not yet paid, by the Commonwealth under a section 21 arrangement or as a section 21 grant; (d) for each section 21 arrangement or section 21 grant: (i) the name of the person or body with whom the arrangement was made or to whom the grant was made; and (ii) the purpose of the arrangement or grant; (e) the date of the most recent amount paid by the Commonwealth under a section 21 arrangement or as a section 21 grant. (2) The information published under subsection (1) must be kept up-to-date. (3) For the purposes of subsection (2), information is up-to-date if it is published as soon as practicable. (3) Clause 31, page 29 (lines 1 to 3), omit ", but section 42 (disallowance) of the Legislation Act 2003 does not apply to the Plan". (4) Clause 32, page 29 (after line 18), at the end of paragraph (1) (a), add: (iii) the final report of the Productivity Commission review relating to the previous Plan (if any); and (5) Clause 32, page 29 (lines 21 and 22), omit "28 days", substitute "42 days". (6) Page 29 (after line 23), at the end of Division 4, add: 32A Productivity Commission review of effectiveness of Drought Resilience Funding Plan (1) Before the end of the period of 3 years after a Drought Resilience Funding Plan comes into force, the Minister administering the Productivity Commission Act 1998 (the Productivity Minister) must, under paragraph 6(1) (a) of that Act, refer to the Productivity Commission for inquiry the matter of the effectiveness of Part 3 of this Act: (a) including an assessment of the effectiveness of the Drought Resilience Funding Plan; and (b) having regard to economic, social and environmental outcomes. (2) In referring the matter to the Productivity Commission for inquiry, the Productivity Minister must: (a) under paragraph 11(1) (b) of the Productivity Commission Act 1998, specify that the Productivity Commission must submit its report on the inquiry to the Productivity Minister no later than 5 months before the end of the 4 year period that began when the Drought Resilience Funding Plan came into force; and (b) under paragraph 11(1) (d) of that Act, require the Productivity Commission to make recommendations in relation to the matter. Note: Under section 12 of the Productivity Commission Act 1998, the Productivity Minister must cause a copy of the Productivity Commission's report to be tabled in each House of the Parliament. (3) For the purposes of paragraph 6(1) (a) of the Productivity Commission Act 1998, the matter mentioned in subsection (1) of this section is taken to be a matter relating to industry, industry development and productivity. (7) Page 31 (after line 31), at the end of Part 3, add: Division 6—Future Drought Fund Consultative Committee Subdivision A—Preliminary 36A Definitions In this Division: Chair means the Chair of the Committee. Committee means the Future Drought Fund Consultative Committee. Subdivision B—Establishment of the Committee 36B Future Drought Fund Consultative Committee A committee to be known as the Future Drought Fund Consultative Committee is established. Subdivision C—Functions and powers of the Committee 36C Functions of the Committee The Committee has the functions conferred on the Committee by this Subdivision. 36D Agriculture Minister must request advice from Committee about draft Drought Resilience Funding Plan (1) In addition to the requirements of subsection 32(1), before determining a Drought Resilience Funding Plan the Agriculture Minister must: (a) request the Committee to advise the Agriculture Minister about the draft Plan referred to in that subsection; and (b) have regard to any advice that the Committee has given to the Agriculture Minister under this section in relation to the draft. (2) The Committee must comply with a request under subsection (1). (3) This section does not limit section 17 of the Legislation Act 2003. 36E Agriculture Minister must request advice from the Committee on design relating to arrangements and grants (1) Before the Agriculture Minister first makes either an arrangement or a grant under section 21, the Agriculture Minister must request the Committee to advise the Agriculture Minister about whether the proposed design of the program of arrangements or grants to be made under that section is consistent with the Drought Resilience Funding Plan. (2) The Committee must comply with a request under subsection (1). 36F Powers of the Committee The Committee has power to do all things that are necessary or convenient to be done for, or in connection with, the performance of its functions. Subdivision D—Membership etc. of the Committee 36G Membership of the Committee The Committee consists of the following members: (a) a Chair; (b) 4 other members. 36H Appointment of members of the Committee (1) Each member of the Committee is to be appointed by the Agriculture Minister by written instrument. Note: A member of the Committee may be reappointed, subject to subsection 36J(2): see section 33AA of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. (2) A member of the Committee holds office on a part-time basis. (3) A person must not be appointed as a member of the Committee unless the person has expertise or experience in at least 2 or more of the following areas: (a) drought resilience measures; (b) climate risk; (c) the agriculture industry; (d) rural and regional community leadership and resilience; (e) rural and regional development; (f) applied research; (g) agricultural extension; (h) economics. (4) In appointing a person as a member of the Committee the Agriculture Minister must ensure that, as far as practicable, there is a balance of gender, knowledge and skills among members of the Committee. 36J Period of appointment for members of the Committee (1) A member of the Committee holds office for the period specified in the instrument of appointment. The period must not exceed 4 years. (2) A person must not hold office as a member of the Committee for a total of more than 8 years. 36K Acting appointments (1) The Agriculture Minister may appoint a member of the Committee (other than the Chair) to act as the Chair: (a) during a vacancy in the office of the Chair (whether or not an appointment has previously been made to the office); or (b) during any period, or during all periods, when the Chair: (i) is absent from duty or from Australia; or (ii) is for any reason, unable to perform the duties of the office. (2) The Agriculture Minister may appoint a person to act as a member of the Committee (other than the Chair): (a) during a vacancy in the office of a member (other than the Chair), whether or not an appointment has previously been made to the office; or (b) during any period, or during all periods, when a member (other than the Chair): (i) is absent from duty or from Australia; or (ii) is for any reason, unable to perform the duties of the office. (3) A person is not eligible for appointment under subsection (2) unless the person is eligible for appointment as a member of the Committee. 36M Remuneration (1) A member of the Committee is to be paid, by the Commonwealth, the remuneration that is determined by the Remuneration Tribunal. If no determination of that remuneration by the Tribunal is in operation, a member of the Committee is to be paid, by the Commonwealth, the remuneration that is prescribed by the rules. (2) A member of the Committee is to be paid, by the Commonwealth, the allowances that are prescribed by the rules. (3) Subsections 7(9) and (13) of the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 do not apply in relation to the office of member of the Committee. Note: The effect of this subsection is that remuneration or allowances of the member will be paid out of money appropriated by the Parliament by an Act other than the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973. (4) This section has effect subject to the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 (except as provided by subsection (3)). 36N Disclosure of interests to the Agriculture Minister A member of the Committee must give written notice to the Agriculture Minister of all interests, pecuniary or otherwise, that the member has or acquires and that conflict or could conflict with the proper performance of the member's functions. 36P Outside work A member of the Committee must not engage in any paid work that conflicts or may conflict with the proper performance of his or her duties. 36Q Leave of absence (1) The Agriculture Minister may grant leave of absence to the Chair of the Committee on the terms and conditions that the Agriculture Minister determines. (2) The Chair of the Committee may grant leave of absence to a member of the Committee (other than the Chair) on the terms and conditions that the Chair determines. 36R Resignation (1) A member of the Committee may resign his or her appointment by giving the Agriculture Minister a written resignation. (2) The resignation takes effect on the day it is received by the Agriculture Minister or, if a later day is specified in the resignation, on that later day. 36S Termination of appointment (1) The Agriculture Minister may terminate the appointment of a member of the Committee if the member is unable to perform the duties of his or her office because of physical or mental incapacity. (2) The Agriculture Minister may terminate the appointment of a member of the Committee if: (a) the member: (i) becomes bankrupt; or (ii) applies to take the benefit of any law for the relief of bankrupt or insolvent debtors; or (iii) compounds with his or her creditors; or (iv) makes an assignment of his or her remuneration for the benefit of his or her creditors; or (b) the member fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with section 36N; or (c) the member engages in paid work that conflicts or may conflict with the proper performance of his or her duties (see section 36P); or (d) the member is absent, except on leave of absence, from 3 consecutive meetings of the Committee. 36T Other terms and conditions A member of the Committee holds office on the terms and conditions (if any) in relation to matters not covered by this Act that are determined by the Agriculture Minister. (8) Clause 63, page 46 (line 13), after "Department", insert "who has the expertise appropriate to the power". (9) Clause 65, page 46 (line 27), before "The", insert "(1)". (10) Clause 65, page 46 (after line 29), at the end of the clause, add: (2) The responsible Ministers must cause a copy of: (a) the terms of reference for the review; and (b) a report of the review; to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 15 sitting days of that House after the tenth anniversary. (3) The responsible Ministers must also cause a copy of the terms of reference and report to be published on the internet as soon as practicable after the tenth anniversary. Colleagues, while I support the intent of the Future Drought Fund Bill 2018, I feel that we could make it better. The amendments I move today will ensure that the operation of the fund is more transparent, the minister is accountable to the parliament for expenditure, and good governance and proper processes are followed. The amendments pick up the concerns raised by the scrutiny of bills committee and by the Senate committee inquiry into the bill, and include improvements suggested by the National Farmers' Federation. As part of the Senate committee inquiry, the NFF raised concerns that the future plan and expenditure must incorporate the views of drought and related issue experts. The NFF recommended that the bill be amended to establish a future drought fund consultative committee. I agree. Amendments (1) to (7) will create a future drought fund consultative committee. This committee will have five members, selected for their expertise or experience in drought resilience, climate risk, agricultural industry, rural and regional community leadership and resilience, rural and regional development, applied research, agricultural extension and economics. The appointments will be for four years with a maximum of eight years in total. There is a requirement for a balance of gender, knowledge and skills among members of the committee. The committee will have a role in providing advice to the minister at two stages: during the development, consultation and drafting of the funding plan, and during the design of arrangements and grant processes delivered on the funding plan. The amendments will mean that we will have some assurance that views of drought and related issue experts will influence the draft plan and implementation. Amendment (5) will also extend the consultation period on the draft plan from 28 days to 42 days, or six weeks, to ensure regional communities have an opportunity to have a say. The Productivity Commission will review the drought funding plan. Under the current bill, the funding plan is to be reviewed every four years, but there's no mechanism to review the plan's effectiveness. There's no independent review of processes to improve drought resilience or effectiveness. Amendments (4) and (6) will require the Productivity Commission to review the plan before the plan is renewed, and the report is to be circulated as part of the consultation for the next plan. The review will occur as part of each four-year renewal cycle, and the Productivity Commission will be asked to review the effectiveness of the fund, having regard to economic, social and, really importantly, environmental outcomes. This is an important amendment that will provide transparency about the way the $100 million a year is spent. There are other accountability and transparency amendments. Amendment (3) will make the funding plan a disallowable instrument, which will give the parliament an opportunity to hold the minister accountable to proper processes. Amendments (9) and (10) will require the minister to table the terms of reference and final report of the 10-yearly review of the operation of the act, providing parliament with the opportunity to review and debate the report. After passing this bill, the only point where the parliament could have had a chance to review the effectiveness of the fund would be to review the plan after 10 years of operation. But, as the bill is drafted, this report is not required to be tabled in parliament. Colleagues, I want to say how important this money is: $100 million a year to be spent in our rural communities on long-term drought prevention. I've been absolutely delighted to work with the minister, to work with his staff, to work with Jeremy—can I name you, Jeremy? It's been a fantastic effort on this. As this is my last speech in parliament on a topic of such importance, I will say that in the six years I've been here this is the only time that the government has accepted my amendments. So, I feel like I'm leaving on a real high point, and I just want to say to the government: at long last, sense has prevailed! Listening to the crossbench gives you such dividends, because I think together we have got a much, much, much better piece of legislation.
Closing the Gap | Ministerial Statements | House debates
In making my comments today, I would like to cover off about the importance of the Closing the Gap document, talk a little bit about the history and importance of the apology, talk about my work...
In making my comments today, I would like to cover off about the importance of the Closing the Gap document, talk a little bit about the history and importance of the apology, talk about my work here in parliament during the six years I have been member for Indi and talk about what's next. Let me start with some history. There is a wonderful book called Corroboree or war party: the last dance of the Wangaratta Pangerang. This book talks about the first contact with white people in my area in 1894—the great adventurers Hume and Hovell. It says Hume and Hovell actually followed the Pangerang footsteps; Hume and Hovell didn't make the route themselves. It says that 'members of the 1824 exploration expedition travelled along native pathways. There were no other tracks except such as were made by the natives in the neighbourhood of the water.' A little bit later, it talks about the area around the Ovens Valley of north-east Victoria in 1824. It says: 'The natives hereabout are evidently numerous as they conclude from their fires, the smoke of which is observed in every direction, and yesterday their voices were distinctly heard but none of them could be seen.' So, the early white settlement history in early Victoria is recorded here. This book is by Wendy Mitchell, who did it as part of her masters degree in regional development. In my growing up, that is probably the history I got of my area. And it wasn't really until I agreed to stand as the member for Indi that I paid some serious attention to the history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live in north-east Victoria. It was the apology that first brought this to my attention. As members would know, the then Prime Minister Mr Rudd made the apology. The federal member for Indi at the time decided that she would not be present for the apology; she abstained. The reaction in my community was one of horror, because she was our representative and she wasn't there. I was part of the general movement that said that was not good enough; we didn't want a representative who wouldn't represent us. That was one of the driving forces that encouraged me to put my hand up. I made the commitment that, when I got elected, I would come to parliament and I would make the apology on behalf of the people of Indi, which I did. In preparation for getting elected, I met many of the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I made a policy commitment in 2013 that, if elected as a member of parliament, I would form an advisory committee of Aboriginal people to assist in providing advice on issues of health, education and employment. I committed to make a public statement to recognise and acknowledge past mistreatment of stolen generations and I committed to make an acknowledgement to traditional owners of the land on which I meet at every public assembly. I am delighted to say that I have been able to do that. That was commitment No. 1. The second part of me being a member of parliament was to be a representative for my community. I am delighted and proud to say that I think I have been able to do that—not perfectly but I have certainly begun. I have made formal speeches in parliament around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues in my electorate. I have been speaking on Closing the Gap. I have asked questions. I have reported on local activities. I have had Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander come to Canberra, and we have had deputations. So, that is good work. Also as a member of parliament I have been able to reach out and network with some of my communities. I want to briefly put on record and thank and acknowledge the work of the three local Aboriginal networks in my community that provide me with policy advice—the Gadhaba in Mansfield, the Dirrawarra in Wangaratta, the Albury-Wodonga Aboriginal Network and their leaders. I won't name you all—there are far too many—but I thank you very much for welcoming me into your community. I want to acknowledge the First Nations elders advisory group, which I've met with twice, this year and late last year, and thank them particularly for their words of wisdom and the issues that they've presented to me about housing, health and their want to be involved in closing the gap at a regional level. I want to talk especially about some of the key aunties and uncles that have helped me understood my job better: Aunty Betty Hood-Cherry, Uncle Freddy Dowling, Catherine Coysh, David Noonan, Tammy Campbell, Darren Moffitt and Chris Thorne. Thank you so much for your patience and your tolerance. You've taken me under your wing as your federal member and you've taught me a great deal. Following the learning from knowing you, I was encouraged to put my hand up to be considered for the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition. I think that was really when I absolutely came to understand the responsibility I have as a member of parliament. Though I thought I'd done reasonable work representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, I know our work hasn't even seriously begun. I want to talk briefly to the report of the committee. It says: We believe there is a strong desire among all Australians to know more about the history, traditions and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their contact with other Australians both good and bad. A fuller understanding of our history including the relationship between Black and White Australia will lead to a more reconciled nation. There are recommendations in the report to do that, particularly around truth-telling. I want to talk for a minute about this committee of inquiry, because it came to Albury-Wodonga. We had a number of local people come to present. We had over 24 submissions from Indi to that inquiry. As I sat and listened to the local people talk about our history of white settlement and efforts around health and education, I came to understand how far we have to go and how far my community has to go before we even begin to do some of the serious work of closing the gap. I now get to the part of my speech where I acknowledge the work of the constitutional committee. I want to say thank you to Senator Pat Dodson. When we were in Broome, he took me around and showed me his community through his eyes. If you ever go to Broome and have the opportunity to be guided around by Aboriginal people who give you a sense of their 60,000 years of history, it's the most wonderful thing to behold. I want to say thank you to Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, who came to Beechworth and delivered the Kerferd oration to over 400 people at Beechworth. At the end, she got a standing ovation for not only her skill of oration but also her ability to reach across the divide of the Northern Territory and north-east Victoria to connect with the community and give us a sense of our shared journey together. I want to say thank you to Linda Burney, member of the House of Representatives, and the leadership she has provided in the House, but also our shared work with the Torres Strait Islander women's leadership group. Linda, in acknowledging you, I also want to acknowledge your partner, Rick Farley. When he was with the National Farmers' Federation, one day he pointed out to me—he said, 'Cathy, never ever forget that Australia has a black heart.' I take that so strongly. What a wonderful thing it is to think that our culture and our nation is formed, and the heart of us is our Aboriginal traditions. I also want to thank Julian Leeser, the co-chair of that committee, for his wisdom, his knowledge and his professionalism. I learnt so much from watching him at work. In bringing my comments to a close on Closing the Gap and bringing the last speech I will make in parliament around this topic to a close, I want to commit to do four things: I want to talk about our history, I want to talk about being solution focused, I want to talk about recognition of traditional owners, and I want to talk about the importance of Closing the Gap, but beginning at grassroots and not doing top-down work. When I finish being a member of parliament, I commit to understanding and documenting the history of white settlement in my community, because, when we started to look at finding out who the traditional owners in our community were, there were very few of them, and they don't live locally. And the reason why they don't live locally is that they died or they got moved somewhere else. I live in a really populous part of north-east Victoria, and we don't have our local history of that white settlement. I'm going to work with my community over the next 10 years to document it and begin that process of truth-telling, and I invite the young people here today to be part of this journey with me, as part of your school curriculum. As young leaders, come with me on the journey to understand our history, our long-time Indigenous history. I hope, like me, you will be inspired by it. (Time expired)
National Disability Insurance Scheme | Constituency Statements | House debates
Colleagues, in my statement today, I want to draw attention to the rollout of the NDIS in Indi. I want to highlight some of the problems constituents are dealing with, and I want to put a call...
Colleagues, in my statement today, I want to draw attention to the rollout of the NDIS in Indi. I want to highlight some of the problems constituents are dealing with, and I want to put a call out to my community to come to the second NDIS community information forum, which will be held in Benalla on 28 March. Finally, colleagues, I'd like to let you know that I'm not standing for election in May, but I'm encouraging my supporters to back Helen Haines, who has a huge commitment to health and wellbeing. I know she will continue to carry the flag of better service delivery for people with disabilities in our electorate. Constantly we get constituents coming to my office, and they write letters about problems with the NDIS. While it's a great scheme and it has huge potential, it's not reaching its potential at the moment. To address that, in August last year we worked with the NDIA to hold two community forums, one in Wangaratta and one in Wodonga. These were really well attended. I thank the NDIA for their presence. But there were a number of issues that weren't addressed at the time, and the NDIA said they would come back in six months and report back to the community on what they had achieved. That meeting will be in Benalla on Thursday, 28 March, parliament commitments being willing. I wanted to bring to the House some of the main problems we're experiencing with the NDIS. As a result, we put some questions in writing to the minister: 'In respect of the NDIS, what is the nominated time frame of a plan?' The minister wrote back to me telling me the NDIA does not currently have nominated time frames between plan submission for approval and plan approval. Why don't we have time frames? Why don't we have KPIs? It seems a very straightforward thing to do that would help in the planning of it. So, a call out to the minister to address that. Another question we asked was, 'Why do clients receive final plans that are inadequate and have to wait for up to a year or more to have their plans revised?' The NDIA tell us that they've received more work than they can handle on this. They haven't got enough staff to address it. So, a call out for more staff, to do what needs to be done so we can actually get this program working. In closing, I want to thank the individuals, the families, the advocates and the service providers who have given such support to the rollout in rural and regional Australia. I say to them, come to the community forum on the 28th and we will do the next stage of delivery. We'll have experts there, we'll have community providers there, we'll have families there and we'll have individuals there who are experiencing the problems, and then we will make a commitment to get the plan ready for after the election. What do we need to do so that the NDIS can really reach its potential?
Future Drought Fund Bill 2018, Future Drought Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2018; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
In my addressing this legislation tonight, the Future Drought Fund Bill 2018, I'd like to take the House through some of my concerns about the bill, look at the process of accountability for the...
In my addressing this legislation tonight, the Future Drought Fund Bill 2018, I'd like to take the House through some of my concerns about the bill, look at the process of accountability for the minister in spending the dividend and outline areas where I will be making amendments. Secondly, I would like to talk about the missed opportunity in this bill for the government to resolve its thinking about our regional communities and the lack of opportunity to give voice to, listen to and act on the priorities for rural and regional communities. The purpose of these Future Drought Fund bills appears to be relatively straightforward: to establish a Future Drought Fund that will support drought resilience measures into the future. It talks of an investment of $3.6 billion that will return a dividend of $100 million a year from July 2020, next year, with that dividend to be spent on drought resilience measures as the minister sees fit so long as they are consistent with the drought resilience funding plan. Colleagues, while I support the intent of the bill, I feel the bill was rushed out to meet the drought summit time line. I feel it's loosely drafted and does not represent good governance and, in its current form, I'm unable to support the bill. Consequently, I will be moving amendments to the bill in the consideration in detail stage. In these amendments I will cover the operations of the fund, to make it more transparent, and propose that the minister becomes accountable to the parliament for spending, that we see good governance designed into the development of the plan and that proper process is followed in the expenditure of the dividends. The amendments I propose pick up the concerns raised by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee, by the Senate committee inquiry into the bill and by the proposed improvements recommended by the National Farmers Federation as part of that inquiry—no small group of people to support me in my amendments. Let me talk about the process of accountability. As it currently stands, the bill lacks accountability to the parliament. It gives all the power to the minister, and there are no checks and balances—that minister can basically just say, 'Trust me.' The minister has the power to spend $100 million a year on loosely defined drought resilience objectives, as long as the spend is consistent with the drought resilience funding plan. The only check on this consistency is by the government's Regional Investment Corporation. The government's Regional Investment Corporation is a bank. The drought resilience funding plan guiding this investment will be developed by the government's department and it currently only involves a 20-day consultation period with the community. So $100 million a year, a complex plan, and all we get are bankers to oversee it. The drought resilience funding plan will be reviewed every four years, but there's no mechanism in the review to check its effectiveness. In fact, there's no mechanism anywhere to account for effectiveness and delivery. The drought resilience funding plan is to be a legislative instrument, but it's not disallowable. So parliament is not able to disagree with the minister. The parliament will have no opportunity to hold the minister to account for the content of the plan. So, after this bill is passed, the only chance the parliament will have to review the effectiveness of the fund would be a review after 10 years of operation. But, even then, as the bill is drafted, the report is not required to be tabled in the parliament or published. So, after 10 years of population, it can be reviewed, but the review doesn't have to be published. All Australians should be concerned by the lack of transparency and accountability of $100 million a year. I'm concerned, and it's not just me that's concerned—though, clearly, it's pretty important that I am, given that this is my background and my interest. In preparing for tonight's debate, we connected with that wonderful group called the National Farmers Federation—not exactly a radical socialised group supporting government expenditure. In their input to the Senate committee inquiry, the NFF raised concerns about the funding plan and expenditure. They wanted the views of drought and related issues experts incorporated—so not just bankers; let's have someone involved who gets rural and regional Australia. As member for Farrer just said, let's have someone who actually understands agriculture. The NFF recommended that the bill be amended to establish a future drought fund consultative committee and, at the very least, to get some professional agricultural rural knowledge and skill into the process. I agree, and I'll be proposing that this committee be established as part of the process. I would also like to briefly talk about some of the recommendations from Standing Committee on the Scrutiny of Bills. What a wonderful thing this is—a standing committee on the scrutiny of bills. They talk about broad discretionary powers, and they basically say that 'the expenditure should be subject to at least some level of parliamentary scrutiny'—at least some level; I agree. The committee went on to say, 'In this regard, the committee is concerned that the bill contains no guidance on its face as to the terms or conditions that would be attached to the financial assistance granted.' So that's pretty interesting, and I would say, 'Well, what's the role for parliament here?' I will be moving some amendments along those lines. The committee also talks about merits review and says: So we've got no idea about what the merits are of the people who get the grant and of the minister who spends $100 million, other than a plan that's been approved by a banking organisation. So there's no link in there at all to how agricultural outcomes or drought resilience will be achieved. Further, the report of the committee stated: The committee's consistent view is that significant matters relating to a legislative scheme, such as how grants and agreements under the relevant scheme are to be administered, should be included in primary legislation (or at least in legislative instruments subject to parliamentary disallowance and sunsetting) unless a sound justification for using non-disallowable delegated legislation is provided. That certainly has not been provided in this legislation. The report continued: The committee requests the minister's advice as to why it is considered necessary and appropriate to confer on the Agriculture Minister a broad power to make grants of financial assistance, in the absence of any guidance on the face of the bill as to how this power is to be exercised. I agree. There's more in that report, but I won't spend all my time talking about it. It is well worth a read. I would like to talk about the issues that we have. I have to say that it is not just me that thinks that there are problems here; there's a large body of people who think that we could do better and we should do better. I will be moving amendments to the bill proposing that we look at a review mechanism; that we look at checks and balances and expenditure; and that we look to the Productivity Commission to become involved to address the effectiveness of it. The review would occur, ideally, before the plan is reviewed every four years, so that review can then be considered as part of the renewal. I will also ask in my amendments that the Productivity Commission be asked to review the effectiveness of the fund having regard to economic outcomes but also social and environment outcomes. All of us know that drought affects the economy, it affects the environment, and it affects the communities. So we've got to look at how this money is actually used across those three areas. Colleagues, I'd briefly like to talk about the amendments, but I'd also like to talk about a missed opportunity in this legislation—and not only the poor governance aspect of it. What a golden opportunity for rural and regional Australia this is—$100 million a year and the idea of a plan. If we can get a consultative committee in place, what a difference this money could make to our communities. But if it's only spent on a pipe, what a lost opportunity that would be. If it's only spent on infrastructure and we don't pay attention to the impacts on the environment or the community, what a lost opportunity it would be. So I want to talk a little bit about the opportunity for leadership in rural and regional Australia, the opportunity to work with real people in real places—exactly like the member for Farrer talked about in her speech—and the opportunity that this money gives us not only to work with resilience and build people's resilience physically, emotionally and environmentally but to position ourselves for future droughts, which will come, by working with local government and community groups to say, 'Well, it's going to happen. How do we work together to plan for the future?' Let me talk a little bit about planning. It's so much money. It could make such a difference if we plan around the integration of government policy. One of the failings I see in this bill is that we don't actually talk about how it fits in with other government policy. The one I know so much about is our policy on rural and regional Australia. I've been part of the committee looking at the future of regional development and decentralisation. Surely, a policy that's looking at drought has to look at regional development and decentralisation. One of the recommendations in that particular report is that we come up with what we called 'regional plans'. A regional plan gets everybody in the community together to look at Commonwealth, state and local government funding. We look at what we've got, and we see where there's duplication and how we can use more of it. Imagine if we were to develop these regional plans and then, together, we were able to link to some of this drought resilience money and say, 'Here's how this money can add value to the whole.' What a difference that would make! But it requires government to work across portfolios. I really encourage the minister to give some consideration to how we can value-add this money and get much better bang for our buck by looking at a strategic approach to significant planning—not just planning for the $100 million but planning for regional Australia and our long-term prosperity. Not only do we have a problem, then, with missed opportunity around regional planning; I also want to talk a little bit about what I want to see in my own electorate of Albury-Wodonga, which, as the member for Farrer has just said, is in the Murray-Darling Basin. We've got this drought at the moment, and we've also got a problem with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. There is a huge opportunity to use funding like this to bring communities together across difference—an opportunity to work with the communities of the Murray-Darling Basin. I just have to take issue with the member for Farrer. While she's the member for the New South Wales side of the river, I just want to say: it's a valley, and a valley knows no political boundaries. So we've actually got to work together across the New South Wales-Victorian boundary and also across the political boundaries that we have. That means working across both sides of parliament, and that's why I think this bill is so important. We actually need to think about how that money is going to be spent to give us the greatest bang for our buck. I'm just going to bring my comments to a close and, in speaking tonight, I want to talk a little bit about my decision-making framework. This is a really important piece of legislation. This has the potential to be absolutely fundamental to the future of our rural and regional communities and, in particular, to help our farming communities manage drought. But there are so many problems at the moment. There are problems with grants. There are problems with review. I've mentioned them. I was thinking tonight about my approach to how I was voting. Is this legislation right in its concepts? I think it is. I think $100 million and a good way of working will make a really big difference. Could this legislation be good for Indi? Absolutely. And good for Australia? Absolutely. The third thing in my decision-making framework is: is this legislation exhibiting good governance? I don't think so. Consequently, I'll be making some amendments. Are there any unintended consequences attached to this bill? Yes, I think there are. The stakeholders include the NFF, whom I've just quoted. The NFF thinks there are problems. Landcare thinks we could do it better. And I'm sure, if we opened it up wider, there would be many, many really good stakeholders who could value-add and tell us about the unintended consequences. An unregulated grants program will always cause us problems. In my closing comments, I would like to acknowledge the departmental staff and the advisers here. You've been an absolute delight to work with, and I look forward to working with you on the amendments and, hopefully, on making this legislation the best legislation it can be so that I can support it and have the benefits come to my community and to Australia, just as we hope will happen.
Indi Electorate | Statements by Members | House debates
Colleagues, I'd like to welcome to Parliament House today some of my electorate's many young leaders, and I'd specifically like a call out to the leadership team at Victory Lutheran College in...
Colleagues, I'd like to welcome to Parliament House today some of my electorate's many young leaders, and I'd specifically like a call out to the leadership team at Victory Lutheran College in Wodonga. To Tom, Sophie, Jacob and Chloe, led by the wonderful Mr Wiese, welcome to Parliament House. Colleagues, there is so much good work done by young people in my electorate, and I want to take this opportunity today to honour, acknowledge and thank all the young people, particularly the young leaders in the school but not only in the school. On Saturday night, I had the joyful opportunity to attend the LGBTI inaugural gay ball in Wodonga, organised by our local gay pride group, supported by youth worker Sal Kimber and Indigo Council, a fantastic example of grassroots leadership in my community. Today, I want to say to young people right throughout Indi: I want to honour your commitment, your dedication, your generosity and your kindness. I want to say continue to be leaders. Our country needs you. Our country wants you. I encourage you to sign up, to turn up and to speak up so that, when you're my age, the world that you leave for your grandchildren is significantly better than the one we currently have. Thank you for coming. Please take the message back to your school and your community: leadership is a great and noble profession.
Reserve Bank Amendment (Australian Reconstruction and Development Board) Bill 2019; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I am very happy to second the motion and reserve my right to speak. Debate adjourned.
Office for Regional Australia Bill 2019; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. In summary, in presenting this bill I would like to continue my call for the need for an overarching, comprehensive, long-term and non-partisan...
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. In summary, in presenting this bill I would like to continue my call for the need for an overarching, comprehensive, long-term and non-partisan approach to dealing with regional Australia through a white and green paper process. I want to recognise that good regional policy is absolutely needed for our nation. And, third, I want to call out the government's absolute inadequate response to the Regions at the ready report. The government is mistaken if it believes its response to Regions at the ready: investing in Australia's future, the report tabled last week, demonstrates a strong and ongoing commitment to the future of rural and regional Australia. Last week, eight months after the committee released its report, the government responded to the report's 13 recommendations. These recommendations were the result of a year of analysis, 14 public hearings and more than 200 written submissions, and to say that I'm underwhelmed by the government's response is absolutely an understatement. Most disappointing is the lost opportunity to progress the vision outlined in the report for the sustainable growth and development of all of Australia. The response fails to establish a white paper process and instead offers an 'expert panel'. As a result, colleagues, I have taken action together with the member for Mayo to present this private members' bill, the Office for Regional Australia Bill 2019. This bill will address the deficiencies in the government's approach, developing an office for regional Australia modelled on the Productivity Commission: It's not rocket science. Why does it take the crossbench to act on a government report? We, with our limited resources, are bringing legislation to the parliament. We are not saying, 'We need another month.' We are not saying, 'We need another committee.' We are taking action. We are doing the hard work that rural and regional Australia needs. Can I say, colleagues: the people in my community, the people in Mayo and the people in Mallee are noticing who's doing the work for regional Australia in this place. This office will hold inquiries about matters relating to policy. The Office for Regional Australia will support coordination, collaboration and innovation in relation to policy. It will develop and support our RDAs. The Office for Regional Australia will provide advice to the minister about matters relating to regional deals and regional planning. The Office for Regional Australia will promote public understanding of matters relevant to policy that impact on regional Australia. The bill requires that the minister table a statement embodying the government's policy for regional Australia, and this may be developed through a formal white paper process. The bill also provides for the development of a parliamentary joint committee on regional development and decentralisation to provide parliamentary oversight of the work of the office. Just let me take a minute on this one, colleagues. When I was first elected to this House, in 2013, I put my hand up to be on the regional development committee. It didn't meet. Nothing happened. I went to see the minister, the National Party minister for regional development. He said: 'No, Cathy, you've got it wrong. It does transport.' I said, 'Well, how does the parliament get input into regional development?' He said, 'Oh, it's an ad hoc committee that meets occasionally.' The House of Representatives does not have a committee on regional development and decentralisation. Can you imagine that? To all the colleagues out there in rural and regional Australia: if you're wondering why the government is doing such a bad job, it's because there's no committee here and no process here to develop it. It was in the report, and we're saying it absolutely needs to be established as a matter of urgency. The second example I want to give of my real frustration with the system is child care. Last week I tabled in this House a petition from my community about rural child care. Just give me the indulgence of a few minutes to explain my absolute frustration with the lack of government understanding of how rural and regional Australia is different to the cities—how one size doesn't fit all—and how the market conditions in rural and regional Australia are different to those in the cities. The government came up with a way—very useful in some parts—to reform childcare payments. It needed to be done, but it had a one-size-fits-all process. The government took what we had in rural and regional Australia, which was a really good program of mobile childcare services, basically got rid of it and said everybody must be transitioned into centres. The industry, and the Aboriginal community that relied on these mobile childcare services, got organised and came to see us. They said, 'Can we have something different?' So we tried to work with the government of the day—no action. We tried to get an impact statement done. We said to the minister in questions in writing: 'Have you done an impact statement on what this means for rural and regional Australia?' The response was: 'No, we didn't do that, because there's going to be no impact.' Can you believe that we've changed the way child care is funded but we don't have an impact statement? Long story short: exactly as we expected, in my community over Christmas the funding for the childcare centres was stopped. I'm really grateful to the Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, the member for Wannon, for coming to the rescue, but it should never have happened. Why do we need an office for regional Australia? We need an office for regional Australia because the regions are different to the cities. We have a really good model, in the Productivity Commission, for doing inquiries, and we could do so much good work. I want to bring to the attention of the House another bit of legislation that will be before the House this week. It is about the government setting up a drought fund. It's great to have infrastructure money in the system to build dams—and I know my colleague the member for Kennedy really wants more dams—but the whole thing about regional Australia, why we absolutely need infrastructure, is that we've got people living there, and those people need to be supported because so many of them work in a voluntary capacity. While it's great to build a dam, if you don't put money into committees, into resilience programs, into RDAs—into planning—that money just gets washed away. Invest in the people. That is what we're saying this office should do. I will finish with my call to action to whichever party wins at the next election, whichever party that gets to sit on these really important benches here: this report needs to be acted on. I ask my colleagues in the Labor Party: will Labor commit to acting on the recommendations in Regions at the ready? Will Labor commit to an office of regional Australia? And where are the National Party in developing and promoting comprehensive regional policies? The comment was that they're already doing a good job. Well, there are not many people in rural and regional Australia who think that the current way of operating—ad hoc competitive grants—is actually working. Not many of us think it's working, and I call on the National Party to actually step up and give us a policy, give us a strategy. Show us how, if you're investing $100 million in drought, it's actually linked to a strategy. Show us that you are going to have transparency, that you're going to engage with your communities and that you're going to bring the people with you—that you don't just do a slush fund that the cattle industry can access; that you are going to actually look at communities and businesses and develop a way for the whole nation to work together. In finishing my comments I want to say that this is a plea from the heart. This will be my last private member's bill to this parliament, because I'm stepping down—though I'm going to continue to do my work. I'm absolutely delighted that in Indi we have a fantastic candidate who's going to run. Helen Haines, welcome to the House today as you learn your way around. I know you'll pick up the need for a strong independent voice for rural and regional Australia. I know you'll call out the National Party. I know you'll call out the regional Liberals. I know you're going to continue this work. You're such an articulate, clever, intelligent and wonderful representative for north-east Victoria, and I wish you luck. It's no accident that my last private member's bill is about an office for regional Australia. This is the issue that I've championed through all my six years. I have to say how fundamentally underwhelmed I am that the best the government can do is say, 'Oh, we're going to set up another committee and we'll report on 31 March.' Oh, come on! What's 31 March? It's the day almost before the budget comes out. It is just a pathetic response. I want to finish with a comment from Amanda Walsh, who wrote an article for The Conversation in June 2018. She described the Regions at the readyreport as a 'far-reaching and highly practical work program for regional development'. I urge the government to recognise that we need to have a strategy, that we need to have a plan, and that, for the nation's good, we need to put rural and regional Australia at the forefront of our national policy. I commend this bill to the House.
Banking Amendment (Rural Finance Reform) Bill 2019; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I second this motion as I was proud to second it when it was first introduced to the House, and I would like to add my support to the work and the words of the member for Mayo and to express the...
I second this motion as I was proud to second it when it was first introduced to the House, and I would like to add my support to the work and the words of the member for Mayo and to express the disappointment we feel with those on the other side of the House, the government, in their failure to actually speak up for those in our constituency, which is farmers and farming families who have been hugely affected. So I'm very grateful to the member for Mayo and to her staff for the enormous amount of work they have done in getting this bill before the House. And I do call on my colleagues in the National Party and the regional Liberals to please step up and bring your voice to this House to represent your constituency. It's my real pleasure to second the Banking Amendment (Rural Finance Reform) Bill 2019.
Regional Australia | Questions without Notice | House debates
My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to my question yesterday and acknowledge the release of the government's response to the Regions at the ready report. The response, sadly, confirms...
My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to my question yesterday and acknowledge the release of the government's response to the Regions at the ready report. The response, sadly, confirms that regional policy is uncoordinated, without planning or strategy. Traditionally people in regional Australia have supported the government, but, as outlined in the Rusted Off book, that is clearly changing as we are continually treated as second-class citizens. That's confirmed by this response. Prime Minister, as you prepare for the budget, will you personally commit to read this government response and undertake to give regional Australia the policies and resources we deserve to take our place with this great nation?
It's a point on relevance. The question was: will the Prime Minister commit to a regional white paper?
My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, the Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation tabled its report Regions at the ready in June last year. The report...
My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, the Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation tabled its report Regions at the ready in June last year. The report recommends the government develop a comprehensive regional Australia white paper to provide a clear statement of the government's vision for regional Australia. After a year of analysis, 14 public hearings and almost 200 written submissions, there is enormous interest in the government response, particularly in my electorate of Indi. Is the Prime Minister now in a position to outline a response to the recommendations of the report? Prime Minister, will you please commit to a regional Australia white paper?
Petition: Child Care | Statements by Members | House debates
It's my pleasure to present a petition to the House. The petition has been considered by the Petitions Committee and found to be in order. The petition read as follows— The p etition was...
It's my pleasure to present a petition to the House. The petition has been considered by the Petitions Committee and found to be in order. The petition read as follows— The p etition was unavailable at the time of publishing. Petition received. I acknowledge the principal petitioner, Gennifer Hamam from Bellbridge, Victoria. It concerns the provision of child care in north-east Victoria. The petition includes 339 signatures, and we therefore respectfully ask the House to put forward a bill to provide additional funding for rural childcare facilities and to help support rural families, whose options differ greatly from their urban counterparts. In bringing this petition to the House, I'd also like to acknowledge and thank the Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, his staff and departmental staff; Craig Laundy, for attending the roundtable in Albury-Wodonga; and Towrang shire and Wodonga TAFE for stepping up on behalf of the communities of Mitta Mitta, Walwa, Kergunyah, Baranduda and Bellbridge. I would like to say it was no surprise to my communities when the childcare services were shown not to be economical. We predicted it happening. I call on the government side to pay particular attention to rural and regional Australia and their differing circumstances, particularly for families' need for child care. We've resolved this issue in the short term, but we haven't got a long-term solution. I'm hoping the National Party steps up on child care in the lead-up to the election. (Time expired)
Indi Electorate | Adjournment | House debates
Colleagues and people watching, I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Christmas and every good wish for 2019. My topic today is about the future of Indi. So many people are asking me,...
Colleagues and people watching, I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Christmas and every good wish for 2019. My topic today is about the future of Indi. So many people are asking me, 'Hey, Cathy, what are your plans? What are you going to do?' So today I'd like to address this topic. I'd like to say that I'm going to continue to be the best possible representative I can be for my electorate. I'm absolutely determined that my electorate stays independent and orange because I believe that's the best way to ensure that benefits are delivered for my community and that strong, prosperous communities, which are alive with opportunities for everybody, continue to be created and supported. I'd like to share a short story about succession planning. My dad was a farmer. When he got to the age where he decided he couldn't actively farm anymore, he sent a letter to his children and said, 'Kids, come and talk to me. I'm ready to start the process.' Over the next period of time, the kids gathered in different ways, shapes and forms and had conversations with my father about the roles and responsibilities of taking over the farm, about his expectations, about the history of the farm and what he loved most about it, about the money needed, and about the time and the history. Eventually he made his decision about who he would leave our farm to. He wasn't in any hurry. He made sure that, when the handover happened, the majority of the community were happy with his decision. After he made that decision, dad stayed around as a mentor, as an adviser and as a fount of wisdom. Eventually he died in the valley where he lived, surrounded by his children and grandchildren—exactly as he wanted it. I found such inspiration in that story. I have begun the process of succession planning. My commitment to my community is like my father's. I will do this well. I will take as long as it needs. I will bring to it all the skills and ability I have to make a successful transition so that my ambition for my electorate to have the best representation it can have and to remain orange and independent will continue. But today I want to talk a little bit about my journey and where I started. I bring to the Chamber a wonderful document, Voice 4 Indi, a report of kitchen table conversations in 2013. I'm delighted that so many of the values that we talked about then are being implemented—the need for a diversity of voices and a strong voice at a national level; a commitment to encourage respectful debate and to undertake activities which build democracy; a commitment to be elegant in the way we work with our community and to be honest and respectful. It's such a lovely document. When I think about this year, I ask myself: how have I lived out the commitment I made to my electorate in 2013? I've got four documents I'd like to share with the Chamber. They're on my web page, and, for my community, they are available from my offices. Let's talk about what we have done. We have worked really hard for a totally renewable Indi. The government has been so slow and so hard to work with on climate change, so we've taken it into our own hands. Right across my community now, terrific grassroots activism is taking place on climate change, and I'm so proud of that work. A second flyer I'll talk about is Connecting Community to Canberra—The Indi Way. This talks about how people who are interested in democracy can participate. I'm delighted that over 4,000 school students have come up here and been part of what we've been doing. Over 200 volunteers have come and worked in my office. Three of them are here today. So, to Chris, Charlie and Gary—Carole is not here at the moment—thank you for the work that you've done for me and, I know, for my community. So much work has been done. Then there is another lovely flyer about how my community has worked with me as a politician at the national level to actually get results in parliament. On the back of it is a really good way you can continue to work with my office to get things done. The final document is the Indi budget report—what people want from the government—which I use in my lobbying. But, in bringing my comments to a close, I'd like to say that this is time for Christmas, for families to gather together, and my commitment is to be around as long as it takes to work with everyone in Indi. To this end, I'm planning a summer tour in January and an autumn tour when we have our break in March, when I'll be out in my community with my little caravan, having listening posts in every nook and cranny that I can find. Please come and say hello. I'm going to be here for the long term, whether I'm a member of parliament or, like my dad, sitting on the veranda. I'm not ever going to forget Indi.
Constitutional Recognition Relating to ATSIP; Report | Committees | House debates
I'm really proud to support this report, and I want to take the opportunity today to acknowledge, honour and thank everybody involved. I want to refer to some of the key findings in the report,...
I'm really proud to support this report, and I want to take the opportunity today to acknowledge, honour and thank everybody involved. I want to refer to some of the key findings in the report, and I want to finish by referring specifically to my electorate of Indi. To the committee and to the wonderful people who were involved in doing this report, I extend my thanks not only for your excellent company but for the leadership and the very high level of skill you brought to this task. To the co-chairs, Patrick Dodson and Julian Leeser: I have learned so much from the way you have worked together. To the committee members, the Hon. Linda Burney, Sussan Ley, John McVeigh, Llew O'Brien, Warren Snowdon, Jonathon Duniam, Malarndirri McCarthy, Rachel Siewert and Amanda Stoker: it's been an absolute pleasure to work with you, and I thank you. Thank you to the secretariat for the work that they did. It was such a difficult task to not only herd the cats that were the committee and our very complicated lives but also follow up with the submissions, organise the public hearings and produce such a good report at the end. Thank you to all the people who made submissions and the people who appeared before the committee to share their wisdom, their courage, their leadership and, most importantly for me, their goodwill. It has been an absolutely amazing committee for me to be on. It's the first time I've experienced bipartisan co-chairs working together and it's the first time I've been on a parliamentary committee where the numbers worked out. There were equal numbers of House of Reps members and senators and equal numbers of government and opposition, and two Independents to manage it all. The committee worked so well. The debate was fierce, the content was excellent and the people were professional. I was definitely inspired by the role of committees in this parliament. I'm really pleased with the final report. It's a very elegant report. It's simple and clear in its recommendations. I'm going to speak particularly to one of the recommendations, around truth-telling, but before I get there I want to bring into parliament and my words today how important this process has been, taking the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for so many years, through the Uluru Statement from the Heart, to this report. I want to grace my words today with these words from the Statement from Heart: We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country. I take those words with such optimism. We've got 60,000 years of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, and, projecting it into the future, we might have another 60,000 years of this nation working together. This moment in time is where the past actually comes to its place and we can design our future, giving full recognition to the tradition and the cultures of the first people of this country. I'm very keen to be part of that. I will move to one of the recommendations in the report, about truth-telling. The foreword to the report says: We believe there is a strong desire among all Australians to know more about the history, traditions and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their contact with other Australians both good and bad. A fuller understanding of our history including the relationship between Black and White Australia will lead to a more reconciled nation. We have made some recommendations about how this might be achieved. Today I want to talk a little bit about how I will take this report and work within my electorate to bring that recommendation to its next stage. In doing so, I want to read into the parliamentary Hansard the names of the people in my electorate who made submissions to the inquiry and say thank you to them. I think in these committees we often ignore or take for granted the enormous amount of time that people put into making submissions, the thought they give to it and the expertise they bring to it. To John van Riet, Marie Sellstrom, Pam Griffin, Chris Norman, Warren Gould, Rhonda Diffey, Val Gleeson, Elizabeth Quinn, Judith Ahmat, Violet Town & District Reconciliation Group, Shepparton Region Reconciliation Group, Dr Jacqueline Durrant, Doug Westland, Rebecca Crawley, Pat Larkin, Cath Marriott, Kate Auty and Charlie Brydon, Albury-Wodonga Health, Liz Heta, Tony Lane and Uncle Freddie, I've read every single one of your submissions, I've heard what you've had to say and I commit to continue to work to deliver on the requests that you make. In acknowledging the people who made submissions, I also want to share with the House some follow-up work I've done since the public hearings finished. In my electorate, gathering around Albury is a group called Wodonga First Nations Senior Consultative Group. I met them two weeks ago to talk to them about aspects of truth-telling in North-East Victoria. I want to acknowledge Alan Steward, Kevin and Lyn Bell, Rachael Bogie, Steven Pickering, Jenny Murray, Liz Heta, Pam Griffin, Walter Melrose, Sonnie Morgan, Tony and Julie, and Nancee Butler and say thank you for inviting me into your circle. I look forward to meeting you late in January and continuing our discussion of some of the history of this land that I call home. I want to finish with a bit about why all this is so relevant and so close to my heart. When the initial apology was made in parliament, the member for Indi at that time was not present. It caused enormous suffering in my community that the member chose not to be there. When I got elected, it was one of those things that I said I would put first and foremost—to make sure that I represent my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, and I will do that; I will give voice to their issues. One of the particular areas to give a voice to is the Closing the gap report and that process. I've been working with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to talk about how the data for Closing the Gap is actually collected at a local level, how the institutions in my electorate can work together to set our own targets and how we as a community can take responsibility for our own targets. To do that, one of the things we need to do is look at our history, to look at white settlement and the conflict that happened there. There are very few traditional owners still living in north-east Victoria because of the impact of white settlement. There's very little data collected in my electorate around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their issues—there is some—and there's an enormous amount of work that needs to be done in the justice, health and education areas. But, to do that, non-Indigenous and Indigenous people need to work together. A division having been called in the House of Representatives— Sitting suspended from 11:26 to 11:42 In conclusion, I really want to support recommendation 3: The Committee recommends that the Australian Government support the process of truth-telling. This could include the involvement of local organisations and communities, libraries, historical societies and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander associations. Some national coordination may be required, not to determine outcomes but to provide incentive and vision. These projects should include both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and descendants of local settlers. This could be done either prior to or after the establishment of the local voice bodies. So, in bringing my comments to a close, I would like to offer north-east Victoria as a place where we could begin the process of truth-telling and work with local settlers, such as my family, who have been in the community of north-east Victoria since the gold rush days, and my extended family and my community, and work with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditional owners and people who have come to the area more recently—beginning the process of telling our truth and understanding our history—and together, with a much better process, we can move forward for the next 60,000 years of Australia's history.
Rural and Regional Australia | Questions without Notice | House debates
My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. The Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation tabled its report Regions at the readyin June this year. It found that we need...
My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. The Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation tabled its report Regions at the readyin June this year. It found that we need long-term flexible strategies that adapt to the individual regions of Australia. The bipartisan report also recommends the government develop a regional Australia white paper. After a year of analysis, 14 public hearings and almost 200 written submissions, there is great interest in the government's response. Can the Deputy Prime Minister provide an update on when we can expect the government's response to this very important report?
Consideration of Legislation | Business | House debates
I'm very pleased to second this motion. It's the right time to do the right thing. This is a nation-building activity. The parliament has had inquiries into this. For many personal reasons to do...
I'm very pleased to second this motion. It's the right time to do the right thing. This is a nation-building activity. The parliament has had inquiries into this. For many personal reasons to do with me being the federal member for Indi, I'm very happy to support this motion. Colleagues, in 50 years time we're going to look back upon this particular parliament and see so many lost opportunities. Many, many times I've stood in this parliament and said to my colleagues on the other side, and particularly to the National Party, 'Where's your vision for this country?' And today, with this motion, I'm calling on my colleagues, particularly from the National Party, to show us your vision, to show us that you've got a plan, to show us you really get rural and regional Australia and where we want to be in 50 years time. It's about population. It's about the drivers of economic growth. It's about being brave and letting rural and regional Australia take its place in this great nation. So this authority is just the beginning to say that the National Party in particular has a plan for the future of this country. That's the political reason, I suppose, but there are really good other reasons. The parliament itself this year, while I've been here, has had two inquiries which basically support what we're trying to do. Probably the most important one was from the ITC, the Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities, and its report, Harnessing value, delivering infrastructure, a bipartisan report that says we've actually got to do something in a national way about what's happening in the cities and what's happening in the region. We've got to build infrastructure that connects. There were some creative ways about how we could fund that. So that report is before the parliament. The second report I would like to refer to is Regions at the ready, which talks about a national approach to building infrastructure and developing the regions so that they can take their rightful place in the country. Both reports have been presented to this parliament and we're still waiting for the government to come back and tell us what they think about the recommendations, but they sit there. The third reason, which is probably the most important for me, is that when I got elected as member for Indi my commitment was to put my electorate first. So I'm standing here backing a motion from the Labor Party because I look to the government and I say: 'Well, if not you, who is going to build us this high-speed rail? Who is going to preserve the corridor? And if you're not going to do it now, government, after five years, when are you going to do it? So, if not you, who?' I say to the people in my electorate: 'Who else is standing up for you for infrastructure that's actually going to make a difference to our community? Who are the visionary people in north-east Victoria who come to this parliament and say, "I get the future and I will stand up and I will put Indi first"'? Related to putting Indi first, to get us the infrastructure that we need, I also would like to acknowledge the work of one of my constituents, Tim Fischer. The last time I spoke to Tim Fischer we were launching his book about steam engines. I made a speech about the importance of high-speed rail and the opportunity that steam gives to us in the regions. I'm saying that high-speed rail will give us the same impetus that steam gave a couple of centuries ago. I think I saw Tim sadly shake his head. He has almost given up on it, because the National Party, the government, the coalition were his party and for five years they haven't been able to do it. So I say: 'Government, if not you, who will speak up for the regions? Who? When will we put in infrastructure that delivers long-term benefits at the centre of what we need to do?' I say to the government that now is the right time. You're going to have the MYEFO report and, according to the member for Grayndler, there is some money there that we might be able to do something with. We're bringing the budget forward to April. Please, come out with a strategy for regional Australia. Show us how for north-east Victoria, for southern New South Wales, for Geelong and for Newcastle you're actually understanding what the regions are needing and you're putting us front and centre, because clearly the government hasn't got it. They haven't done it and I don't think they're going to do it. I say to my community, look to the crossbench and look to those of us who stand here today and say high-speed rail is the future for the regions. We need to invest in the corridor. Do you know what we really need to do? What the government really needs to do is say to regional Australia: 'We understand what you need. For the next 100 years we're going to build the infrastructure that is going to put you at the centre of Australia's future.'